M3U Generator – Automatically Generate .m3u Files for Multi-Disc Games

thewhite · July 31, 2025

M3U Generator – Automatically Generate .m3u Files for Multi-Disc Games

Hi everyone,

I’d like to share a small utility I created called M3U Generator. It’s designed to automatically generate .m3u files for multi-disc games, commonly used with emulators like RetroArch and others that support playlist-style disc switching.

💡 What it does:

Scans a selected folder for game files (.cue, .iso, .img, .bin).
Groups discs belonging to the same game (based on filenames).
Creates .m3u playlist files in a subfolder named m3u.
Optionally includes single-disc games as well.

📦 Features:

✅ Supports subfolder-style or flat playlist paths (..\\ or current folder).
🔍 Filter results based on a keyword (e.g., "Disc" or "CD") to process only relevant files.
📝 Displays a log of the generated .m3u content directly in the software.
🧠 Automatically names playlists based on the first disc.

🕹 Example use case:

Let’s say you have these files:

Game Title (Disc 1).cue
Game Title (Disc 2).cue

The software will create:
m3u/Game Title (Disc 1).m3u

With content:
..\Game Title (Disc 1).cue ..\Game Title (Disc 2).cue

📥 How to use it:

Launch the application.
Click "Select Folder" and choose the directory where your ROMs are located.
Optionally enter a filter term like Disc to process only multi-disc games.
Choose path mode (relative or current folder).
Check the "Include single-disc games" option if needed.
Click "Start" – the .m3u files will be generated in a m3u subfolder.
The output will be shown in the result textbox and also saved to 1-m3u_results.txt.