What are DAT files ?

Hi guys

Some kind soul can explain me what are .dat files of TOSEC collections ?

Thanks in advance to anyone

[TCD]

Hi Another World,

dat files are used to rename the disks according to the TOSEC naming convention. You need the program ClrMAMEPro to rename your files. Here you can get a documentation PDF about ClrMAMEPro.

Ok

I discover that dat is a simple text file so i open it with notepad

Correct me if am i wrong, but this DAT file contains CRC and MD5 checksums
so it is used also to verify the integrity of the ROM ?

Bye

[TCD]

It uses the checksums to identify the disk images. It then renames the ones it can identify. It is not really a integrity check since even if the disk is identified the disk might be a bad dump (most are marked with an [b] in TOSEC) or a bad crack which let's you not play the later levels. On the other hand if a disk is not identified it doesn't mean that the disk is corrupted. It's simply not in the dat file yet (and those are the really interesting disks ).

Thank you, info very appreciated

"It uses the checksums to identify the disk images. It then renames the ones it can identify."

Ok, now it's clear how it works and his function but ........
if i found this DAT file in a TOSEC set, it's not meanless ?

Why this POST PROCESSING ?

[TCD]

Ah now I see
Yup that is rather pointless for you, since you have the correct renamed disks already. I guess it was a big Torrent you downloaded right? I don't know why the dat is always included, but I guess it's for completeness. Normally you would check your non TOSEC named disks with that dat file, which for you obviously makes no sense. So you can easily forget about it

[illy5603]

It is kind of disapointing that we need an arcade game emulator to manage Amiga disk images but I understand why people are using it. clrMAMEpro is an absolute nightmare to use if you have never played with it. I just download whatever huge torrent I need or whatever other huge pack I need (I.E. GBA sets) too much work converting everything.

[TCD]

Hi illy5603,

ClrMAMEPro is not MAME It is a tool to manage rom and disk images with the dat files.
If you prefer to use a another tool to manage your disk names, you can use TIM done by TOSEC themselves : http://www.tosec.org/

[illy5603]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Hi illy5603,

ClrMAMEPro is not MAME It is a tool to manage rom and disk images with the dat files.
If you prefer to use a another tool to manage your disk names, you can use TIM done by TOSEC themselves : http://www.tosec.org/

Hi there,

I understand but you need MAME executable to build a clrMAMpro profile if I am not mistaken. Point was, you can get pretty far away from your original quest, in my case Amiga emulation, with some of these other tools. I will check out TIM!

[TCD]

You don't need MAME to use ClrMAMEPro. It's quite easy to use actually. I build a small dat file a while ago and it was really simple
ClrMAME was just named this way because it's first purpose was to clear MAME rom dumps, but the program itself has nothing to do with MAME.
Maybe TIM is really more suited. I will have a look again too

[Belgarath]

I really really really wouldn't recommend TIM.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Belgarath

I really really really wouldn't recommend TIM.

Okay, thanks for the info. I thought that there must be a reason why everybody uses ClrMAMEPro

[DamienD]

You could also try using RomCenter if you can find DATS in the correct format. It's simplier to use than ClrMAMEPro but not as powerful / feature rich.

...but ClrMAMEPro is definitely the best