Home Page Forums MAME MAME Nintendo chr and prg.

How come single file won't run?

For example. 3-D WorldRunner (USA).prg This doesn't have a chr.

I split the 3-D WorldRunner (USA).nes with uCON64.

Using this command.

ucon64 -s convert/split to Pasofami/PRM/700/PRG/CHR *.nes
pause

3-D WorldRunner (USA).nes does work so I don't know what the problem getting the 3-D WorldRunner (USA).prg to run.

That's why the softlists exist and give you MAME type setnames for each of the games. Simply place the .prg and other parts if needed into the setname expected for 3-D WorldRunner (3dworldr). Therefore: "mess nes 3dworldr" should run the game from command-line. Trying to load the .prg via picker will not work, as only .nes and .unf is supported (-listmedia). So, package it as a softlist rom, and you should have no problems.

I wonder it will work with a blank .chr with that prg?

You'd need to look at the nes.xml hash file to determine what it's looking for - or alternatively use CLRMAME to check the requirements for you.

<software name="3dworldr">
<description>The 3-D Battles of Worldrunner (USA)</description>
<year>1987</year>
<publisher>Acclaim Entertainment</publisher>
<info name="serial" value="NES-WO-USA"/>
<info name="release" value="198709xx"/>
<part name="cart" interface="nes_cart">
<feature name="pcb" value="NES-UNROM" />
<feature name="mirroring" value="vertical" />
<feature name="peripheral" value="3dglasses" />
<dataarea name="prg" size="131072">
<rom name="nes-wo-0 prg" size="131072" crc="e6a477b2" sha1="ce70e57475f4058ac5a05dfed92163d42f0b8b96" offset="00000" />
</dataarea>
<!-- 8k VRAM on cartridge -->
<dataarea name="vram" size="8192">
</dataarea>
</part>
</software>

OK now I understand how this works. MESS reading from this in order to load.

Hi, sorry to necro this thread, but I seem to be unable to use a full path to NES roms that have been split into PRG (+CHR) (ZIP-ed).

MESS will spit out the following error:

Device NES Cartridge Slot load failed: Unspecified error

All the systems using dataarea name="rom" work perfectly with both paths (which I prefer right now) and shortnames.

Is this a (known) bug?

It won't work like that because NES cartridges can (and usually do) contain extra hardware, and MESS can't automatically determine what that hardware should be.

Use shortnames, or convert your ROMs to a format that includes the hardware configuration (.nes, .unif).

100% what Octocontrabass said.
split files can only be loaded from softlist, because the emulator must know what kind of cart the files come from

Alright, that's clear. Thanks for the explanation