Hacking Rominator for NDS

[Mondeus]

The Lastest update doesnt auto add the .txt extension if you save a static list.


Yes it does. Since the first day I had it output statistic lists, it's been TXT files, and I've never touched the code since. If in Windows, the extension is most likely invisible.

It used to save in default to a .txt file, after the latest update it just saves to "a" file and there is no extension whatsoever.
I have tried this on a diff pc and there it save's to a .txt file, weird any suggestion ?

 

[Logan]

Just to let you know, if you've deleted a game manually, and it shows up in the list with a '?', why not just delete it from the list? Just click the game, click delete, and you're done. No need to erase entire settings because you have some games in a list that you could have easily deleted from it

The only problem with that, is it can be quite a chore going through the list, finding the ones that for some reason have come up as '?'. Then deleting them, but making a note of which ones you'll need to re-add...and so on.

I think the problem occurs when dragging and dropping roms from a directory other then the roms directory specified in the program options. Rominator will rename them etc. but won't 'copy' or 'move' the roms from said directory to the directory specified in the options.

So if I drag and drop roms onto rominator, I was then having to copy and paste them from one directory to the roms directory. I think this is where the ? arises.

Instead, what I do now is just put the roms straight into the directory specified in the options and click the refresh/resync button in Rominator.

Would it be possible to address this drag and drop issue of not copying the roms to the specified roms folder, in a future update? I'm no coder but I wouldn't have thought a simple file move execution isn't too hard to implement? Could be wrong though, it has been known!

Additionally, some other small requests:

- the ability to filter statistics to spit out reports based on locality i.e. I want to know what (U) or (E) or (J) etc. only, roms I'm missing.
- it has probably been mentioned before, but what is the reason for not adding ZIP or 7z archive support?
- the ability to filter out roms in the list with details missing - coming up with the ?

Thanks again for a great app, keep up the good work

 

[_mrshl_]

As for the \ / : " * < > | characters, since none of them are in any of the game names, I didn't include them -- although when making replacement strings, it won't let you use them anyways. Same with manual renaming -- won't let you use em.


(first of all: using windows version on winxp sp2)

well since rom #1110 this seems to be wrong: #1110 is "Osawari Tantei Ozawa Rina Season 2 to 1/2". so well it has a '/' in its name and yes, of course your program is not able to rename it the right way if the user did not specify to replace the '/'-char.
but, well actually this is a bug too, because if you rename this rom the program would state that it was renamed sucessful.

oh and here 2 other suggestions:
1. 2nd request to add a log when renaming multiple roms... please

2. make the gui not freeze all the time: when scanning for roms the gui will freeze after some time until it finished the scan (freezing includes the statusbar and the window-resizing-routine!!). and though before the gui is completely frozen you are not able to interact in any way: you can not close, minimize, resize, etc. the window! would be great to see this fixed.

regards
mrshl


edit: btw, your're very fast with your db-updates the last few days

- definitely more than once a week

edit2: just testing the validation util: looks great

. but again the window will not be updated properly so that you can not see how far the validation process has allready gone. (an option to save the log would be great too

)

edit3: here is what i have got:
there are some invalid database entries (most because proper versions were released):
CODE----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| REASON Â Â Â| ROM Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| DB-CRC Â | Actual-CRC |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0032 - Bomberman (J)(Legacy) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 6ABC6705 | 0F805B72 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0033 - Kenshuui Tendo Dokuta (J)(Trashman) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 39DBD5EC | 82FF50C5 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0111 - Advance Wars - Dual Strike (E)(M5)(FCT) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 4376F370 | C42D8E67 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0246 - Dragon Ball Z - Bukuu Ressen (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 9C118C6D | 9EEA277C Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0247 - Harobots Action!! (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| A764C6A0 | E497D7BD Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0248 - New Rainbow Islands (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| C8819280 | 80DB7665 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0249 - Urusei Yatsura - Endless Summer (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 8D5C18F2 | C5F44614 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0253 - Super Black Bass - Dynamic Shot (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 6692E0BC | 7958D28C Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0267 - Manga-ka Debut Monogatari DS - Akogare! Manga-ka Ikusei Game (J)(SCZ) | 1E9A6AE7 | 2270555F Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0275 - LostMagic (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 0E10EDDD | 67A10FC7 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0429 - LostMagic (E)(M4)(Endless Piracy) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | ED54CC40 | 0E34F28E Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0993 - Gyakuten Saiban 4 (J)(eZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 3774F54B | 34721814 Â |
| Invalid CRC | 1098 - Naruto - Saikyou Ninja Daikesshu 3 (K)(Romar) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | F0308FA Â| 0F0308FA Â |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

edit4: just checked the region filter in the statistics, but it seems that it is working absolutely bad. do you just search for the string "(X" with 'X' being the region identifier? at least it looks like that to me so far... would be better to specify the languages (even if you have mX games) in the database..

 

[hankchill]

As for the \ / : " * < > | characters, since none of them are in any of the game names, I didn't include them -- although when making replacement strings, it won't let you use them anyways. Same with manual renaming -- won't let you use em.


(first of all: using windows version on winxp sp2)

well since rom #1110 this seems to be wrong: #1110 is "Osawari Tantei Ozawa Rina Season 2 to 1/2". so well it has a '/' in its name and yes, of course your program is not able to rename it the right way if the user did not specify to replace the '/'-char.
but, well actually this is a bug too, because if you rename this rom the program would state that it was renamed sucessful.

oh and here 2 other suggestions:
1. 2nd request to add a log when renaming multiple roms... please

2. make the gui not freeze all the time: when scanning for roms the gui will freeze after some time until it finished the scan (freezing includes the statusbar and the window-resizing-routine!!). and though before the gui is completely frozen you are not able to interact in any way: you can not close, minimize, resize, etc. the window! would be great to see this fixed.

regards
mrshl


edit: btw, your're very fast with your db-updates the last few days

- definitely more than once a week

edit2: just testing the validation util: looks great

. but again the window will not be updated properly so that you can not see how far the validation process has allready gone. (an option to save the log would be great too

)

edit3: here is what i have got:
there are some invalid database entries (most because proper versions were released):

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| REASON Â Â Â| ROM Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| DB-CRC Â | Actual-CRC |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0032 - Bomberman (J)(Legacy) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 6ABC6705 | 0F805B72 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0033 - Kenshuui Tendo Dokuta (J)(Trashman) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 39DBD5EC | 82FF50C5 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0111 - Advance Wars - Dual Strike (E)(M5)(FCT) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 4376F370 | C42D8E67 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0246 - Dragon Ball Z - Bukuu Ressen (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 9C118C6D | 9EEA277C Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0247 - Harobots Action!! (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| A764C6A0 | E497D7BD Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0248 - New Rainbow Islands (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| C8819280 | 80DB7665 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0249 - Urusei Yatsura - Endless Summer (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 8D5C18F2 | C5F44614 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0253 - Super Black Bass - Dynamic Shot (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 6692E0BC | 7958D28C Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0267 - Manga-ka Debut Monogatari DS - Akogare! Manga-ka Ikusei Game (J)(SCZ) | 1E9A6AE7 | 2270555F Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0275 - LostMagic (J)(SCZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â| 0E10EDDD | 67A10FC7 Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0429 - LostMagic (E)(M4)(Endless Piracy) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | ED54CC40 | 0E34F28E Â |
| Bad CRC Â Â | 0993 - Gyakuten Saiban 4 (J)(eZ) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | 3774F54B | 34721814 Â |
| Invalid CRC | 1098 - Naruto - Saikyou Ninja Daikesshu 3 (K)(Romar) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â | F0308FA Â| 0F0308FA Â |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

edit4: just checked the region filter in the statistics, but it seems that it is working absolutely bad. do you just search for the string "(X" with 'X' being the region identifier? at least it looks like that to me so far... would be better to specify the languages (even if you have mX games) in the database..

I'll check those games and compare CRC's to my DB to the official ones.

Also, as for game #1110, you may not have noticed, but I took out the 'to 1/2' part from the game name when I initially added it in the database. It renames to 'Osawari Tantei Ozawa Rina Season 2 (J)'. Caught ya.

As for the region filtering, what better way to filter than by the region code?

It scans for the '(X' string and adds accordingly. Works fine for me

Never thought of saving the log -- Will do!

That's strange thought that the window isn't updating for you... I specifically told it to update!

I tested as well with Mac OS X and Windows, didn't have an issue.

And yes, you can't do anything when Rominator's busy, and it's not a bug -- it's like that for a reason: so the user doesn't eff-up things while it's working. Plus, I have to transfer data in chunks so it would still be slow anyways. As for the CRC reading, that has to open the entire rom to read it, so that takes time as well -- if I threaded that, it would be even slower. It's much better to dedicate the CPU and program to the tasks it needs to perform. I'll look into the updating issue for you though

I think I may know what the issue might me.

@Logan: The *idea* is that you put your games into the games folder and *then* refresh your list. There's no way Rominator can track where you're moving a game in Windows

Mind you, I can always add an option to 'Automatically Copy to Games Folder' and add it there, if that pleases you

What I will do as well is when you refresh, it'll take out the '?' games for you automatically. Sound kosher?

Also, I'm not sure if you saw, but there IS a region filter already in the statistics, that will show which from a certain region you own/don't own (well, stole

)

 

[_mrshl_]

I'll check those games and compare CRC's to my DB to the official ones.

Also, as for game #1110, you may not have noticed, but I took out the 'to 1/2' part from the game name when I initially added it in the database. It renames to 'Osawari Tantei Ozawa Rina Season 2 (J)'. Caught ya.

As for the region filtering, what better way to filter than by the region code?

It scans for the '(X' string and adds accordingly. Works fine for me

Never thought of saving the log -- Will do!

That's strange thought that the window isn't updating for you... I specifically told it to update!

I tested as well with Mac OS X and Windows, didn't have an issue.

And yes, you can't do anything when Rominator's busy, and it's not a bug -- it's like that for a reason: so the user doesn't eff-up things while it's working. Plus, I have to transfer data in chunks so it would still be slow anyways. As for the CRC reading, that has to open the entire rom to read it, so that takes time as well -- if I threaded that, it would be even slower. It's much better to dedicate the CPU and program to the tasks it needs to perform. I'll look into the updating issue for you though

I think I may know what the issue might me.

@Logan: The *idea* is that you put your games into the games folder and *then* refresh your list. There's no way Rominator can track where you're moving a game in Windows

Mind you, I can always add an option to 'Automatically Copy to Games Folder' and add it there, if that pleases you

What I will do as well is when you refresh, it'll take out the '?' games for you automatically. Sound kosher?

Also, I'm not sure if you saw, but there IS a region filter already in the statistics, that will show which from a certain region you own/don't own (well, stole

)

1. so well, in the database rominator downloads the "1/2" is still present in #1110's title - trust me

, i redownloaded everything to confirm it.

2. the filtering does not work that well because it depends on the user's personal naming scheme. mine is "%n - %t %c%m(%g)", so if you now filter eg. for "(E) - Europe" you would get for example "0019 - Mr. Driller - Drill Spirits (U)(Eternity)" as an entry because it contains "(E". it would be better if you search for roms according to their %c-entry in your database (would be even better if every mX rom would have its languages stored in the db; well, i don't know your database's data-model so i can not suggest which is the best way to implement..)

3. well, if you thread the crc-checking it would normally not be slower because the cpu won't really care if it's the program's main thread or not. programs would only get slower if one does not code it well, eg. let threads wait for others even if it's complete bullshit to wait.
and think about our nice multi-core-cpus!
btw: crc-computing will rather stress your hdd than your cpu in comparision!

 

[Typhoe]

Hi,

I had the '?' issue too. In the end I had to goto \Appdata\Roaming\ and delete the Rominator folder and start again. Performed an update of database. Then set the directories up etc. and clicked on the refresh folder button (situated below the Game Lists box.

I tried the refresh folder button, but it doesn't make rominator "really" scan again the game list (meaning physically scanning the disk).


QUOTE(hankchill @ Jun 7 2007, 10:48 AM)Just to let you know, if you've deleted a game manually, and it shows up in the list with a '?', why not just delete it from the list? Just click the game, click delete, and you're done. No need to erase entire settings because you have some games in a list that you could have easily deleted from it

I didn't delete it from the list because I have more than 20 lines like this. I just made some cleaning in my rom folder not using Rominator, and now, I would like it to notice my changes.

I think I'll go for the deletion of the Rominator data folder and set it again.... It will be quicker for me.

Regards.

 

[Logan]

@Logan: The *idea* is that you put your games into the games folder and *then* refresh your list.

This is what I will do/am doing now!

There's no way Rominator can track where you're moving a game in Windows

Well yeah, I realise that. But you can freely drag and drop roms from X folder, Rominator will 'add' them to the 'list', will even rename the roms in X folder, but it won't move those roms from X folder to Y folder (where Y folder is the folder you specified in Rominators options).

Mind you, I can always add an option to 'Automatically Copy to Games Folder' and add it there, if that pleases you

Yes, yes it would

What I will do as well is when you refresh, it'll take out the '?' games for you automatically. Sound kosher?

Would help, because we could then generate a statistic report for missing roms, and those ones should show up in the stats. Can then re-add them.

Also, I'm not sure if you saw, but there IS a region filter already in the statistics, that will show which from a certain region you own/don't own

So I could filter out for example, all regions with the exception of (U) and (E) and have it export the results to TXT file?

(well, stole

)

Bah! Prove it

 

[hankchill]

@_mrshl_:
You're right. I'm an ass

I remember now: Originally when I had updated the database at 1110 I effed it up and needed to redownload it from my server, and edit it again -- in the ORIGINAL edit, I left out the 1/2, and I think when I screwed up and did the re-edit, I wasn't thinking and put the 'to 1/2' back in. My bad

And you're absolutely right about the region filtering -- I did it in literally 3 minutes so I didn't think about other possibilities. And I agree now -- in it's current state, it SUCKS

I'll fix it up according to the DATABASE region and take it from there

Plus I'll allow for multi-region filtering, so it'll show games from the regions of your choice.

@Typhoe:
It actually *does* rescan the hard disk -- that's how it finds new roms, right

The next version will be more helpful because it'll get rid of roms in the list that don't exist. My apologies for not having this in the first place.

@Logan:
In the next version, it will have selective filtering. I promise

 

[shinji257]

I was using the new version and the renaming scheme isn't saving at all. It doesn't matter what I sent it to and it reverts right back to %t %c %m.

Oh and renaming Big Brain Academy causes the error "An exception of class NilObjectException was not handled. The application must shut down."

... correction -- doing anything with that game causes that error. Looks like if I want to deleted I have to remove it from the game folder manually.

 

[hankchill]

I was using the new version and the renaming scheme isn't saving at all. It doesn't matter what I sent it to and it reverts right back to %t %c %m.

Oh and renaming Big Brain Academy causes the error "An exception of class NilObjectException was not handled. The application must shut down."

... correction -- doing anything with that game causes that error. Looks like if I want to deleted I have to remove it from the game folder manually.

You didn't press the 'Set' button, did you? You need to press that after changing the scheme.

As for Big Brain Academy, I can rename it fine. Are you sure it isn't Brain Age: How old is your brain? It's because of the '?' mark. That issue is fixed in 3.5.3. Use it

 

[shinji257]

Lol. Thanks for the catching me on that. You were right. I didn't press Set. I just did that and it worked fine. Sorry.

As for the game that was causing Rominator to crash. It was indeed Big Brain Acadamy and it was with version 3.5.3. I actually had to remove the game and remove all of the database files (except for settings) and start over a bit just so it would remove the game. Now that it is added back in I can't seem to make it do that again.

 

[Logan]

@Logan:
In the next version, it will have selective filtering. I promise

Now pull your finger out!!

Seriously, keep up the good work

 

[_mrshl_]

@_mrshl_:
You're right. I'm an ass

I remember now: Originally when I had updated the database at 1110 I effed it up and needed to redownload it from my server, and edit it again -- in the ORIGINAL edit, I left out the 1/2, and I think when I screwed up and did the re-edit, I wasn't thinking and put the 'to 1/2' back in. My bad

And you're absolutely right about the region filtering -- I did it in literally 3 minutes so I didn't think about other possibilities. And I agree now -- in it's current state, it SUCKS

I'll fix it up according to the DATABASE region and take it from there

Plus I'll allow for multi-region filtering, so it'll show games from the regions of your choice.

you're the man!
thanks!

mrshl

 

[hankchill]

Rominator's been updated to v3.5.4 with the following:
- When refreshing, missing or nonexisting games are removed from the library.
- The results from the ROM Validation Tool can be exported to a text file
- Added an option to automatically copy games to game folder when dropped onto Rominator
- Fixed region filtering in statistics window - it is now *true* region filtering, with the ability to select the regions to show

Enjoy!

 

[Logan]

Thanks again Hank

 

[Harry Potthead]

Hi!

Can´t download the Rominator for Windows. Can U please check the download-link and fix it? Would be n1ce

 

[thegame07]

Hi!

Can´t download the Rominator for Windows. Can U please check the download-link and fix it? Would be n1ce

there is nothing wrong with the link i just tested it.

 

[TEKNOSYSTEKWRX]

This seems like a cool program. I just played around with it a little bit. Can't wait until .zip support is added, that's the only thing holding me up...

 

[Logan]

This seems like a cool program. I just played around with it a little bit. Can't wait until .zip support is added, that's the only thing holding me up...

You're not alone mate. I personally believe Rominator would have quite a few more fans if ZIP support was added.

I still use it regardless because otherwise, I honestly believe its the best ROM manager available, though I would love ZIP support.

 

[mcp2]

ZIP and RAR support should be added. Maybe also a MUSIC list where you can convert your mp3's into lower bitrate ones using LAME, DLL should be available. Also maybe a VIDEO list too, so you have a AiO (All in One) ROM/Music/Video manager.