Turbografx-CD - help!!

[vaderag]

So someone suggested i shouldnt ignore the TGCD - so i'm trying to get the darn thing set up

 

I've tried 

Medafnen

RetroArch with Medafnen core

Ootake

 

and i run into the same issues

 

The Bin/Cue files work fine under RetroArch (cant get them to run under plain Medafnen), but a fair few are in ccd/img format and these will not load. I get no errors, just fails

 

I've seen people say these work with RA elsewhere, but i'm clearly doing something wrong (and not having used RA much I don't know what it is)

I have the bios there (as it works with Bin), I have two different cores (one Fast whatever that means) for PCE, but they will not load...

 

Anyone able to help?

 

 

Edit: seems that it's not CCD, just some CCD... are there known issues with emulation of some images on this system? The one i have the problem with is 4in1, but i'd rather not have to go through all and see which work and which dont

[SIMPLYAUSTIN]

Cant remember which you can get to work in RA... I think it maybe this.  Its a simple tast off the top of my head of placing .ccd as a file extension in the RL Emulator settings.  Dont quote me on this one... I remember theres 2-3 systems that commonly use this format.  It may be one of the others... worse that will happen is you get a dif error hehehe

[vaderag]

Cant remember which you can get to work in RA... I think it maybe this.  Its a simple tast off the top of my head of placing .ccd as a file extension in the RL Emulator settings.  Dont quote me on this one... I remember theres 2-3 systems that commonly use this format.  It may be one of the others... worse that will happen is you get a dif error hehehe

 

Looks like you were posting that as I was editing my post

Seems the issue isn't CCD but just certain image (maybe images...) just crashed RA entirely...

 

Maybe it just has an issue with that particular image... not sure - will prob need to test...

[Avar]

I run through Menafen myself but I used to have a romset like that with mixed formats and it caused me trouble in the past. Everything went a lot smoother after I redownloaded a clean, homogenous bin/cue set. This is a bit anecdotal though and there's likely a way to do it just fine with your current set.

[Dreygor]

I run PC Engine CD, TurboGrfx CD, SuperGFX, PC Engine, and TurboGrfx 16 all through Ootake.

 

First off, all my CD images are ccd/img/sub and nothing is zip/7z'd up (7z ebabled: false) because I don't like waiting for it to unpack. Then using Ootake as the emulator in rocket launcher I have it mount the disk in a virtual drive (virtual drive enabled: true  Use SCSI:false) and play it as if it were an actual disc. 

 

One thing for Ootake is I had to unzip/7z all of the roms for SuperGFX, PC Engine, and TurboGrfx 16 because it did not like it. I also found you need to set up all 3 controller styles (2,3, and 6) because it will automatically switch between them depending on what the game required. I have had no issues running any game as far as compatibility.

[SkyHighGam3r]

Do yourself a favor, download MagicISO, and just convert all the images to bin/cue format.

It's a free program (It will be labeled trial but it never expires) It only takes a moment to do the conversion, and they all pull up just fine.

EDIT: Unless it's a format where you have a bunch of music files as well... then you should mount it with Daemon tools, and use IMGburn to 'rip' it to a bin/cue format.

Same end result though.

[SkyHighGam3r]

I also found you need to set up all 3 controller styles (2,3, and 6) because it will automatically switch between them depending on what the game required. I have had no issues running any game as far as compatibility.

Whoa whoa whoa... say what?

I thought all TurboGrafx games just had the d-pad, start/select, a/b style setup. But there's a 3 and a 6??? When do those come into play??

[DJQuad]

Has anyone managed to get TurboGrafx-CD working?

[SkyHighGam3r]

Has anyone managed to get TurboGrafx-CD working?

Yeah mine is fully working via RetroArch now.

[DJQuad]

The pack I have is a bunch of flac, cue, and other files all in game name subdirectories, but RLUI won't recognize any games. I'm not sure what to do from here, I'm used to mainly just renaming ROMs. :/

[SkyHighGam3r]

Best thing to do is convert them all to bin/cue files.

You can use MagicISO to do that (it's a free program)

Unless it's a folder with a bunch of music files, then you will want to mount it with Daemon tools and use IMGburn to rip it back to the disc as a bin/cue.

That being said, it's odd that RL isn't recognizing them. Assuming your directories are setup and your 'roms' are renamed to match your XML my next assumption would be that for whatever emulator you are using, RL isn't looking for the correct file extensions.

Which emulator are you using, and which extensions are listed for that emulator in RL?

[DJQuad]

Here's the structure -

 

I tried using Don's renaming tool but it didn't identify anything.

 

So from here, convert every directory to an ISO? This is my first time working with a CD system so please be gentle.

 

 

 

[SkyHighGam3r]

Ok, so being the first retro CD system you've worked with this one is a bit of a doozy, but totally do-able.

See that .7z file? That's compressed. You need to extract it, and then delete the 7z first.
The second step is to mount the .cue file using Daemon Tools.
Once that is done, use IMG burn to rip the 'disc' that's mounted to a Bin/Cue (Not an iso)

This will essentially convert that giant folder of random nonsense into 1 bin file and 1 cue file. Then you can point RL to the cue file.
 

[wesfranks]

Holy crap, that's a different file structure than I've seen available before. I've seen multi-bins converted from wav format to mp3 to reduce the file size, but never flac (which is uncompressed lossless audio). Not sure if any of the dumping orgs follow that method. Are they all like that? Wonder what the bat file command is?

 

OK, after a web search, looks like an unaffiliated set possibly ripped with a utility called Turborip. Author says he made program to create consistent audio size tracks to aid in translating regional games to English. Rips to wav, ape, mp3, flac. Also mentions the format when uncompressed was intended for PSP emulation of TurboGrafx games. You'll have to decompress it properly, then test the format to see if it works for pc emulation. Not sure about the flac format. Don't see anything about transcoding during decompression. I think most here would consider this set non-standard, but what do I know.

 

Lot of hackery drama- shoutouts to the haterz, shame entries, threats of lawsuits, that sort of thing. Oh and he hates romhacking.net since 2005. Says that at the top of every page.

[SkyHighGam3r]

That's some majestically ninja-level research there man.

I just see a file-structure and I'm like... "they did it wrong" and move on hahaha.

[DJQuad]

Here's one of the decompress.bat files -

 

@echo off

..\!exe\flac -d --force-raw-format --endian=little --sign=signed "Track 01.flac"

..\!exe\flac -d --force-raw-format --endian=little --sign=signed "Track 03.flac"

..\!exe\flac -d --force-raw-format --endian=little --sign=signed "Track 04.flac"

..\!exe\flac -d --force-raw-format --endian=little --sign=signed "Track 05.flac"

..\!exe\flac -d --force-raw-format --endian=little --sign=signed "Track 06.flac"

..\!exe\flac -d --force-raw-format --endian=little --sign=signed "Track 07.flac"

..\!exe\flac -d --force-raw-format --endian=little --sign=signed "Track 08.flac"

ren Track*.raw *.bin

..\!exe\7z e "Track (data).7z"

..\!exe\unecm "Track 02.bin".ecm

del *.ecm

..\!exe\fsum -c "MWCD2003".crc

if %errorlevel% neq 0 goto error

echo everything is fine

goto eof

:error

echo error verifying .bin!!!

goto eof

:eof

echo on

 

 

I'll just get abother pack. lol

[wesfranks]

ooh. Bit flipped files. That's always fun. Had a flashback to N64 roms many years ago.

[SkyHighGam3r]

I'm so lost now. lol I'll stick with my bin/cue conversions.

[DJQuad]

Even that got me lost. Simply Austin's tutorial about "HyperSpin Daemon Tools" was how to install it, not at all how to get it working with CD games in HyperSpin. 

[wesfranks]

Are you saying my comments are confusing? Didn't know if that was directed to me. If it was- short answer=may want to get a more standard romset.

 

 

Longer answer- roms are best if they can be verified as 1-to-1 copies of the original game media (by datfiles) and easily renamed for our use (to the system XML).

 

No "ninja-level research". I'm just curious about the different romsets available and the ease which with they can be integrated into a frontend/emulator. I tend to look at the troubleshooting posts and predict the difficulty. This set looks interesting.

 

From the examples you gave, the [RHCD1001], etc. will be fun to rename. The compression method, as I said appears non-standard for our use purposes and will need proper management to make the files "possibly" usable and then rename. I can't see any batch method to make this easier for multiple roms. Also, I doubt the resulting files can be verified to the original dump with any certainty. Typical file verification is by crc hashing. From your example above, a crc verification file is included and according to the batch file, is part of the decompress process. Problem is you don't know and, therefore, can't trust the source of that file or results of verification.

 

On top of that, from a computer security standpoint, it is ill advised to use executable files from unknown sources. The bat file appears invoke an ecm/unecm utility after decompressing the 7z file. Normal process with the most comparable ecm/ape romsets that I have seen before is that the end user supplies the ecm executable from a "trusted" source such as the authors website. Also, unzipping utilities can place files in strange places including OS system folders. This with the complication that HS users are directed to exclude HS folders from virus checks and to run as Administrator. But then maybe I'm just paranoid. A simple file structure is best for roms. Harder to hide anything from the end user. This is something you see with more standard romsets.

 

All the references on the web to the above file format point to its benefit as a storage medium for backups, mainly to preserve the quality of the audio. Since we are constantly decompressing and loading the roms to play the games, the benefit as a proper storage medium doesn't necessarily fit our use case scenario. Especially since from what I can tell flac is not compatible with current emulators. I saw one reference for inclusion in a future version of Wii Mednafen, but for Magic Engine and Ootake, no reference to flac at all. Standard romsets for this system are repeatedly listed as ISO/wav/cue (TOSEC profile, I believe), possibly ISO/mp3/cue (after transcoding) and bin/cue (Redump). I have a combined set that includes bin/cue and ccd/sub/img (probably Trurip). All of these organizations have datfiles with the crc information for the main image files. No-Intro (cartridge/tape based) and Redump (disc based) romsets are usually most compatible with the naming structure of HS XMLs from what I've seen.

 

As to the bit flipped comment, I should have used the term "byte swapped". Once upon a time, USA N64 roms came in the following formats: n64, N64, and z64 referred to as little endian, Big Endian, and Big Endian-Byte Swapped. Only one format could be used on original N64 consoles. The others were byte swapped for use in emulators. This was before the argument of 1-to-1 copies of the game media was decided and things like headers were hacked into the roms. I acquired roms back in the day that were the wrong endian and had to be byte swapped in a hex editor to work. The reference to the flac format in "raw" and "little endian" format took me back in time. I was proud when I solved that issue. It was one of the things that ingrained in me the benefit of good romsets from trusted sources.

 

As I said, no "ninja-level research". I've just screwed up a few times and gotten some crazy stuff.

[wesfranks]

BTW, I have both formats bin/cue and ccd/sub/img mounting through Daemon Tools and running with Magic Engine. I usually use Mednafen for NEC roms, but if I remember the TGFX and PCE CD sets would not load even though docs say it is compatible.

[DJQuad]

Ok, so being the first retro CD system you've worked with this one is a bit of a doozy, but totally do-able.

See that .7z file? That's compressed. You need to extract it, and then delete the 7z first.

The second step is to mount the .cue file using Daemon Tools.

 

 

Granted this is my first time working with CD-based systems, and the only experience I have with Deamon Tools is from years ago when I used to mount isos to a virtual drive for backups.

 

For CD-based systems, it's obviously 1 CD per game. A new "1552_-_Tenka_Tairan_(NTSC-J)_[AKCD3001].zip" I got contains a cue and iso. How does Daemon Tools / RocketLauncher determine which iso to use since it only mounts 1 file at a time for the virtual drive?

 

To make things even more painful, Daemon Tools' new interface is confusing and they even seemed to change some terminology from what I remember.

 

 

These CD-based systems are a brave new world. lol

[DJQuad]

I hit Quick Mount, pointed to an iso, assigned it to my O drive, but trying to access it says "Windows can't access this disk"

[SkyHighGam3r]

You traditionally just mount the cue file when it's available, but it's odd that there's an ISO as well.

This is why I say convert all to bin/cue.
Then use RetroArch.

You won't have to mount them to play that way either. The only disc game I have to mount is Saturn when I have to use SSF as an alternate emulator.

I also recommend downgrading Daemon tools. there's an older version 4 on RocketLauncher's site.

[BATTLEDONKEY]

I'm using the same daemon tools 10.2 version n I can't figure it out either. Daemon tools 4 worked fine for me but I upgraded to windows 10 n its no longer compatible. Does anyone have a guide for setting up DT10.2 with rocketlauncher and various emulators?

P.s. I saw there is DT 5.something on the rocketlauncher website, are there any pros/cons to using that one? Is it possible to uninstall and use the older 5.something one without running into sptd driver issues? (or whatever it's called)