Rom Organization

[Great Hierophant]

For my Atari 2600 Roms, I organize them into a main directory and subdirectories.

 

Atari 2600 VCS Games

Main directory

European PAL Games

PAL versions and PAL exclusives

Kid Vid Games

The two Kid Vd games and their tape files

Miscellaneous

Pirates, bad dumps, overdumps, alternate dumps, demos, homebrews, unknowns and hacks

North American NTSC Games

NTSC versions and NTSC exclusives

Prototype Games

NTSC and PAL Prototype Dumps

Supercharger Games

NTSC and PAL Starpath Supercharger games and previews in parts

 

The miscellaneous subdirectory ensures that I have generally one copy of a game per TV standard so I can get to the games quickly. I plan to add a /Homebrew subdirectory in the near future.

[Nukey Shay]

Um...why bother keeping bad dumps? Is there a point when good dumps exist?

[xulchris]

Ya, sorry Cowering, but I really don't like your naming convention. I'm currently going through the ROMs and organizing them by Manufacturer, and renaming them to more simpler names. There are so many hacks and alternate ROM sets that I will probably just dump those in another directory and never play them again.

[Goochman]

I hav a pretty complex ogranization also:

 

C:gamesemuatari2600roms

 

THis holds the good, bad and ugly

[Susuwatari]

I have a better and more complex ROM organzation:

C:emulatorAtari

C:emulatorNintendo

C:emulatorSega

etc.

 

The Atari section has nearly 1,000 ROMs for example (all 2600, 5200, 7800, and Lynx)

[Fretwobbler]

Like this -

[NE146]

I dunno.. I just have f:2600

[Nukey Shay]

Yup...the 2600 emulators just don't warrent such a complex folder setup

[Great Hierophant]

I like to have only one copy of the original games in a separate place so that when I ant to play them it doesn't become unwieldy to find them. it also helps to see exactly what I have and what I need. When you have over 3000 roms to deal with it gets annoying to search for Adventure with umpteen hacks nearby. Its useful for when I get a cuttle cart and can transfer all the important games to the cart quickly and easily. It will also be helpful when I compile my master list of unique Atari games.

[Ze_ro]

I just stick all my 2600 roms in /usr/local/games/atari. I've renamed them all so that the filenames are nice and easy. I don't see much point in arranging by manufacturer, since then you have to try and remember who made what game. All I need is an alphabetical order directory listing and it's easy enough to find the game I want.

 

Overdumps, bad dumps, and alternate dumps are completely worthless in my opinion. They're just garbage data. I generally don't keep hacks either, except for a few that actually provide something worthwhile, like real trackball support in Missile Command and whatnot.

 

--Zero

[Great Hierophant]

I don't arrange them by manufacturer because GoodTools does an excellent job of providing the manufacturer's name in the filename.