retroputing

[obliterator918]

I wrote a utility that I figure anyone with a 1541U would find useful. Here's a copy of what I posted to the 1541 Ultimate Forum:

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I've written a utility that takes a Gamebase64 file set and extracts it to a file structure ideal for the 1541 U with a 2+ gig SD card.

Download: GB64reorg1541U.zip (437K)

I wrote this because I was looking at a set I downloaded from someone else here and noticed that it had quite a few problems -- including lots of directories having way more than 256 items. Also, having all of the .d64 files mixed in to the same folders makes disk swapping a real pain when the game name is too long, so I figured each game should simply have its own folder, and the disk images themselves should retain their DOS8.3 names.

Two big advantages to using this utility: when a new GB64 comes out, you can just run the utility again. And, when the 1541U gets native text file support, you'll have all the info right there on the 1541U for each game. (Hopefully the firmware will recognize .NFO as a text file extension. If not I will update GBReorg to change the names...)

Here's the readme:

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GameBase 64 Reorganizer for 1541 Ultimate SD Card
For Windows XP, Vista, and 7.

©2009 Brandon Staggs. Freeware. Find me on the 1541 Ultimate Forum.

SOFTWARE LICENSE TERMS: NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND IS PROVIDED AS IS. YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS IF YOU USE THIS SOFTWARE. IF YOU DO NOT OR CAN NOT AGREE, YOU ARE NOT LICENSED TO USE THIS SOFTWARE.

GB 64 Reorg is a little utility to extract a Gamebase game archive collection into a folder structure ideal for the 1541 Ultimate on a 2gig+ SD card.

To use this utility, you must have a Gamebase “games” folder with zip files containing the disk/tape images and VERSION.NFO files. This utility requires the VERSION.NFO files within each zip file to create the output directory structure. You do not need to have a complete GB installation or even have the actual GB database itself. This utility only works with the zip files containing the disk/floppy images.

Use of GB64 Reorg is straightforward.

SOURCE FOLDER: This is the base folder for your Gamebase zip files, like D:\GB64\Games.

DESTINATION FOLDER: This is where you want the new folder structure and extracted files to be written. The utility will always append “GameBase 1541U” to whatever you select when the folder structure is created, so you can simply select the root folder of your SD card. (Or you can just write it to your hard drive and copy afterwards.)

If the GameBase 1541U\ folder already exists, its contents will be deleted. Note that manually formatting your SD card is a lot faster than having Windows delete the files from this folder, as long as the card doesn't have anything else important on it!

OUTPUT UPPER-CASE FOLDER NAMES should be selected. This makes all of the game name folders in uppercase letters to ensure that they appear in alphabetical order on the 1541U. If you do not select this, the 1541U will sort some items out of alphabetical order.

GB64 Reorg does not do anything to your existing GB64 files. It merely creates a new folder structure and extracts the archives to the new location you specify.

When you click Go, GB64 Reorg will recursively scan the files from the Source Folder you specified, looking for zip files, and examining the VERSION.NFO files within. Once this scan is complete, it will then create a new directory structure under the destination folder you specified + \GameBase 1541U\.

The new directory structure is ideal for the 1541U because none of the folders contain more than 250 entries (the 1541 U has a 256 entry max per directory). Also, the utility tries to keep alpha subfolders logical and down to two characters as often as possible, making them easier to browse on the 1541U. The subfolders will contain between 50 and 250 items each, depending on the density of similarly named archives.

The GB archives are all extracted to their own directories within the folder structure. This means each game has its own folder (with a fully descriptive name) and the VERSION.NFO files are retained. The advantages are obvious: when the 1541U adds text file display support, you will be able to read the nfo files on the device. Also, disk swapping is much easier, because the disk images themselves are grouped by game in their own folders and with short file names (no more guessing at which file is the first disk). When necessary, identical game names have the GB64 unique ID appended to their folder name.

The utility also writes a CSV text file called "GameList.csv" which can be loaded into a text reader or spreadsheet application. It lists the full game names along with the path they were extracted to. This file isn't really necessary but could help you find something if you can't quite figure out the directory names (which should be very rare since GB64 Reorg uses the full game name as the folder names).

Please report any problems on the 1541 Ultimate Forum in the GB64 Reorganizer for 1541 Ultimate SD Card thread.
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-Brandon

[98PaceCar]

Haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I did this manually on mine so I'm excited to try this out and see how much easier it can be!

[obliterator918]