CPS3 Solution

[njhilliard]

Hey guys

Found a real time 2021 solution to CPS3 games not playing in launchbox.  This one is a doozy, so get ready.

1.  Goto Arcade database website http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/ and search for the required romset of your game (basically for CPS3 games this is your *.zip file; for example Street fighter 3:  New Generation is sfiii.zip).

2.  Find your required CHD (compressed hunks of data) file (for example you need the cap-sf3-3.chd file).  Do a google search or internet archive search (LINK REMOVED)  This is the actual rom file.

3. Your zip file should have the correct key file within it usually this is a *.u2 file (European ver sfiii.zip; US ver sfiiiu.zip; Japan ver sfiiij.zip)

4.  Check arcade database if the CHD file associated works with your particular language specific zip file pack/romset.  For example Street Fighter 3: New Generation Japanese and US ver use the same CHD file.  Not all games are similar.  Each uses a specific CHD file and later revision games may use another CHD file.  

5.  If you cant find the *.CHD file you can sometimes find an *.img file or *.iso file ripped from the disc/cartridge.  This file can be transformed to a *.bin and *.cue combo files (via AnyBurn; freeware for disc image conversion).  Once you have burned your img or iso file to appropriate dual BIN and CUE files then your ready to convert to the *.chd format or CHD file.

6.  Use the attached batch file (named CUE or GDI to CHD.bat) to convert from BIN and CUE with chdman (comes with MAME).  Step1:  Put your batch file, chdman file, and *.bin and *.cue file in the same folder.  Step 2:  Double click the batch file and it runs a CMD window to convert your BIN and CUE to the CHD format and outputs to the same folder.  Note:  You can also use Philips CDi image files or *.bin and *.cue to convert to CHD for MAME.

7.  Make a folder named the same file name as the *.zip CPS3 romset you want to run.  For example sfiii.zip is the Street Fighter 3:  Next Generation romset.  Put in the roms folder of MAME a new folder named sfiii with the CHD file in it.  DO NOT zip the CHD file, it will not work that way.  Make sure you name the CHD file the name that MAME associates with this zip file; in this case cap-sf3-3.chd by double checking the Arcade database website and clicking required files near the romset section of your game.

8.  Goto Launchbox, import the *.zip file into Launchbox by importing roms.  Sometime I choose Retroarch as the emulator at first because importing a single MAME games is ignored by Launchbox and will not work.  Once the artwork and romset is imported, right click the game and click Edit.  Goto Lauching section and rename the launch string appropriately ie sfiii.zip (European ver) or sfiiiu.zip (US ver) or sfiiij.zip (Japanese ver).  MAME will start and the ROM will load and say it needs to clear the memory.  It takes about 15 to 20 min (I have an i9-10900 with a u.2 drive and it still takes that long; remember these are emulating old CD speeds).  Once it reloads the memory, the game should start normally thereafter.

9.  Cheers!  Hope this helps for frustrated users who only want to play some nice CPS3 games.

 

CUE or GDI to CHD.bat

Edited April 13, 2021 by Retro808
Link removed as site contains roms

[neil9000]

Not quite sure why this is needed, CPS3 games are part of the MAME romset and are imported into Launchbox by default when importing a MAME full romset.

6 hours ago, njhilliard said:

MAME will start and the ROM will load and say it needs to clear the memory.  It takes about 15 to 20 min (I have an i9-10900 with a u.2 drive and it still takes that long; remember these are emulating old CD speeds). 

That is not actually clearing the memory, its installing the game to the CPS3 machines hard drive, this can be sped up with the fast forward key in MAME, or in the case of several CPS3 games by using the nocd version of the game, which is included with the MAME romsets. I really would advise anyone from googling random roms and CHD's, you have no way of knowing what rom version it is, and therefore which version of the emulator to use for it. It's just a very bad way to use MAME, and will cause far more issues than it solves. MAME romsets and the emulator itself are versioned for a very good reason, you DO NOT mix random rom versions with random versions of the emulator, especially with Capcom games, which of course all the CPS3 games are, you are very likely to run into incompatibility issues due to the qsound files.

As for the CHD files, they are in the MAME CHD romset, already in the correct file type, and again versioned, so that you know which version of the emulator to use with them.

[Lordmonkus]

Or you could just use the No-CD versions of those games and make your life easy.

[njhilliard]

Yeah guys I am no MAME expert, I have a split set of MAME romsets which would never play the CPS3 games in the set.  This is a solution because they now work.  For those who have non-merged sets that come with the CHDs, you dont need to worry about this issue.  You can mix CHDs and split core ROMs (see reference:  https://journalextra.com).  I hope this helps those with a recommended split set from ETA Prime.

[Lordmonkus]

The split set also has the no-cd version of the games.

The non merged rom set still requires the CHDs if you don't use the no-cd version of the games, the CHD set is a separate download.