Retroarch Won't Detect GBA Roms Ripped From Retrode (Solved)

[GalaxyDreamer90]

I have tried ripping my gba games with my retrode so I can play them on the computer using retroarch but retroarch won't detect most of my gba games. Any suggestions.

[HamsterExAstris]

The Retrode often isn't able to detect the correct size for GBA cartridges. Make sure the ROMs you have are the expected size; and if not, update retrode.cfg to specify the right size and re-rip them.

[GalaxyDreamer90]

How do I do that? Sorry if this is kind of a newb question. And what would be the right size by the way?

[HamsterExAstris]

The Retrode.cfg documentation explains how. You need to set both forceSystem and forceSize.

The correct size varies per game. You would need to research specific titles for the correct value.

[GalaxyDreamer90]

Thanks so much. The hardest part was finding the correct size for each of my gba games but now retroarch is detecting them all.

[Aleron Ives]

If you're desperate, you can also overdump the cart and then trim it to the correct size using a hex editor afterwards, rather than trying to force the correct size for each game.

[GalaxyDreamer90]

Sadly I don't know anything about hex editing so I'll just have to stick with using the config file to force the correct size of my gba games. Anyway I'm glad for your responses. I'm now able to play all my gba games on my computer via retroarch.

[ssokolow]

Sadly I don't know anything about hex editing so I'll just have to stick with using the config file to force the correct size of my gba games. Anyway I'm glad for your responses. I'm now able to play all my gba games on my computer via retroarch.

You don't strictly need a hex editor.

For example, if you've got a POSIX-compliant terminal environment (Linux, MacOS, Windows with WSL), you should be able to do what I do:

I check DAT-o-MATIC for the correct size, then try this command to verify that I looked up the right revision.

Code Select Expand

head --bytes=CORRECT_SIZE /path/to/dump.gba | md5sum

If the md5sums match, then I run this command:

Code Select Expand

head --bytes=CORRECT_SIZE /path/to/dump.gba > /path/to/fixed_dump.gba