How do I swap discs properly?

RetroArch General
#1

I’m trying to understand what basic steps are necessary to make the Disk Index function on RetroArch work.

I know this should be super simple, but I’m clearly doing things wrong… Basically, I am trying to load up the Sega CD 32X version of Fahrenheit using the picodrive core.

I know for a fact this works, because I did it twice before, but it’s been a long while… Essentially you put in Disc 2 (the 32X disc) and it asks you to swap to Disc 1 (the Sega CD disc). When you switch to Disc 1 it again says, put in Disc 2, and then you can play the game.

Now when I try it though… I can’t even change the disc. It stays on Disk index 1, and if I try the append option, it completely reloads retroarch so it bounces me back and forth between the discs.

Now, I don’t know if this is worth mentioning, but since I have an odd setup I thought I’d put this out there too.

Both discs are just named “Fahrenheit” because, well one is a Sega CD game and the other is a Sega CD 32X game so they don’t even go in the same wheel, and certainly not the same folder negating the need for naming them with (Disc 1) or (Disc 2).

Could that be causing the issues?

#2

Hi!

Did you create a playlist file for the game? If not create a simple text file named like “Fahrenheit.m3u” and add each disc file name like

Fahrenheit (Disc 1).iso
Fahrenheit (Disc 2).iso

You said both of your CDs are named the same. So I assume you need to use relative paths which should work, too:

Sega CD/Fahrenheit.iso
Sega 32X/Fahrenheit.iso

When you now start the M3U file using PicoDrive open the RetroArch menu, go to “Disc Control” and you will be able to open the virtual disc tray, change between disc 1 and 2, close the disc tray again and continue with the chosen disc.

In your special case where you have to start with disc 2 you could change the order of the discs inside the playlist file. The disc index would turn, but you wouldn’t have to do: Disc 1 (default) -> Disc 2 -> Disc 1 -> Disc 2. Weird.

#3

I think only the Mednafen PSX cores support .m3u playlists.

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#4

Would Mednafen and PCSX ReARMed be able to read the same save files? If so that’d be wondrous. :<

I’ve got Abes Exoddus and Heart of Darkness to complete, and can’t since I can’t get past the ‘Insert Disc 2’ prompt.

Using iOS 8.4 (iPhone)

#5

That was my understanding.

I’m starting to think I should just make a duplicate of Disc 1 in 32x and remove it from the wheel.

Nothing so far has worked

#6

I know this is a super old topic, but I found the solution this morning. So I wanted to add to this in case anyone else comes across this via search.

There’s a bug in RetroArch’s XMB gui where whenever the file browser shows your drive list - it throws the core’s file extension list out the window and thinks it’s loading new content. This causes RetroArch to restart instead of actually doing disc swap functions.

If you go to Directories, and change File Browser from to something further down you will be fine. (In my case, setting it to “W:\Games”) That allows me to navigate to whatever folders I want within my GameDrive without bumping into the Drive selection and hitting this bug.

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