Introducing MiSTer Organize

[MiSTer Organize]

Hello everybody! I’m happy to announce my project called MiSTer Organize. I invested many long hours creating these custom DATs. Consider this a gift to all you gamers and retro enthusiasts.

Check it out here, https://archive.org/details/mister-organize

My to do:

DAT for MiSTer Computer
DAT for Mister Console CD
More surprises to come so stay tuned!

Please enjoy these DATs and I hope they bring improvements to your MiSTer setup. I hope these DATs help you stay organized and make everything work for you. If you like my project then please support me on Patreon. I’m in the process of setting up Patreon so will let you know when it’s available. For my supporters, I will continually update your DATs to reflect the most recent Arcade and Console games available. Thanks all.

[MrX_Cuci]

I have not checked your tool, but if those are dat files very handy indeed. Try redump.org for cd based console cores. All the dat files are available on their website

[MiSTer Organize]

Thanks for the mention about Redump. I plan to use Redump for Console CD. RomVault is a very easy tool and it does the sorting of files for you so you don’t have to manually place files in folders.

The Arcade DAT is everything from Arcade since 8-1-2024.
The Console DAT is includes everything No-Intro has for the MiSTer cartridge cores since 8-8-2024. Everything will be sorted A-Z. You get 1 DAT for Arcade and 1 DAT for Console so you don’t have to juggle around multiple DATs. These DATs give you the most complete game sets.

I include palettes, Gameboy borders, Vectrex overlays, etc. to get the most out of each of the Console cores.

Did you not like the long list of MRAs when you click on the _Arcade folder. Now those are put into sorted A-Z folders. No more digging for Neo Geo Pocket. The MRAs are easily found for NGP and NGPC after clicking the _Arcade folder. There’s a ton of stuff covered in these DATs and I hope you all enjoy using them.

[Retro-Nerd]

btw: The "Ten no Koe Bank" isn't a game. It's a Hucard to store the save data from PC-Engine Card und CD-Rom games.

https://necretro.org/Ten_no_Koe_Bank

[muggsy]

As both a RomVault user and MiSTer user This does interest me.
However, are you looking to maintain this and update frequently? Because without frequent updates this is going to outdated really quickly.

It sounds like something that would need to be integrated into DatVault which RomVault provides, but at a cost, where RomVault will actively download updated DATs for use.

Also, when using these DATs in an existing RomVault setup, you will get an error if you remove the tick from "Don't Auto Add DAT directories"

[MiSTer Organize]

Hello muggsy,

Thanks for your interest! I plan to make a Patreon page and for my supporters I will continually update the DATs for you. I could update the DATs once per month unless demand towards this project becomes greater. Daily updates would not be possible because there's a lot more work put into this than what you get from standard No-Intro DATs. There's the sorting of files into A-Z folders, moving misplaced files to their correct place (example the No-Intro Game Gear DAT includes Sega Master System. I'm not sure why), and removing files that are not supported on MiSTer. Plus to add I'm a dad with two kids so my time is limited.

I'm not sure what your current RomVault file structure is but here is information taken from the RomVault website about Don't auto add DAT directories.

If two or more DATs share a directory in the DATRoot then RomVault will automatically create a virtual subdirectory for each DAT so they don't conflict with each other. If the “Don't Auto Add DAT Directories” option is enabled then these directories will not be automatically created and the contents of the DATs will be effectively merged together. The result is that all of your ROMs from these DATs will be placed in the same directory.

Because this option causes DATs to be merged its likely you may encounter a DAT merge conflict if used haphazardly. This option is only useful under very specific circumstances, such as merging No-Intro regular and private DATs, or MAME extras.

Based on this information from RomVault it is best to leave the Don't auto add DAT directories unticked to avoid a DAT Merge Conflict.

[muggsy]

Personally, I would suggest that you focus on the items that are not available via the update_all script. So focusing on 1 DAT, that covers the folder structure and items that are required for a good MiSTer setup, but not the "supplementary" items. This would require less up-keep and would be valuable to the community.

In my opinion, trying to maintain a DAT covering MRAs or RBFs while nice, is a lot of work. For me, it would be easier to wipe out all RBFs and MRAs and use update_all to redownloaded rather than validate against a DAT to try and identify the issue

Also, Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Colour have ended up in the Arcade DAT as well

[MiSTer Organize]

My mission is to make the MiSTer experience the best it can be. The purpose of the Arcade DAT is to verify you have the proper files inside your MAME and HBMAME zips. If you are downloading the MAME/HBMAME zips through Update All then there's no need to verify them because those are sourced from proper MAME/HBMAME sets. The Arcade DAT does include files that are not retrieved through Update All. These include the Darksoft Neo Geo Romset that go into the MAME folder and Battletoads that has its own separate folder. If it's helpful I can make a folder called mame darksoft so you know what is Darksoft versus MAME.

I will always include for download MRAs, RBFs, MGLs, and other needed files besides games in each of my updates. These are sourced through Update All and verified to work. The Battletoads core will need to be added manually with its RBF and MGL file. Also add in NeoGeo-MVS_20220218.rbf so your Darksoft Neo Geo games work and play. All the available MRAs for Darksoft Neo Geo are sourced here, https://github.com/blackwine/NeoGeo_MiS ... r/releases. You can remove The Eye of Typhoon - Tsunami Edition from alternatives because a Darksoft version of the game does not exist.

Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Color are in the Arcade DAT because Jotego designed it as an Arcade core called jtngp.rbf. I agree that Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Color are handheld consoles and should be in the Console core folder but until that change happens if it ever does, they will remain in the Arcade folder. The Arcade DAT makes it easy to locate the NGP and NGPC MRAs. Instead of having to dig through files and folders, the NGP and NGPC MRAs are displayed immediately upon clicking on the Arcade folder.

The Arcade DAT focuses on changes that Update All provides. The Console DAT mostly focuses on the changes No-Intro frequently makes. I have less focus on supplementary items but I want to include them for those wanting to explore what each core has to offer, (example the massive library of NSF and SPC music available in the NES and SNES cores).

[MiSTer Organize]

My Patreon page is up. Please show your support in this project. The next update will be at the beginning of September.

https://www.patreon.com/MiSTer_Organize

[MiSTer Organize]

I’m taking a poll:

What is most important for you to see in a future update?

Console CD DAT taken from Redump in 1 game 1 rom format.

Computer DAT containing everything covered in the 0MHz DOS Collection including additional games not listed in 0MHz DOS. AmigaVision including a list of the Amiga CD32 games.

MSU/MSU1 DAT showing a list of enhanced Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES, and Game Boy games. These will include compatible working games.

ScummVM DAT taken from the latest eXoScummVM 2.8.0 collection.

OpenBOR DAT listing compatible OpenBOR games.

[MiSTer Organize]

If you have any questions about how to use these DATs or questions about anything else then feel free to send me a message. I would be happy to help.

[akeley]

I must admit that personally I struggle to see the usefulness of it. I trust update_all to take care of the arcade cores, and there's also Arcade Organiser to sort them out according to many criteria. As for the rest of the software, I either dump the available collections as they are (already alphabetically sorted) or tweak them myself. I don't use DATs for that, but for those who prefer do it this way, these already exist for all major collections.

I guess I'm perhaps overlooking some highly specific use-case for MiSTer, but am not sure there's enough sauce in that to sustain a Patreon.

[MiSTer Organize]

Akeley,

As I said before the point of the Arcade DAT is to verify you have the proper files inside your MAME and HBMAME zips. The Arcade DAT does include files that are not retrieved through Update All. These include the Darksoft Neo Geo Romset that go into the MAME folder and Battletoads that has its own separate folder.

I should add that the Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Color MRAs get lost in all those files. I’m making it easier to find them.

Yes there are sorted romsets that exist already but how updated are they? No-Intro is changing constantly and my DAT includes the most current games from No-Intro including Aftermarket games.

For anyone who wants the most updated set of games on their MiSTer they can benefit from my DATs. The MiSTer community needs this.

[MiSTer Organize]

This is the current plan for the project. The project will be free and available to everyone. My goal is to have the first update released on September 1 and the start of each month for future updates. If you should want early access to the DATs you will need to get a paid membership on my Patreon for 3 dollars per month. I will offer early access and exclusive content to supporters that sign up to pay 5 dollars per month.

Check back here on September 1. I will have the first update that you can find here on my linked archive page.

https://archive.org/details/mister-organize

Are you liking this project and want to support me? Check out my Patreon page.

https://www.patreon.com/mister_organize

[MiSTer Organize]

Here is the September 1 update. https://archive.org/details/mister-organize

I'm removing the MiSTer_Arcade DAT in favor of Update All for organizing Arcade. The MiSTer_Console DAT is used to compliment Update All and keep everyone most current with Console games on MiSTer. With the use of the MiSTer_Console DAT you get an organized folder structure for your files.

[spodge]

Thanks a lot for this, I have a mister arriving in a few weeks and it's been a really useful tool to get all the files ready for it!

A few thoughts:

• I really like how you've seperated the "Core" library from the "Supplemental" ROMs.

• I've got quite a few misses in my rom manager around core mister files (e.g. palettes). These change quite frequently and are presumably updated by update_all so I don't think they belong in the dat file. Although admittedly removing them would also be irritating as they would show up as unknown files, and the rom manager would try to remove them. Not sure what the best answer is here.

• You have incorporated the N64 Patched Games from here: viewtopic.php?t=8078. There's an update "IMPORTANT NOTE 05/09/2024: Thanks to yxkalle the patch data is now included in N64-database.txt and the latest unstable main will apply them automatically. So no manual patching is required when using the latest unstable main." - so I assume they can be removed in the next release?

• It was tricky to find all the NeoGeo files - after looking at the two packs you reference there were still a few gaps I had to track down (including on the mister forums) and even then it was tricky to find a hash match. You could maybe add a few more pointers here (although unfortunately I didn't keep track of exactly where I got the ones I found)

• Your dat includes all the translations from the HTGDB packs; however En-ROMs has a much more complete (and up to date) selection of fan translated games - perhaps it would be good to merge this in with the next release?

[MiSTer Organize]

Hi Spodge thanks for trying out MiSTer Organize!

Thanks for pointing out about the palettes for the MiSTer cores. I will add those in for download on my archive listing. I will also add in for download the overlays for the Vectrex core.

Yes it sounds like the N64 patches won't be needed so in the next update I will include the latest N64-database.txt file.

It can be hard finding everything for Neo Geo so feel free to send me a private message telling me what games you are missing and I can point you in the right direction.

Thanks for the mention about En-ROMs. I'm working on a project on the side to database all the hacks and translations from Romhacking.net since its shutdown. It will definitely take some time to complete this project. In the end I would like to create a script that you can run to bulk patch all your hacks and translations to automate the process for you. Then after you bulk patch, you could use my Console DAT to put all those patched roms into their proper folders. This is an ambitious project and I can't guarantee success with it but I will try.

The next update will be a big one and I'm hoping to have it out at the beginning of October.