FBA-XXX patch

[vcysion]

I've had BAED3b for some time now and i believe it was edited by PRICAN (which is how i got to this site). As far as the edition i have i guess its 6-04

 

Ok, this is about the same as gogo's special version but mine adds/fixes a fews things with roms/drivers based on gogo's fba-xxx src as of 6-04 (new sets):

 

thats was in the txt file in the iso. So basically i always see patchs for fba-xxx but i dont know how to do any of it or which patch to use. also some of the games dont work says its missing files so i guess i also have to re download some of the games.

 

Basically was wonderin if i can get pointed in the right direction as far as a how-to for a newbie to this. i would like to get my rom discs up to date (BAED3A and 3B)

 

Thanks in advance for any and all help

[Prican25]

if you searched, you would've found this http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14392

 

[vcysion]

Yo what up pr, i found that thread but it still doesnt say or give a how-to. it tells me a couple places to go for checkin for roms, but it doesnt say how to use romcenter or how to patch or what cloning is. im tellin you i dont understand any of the roms, im just like that guy that was in that thread, got the baed cause it seemed like it was all put together and ready to go but in reality its not, its missing roms and now i need updates and patches. i got all the tools i think, and hopefully i can learn how to use newsgroups so i can get the missing roms but then how i get all that together

 

 

i used the lunar patcher to path the defualt.xbe and in the avalaunch menu it recognizes it as fba-xxx pro but when i start it, it stays on a black screen and never loads

Edited October 16, 2005 by vcysion

[vcysion]

i also dont know what to do with the dat files and romcenter

[Thraxen]

Load the DAT file into Romcenter, then have ROM center scan a directory containing your ROMS. Romcenter will be able to tell you what ROMS files are incompatible with the emulator the DAT file was created for. Sometimes it's just the name of the ROM files is bad, in that case Romcenter can rename them for you.

 

But if it is the wrong ROM file, it will tell you that, but you need to find it yourself. Since trading ROMS is illegal, a lot of people just trade patches. All patches do is change one version of a ROM into another. For example, if an emulator calls for an M ROM with a CRC of 12345678, but you have an M ROM with a CRC of 12348765, you can try and find a patch that will change your ROM from 12345678 to 12348765.

 

The patches are usually in the form of IPS patches. You can apply these patches with a program like LunarIPS. You get patches at sites like this: Link

 

It can take a little bit of work to get used to how arcade ROMS work, but once you get used to using DATS and understand CRCs it's actually pretty easy to get what you need.

Edited October 17, 2005 by Thraxen

[vcysion]

damn thats a really really nice explanation of romcenter and dat files t. that helped alot especially with the patches explanation also. im gonna get right on that.

 

 

 

ok a few questions,

 

when i scan for roms, sometimes it shows it with a small x in the corner for example it will show some yellow or red zip/rom pictures and some yellow or red with a small x. what does the small x mean?

 

Also, some say missing files, so i went to romshare and redownloaded the rom but is still was missing the same files. So am i gonna have to actually have to search for those individual files?

 

As far as in romcenter, everytime i saw it say "bad name" i selected it and chose "rename rom" and it looks like it fixed it so hopefully thats what im suppossed to do.

 

Now i applied the pro patch to fba_26_08 with lunar and when i run it, it doesnt load, so i replaced the.xbe file with just the fba_26_08.xbe without the patch and it doesnt load either. Do i have to clean something out the hdd for it to work?

Edited October 17, 2005 by vcysion

[Thraxen]

when i scan for roms, sometimes it shows it with a small x in the corner for example it will show some yellow or red zip/rom pictures and some yellow or red with a small x. what does the small x mean?

 

That means "no good dump known". Basically, the game is flawed in some manner and there is no way to fix it currently. Yellow means it's still playable, red is unplayable. But sometimes you need those games. For example, the ROM msh.zip (Marvel Super Heroes - Euro - CPS2 game) is a game that is red with an X. It is this way because it doesn't have XOR decryption tables. All CPS2 games require decryption tables to be playable. But even though it isn't playable, it is the parent ROM for several other ROMS. One example is the ROM mshu.zip (Marvel Super Heroes - US). It does have decryption tables and is playable, but it is what is called a "clone". Its parent ROM is msh.zip... in other words, when mshu.zip loads, the emulator also loads a few files from msh.zip. So in order for mshu.zip to work, you either need to have msh.zip in the ROM directory too, or you need to move the files that mshu.zip uses from msh.zip into the mshu.zip ROM.

 

On that note, there is a setting in Romenter that allows you to keep parents and clones completely separate or have all the files each ROM needs to run in each ROM file. Go up to the "File" menu, then select "Preferences", and then click on the "Romsets" tab. You will see 3 options: Merged, Split, and Un-Merged.

 

Merged means that all the ROM files for both parents and clone are in the same zip. So in the example I gave above, all the ROM files for mshu.zip would be moved into msh.zip and you would no longer have a separate mshu.zip. I personally don't really like this option.

 

Split means you have separate parents and clones. Which is exactly the situation I described above. The files that are unique to mshu.zip (or any clone) are kept separate in their own ROM, but files that they need to run from the parent at left in the parent. So they can't run on their own without the parent ROM present. This is the option I use for my own ROM sets.

 

Un-Merged means that each ROM has all the files that it need to run on it's own. So using my example above again, you would still have separate msh.zip and mshu.zip ROMS, but mshu.zip would now contain copies of the files it uses from msh.zip inside the mshu.zip ROM. This allows mshu.zip to run without msh.zip present, but if you do have both ROMS then that means you have a few files in each ROM that are the exact same file so the ROMS take up more storage space than using either of the first two options.

 

Also, some say missing files, so i went to romshare and redownloaded the rom but is still was missing the same files. So am i gonna have to actually have to search for those individual files?

 

The key thing to look at is the CRC listed in Romcenter. You need to find the ROM file that matches the CRC listed by Romcenter. This is where those patches come in. If you have a ROM file that has the wrong CRC, you might be able to find a patch that can make that individual ROM file into the correct file for the emulator.

 

As far as in romcenter, everytime i saw it say "bad name" i selected it and chose "rename rom" and it looks like it fixed it so hopefully thats what im suppossed to do.

 

Yup, that's exactly what you want to do. Also, if you right click on a the whole ROM (not just an individual file inside the ROM) and say "Fix ROM", Romcenter will rename anything that needs to be renamed and move any incorrect file out of the ROM. Just so you know, Romcenter moves these files to a folder called "archive" in the Romcenter install directory. This can be important to know if you are looking for patches because you might need some of those incorrect files if you find a patch that can convert them to the correct ones.

 

Now i applied the pro patch to fba_26_08 with lunar and when i run it, it doesnt load, so i replaced the.xbe file with just the fba_26_08.xbe without the patch and it doesnt load either. Do i have to clean something out the hdd for it to work?

 

You may have to delete any previous FBAXXX save out of the game save manager in the standard XBox dashboard, but you may have another issue. FBAXXX 8/26 was rather confusing because it has two XBE files. There is one called "fbax.xbe" that is 3.49 MB. That is the one you want. You just rename it to "default.xbe" and use it. But there is another default.xbe file that is generated if you click on the "pack.bat" file. This default.xbe file is 930 KB. That is only for certain people who have problems with the other one. You don't want or need that one. So make sure you are using and patching the correct file.

[vcysion]

DAMN T, you really be breakin it down. You dont know how much appreciate your help. I finally got the pro version patched and runnin. as far as the games i havent tried them but all i did was load the romcenter.dat file (by the way why 2 diff dat files, whats the other one?) well i loaded the romcenter.dat file and just hit fix rom to rename all the bad files. thats as much as im able to understand so far just cause i havent been able to find patches or the missing files that romcenter says im missing. As far as crc, what is that and where do i see it? again thanks alot for your help, im actually understandin this lil by lil and i just wanna get be able to get good enuff that maybe one day i can help someone in the manner you helped me, thanks

[Thraxen]

I finally got the pro version patched and runnin. as far as the games i havent tried them but all i did was load the romcenter.dat file (by the way why 2 diff dat files, whats the other one?)

 

The other dat file is for a program called CLRMAMEPro. It contains the exact same information as the Romcenter dat, it's just set-up for use by a different program. I prefer Romcenter because I think it is more user friendly and the GUI is cleaner and less cluttered looking.

 

As far as crc, what is that and where do i see it? again thanks alot for your help, im actually understandin this lil by lil and i just wanna get be able to get good enuff that maybe one day i can help someone in the manner you helped me, thanks

 

The CRC is just a checksum, but it is the way many emulators identify specific ROM files. In Romcenter the CRC is in the column called "Signature". If you open ROM with WinRAR the CRC is listed in the column called "CRC32" and if you open it with Winzip is will be listed in the column called "CRC". You want to find files whose CRC's match the ones listed in Romcenter.