So, I just got Atari: 80 Classics on Steam

[PunkySkunk]

First of all, I'll say right now that I'm new here. I've browsed the site a bit, and originally came to this site the first time to ask about modding an Atari Flashback 2 but never got around to it.

 

Well, during this holiday sale I just got the Atari collection for $5 on Steam. It's pretty good, but nowhere near as good as playing on an Atari (that's a given, especially for paddle games), and I have suspicions that it might have adware, as AdAware found some new things in my daily scan today, and I haven't had anything show up in at least two months now. Then, I went on Amazon and saw people complaining that the retail CD version seems to have adware and spyware..... >_>

 

I own a good number of the games on this collection, on a real Atari. I mostly got it for the convenience of tying the games to my Steam account, as well as the bonus material, which is actually pretty good. The presentation leaves a lot to be desired, but it readily works with joystick and mouse so Centipede can be played with a trackball no problem. Unfortunately, the 2600 versions have no mouse support, so you can't even use a trackball for Millipede.

 

At any rate, I decided to check something. I remember buying Combat a few years ago, and one interesting thing about that game is that it included a legal rom of the original Combat, and even an emulator to play it. Unlike this collection, it was a legitimate Atari 2600 emulator and this was pretty much just hidden on the disk as a goodie for anybody curious enough to look.

 

I decided I'd try looking in the Steamapps folder, and what do I find? In the resources folder, it's a bunch of roms! There are folders for the arcade games, and a separate folder called "Atari 2600" with a bunch of Atari roms. They all work in Stella, it's the real deal. All the Atari 2600 games in the collection can be played in your favorite emulator.

 

However, the arcade games are packaged differently. Instead of *.bin files, they are *.rom files, included in their own folder for each game, along with the arcade cabinet pictures used in the collection to display the borders, and a bunch of *.wav files of the sounds.

 

This is an odd setup, and doesn't work in MAME, much less Stella. So, I legally own roms of the 2600 games, but what about the arcade games? Has anybody else played this collection and know if there's a way to play the included arcade games in MAME?

 

 

It's not a big deal, I'm just kind of curious about this. I think it's really cool when they include roms on the disks like this. I wish every collection (even the ones on consoles, especially since most collections I own are on PS2) let you put them in a computer and take the roms off of them, it feels more like you really own the game.

[Buzbard]

Welcome to AtariAge!

 

Thanks for the headsup about the spyware, I'll keep an eye out for that. I've been using steam for a couple years now, big Half-Life fan!

 

I haven't seen those arcade roms yet so I don't know what format thay may be in, since mame is looking for an exact file type.

They may have simply renamed the files or perhapes combined multiple files into one file, or maybe their emulator is based on an older version of mame that's looking for an older set rom images than the newer version of mame uses.

 

If you've used clrmamepro before then I suggest you use it to scan those roms, it does a very good job of renaming roms.

[PunkySkunk]

I couldn't figure out that clrmamepro. However, I am experienced with MAME, and the way these roms are packaged is totally different from what I've seen. Normally, a MAME rom is a zip file with a bunch of files that make up the rom. The arcade roms on this collection are in folders, with *.wav sounds and a single *.rom file for the rom.

 

I hope this isn't against the rules (I'll remove it immediately if it is), but I've attached the folder for the arcade version of Millipede from the collection, and put it in a zip file.

 

I'd just like you or anybody else to take a look at it, to see what exactly it is, and if these files can be used\converted\etc to work in MAME.

Millipede.zip

[Buzbard]

Sorry for the slow reply time, Christmas and all.

 

Looking at your attached file I see only one ROM file (Millipede.rom)

Since that file is 16k I assumed that it was a set of 4k files combined into one file, so I split the file into separate 4k chunks, ran them through clrmampro and it renamed them as follows:

 

136013.1mn

136013-103.1l

136013-102.1jk

136013-101.1h

 

in that order. So they are indeed millipede roms but, you need three more roms before mame will run it.

They are:

 

136001-213.7e - 6fa3093a

136013-106.5p - f4468045

136013-107.5r - 68c3437a

 

The number after the filename is the CRC of each file.

Edited December 26, 2009 by Buzbard

[PunkySkunk]

Sorry for the slow reply time, Christmas and all.

 

Looking at your attached file I see only one ROM file (Millipede.rom)

Since that file is 16k I assumed that it was a set of 4k files combined into one file, so I split the file into separate 4k chunks, ran them through clrmampro and it renamed them as follows:

 

136013.1mn

136013-103.1l

136013-102.1jk

136013-101.1h

 

in that order. So they are indeed millipede roms but, you need three more roms before mame will run it.

They are:

 

136001-213.7e - 6fa3093a

136013-106.5p - f4468045

136013-107.5r - 68c3437a

 

The number after the filename is the CRC of each file.

 

 

I see. That's very cool, thank you.