Multi disc for Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn using M3U files

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#21

It’s funny you mention that, because strangely enough Resident Evil 2 was the main reason I wanted to go through this process lol. It was driving me nuts that I had to have both discs in my favorites list.

I actually figured out another way to do the XML though that made my life way easier.

So, after setting up the m3u’s and putting them in the game folder, I just did a folder search for the phrase "Disc " (with a space at the end and WITH QUOTES to avoid things like Discworld or Disciples, etc…) and then moved all the results to a temporary folder.

Then I ran the Don’s HyperSpin Tool for generating XMLs with m3u and chd extensions, then moved the game files back to the game folder and viola presto alakazaaaaaam lol worked wonders.

I hadn’t heard of hyperspin checker before though, it looks pretty versatile, so thanks for pointing me there.

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#22

Hi @aorin1

That’s a really neat step by step guide, I was hoping you could help me with a Saturn guide for Panzer Dragoon Saga.

I’ve created a .m3u file containing the name of the relevant ISOs, as follows:

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When I load the .m3u file, the game is starting fine.

I tried to load up an existing save and a save state to try the disk swapping part (I had saved just at the end of disk one with both).

Unfortunately, that ‘trick’ didn’t work, which means I have a bit of a slog to get back to where I was before!

No matter as it is a great game, but before I start again, have I done anything wrong above?

I’m also not totally sure what is meant by an ‘absolute path’ in this context.If I am simply loading the .m3u file will I be doing everything correctly?

Probably worth mentioning I am only using Retroarch.

Incidentally, is there any way I can re-use my existing save/save state or is that impossible now?

Many thanks.

#23

You should check in your CUE file if it has the corresponding iso file, any typo will lead to error. Anyways, I’m not sure what image formats this method works with, I’d try bin+cue files since they are the ones that always work for this and PSX as well.

#24

Thanks for the Guide

#26

Aorin1,

Absolutely fantastic tutorial and write up! Thank you so much. I have a question however…

Can the m3u files be associated with .cue file format or do they have to use .chd? If the latter, is there a similar solution for the .cue format? Please excuse me if someone else has already asked this.

~EDIT~

I see a few replies above that you already answered this. I will seek advice elsewhere and also test this out. Thanks again for this write up!

Thanks,

Sinistradian

#27

Hey, thanks. As for listing cue files inside the m3u file, some other user will have to answer that since I never tried bin+cue, all my disc games are compressed in chd.

#28

I learned that in Lakka there seems to be a limit to 8 discs you can swap between on the PSX emulator. If you place any more than 8 in the .m3u file, Lakka will ignore any additional cue files on the list past 8 cue files. Is there anyway around this limit or is something that is part of retroarch that cannot easily be changed?

#29

It would have to be changed in the source and recompiled, I suspect. But why is this something you want to do?

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#30

I noticed, that disk swapping through the GUI is not working (observed on Windows with beetle PSX - Parasite Eve II (USA).m3u)
Only after a new start of the core the right disc is recognized.
This applies only for the GUI.
In windowed mode, top menu bar, Command - Disc Options, disc swapping works as expected

#31

There are 2 games called monster rancher and monster rancher 2 that relies upon disc swapping to obtain extra monsters. I thought it would have been nice to create a humungous library to pull monsters at any time from but it’s not necessary.

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#32

Just FYI, I tried changing discs in Chrono Cross and the game would just hang when “pause on menu” wasn’t enabled (when it was enabled and the game was running in the background, the disc change went smoothly). To have “pause on menu” enabled and swap discs, I found this method to work which was posted by a dev (Radius4) on Reddit about a year ago:

-   Quick menu 
-   Disk Control Interface 
-   Eject (this step is important) 
-   If you have pause on menu enabled go back to the game for a second (I'll improve this too soon) 
-   Go to menu again 
-   Disk Image append 
-   Select the second disk  It should change the index automatically and throw you back into the game

Obviously there’s no “Disk Image Append” anymore, so you just swap discs and insert. Hopefully this process will get smoothed out in the future :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#33

I noticed the same thing as well. I commented with a workaround in the GUI itself.

1 Like