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Questions about the new ROMS of a game vs. the old ROMs
#291943 - 07/16/12 10:57 PM
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Hello,
I thought you could maybe help me with an issue:
I've noticed that newer versions of MAME require more files for a ROM to run than older versions. I know this has to do with newer and better dumps being available for that specific game. What I'd need to know now is the following:
What does this mean in reality for the game?
Let's take the first US version of the original "Street Fighter II" (sf2ua) as an example: Which noticeable differences are there between the ROM with the new files and the ROM with the old files?
Where can I get detailed information about the various versions of the ROMs and which MAME version supported which ROM version? For example, I'd need a website where I can search for the ROM name. So, when I search for sf2ua, the website should give me the following details:
Quote:
Required files in old version:
sf2u.30a
sf2u.37a
sf2u.31a
...
Required files in new version:
sf2u_30a.11e
sf2u_37a.11f
sf2u_31a.12e
...
buf1
ioa1
...
Old version supported in mame0aaa to mame0bbb.
New version supported in mame0bbc to mameddd.
Fixed issues in the new ROM that didn't work right in the old one:
...
MAME versions that changed something for the emulation of that game:
mame0xxx: Fixed timing issues.
mame0yyy: Fixed palette issues.
Does something like that exist where I can search by ROM name instead of by MAME version?
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| Sune |
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Re: Questions about the new ROMS of a game vs. the old ROMs
[Re: timeguy]
#291949 - 07/16/12 11:32 PM
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> What does this mean in reality for the game?
> Let's take the first US version of the original "Street Fighter II" (sf2ua) as an
> example: Which noticeable differences are there between the ROM with the new files
> and the ROM with the old files?
Many times there is no (user visible) difference. Files are moved around between sets due to the way MAME loads ROMs for a given game and depending on whether you keep merged or split sets.
Some set changes are purely "documentational" in nature - sometimes just the name of a file is changed, in order to better reflect its location on the original game PCB.
Sometimes an undumped revision of a game is found. Usually, but not always, if it's newer than the existing parent set, it then becomes the parent set and the old parent set becomes a clone set. This causes some reshuffling of files. Sometimes, due to incomplete ROM dumps, some versions of a game will use files from other versions of the same game, or even from a different game that runs on the same hardware or arcade system - until someone makes a complete dump available. This again causes files to move between sets or disappear from them entirely.
You have to pay attention to the whatsnew to notice when these things happen. Sometimes it doesn't even appear in the whatsnew, it just happens. You can compare the source code (the ROM loading code for the game) from before and after the changes. Sometimes, well, rarely, changes are annotated and explained in there.
The Street Fighter series (as well as many other CAPCOM games) have a ton of revisions, versions for different regions and modified bootlegs too. It's likely there will be many more changes to those ROM sets in the future as new versions and revisions are found.
S
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Re: Questions about the new ROMS of a game vs. the old ROMs
[Re: Sune]
#291953 - 07/16/12 11:54 PM
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Thanks very much for the answer.
So, if it's just some internal restructuring, how come that the new "Street Fighter II" ROMs have more files? For example, what's this whole "buf1" and "ioa1" etc. about?
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Re: Questions about the new ROMS of a game vs. the old ROMs
[Re: timeguy]
#291959 - 07/17/12 12:39 AM
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