Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie
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@cooliecoolster Once I buy the games, maybe I could check their assets to see if I find anything.
About Disney's emulated games...
Jungle Book is the MS-DOS version on GOG for sure, so maybe Aladdin, Lion King and Hercules are the MS-DOS version too.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is compatible with ScummVM in the Amazon Prime version (time-limited) and Humble Trove version (delisted), but the Windows build requires extracting a file from the exe (dunno if tools like 7zip work, as I tested only with hex editors). Maybe the other Indiana Jones titles have the ScummVM-compatible files too.
And I think I saw a mention to that game about Scrooge McDuck having the NES ROM, but I need to check again.
Edit: Nvm about Scrooge McDuck's game (Ducktales Remastered). The original NES version is available on Disney Afternoon Classics (requires extracting).
Edit 2: Correct name is "The Disney Afternoon Collection", and that's the store link (all games are the NES versions): https://store.steampowered.com/app/525040/The_Disney_Afternoon_Collection/
Edit 3: For extracting the ROMs, use this tool: https://gitlab.com/vaiski/romextract/-/tree/master/ -
@auster I already have that collection listed, though one you didn't mention was Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow, one I don't have on my list at the moment. Might that be a console release, as it's not in their collection? Otherwise, I also see Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer and The Secret of Monkey Island, but I guess it would be too much luck for those to be the console versions...
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@auster And in regards to Aladdin and The Lion King, the ones I'm referring to are in the now-updated version of Disney Classic Games Aladdin & Lion King that has added SNES Aladdin and I believe the SNES version of The Jungle Book, in addition to the existing games in that collection that I listed here: https://wiki.funkey-project.com/wiki/List_of_emulatable_games_(commercial)#Collections_3. The person who wrote several of the ROM extraction tutorials wrote one for that collection as well, but now that it's updated it will probably need an updated tutorial.
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The Jungle Book will be added to Disney Classic Games on November 9th and will be another $10 USD to reflect the additional content. People who own the 2019 collection already can get The Jungle Book for another $10 as DLC. It's a great collection. Aladdin has a director's cut version, so that's a nice perk. Currently, the roms can be extracted with QuickBMS and the sf30_mbundle.bms like most Digital Eclipse collections. I assume The Jungle Book will be too.
Speaking of Digital Eclipse, I finally got around to getting the Blizzard Arcade Collection. There are 12 roms of the 5 games (the original was 3 games but it got updated for free with 2 more). The number of roms is due to the collection having both SNES and Sega variants (mostly SNES but some of the games were released on both), plus new definitive edition variants. No extraction is needed for the PC version. The SNES roms will need renaming to the .sfc/smc extension since they have the .bin extension. The folders containing the roms are located in the . . .\Blizzard Arcade Collection\assets\roms folder.
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@themazingness For the Blizzard Arcade Colection, could you break down which games are for which systems out of the 12? Don't have that collection on my list yet, so it'll be a great addition.
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@cooliecoolster Sure!
Blackthorne: SNES (original), 32x (adds 4 levels and prerendered graphics), and definitive edition (SNES; adds auto mapping and more language support)
The Lost Vikings: Genesis, SNES, and definitive edition (SNES; combines features from original SNES and Genesis)
The Lost Vikings 2: SNES
RPM Racing: SNES
Rock N Roll Racing: SNES, Genesis, Definitive Edition (SNES; adds cd quality music, new special effects, and widescreen support [might be something only the built in emulator does, IDK]), and a four player version (SNES). I'm a little unclear how the rom translates here. I just know there are two Definitive Edition roms while in the collections UI it labels one as Definitive Edition and the other as 4 player.
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@themazingness Thanks! The definitive editions, essentially ROM hacks I guess, are certainly a new thing I'll have to adjust the formatting of the Blizzard Arcade Collection entry's table for. While Blizzard has many faults, the fact that they updated the ROMs themselves, rather than just porting them without giving the consumers the option to access the product they purchased however they wish, something not many publishers would go out of the way to do, is certainly something to be commended.
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@auster Confirmed with a member of the Discord server associated with the device my wiki documents that the Castlevania Advance Collection ROMs are extractable with existing method for Konami collections, so I went ahead and rewrote that method as a short tutorial in template form so that I may paste it as needed for each Konami collection: https://wiki.funkey-project.com/wiki/Template:KonamiGameExtraction. Otherwise, until the Disney Classic Games collection is updated, I imagine Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow would be the Disney release on Steam with the highest likelihood of emulability, as Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer and The Secret of Monkey Island are more likely not to be the console versions, especially considering all of Disney's other MS-DOS releases...
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@cooliecoolster According to discussion on farmerbb's RED-Project on github, the Castlevania GBA roms are extractable but lack sound, presumably because the sound was remastered for the collection.
Maui Mallard is Windows as is Hercules (I have them on GoG). Typically all the retro Disney games not in a collection programmed and curated by Digital Eclipse are going to be PC Disney Interactive games. They may not be directly content for emulation either since they aren't all DOS games. (Though you can technically do early Windows installs in DOSBOX.)
Edit: The current version of The Jungle Book is DOSBOX. I suspect the Steam one is too although it hasn't been purchasable, at least in the USA, for a long time for some reason.
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Side note: If a game is DOS and sold on GoG, it will say it runs on DOSBOX or ScummVM on the game's store page. Games made after Windows 95 hit the scene are almost never DOS.
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@themazingness said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:
Side note: If a game is DOS and sold on GoG, it will say it runs on DOSBOX or ScummVM on the game's store page. Games made after Windows 95 hit the scene are almost never DOS
Windows 95 released on August 24, 1995.
Duke Nukem 3D released on January 29, 1996.
Descent II released on March 13, 1996.
Tomb Raider competed directly with Descent II on DOS although I don't know the exact release date of its DOS version.
Quake released on June 22, 1996.
Grand Theft Auto released on October 21, 1997.
There were still many major titles released for DOS in the late 1990s. Windows 98SE still shipped with really good DOS support. It was really the year 1998 when almost all commercial game development for DOS stopped and Windows became the only platform for PC gaming. I think Quake 2 being WIndows-only was the point where the whole industry collectively decided to let go of DOS but that didn't mean they cancelled DOS titles that were already in development in 1997 just because they were DOS. They just stopped green-lightning any new DOS projects in 1997.
I mean Chex Quest was summer of 1996 and it had the DOS Chex Quest / Doom game and the WIndows 95 AOL installer on the same CD. I will never forget how awesome it was to get the best cereal prize ever.
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@benmclean "Almost never"
However, I concede to your great points.
It turns out the definitive edition ROMs in the Blizzard Arcade Collection aren't really great for emulation. Rock N Roll Racing doesn't have the music. Blackthorne just won't load. The original ones work just fine though.
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@themazingness I'll update the listing to account for that; thanks! I imagine those games probably have third-party ROM hacks available on romhacking.net for those who want other features anyhow.
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Some unfortunate news about Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King (and soon, The Jungle Book), their EULA is pretty strict.
Here are the product pages for reference. I'm not linking to the EULAs directly since that probably varies by country. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1126190/Disney_Classic_Games_Aladdin_and_The_Lion_King/
https://www.gog.com/game/disney_classic_games_aladdin_and_the_lion_kingJust pointing it out since it may not be appropriate for the purposes of this thread or the wikis.
Edit: Added the GoG link which I thought I had included.
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@themazingness Why the hell would you ever buy anything on Steam when you can get it on GOG instead?
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@benmclean I have it on GoG. There is a license agreement on both GoG and Steam.
Edit: Oh, and to answer your question, I agree in a lot of cases but not on games that have regular updates. GoG is notorious for having games months or years behind patch and content releases. I really hope I don't regret having the collection on GoG come November 9th for that very reason.
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@themazingness I did a quick look in the EULA, and it seems to have a few problems in it.
For example, in the US, afaik, you're allowed to have an offline copy of contents you have a license for, but the point 2-B-i implies you can't.
Also, 2-B-ii says you can't copy the product, and while I imagine they mean illegal sharing, it could be interpreted as "I can't copy the files to another computer, only download directly from Steam", and Steam does give an option to copy the game between computers, afaik.
2-B-v says we can't reverse engineer the game, but from what I know, not just reverse engineering is either legal or at least prohibitions are not enforced in most countries, but having the offline copy I mentioned before some times involves this sort of thing.I didn't read much of what's after, but I imagine it goes along those lines.
If I got something wrong, please do say. -
Late heads up, but Sam and Max Hit the Road is currently available as part of the Amazon Prime subscription and it probably ends today. It works on ScummVM right off the bat (tested with a Debian snapshot build).
It's also available on GOG and Steam, and both mention being powered by ScummVM, so these versions of the game likely work on any recent builds of ScummVM too.
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2 free to claim programs for the Amiga 3.x:
Emmas Paint Book - Amiga: https://8080.itch.io/emmas-paint-book-amiga
The Tunnel - Amiga: https://8080.itch.io/the-tunnel-amigaSale page:
https://itch.io/s/56820/free-amiga-bundle-of-2-gamesEnds in about 1 month, if the dev doesn't change anything in the sale.
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Some Neo Geo Color Pocket games have been released on Steam (no GoG release, sadly).
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1586350/NEOGEO_POCKET_COLOR_SELECTION_Vol_1_Steam_Edition/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1575670/SNK_VS_CAPCOM_THE_MATCH_OF_THE_MILLENNIUM/I don't know about the collection ($40, oof), but a player has confirmed that SNK vs Capcom has the BIOS and rom at steamapps\common\SNK VS. CAPCOM THE MATCH OF THE MILLENNIUM\Data\game\SNK. Source: https://github.com/farmerbb/RED-Project/issues/31
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