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[Guide] How to Enable Perfect Bitstreaming on foobar2000 using iFi xDSD for Hi-RES music (48/92/192kHz, 24bit, DSD)

2020-07-18T08:19:00.002+08:00

It's been one year since I purchased the iFi xDSD and I didn't bother to even setup the WASAPI or ASIO bitstreaming on foobar2000 until recently when I tagged my music and realized I had acquire quite a number of HI-RES 96kHz-192kHz and DSD music thanks to music purchased from site like https://mora.jp/.

Back then, no matter which output I chose (ASIO or WASAPI), I always encounter the error "Unrecoverable playback error" and so I had been using DirectSound which uses Windows audio stack instead of decoding it bitperfect on my iFi xDSD.

iFi does has an instruction on how to setup ASIO, which I didn't aware of until today. https://ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSD-native-instructions-Foobar-ASIO.pdf

Here's what I did to enable DSD playback output on the iFi xDSD. (confirm to work on Windows 10!)

1. Download iFi Win10 driver from iFi Website here. https://ifi-audio.com/firmware/windows-usb-2-0-drivers/.

I never did this until today since Windows automatically download the driver when I plugged the iFi when I first purchased it. That explains why I never saw the iFi as ASIO playback output until I installed this driver.

2. Download SACD foobar plugin version 0.7.1 here (foo_input_sacd-0.7.1) instead of the latest foo_input_sacd-1.2.3. The latest foo_input_sacd-1.2.3 does not have this proxy, and therefore you won't see the foo_dsd_asio appeared in the ASIO output.

You want to install the ASIOProxyInstall

ASIOProxyInstall missing in the latest foo_input_sacd plugins.

Installing the ASIOProxyInstall will show the foo_dsd_asio in the ASIO drivers.

3. Install foo_out_asio 2.1.2 from foobar2000 official component page here.

4. Open foobar and go to Preferences. Double click the Playback > ASIO and configure the driver as follows.

You have to install ASIOProxyInstall from foo_input_sacd-0.7.1 to show the foo_dsd_asio. Without this DSD output will NOT passthrough to the iFi, instead it will decode as PCM stream instead.

5. Go to SACD plugin and make sure to set ASIO Driver Mode to DSD, not PCM!

6. Search for DSD track in your foobar library with query syntax (%codec% HAS DSD) and play it. You will immediately noticed the kHz LED turned to blue, which means it is passthrough to your iFi!

Search for DSD track in your music library

Example of DSD256 track

LED light indicator meaning from iFi xDSD user manual. Go to https://ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/xDSD_Manual.pdf to see the full manual.

7. Select ASIO: foo_dsd_asio as your playback device, not the ASIO: iFI!

Make sure to select ASIO: foo_dsd_asio as your playback device.

8. Confirm from the iFi Control Panel that it is pass-through as DSD stream.

My Lossless Music Collection Hosting @ Castellaine.NET!

2020-05-07T09:50:00.001+08:00

Thanks for visiting after all these years! I recently purchased a custom domain to host my LOSSLESS music collection over the new site at http://castellaine.net! Be sure to update your bookmark to that link for more up-to-date contents!

Jolly oh gosh how these years have passed. Since I now had subscribed to a faster broadband it made me possible to upload the massive Anime/VGM collections that I owned and curated over the past 15 years! I am fortunate to grab those soundtracks before sites like ffshrine and Galbadia Hotel were taken down, who knows who might be next. Many links uploaded here are from Sendspace and you might have noticed all of them are expired. I had switched over completely to MediaFire for their permanent storage and blazing fast bandwidth in the new site.

Thanks for your support!

New facelifted homepage http://castellaine.net

All-in-One Tutorial for Setting Up PS Vita 3.60 with Henkaku Enso, sd2vita, and NoPayStation Games Download (Direct Download from PlayStation Store)

2018-10-05T00:55:00.000+08:00

--- THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. DETAILED STEPS, FILES, AND PICTURES WILL BE UPLOADED UPON REQUEST IN THE COMMENTS ---

Last Update: October 5, 2018

[Tutorial] Installing and Setting up RetroArch 1.3.6 on Blackberry Passport with Physical Keyboard Support

2017-03-11T02:52:00.002+08:00

I've finally bit the bullet and got the Blackberry Passport Silver Edition on hand. Nothing beats its 1:1 4.5"square aspect ratio for some retro gaming love.

As of this writing there had been several versions of RetroArch that is runnable on the Blackberry OS 10, the notable ones being RetroArch Cascades and RetroArch Android version. There are, however, some drawbacks to these.

Read more »

[Tutorial] Complete Tutorial on Installing libresonic/subsonic Standalone on Raspberry Pi

2016-10-30T15:11:00.000+08:00

Why Choose Libresonic over Subsonic?

libresonic is essentially subsonic but with the license feature removed. Subsonic allows mobile streaming for 30 days whereas it is disabled unless you donate.

The main reason as to why I decided to deploy libresonic as Standalone rather than a tomcat WAR (Web Archive) package is because tomcat8 will hang when deploying libresonic.war package for somewhat unknown reason, so I resorted to compile a debian package manually using the following method.

Prerequisites

Download the following packages using debian apt-get package manager:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk maven lintian

* lintian is needed when compiling debian package
* jdk8 is needed to compile booter and debian package

Add the JDK8 to your environment variable JAVA_HOME. Make sure to quit the terminal session if you're logging using SSH or simply open up a new terminal after making the changes.

sudo nano ~/.bashrc_profile
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-8-oracle-arm32-vfp-hflt/

Downloading and Compile libresonic Source Code

mkdir ~/libresonic
cd ~/libresonic
git clone git://github.com/Libresonic/libresonic.git
cd libresonic
git checkout develop
mvn package
mvn -P full -pl libresonic-booter -am install
mvn -P full -pl libresonic-installer-debian/ -am install
sudo dpkg -i ./libresonic-installer-debian/target/libresonic-*.deb

Modifying libresonic Service File

After installing the .deb package, open /etc/default/libresonic which is the service unit file for libresonic that is started everytime Raspberry Pi is booted. Modify the LIBRESONIC_ARGS to use the port that you want.

The following arguments will run libresonic on port 4041. Make sure to do port forwarding on your router to allow external access to your libresonic music server.

LIBRESONIC_ARGS="--max-memory=150 --port=4041 --context-path=/libresonic"

Running libresonic Service

After making the changes above, try restarting the libresonic service and make sure it is up and running correctly.

sudo systemctl restart libresonic

systemctl status libresonic

You should see the following output if the service is up and running successfully.

libresonic.service - LSB: Libresonic daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/libresonic)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2016-10-29 19:43:07 UTC; 11h ago
  Process: 1650 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/libresonic stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 1664 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/libresonic start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   CGroup: /system.slice/libresonic.service
           └─1679 java -Xmx150m -Dlibresonic.home=/var/libresonic -Dlibresonic.host=0.0.0.0 -Dlibresonic.port=40...

Oct 29 19:43:07 raspberrypi libresonic[1664]: Started Libresonic [PID 1679, /var/libresonic/libresonic_sh.log]
Oct 29 19:43:07 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started LSB: Libresonic daemon.

There are two log files related to libresonic that you can inspect libresonic program status. You will have to switch to root superuser account to view these logs files since /var/libresonic ownership is assigned to root.

sudo su
tail -f /var/libresonic/libresonic.log
tail -f /var/libresonic/libresonic_sh.log

In my case I'm seeing a lot of Garbage Collection messages on libresonic_sh.log such as the following. Not sure whether it is important but I simply ignore them for now. You will have to wait for a couple of minutes before the libresonic

[GC (Allocation Failure)  13424K->11214K(16128K), 0.0494979 secs]
[GC (Allocation Failure)  15822K->13954K(18688K), 0.0664496 secs]
[Full GC (Allocation Failure)  13954K->11839K(18688K), 0.2304968 secs]
[GC (Allocation Failure)  20031K->16776K(28824K), 0.0817065 secs]
[GC (Allocation Failure)  24968K->21643K(29848K), 0.1128707 secs]
[Full GC (Allocation Failure)  21643K->21643K(29848K), 0.3198130 secs]
[GC (Allocation Failure)  34840K->29741K(50344K), 0.2037173 secs]
[GC (Allocation Failure)  43821K->38098K(52264K), 0.2103557 secs]
[Full GC (Allocation Failure)  38098K->23955K(52264K), 0.4711993 secs]
[GC (Allocation Failure)  40211K->33697K(58104K), 0.1532793 secs]
[GC (Allocation Failure)  49953K->37336K(58104K), 0.1197363 secs]
[GC (Allocation Failure)  53592K->39362K(58104K), 0.0555118 secs]

Wait until you see the following message on libresonic_sh.log before launching libresonic Web User Interface.

Libresonic running on: http://localhost:4041/libresonic
41571 [main] INFO org.springframework.remoting.rmi.RmiServiceExporter - Looking for RMI registry at port '9412'
41659 [main] INFO org.springframework.remoting.rmi.RmiServiceExporter - Could not detect RMI registry - creating new one
41813 [main] INFO org.springframework.remoting.rmi.RmiServiceExporter - Binding service 'LibresonicDeployerService' to RMI registry: RegistryImpl[UnicastServerRef [liveRef: [endpoint:[127.0.1.1:9412](local),objID:[0:0:0, 0]]]]

Opening libresonic Web User Interface

Now that the libresonic service is up and running, it's time to launch your web browser and navigate to http://<YOUR-RASPBERRY-PI-IP-ADDRESS>:4041/libresonic. Everything should resemble the Subsonic UI except the logo :-)

Misc.

By default, you can find the libresonic program files on /var/libresonic. Following are the directory output after libresonic is successfully running.

root@raspberrypi:/var/libresonic# ls -alh
total 56K
drwxr-x---  8 root tomcat8 4.0K Oct 30 06:58 .
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root    4.0K Oct 29 18:17 ..
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    4.0K Oct 30 06:58 db
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    4.0K Oct 29 19:38 jetty
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    4.0K Oct 30 05:37 lastfmcache
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     828 Oct 30 06:59 libresonic.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     928 Oct 30 06:58 libresonic.properties
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     13K Oct 30 06:59 libresonic_sh.log
drwxr-xr-x  7 root root    4.0K Oct 29 19:39 lucene2
drwxr-xr-x  9 root root    4.0K Oct 30 05:37 thumbs
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    4.0K Oct 29 19:26 transcode

References

https://github.com/Libresonic/libresonic/blob/develop/INSTALL.md

https://www.itsfullofstars.de/2016/05/

Advantage of Gateway 3DS Flash Cart over Free arm9loaderhax/Luma3DS/ReiNAND/Cake/Rei

2016-06-12T16:01:00.001+08:00

Since the announcement and tutorials (honorable mention of Plailect's guide here) of arm9loaderhax (a9lh) and Luma3DS (also known as ReiNAND previously), players are now able to run their 3DS roms and homebrew directly from the microSD card for Free. So how will these affects 3DS flash cart manufacturers such as Gateway which sell their flash cart for profit? Is there still any reasons to buy a dedicated flash cart to play the 3DS roms if you can play it for free?

Note: For those that followed my tutorial on installing BrowserHax and Downgrading to v9.2 here, you can simply start from Part 3 from Plailect's guide to setup RedNAND and downgrade to v2.1 for arm9loaderhax for your 3DS console. Although it is a long winded instructions, your effort will be rewarded in the long run. Just be sure to follow each and every instructions carefully during the process.

From there onwards you can always update your arm9loaderhax patched sysNAND to the latest version without ever worrying about bricking your 3DS console! That is only valid if you use CFW such as Luma3DS which will have write protection against FIRM0 and FIRM1 file on your sysNAND. Gateway mode does not ensure this! So never attempt to update your software when you're booting into Gateway mode via a9lh.

[Guide] A Detailed and Beginner Friendly Walkthrough Guide for Installing BrowserHax, MenuHax, and Downgrade New 3DS LL/XL from Firmware 9.9J to 9.2J

2016-05-28T20:58:00.001+08:00

Prelude

Why I Upgrade from Original 3DS to New 3DS LL

tldr; Skip to the next section <Guide Start> to jump straight into my ordeal of downgrading my 3DS LL v9.9J firmware into v9.2 and booting into Gateway Mode

Having played on the Original 3DS (yes the small clamshell one that Nintendo first released back in 2011) for quite some time now, I finally decided to purchase a New 3DS LL (also known as New Nintendo 3DS XL outside Japan). As opposed to what others had complained about the LL/XL for its huge size, bulkiness and unportability, I actually found it to be pleasing to my play style. Main reason that I purchased it is its large 4.88 inch screen size. If the number seems meaningless to you, think of it being almost the same size as the PS Vita. Sure you wouldn't see much crisp image like the O3DS or the New 3DS regular edition due to its larger PPI, but frankly, for me that is negligible and it's the 3D immersion that really benefits from such a big screen. Not that 3DS console is known for its HD like image for gaming on-the-go.

Mind you that I had an average sized hands as well and holding it definitely helps to prolong my play time until I start to feel hand cramp.

Another reason for choosing the New 3DSLL over the regular size one is I think the 20% screen estate increase from my O3DS wouldn't be that much noticeable after all.

So there you have it.

Read more »

Finally, A Page that Tell the Tales About D.Sync (Well... Partially...)

2015-09-18T01:01:00.001+08:00

I've always wanted to have an About Me page that describe myself and share my experience with the netizens, and I've finally done it!

At long last, I've publish my About Me page which you can now find at the top menu bar. It is now in text written format and hopefully I'll have the opportunities to upload some real life pictures of my life + stuffs that I had owned with you guys!

The newly added 'WHO IS D.SYNC?' about me page that describe myself :-D

Frankly speaking, I'm now very overwhelmed with my real life and had to often juggling between my job, hobby and family. Still I'm very content with all that I had learned and will be continuing updating my blog!

Enjoy!

My First RC and First Crawler - The Axial SCX10 (First Unbox) [Part 1]

2015-08-27T21:37:00.001+08:00

My first RC crawler, first Axial product :-)

Decided to plunge my $$$ on this one to get myself know more about RC (Radio Control) vehicle. I never thought that I'll be spending even more $$ after this purchase for more upgrades in the weeks to come. Aluminium upgrades, lighting kits, more transmitter/receiver channels, and even FPV, there are just so many parts and $$$ that one could spend to modding this rig!

Stay tuned for more pictures about which upgrades that I had done to this awesome RC truck!
Read more »

Understanding a Pinball Cabinet System (Part 1)

2015-08-13T00:16:00.000+08:00

* This is a Part 1 writeup that gives a quick general overview about pinball cabinet systems, pinball emulator/simulator and pinball front end when I'm setting up my Pinball arcade system on my Desktop setup *

** Stay tuned for Part 2 if you would like to know how I setup each Pinball emulator/simulator such as PinMAME, Visual Pinball, Future Pinball, Pinball FX2 and Pinball Front-end using PinballX **

Pictures will be added in the future...

After 3 months of work I'm proud to say that my HyperSpin setup is now complete! Featuring 130 systems and perhaps more since HyperList is updated very frequently now. I've completed almost all the major systems since the 90's :-)

With this setup I decided to try setting up a Pinball systems. And alas, this has opened up a brand new can of worms! Never have I thought setting up a Pinball front end would be this daunting. So this post is basically summarising what I've learnt and done to setup my Pinball arcade experience using a common Desktop setup. I've got a 30" Dell U3011 but unfortunately it doesn't support rotation, so no chance to flip it over and lay on a flat table.

Read more »

My Complete Illustrated Experience to Mod X-Arcade TankStick (Part 2)

2015-08-09T00:25:00.000+08:00

This is the SECOND of the THREE part posts that I wrote to share my experience to mod my X-Arcade TankStick.

The X-Arcade TankStick came with a very sturdy cabinet and offers a lot of room for modding. Search on Google and you'll find numerous mods that people had done with it over the years.

I decided to write this post to share my experience in modding the TankStick with little DIY background :-) I made sure to took pictures of every steps that I did not only to share the progress with you, but also as a flashback moment for me during the mod. The whole mod took around 3 days as I tried different joysticks every time I mounted a new one before finally deciding on one.

Modding the TankStick actually requires no woodwork AT ALL if you're only seeking to replace the push buttons and installing a spinner. Woodwork is only needed in case you want to mount a universal mounting plate such as the Kowal, which you'll then install it on the Japanese or Korean joysticks. This is mainly because the default mounting space is not tall enough to fit it vertically. The width fits perfectly though.

Please see the following post to find out which arcade parts I purchased for this mod project.

Part 1 - Purchasing the Arcade Parts to mod my X-Arcade TankStick

Note: This post contains a lot of high resolution images. Please view it only if you have sufficient Internet bandwidth.

In essence, I mod the TankStick in the following ways:

Replaced the stock X-Arcade push buttons with Euro iL Short Stem Convex Push Buttons (multi-colored)
Installed Ultimarc SpinTrak, a high resolution rotary device that provides analog X-Axis (left/right) inputs. It would shows up as a Mouse device on Windows.
Did some woodwork to expand the default joystick mounting place in order to install the Kowal Universal Mounting Plate.
Mounted Kowal Universal Mounting Plate on various joysticks, i.e. Sanwa JLW and Seimitsu LS-32.
I also tried to mount the Eurostick iL Joystick without the Kowal plate since it is an exact fit. It's basically a drop-in replacement.
Connecting the other end of the JLF-5H 5-Pin wiring harness to the Quick Disconnect. I did it because I don't want to cut the quick disconnect as I might want to use the non-PCB joystick on some fine day :)

Purchasing Arcade Parts to Mod My X-Arcade TankStick (Part 1)

2015-08-09T00:20:00.004+08:00

This is the FIRST of the THREE part posts that I wrote to share my experience to mod my X-Arcade TankStick.

See Part Two - My Complete Illustrated Experience to Mod X-Arcade TankStick to see a complete pictures showing you my progress of mounting/installing these parts inside the TankStick.

The first step is of course purchasing the arcade parts. Following are the arcade parts which I purchased from various sites:

FocusAttack

Euro iL Short Stem Convex 28mm Push Buttons
Cherry DX44 Microswitches with 0.187" terminal size
Kowal Universal Joystick Mounting Plate (to fit with American/European and Japanese joystick)

AkiShop

Seimitsu LS-32
Seimitsu LS-32-02 (same as LS-32 but with PCB mounted)
Sanwa JLF
Shaft cover and dust washer for Sanwa and Seimitsu Joysticks
JLF-5H 5-Pin wire harness (to connect with the PCB on the Joystick)
Restrictor Gates

ArcadeWorldUK
I decided to split my order into two separate shipments with declared value of ~USD150 each in order to avoid having to pay for custom duty. I'm just glad I made the decision!

First Box

Eurostick iL Arcade Joystick (White)
SpinTrak Steering wheel
Sanwa GT-0 Round Restrictor Gate
Sanwa JLW-TM-8 Joystick with Fine Mesh Ball Top (Green)

Second Box

Euro iL Convex Arcade Start Button (Player 1 & 2)
SpinTrak Arcade Spinner with red/silver handle and Large flyweight

More about the parts

Ultimarc SpinTrak

Ultimarc SpinTrak with Large Flyweight, Red Knob, and PCB

Steering wheel

Euro iL Joystick (White)

Sanwa JLW Joystick and GT-O Circle Restrictor Gate

See Part Two - My Complete Illustrated Experience to Mod X-Arcade TankStick to view my progress on modding the TankStick using these arcade parts.

Turning Mouse/Spinner Into Steering Analog Input for MAME, Arcade and Other Games

2015-08-06T01:31:00.000+08:00

It is possible to turn your mouse or spinner such as the Ultimarc SpinTrak into a virtual analog device detected by various emulator (arcade) as well as PC games.

Only two softwares are needed:

vJoy - Create virtual joystick on your PC. You'll need a feeder application to provide input to the virtual joystick.
FreePIE - Emulate a virtual joystick and send the key buttons to vJoy.

Setting Up Playstation 3 Controller and Qanba Q4 RAF Arcade Stick on RetroPie

2015-07-31T17:24:00.000+08:00

Although RetroPie support some of the hotkeys for joypads right out of the box, I decided to modify it to include the commonly used hotkeys. Also I found that the default joypad configuration for the Qanba maps the button incorrect.
Read more »

Mapping X-Arcade TankStick to Multiple Emulators (AHK Script)

2015-07-30T20:38:00.001+08:00

Since the TankStick is recognized as Keyboard input device here is a script that allows you to use it with a wide variety of emulators.

You may also find similar topic in HyperSpin official thread here. *Require premium member privilege to view*

Read more »

An Overview of Arcade Parts and My Arcade Purchase/Modding Experience

2015-07-30T16:36:00.001+08:00

This is a quick write-ups on my journey of getting know more about arcade parts. As time goes I will be attempting to perform better mods for my arcade parts.

Qanba Q4 RAF Thorough Review From An Arcade Stick Newbie!

2015-07-30T16:31:00.002+08:00

The Qanba Q4 RAF Ice Red Limited Edition (with frosted finish)

This is a thorough review of the Qanba Q4 RAF arcade sticks (and a partial comparison writeups with the X-Arcade TankStick) from someone with little to no arcade playing experience. I pretty much live my childhood and teenage life with a Sony Playstation controller, either on console or PC. Yes I played ALL PC games using my trusty PS controller using the MotionInJoy software, or DS3Tool! It's very natural for me to pick up a controller and start playing virtually any games possible. Using the arcade sticks ought to be a very unique gaming experience to me, to say the very least!
Read more »

[Tutorial] A Comprehensive Pictorial Guide to Install Custom Bubbles on PS Vita 3.36 on TN-C and TN-V11!

2015-06-24T01:52:00.000+08:00

Foreword

This is a tutorial written as a result of my personal readings and experience on installing custom Bubbles on PS Vita running OFW3.36 and using NUMBLAST US exploit and running TN-C and TN-V11. I've decided to write this since I found no one single tutorial that covers this. Frankly you will need to read tons of materials just to have an idea what is going on. I did try my best to explain the reason behind each steps to my best of knowledge. Frankly I've left Vita scene for quite some time now and recently gaining interest during my spare time.

In short, this guide basically summarize my attempts to achieve this feat after spending literally dozens of hours / days reading on forum posts and YouTube videos. And jolly-o-joy, I'm glad that I was able to achieve it. Granted it took me a lot of trial and error, and at some point even at the verge of tearing my hair apart. :-P

Before reading on, note that this is a PICTORIAL tutorial that I hope will aid to illustrate my points as clearly as possible. Combined that with my writeups and you should have no problem completing your goal! Just make sure to read and follow everything EXACTLY as mentioned. Keep in mind that I generally wrote this tutorial gearing towards even the novice computer users with minimal technical background but still wanted to attempt. Hence, don't find it strange if you find me explaining even some of the very straightforward steps for intermediate/advance computer users.

Read more »

[Tutorial] The Missing Guide to Install TN-V11 on PS Vita using Numblast/Quatron Exploit and Upgrade from TN-C

2015-06-22T17:55:00.001+08:00

I have to say that there aren't many guides out there that provides a clear example on how to install the latest and greatest TN-V11 CFW on PS Vita. Reason I'm switching from TN-C to TN-V is for the PSX sound emulation support, which is lacking in TN-C.

[Supplementary pictures will be added in the future]

Read more »

Sourcing and Downloading the Best Possible ROM Dumps (My Sharing + Workflow)

2015-05-11T02:37:00.002+08:00

tldr: I'm in desperate needs to download those classic ROMs for first to fifth generation game system! Otherwise my front-end will just be an empty shell. This post shows how I manage to meet my needs.

While setting up my front-end entertainment system using HyperSpin, I'd figure that I will eventually have to start collect those ROMs for older generation system such as Atari 5200, GB, GBC. Right now I'm having a handful of near full set ROMs for modern systems such as Playstation 1, Playstation 2, Nintendo Wii, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but only a few for older systems such as Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Sega Genesis, and the list goes on and on. The best thing about these classic ROMs is, it doesn't cost Gigabytes of storage unlike the modern disc based game.

I'm sure you are aware by now, searching for ROMs on Google will almost result with tons of sites that provides them. Some require registrations, some have limited download count or size per day, some requires membership to download, yada-yada-yada. What I want is the follows:

Objective 1: Good and best possible ROMs dump

What I meant by best ROM dump is any ROM that is dumped exactly like the original cartridge without additional header content. This is very important as the HyperList, which is a database file that used by HyperSpin will cross matching the ROMs file based on CRC. Any addition such as header to the ROM file will alter this CRC value.

Typically the best ROM dump consist of the same ROM release in three regions, such as USA, Europe and Japan. For example, Pokemon Blue (USA), Pokemon Blue (EU), and Pokemon Blue (JP).

To date, I've found site like DopeROM to have the best rom dump ever compared to other sites like CoolRoms, FreeRoms, UltraNation, Emuparadise, etc.

Don't let the simple plain website fools and sways you away. The best gem is the content itself!

A list of best ROM dump possible for various system! Simply awesome!

You can read No-Intro homepage, which is a group of people that aim to do exactly this - Sourcing the best possible ROM dump on the planet Earth.

Objective 2: Collection set downloads

Frankly, nothing beats torrents when it comes to downloading a set of huge collection. Sure you could easily find roms collections that are highly seeded on various torrent site. However, bear in min that there is no guarantee that the torrents that I came across will have a set of best ROM dump, or any best ROM dump in the slightest.

With torrents option out of the list, the next thing to look for is for user contributed content that share content to various file hosting sites. This means finding in forums, undernet, IRC, etc. My popular hosting sites goes to Mega.co, hands down!

Fortunately, someone nicked CyberPuppet from Emuparadise had done exactly this.

Cyber Puppet, you're my newest favorite person on earth now :)

He had actually uploaded and shared his mass collection of No-Intro ROM Full Collection Sets for almost all the classic systems, including Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx, Bandai WonderSwan, Commodore 64, Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo Game Boy Color, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Virtual Boy, Sega Systems, and the list just goes on and on!

Bear in mind that what he meant by collection set is literally COLLECTION SETS! So you'll find EVERY ROMs that are released in EVERY SINGLE REGION without limiting only to USA or Europe! Sorry for the capitalization but I suddenly feel the urge to emphasize that ;-P

Cyber Puppet No-Intro Complete ROM Sets Collection

The good news doesn't just ends here. What's even better is he also share those files on Mega.co and Speedy.sh! I really can't thank him enough for this! :-D

You can get his shared collections <<<< HERE >>>> on Emuparadise forum. Again, you'll have to register as member in order to see those links.

Sourcing ROM Set for Particular Game System

Some ROM sets such as MAME can be hard to source, which is why I created this section to share my findings.

MAME

PleasureDome.UK

Some ROM set such as MAME ROMs set or most ROM set in general, can be found on PleasureDome.UK, which is a private tracker that host some of the best collections. It, however, requires member activation and registration which can be cumbersome. Being a member in 'probation' status, I am only allowed to download their MAME 0.161 ROMs, which is what I want currently. I selected the T7Z-Merged torrent as it offers the smallest file size. In truth, the content should be the same as the other one, just that the same ROM with multiple regions are 7zipped together in an archive for maximum compression.

You're only limited to several torrents while your membership is in Probation status.

You can now browse through their full torrents once I had been verified and become one of their member.

Archive.ORG

This is yet another site where you can download MAME and MESS ROMs collections.

Archive.ORG list of MAME and MESS ROMs collection. Note that the collection might be slightly outdated. For example, MAME ROMs set is on 0.161 as of the time of this writing.

RuTracker.ORG

This is yet another private tracker that you can download tons of ROMs collection. In particular, there is a torrent collection of MAME ROMs too!

A member sharing his torrent upload for MAME ROMs collection.

Commodore 64

Unfortunately if you're downloading the Commodore 64 No-Intro ROMset uploaded by Cyber Puppet, those won't match with the Commodore 64 HyperList even though it is using the same romset. Also, notice that the games in the HyperList is 8236 while the No-Intro ROMset only contains 1684 ROMs.

Here is a scan using Emuparadise Commodore 64 Full ROM Set (GoodGB64 v3.00 Complete 17067 ROM Set Commodore 64). It's definitely close but still missing 2464 ROMs.

Scanning Commodore 64 Official HyperList XML against Commodore 64 Full ROM Set downloaded from Emuparadise.

To get a ROM set that will match the official HyperList for Commodore 64 as much as possible, download the ROMs from GameBase64 which is where the list is compiled (discussion link).

There aren't any all-in-one zips, instead ROMs are zipped separately by titles. The good news is there is no download speed limit nor connection limit. So it's time to use the Site Grabber feature in IDM to grab all the files in one click.

GameBase64 website to get the full Commodore 64 ROMs that is compatible with HyperList.

A screencap of using IDM Site Grabber to download all the archives.

Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS)

http://4players.org/games/pc/pc-games/dos-games-huge-collection/

Other Recommended Sites to Get Best ROM dump

EdgeEmulation

My WorkFlow

Having these sites at my arsenal, my first step is to simply download those No-Intro collection ROMs shared by CyberPuppet. Once downloaded, I then extracted them in a temporary ROM folder. I then use Don's HyperSpin ROM Renamer tool to easily rename those ROMs based on the HyperList XML file which has all the CRC for the game title for a particular system. Those renamed ROMs are located in my G:\roms\<game system name> folder which RocketLauncher and HyperSpin refers to.

In case some ROMs are not matching the CRC, which I found in several system (just being 1 or 2 of them out of hundreds), I then download the ROM from DopeROMs which will have them. From my personal experience, all the ROM that I downloaded from DopeROMs are having the correct CRC! Glad they offer the service for free. I could easily subscribe for premium member for that!

So there's that, my workflow on sourcing and downloading the best possible ROM dump for classic game system. Downloading ROM for modern system is relatively easy but can get complicated when it involve disc image. In fact, the HyperList still doesn't have CRC for modern game system such as Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, and Sony Playstation 1 and 2. It is possible that someone is working on that, so I'm keeping my hopes up. Until then, reliving these classic titles is my main priority, and I simply enjoy playing them compared to modern games.

Yea I know, I'm just THAT strange. O.O"

Now then, what is your workflow or sites to source the best ROM dump?

A Full Guide on Integrating RetroArch with HyperSpin and RocketLauncher

2015-05-11T01:57:00.001+08:00

This is a full tutorial showing how to integrate RetroArch with HyperSpin and RocketLauncher.

Foreword

RetroArch has become the choice of emulators for many players now and is increasingly popular since its launch few years ago. Its main reason is its ability to support multiple mainstream emulators and provide a unified configuration across all its offered emulators (or cores). For the uninitiated, RetroArch serves as the front-end for Libretro, which provides the cores for the emulators including BSNES, Ganbatte, and even MAME and MESS.

Setting up RetroArch

First, download RetroArch builds here. I'll leave it to you whether to download the Stable build (v1.0) or the nightly builds (v1.1.x). The later support audio and video filters as well as more path configurations and possibly more ROMs compatibility especially for the MESS or MAME cores. For this tutorial I'm going to download the nightly build. If you're using the stable build instead, some of the configurations in the screenshots might differ, especially the configuration screen.

Nightly builds for RetroArch which features the most recent core configurations for the RetroArch emulator. Make sure you download both the RetroArch and cores, which is basically the various emulators that RetroArch supports.

Extract RetroArch.7z to your Emulators folder in the HyperSpin, such as G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch.

Extracted files from RetroArch.7z archive.

Next, extract the cores.7z into RetroArch\cores.

Before we start to integrate RetroArch into RocketLauncher, let's start by configuring some of its initial settings.

Configuring RetroArch

You'll see the following welcome screen when launching RetroArch for the first time. It will then automatically create a configuration file named retroarch.cfg under its RetroArch root folder. This is the file that RetroArch will refer to whenever you launch RetroArch.

RetroArch welcoming screen when launching for the first time.

retroarch.cfg, which is the configuration file that RetroArch will refer to whenever it is launch.Notice that it is only a single line for now, and it will then be populated as we configure some settings within RetroArch.

Navigating in RetroArch is relatively simple as shown in the welcoming screen. Pressing X to Enter/Confirm, Z to back.

The first thing we'll want to do is to configure some of the essential paths such as cores, roms, filters, shaders, etc. To do that, go to Settings > Path Options and setup the following:

Settings.

Path Options

The default path options. We are going to configure some of the paths to point to the exact paths.

The following settings are based on my RetroArch folder located in G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch. Change the path accordingly. Note that some of the options might not be available if you're using RetroArch stable build.

Browser Directory: The path to your ROMs such as G:\roms. This path will be automatically loaded when you are trying to load a game.

Content Directory: Same as Browser Directory. The path to your ROMs.

Assets Directory: The path that stores assets.
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\assets

Config Directory: The path that stores RetroArch configuration files. Instead of storing it in RetroArch root folder we are going to store it here instead for better file structure management.
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\config

Core Directory: The folder that stores RetroArch cores (.dlls), which is where we extract our cores.7z just now.
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\cores

Core Info Directory: The folder that stores the core information (.info). These are also extracted from the cores.7z and is the same folder as the core directory.
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\cores

Content History Path: The path to the file that stores for a list of games that we had launched in the past in RetroArch. Leave it as default, which it stores in RetroArch root folder.
Example: retroarch-content-history.txt (default)

VideoFilter Directory: The folder that stores the video filters.
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\filters\video

AudioFilter Directory: The folder that stores the audio filters.
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\filters\audio

Shader Directory: The folder that stores the shaders.
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\shaders

Overlay Directory: The folder that stores the overlay image such as gamepad, borders, keyboards, etc.
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\overlays

Screenshot Directory: The folder that stores the screenshots captured in-game.
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\screenshots

Savefile Directory: The folder that stores the savefile for the system. The savefile is the actual save file that is generated by the emulator and is usable even if you're using other emulators. For example, Playstation 1 memory card .mcr. Note that a separate folder that are named according to the system will be generated.
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\save

Savestate Directory: The folder that stores the save state that you taken in game, or simply the memory content state at the point when you took it. Unlike savefile, save state are emulator dependant and you cannot simply load a save state taken in an emulator and attempt to load it using another. I simply point them to the same folder as my Savefile Directory
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\save

System Directory: The folder that stores the system file such as BIOS for each system. For example, SCPH-1001 for Playstation 1, MESS BIOS, etc.
Example: G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\system

The completed Path Options screen after you had properly set the path.

After you had done that, go back to the Main Menu by pressing the 'Z' button and save the configuration file. The changes that you made will be saved in RetroArch-timestamp.cfg under the config folder that we just specify.

Save the changes that we did in a new configuration file.

The configuration file will be located in the config folder that we specified earlier, which is G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\config and is named RetroArch-timestamp. Since RetroArch will refer to retroarch.cfg in its root folder by default, we will now copy and replace the retroarch.cfg with this file, just in case RetroArch config file is not updated.

The updated retroarch.cfg file.

And that's it! We had done the initial configuration for RetroArch. Now moving on to integrate RetroArch with RocketLauncher so that it will run RetroArch for the system that you want.

Integrating RetroArch in RocketLauncher

As usual, open RocketLauncherUI and add a new Emulator named RetroArch under the Global Settings.

Adding RetroArch emulator to RocketLauncher for the first time. Notice that I only have several Roms extensions that these are the systems that I emulate using RetroArch.

Now here is where most people are mislook, even myself! For each module, there is a separate options that you can configure either for global module settings or per game settings.

To configure the module settings, click on the Modules tab, then select RetroArch.ahk from the Installed Modules window. Next,click the Edit Global Module Settings button.

Press the X button when ask whether to select a system in the System Selection screen.

Close this dialog since we're going to configure global settings.

Next, click the magnifier icon next to ConfigFolder option to select the RetroArch\config folder.

Configure the ConfigFolder used by RetroArch module. Ignore the MESS_BIOS_Roms_Folder for now as it is only needed if you want RetroArch to emulate MESS.

Now then, go and select a system in the left hand panel and use RetroArch as the default emulator. For example, I had selected RetroArch as my default emulator for Nintendo Game Boy system.

Set RetroArch as the default emulator for your system of choice. For example, Nintendo Game Boy system.

And there you go. RocketLaunch is now configured to launch RetroArch for your system of choice. Try to audit some games and click the Rocket icon to launch the game!

Setting Another Core as Default for A Game System

By default, RetroArch uses a default core for a particular game system. For example, VBA Next core for Nintendo Game Boy Advance. In my personal preference, I would prefer Ganbatte, which supposedly give more accurate emulation.

To change the default core for Nintendo Game Boy Advance in RetroArch, select GLOBAL system in the left panel, go to Modules tab and select RetroArch.ahk. Next, click the Edit Global Module Settings button.

Edit Global Module Settings for RetroArch.ahk module.

Select the system that you want to change the default core. In this example, I'm changing the default core for Nintendo Game Boy Advance, which uses VBNext core by default.

Click the magnifier icon next to LibRetro_Core option and select the core that you want to replace.

I'm selecting gambatte_libretro.dll as the default core to emulate my Nintendo Game Boy Advance system.

Now, to test it, audit the game and click on the Rocket icon to run it. Press F1 and you should see the core replaced by the core you selected.

Setting Up Cores in RetroArch

MESS (Multi Emulator Super System)

Setting up MESS in RetroArch could be rather difficult if you don't know what to configure. Luckily for you, I had gone through that experience and hence the purpose of this tutorial.

First, you'll have to download MESS BIOS files and put it in your RetroArch\system folder. MESS requires BIOS since it is an emulator that emulates other emulators. Sound confusing? I hope not.

Note that the RetroArch\system folder is not only to put the MESS BIOS. In general, this is the path where you are supposed to put the BIOS for other systems, such as PSX, GBA, etc.

You can download MESS Complete BIOS Pack (as well as BIOS files for other system) files from Emuparadise.

A list of BIOS files used by MESS. Notice each BIOS is archived. Extract this to your RetroArch\system folder such as G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\system

The extracted MESS.zip files in RetroArch\system folder.

Note: There is no need to extract these BIOS zip files as RetroArch MESS core will handle by themselves.

Next, you'll also need to create a retroarch-core-options.cfg file within RetroArch root folder in case it is not there. We're going to add the following lines corresponding to MESS core options manually here in order for us to load the cartridges instead of softlist, such as Atari 5200 .a52 files. The reason we need to do this is you can only access Core Options once you had successfully loaded a game. And with the default settings, loading Atari 5200 ROM file such as XXX.a52 is not possible with softlist settings enabled and media type that is not set as cartridge.

It can get fairly complicated to explain. More on why here and here.

mess_softlists_enable = "disabled"
mess_softlists_auto_media = "disabled"
mess_softlists_auto_media = "disabled"
mess_media_type = "cart"
mess_boot_to_bios = "disabled"
mess_boot_to_osd = "disabled"
mess_boot_from_cli = "enabled"

Settings for MESS in retroarch-core-options.cfg

Do not confuse this with the retroarch.cfg that we configured earlier on. As the name suggest, this is configured per-core basis and can varied from core to core, whereas retroarch.cfg is global settings and does not in any way related to the core.

Next, open up RocketLauncherUI, go to GLOBAL settings, select Modules, and then select RetroArch.ahk. Click the Edit Global Module Settings, then click on the magnifier icon right next to MESS_BIOS_Roms_Folder and select the path to your MESS BIOS, such as G:\HyperSpin\Emulators\RetroArch\system\MESS

Configuring MESS BIOS ROMs folder that MESS core will use in RetroArch.

Now try to audit some system ROMs using MESS such as Atari 5200. If you're seeing a blank screen, that simply means that the MESS core in RetroArch cannot emulate it.

More Information

Libretro - MAME/MESS/UME Cores
MESS User's Manual

Atari 5200

From my personal experience, the MESS-libretro core in RetroArch still requires some work as it can only emulates a partial of Atari ROMs that I got. What I meant by partial is that you'll see a blank screen for ROMs that it cannot emulate, such as Frogger. You might want to consider to setup Kat5200 or Atari800/Atari800 Win Plus to emulate the Atari 5200 ROMs.

Extra Readings

General Information on Emulation

Final Note

More core setup will be added as I started to use RetroArch!

Extended Guide on Setting Up HyperSpin and RocketLauncher

2015-05-10T21:50:00.003+08:00

Before you read on, this is an extended tutorial on setting up HyperSpin with RocketLauncher, which now replaces HyperLaunch.

Why Another Guide?

While trying to setup HyperSpin following Ryan's Full Guide on Setup HyperSpin MAME and Hyperlaunch, I found that some extra steps are necessary to integrate HyperSpin with RocketLauncher. Don't get me wrong, I highly recommend you follow Ryan's comprehensive guide to its entirely, which is what I did when I'm starting to set it up. But you could refer here if you're trying to integrate it with RocketLauncher instead of HyperLaunch.

Some Notes About RocketLauncher

HyperLaunch is renamed/rebranded as RocketLauncher to remove its ties with HyperSpin, since it is meant to be a multi purpose launcher for other Front-ends as well.
You can still use HyperLaunch, however I recommend to transition to RocketLauncher for any latest updates.
All configuration steps and settings UI remains the same in RocketLauncher just as in HyperLaunch, so the walkthrough written by Ryan's are still usable.
RocketLauncher provides a set of script or modules for basically every popular emulators to date. Think of the modules as a pre-defined CLI (Command Line Interface) that is pre-programmed to handle launching the emulator, e.g. feeding in some complicated parameters.

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes that you already read through Ryan's guide and downloaded/extracted the following:

HyperSpin v1.3.3 Full Install (459MB)

HyperSpin v1.3.3 Full Install came bundled with HyperLaunch v2.x, which is a very old and outdated copy of HyperLaunch. We are going to replace it with RocketLauncher.

HyperLaunch 2.25c, which is pretty much outdated and replaced by HyperLaunch v3, and now RocketLauncher

First, download the RocketLauncher v1.0 (Full Install) (65MB) here.

Download RocketLauncher v1.0 (Full Install). Just like HyperSpin, you'll need to register as member to download it.

Extract it into a folder named 'RocketLauncher' under your HyperSpin folder, such as G:\HyperSpin\RocketLauncher.

The archive password is www.rlauncher.com as mentioned in the download page.

Extract the downloaded RocketLauncher.zip into the RocketLauncher folder

Changing HyperLaunch Path to RocketLauncher

By default, if you're following Ryan's guide, HyperSpin assumes that the HyperLaunch is located at C:\HyperSpin\HyperLaunch. Since we are using RocketLauncher we will first have to change the path pointing to our RocketLauncher path.

HyperSpin 1.3.3 still refers to HyperLaunch instead of RocketLauncher. You can tell when opening the HyperHQ. Don't worry though, it is simply a pointer to the HyperLaunch.exe which we can easily change.

HyperSpin v1.3.3 still refers to HyperLaunch instead of RocketLauncher. Don't worry as we can simply redirect it to RocketLauncher in the steps below.

To do that, go to G:\HyperSpin\Settings and open up Settings.ini.

Change the HyperLaunch Path into the RocketLauncher path. Note that this is option is not visible in HyperHQ, so we'll have to do it manually.

Look at line #10 which you'll replace it with the path to RocketLauncher, such as G:\Hyperspin\RocketLauncher\

Next, we're going to COPY RocketLauncher.exe and named it as HyperLaunch.exe since it is the built-in command line that is executed by HyperSpin (see the Command Line Preview when selecting HyperLaunch as execution). We have to have these two different names because RocketLauncher.EXE is launched by RocketLauncherUI and HyperLaunch.EXE is launched by HyperSpin.

Create another executable and name it as HyperLaunch.exe. RocketLauncher.EXE is launched by RocketLauncherUI and HyperLaunch.EXE is launched by HyperSpin.

Another way to use RocketLauncher is to simply extract the RocketLauncher directly underneath the HyperSpin folder itself. However it would really mess up your directory structure since RocketLauncher also share similar directory with HyperSpin such as Modules and Settings.

Cleanup

Now that we have setup HyperSpin to launch RocketLauncher, which will then fire up the configured emulators depending on the selected systems, you can then remove HyperLaunch.exe from HyperSpin since we are no longer using it.

Delete HyperLaunch.exe from HyperSpin since we are no longer using it.

Some Screenshots of RocketLauncher

Following are some screenshots taken from RocketLauncher to show its similarity with HyperLaunch.

Adding HyperSpin front-end to RocketLauncher.

Adding new emulator menu page

Adding new emulator dialog.

Auditing game.

FAQ

Q: Selecting a MAME game for the second time doesn't start the game.

A: This only happens if you selected HyperLaunch as the launcher in HyperHQ and the HyperLaunch process doesn't completely terminated when you quit the game by pressing Esc. Open up your Task Manager and go to the Process tab to see it is still running. Simply killing the process will solve the problem.
This complication is easily solved by using RocketLauncher instead of the pre-bundled HyperLaunch to launch the emulator

HyperLaunch.exe still running in the background even after you exited from the MAME game by pressing Esc.

Extras

Ryan's Full Guide on Setup HyperSpin MAME and HyperLaunch also covers how to use Don's HyperSpin List Generator to generate a database XML file to show only the ROMs you got. Make sure to read it if you are only having a small number of ROMs for a particular system.

Adding ROMs for Auditing

When auditing the games in RocketLauncher for any system, the ROM are matched against the database XML file based solely on the name itself, which follows the naming convention of <Game Title> (Region).<File extension>. For example, 3-D WorldRunner (USA).nes.

Unless your ROM are named exactly following these convention styles, you are probably wondering how much time are you going to spent trying to rename each and everyone of them according to the title in the database.xml. Fortunately a guy called Don's have created a suite of tools that can aid our needs.

First, download Don's HyperSpin Tools here.

Don's HyperSpin Tools homepage. Note that the same tools are also hosted in HyperSpin website.

The folder must be extracted within the HyperSpin folder.

Extract Don's HyperSpin Tools within HyperSpin root folder.

Open Dons HyperSpin ROM Renamer.exe

Open Don's HyperSpin ROM Renamer tool which will automatically rename our ROMs file to match the filename that HyperSpin recognize

As an example, let us try to audit some SNES ROMs that I had. We're going to fill in three fields:

1. HyperList XML or DAT file: The ROMs database for your selected system. These can be found under your HyperSpin\Databases folder. By default HyperSpin includes database only for a selected number of systems. To add a database for a system that is not available in HyperSpin database such as Nintendo Game Boy, visit HyperList here and download the XML files for the system that you wanted to add.

A list of database XML for almost all system to date until Wii.

Note: You'll see a friendly reminder about Malware attack on this site if you attempt to search for HyperList XML using Google. Don't worry about it much as you're just simply going to download the XML files and nothing more.

Selecting a system database XML file that our ROMs to be renamed will based upon.

2. Source ROM folder: The folder where you stored the ROMs. The types of ROMs must match the XML files you selected. For example, I'm using the Super Nintendo Entertainment System XML files, so my source ROM folder is going to be my SNES ROMs folder. In this example, I'm pointing it to my roms (temp) folder where I put my ROMs that are not renamed properly.

3. Output ROM folder: This is the folder where the renamed ROMs will locate. I recommend you to point it to another path which you use to store ROMs referred by HyperSpin and RocketLauncher.

After filling in these fields, click the Scan button and the tool will then scans for matched ROMs. In case if you're wondering, the ROMs in your folder are matched against the ROMs in the database using a CRC Hash Value that is specified in the CRC field inside the database XML file itself. In short, CRC is a mathematically generated unique value that is different according to the file size of each file. So even if you change the game title, the CRC will remains unless you changed the file content itself, such as adding ROMs header.

I highly recommend you to download ROMs released by No-Intro groups which not only have only good ROM sets, but the best out of each region such as US, EU and JP. In case you found some ROMs are not matching even if you have the same game title, it could be because the ROMs that you have are appended with extra headers. I'm going to write another post guiding you some of the best sites to get those handful of BEST ROMs.

A CRC field is available for each game title in the database XML file. This is how Dom's HyperSpin ROM Renamer Tool knows which ROM file matching with which game title. Similarly, the game title is renamed according to the <name> field specified in this file.

Clicking the Scan button will scan for ROM files matching the CRC specified in the chosen database XML file.

Clicking the Rename button will rename my ROMs in my Source ROM folder specified earlier to the Output ROM folder.

In addition to rename, you can also save a list of games with no CRCs, missing or found games in a TXT files for you to refer to. This is handy if you want to collect the full collections ROMs for a particular system. In this case, I'm missing 70 SNES ROMs from the SNES database.

Two screenshots showing my ROMs in my Source ROMs and the output ROMs after renaming.

My source SNES ROMs named with the dump release information, e.g. [!] for good dump

My output ROMs folder after renaming using Don's HyperSpin ROM Rename tool. Notice the title has been cleaned up with no dump release information.

Click the blue Play icon in RocketLauncherUI again to audit the ROMs. You'll now see the matching ROMs shown in Green now.

Auditing my renamed SNES ROMs. ROMs that are matched are highlighted in GREEN cells.

Adding Genre XML for Genre Navigation in HyperSpin.

HyperSpin support genre browsing by pressing the 'G' button. By default, only MAME wheel came with genre browsing due to reasons explained below.

HyperSpin knows which game belongs to which genre simply by reading the genre.xml, which then refers to a series of xml files that are named according to the genre type, such as Action.xml, Adventure.xml. You can see this in the HyperSpin\Databases\MAME folder which explains why genre browsing works in MAME wheel but not the SNES wheel that we just created. You can get this XML files either through HyperList or manually generated yourself. Though the genre XML files hosted in HyperList may be outdated.

Don't feel intimidated. By manual I simply means using Don's HyperSpin List Splitter which will automatically split the genres in the database XML instead of inputting them by hands.

First, open up Dons HyperSpin List Splitter program.

Open Dons HyperSpin List Splitter to split the main database XML file into multiple genre XML files

Select the HyperSpin XML File which is the XML file that has all the information about the game titles for a system. Let's follow our previous example and create genres for our SNES ROMs.

Next, select the output folder which the genre.xml and a list of other genre-type.xml files will be populated. Point this to the HyperSpin\Databases\<Your Target Game System Folder>

Fill in the HyperSpin XML file and output folder that will contains the genre XML files.

Select Split files based on Genre. In addition, you could also split by Manufacturer, Rating, and Year.

You could also split by Manufacturer, Rating, or Year.

Click the Generate XML Files button and you'll then see a list of XMLs files named according to the Genre type in your Output folder.

A list of XML files named according to the genre category. The main XML file that point to these genre XML is genre.xml, which HyperSpin will locate when you enter into Genre mode by pressing 'G' button.

A quick look at the genre.xml file. This is the main file that HyperSpin looks up for other genre-type XML files. As you would have guessed, the actual game information such as titles are stored within each genre-type XML files.

A quick look at the genre XMl file, which contains the names for the other genre XML files that it is referring to. When renaming the genre name here, make sure you also rename the genre-type XML filename that it is referring to.

The content of the Action.xml file. Notice that the contents are exactly the same as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.xml, which is the HyperList that we use as the input to Don's program. It is no surprise as the program is simply filtering each <game> element tag grouped according to the <genre> tag.

From a software engineer point of view, HyperSpin can actually filter the database XML file instead of having to create multiple XML files for it to refer. I think this is to reduce some memory or performance issues when filtering XML files since it would require a significant amount of memory space when traversing the XML element by element.

You can further cleanup duplicate genre names since they are not case sensitive by opening up the genre.xml files. As highlighted there are two genre, platform and Platform. You can even change the genre name here, but make sure you also rename the genre-type.xml files that it is referencing.

Useful Third Party Add-Ons

HyperSpeech - Speak the game titles, game wheels, etc.

HyperSearch - Allows you to search for games across all systems.

Useful Tools to Audit your ROMs

DatUtil - Convert DAT files to other formats.
Tur-Matcher - Intelligently rename your ROMs files even if you're using another ROM set to match HyperList official list
HyperSpin Checker - All in one tool to manage HyperSpin and other tools for auditing
HyperROM2XML - Generate database XML file based on your ROM folder and file names.

Sourcing and Downloading Artworks, Video Snaps Media

This part is mainly for aesthetic purpose. As I quote from somewhere I read, this will makes the shitty games looks flashy, but is still shitty.

As Ryan had pointed out, there are basically two routes that you can go. Yes, options just like in real life.

Option #1 - For the Riches

This option is only for those with big wallet and is willing to spend at least $50 for Platinum membership on HyperSpin to get the static artworks, themes for HyperSpin and another $30 for Emumovies Yearly subscription to get the animated content such as video snaps, which is the cheapest option. Personally I don't really have a lot of content right now, going on this route might be wasteful. Hence we have the second option!

This option, however, is also the easiest since all you need to do is pay your money and use single click to sync all the medias. I would opt for this if my media is constantly updating and I have huge media library before I could justify this purchase.

Upgrading your membership in HyperSpin today to supporting member to gain access to their FTP server.

Upgrading your membership in EmuMovies today to enjoy unlimited download of video snaps in 480p and access to FTP server!

Option #2 - Beggers Can't be Choosers

This option is basically for those that either don't have the penny (or credit card to pay using PayPal), or simply doesn't willing to pinch their wallet on content that should be made free and publicly available. For that, you'll have to work harder than the people who goes on Option #1.

All static contents such as artwork, titles, snap (screenshot), and background music are downloadable using their Emumovies Download Service Utility hosted from their FTP server. Animated content such as video snaps, however, are only available to download for supporting member.

Also, free users are limited to only 250MB download per day.

EmuMovies Download Service Utility. Yes, I'm logging in as a Free User.

For video snaps, you can head over to Emumovies Download page, select a game system, and manually download it. The good news is you don't have the downloading wait time like in HyperSpin. The bad news is you are restricted to download one file at a time. For IDM users, batch download is not applicable.

For most static content, there are several users that had contributed on forums such as GBATemp that attempts to upload and share the cover arts:

Cover Collections for Emulators With Cover Support (GBAtemp.net)

RetroXMB Art Collection (PSX Scene)

Leave in the comments below if you have found any sites that share these artwork parks and bundles.

Conclusion

Hope this tutorial helps you out to setup HyperSpin and RocketLauncher. I'll also be doing some tutorial on integrating RetroArch with HyperSpin since it might involve some additional steps or complications for beginners alike. Stay tuned!

A Successful Guide on Installing Adafruit 2.8" TFT Resistive Screen on Raspberry Pi Model B for RetroPie

2015-05-07T02:52:00.000+08:00

While trying to connect my Raspberry Pi Model B (Version 1) to Adafruit 2.8 TFT capacitive screen (not the PiTFT), I'm having complication of the screen constantly showing white screen despite following the latest guide by Adafruit here on 'Running OpenGL-based Games & Emulators on Adafruit PiTFT Displays'. Perhaps that guide will work straight out of the box for PiTFT, but certainly not the 2.8' TFT that I'm having.

I've actually spent a whole night trying to source out the problems and solution and I'm glad that I did. So I've decided to write this tutorial in case you're having the same problem as I had.

Note: I'm connecting the Adafruit 2.8 TFT display to my Raspberry Pi Model B (Version 1). The steps should be similar in the second revision.

This guide is made possible thanks to various contribution authors mentioned in the Reference section at the end of this article.

<Pictures will be added in the future>

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Unboxing HUGE Pokemon Merchandise Package Imported from AmiAmi Japan (Pics + Videos)

2015-02-02T21:41:00.001+08:00

Hello guys, this is the main post for a huge Pokemon merchandise that I just received from AmiAmi. I will be doing a video upload for each and every items on YouTube. That's not all! I will also keep on updating this post for more pictures as supplements to the videos.

Don't forget to subscribe and enjoy Pokemon as always!

YouTube Uploads

These are a list of videos that I uploaded with my purchase:
Unboxing Huge Pokemon Merchandise Package from AmiAmi (Japan)

Unboxing Pokemon Phantom Gate Japanese Booster Box (1st Edition)
- and more to come!

Package from amiami

Special token of purchase from amiami :-]

amiami

Thank you for shopping with us! :-]

Japanese Pokemon booster boxes, special collecton card deck and card storage box

Time to arrange the items :-]

My First BCBM Pokemon Cards Opening (Pics + Video)

2015-02-02T20:27:00.000+08:00

A video of me unwrapping three BCBM (Buy Cards By Mail) from an eBay auctions that I won last week.

They were shipped around January 22 from the United States via USPS First Class International Mail and delivered to my home after a week. Very surprise to get them on time! Each mail only cost around USD $10.

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