Auditing ROM collections has been made much simpler over the years thanks to concerted efforts of many cartridge purchasers, dumpers, cataloguers, and coders. \u00a0Using a combination of RomCenter (or ClrMamePro) and a No-Intro .Dat file, one can quickly fix an entire collection in one go: repairing names, verifying regions, checking for problem ROMs, producing have-lists, etc etc.<\/p>\n
NES roms throw a particular curveball because they carry a 16-byte header with a little info about the board within the cart. \u00a0Emulators need this info, but it isn’t verified by No-Intro since it’s not part of any real dump. \u00a0As a result iNES headers remain missing, incorrect, or filled with crap data. \u00a0A new repair tool is needed.<\/p>\n
ines-fix.py is a Python script which can repair defunct iNES headers using an external cart database. \u00a0It does this by extracting the data portion from the file, calculating a crc32, looking for the crc the xml file, and then rebuilding a header based on that info. \u00a0If the old and new headers differ, the file is overwritten with a fixed version.<\/p>\n
Be careful with this tool: it’s sort of a blunt object, and may trash your rom collection if not used carefully. \u00a0Make backups.<\/strong> \u00a0In particular it writes only iNES v1 headers, expecting emulators to cope with the shortcomings of this format.<\/p>\n Output samples: -> Adding a battery<\/p>\n -> Correcting a mapper, vertical mirroring, and removing “DiskDude!”<\/p>\n -> Standardizing on “horizontal mirroring”<\/p>\n -> Adding a missing header<\/p>\n Here’s the script:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n-> No change to existing header<\/p>\nCRC check: 4318A2F8\nFound CRC match: Barker Bill's Trick Shooting\n*** Header unchanged: not writing replacement file.\n----------------------------------------------------<\/pre>\n
CRC check: 1F6EA423\nFound CRC match: Baseball Simulator 1.000\n*** HEADER UPDATED ***\noldHeader: 4e45531a081010000000000000000000\nnewHeader: 4e45531a081012000000000000000000\nAll done. Wrote new file roms\/Baseball Simulator 1.000 (USA).nes<\/pre>\n
CRC check: 9BDE3267\nFound CRC match: Adventures of Dino Riki\n*** HEADER UPDATED ***\noldHeader: 4e45531a0204004469736b4475646521\nnewHeader: 4e45531a020431000000000000000000\nAll done. Wrote new file roms\/Adventures of Dino Riki (USA).nes\n----------------------------------------------------<\/pre>\n
CRC check: 3ECA3DDA\nFound CRC match: Bases Loaded 3, Ryne Sandberg Plays\n*** HEADER UPDATED ***\noldHeader: 4e45531a101041000000000000000000\nnewHeader: 4e45531a101040000000000000000000\nAll done. Wrote new file roms\/Bases Loaded 3 (USA).nes\n----------------------------------------------------<\/pre>\n
CRC check: 50CCC8ED\nFound CRC match: Battleship\n*** HEADER UPDATED ***\noldHeader:\nnewHeader: 4e45531a020430000000000000000000\nAll done. Wrote new file roms\/Battleship (USA).nes\n----------------------------------------------------<\/pre>\n
\n#!\/usr\/local\/bin\/python\n\"\"\"\nConverts NES ROMs to iNES format, applying correct iNES header.\nUsage: ines-fix <infile>\nSupported infile formats are .nes, .pas (headerless .nes)\n\nROM data is recognized by CRC32 using BootGod's master XML database\n so make sure you have a local copy\n\"\"\"\n\nimport sys\nimport struct\nfrom binascii import crc32\nfrom xml.etree import ElementTree\n\n##### String holding location of cart db\ncart_xml = \"NesCarts (2011-09-10).xml\"\n# uncomment next line to use Nestopia's DB instead\n# cart_xml = \"NstDatabase.xml\"\n\n# Other required vars\ni_fmt = 'p'\nblob = None\nfound = 0\noldHeader = \"\"\n\n\n# Parse command-line\n\nif (len(sys.argv) != 2):\n print \"Usage: \" + sys.argv[0] + \" <infile>\"\n sys.exit(0)\n\n# Open rom database\n#print \"Attempting to open cart db \" + cart_xml\ntree = ElementTree.parse(cart_xml)\n#print \"DB opened!\"\n\n# Attempt to open supplied rom file\n\ntry:\n with open(sys.argv[1], \"rb\") as f:\n tag = f.read(4)\n f.seek(0)\n if (tag == \"NES\\x1A\"):\n i_fmt = 'i'\n oldHeader = f.read(16)\n\n# print \"Detected \" + i_fmt + \" format for input file\"\n\n\n blob = f.read()\n\nexcept IOError as (errno, strerror):\n print \"Error opening \" + sys.argv[1] + \": \"\n print \"I\/O error({0}): {1}\".format(errno, strerror)\n sys.exit(2)\n\nif (len(blob) > 0):\n format_crc32 = format(crc32(blob) & 0xFFFFFFFF, '08X')\n print \"CRC check: \" + format_crc32\n\n # go look up crc32 in db\n game_list = tree.findall(\"game\")\n for game in game_list:\n cart_list = game.findall(\"cartridge\")\n for cart in cart_list:\n if (cart.attrib.get('crc') == format_crc32):\n found=1\n break\n if (found):\n break\n\n\n if (found == 0):\n print sys.argv[1]\n print \"*** CART NOT FOUND IN DB\"\n print \"----------------------------------------------------\"\n sys.exit(2)\n\nprint \"Found CRC match: \" + game.attrib.get(\"name\").encode('ascii', 'ignore')\n#ElementTree.tostring(game)\n\n# retrieve data from game\nboard = cart.find(\"board\")\nmapper = int(board.attrib.get(\"mapper\"))\n\nprg_size = 0\nprg_list = board.findall(\"prg\")\nfor prg in prg_list:\n prg_size = prg_size + int(prg.attrib.get(\"size\") [:-1])\n\nchr_size = 0\nchr_list = board.findall(\"chr\")\nfor chr in chr_list:\n chr_size = chr_size + int(chr.attrib.get(\"size\") [:-1])\n\n\nbattery = 0\nwram_list = board.findall(\"wram\")\nfor wram in wram_list:\n if (wram.attrib.get(\"battery\") is not None):\n battery = int(wram.attrib.get(\"battery\"))\n\nchip_list = board.findall(\"chip\")\nfor chip in chip_list:\n if (chip.attrib.get(\"battery\") is not None):\n battery = int(chip.attrib.get(\"battery\"))\n\n\nmirror_4 = 0\nmirror_v = 0\npad = board.find(\"pad\")\nif (format_crc32 == \"CD50A092\" or \\\n format_crc32 == \"EC968C51\" or \\\n format_crc32 == \"404B2E8B\"):\n mirror_4 = 1\nelif (pad is not None):\n# the \"h\" pad means \"v\" mirror\n mirror_v = int(pad.attrib.get(\"h\"))\n\n\nmapper_lo = mapper & 0x0F\nmapper_hi = mapper & 0xF0\n\nnewHeader = \"NES\\x1a\" + \\\n struct.pack(\"BBBB\", \\\n ( prg_size \/ 16 ), \\\n ( chr_size \/ 8 ), \\\n (mapper_lo << 4) + (mirror_4 << 3) + (battery << 1) + (mirror_v)\n, \\\n (mapper_hi) ) + ( '\\0' * 8 )\n\nif (newHeader != oldHeader):\n print \"*** HEADER UPDATED ***\\noldHeader: \" + oldHeader.encode('hex')\n print \"newHeader: \" + newHeader.encode('hex')\n\n # write new file\n try:\n with open(sys.argv[1], \"wb\") as f:\n f.write( newHeader )\n f.write( blob )\n\n\n except IOError as (errno, strerror):\n print \"Error opening \" + sys.argv[1]\n print \"I\/O error({0}): {1}\".format(errno, strerror)\n sys.exit(2)\n\n print \"All done. Wrote new file \" + sys.argv[1]\nelse:\n print \"*** Header unchanged: not writing replacement file.\"\nprint \"----------------------------------------------------\"<\/pre>\n