Getting a game out of retroarch

[starfiretbt]

I’ve been using retroarch to emulate windows 98 and if I decided to get the game and all it’s files out of retroarch for some reason (like finding a patch that makes the game playable on windows) how would I do that? I thought I would just unzip the zip file that gets stored in the save folder but there’s very little in those files. It looks like the .sav file contains everything that is the game but how would one open that file?

I know with mac emulators there is a program called HFVExplorer and another called Filezilla that work, is there anything like that for retroarch?

[starfiretbt]

Can I get internet working in windows 98? If so then I can email files out of Retroarch. I tried setting up internet in Retroarch but it asked for a modem but it couldn’t find one, and I don’t know how to select my modem.

[thingsiplay]

Hey, I could not find a way too. I describe what I tried so far:

My first try was to create a simulated floppy drive by creating an archive with the name Test.D.ZIP. This then is loaded with DosBox-pure. I can read all files in the zip file, just like with the games. My hope was, floppy drives like this would have write permission. But they act exactly like the games, and DosBox-pure writes all changes to the save files to protect the ZIP.

Second attempt was to mount the Windows image file to my host Linux system. fdisk -lu Windows_98_SE_OEM.img (the file located in RetroArch/systems folder) will list the sector size and start sector. Using this information I could’ve mount the .img file with mount -t auto -o loop,offset=$((32*512)) Windows_98_SE_OEM.img ~/Public/dosbox_win98 . But this does not work, even if the dosbox_win98 directory exist.

The networking and setup to interact with my host looks complicated and I have no interest in trying that. The easiest solution to me would be, if we could disable save file generation for specified games / .zip files, and write into them directly.

[Jamirus]

That doesn’t sound very specific to Retroarch itself, more relevant to the DOSbox Pure core.

I found Dosbox-Pure attempt to be somewhat more user-friendly to having the opposite effect on me, I was super confused with the file/ operating system handling as opposed to something like PCem. I forgot what I did the last time with Pure, - but Pure can write to a Windows OS disk image directly, doesn’t it? In that case, anything installed there could be exported or imported with something like diskexplorer I suppose (at least that’s what I 'm using with all my hdd images - using “Vmware plain image” option).

[Ranmori]

In my case, I am doing these things because I don’t really understand how the zip works.

First, it depends on whether it is a game-related patch or not.

If it is a game-specific patch, boot Windows with the specific game CD mounted. If the file size is less than 1.4MB, I use DiskExplorer to create an FD image, mount it, and run the patch. If the file size is larger than 1.4MB, leave Windows as it is and unmount the mounted game CD. Then use ImgBurn to create a CD image, mount it, and run the patch. Mount the game CD again and boot.

If you want to apply a Windows-specific patch (such as a fix), start Windows normally without mounting the game CD. Follow the same procedure as described above. Shut down without mounting the game CD.

This difference is reflected in all Windows, not game-specific Windows, because the game CD is not mounted Windows. For Windows-specific patches, the HDD image may need to be unlocked.

Even if you do not edit the HDD image, you can use the normal Windows 98 operation method.

[alexb3d]

This is a very uncomfortable problem, you can’t get any information out or in, I really hope it will be solved quickly.

@thingsiplay

Second attempt was to mount the Windows image file to my host Linux system.

This is one of the things I do to get the files.
I copy the files to C: and then mount the image, but I use the interface, right click, mount image, I find it more comfortable.

sorry for the span…ñol

The other thing is, use 7z to decompress the .img:
7z x -oWin "Windows 98 SE.img"

Either can be used on Linux or Windows.

@Ranmori

I use DiskExplorer to create an FD image…

To add files I recommend something simpler.
Compress it in a zip file and open it with Windows, copy the files to the desktop, open the game and move the files from the desktop to the game.

[thingsiplay]

So you can mount the Windows.img file in your host Windows installation? I tried it with manual commands like described above and was not able to do it under Linux. Probably wrong command options. And I can’t unpack the Windows.img file with 7z either (p7zip Version 17.05). I use 7z a lot BTW. What I don’t understand is your following statement:

This is a very uncomfortable problem, you can’t get any information out or in, I really hope it will be solved quickly.

It is actually possible to get information in the DosBox-pure Windows.img installation. Isn’t it what you described in the last part of your reply? Create a Zip file and add .D to the name, in example Test.D.ZIP. Put any files you want in there. Treat it like a game and open it with DosBox-pure (with your Windows installation). It will appear as a D floppy drive in Windows 98. You can copy the files into your Windows 98 installation in the emulator. So files can get in this way.

[starfiretbt]

I think you guys are on to something. I looked at DiskExplorer, downloaded it, I moved the file I wanted from the D drive to the C drive (the disk image, or at least a copy of one. I have the original, unaltered as a backup), I opened DiskExplorer and selected my windows 98 .img file, it asked for what kind of file it was and I just tried them all until I got to “vmware plain disk” and all my files (including the one in question) were there, I was able to move the file out of the disk.img and onto my main computer and it looks like they are all there.

I am about to test it by downloading the modern windows patch (which is the whole reason I wanted to do this) into that folder and see if it works, but I’m so excited I just couldn’t wait to tell you guys. I will let you know if it works by either editing this post or replying to it in this thread but I just couldn’t wait to tell you guys.

[alexb3d]

I use Linux Ubuntu, and it has an application to mount disk images. I think Windows has something similar.

I use the 7z command from the terminal because the Gnome compression program is orthopedic, it doesn’t work. The one I had before can open the image as if it were a normal zip.

Maybe the command does not work for you because you have to put the full path of the img. (you can drag the img to the window to have the path) X is for unzip and -oWin the output folder.

lex@home:~$ 7z X -oWin ‘/home/lex/Games/x.config/retroarch/system/OS/Windows 3.1 [en].img’

@thingsiplay

What I don’t understand is your following statement:

Before, the games on the Windows D disk were saved in zip, you could add or remove anything, now they are saved in .sav. Also, before to add, you could use the disks menu and load a zip as a disk, that is not working.

@thingsiplay

Treat it like a game and open it with DosBox-pure (with your Windows installation). It will appear as a D floppy drive in Windows 98.

I’m not sure I understand, in DOS yes, but in Windows it always loads in D:, and whatever you write to that disk, it will be saved as a .sav.

[thingsiplay]

I’m confident its not a path issue, as I use the commandline and especially 7z a lot (relative paths work and file is found). Did you actually unpack the Windows.img file with 7z successfully? Does it support this file format at all? Because an .img file not the same as all .img files, its just an extension, but the file format can be different. Example an image from a CD is not the as an image from a Windows installation with boot information.

That’s why support for this particular file format is needed and I’m not sure if 7z does.

[alexb3d]

If everything, I always do If you put 7z i, it shows the formats. It supports multiple img.

Try duplicating your line and it works fine.
Do you have Windows and is the img corrupted? I have these additional codecs installed, but I don’t think they affect anything.
p7zip rar unrar unace zip unzip p7zip-full p7zip-rar ace

edit: if you have windows, you can open the img with WinZip

[thingsiplay]

I don’t think the image is corrupted, as it runs fine in Dosbox and output of fdisk -lu Windows_98_SE_OEM.img lists the data correctly. But the type on your system is FAT, while it is “W95 FAT32 (LBA)” on mine. And it is 8 GiB. Maybe 7z does not support all possible configurations this image file type can have.

I’ll stop here, because I’m not even interested into getting data out (was just trying to help to the other person) and not to bloat this thread with my own issues.