# Genesis Flashback HD (2018) Game Manager



## dcuk7 (Jan 23, 2019)

*Genesis Flashback HD Game Manager 0.3.2
*






Hi guys,

Version 0.3.2 uploaded. Here are the changes from the previous 0.3.1 version:

Google Image search for box art - This has taken me longer than I'd liked but you can now get box art from Google. When adding a game, click the little Google icon under the box art placeholder. This will detect the file extension and search for box art for that system. In the case of zip files, select the platform name in the drop down box before clicking the button. You can also search for box art when editing a game. In the edit screen, you must select the correct platform before clicking the button. To select an image for your box art, just double-click it.
Image quality of the box art has been increased - If your computer has more than 2GB of RAM, you will see higher quality box art displayed. Note: This is only a display setting within the app. Your actual box art files will always be the same quality as the original file.
You can delete games using the [Delete] (or [Del]) key on your keyboard. You can also press [Enter] or [Return] to edit a game.
Fixed the bug with the last rom/box art location. At least I hope I have. It seems to be working for me so let me know how it works for you all.
Changed the Platform text box to a drop down box with various systems listed. You may also type your own.

Changes in 0.3.1:

Added support for .md files
Added option in the new settings menu (top right corner) for Clean Game Names - Clicking this will enable the app to remove any text within brackets when you add a game. Thanks to @esmith13 for this request.
App will now remember the last used paths where you added roms and box art from. Again, thanks to @esmith13 for this one.
Added an option to check your .ini file for issues. If it finds any duplicate game names for example, it will tell you the name of the duplicate so you can open the .ini and remove or rename it. Also added an option in the same menu to open your .ini in your default text editor.
Check for updates - From the settings menu you can now initiate a manual check for updates. If an update is available, it will send you to this page to get the latest version. I will flesh this out over the next few releases so eventually it will do automatic checks and downloads of new versions.
Minor bug fixes in the set up SD card feature. Default Genre when adding games is changed from _genre _to _Sega _for compatibility with a future feature.

Changes in 0.3:

*App has been totally re-written from scratch*. Code is a lot more efficient and is structured in such a way that it should be really easy to implement new features going forward.
*New layout* - App now has a graphical box art layout. Double-click a game to edit it.
*Folder support* - The app now supports sub-folders inside your 'rom' folder. You can set the location when adding a new game.
*Custom firmware download* - You can download the latest version of the custom firmware by @rrifonas straight to your SD card. Has options for both Mega Drive and Genesis versions (Genesis Plus GX only).
*New SD card setup option* - The app now makes it simple to set up a new SD card for use with the Flashback HD (2018). Simply click the Open button in the top left, select your SD card from the list and choose the 'Set up new drive' button. Follow the on-screen instructions. The app will also give you the option of downloading the custom firmware in this screen.

Changes in 0.2.7:

Game list is now sorted alphabetically (about damn time I know). I had to write my own custom sorting logic so this took longer than I wanted. Adding a new game will jump the list to the added game so you know which game you just added.
Added support for .gg and .chd files in the browser.
You will now see a message when adding games to your SD card. This is so you know the app is actually working (it can appear frozen whilst copying).
You can drag and drop your ROM files onto the file text box and onto the browse button. This should speed things up if you have your ROMs open in a separate window and just like to drag/drop.

Changes in 0.2.6

Game list has been fixed and will always show latest game in list - .NET Framework bug in the TreeView control. Using Microsoft workaround.
Smaller thumbnail now also supports drag and drop for updating/adding images.
You can double-click on the Using 'all-games.ini from underneath the game list to open your all-games in Notepad for editing. Useful if the app detects duplicates in the all-games.ini and you need to make changes.
When you add a game and browse for the rom, if the game name and sort boxes are empty, the app will use the filename to fill these fields in. If you have your ROM's named correctly (or are using a no intro romset) then this should make it even quicker to add games.
Changes in 0.2.5

Drag and drop now supported on the box art - You can drag and drop an image on an existing games' box art and the app will update the box art instantly. You can also drag and drop your images on the Add game screen box art.
Fixed issue with games not deleting and issue with the app saying it deleted the game when it didn't.
Added 3 major fixes/checks to stop duplicate game names. The app will force you to choose another name if a game with the same name already exists. If you have an 'all-games.ini' file that you made outside the app and it contains duplicates, the app will warn you and will run in a limited mode. You won't be able to add or delete games in this mode. The game list will show you any games with duplicate names (games will start with ##). You should open the 'all-games.ini' in Notepad and remove or rename this game to fix this issue.
Fixed issue with blank lines not being added in between each game in the .ini file. This is purely for cosmetic purpose, making it easier to edit in a text editor. The Flashback HD unit can read the 'all-games.ini' with or without these blank lines being added.

NOTE: You will need the custom firmware files by @rrifonas for this to be of any use.

Main features of this app:

Adding games - Some fields are pre-filled to make adding games quicker than editing the .ini file directly. It will also format the box art you supply in the correct format, with correct naming and sizes. The ROMs you add will be stripped of spaces and special characters and copied to the correct location on the SD card.
Removing games - This will remove the entry for the game from the .ini file and the associated ROM and artwork. I will add an option for this in the next version so you can leave the ROM and just remove the .ini entry
Editing existing games - You can change the name of the game and the associated fields in the .ini. Just expand a game name to see the entries for each game in the .ini. You can also change the box art for an existing game.
To get started, unzip the files to a folder and run the GenesisFlashbackGameManager.exe. Click the Open 'all-games.ini' button and select the drive containing your SD card. The app will check that rom/all-games.ini exists on the drive and if it doesn't it will let you know. It will also create the mount_sd.ini file on your card if you don't have it (needed for the custom firmware to use the rom folder on the card rather than the built-in one).

*You can download the file from here: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/m1u2oxg773iuiy7/GenesisFlashbackGameManager.zip?dl=1*

_.NET Framework 4.5 is required for this app to work._

Known Issues in 0.3.2:

Custom folder support is limited right now. This feature will be fleshed out fully in later versions.
Please post any bugs you find here and also post your feedback/feature requests and I will do my best to address those quickly.


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## ghorricks (Jan 26, 2019)

This is excellent work.
Ideally, the software could read a folder of BIN files and extract the game name from the ROM.
(https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1344/)
Using this for the Google search would likely give better results.
Then it's pretty automated, except perhaps the information based stuff which is optional.
Great Great work - just let me know if you need testing done.


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## crabycowman123 (Jan 27, 2019)

Is there a way to use this with the non-HD Genesis Flashback? I've yet to do any modifications and my system is an older version without HDMI and without wireless controllers.


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## dcuk7 (Jan 28, 2019)

@ghorricks I am actually building a separate app at the moment that does just that. I'll see whether it is worth merging that feature into the main app. My only reservation against a bulk scanner is that most people will have their ROMs stored in ZIP files but I guess its not hard for them to extract the ROMs to a folder. When something is ready to test I'll post it here and tag you.

@crabycowman123 Unfortunately I don't have the older Flashback system to work with so I can't build anything for that. I'd honestly suggest upgrading to the newer Flashback HD (2018). For an AtGames product, it is very good (and thanks to @rrifonas and the early work put in by people like @WD_GASTER2 and @MicroNut99 it's now almost perfect).

I'll have version 0.2.5 of this app available to download later on today. It has fixes for the ROM deletion and checks to stop/guard against duplication of the game names.


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## ghorricks (Feb 2, 2019)

Cool. Good to know.
I created some code (JS via NodeJS) myself to handle ROMS and update the ini file accordingly which was great. But obviously images I had to deal with manually renaming them to the same as the ROMS as it needed a manual human check.
So all 600 approx are now working on the console as if they were internal.
File name length and content is limited.
JPGs can be renamed PNG (no convert needed)

I am happy to help test your code. What language are you using? (And tools) I would be interested in learning.


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## dcuk7 (Feb 2, 2019)

I'm using VB.NET and C# and Visual Studio as the IDE (free to download from Microsoft). This 2018 Game Manager app is written in VB.NET as that is what I started the 2017 app using. I may re-write this in C# at some point though as I am more proficient in C# than I was when I started this app.

I've had some issues with making a game scraper. Two issues mainly. One is extracting the game name from the ROM. I've noticed not every Mega Drive ROM has the game name in the header. The second issue is getting images from Google. It requires an API key and has limits on how many queries you can do per month. I could read the raw HTML and extract images from that but that is explicitly against Google's Terms of Service and to be honest is not a great way of doing it as any time they update their code it would break the app.

Right now I am testing using the Libretro thumbnail packs (http://thumbnailpacks.libretro.com/) and matching games with these thumbnails.


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## ged55 (Mar 9, 2019)

Hi there

Im wanting to try this but I'm not sure how to find my all-games.ini file.


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## WD_GASTER2 (Mar 9, 2019)

real talk, it doesnt get any easier for an end user than this. excellent work man.


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## dcuk7 (Mar 9, 2019)

@ged55 Have you flashed the custom firmware files to your Flashback? If so all you need to do to get started is make a folder on your SD card called *rom *and inside that folder make a blank text file called *all-games.ini* and then run this app to start building your library.


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## dcuk7 (Mar 10, 2019)

I've uploaded a new version today (0.2.7). This will probably be the last version of the current design. I have a few ideas for how I want to make this even more foolproof and super easy for the end user. So unless anyone finds any major bugs, the next version will be 0.3 and will hopefully be ready in a few weeks.


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## ged55 (Mar 11, 2019)

I haven’t yet but downloaded all the stuff I need so I’ll give this a try. Thanks for your reply.


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## kublai (Mar 11, 2019)

Wow very nice. thanks!!!


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## DoctorEvil8 (Mar 14, 2019)

Awesome job @dcuk7 !!  This is a life saver.  I am in the middle of testing multi-disc Sega CD games, and it's looking promising.  I just need the time to play a game until the disc swap for full confirmation.


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## Mauricelelapin (Mar 20, 2019)

Hello,
Thanx a lot for all this great work : You rock & kick ass


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## ennisfargis (Mar 23, 2019)

Hi DC
Thanks for the app.
Very useful.
One small problem i am having is when I "Add Game", the menu is cut off at the bottom.
I am guessing maybe this ok in Windows 10 but Windows 7 may be a little different.?
Cheers


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## dcuk7 (Mar 23, 2019)

Hi @ennisfargis, thanks for reporting the issue. Are you doing DPI scaling in your display settings? I can't reproduce the issue on my Windows 7 laptop.


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## ennisfargis (Mar 23, 2019)

Hi DC
No DPI scaling.
Everything is at 100%.
I tried 125% just to see if anything changed but still same view at 125.
Cheers


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## dcuk7 (Mar 24, 2019)

I've tried 3 different Windows 7 computers and can't reproduce the issue. Can you right-click on the GenesisFlashbackGameManager.exe and go to Properties then select the Compatibility tab and tick the two boxes as per the screenshot below:



 

See if that makes any difference? Also, if it doesn't, can you tick the Disable visual themes box and see if that does anything.


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## ennisfargis (Mar 24, 2019)

Hi DC
Nah none of these options make any difference.
I do have crap resolution on my laptop.
Maybe if you try the same res on yours.?




--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Also tried Compatibility Mode for Windows 7, Vista & XP.
No Change.
If you do change anything & want me to test, just let me know.
It's not a major issue for me & I can work around it.
So no stress.


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## dcuk7 (Mar 30, 2019)

That'll be it yes. I will keep that in mind for the next version and try and make sure the window is not taller than 700 pixels. Thanks for reporting it.


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## DoctorEvil8 (Apr 3, 2019)

Since the allgames.ini file can utilize subfolders (needed for multi-disc Sega CD games), is there a way to implement sub folder control in the app?  This might be useful to organize the games on the SD card.  I.e. Game Gear games into a folder, Master System into another.  Or even just helping organize the games overall.  Currently, if I have a subfolder, the app cannot see the images inside the sub-folder.


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## dcuk7 (Apr 4, 2019)

I will look at adding better file system support in the next version. There will be a UI change so this will be a good time to implement such features.


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## fixingmytoys (Apr 11, 2019)

wish my flashback had the sd card i think i have the 2017 one , the one before the 2018 with sdcard wish i could ad a sd card and run this mine


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## dcuk7 (Apr 12, 2019)

Hi guys. New version uploaded. Complete re-design. Please let me know your feedback.

Many more features coming over the next few weeks.


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## Doggfather79 (Apr 16, 2019)

Possibly in the wrong place but is there anyway to fill the screen on genesis FB (I know it's awful stretching and not my cup of tea either) I have an autistic son who loves retro games but can't bare black bars at the sides of the image. I have managed to eliminate this on the NES & SNES classics via retroarch and on the PSC via autobleem I just can't find any answers on how to do it on genesis flashback or Atari fb9. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## dcuk7 (Apr 16, 2019)

@Doggfather79 There is no way to make the screen stretch to widescreen on the Flashback HD but if you have the newer 2018 model you can choose a background in the settings and it will fill the screen with that background. There are a couple of nice colourful ones that blend in fairly well so this might be enough to remove the distraction of the black bars.


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## esmith13 (Apr 17, 2019)

I LOVE this app!! Thank you so much for your hard work on it.

IMHO, it needs 4 additional features:

1)  Support for .md Genesis roms (using .zip is a workaround to get .md files on the SD card with your tool but still should be supported unzipped as well)
2)  A "Batch Import" mode
3) The ability to remember a different last used browse path for the game rom and the game image (so in a manual game add you can jump right to your rom folder for the next rom and right to your box art folder for the next image)
4) An option to check a box and have the "Game Name" and "Sort Name" automatically be truncated as soon as a "(", "[", or "{" is seen in the name to help remove tags commonly found in rom names like "(USA)" or "[b1]" and the like.

BONUS FEATURE 
5) Ability to read in XML database offered on HyperSpin's website to pull the Genre and Release year for every game from all supported systems (Genesis.xml, MasterSystem.xml, GameGear.xml, Sega32x.xml, and SegaCD.xml)

For batch imports may I suggest a method?
Let's assume you have a folder on your PC for "Genesis Roms". In that folder you have all your Genesis roms in a specific format (all .bin, .md, or .zip). You also have images for the roms in the same folder named identically in whatever image format you support (jpg/png/etc).
When you start the batch import, you would simply have to point to that folder with the roms & images and then set parameters for Save Location and Platform. Your app would then import all the games and pull images that matched in location and name automatically for box art (if found) and supply a generic if not found (like a question mark icon or blank box image). Other settings that are per-game could then be set one by one.


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## dcuk7 (Apr 17, 2019)

Hi @esmith13. Thank you for those suggestions. I will look to add suggestions 1 & 3 to the next version of the app (which may be available over the weekend, time-permitting). 

Number 4 and 5 I will have an attempt at and see how it goes. Good ideas though 

As for the batch import option, I have actually built a separate app that does exactly as your idea suggests. It basically creates an all-games.ini from a folder full of roms and a separate folder full of images, then does all the neccessary conversions/renaming. I will have another look at this as you are right it would be a useful feature in the main app.


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## esmith13 (Apr 18, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> ... I have actually built a separate app that does exactly as your idea suggests. It basically creates an all-games.ini from a folder full of roms and a separate folder full of images, then does all the neccessary conversions/renaming. I will have another look at this as you are right it would be a useful feature in the main app.



Thank you for your time, great work and response!

Have you by chance made that separate app available for use or testing yet? I think that is a good idea as well. Reminds me of scripted apps like Gengal for RetroPie which would independently generate gamelist.xml files to get quick and dirty bulk imports done.


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## dcuk7 (Apr 18, 2019)

That app was built quickly as a test for my ideas. I may look at tidying it up and maybe releasing it separately as it should only take a couple hours of work to get it to a finished state.


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## Mr_White (Apr 20, 2019)

Quick question; is there anyway to keep the stock games when updating & adding titles? I've just added a few titles to test and when I power up the Flashback, it only shows the titles I added. TIA


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## dcuk7 (Apr 20, 2019)

New version released 0.3.1.

As ever I am already hard at work on the next version but wanted to get something out this weekend as the suggestions by @esmith13 are pretty good quality-of-life features that were worth getting out asap.

@Mr_White due to the way the system is designed, the custom firmware basically tells the system to ignore the rom folder on the device and instead use the rom folder from the SD card. There is no way right now to use the built-in games with your own games when using the mount_sd.ini trick.


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## esmith13 (Apr 20, 2019)

Deleted - redundant.


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## Mr_White (Apr 20, 2019)

Thanks for the swift response @dcuk7 and greatly appreciate all the effort on the Game Manager app, top work!


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## esmith13 (Apr 22, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> New version released 0.3.1.
> 
> As ever I am already hard at work on the next version but wanted to get something out this weekend as the suggestions by @esmith13 are pretty good quality-of-life features that were worth getting out asap.




Just a heads up that while the last used rom path is now remembered, the last used artwork path is not. It keeps defaulting back to wherever the last rom was grabbed from. Also, I'm not sure if this works with or against your intentions, but in my case I created sub folders to the 'roms' folder (gen, gg, sms & scd or 32x) and place my games in the sub folders accordingly. It would be nice if the 'save location' in your software defaulted to the last used path for that specific field as well. Ideally, if it goes with your intentions, the 'Genre' and 'Save Location' could be linked, so that having a Genre of 'Genesis' would default automatically to '/roms/gen' or similar.

If my comments/suggestions are becoming a pain, please let me know. I truly appreciate all your hard work and vision with this app and don't mean to step on toes or come off disrespectful or ungrateful. My only intent is to help, if that's OK of course.


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## PsyKos (Apr 26, 2019)

Thanks for the software and yes, a batch import would be very usefull!!!


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## spinal_cord (Apr 26, 2019)

Am I the only one who can't get this to work? I updated the firmware, removed the firmware file, added a couple of roms but none show on the screen.


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## Mr_White (Apr 27, 2019)

spinal_cord said:


> Am I the only one who can't get this to work? I updated the firmware, removed the firmware file, added a couple of roms but none show on the screen.


Are you using the game manager app to add the ROMs? If you're just dropping them on to the SD card after updating the firmware, the ROMs will nerd to be in a folder called "Game" and then can be found in the SD card portion of the menu...HTH

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Another question to the group; is there the ability to change the names of the menu titles (Bonus Games, Sega Games etc.)? Wondering if they could be renamed to the different systems this device runs...


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## spinal_cord (Apr 27, 2019)

Mr_White said:


> Are you using the game manager app to add the ROMs? If you're just dropping them on to the SD card after updating the firmware, the ROMs will nerd to be in a folder called "Game" and then can be found in the SD card portion of the menu...HTH



Yes, using the game manager, If I don't have the SD card in, then it shows the original games, but with the SD card, i get nothing. I followed the instrustions exactly.


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## dcuk7 (Apr 27, 2019)

Hi @spinal_cord, can you post the contents of your all-games.ini file here and maybe a screenshot of the folder containing the games and box art? It will help us figure out what is going on. Thanks.

@esmith13 Your feedback is very much appreciated. I am noticing the bug with the last used paths myself. It seems like Windows overrides my settings. I will continue to work on this. Folder support is tricky. To do what you suggest would mean I would have to have the app enforce folder names so it would work correctly on everyones system. I will have a play with this idea though.


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## JimMGS (May 1, 2019)

I'm having a problem with running Sega CD games. Everything is fine EXCEPT the audio. All I get for sound is a VERY loud static noise. Any help with what I may be doing wrong or how to fix this? Thanks!


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## esmith13 (May 1, 2019)

JimMGS said:


> I'm having a problem with running Sega CD games. Everything is fine EXCEPT the audio. All I get for sound is a VERY loud static noise. Any help with what I may be doing wrong or how to fix this? Thanks!


what format are your sega cd games in? I use CHD and have no sound issues. Are you using GenesisPlusGX or PicoDrive?


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## JimMGS (May 1, 2019)

esmith13 said:


> what format are your sega cd games in? I use CHD and have no sound issues. Are you using GenesisPlusGX or PicoDrive?



I'm using PicoDrive. I'm also using zipped files of .cue for the Sega CD games because I have searched all over trying to find CHD roms for Sega CD with no luck whatsoever. Do they even exist or is it something I have to convert myself????


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## esmith13 (May 1, 2019)

JimMGS said:


> I'm using PicoDrive. I'm also using zipped files of .cue for the Sega CD games because I have searched all over trying to find CHD roms for Sega CD with no luck whatsoever. Do they even exist or is it something I have to convert myself????


PicoDrive has worse performance than GenesisPlusGX - especially for Sega CD. If you can live without 32x support I recommend you switch CFW to the GenesisPlusGX version. You may get good enough sound from that change alone. If that doesn't cut it enough for you try CHD format. You MUST switch to GenesisPlusGX for that. PicoDrive does not support CHDs. To convert them yourself, you want to use chdman.exe (version 5) which can be pulled from MAME .205 or you can just download it directly from the retropie site here under "CHD Archive Usage": https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Sega-CD/


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## Excalibur007 (May 2, 2019)

The Flashbacks use the backslash " \" for linebreaks (return carriage) in the allgames.ini.  I've been checking out your program since the beginning, hoping support for this would be added, but never brought it up in this thread.  Currently, if we have backslashes in our allgames.ini, this program will delete everything after it.  So, if I load up my .ini, I lose a lot of my descriptions.  Here's an example from one of my entries:


```
File=/rom/Genesis/ZeroTheKamikazeSquirrel.bin
Platform=Genesis
Genre=Sega
Description=It's Zero Hour! The evil Jacques Le Sheets has a twisted plot to create counterfeit money. And to make the paper, he's ravaging the wooded homeland of Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel! Can you save the forest and turn Jacques into pulp? \
• Master Zero's full arsenal of Ninja techniques and weapons, you'll need them in later levels! \
• Hop a jet ski, speed boat and jet pack as you fly into battle at hyper speeds! \
• Swoop, spin and dive through fifteen levels! \
• 16 Megs make Zero's flying-squirrel attack more fierce than ever! \
Get set to Zero-in on destruction, because this squirrel takes no prisoners! \
Level Skip: Pause and press A, C, Right, A, B.
Dpad=Directional movement
Start=Start, pause
A=Attack
Up_A=Attack diagonally up
B=Jump
C=Look, Press while running to do flips
```

The Flashbacks also support special characters such as bullets like (·, • etc.), ©, ™, ®, and more.  I don't remember if your program allowed these or not, but thought I'd mention it just in case it doesn't.

Also, the Flashbacks will also display multi-input icons such as Up+A, Down+B, etc. by using an underscore as shown in the above example.  It would be nice if you could add support for that but also prevent buttons with no text added by the user from being added to the allgames.ini.  Currently, all buttons get added (A,B,C,X,Y,Z), whether we put anything in those boxes or not.


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## classicgamer1982 (May 2, 2019)

*dcuk7* Thank you for your hardwork! very much appreciated.

As an end user it is pretty good and simple to use. I would like to add my thoughts and suggestion, i know some have been mentioned and you are looking into some.

1. A integrated mass adding games/w renaming. (You mentioned you had a separate program is that online?) 

2. Mass Art work scrapping, using Google, game database and local from folder (Libretro thumbnail packs link) similar to what the emulation station uses and Hakchi

3. Drop down for platforms, user able to pre fill drop down for later on and still have the ability for manual 






4. Rom location remembers last location and Box art remembers it's location. Currently roms can only

5. Ability to update Flashback Genesis Manager from within program like CFW is integrated for download.

There is other stuff i can think of but it is related to the CFW like adding your own genre, even that you have quite a few prefilled but can not use them only Sonic and bonus in the CFW. Probably needs to be removed unless i missed something?





Thanks again look forward to seeing your next update 

Carl

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


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## JimMGS (May 3, 2019)

I must be a complete dummy because I can't figure out this CHD thing or how to play Sega CD games on the Flashback. Can anyone provide some detailed assistance?


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## classicgamer1982 (May 3, 2019)

JimMGS said:


> I must be a complete dummy because I can't figure out this CHD thing or how to play Sega CD games on the Flashback. Can anyone provide some detailed assistance?



So i assume you have the correct CFW and using Genesis Plus GX





Genesis Plus GX will run CHD files only on your console add them using game manager





Download the bios files by using the google search to find the file or files if you plan on using games from the other regions. Extremely easy to find and download, if you can't find it, then probably best not touch the console any further. Once you have the file/s rename them to bios_CD_E.bin bios_CD_J.bin or bios_CD_U.bin. Then place it or them in the "ROM" folder. When you use the console the file will load when you start the game if you are not sure what region the game is download all 3 bios files and put them in the folder.





More details about the CFW in the forum which i cant add being a newbie here

If this don't help it is beyond me, as i did this.

Best of luck


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## JimMGS (May 4, 2019)

Thanks so much! I'll give it a shot tomorrow!



classicgamer1982 said:


> So i assume you have the correct CFW and using Genesis Plus GX
> 
> View attachment 165751
> 
> ...


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## JimMGS (May 5, 2019)

classicgamer1982 thank you so much! Having the bios file in the rom folder was the one thing I was missing!


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## dcuk7 (May 5, 2019)

Hello all. I hear you with regards to the batch tool. I have cleaned it up and it is available here: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/yishdyt7cetfnqs/BulkAllGamesMaker.zip?dl=1



 
Pick your ROM folder, pick your images folder and set your location to save the files and the tool will create the ini, resize and rename your images and copy and rename your roms. Note that the tool only matches filenames so it will only pick up images with the same name as the rom. Beware using the checkbox for clean game names. This will remove brackets and such from the game names but if you have multiple versions of a game you may end up with duplicate game names in the .ini (which is not allowed). For example, say you have _Rocket Knight Adventures (Europe), Rocket Knight Adventures (USA) and Rocket Knight Adventures (Japan)_. Using this box will mean you end up with 3 games in the .ini called _Rocket Knight Adventures_. This will cause issues with the Flashback so I advise not using that if you are running this against no-intro or large romsets.

If this is something people want, I will look at fleshing it out so it can match based on 'fuzzy' searching and roll this into the main app. For now, hopefully this will do.

@Excalibur007 Thank you for bringing up the issue with the description getting cut short. It's not actually the backslash that is causing this issue, rather that AtGames decided to use line breaks in their .ini files, with the backslash being used as an escape character. Some INI parsers support 'line-continuation' in this way but most don't. The library I use in my app (Mad Milkman INI) to read/write INI files does not support 'line-continuation'. I have tried three INI parsers and none support it. Short of writing my own parser (BIG job) or modifying the existing open source code in the Mad Milkman INI (less big but still complex) I cannot fix this easily. AtGames should be using *\n* as the line break character rather than just using actual line breaks. I promise I will continue to look at this though and I'm thinking about a couple of different workarounds. It won't be a priority but I won't give up! 

@classicgamer1982 Thank you for your kind words. Regarding your suggestions:

See above app for now.
This is something I am still working on. I tried doing Google queries unsuccessfully but will keep working on this.
This is good and I will make sure this is in the next update.
Both rom and artwork should remember their last location but either there is a bug in the .NET Framework or Windows is doing something to prevent this working. It's under investigation for the next version (hopefully).
This will come in a future update. If not the next version certainly the one after.
With regards to the genre stuff, the reason for having all the options is that you can use this as just another field. You're right that only bonus and sonic are used to separate the games but you can just use this field to describe the genre if you choose to do so (as AtGames do).
As always all feedback is very welcome.


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## classicgamer1982 (May 6, 2019)

Thanks for the upload.



dcuk7 said:


> Hello all. I hear you with regards to the batch tool. I have cleaned it up and it is available here:
> 
> View attachment 166062
> Pick your ROM folder, pick your images folder and set your location to save the files and the tool will create the ini, resize and rename your images and copy and rename your roms. Note that the tool only matches filenames so it will only pick up images with the same name as the rom. Beware using the checkbox for clean game names. This will remove brackets and such from the game names but if you have multiple versions of a game you may end up with duplicate game names in the .ini (which is not allowed). For example, say you have _Rocket Knight Adventures (Europe), Rocket Knight Adventures (USA) and Rocket Knight Adventures (Japan)_. Using this box will mean you end up with 3 games in the .ini called _Rocket Knight Adventures_. This will cause issues with the Flashback so I advise not using that if you are running this against no-intro or large romsets.
> ...




I seem to be having issues of it working for me I followed as you mentioned please see screen shot below





It wont let me go any further.


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## dcuk7 (May 6, 2019)

Sorry about that, included the wrong DLL version in the zip. I have uploaded the correct version now so re-download and it should work.


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## classicgamer1982 (May 6, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> Sorry about that, included the wrong DLL version in the zip. I have uploaded the correct version now so re-download and it should work.



Cheers mate. Added the games in mass  Is there a format the box art needs to be in? i'm using .png from that set Libretro thumbnail packs which is a pretty good library! but the app does not seem to be using, so no art work.


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## dcuk7 (May 6, 2019)

It should work with PNG or JPEG (it looks for both). I tried it on my no intro romset with the libretro thumbnail pack and it matched quite a lot of images:


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## classicgamer1982 (May 8, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> It should work with PNG or JPEG (it looks for both). I tried it on my no intro romset with the libretro thumbnail pack and it matched quite a lot of images:




Had a look at it again and I can see the problem I had, My rom sets don't work with the app due to naming of the roms eg,3 Ninjas Kick Back.bin or 3 Ninjas Kick Back (U) [!].bin are not good names (even with cleaning the names) 6-Pak (USA).md works to allow box art. No intro rom sets are perfect in naming to use box art. The flashback has a file size limit in which will not play games so i found out. I added the full no intro set with box art and it did not show the box art or load the games.

I assume you built the app from scratch? Maybe add the uses for these files so it allows the use of box art. Not something that you should be phased about at this point, just a thought for the future. I'm going to play around on adding games from other system efficiently.


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## rrifonas (May 8, 2019)

classicgamer1982 said:


> Had a look at it again and I can see the problem I had, My rom sets don't work with the app due to naming of the roms eg,3 Ninjas Kick Back.bin or 3 Ninjas Kick Back (U) [!].bin are not good names (even with cleaning the names) 6-Pak (USA).md works to allow box art. No intro rom sets are perfect in naming to use box art. The flashback has a file size limit in which will not play games so i found out. I added the full no intro set with box art and it did not show the box art or load the games.
> 
> I assume you built the app from scratch? Maybe add the uses for these files so it allows the use of box art. Not something that you should be phased about at this point, just a thought for the future. I'm going to play around on adding games from other system efficiently.



Your problem are the spaces in the file names. The Flashback HD 2018 doesn't support spaces in the file name. If you replace space with underscore it will work.


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## classicgamer1982 (May 9, 2019)

rrifonas said:


> Your problem are the spaces in the file names. The Flashback HD 2018 doesn't support spaces in the file name. If you replace space with underscore it will work.



Sounds like which ever way adding mass amount of games will take a bit of work? using a no intro set will allow art work to be automatically be added, but needs each game edited after to work on the flashback. Using other sets can be added in mass but you need to add the art work for each game yourself.


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## rrifonas (May 9, 2019)

I don't think the idea is to add the whole nointro set to the collection, and it will likely create an all-games.ini so large that the console won't be able to read (don't forget this console has only 256MB of RAM). Anyways, you can find scripts to replace spaces with underscore in the Internet.


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## classicgamer1982 (May 10, 2019)

rrifonas said:


> I don't think the idea is to add the whole nointro set to the collection, and it will likely create an all-games.ini so large that the console won't be able to read (don't forget this console has only 256MB of RAM). Anyways, you can find scripts to replace spaces with underscore in the Internet.



More for testing out the app how well it can add games and art together in bulk and with multiple systems. I thought being a android OS running the program with what extras that are thrown at it 256mb of ram would be enough if not a bit of overkill? they probably put 256mb of ram in there as it is cheaper then making what it should have which would be half that. My clone MD handles my everdrive knock off with MD and SMS sets with no issues and i would not think it would be much more powerful then this.

I don't know a lot about scripts. lol

Cheers for the help anyways.


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## rrifonas (May 10, 2019)

256MB RAM is enough to run games, but don't forget you need to load the all-games.ini in memory (and some apps can't handle large text files), the app needs to cache the box arts and you have the OS footprint (which is small since this is a Linux OS). Your clone MD with the everdrive doesn't need to do that :-)

You can have the whole no-intro set in the FB 2018, but I would recommend you to use the GAME folder instead, without the box art. I know that the GAME folder supports more than 100 pages without affect performance as it doesn't need to load all-games.ini and all the box art...


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## dcuk7 (May 12, 2019)

Hello all,

New version 0.3.2 uploaded. Google Image search at last! Sorry it's taken so long!

Let me know how it goes and if you find any issues.

Hopefully a proper update checker with download will be in the next version. I wasn't happy with it in this version so for now it is the same as 0.3.1.


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## classicgamer1982 (May 13, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> Hello all,
> 
> New version 0.3.2 uploaded. Google Image search at last! Sorry it's taken so long!
> 
> ...



Awesome work, I started testing your new version last night works fine. Saves a bit of time with the Google Image search.

As for the Bulk All Games Maker app I can't get it work on the Flashback console, comes up with the title of the games but no cover just transparent background. ive tried it with about 50 games no luck. Everything shows up in games manager. The console won't run the game? I entered 1 game called "Dune" just to see. nothing.


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## dcuk7 (May 14, 2019)

I see that issue with the bulk tool. I have re-uploaded with a fix. Give that a try now.

I ran mine with the full no-intro romset and it is pretty unstable. As rrifonas said, with the limited RAM in the machine coupled with the fact that as you scroll though each page the menu app will cache each box art image, it quickly becomes unstable to the point of the menu crashing. I've found 350 to be a safe number. Anything over that risks slowing the machine down or crashing it. I may put a warning about this in the game manager app when the library becomes so large.


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## esmith13 (May 15, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> I see that issue with the bulk tool. I have re-uploaded with a fix. Give that a try now.


Out of curiosity, what did the original version do wrong? was it the 'rom/' and not '/rom/' in the ini file?
Also, is the same link from post #51 (May 5th) the way to download the fixed version? I tried that today and still can't get games or images to load.

Thanks again.


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## dcuk7 (May 16, 2019)

Yes it was the ROM path with the missing slash. Same link yes. If your ini file has the /rom/ in the path then you are using the fixed version.


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## JimMGS (May 17, 2019)

Has anybody here tried using the Retrobit six button Genesis control pads with this? Do they work? They are officially licensed Sega products that look really good. I suspect that the atgames wireless controllers won't last forever...


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## dcuk7 (May 17, 2019)

I have the previous Retro-bit 6 button controller which is basically the same as the SEGA branded one and it works fine.

The only controllers that don't work with the flashback are the wireless 8bitdo ones.


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## Mr_White (May 17, 2019)

@JimMGS I have the Retrobit Genesis 9-pin controllers and they work great on the ATGames Flashback


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## JimMGS (May 19, 2019)

I've got an interesting question. Can this run Sega SG-1000 games???


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## JimMGS (May 22, 2019)

JimMGS said:


> I've got an interesting question. Can this run Sega SG-1000 games???



Well... I'm going to answer my own question! As long as you rename the files so that the ROM is in .sms format you CAN play Sega SG-1000 games. Most of them suck and have the worst sound a graphics you could ever imagine, but there are a few good ones like Sega Galaga, Zaxxon and uh... well I'm sure theres a few other good ones. Maybe.


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## spanner (May 22, 2019)

Custom Firmware has changed the name from a Mega Drive to Genesis how do it get Mega Drive back..? Its the only console that Sega made that had a different name in North America, all there other consoles have the same name..  AtGames they just make the firmware for the console.

Just realized something ATGames Mega Drive consoles are imported in to the country from China so Argos imported it for the UK(so when you buy one Argos is getting the money for them cos they have paid for them already,Argos made the box and instructions too.otherwise it would be in Chinese.),In Australia is imported by Five Star Games. so the same way the Master System was in 1988 imported by Virgin Mastertronic,they imported from Sega Japan in 1988 to the UK,it had a Virgin Mastertronic Guarantee in the box, I remember..  but then Richard Brandon sold Mastertronic to Sega to make Sega Europe.he make a lot of money from selling it to them,that was about 1990 I think.


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## classicgamer1982 (May 22, 2019)

spanner said:


> Custom Firmware has changed the name from a Mega Drive to Genesis how do it get Mega Drive back..? Its the only console that Sega made that had a different name in North America, all there other consoles have the same name..



I forgot to mention that Game manager seems to link the CFW to the US version when selecting either. All i did was download the CFW which is in the forum, that i cant link but you will be able to find easy and just reinstall


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## spanner (May 22, 2019)

Is this is..  https://gbatemp.net/threads/custom-firmware-for-sega-flashback-2018.523590/page-9#post-8537041


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## classicgamer1982 (May 22, 2019)

spanner said:


> Is this is..  https://gbatemp.net/threads/custom-firmware-for-sega-flashback-2018.523590/page-9#post-8537041



Yes that is correct. That is what i used


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## spanner (May 22, 2019)

OK thanks sorted it,has anyone tried using 3D box art,I have added some to mine.they look alright but the mega CD cases look a bit long cos the image has resized to a size of a flat box case. I use them on my Mega Drive Retroflag Mini PI,yes I have now 5 Mega Drives including a real Mega Drive 2 and Mega CD 2 that I have had from 1994 I even have a Mega Drive 32x, they all work,I am a collector,I have other computers to C64,ZX Spectrum, CPC 464,Amiga,Atari 800XL,130XE,Atari Game System,Atari VCS,Atari 520FM,Colecovision,Sega Saturn,Sega Dreamcast to name a few..


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## spanner (May 23, 2019)

I will upload the 3D Cover box art to Mega for you so you can download it if you want to use it too..  I put it all in one zip file so its all in one place.


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## spanner (May 23, 2019)

I got Sega Mega CD games working in Picodrive with CD music..  I use cue+bin.

How I did it was click Browse on Game Manager then pick say Batman Returns.bin then add all the other stuffing,then it will start to copy of the bin file over to the sd card,Now copy the cue file over and name it the same as the bin file so Batman Returns.cue but if game manager has changed the name,it will remove the space in the 2 words so BatmanReturns.bin make sure the cue file has that name in it.then it should find the game and run it like normal.

All the Mega CD games I have I made so I made sure the cue files would find the music on the bin files.

This is what Batman Return.cue looks like... I have change the name of the bin in it.


FILE "BatmanReturns.bin" BINARY
  TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    PREGAP 00:02:00
    INDEX 01 01:57:32
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 02:04:18
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 05:00:42
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 07:31:27
  TRACK 06 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 10:03:37
  TRACK 07 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 11:31:02
  TRACK 08 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 14:25:04
  TRACK 09 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 16:07:63
  TRACK 10 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 19:03:09
  TRACK 11 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 21:39:34
  TRACK 12 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 23:42:11
  TRACK 13 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 27:03:00
  TRACK 14 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 29:58:25
  TRACK 15 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 31:49:03
  TRACK 16 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 33:55:45
  TRACK 17 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 36:16:49
  TRACK 18 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 39:27:18
  TRACK 19 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 40:43:32
  TRACK 20 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 43:32:70
  TRACK 21 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 46:55:18
I love the music from Batman Returns so much I listen to it from the Mega CDs CD player, I like most of them, tracks,3,5,7,9,11,12,13,16,17,19,20,21 are good ..  some of the music you only hear for 10 seconds in the game but if you listen to it this way the track is like 2 minutes long well most of them are. its like they did it like this so you can listen to it like a CD. I like Soul Star Music too.
If you love Mega CD games like I do, Climb aboard Dog Meat,This is the Hole Hog and I am giving you a one way ticket to Solar City..  if you are after Mega CD games in cue+bin format and are copied properly, I can help you,I have a lot of PAL games I copied and made myself so PM me..


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## DoctorEvil8 (May 23, 2019)

spanner said:


> I got Sega Mega CD games working in Picodrive with CD music..  I use cue+bin.
> 
> How I did it was click Browse on Game Manager then pick say Batman Returns.bin then add all the other stuffing,then it will start to copy of the bin file over to the sd card,Now copy the cue file over and name it the same as the bin file so Batman Returns.cue but if game manager has changed the name,it will remove the space in the 2 words so BatmanReturns.bin make sure the cue file has that name in it.then it should find the game and run it like normal.
> 
> ...



How is the performance of the PicoDrive with the Sega CD games and the 32X games?  Last I heard, GenesisPlus had better performance with the CD, and the 32X performance with PicoDrive was only so-so.  I've been using the GenesisPlus with all my Genesis and Sega CD games and very happy with performance.  I have been wanting to try 32X, but all my CD games are CHD and not sure if I want to go through the hassle of re-loading CUE BIN for PicoDrive.


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## dcuk7 (May 24, 2019)

I will be adding support for bin/cue files into the next version. If you select the .cue file it will copy that and the associated .bin (as long as they both reside in the same folder and have the same name).


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## spotanjo3 (May 24, 2019)

Cool but I am waiting for Sega Mega Drive Mini too and hope it will be hack as well.


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## spanner (May 24, 2019)

Is it possible for you to add .cue extension in the next version of Genesis Flashback HD 2018 Game Manager..?
cue+bin works fine in  Mega Drive Flashback HD 2018 - custom firmware based on the US FB3680_v.2.01 (Picodrive)

I have tested 4 games, Batman Returns music works fine in the game and on its CD player,Played Sonic CD and that works too and Soul Star is fine. Road Avenger works fine too its uses cd music on the hi score screen,All the Mega CD games I have added that are cue+bin work fine.
It only works with cue+bin and the cue file need to know exactly how long each track is and where the track is otherwise it will not play the music so its like you have to copied it from the real game disc,I had to convert mine so they worked, I used CDmage. I conveted them from iso+wav to Cue+bin.
Games that are in iso+wav or mp3,they don't work on the Mega Drive HD 2018, they need converting into cue+bin then they do ware converted Night Trap.

You would have to do it so it copies both the cue and the bin files over to the SD card as well not just the bin file.

AtGames Mega Drive Flashback 2018 don't play Mega CD PAL FMV games properly because its thinks it a 60hz machine,it runs the video at 30 FPS and the sound and 25FPS so you have a 1 second delay in the sound and there mouths are out of sync with there voice.
ATGames have not optimized there emulator to be able to know when the game is in 60hz or 50hz so it just does 60hz but thats because there machines are imported.


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## spanner (May 25, 2019)

Outstanding..  ...  Excellent...


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## spanner (May 28, 2019)

Have some ideas, can't we make a some sort of database of games for this so if you add a game it can find it and add description for you and that, or be able to put a collection of games on a SD card and it scans the SD card and adds all the games on the SD card to the all-games.ini file..?

Would it be possible..?


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## spanner (May 29, 2019)

Maybe you could use something like this a gamelist.xml, the Game Manager could read it to get info on the GG,MS,G/MD and S/MCD games,.
I have added the all the gamelist.xml from EmulationStation for GG,MS,G/MD and S/MCD games there all in there and description of the games too..
Hope this helps.

You can use the xml files to add the description to the games,just click on the platform you want say Mega Drive and then then say the game Space Harrier 2 then open up the xml file for Mega Drive and look in the .xml file for that game once you have found it look under description and copy and paste it in the description box, if you need the year too its in there as well.

If its was able to scan for games it would make it easier on the user..  Its would take a long time to add all games to a 64GB or 128GB SD card one at a time.This could be a bit like Bleem Sync 0.4.1 where it would scan the games on the PC in a folder instead and it would build the games list, once complete you then copy the games files over to the USB Stick/SD card.I still use Bleem Sync 0.4.1 to copy loads of games over to the PS1 Classic cos BleemSync 1.01 can't do it.With there GUI site you can only add one game at a time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Added Game Gear,Master System,Genesis/Mega Drive and Sega/Mega-CD Full Games lists in zips.
Download them now, it will make it easier for you to add the description and year to the games.


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## DoctorEvil8 (Jul 2, 2019)

A couple suggestions for the Game Manager.

I don't know how common it is for ROMs to have the brackets at the end of filenames describing the region and such.  All my ROMs have this.  Can the Game Manager have an option to remove the bracketed details when creating Game Name and Sort Name?

Also, I accidentally choose the wrong game when Adding a Game.  When I went back to re-select, the every field (except the File) were pointing to the original file I incorrectly chose.  Easy enough to fix by hitting Cancel and re-selecting again.  But I was wondering if the fields can be populated based on most recent selection?  Or is this intentional for other reasons?


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## dcuk7 (Jul 4, 2019)

@DoctorEvil8 The app already has the feature to remove brackets and such. From the main window, click the settings button in the top right corner and select Clean Game Names. Next time you add a game it will automatically remove the brackets and the text inside the brackets. To turn off, simply repeat the process.

As for the second suggestion, I can absolutely add that. I will make sure it is in the next version. Good catch.


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## DoctorEvil8 (Jul 4, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> @DoctorEvil8 The app already has the feature to remove brackets and such. From the main window, click the settings button in the top right corner and select Clean Game Names. Next time you add a game it will automatically remove the brackets and the text inside the brackets. To turn off, simply repeat the process.
> 
> As for the second suggestion, I can absolutely add that. I will make sure it is in the next version. Good catch.



Clean Game Names. Makes sense. I was thinking it was referring to the filename, which it already does. Doh!!  Thanks!  Wicked app btw.


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## Technohippie (Jul 12, 2019)

Hi all,

This is great, however has anyone created an image to save us from the grunt work?

I would love it if i could just download an image, pop it on an SD card and have all the games with images etc. ready to go??

Please share your SD card data to save us from the laborious task of DIY.


----------



## subcon959 (Jul 13, 2019)

Technohippie said:


> Hi all,
> 
> This is great, however has anyone created an image to save us from the grunt work?
> 
> ...


Against the rules of this site.


----------



## ranja81 (Jul 26, 2019)

I love this app, its brilliant. I have a game though that isn't a game and has no artwork but I can't delete it. Is there a way to manually delete it? I think it was one I cancelled but now it won't delete despite having no information at all.


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## DoctorEvil8 (Aug 9, 2019)

@dcuk7 I don't know why, but version 32 won't run on my Windows 10 system. 31 works fine. Don't know if there are windows dependencies that changed or not.


----------



## dcuk7 (Aug 12, 2019)

ranja81 said:


> I love this app, its brilliant. I have a game though that isn't a game and has no artwork but I can't delete it. Is there a way to manually delete it? I think it was one I cancelled but now it won't delete despite having no information at all.



Are you still having this issue. If so can you post your all-games.ini and the name of the game that is giving you the error?



DoctorEvil8 said:


> @dcuk7 I don't know why, but version 32 won't run on my Windows 10 system. 31 works fine. Don't know if there are windows dependencies that changed or not.



That is strange. The app is written in pure .NET so it should only need .NET 4.5 to run. Does it give any error message? Can you see it running in the background using Task Manager?


----------



## DoctorEvil8 (Aug 14, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> Are you still having this issue. If so can you post your all-games.ini and the name of the game that is giving you the error?
> 
> 
> 
> That is strange. The app is written in pure .NET so it should only need .NET 4.5 to run. Does it give any error message? Can you see it running in the background using Task Manager?



I fixed the problem.  Really strange.  The 0.32 would not run with the filename GenesisFlashbackGameManager.exe.  I change that name to anything else, and it works.  Yet 0.31 can run fine with the same filename.  Weird.


----------



## ranja81 (Aug 14, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> Are you still having this issue. If so can you post your all-games.ini and the name of the game that is giving you the error?
> 
> 
> 
> That is strange. The app is written in pure .NET so it should only need .NET 4.5 to run. Does it give any error message? Can you see it running in the background using Task Manager?


I fixed it in the end. I think it had crashed when getting some game info and then left a game in the ini file with no info. I just deleted that and it was fine.


----------



## dcuk7 (Aug 14, 2019)

DoctorEvil8 said:


> I fixed the problem.  Really strange.  The 0.32 would not run with the filename GenesisFlashbackGameManager.exe.  I change that name to anything else, and it works.  Yet 0.31 can run fine with the same filename.  Weird.



That is interesting. Might be an issue with the config files. I will investigate this further.



ranja81 said:


> I fixed it in the end. I think it had crashed when getting some game info and then left a game in the ini file with no info. I just deleted that and it was fine.



I will look at adding a further check so if the app detects blank entries it will ask you to remove them.


----------



## jon_pt (Sep 7, 2019)

hi all,

im having a problem configuring this... i cant delete that 2 empty 1 and i dont know how to fix it... trying to find them but nothing.

Any Help?

Thanks


----------



## dcuk7 (Sep 7, 2019)

Hi @jon_pt

Can you post a copy of your all-games.ini so we can help you further?


----------



## trz34 (Sep 13, 2019)

Hello,

I applied the GX Plus custom firmware and noticed that the 6 button controls don't work for all games that support it, but if I switch and try the PICO firmware then the 6 button controls work. Is there a way to add 6 button support to the GX Plus firmware?


----------



## brianhutt (Sep 13, 2019)

hiya all, just got this and put the CFW onto it but I'm having an issue with ! showing as games on the first 11 pages, 

cheers

hxxps://ibb.co/VQkT8Hb


----------



## dcuk7 (Sep 13, 2019)

trz34 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I applied the GX Plus custom firmware and noticed that the 6 button controls don't work for all games that support it, but if I switch and try the PICO firmware then the 6 button controls work. Is there a way to add 6 button support to the GX Plus firmware?


I'll try this when I get home but if I recall I think mine worked ok.



brianhutt said:


> hiya all, just got this and put the CFW onto it but I'm having an issue with ! showing as games on the first 11 pages,
> 
> cheers
> 
> hxxps://ibb.co/VQkT8Hb



That is a strange one. Can you post the contents of your all-games.ini file so we can see what's going on?


----------



## trz34 (Sep 13, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> I'll try this when I get home but if I recall I think mine worked ok.
> 
> 
> 
> That is a strange one. Can you post the contents of your all-games.ini file so we can see what's going on?



Hey dcuk7,

I thought so as well... I appreciate you checking the 6 button issue for me.

I am not sure if you are asking me or the other user for the all-games.ini but I attached my file. I had to change the extension of all-games to .txt so it would be accepted. Thank you!


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## dcuk7 (Sep 13, 2019)

@trz34 I didn't mean you when talking about the ini file 

I have just tried my unit which runs the custom firmware with GX and my 6 button games work fine. Was there any particular game you had trouble with?


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## trz34 (Sep 14, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> @trz34 I didn't mean you when talking about the ini file
> 
> I have just tried my unit which runs the custom firmware with GX and my 6 button games work fine. Was there any particular game you had trouble with?



LOL, I figured that after the post was submitted... My apologies. There are three games I have found to have troubles supporting the 6 button controls... They are WWF Raw, WWF Royal Rumble and Mortal Kombat 1. The weird thing is the MK1 game that comes packaged with the flashback allows for 6 button controls. Do those games work for you?


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## spanner (Sep 28, 2019)

I have added 3D Box art but they are not the right aspect ratio,so the boxes are too stretched so don't look right,you can see them here...

Look at the Mega CD Boxes are the same size as the Master System,if you want the 3D box art to test it,it's on my wiki site.Would there be a way of sorting this out or do I have to edit every image..???


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## spanner (Sep 28, 2019)

brianhutt said:


> hiya all, just got this and put the CFW onto it but I'm having an issue with ! showing as games on the first 11 pages,
> 
> cheers
> 
> hxxps://ibb.co/VQkT8Hb



They are in the description you have to remove them,use Notepad and search using Find for "!",it did it to me a few time. Look in the allgames.ini


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## ranja81 (Sep 28, 2019)

How do I use this for 2 disc mega cd games like night trap


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## DoctorMike (Oct 31, 2019)

Weird thing. I chose Mega Drive as the option for the firmware download to SD card to update, but afterwards it is showing as a Genesis. Any ideas? Is there a place to get the Mega Drive equivalent? Such as the page 9 of the custom firmware for sega thread?

(My question being, is the Mega Drive option the latest firmware that I need to see the /roms folder?)
EDIT: I manually downloaded the EU update from the vaguely referenced link above - I've not posted enough to add URLs yet, being more of a lurker for the most part - and it is now working and a Mega Drive again :-)

And, has someone found a way to dump the roms that are native to the FB2018 yet?


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## rrifonas (Nov 1, 2019)

Need to modify the script in the emulator partition to enable dumping /rom.
Read the instructions and good luck testing (I tested just once with the US version):
https://mega.nz/#!AwUx0IpA!k8Bm1blwseUboy8YOwVc0agjuPs84sgirRJZuPZu-2U

If you already have a /rom partition, rename it before adding mount_sd.ini in the root of the SD Card.


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## darkdev (Nov 1, 2019)

The sega_update_20190226_EU works fine, Thanks.
But this new sega_update_20191014 doesn't work on the EU version, I got a black screen.


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## broie (Nov 20, 2019)

Is there any way for this game manager to scrap game information from a website?


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## rrifonas (Nov 24, 2019)

darkdev said:


> The sega_update_20190226_EU works fine, Thanks.
> But this new sega_update_20191014 doesn't work on the EU version, I got a black screen.



I could finally review the images and fixed both EU versions. I created them with a Windows version of mksquashfs but it didn't work for some reason. I updated the link the new images


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## DoctorMike (Dec 7, 2019)

@rrifonas it worked after a couple of tries where files were created with length zero; I just needed to give it time to dump all the files to the SD card.


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## broie (Dec 22, 2019)

@dcuk7 I've been using your game manager to add games to the flashback, the games work fine but my Page 1 looks messed up.

If I switch over to Page 2 the menu crashes and reboots back to Page 1, any idea what might be going wrong? I've attached a screenshot and my ini file, in your app itself the games display fine.


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## darkdev (Dec 23, 2019)

Just to confirm that the latest update 20191014 works well on the EU version.


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## dcuk7 (Dec 23, 2019)

@broie That is strange. It will be to do with how the ini has been formatted (the menu crashing is usually a sign it is struggling parsing the ini). I will test this properly later on and let you know why it's crashing. It will also help me shore up the game manager with more robust checking for this sort of thing.


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## broie (Dec 23, 2019)

@dcuk7 Cool keep us posted.

If it helps by the way, I've noticed if I go into one of the games pressing A and then using dpad to scroll past the games on page 2 the other pages display just fine, if I go back to pages 2-3 the crash happens again.

I noticed there's a few space on some of my games after the Description= field, not sure if that would cause issues or not.


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## dcuk7 (Dec 23, 2019)

That could also be down to the images then. The menu will also crash if it doesn't like the box art used. Try temporarily moving some or all of the box art that you would expect to be on page 2 and see how that goes.

The bits of text (_1 1 sic sic_) look like the ini is the problem but you may have some bad images too.

The spaces in between could be causing a problem but I know the way the AtGames menu reads the ini it can handle carriage returns fine. I know this because they use the carriage return as a new line which you shouldn't do in an ini file. New lines should be signified with _/n_

The Game Manager has no problem with reading sections with carriage returns because as long as there is a properly formed ini section it will just skip past any empty lines (as a proper ini parser should).


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## dcuk7 (Dec 24, 2019)

Ok, after messing around with your ini file I've found a few things. The crashing on page 3 is caused by the *Aquatic Games* name being too long. I never tried testing the character limit for the game name but it appears you have hit it! Removing the *(USA, Europe)* part fixes that issue. Once you do that, your *World of Illusion* game suffers the same issue. Again removing the bracketed parts in the name fixes the issue.

Your second issue with the *1*'s and *sic*'s are to do with you having *[1]* and *[sic]* in the description for some games. I'm guessing you copied and pasted from a wiki or something? Square brackets in ini files can only be used in the section header. Anywhere else and it will confuse the parser as it thinks you have created a new section (or in this case game name). 

To be fair my app should be picking that up better (although AtGames need to write a better ini parser). I'll be working on this over the holiday (along with many other issues reported here) and release a new version very soon.

Thanks for the ini file. It will help me test the next version and make sure it checks much more in the file to warn of problems like these.


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## broie (Dec 24, 2019)

dcuk7 said:


> Ok, after messing around with your ini file I've found a few things. The crashing on page 3 is caused by the *Aquatic Games* name being too long. I never tried testing the character limit for the game name but it appears you have hit it! Removing the *(USA, Europe)* part fixes that issue. Once you do that, your *World of Illusion* game suffers the same issue. Again removing the bracketed parts in the name fixes the issue.
> 
> Your second issue with the *1*'s and *sic*'s are to do with you having *[1]* and *[sic]* in the description for some games. I'm guessing you copied and pasted from a wiki or something? Square brackets in ini files can only be used in the section header. Anywhere else and it will confuse the parser as it thinks you have created a new section (or in this case game name).
> 
> ...



Nice one I'll fix up my ini later and report if I run into anything else, what is the character limit anyway?

Yeah that's exactly what I did for descriptions so I'll remove any instance of that I see.


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## dcuk7 (Dec 24, 2019)

So I tested two of my own Flashback units and long names don't make mine crash but they did give me strange issues (I don't have as many games in my ini as you though). I used *World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (USA, Korea)* as a test and although it did not crash, the game name displayed as *World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (USA, KoreaWorld* so I think long names must cause memory issues/glitching within retromenu. Staying below 64 characters seemed to solve the problem (I removed *Duck* from the name and it worked fine). I'll be adding this limiter to the game manager as well as a check for long game names when the file is loaded.


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## Danker301090 (Feb 10, 2020)

darkdev said:


> Just to confirm that the latest update 20191014 works well on the EU version.



Which firmware are you talking about. have a uk megadrive version.


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## Dinsdale5 (Feb 16, 2020)

Has anyone noticed boxart when adding new games is not loading?


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## DoctorEvil8 (Feb 25, 2020)

@dcuk7 hitting Google button doesn't populate the images. The window opens, but nothing happens.


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## simplyretrogamer (Feb 25, 2020)

Same here.


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## dcuk7 (Feb 26, 2020)

Google must have changed something on their images page. I will investigate and see if I can come up with a fix.


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## simplyretrogamer (Feb 26, 2020)

@dcuk7 Would it be possible to integrate additional scraper sources to the Game Manager like ScreenScraper or TheGamesDB, which would automatically grab all the data information plus cover box art before you add them on the SD card?


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## dcuk7 (Mar 3, 2020)

So I think trying to fix the Google Images each time they make a change is futile and everyone would prefer some scraper support anyway. I've been messing around with the ScreenScraper API and I think I can make it work with the game manager. Let me see if I can get this added in to replace the Google functionality.

A quick test...


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## Dinsdale5 (Mar 3, 2020)

Outstanding!


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## simplyretrogamer (Mar 3, 2020)

This is great to see @dcuk7, ScreenScapper AP looks like it's working great for the Game Manager! I was wondering if you have any plans to implement a drag and drop feature, so people can drag their ROMs into the GM quickly and add multiple games into the GM?


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## dcuk7 (Mar 4, 2020)

I am planning on adding a drag/drop for single roms. I was thinking that dragging a rom onto the main window would pop open the add game form. If I can get ScreenScraper support in there I will also populate all the fields with the info from ScreenScraper. All that would be required from the user is clicking the add game button to confirm (or if the wrong info has been scraped, a way to change/browse for the correct info).

If that works out I can then look at allowing multiple roms to be drag/dropped.


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## Danker301090 (Mar 4, 2020)

is there a new version of the tool available or are we still in the testing phase.


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## dcuk7 (Mar 4, 2020)

Still in the testing phase. I will try and get a new version out asap. The next version should have an auto-updater. This is what I am currently working on. After that I hope to implement a scraper to replace the Google functionality but I need time to test this.


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## Dinsdale5 (Mar 4, 2020)

I was wondering if anyone was able to get the Genesis Game manager running on Linux through Wine?


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## simplyretrogamer (Mar 17, 2020)

@dcuk7 Do you have any updates on the new Game Manager for the Flashback?


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## Dinsdale5 (Mar 28, 2020)

@dcuk7 - I hope this message finds you well in light of the circumstances.  I wanted to know if you needed any beta testers?  Secondly, the use of Sega32x or GameGear games.  If there an option for both or no?

Thanks,
Dinsdale5


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## deanowski (Apr 10, 2020)

Does the custom firmware increase cartridge compatibility, or is there a way to do sp on the 2018 Flashback mega drive/genesis. It would be great option for not having to fork out the cash on a Mega SG?. I have about 200+ mega drive/genesis cartridges and only about half of them work?!


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## rrifonas (Apr 10, 2020)

It does not. The cartridge reader from the FB2018 is a hit and miss. Games that can be read in the FB2017 or the real Genesis doesn't work in the FB2018. I really think this is more a hardware "problem" than software, so the custom firmware won't fix. The custom firmware is nothing more than a hack in the menu and the script to load it.


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## BORTZ (Apr 10, 2020)

Good. With tools like this there is no reason you shouldn't put every single Genesis/Mega Drive rom on your device.


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## deanowski (Apr 18, 2020)

I did the hack and added games from game manager, but it resets when I'm trying to go to the next page? Anyone else have this problem? I have the mega drive version?


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## SonicSpeed99 (Apr 29, 2020)

Hi, does anyone know why we cannot download box art? The game ROM is a bin file. No spaces, no special characters in the name. After adding the game and clicking on the little google button, a white page pops up. No box art appears. Tried this for several different games. Could use some help.

Thanks!


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## Danker301090 (Apr 29, 2020)

SonicSpeed99 said:


> Hi, does anyone know why we cannot download box art? The game ROM is a bin file. No spaces, no special characters in the name. After adding the game and clicking on the little google button, a white page pops up. No box art appears. Tried this for several different games. Could use some help.
> 
> Thanks!



I think it is do with google changing their code. there is suppose to be a new build soon hopefully appearing but you will have to ask the developer on that.


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## SonicSpeed99 (Apr 29, 2020)

Danker301090 said:


> I think it is do with google changing their code. there is suppose to be a new build soon hopefully appearing but you will have to ask the developer on that.


Thanks for this. Let's hope it is fixed with the next build. And let's hope the build gets released sooner rather than later!


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## NemesisMC (May 7, 2020)

Begging for the update with Scraper, will beta test!


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## hossbags2 (May 24, 2020)

Does anyone know how to get FM Sound to be enabled on the Genesis Flashback 2018? I am using the custom Genesis Plus GX firmware.


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## Dinsdale5 (Jun 7, 2020)

Any word on an update on this project?  Still in beta for the update?


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## SteveWP402 (Jul 12, 2020)

dcuk7 said:


> I see that issue with the bulk tool. I have re-uploaded with a fix. Give that a try now.
> 
> I ran mine with the full no-intro romset and it is pretty unstable. As rrifonas said, with the limited RAM in the machine coupled with the fact that as you scroll though each page the menu app will cache each box art image, it quickly becomes unstable to the point of the menu crashing. I've found 350 to be a safe number. Anything over that risks slowing the machine down or crashing it. I may put a warning about this in the game manager app when the library becomes so large.



Would it be possible to increase the number of games by reducing the image size or quality so that they use less memory?


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## bobpard (Jul 13, 2020)

finally got mine out of the box today to set up and load up with games and noticed that the audio on a number of games is very out of sync, earthworm jim and streets of rage 3 are very noticeable, at least a second delay in button press to triggering a sound.  I cant imagine there will be any future official firmware updates on this to fix? or does anyone here know of a way to sort?  also any news on the game manager auto google images fix?


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## SteveWP402 (Jul 16, 2020)

I downloaded a program named Pngyu, it will optimize PNG images. I did a bulk optimization on all of the box covers and the file size for each image was reduced to less than a quarter of it's original size, 44k images were reduced to 9k for example and there is no noticeable difference in quality on any of the covers.

I also went through the index (all-games.ini) and removed all the unnecessary lines, you only need to keep the first 4 lines for each game.

[Gauntlet 4]
File=/rom/Gauntlet4UEAug1993.bin
Platform=Genesis
Sort=Gauntlet 4

With the reduced image sizes and reduced index things are working smoother, I only have around 350 games in it currently but I'm sure I can add a lot more now.


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## mx99 (Aug 7, 2020)

This is very interesting.

I have a quick question, is there a way to add Art Box .png files to the "game" folder for .zim archives or do I have to place them in another folder?

When the mame2000 folder is created it says "artwork" in a new folder inside of it (all of this happens after running a .zim game for MAME 2000) but if I place the images there, nothing shows up.

Is there any workaround this? I'm using v2.6 custom firmware btw since the newest one can't seem to run good on my device. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## gorrbaczov (Sep 23, 2020)

Hi,

@dcuk7 you work is very much appreciated! Thank you for making our lives so much easier.

I have trouble running Sega CD games. The music in the game parts doesn't play - it's there in the videos, but not during gameplay. I put Sega CD bios files in the rom folder, which I found on emuparadise (sega CD+32x Recommended Bios set)

What am I doing wrong? Is there something else I need to do in order to play the Sega CD games?


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## Dinsdale5 (Dec 17, 2020)

Just checking the status of this?  Is the Google Search option and boxart still broken on this?


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## BillyHGamer (Jan 8, 2021)

Dcuk7 when I use the game manager and click on the Google icon it don't show up any box art and even when I change the system type to anything how can I fix this

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Dcuk7 when I use the game manager and click on the Google icon it don't show up the box art and when I change the game system for the box art nothing shows up after clicking the Google icon how can I fix this

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



Dinsdale5 said:


> Just checking the status of this?  Is the Google Search option and boxart still broken on this?



Yes I think it don't work for me


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## BillyHGamer (Jan 19, 2021)

@Stevewp How you supposed to add it to the game manager for the box art after you use pngyu show how to do this please.


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## spanner (Apr 14, 2021)

It looks like @dcuk7 is not around no more, this games Manger could work on all ATGames Flashbacks, the Atari FB 9 and X uses the same UI, so he should of make this a AtGames Universal Game Manager.
To get it to work with Atari FB 9, all it needs is the file .a26 added to the recognised files the Game Manager recognises or a All Files option to see all files.
If you ever come back @dcuk7 Please can you put the Genesis Game Manager on GitHub ...?


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## tensai103 (Jul 26, 2021)

Does anyone know why I am getting all these blank 1s, I took a look at my allgames.ini file, and I didn't see anything out of the norm.


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## tensai103 (Jul 26, 2021)

dcuk7 said:


> I will look at adding better file system support in the next version. There will be a UI change so this will be a good time to implement such features.


 You are awesome for making this!  I have a great time using this and it makes me love this machine even more.


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## maxgi76 (Aug 24, 2021)

hi, congratulations on the job, I'm trying to configure but when I try to search for the boxart the search window remains blank. is there any way to fix?


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## steven12567 (Jun 6, 2022)

Hi I've tried using this but when I try to set up I get this pop up (The drive you have selected is not available please choose another drive) any tips anyone???


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