rar support

[Visitor Q]

I need rar support for Game Ex in the same way it handles zip files, unzips the game and then removes the game there after.

Can this be done? Need to use this for PC Engine ISO games. =]

Thanks!

[chriss]

the unpacker for rar is freeware but packing stuff with rar is not for free... i can understand tom if he doesn't want to implement this format into gameex.

so the only solution right now would be to repack your isos to 7zip, which is an open format and compresses better than rar

[Visitor Q]

That will not work for me because when the torrent is updated, the file format stays the same. I don't want to recompress 130 gigs everytime and update comes out. Infact I already did what you suggested and now I am running into this problem.

[bkenobi]

If rar support isn't available, you could always use a wrapper or launch before command to extract the file first. It's not as elegant, but it should work.

[Visitor Q]

I know just the man for the job!

[BrutalDeluxe]

Hmm rar should give, or used to give better compression than zip etc. But its commercial

[fRequEnCy]

Hmm rar should give, or used to give better compression zip etc. But its commercial

Zip is the standard compression format for Roms. Always has been and always will. There are free apps to handle rars. 7-zip will decompress them just fine and it's free.

[Visitor Q]

Hmm rar should give, or used to give better compression zip etc. But its commercial

It does but that is neither here nor there at this point.

fRequEnCy , can you help me out with a wrapper please?

[Brian Hoffman]

It does but that is neither here nor there at this point.

fRequEnCy , can you help me out with a wrapper please?

Hahaha frequency......

[Visitor Q]

fRequEnCy is very helpful, he has helped me more times than I don't know what.

[Brian Hoffman]

fRequEnCy is very helpful, he has helped me more times than I don't know what.

he is a great guy. no doubt about it... and what does that get him? Money? no... Women? ...no... Fame? Maybe... More work? Definatly

Hehehehehe

[Tempest]

Especially when it was suggested to use launch before, and after....

[chriss]

call me a noob but are there so many updates to the pc engine isos? i don't emulate pc engine but if you got a bunch of isos and got them working by recompressing to zip you should be fine

or you just keep two versions.. the rar for updates and the zips for play

[Visitor Q]

They where just updated last month.

[greatflash]

call me a noob but are there so many updates to the pc engine isos? i don't emulate pc engine but if you got a bunch of isos and got them working by recompressing to zip you should be fine

or you just keep two versions.. the rar for updates and the zips for play

Just to stick my 2 penneth in.

One thing that you all miss regarding 7zip, zip, and rar is the time they take to decompress.

If this is a consideration (it really should be), you are always best to use Zip. The decompress speed is way ahead of 7zip (by MILES) and also quicker than rar. When you are talking archives that contain files of 600megs or more, every second counts and the difference between 7zip and Zip can be minutes!

I wrote a simple dos batch script to scan a directory, unpack each rar/7z, and then recompress as a zip using the same name as the rar/7z original. It took a while but was well worth it.

I know this can be a pain when your archives are downloaded as rars (though they are also about in zips), but it really is worth the effort.

Also, 7zip and rar extraction is slower in Vista as it is in Xp??

[bkenobi]

I agree with flash on this especially for more modern systems. For older systems the roms are much smaller so it doesn't take much time to extract. On the other hand, there's also not much savings in using rar on small files, so what's the point.

Either way, I believe you can just use a launch before and launch after command to do what you are attempting.

Launch Before = unrar.exe [RomPath]\[RomFile] C:\temp\. {switches}
Command = <emulator.exe> {switches} C:\temp\[Rom].<extension>
Launch After = delete c:\temp\* /F /Q

I doubt this is exactly right. I'm just going by memory and a bit of guessing. You will probably need to tweak things to get it to work for you.

[fRequEnCy]

he is a great guy. no doubt about it... and what does that get him? Money? no... Women? ...no... Fame? Maybe... More work? Definatly

Hehehehehe

Isn't that what we are all here for? LOL. For fame (lack of). LOL. And why you spreading lies Brian? Who said I was great?

[Visitor Q]

My point remains, I don't want to recompress 130 gigs everytime and update comes out.

This is not a matter for me as to what version uncompresses faster or what offers better compression.

[bkenobi]

Did you miss my post? I just gave you a way to have RAR support in GameEx.

If you want Tom to build in RAR support so you don't have to type in 2 lines of code, I suspect that will take a while. Also, it would have to be in the features request thread for it to be considered.

[greatflash]

My point remains, I don't want to recompress 130 gigs everytime and update comes out.

This is not a matter for me as to what version uncompresses faster or what offers better compression.

Or... Download Zips in future. (or 7z)..

BK's solution will work fine otherwise..

Well done BK on such a quick solution.