Multi-track PC-FX title in Mednafen

[jamai36]

Hey!  I did try posting this in the mednafen forums but am getting crickets over there so I thought I'd try here:

PC-FX works fine normally with retroarch, however of course all of the titles are in Japanese.  Curious to play at least one title on the platform I found a fairly popular translation of Pia Carrot!  This resulted in me getting a new version of Pia Carrot! that is compatible with the translation.  The problem is that version is in a multi-track format.  There are 5 bin files and 1 cue file.  Here is the cue file:

CATALOG 0000000000000

FILE "Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! We've Been Waiting for You (Japan) (Track 1).bin" BINARY
TRACK 01 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! We've Been Waiting for You (Japan) (Track 2).bin" BINARY
TRACK 02 MODE1/2352
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:03:00
INDEX 02 00:03:02
INDEX 03 00:09:64
INDEX 04 00:59:65
INDEX 05 13:09:33
INDEX 06 18:40:40
INDEX 07 36:18:25
FILE "Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! We've Been Waiting for You (Japan) (Track 3).bin" BINARY
TRACK 03 AUDIO
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:02:00
FILE "Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! We've Been Waiting for You (Japan) (Track 4).bin" BINARY
TRACK 04 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! We've Been Waiting for You (Japan) (Track 5).bin" BINARY
TRACK 05 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
 

When I load the CUE file in launchbox with retroarch with the default libretro core - it does not work at all - I click the CDROM option in PC-FX and nothing happens.  When I launch it in Mednafen standalone it loads an audio player and plays the tracks, but no game.  I know it's a pretty obscure question, but you'd think this should work as so many people seem to have had success with it - does anyone have experience with these types of formats by chance? Thanks.

[Lordmonkus]

Normally cue + bin (even multiple bins) work fine, it's ones that have mp3 or wave files that have issues.

[jamai36]

49 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said:

Normally cue + bin (even multiple bins) work fine, it's ones that have mp3 or wave files that have issues.

Yeah I have had the same experience.  Normally when I come across a rom that is in a weird format, I will just look for a version in a format I know will work, but this version with the 5 bins is the one that the translated version requires, which sucks.

I wonder why they wouldn't translate a version that is easy to load with just a single bin.  I HAVE a version with with a single .bin and it works fine.  It's super annoying and this isn't the first time I have come across this situation when it comes to translations. Boo hiss!  Maybe I could try using something like CDMage when I get home and see if it will work as a single bin - that's all I have found searching on google that may work.  It's just odd loads and plays audio files.  That makes me feel like it should work but for some reason won't due to *something*.  Wish I could figure out what that something is.

Edited February 19, 2020 by jamai36

[Lordmonkus]

i have used CDMage to combine in the past, I did it for the Unworked Designs Sega CD games, it seemed to be hit and miss with success rates though.

[polygonslayer]

I have had issues with emulators not liking multi bin games as well.
I usually use a combination of Daemon Tools and ISObuster to combine them. I've not had this cause any issues on the ones I've tried.

I have also at times had issues where the cue sheet was just wrong. I've fixed this by using a program called Sega CUE Maker, which makes a very standard cue sheet without any of the time stamps, then when you mount it in Daemon Tools and the ISObust it, it creates a new cue sheet with it that has the correct time stamps.