Transitioning from Disc 1 to Disc 2 - PS1 Emulator

mitu

@therealrahlin Probably yes, as long as the .srm file is correct and named after the game you're running.

therealrahlin

@mitu okay, ill try that and play to disk change and update again.
Thanks for all your help.

mitu

@therealrahlin If you have a save from before the disc change, you can upload it somewhere to try it myself. You can also save the state in RetroArch and copy the .state file.

therealrahlin

@mitu Okay, So I just tried the new save and beat the boss, it then prompts me to insert disk 2 and I tried again. still the same thing. So I tried loading disk 2 first and loading my save. it prompts me to insert disk 1 so I insert and load and it worked, but when I re beat the boss and go to the disk 2 prompt screen. same thing and repeat. Im going to try to make them .m3u files and see if it then works.

therealrahlin

@therealrahlin

I'm lost here.

M3U playlist for Multi-disc Games
Multiple discs can be loaded simultaneously from Emulation Station into RetroArch by creating an M3U file (plain-text, ".m3u" extension). In it's contents, enter the filenames of the CUE/TOC/CCD files one per line. In game you can then swap disks from the core disk options menu (under Options). Make sure to cycle tray status before attempting to change disks.
To have the M3U file be the only item listed in Emulation Station to reduced menu clutter:
Replace the .cue extension on the multi-disc files with .CD1 .CD2 and so on so that es_systems.cfg won't list them.
Replace the .cue extension you reference them in the M3U with appropriate ones (.CD1 .CD2 etc).
Example for Metal Gear Solid:
Folder Structure:

Metal Gear Solid (E) (Disc 1).bin
Metal Gear Solid (E) (Disc 1).CD1 (this is the renamed .cue file)
Metal Gear Solid (E) (Disc 2).bin
Metal Gear Solid (E) (Disc 2).CD2 (this is the renamed .cue file)
Metal Gear Solid.m3u
Metal Gear Solid.m3u:

Metal Gear Solid (E) (Disc 1).CD1
Metal Gear Solid (E) (Disc 2).CD2
This will function the same as EBOOT-format without altering the files.
WARNING! M3U Playlist files won't load a game with multi-bin files, you need to pack all .bin files plus cue file, in a single .bin file plus a new cue file. This can be easly achieved with ISOBuster (free edition) with the following procedure:
Run ISOBuster
Open Image File and select the .cue file of a game with multi-bin files.
Right-Click on "CD" (the top one on tree-structure) then select Extract CD and select RAW (.bin .iso)
Now select a path where to save the file, change from the dropdown .iso to .bin
Rename your file and add .bin at the end of the name.
Save the file, and you are promped to save a new cue file.
Now you have a multi-bin game with .cue file, packed in a single .bin file plus a new .cue file.
Now .m3u can read the file and load the game.

On the first bolded note, I understand I need to replace the extension, and replace the extension in the m3u with the ones (CD1, CD2 etc.)
Do I just rename the cue file parasite eve (disk 1).CD1

On the 2nd bolded note,
When I select the .cue file from parasite eve that has multi bin files how do I select the 2nd disk as well so that it combines it?

on the last bolded note,
how do I have a multi bin game with .cue file packed in a single bin file plus a new cue file? how is it a multi disk game if I only select the one cue file to begin with?

mitu

@therealrahlin What files does your game have (.cue/.bin/etc.) ?

Normally a .cue represents a CD image. The CD might have multiple tracks - data and sound. This is a multi-bin image - a sing .cue file references multiple .bin files. For this kind of image you need to pack all the .bin image into a single .bin to work with the .m3u.
However, if your image files are just a pair of .cue, and .bin files, then just create the .m3u as the docs say and start the game with the .m3u file (since you renamed the .cue files, they won't appear in the game list).

therealrahlin

@mitu How would I be able to pack all of the single bin files into a single bin? I have 4 files that's why I don't understand why the isobuster program only wants/allows 1 cue file selection.

My files read
Parasite Eve (Disc 1).bin
Parasite Eve (Disc 1).cue
Parasite Eve (Disc 2).bin
Parasite Eve (Disc 2).cue

What do I need to do with them accordingly?

mitu

@therealrahlin Just create the .m3u file as explained in the docs - you don't need to pack anything, since your CD images are single .bin files.
The packing needs to be done when you have something like 1 .cue file and multiple .bin files for 1 CD image - i.e. a multi-track cd image like Hogs of War.

therealrahlin

@mitu
Okay, but as I explained above I don't understand the directions in the documentation provided.

mitu

@therealrahlin It's not that difficult

Rename the .cue files to .cd1 and .cd2
Create a simple text file with the contents

Parasite Eve (Disc 1).cd1
Parasite Eve (Disc 2).cd2

and name the file Parasite Eve.m3u.
3. Restart Emulationstation and you should have a single game in the list, called Parasite Eve.
4. Rename your .srm file to Parasive Eve.srm (optional)
5. Start the game. When prompted to change the disk, follow the instructions in the docs to change the disk index - since now RA knows the game has multiple discs.

therealrahlin

@mitu okay thank you for the simplification of this. The docs make it sound so confusing. I will try that and report back

mitu

@therealrahlin I literally repeated what the docs said - how is that confusing ?

.. RetroArch by creating an M3U file (plain-text, ".m3u" extension). In it's contents, enter the filenames of the CUE/TOC/CCD files one per line. In game you can then swap disks from the core disk options menu (under Options). Make sure to cycle tray status before attempting to change disks.

To have the M3U file be the only item listed in Emulation Station to reduced menu clutter:

Replace the .cue extension on the multi-disc files with .CD1 .CD2 and so on so that es_systems.cfg won't list them.
Replace the .cue extension you reference them in the M3U with appropriate ones (.CD1 .CD2 etc).

The docs also give you an example for MGS which is quite clear.

therealrahlin

This post is deleted!

therealrahlin

@mitu
Thanks...

omen_peter

Hi @therealrahlin. I may be completely wrong here (please ignore me if this is the case!) but could your issue have anything to do with the fact that you are selecting the .bin file when changing discs and not the .cue file? It is the .cue that shows in EmulationStation and is required to run the game.

My psx games are all in the bin/cue format, but I am yet to play a multi-disc game. I am very interested in hearing how you get this sorted so will be watching this thread with interest!

therealrahlin

@omen_peter
Could be, but I played through the whole first disk without any problems at all. Not so much as a crash. even running the hd hack and speed hack as well as bilinear filtering.

therealrahlin

@mitu
Okay, after going through and renaming all the files properly and then re booting the emulationstation I cycle to my game and go to load, there are now 3 files.

Parasite Eve
Parasite Eve (Disc 1).cd1
Parasite Eve (Disc 2).cd2

Here are the files,
Screenshot (3).png

and the file I made for the .m3u
Screenshot (4).png

I have yet to get this to work, the Parasite Eve file will not load up at all. Thankfully I found my old psp memory card with my eboot .pbp files on it. I'm going to try to transfer those for my multi-disk games and see if they actually work.

mitu

It's because you actually renamed the .cue files .cd1.cueand .cd2.cue. Enable the show file extension option in Windows explorer to see the REAL extension of the files. You didn't rename the files properly.

therealrahlin

@mitu thatss why I said its way too confusing for beginners to do this, just because I opened it up in notepad++ and changed it doesn't mean it actually changes the extension, that's what I was asking about earlier when I said im supposed to rename the files. It wont change the format. Im will be making a youtube tutorial for beginners so they can understand this, IF I EVER GET IT FIGURED OUT. Im going to push Eboots for .pbp files because it seems that's the only real way retroarch can run the ps1 multi disk games.

mitu

@therealrahlin Seriously ? The 1st step is to rename the files - if you don't know how to rename a file, then the docs are irrelevant for you.