ROMs

Downloading ROMs at scale.

#gaming

I recently received the AtLegends Ultimate as a gift. It’s great! I wanted to briefly jot down my process for downloading roms at scale.

myrient is an archivist-level site for downloading roms. They have file browser, ftp, and rsync interfaces for getting roms of any language for consoles and handhelds ranging from atari 2600/c64 (early stuff) all the way to ps3-era.

I love the rsync interface. I scripted a workflow that is fairly rough but might be useful to someone for downloading them at scale. warning that this is terabytes of data, so get a big hard drive:

Terminal window
echo -e "Beginning rom sync script\n"


if [ -z "$SKIP_RSYNC" ]; then
  echo -e "Syncing NES\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/No-Intro/Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System (Headered)" .


  echo -e "Syncing Amiga\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/No-Intro/Commodore - Amiga" .


  echo -e "Syncing Atari 2600\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/No-Intro/Atari - 2600" .


  echo -e "Syncing GB\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/No-Intro/Nintendo - Game Boy" .


  echo -e "Syncing GBA\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/No-Intro/Nintendo - Game Boy Advance" .


  echo -e "Syncing GBC\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/No-Intro/Nintendo - Game Boy Color" .


  echo -e "Syncing Gamecube\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/Redump/Nintendo - GameCube - NKit RVZ [zstd-19-128k]" .


  echo -e "Syncing N64\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/No-Intro/Nintendo - Nintendo 64 (BigEndian)" .


  echo -e "Syncing NDS\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/No-Intro/Nintendo - Nintendo DS (Decrypted)" .


  echo -e "Syncing SNES\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/No-Intro/Nintendo - Super Nintendo Entertainment System" .


  echo -e "Syncing Dreamcast\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/Redump/Sega - Dreamcast" .


  echo -e "Syncing Saturn\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/Redump/Sega - Saturn" .


  echo -e "Syncing SegaCD\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/Redump/Sega - Mega CD & Sega CD" .


  echo -e "Syncing PSX\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/Redump/Sony - PlayStation" .


  echo -e "Syncing PS2\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/Redump/Sony - PlayStation 2" .


  echo -e "Syncing PSP\n"
  rsync --include="*(USA)*" --include="*/" --exclude="*" -r --progress "rsync://rsync.myrient.erista.me/files/Redump/Sony - PlayStation Portable" .
fi


echo -e "Amiga"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/amiga
ln -s "../Commodore - Amiga"/* .


echo -e "Atari 2600"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/atari2600
ln -s "../Atari - 2600"/* .


echo -e "Game Boy"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/gb
ln -s "../Nintendo - Game Boy"/* .


echo -e "Game Boy Advance"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/gba
ln -s "../Nintendo - Game Boy Advance"/* .


echo -e "Game Boy Color"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/gbc
ln -s "../Nintendo - Game Boy Color"/* .


echo -e "GameCube"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/gamecube
ln -s "../Nintendo - GameCube - NKit RVZ [zstd-19-128k]"/* .


echo -e "NES"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/nes
ln -s "../Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System (Headered)"/* .


echo -e "N64"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/n64
ln -s "../Nintendo - Nintendo 64 (BigEndian)"/* .


echo -e "N64"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/nds
ln -s "../Nintendo - Nintendo DS (Decrypted)"/* .


echo -e "SNES"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/snes
ln -s "../Nintendo - Super Nintendo Entertainment System"/* .


echo -e "Dreamcast"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/dreamcast
ln -s "../Sega - Dreamcast"/* .


echo -e "Saturn"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/saturn
ln -s "../Sega - Saturn"/* .


echo -e "SegaCD"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/segacd
ln -s "../Sega - Mega CD & Sega CD"/* .


echo -e "PSX"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/psx
ln -s "../Sony - PlayStation"/* .


echo -e "PS2"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/ps2
ln -s "../Sony - PlayStation 2"/* .


echo -e "PSP"
cd /nas/games
cd /nas/games/psp
ln -s "../Sony - PlayStation Portable"/* .


echo -e "Done :)"

I use this python script called rom_cleaner.py to clean out duplicates and non-english roms. It works like this:

Terminal window
$ python ~/tools/clean_roms.py --delete

That clears out a ton of junk - after that, I go and format the roms for actual functioning usage in batocera, the linux-based distro I play all my roms on:

  1. unzip all zip files for later-gen systems (psx, ps2, gamecube, etc.)
  2. rm zips (rm *.zip)
  3. generate m3us as needed (psx): i use github.com/danyboy666/Generate-PSX-m3u-playlist for this

I’m not super ocd about having every rom: for instance, by just filtering for “USA” roms, I’m probably losing things that are mistagged as “world” or have no tag at all, but are technically “english” roms. I figure that if I really want something, I can add it manually once this automated process has caught 95% of what I need. At the end of the day, I won’t even play all of these, and definitely won’t finish them, so it’s not that big of a deal. (This is the stuff you do when you have a 32TB NAS…)