ROM Dump Information Codes (AKA 'Good Codes')

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ROM Dump Information Codes (AKA 'Good Codes')

Postby Qyzbud » April 5th, 2008, 11:54 pm

This is a guide to the meaning behind those letter/number/symbol codes that appear in ROM filenames. There was a time when this was all quite confusing to me, and some of it still is... Such as the stuff at the bottom, which is not related to Super Nintendo ROMs. Nevertheless, I'm sure this will be a handy reference for others out there.

Disclaimer: Although I have made changes to improve grammar and formatting, I didn't write this guide. It has been copied from Cowering's Good Utils Guide. Thanks to the author for creating this guide.

Good Codes
ROM files which have been named with the Good Tools naming convention have letters and numbers in their names, within brackets. These letters and numbers disclose various things about the ROM; which country the game is from, how original the ROM dump is, how accurate the dump is, what year the ROM is from, sometimes the size of the ROM, sometimes the CRC of the ROM and a few other things too. Here is a complete description...

Standard Codes
These codes tell you about the status of the ROM. Generally, the ideal ROM would be one with a [!] symbol, as such a ROM has been 100% verified against the original game. However, you may see other symbols, such as [a1] or [o3]... what these mean is that the ROM is the first known 'alternate ROM', or third known 'overdump ROM'. These extra codes are used a lot in ROM sets. Here is what they mean:

[!] Verified Good Dump
[a] Alternate to the original dump often done by another dumping group.
[o] Overdump of a ROM which has too much space allocated for it making it too big.
[p] Pirate ROM released without consent, or stolen from the original dumping group.
[b] Bad Dump of a ROM, which probably doesn't work correctly.
[f] Fixed to run better on emulators or bug fixed.
[h] Hack of a ROM that has possibly an intro added or graphics changed.
[t] Trained ROM that has a small bit of code that lets you cheat in the game.
[T] Translation of a ROM from one language to another.
(-) Unknown Year
(M#) Multilanguage (# of Languages)
(###) Checksum
(??k) ROM Size
ZZZ_ Unclassified
(Unl) Unlicensed
(-) Unknown Year


Country Codes
The codes below are to inform you of the game's country of origin. In most cases it will affect the language of the game, however, this is not always so. Public domain ROMs are home made games created by programmers and not released by software companies.

(1) Japan & Korea
(4) USA & Brazil NTSC
(A) Australia
(B) non USA (GoodGen Only)
(C) China
(E) Europe
(F) France
(F) World (GoodGen Only)
(FC) French Canadian
(FN) Finland
(G) Germany
(GR) Greece
(H) Holland
(HK) Hong Kong
(I) Italy
(J) Japan
(K) Korea
(NL) Netherlands
(PD) Public Domain
(S) Spain
(SW) Sweden
(U) USA
(UK) England
(Unk) Unknown Country
(Unl) Unlicensed

If a particular ROM was released multiple countries, the character codes are combined to create something like (JU), which in this case signifies a Japanese/U.S. release.


Special Codes
These special codes only affect the ROMs of specific console systems.

Game Boy
[C] Game Boy Colour Version
[S] Super Game Boy Enhanced Version
[BF] Fixed to work on programmable Game Boy cartridges released by a company called Bung

Super Nintendo
(BS) Broadcast Satellaview game ROMs.
(ST) Sufami Turbo interface compatible ROMs.
(NP) Nintendo Power subscriber only games.

Atari
(PAL) Euro Version

Genesis
(1) Japan & Korean Game
(4) USA & Brazil Only Game
(5) NTSC Only Game
(8) PAL Only Game
(B) Runs on any non USA Genesis
[c] Faulty checksum routine
[x] Bad Checksum
[R-] Countries for use in.

Thomson MO5
(Y) Year unknown

Coleco
(Adam) ADAM computer version

Nintendo
(PC10) PlayChoice 10 arcade system ROM (Mame supports these)
(VS) Versus system arcade ROM (Mame supports these)

NeoGeo Pocket
[M] Mono Only


Example: If you see a ROM named Donkey Kong Country (U) (V1.0) [!].smc, you can deduce that it's for the U.S. (U), and is an accurate ROM dump [!].
Note: The version/revision indicator (V1.0) was not mentioned in this guide.
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Re: ROM Dump Information Codes (AKA 'Good Codes')

Postby jeanetti » November 4th, 2009, 9:35 pm

Where can I download the Rom that I need to patch Pokemon Crystal Shards at? I've already looked online everywhere I could think of and havn't found it. It won't patch with the english Pokemon Emerald Rom, I need the Pokemon Esmeralda Rom to patch it.
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Re: ROM Dump Information Codes (AKA 'Good Codes')

Postby Simion32 » November 5th, 2009, 2:27 am

jeanetti, You should know good and well that requesting ROMs is against the forum rules. It's even at the top of the page here!
The top of the page wrote:Forum rules
Remember; posting/requesting ROMs is not allowed. General ROM/emulation talk is fine, of course.
I see this is your first (and only) post so far. Please, read the rules, and abide by them once the ban is up. Otherwise I may have to take serious measures!

*T-BANNED*
For One Month
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Re: ROM Dump Information Codes (AKA 'Good Codes')

Postby BlueTronic » November 5th, 2009, 7:17 am

I thought it was a one week ban for ROM requests. A month for ROMs a bit harsh, especially for new users.
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Re: ROM Dump Information Codes (AKA 'Good Codes')

Postby Qyzbud » November 5th, 2009, 9:27 am

All bans are a matter of moderator discretion.

Besides, a user with a first post like that probably isn't here for the right reasons. I doubt it really matters how long the ban is for... now that 'jeanetti' realises that ROMs can't be had here, I imagine that's the last we'll hear from her/him. That's just my inkling.
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