Wasn’t sure where to ask this, but I always get good responses here so I thought I’d try. I’m backing up my retro game collection. I want to name the dumped ROM files using the No-Intro naming convention, but am struggling to identify which revision of the ROM is contained on the cartridge. From what I’ve read, a two digit facility code imprinted on the back of a cartridge indicates it is the first version of the game. An A, B, C, etc. appended to the end of the two digit code indicates subsequent revisions. However, I am finding some cartridges that have a single letter imprinted on the label and some that have nothing imprinted at all. Is there another way to identify which ROM revision I have (perhaps through a hex editor)? Thanks!
I’m not sure, but if you are following the No-Intro dumping guides, your rom should have the same checksum as listed in the datomatic and so you can find the right revision?
Just to add, if your dumps don’t match the No-Intro DATs your backup hardware might just be adding a header or something. Depending on the system there might be other variables as well. I remember that SNES in particular had a lot of different formats on older backup devices. There are tools to convert between each of these formats and strip headers, etc.
Some raw dumps will still have some build info if you view them in a hex editor but it varies by system (Sega Genesis is the only one I know of offhand), and that data isn’t always reliable anyway. Auditing your ROMs with No-Intro is the best route. If your ROMs don’t match try GoodTools (which is very old but it works better with the older formats).
Thanks a lot for all the info. I’m using the Retrode SNES dumper with clrmamepro and the official DAT file from No-Intro. Clrmamepro only seems to be struggling with about a third of my carts. I’ve managed to get a few troublesome ones working by cleaning the connectors and re-dumping, but I’m not sure about the others (I actually have two versions of Lion King: the Super Famicom and SNES versions). Clrmamepro isn’t matching either of those. Is there something I can do manually to get a good match besides Stone’s suggestion to use another auditing format?
I downloaded a header removing tool and that is doing the trick! I’m not sure why it’s only happening to a few ROMS, but they’re now successfully matching against the No-Intro DAT. Thanks for all the feedback!
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