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Thanks RB,

It's getting late and i am making silly mistakes.

I have been now been able to load splitres.chd with the CL: -

"mess pce -cart scdsys -cdrom g:\mess\roms\pcecd\splitres.chd"

and the good news is that my conversions seem to work as well.

I will just have to try and figure out why i am having trouble with the CL: -

"mess pce -cart cdsys -cdrom splitres"

Here is the cutdown pcecd.xml i am using: -

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE softwarelist SYSTEM "softwarelist.dtd">
<softwarelist name="pcecd" description="PCE CD-ROM list">

<software name="splitres">
<description>SplitRes</description>
<year>199?</year>
<publisher>test</publisher>
<part name="cdrom" interface="pce_cdrom">
<diskarea name="cdrom">
<disk name="splitres" sha1="75f9fdf9b7e4595cda50847c8ce02743d6544990"/>
</diskarea>
</part>
</software>

</softwarelist>


I have tried both of these ways without success: -

the file "splitres.chd" zipped into a file called "splitres.zip" sitting in g:\mess\roms\pcecd\

and

the file "splitres.chd" unzipped sitting in g:\mess\roms\pcecd\

both these ways generate a dialog box which tells me: -

"splitres.chd NOT FOUND"

I have no problems loading the CD System rom when i use the CL:-

"mess pce -cart scdsys"

MESS finds that OK


Definately going to bed now, my eyes keep slamming shut.

k1w1

P.S. I will compile the tg16cd.xml this week.

Try putting it into "roms\pce\".

They're not region locked, I don't think you need 2 lists?

Even if they were, I'm still not convinced you need 2 lists. I don't plan on doing multiple lists for SegaCD...

as mentioned, if you get chd not found, just put it in either /roms or /roms/pce

CD-ROMs aren't region locked, only the Hu-Cards are. And no, doing multiple lists for different regions don't really find my agreement either.

For region-locked systems, multiple lists makes sense. Otherwise, yeah, I'd just add the unique other regions to the existing list.

(Not having separate lists for a region-locked system hurts ease of use and guarantees a steady supply of people wondering why game X doesn't work).

I think it is enough to have different device interfaces: the <part name="cart" interface="XXXX"> has an interface for this reason

at loading: if the interface is correct, the image gets loaded, otherwise it does not.

You get cases like the megadrive where some games are region locked and some aren't. Splitting it across multiple lists would get messy. You have 3 regions, and any combination of them is allowed ;-)

Maybe some kind of 'compatibility' flag in the XML would help, and MESS could warn you if the image you were trying wasn't listed as compatible with the system name / region you were running. (if there was no compatibility flag/string at all, no warning at all)

<compatibility="megadriv:megadrij:genesis">
<compatibility="megadrij:genesis">

etc.

(and yes, it could be similar to the GAME NOT WORKING warning, with a list of system names the said title IS meant to be compatible with)

The downside of that is the lists would need updating if setnames change, or new clones are added, but it's still probably the easiest solution.

It's probably not a bad idea anyway tho, SMS isn't reigon locked, but some euro games will glitch heavily on US systems because they're simply incapable of running at 60fps (they push the system at 50)

eta: unless the error message in that situation is VERY clear, that's even worse. (And even if the message is clear, people *will* misinterpret it - see the evolution of GAME_NOT_WORKING).

thinking back, the interface is not a good solution: if the region lock is done by software (as it often is), the game should be loadable and show the 'game only works in the other region' screen if any has been programmed...

hence, we would probably need a sort of region attribute in the part, or a region feature... all software can be loaded, but if the region mismatches, we pop up a warning...

That's pretty much what I just suggested ;-)