ROM Properties Page shell extension

This shell extension adds a few nice features to file browsers for managing video game ROM and disc images.

v1.9

This release adds a ton of new features, including ASTC and Godot textures, Commodore ROM cartridge images, and various performance improvements.

Translators needed; file an issue if you'd like to get started on a new translation, or submit a Pull Request if you have a translation ready to go.

See NEWS.md for a full list of changes in v1.9.

Feedback

This is a work in progress; feedback is encouraged. To leave feedback, you can file an issue on GitHub, or visit the Gens/GS IRC channel: irc://irc.badnik.zone/GensGS

Or use the Mibbit Web IRC client: http://mibbit.com/?server=irc.badnik.zone&channel=#GensGS

Installation

Currently, the ROM Properties Page shell extension is compatible with the following platforms:

• KDE Frameworks 5.x
• XFCE (GTK+ 2.x, GTK+ 3.x)
• GNOME and Unity (GTK+ 3.x)
• MATE Desktop (1.18+; GTK+ 3.x)
• Cinnamon Desktop
• Windows 7 (and later)

The following platforms are still compatible, but may not receive as much support:

• KDE 4.x
• Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista

On Windows Vista and later, you will need the MSVC 2015-2022 runtime:

• 32-bit: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/VC_redist.x86.exe
• 64-bit: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/VC_redist.x64.exe

On Windows XP/2003 and earlier, you will need the MSVC 2015-2017 runtime:

• 32-bit: https://aka.ms/vs/15/release/VC_redist.x86.exe
• 64-bit: https://aka.ms/vs/15/release/VC_redist.x64.exe

For instructions on compiling from source, see doc/COMPILING.md .

Linux

Install the relevant .deb package, depending on what desktop environment you are using and what your CPU is.

After installing, the plugin needs to be enabled in the Dolphin file browser:

• Close all instances of Dolphin.
• Start Dolphin.
• Click Control, Configure Dolphin.
• Click the "General" section, then the "Preview" tab.
• Check the "ROM Properties Page" item, then click OK.
• Enable previews in a directory containing a supported file type.

If installed correctly, thumbnails should be generated for the supported file type. You can also right-click a file, select Properties, then click the "ROM Properties" tab to view more information about the ROM image.

Windows

Extract the ZIP archive to a directory, then run install.exe. The installer requires administrator access, so click "Yes" if requested. In the installer, click the "Install" button to register the ROM Properties Page DLL.

Note that this will hard-code the location of the DLL files in the registry, so you may want to place the DLLs in a common location.

To uninstall the plugin, run install.exe again, then click the "Uninstall" button.

Current File Support Level

Game Consoles

System	Properties Tab	Metadata	Internal Images	External Images
Commodore 64/128 .CRT	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
iQue Player ticket files	Yes	Yes	Icon, Banner	No
Microsoft Xbox (XBE)	Yes	Yes	Icon	No
Microsoft Xbox 360 (XEX)	Yes	Yes	Icon	No
Microsoft Xbox 360 (STFS)	Yes	Yes	Icon	No
Microsoft Xbox Game Discs	Yes	Yes	Icon	No
NES	Yes	No	N/A	No
Super NES	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Nintendo 64	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
Nintendo GameCube Discs	Yes	Yes	Banner	Disc, Covers
Nintendo GameCube Banners	Yes	Yes	Banner	No
Nintendo GameCube Saves	Yes	Yes	Icon	N/A
Nintendo Wii Discs	Yes	Yes	No	Disc, Covers
Nintendo Wii WADs	Yes	Yes	Yes*	Title, Covers
Nintendo Wii Saves	Yes	No	Yes	N/A
Nintendo Wii U	Yes	No	No	Disc, Covers
Sega 8-bit (SMS, GG)	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
Sega Mega Drive	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Sega Dreamcast	Yes	Yes	Media	No
Sega Dreamcast Saves	Yes	Yes	Icon, Banner	No
Sega Saturn	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
Sony PlayStation Discs	Yes	No	N/A	No
Sony PlayStation EXEs	Yes	No	N/A	N/A
Sony PlayStation Saves	Yes	Yes	Icon	N/A
Sony PlayStation 2 Discs	Yes	Yes	N/A	No

* Internal images are only present in Wii DLC WADs.
* Sega Mega Drive includes Sega CD, 32X, and Pico.

Handhelds

System	Properties Tab	Metadata	Internal Images	External Images
Atari Lynx	Yes	No	N/A	No
Bandai WonderSwan (Color)	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Neo Geo Pocket (Color)	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Nintendo Game Boy (Color)	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Nintendo Virtual Boy	Yes	No	N/A	No
Nintendo Game Boy Advance	Yes	Yes	N/A	Title
Nintendo DS(i)	Yes	Yes	Icon	Covers, Box
Nintendo DSi TADs*	Partial	No	No	No
Nintendo 3DS	Yes	Yes	Icon	Covers, Box
Pokémon Mini	Yes	Yes	N/A	No
Sony PlayStation Portable	Yes	Yes	Icon	No
Tiger game.com	Yes	Yes	Icon	No

* The Nintendo DSi TAD parser supports development TADs that are normally imported using DSi Nmenu. It does not currently support DSi exports from retail systems.
* The PSP parser supports both PSP game and UMD video discs, as well as several compressed disc formats: CISOv1, CISOv2, ZISO, JISO, and DAX.

Texture Formats

Texture Format	Properties Tab	Metadata	Internal Images	External Scans
ASTC container	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A
Godot 3,4 .stex	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A
Leapster Didj .tex	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A
Khronos KTX	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A
Khronos KTX2	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A
Microsoft DirectDraw DDS	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A
Microsoft Xbox XPR	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A
PowerVR 3.0.0	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A
Sega PVR/GVR/SVR	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A
TrueVision TGA	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A
Valve VTF	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A
Valve VTF3 (PS3)	Yes	Yes	Image	N/A

Texture Codecs

• Assorted linear RGB formats, including 15-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit per pixel.
  • Most of these formats have SSE2 and/or SSSE3-optimized decoders.
  • RGB9_E5 is supported, though it is currently converted to ARGB32 for display purposes. The decoder is also slow. (Contributions welcome.)
• Dreamcast: Twiddled and Vector-Quantized
• Nintendo DS: Tiled CI8 with BGR555 palette
• Nintendo 3DS: Tiled and twiddled RGB565
• GameCube: Tiled RGB5A3 and CI8 with RGB5A3 palette
• S3TC: DXT1, DXT2, DXT3, DXT4, DXT5, BC4, and BC5 codecs.
  • GameCube 2x2-tiled DXT1 is supported in GVR texture files.
• ETCn: ETC1, ETC2 (RGB, RGBA, RGB_A1), EAC
• BC7: Supported in multiple texture file formats.
  • The implementation is somewhat slow. (Contributions welcome.)
• PVRTC: Supported in multiple texture file formats.
  • PVRTC-II: Partially supported. The hard transition flag and images that aren't a multiple of the tile size are not supported.
• ASTC: Supported in multiple texture file formats.

Audio Formats

System	Properties Tab	Metadata	Internal Images	External Scans
Atari 8-bit SAP audio	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
Atari ST SNDH audio	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
CRI ADX ADPCM	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
Commodore 64 SID Music	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
Game Boy Sound System	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
Game Boy Ripped	Yes	N/A	N/A	N/A
Nintendo 3DS BCSTM and BCWAV	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
Nintendo Sound Format	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
Nintendo Wii BRSTM	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
Nintendo Wii U BFSTM	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
Portable Sound Format	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
Super NES SPC Format	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
Video Game Music	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A

Other

System	Properties Tab	Metadata	Internal Images	External Scans
Executable and Linkable Format	Yes	No	N/A	N/A
ISO-9660 Disc Images	Yes	Yes	No	N/A
PUC Lua binaries	Yes	No	N/A	N/A
Mach-O Binaries	Yes	No	N/A	N/A
Nintendo amiibo	Yes	No	N/A	Media
Nintendo Badge Arcade	Yes	No	Image	N/A
Windows/DOS Executables	Yes	No	No	N/A

Notes:

• Internal image refers to artwork contained within the ROM and/or disc image. These images are typically displayed on the system's main menu prior to starting the game.
  • "N/A" here means the ROM or disc image doesn't have this feature.
  • "No" indicates that the feature is present but not currently implemented.
• External scans refers to scans from an external database, such as GameTDB.com for GameCube and Wii.
  • "No" indicates no database is currently available for this system.
  • Anything else indicates what types of images are available.
  • For amiibo, "media" refers to the amiibo object, which may be a figurine, a card, or a plush.
• Windows executables may contain multiple icon sizes. Support for Windows icons will be added once support for multiple image sizes is added.
• Sega 8-bit only supports ROM images with a "TMR SEGA" header.

An initial configuration program is included with the Windows version of rom-propreties 1.0. This allows you to configure which images will be used for thumbnails on each system. The functionality is available on Linux as well, but the UI hasn't been ported over yet. See doc/rom-properties.conf.example for an example configuration file, which can be placed in ~/.config/rom-properties.

External Media Downloads

Certain parsers support the use of external media scans through an online database, e.g. GameTDB.com. This is enabled by default, but you can customize which scans are downloaded for which systems by running the configuration program, rp-config.exe.

Downloaded images are cached to the following directory:

• Linux: ~/.cache/rom-properties/
• Windows XP: %LOCALAPPDATA%\rom-properties\cache
• Windows Vista+: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\rom-properties\cache

The directory structure matches the source site, so e.g. a disc image of Super Smash Bros. Brawl would be downloaded to ~/.cache/rom-properties/wii/disc/US/RSBE01.png. Note that if the download fails for any reason, a 0-byte dummy file will be placed in the cache, which tells the shell extension not to attempt to download the file again. [FIXME: If the download fails due to no network connectivity, it shouldn't do this.]

If you have an offline copy of the GameTDB image database, you can copy it to the ROM Properties Page cache directory to allow the extension to use the pre-downloaded version instead of downloading images as needed.

Decryption Keys

Some newer formats, including Wii disc images, have encrypted sections. The shell extension includes decryption code for handling these images, but the keys are not included. To install the keys, create a text file called keys.conf in the rom-properties configuration directory:

• Linux: ~/.config/rom-properties/keys.conf
• Windows: %APPDATA%\rom-properties\keys.conf

The keys.conf file uses INI format. An example file, keys.conf.example, is included with the shell extension. This file has a list of all supported keys, with placeholders instead of the actual key data. For example, a keys.conf file with the supported keys for Wii looks like this:

[Keys]
rvl-common=[Wii common key]
rvl-korean=[Wii Korean key]

Replace the key placeholders with hexadecimal strings representing the key. In this example, both keys are AES-128, so the hexadecimal strings should be 32 characters long.

NOTE: If a key is incorrect, any properties dialog that uses the key to decrypt data will show an error message instead of the data in question.

Nintendo DS Secure Area

To encrypt or decrypt the Nintendo DS Secure Area, the Blowfish key must be named nds-blowfish.bin and placed in the same directory as keys.conf.

MD5sum: c08c5afd9c6d9530817cd2033e3864d7

Unsupported File?

If you have a file that you believe should be supported by ROM Propeties, or would like to see support added for a new type, file an issue on GitHub: https://github.com/GerbilSoft/rom-properties/issues

Credits

Developers

• @GerbilSoft: Main developer.
• @DankRank: Contributor, bug tester.
• @CheatFreak: Bug tester, amiibo support.

Translators

• @DankRank: Russian, Ukrainian
• @NullMagic2: Brazilian Portuguese

Other Contributions

[This list is incomplete; if you think you should be listed here, file an issue.]

• @Tpot-SSL: Assistance with the game.com implementation.

Websites

• GBATEK: Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo DSi technical information.
• WiiBrew: Wii homebrew and reverse engineering. Used for Wii and GameCube disc and file format information.
• GameTDB: Database of games for various game consoles. Used for automatic downloading of disc scans for Wii and GameCube.
• Pan Docs: Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy technical information.
• Virtual Boy Programmers Manual: Virtual Boy technical information.
• Sega Retro: Sega Mega Drive technical information, plus information for other Sega systems that will be supported in a future release.
• PS3 Developer wiki for information on the "PS1 on PS3" save file format.
• Nocash PSX Specification Reference for more information on PS1 save files.
• amiibo.life: Database of Nintendo amiibo figurines, cards, and plushes. Used for automatic downloading of amiibo images.
• 3dbrew: Nintendo 3DS homebrew and reverse engineering. Used for Nintendo 3DS file format information.
• SMS Power: Sega 8-bit technical information.
• Puyo Tools: Information on Sega's PVR, GVR, and related texture formats.
• Badge Arcade Tool: Information on Nintendo Badge Arcade files.
• Advanced Badge Editor: Information on Nintendo Badge Arcade files.
• HandyBug Documentation: Information on Atari Lynx cartridge format.
• Khronos KTX File Format Specification: Information on the Khornos KTX texture file format.
• Khronos KTX 2.0 File Format Specification: Information on the Khornos KTX 2.0 texture file format.
• Valve Texture Format: Information on the Valve VTF texture file format.
• nocash SNES hardware specifications: Super NES and Satellaview BS-X technical information.
• Homebrew Development Kit for the Tiger game.com by @Tpot-SSL: game.com technical information.
• Low Level Bits: Parsing Mach-O Files for Mac OS X Mach-O binary information.
• Free60.org Wiki archive for Xbox 360 technical information.
• Xenia Project for Xbox 360 technical information.
• Xbox Dev Wiki for Original Xbox technical information.
• .XBE File Format by Caustik for information about the Original Xbox .XBE executable format.
• Cxbx-Reloaded for Original Xbox technical information, including XPR pixel formats.
• iQueBrew for iQue Player technical information.
• maxcso for documentation on the compressed formats used by unofficial Sony PlayStation Portable disc image loaders.
• Basis Universal for the ASTC decoder, which was derived from the Android Open Source Project.
• Godot Engine for documentation on Godot's own .stex format.
• Vulkan SDK for Android for the ASTC file format header.
• NEZ Plug for basic GBR specifications.