Best way to organize CD-based games?

[NixZero]

Like the title says, I'm wondering if there is a "best-practice" way of organizing CD based games. More specifically, I haven't used GameEx in a while, and at the time I only had a few PSX games so I just dumped the BIN and CUE files in a folder and set a filter for CUE files. However, this seems a little messy to me, especially now that my collection has grown and includes some games with multiple discs. My goal is to have an organized folder structure and a clean gamelist in GameEx without having to manually edit things whenever I download an update.

I'm hoping that there is some kind of "standard", as I plan on trying other front ends as well (XBMC for sure). I've relied on the "Good Tools" for my other game collections, but I haven't found anything similar for Playstation titles. Any advice is welcome.

[Stu1983]

I just keep them all in 1 folder but turn on "Merge Sets" in the 'Advanced Emulator Setup' screen

This option will merge multidisc games into 1 entry, when you select the game, GameEx will ask you which disc to play.

With the announcement of ePSXe 1.8 around the corner, and one of it's new features is that it will support compressed iso's, I will likely be converting all my bin's & cue's in the coming weeks

[NixZero]

Thanks for the reply. Forgive me if this is a stupid question, my GameEx machine has been down for a year, but how does the Merge Sets feature work? I can't remember if GameEx has a pre-existing gamelist and my file names need to match it or if it builds the database based on what it finds in your ISO folder. If it builds a list dynamically, does it just parse the filenames for things like "Disc 2"?? Also, what do you do when it's time to switch CDs?

Thanks for the info on the new ePSXe using compressed files. If I'm reading this right, it will use PBP files, which means I could run my PSX games in ePSXe or my PSP without doing any conversions. Very handy!

[Stu1983]

GameEx will show a 'live' list of what is in your specified folder. It will try and match the names of your roms to a database but this is only to display extra info like a description. If the game in your folder doesn't match the database name then it will still appear in GameEx but it will just have no meta data.

The merge feature works exactly as you describe it

Example:

Gran Turismo (Disc 1)

Gran Turismo (Disc 2)

will appear in GameEx as:

Gran Turismo

When you select the game you will be asked which disc you want to play on the 'Game Info' screen in GameEx

I don't know exactly all the words it will parse but I know I have some systems the use (Disc 1) some that use (CD1) and I think I even have some that use (Disc 1 of 2) and they all get handled correctly.

[Adultery]

It shouldn't matter what's in the bracketed text. I'm pretty sure Tom uses a regex to strip that and group them together, so you could have Fun Game (Disc One) and Fun Game (Broken Peters Lame Of The Year Edition) and it'll work.

[NixZero]

This is great info, guys. The fact that GameEx includes metadata and pics is the main reason why I'm using a front end, so this is very helpful. While my games are in a variety of formats, I should be able to filter CUE and MDS files (and possibly CCD, read below) and be good to go.

However, I am still concerned about organizing things for when I browse the ISO folder in Explorer. As I said, I have a number of different formats, and I'm trying to clean them up to get rid of waste and keep things as consistent as possible:

1) Many games have multiple BIN files for each track. Is there a tool that can combine these into a single BIN and edit their CUEs accordingly? I've heard of ISOBuster, but it looks like it can only combine multitrack CDs into single ISO files, and the process can damage file integrity.

2) My IMG games include CCD and SUB files, but some have CUEs as well. As I understand it, CUE, CCD, and SUB files are all Toc files and serve the same purpose. If that's true, is it possible to convert CCD files to CUEs and skip the CCD & SUB format altogether?

3) Some games only have single BIN file, how can I generate a CUE for them?

Thanks again!

[nullPointer]

Here’s what I do, and it works a treat. Like you I like to keep my game directories clean in addition to having a well organized game list in GameEx. Just give each game its own directory. It’s likely that your games were originally in some sort of archive format, so when you unzip them just unzip them to their own directory.

In GameEx configure your Rom Filter however you need to. Then on the Advanced Emulator Setup screen Set Merge Sets to Yes, and set Scan Sub Folders to Yes. That should net you a clean list in GameEx, and afford you the luxury of a well organized rom directory.

I believe that should address questions 1) and 2) without having to worry about damaging file integrity.

Creating your own CUE file really isn’t that tough to do.

• Select an existing CUE file in Explorer and choose Open With > Notepad (or plain text editor of your choosing)
  
• Save the file as the same name as your BIN (i.e. if it’s “Great Game (USA).bin” name the .cue “Great Game (USA).cue”)
  
• Change the data within the cue to match the bin you’re pointing at. It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but the cue file should only contain a couple of lines, and IIRC it’s not terribly complex to figure out what needs to be altered (Sorry I don’t have any cue/bin format images on my current machine).
  

One caveat here is that multi-track bins may cause you a headache utilizing this method. Let us know how it works out for you.

[NixZero]

Well, unfortunately I read this a little too late, lol. This is actually how I set up my Sega CD and Saturn ISOs (each game is in a separate folder), but I got some bad info from a friend that other front ends couldn't read subfolders. That being said, I already pulled all of my files out of their folders (most come in a folder or I unzip them to a folder using the ZIP fileaname). Oh well.. I'll just have to manually put them back in folders...

[Draco1962]

Better late than never! Hopefully the suggestions null and Adultery will be helpful to you. Let us know if you need more help or have more questions!

Edited September 24, 2012 by Draco1962
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