How to batch compress your existing NES roms library and save space on your mini!
This is probably an option that will be added in hakchi's future versions but since compression is only available when adding non-NES games at the moment, I decided to share my method with you because it worked extremely well for me. If, like me, you have all your NES roms added in your game library already and you have added all the nice artwork etc, read on. The procedure is done in two major steps, first we find and compress all the .nes files inside hakchi's games folder using 7-zip. Then we edit all the corresponding .desktop files inside every game folder to correctly point to the .7z file instead of the .nes file. Bare in mind that this method will work
ONLY if RetroArch handles all games via the global command line option --retroarch.
1.
MAKE A BACKUP of your games folder.
2. Make sure 7-zip and Notepad++ are installed.
3. Open the windows command line (command prompt) and navigate inside your games folder, in my case it was cd D:\Emulation\hakchi2\games
4. Copy/Paste the following command in a new text document and save it as "compress.bat"
in your games folder:
for /R %%f in (*.nes) do ("C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a -t7z -mx9 "%%~pf%%~nf.7z" "%%f")
5. If Windows is giving you problems with the file extensions then download my file from the link:
https://mega.nz/#!zQ0wDDpT!SEMaQz69AG7O4WzSNo-LHf1PBJj0msSPOXFadJxDITQ and put it inside the games folder.
6. Type compress.bat on the command prompt you opened previously.
7. Wait until it's done compressing all the .nes files and type the command again if you have .fds format games, just remember to change the command properly.
8. Using the Windows Explorer, open the hakchi2\games folder, search for *.nes and *.fds and delete them, they are no longer needed.
9. Open Notepad++ and either press Ctrl-Shift-F or use the menu Search > Find in files
10. Match the settings in the following screenshot (point it to
your own games folder!):
11. Press "Replace in Files" and confirm when it asks you to, it will only take a moment to do this for all the files.
12. If you have .fds games do the same thing but change the "Find what" option to .fds and repeat.
You're done! See how much space you have saved and re-sync your games back to the mini!
Launch a few games and check if everything works properly. Good luck!
I could try to send them to you if ya like.
