DOOM 64 EX: Help using WadGEN with a DOOM 64 ROM dumped by the Retrode

Hey there,

I'm trying to get DOOM 64 EX's WADGen to read and convert the data from a DOOM 64 ROM, that I dumped from my own cartridge using a device called the Retrode.

However, every time I open the ROM with WADGen, it says:
"ERROR: ROM checksum verification failed. Rom is either broken or corrupted."
Even after fixing the checksum with UCON64, WADGen won't read the ROM.

How can I fix this? And no I'm not gonna download the ROM off the Internet illegally.

Have you tried dumping the cart again? Also, why are you opposed to DLing it if you own it already?

thats my take as well. im no legalist, and hey, if you own it, you own it.

If it's failing because of a checksum, it means it is comparing to some known rom(s) checksum. The "Retrode" is possibly adding some minor data (or alternatively, the Retrode isn't, but the known-good roms had some bookkeeping metadata type stuff added during their dump). My guess at least!

If you already got the Cartridge, just go download the ROM from ROMs sites, won't make a difference, it'll just make it easier for you , not sure how legal is this but as long as you're not living in US ...

Nintendo said:

Haven't the Copyrights for Old Games Expired?

U.S. copyright laws state that copyrights owned by corporations are valid for 75 years from the date of first publication. Because video games have been around for less than three decades, the copyrights of all video games will not expire for many decades to come.

Because video games have been around for less than three decades

coughbullshit

You're better off contacting the people who manufacture the device for specific support on its use I imagine, or a forum dedicated to emulation or rom dumping.

Uhhh... are you sure this is not related to the extraction utility needing a particular release of the ROM, e.g. US, Japan or Europe? Maybe you have a different revision?

Even if you're not willing to download one or more ROMs for comparison, you may be able to find out about different versions, dumps, compare filesizes and checksums with yours.

I went ahead and downloaded the ROM and saved myself the trouble. Thanks anyway ;)

Well, at this point you could repay the courtesy by doing some more in-depth analysis, e.g. what went wrong with your own cart's dump? Can you do a simple binary file comparison? Maybe what you went through has been/will be experienced by other users of the Retrode, so having a user story here would help give back some.

Just because Wadgen didn't recognise it doesn't mean it was a bad dump. Was it running fine on an emulator?

That's another good question...what kind of dump does the Retrode generate? Ready-to-use ROM files that every N64 emulator understands? Or some other format which needs some more processing before being used?

Sorry it took so long to respond, but to answer VGA and Maes, yes the Retrode-dumped ROM does work flawlessly in Project64 (The only N64 emulator I ever use, but I'm sure it'd work in other N64 emulators as well...).

Ahh, the Nintendo 64 emulation scene.

http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Nintendo_64_emulators

OK, I realize this is an old thread, but I figured it'd be better to post this question here instead of making a whole new thread:

Would it be possible for me to send my Retrode-dumped Doom 64 rom to whoever created Wadgen via pm or email, so he can analyze it and possibly make Wadgen compatible with Retrode dumps?

RexFesto696 said:

OK, I realize this is an old thread, but I figured it'd be better to post this question here instead of making a whole new thread:

Would it be possible for me to send my Retrode-dumped Doom 64 rom to whoever created Wadgen via pm or email, so he can analyze it and possibly make Wadgen compatible with Retrode dumps?

The person in question is Kaiser. He might not have enough free time for an update to Doom64 at the moment, but I suppose you can at least PM him with the question.

This might sound silly, but the only thing I can suggest is if you can PM me the rom and I'll try to verify if its the correct format or not. I have a feeling that this could be a unique format dumped only by Retrode as I am seeing no mention of this in the Project 64 source code.

Kaiser said:

This might sound silly, but the only thing I can suggest is if you can PM me the rom and I'll try to verify if its the correct format or not. I have a feeling that this could be a unique format dumped only by Retrode as I am seeing no mention of this in the Project 64 source code.

Will do. PM coming your way in a few minutes...

RexFesto696 said:

Will do. PM coming your way in a few minutes...

You're in luck. Rename the .n64 extension to .z64 and you should be good to go.
Though I could of sworn that wadgen would of recognized that format.

Kaiser said:

You're in luck. Rename the .n64 extension to .z64 and you should be good to go.
Though I could of sworn that wadgen would of recognized that format.

It worked! Thanks!
Although I should've known the solution was so simple...

It's surprising (and a bit disappointing) that WadGen depends on the file name to determine the type of ROM.

chungy said:

It's surprising (and a bit disappointing) that WadGen depends on the file name to determine the type of ROM.

Could probably be rewritten pretty easily to use the same type of format calculation that emulators like Project 64 use. I saw their routine for it, not very complex (just testing byte order in well-known areas such as the header).

sorry to bring this up again, but it doesnt work for me. Either it says "Can't create iwad" or "file is corrupted or broken". Already tried changing the file to z64 and nothing. Do I miss something? I want to play Doom 64 Ex soo baaad. lol

If you've tried ".n64" and ".z64", might try ".v64" also. The check seems to be in rom.cc

Also if you are using Windows Explorer to rename it, make sure that you have file extensions displayed, otherwise you might just be renaming it "Doom64.z64.n64"

thank you, didnt help though. still the same error "file error: couldnt create C:\Progam Files (x86)\Doom 64\DOOM64.wad" or "file is corrupted or broken"

2 hours ago, simpleton said:

thank you, didnt help though. still the same error "file error: couldnt create C:\Progam Files (x86)\Doom 64\DOOM64.wad" or "file is corrupted or broken"

Why don't you try Doom 64 Retribution then? It's a very well done project and makes the n64 version almost redundant. 

2 hours ago, 4everDoomed said:

 

Why don't you try Doom 64 Retribution then? It's a very well done project and makes the n64 version almost redundant. 

 

Oh boy...

@simpleton

Likely your choice of directory is write-protected and Windows is trying to save you from yourself. Try running WadGen.exe as Administrator which should give it the access to create the file, or just allow Everyone write access to that location. Failing that 'redump your rom' (find another one).

4 hours ago, 4everDoomed said:

and makes the n64 version almost redundant. 

Almost indeed.

EX is basically the original console game reversed-engineered but with quality of life improvements and keyboard + mouse support, in addition to being extremely accurate. Retribution is different from it by having different goals and features. Depends on what everyone is looking for.

1 hour ago, iori said:

Likely your choice of directory is write-protected and Windows is trying to save you from yourself. Try running WadGen.exe as Administrator which should give it the access to create the file, or just allow Everyone write access to that location. Failing that 'redump your rom' (find another one).

That might actually be the problem. Now that I look at the path I see it's in the C:\ drive's Program Files folder.

Keeping your games there is simply following bad computer practices (unless there's a good reason you keep them there). Doing so can lead to all sorts of problems.

2 hours ago, iori said:

 

@simpleton

Likely your choice of directory is write-protected and Windows is trying to save you from yourself. Try running WadGen.exe as Administrator which should give it the access to create the file, or just allow Everyone write access to that location. Failing that 'redump your rom' (find another one).

that worked. thank you so much.

want to try ex first before trying Retribution and Brutal Doom 64.

@seed

true, i'm not to keen with computers to be honest. ill change my games folder though if it helps.

42 minutes ago, simpleton said:

@seed

true, i'm not to keen with computers to be honest. ill change my games folder though if it helps.

Or the partition, having them somewhere else prevents this kind of headaches.

I'm personally doing it this way: Keeping only more important programs installed on the C:/ drive, and everything else on another one.