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Add custom SD card menu images?


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Since the sd card menu seems similar to the genesis portable menu I figured this might work:

 

http://segaretro.org/Arcade_Ultimate#MDB.DAT

 

With that you may be able to add custom menu images to the SD card games. If you guys get it to work I suggest making a zip of those and include them for download soon as you finish your compatibility list.

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Maybe you can do that.

 

I'm not going to, for these reasons:

 

It's too much effort, because there are hundreds of images to sort through, unless someone automates he process.

 

It's too much risk, I'm not in the habit of downloading random Russian Windows executables from sketchy-looking sources. Most of those links are old and/or dead.

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Ok, the last upload didn't seem to work, it didn't save the filename properly. I've uploaded another, this one with all the 20th century fox games. You just put it with the rest of the ROM's on the SD card I think. If that don't work put it in the root. Here's a tutorial how to do it.

 

*Download MDB_Edit at Sega Retro. The upload is hosted right at Sega Retro so you don't have to worry about it being shady.

*Unzip it and open MDB_Edit_en.exe

 

*Grab screenshots for the games you want at https://atariage.com/system_items.php?SystemID=2600&ItemTypeID=SCREENSHOT&orderBy=Name&orderByValue=Ascending&recordsPerPage=100&currentPage=0

*Open the screenshot in infranview, a free easy to use image editor.

*Image>Resize/Resample Then resize the screen to 120x112 and make sure you uncheck preserve aspect ratio.

*Click Decrease color depth and then pick 16 colors and uncheck Use Floyd-Steinberg dithering.

*Click Save and save the file.

 

*Now in MDB_Edit type the name of the rom, minus the extension.

*Click Add.

*Click Set Screen and find your image.

 

*For the next game change the name of the ROM.

*Click Add.

*Click set screen again and add another pic.

 

From there just repeat the last step over and over to add more games. When you are done click Save MDB. You can only make use one so you have to add multiple games to it.

 

I really hope someone else can continue this. It is alot of work.

MDB.zip

Edited by Moo
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Thanks for giving this a try ... I have the MDB file, but for it to work, but it's missing the other pieces. It needs the exact same ROMs that are specified in the file so it lines up. They'll also need to be named in the same way. Since the portable is picky about what it will run, it's case sensitive -- the first character must be capitalized and everything afterwards should be lowercase. If anything is incorrect, it won't load and will dump you back to the built-in ROM screen.

 

For me, the juice is not worth the squeeze. Box art is nice, but not necessary. No one has bothered to do this with the Genesis collection. Maybe Atari people are a special kind of obsessive or someone can automate the grunt work (I don't have the time or the talent).

 

In theory, it SHOULD work, as this appears to be the same kind of Firecore menu as on the Genesis collection. In practice, I think we can all find our favorites by name without any visual aids, and we quickly learn what is and is not compatible.

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Well, I copied the names from the romname on the compatibility list. I didn't use the file extension cause that's what it said to do on the wiki page. You can try tinkering with it with that program that you can download on segaretro. You can load mdb's and edit them I believe.

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  • 1 month later...

see that others have played with this with no result.

 

Today I tried various tests with the MDB.DAT file.

 

1) Used the editor, set up names to match the binary files, made the picture files to match the binary (plus got them in the 120x112 mode with 63 color... uggg). Did that for a simple directory of three games. No go.

2) Tried a variation of capitalization for the Game folder (GAME, Game, game). Also variation of the MDB.DAT (MDB.DAT, mbd.dat, Mdb.dat) no go.

3) Tried the existing MDB.DAT that comes with the editor and tried renaming some of the Atari files to the Genesis names in the .DAT file. Remember both .gen and .bin would work with the MDB.DAT file. Also no go.

 

So despite the fact that this device is obviously a reprogrammed Sega Gopher, and even has the same yellow screen for the SD Card games of the Sega Gopher, was the MDB.DAT option simply eliminated from the programming? Seems weird that it has the know how to recognize a "Game" folder just like the Sega Gopher but not the MDB.DAT file.

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4) Tried using 16 color images to see if that would make a difference. No go.

5) Tried putting the MDB.DAT file in the root directory as well. Also left image files in the Game directory. No go.

 

We have confirmation that the MBD.DAT is probably not a thing on the AFP from a ATgames rep..

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/254611-atari-flashback-portable/page-40?do=findComment&comment=3663058

Edited by doctorclu
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