Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie

march_

Thanks. :) Worked for me on Linux.

Installed the game via Steam (Wine) and moved game_xx.arc (xx= 00,01, 10, 11, 20,21,30,31,40,41,50,51,60 or 61) to a seperate folder (working directory).
Installed Universal Extractor 2 via PlayOnLinux
Extracted all files (game_xx.arc) via Universal Extractor 2 in my seperate folder.
Unzipped CBEUB_extract.zip and put all extracted files from the folders found under game_xx/bin.
Ran the batch files via wineconsole gamexx_filename.bat from the terminal.
A new temporary folder tmp appears and the files will be stored here.

These files have to be zipped and named manually because the script isn't for Linux. Move the .zip-file to another folder, delete all files in tmp and run the next .bat-file.

Edit: Extraction worked but some files seem to be missing. I'll check it...

mochimochi

@march_

I found a new script in Python created by shawngmc

Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle,Capcom Arcade Stadium 1 - Game ID 1515950 - Old version and Capcom Fighting Collection can also be extracted.
There was also a summary of the working status of the extracted ROMs.

It worked fine on Windows 10, but could not be installed on Ubuntu on WSL because it requires python-magic-bin.

On windows
Use pipx\venvs\game-extraction-toolbox\script\gextoolbox.exe.

The format is
gextoolbox.exe postprocess steam extract --srcdir (Steam game install or downloaded Depot folder) --destdir (destination folder) --task (supported game name)

--task should be the name of the corresponding cas1_old,cbeub,cfc,sf30ac

Dear global administrators, no illegal links:)

itomeshi

@mochimochi Hey, thanks for the shout out!

I'm Shawn, the developer of that tool., which has two main goals:

I want to make some quick command line tools to help rapidly prototype extraction methods from these various collections
I've been poring through disparate scripts trying to find one-off scripts that can be incorporated.

I'm always on the lookout for more games to add - in an upcoming release (likely 0.0.21), I'm adding:

Blizzard Arcade Collection
Bubsy Two-Fur
Collection of SaGa/Final Fantasy Legend
Mega Man Legacy Collection 1
Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1

Most of this batch is low hanging fruit (rename files, extract contiguous chunks of large files, etc.), but I'm hoping to add some more soon.

I'm also trying to keep this 'as legal as possible'. By that, I mean no redistribution of any copyrighted material or encryption keys that would trigger a DMCA request.

This thread has been a huge help to my legal ROM collection, so hopefully I can help give back a bit. I'm also open to game/collection suggestions or generic tooling to help investigate these games.

One more thing:
In that upcoming version, I've also simplified the command structure a bit as this tool has taken shape. The equivalent of the command @mochimochi had is now:

gextoolbox.exe tasks extract --task <TASKNAME> --srcdir <PATH/TO/SRC> --destdir <PATH/TO/DEST>

It now also has 'sane defaults' on Windows (if your Steam library is in the default location, you can fully omit the --srcdir flag).

To get a list of the tasks, you'll use:
gextoolbox.exe tasks list

And to get more details on a task, you'll use:
gextoolbox.exe tasks details --task <TASKNAME>

mochimochi

@itomeshi Hi,I'm glad you made a good extraction tool!

It would be very useful if we could convert multiple titles with one tool.
I know it's hard to keep up with the development, Good luck!

elco2

@itomeshi
Hi, tried this for Capcom stadium 1. Only had 1 DLC, but it sorted out that I only had 1943 and gng. It looked like it worked... however when I went to the destdir (that it had made) it was empty :/

SeeNoWeevil

Has anyone managed to extract from the Cowabunga Collection? I've seen someone mentioning the Switch release but not PC.

Auster

River City Girls Zero (basically Shin Nekketsu Kouha: Kunio-tachi no Banka translated officially for the first time and rebranded to follow the hype of River City Girls) will be released on Steam tomorrow.

From what I saw about the production of this version of the game, it uses a translated SNES ROM on an emulator made by LRG.

Now, I don't know if the ROM in the console versions of the game are easily accessible, but there's a chance at least the upcoming PC version is.

Auster

Turns out River City Girls Zero was released earlier than expected (a WF staff member even confirmed so).

About the game itself, it contains a bunch of SNES .sfc ROMs in its root directory, one for each language and alternative translation the game has, and they seem to run just fine on BSNES!

themazingness

Lizard got an SNES port now with improvements. It is free DLC on Steam and is also given freely to Itch.io owners of Lizard.

Micro Mages got a second quest in the form of a separate rom than the original. It is also free to owners of the original game both on Steam and Itch.io. For Steam it can be found in the game folders. It isn't incorporated into the executable on Steam yet so emulation is the only way to play it.

themazingness

@SeeNoWeevil I suspect we'll see it added to one of the extraction programs on Github, but I'm unaware of anyone doing it yet.

themazingness

theretroverse.com is an online arcade/marketplace for games made in NESMaker. It is brand new so right now it is mostly demos of Byte Off III (a competition held by the makers of NESMaker in the same vein as Itch.io's game jams.) But it should be full of homebrew NES games once it gains momentum.

Auster

@themazingness Going by the copyright notice in the foot of the page, the soon to be a store is owned by the people who created the NES Maker engine.

themazingness

@Auster That's correct. From what I understand it will only feature NESMaker games, though selling there is voluntary (they aren't pushing for anything mandatory or exclusive).

Crush

@Auster said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

River City Girls Zero (basically Shin Nekketsu Kouha: Kunio-tachi no Banka translated officially for the first time and rebranded to follow the hype of River City Girls) will be released on Steam tomorrow.

From what I saw about the production of this version of the game, it uses a translated SNES ROM on an emulator made by LRG.

Now, I don't know if the ROM in the console versions of the game are easily accessible, but there's a chance at least the upcoming PC version is.

Nice that it does have the roms, i checked out some gameplay to compare it with the Gideon translation, and though they basically say the same things, the Gideon translation feels more like a Kunio-kun game than the official translation.
Something to consider if you're planning on a Kunio-kun marathon with your friends. The entire series has been localized by fans.

march_

Legend - Beat'em up

Download the purchased game from your library and use innoextract:

innoextract setup_legend_1.0_\(54033\).exe

Open folder res and rename game to Legend.smc and enjoy your SNES/SFC-game.

Edit: Also tested Switchblade - same precedure as above. The only difference: rename game to switchblade.md (Sega Genesis/Megadrive).

themazingness

@march_ This is the case for almost every Piko Interactive game that isn't DOS, 3D Noah's ark being the only exception I'm aware of (if memory serves, that rom is already named and not in a res folder). No need for innoextract though. Browsing to the res folder, copying the file to where you want it, then renaming it with the file extension appropriate for the console it was made for is all that's needed.

march_

@themazingness Thanks. I didn't know that. Ran innoextract on Linux so I had to rename manually. Perhaps it will be different when using wine.

march_

Just found free games for prime members on https://gaming.amazon.com:

Metal Slug
Metal Slug X
Metal Slug 3
Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
The King of Fighters 2003
The Last Blade
The Last Blade 2
Twinkle Star Sprites
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection
...

I don't use the gaming platform of Amazon so it is untested.

Unknown

https://polymars.itch.io/terri-fried
This is a new game made for several systems. I have tested the "terrifried fat disabled" rom on the DS and It works pretty well.

lionel_Z80

@ march_
4 Jan 2023, 21:40

Hi march_, Ninja Commando (a Neo Geo game) is now also available on Prime Gaming. I wrote a Bash script to convert it to a romset for fbalpha2012_neogeo_libretro:
https://github.com/lioneltrs/goNCommand
Lionel