m3uragen generates M3U playlists from multi images software romsets for use with RetroArch.
The RetroArch emulators frontend supports multi images software (discs, floppies etc.) using M3U playlist files. M3U files have to be created manually, which can be a tedious and boring task with big image romsets (TOSEC, no-intro etc.). This tool scans your romset directories and create theses files automatically into a directory of your choice.
It supports two kinds of romsets:
-
Zipped romsets
In theses sets, each software has its own zip archive containing the images of the software. Because M3U files must contains path to unzipped images, m3uragen processes theses romsets in two steps: first it unzip the archives into a directory of your choice, then it creates M3U files containing paths pointing to the unzipped images.
-
Unzipped romsets
In theses sets, images files are stored as is in the directory (or into subdirectories). m3uragen processes theses romsets by scanning the directory (optionnally recursively) and gathering image sets of the same software then creates a M3U file for each set having more than one image. In order to proceed, m3uragen must be provided with a regular expression which determines the "media flag" part of the image file name. Common rom collections (TOSEC, no-intro) use standard naming schemes to name the images files, which contain "media flags" for multi images softwares among other things. For example TOSEC use something like:
'Some Game (Disk 1 of 2).img'.
To install using pip type:
$ pip install m3uragen
Clone this repository, 'cd' into then launch using:
$ ./bin/m3uragen <args>
$ m3uragen [-h] [-v] [-d] [-r] [-s SUFFIX] (-m MEDIA_FLAG_PATTERN | -z UNZIP_IMAGES) [-e IMAGE_EXTENSIONS] [-S MOVE_SINGLE] [-M MOVE_MULTI]
[-f FILTER_PATTERN]
romset_dir m3u_dir
positional arguments:
romset_dir Romset directory
m3u_dir M3U output directory
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-v, --verbose increase output verbosity
-d, --dry-run execute in dry mode (don't write anything)
-r, --recursive scan romset dir recursivelly
-s SUFFIX, --suffix SUFFIX
Add a suffix to M3U file names
-m MEDIA_FLAG_PATTERN, --media-flag-pattern MEDIA_FLAG_PATTERN
regex used to extract media flags from image file name
-z UNZIP_IMAGES, --unzip-images UNZIP_IMAGES
output directory where archives are unzipped
-e IMAGE_EXTENSIONS, --image-extensions IMAGE_EXTENSIONS
filter images by extension (available only with -m)
-S MOVE_SINGLE, --move-single MOVE_SINGLE
move software single images to this dir
-M MOVE_MULTI, --move-multi MOVE_MULTI
move software multi images to this dir
-f FILTER_PATTERN, --filter-pattern FILTER_PATTERN
filter out images that matches this regex (available only with -m)
Suppose you have a romset of zipped C64 floppy games.
The romset is organised like this into the dir '/c64-set'
$ ls /c64-set
[..]
'Zeppelin Rescue (USA, Europe) (v1.3).zip'
'Zeppelin (USA, Europe).zip'
'Zig Zag (USA, Europe).zip'
'Zoids (USA, Europe).zip'
'Zone Ranger (USA, Europe).zip'
'Zoom! (USA).zip'
'Zork II - The Wizard of Frobozz (USA, Europe) (R22).zip'
'Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (USA, Europe) (R52) (C128).zip'
'Zorro (USA, Europe).zip'
'Z-Pilot (Europe).zip'
'Z-Pilot (USA).zip'
'Zyron (Europe).zip'
[..]
Because the images are zipped into archives, theses archives have to be unzipped before. We want unzipped images to go to '/c64-dsk' and generated m3u files to '/c64-m3u'. This is done by executing:
$ m3uragen -v /c64-set /c64-m3u -z /c64-dsk
M3U files are named after the name of the zip archives:
$ ls /c64-m3u
[..]
'World'\''s Greatest Football Game (USA, Europe).m3u'
'World Tour Golf (USA, Europe).m3u'
'WWF WrestleMania (Europe).m3u'
'X-Men - Madness in Murderworld (USA, Europe) (Alt 1).m3u'
'X-Men - Madness in Murderworld (USA, Europe).m3u'
'X-Out (Europe) (Alt 1).m3u'
'X-Out (Europe).m3u'
'Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (Germany).m3u'
'Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (USA, Europe) (R52) (C128).m3u'
[..]
Paths to the images files inside M3U files are relatives to the M3U files.
Suppose you have some Atari ST floppy images named after the TOSEC naming conventions:
$ ls /st-flop
[..]
Battleships (1987)(Elite)[!].stx
Berlin 1948 (1989)(Time Warp)(Disk 1 of 2).stx
Berlin 1948 (1989)(Time Warp)(Disk 2 of 2).stx
Bermuda Project (1987)(Mirrorsoft)(Disk 1 of 2).stx
Bermuda Project (1987)(Mirrorsoft)(Disk 2 of 2).stx
Better Dead Than Alien! (1987)(Electra).stx
Beverly Hills Cop (1990)(Paramount Pictures)(Disk 1 of 2).stx
Beverly Hills Cop (1990)(Paramount Pictures)(Disk 2 of 2).stx
[..]
For multi-images software, the image files names contain a media flag that follows
this pattern: '(Disk n of n)'. This pattern can be expressed with the following
regular expression: \(Disk \d+ of \d+\).
M3U files of this collection can be generated into '/st-m3u' using:
$ m3uragen -v /st-flop /st-m3u -m '\(Disk \d+ of \d+\)'
M3U files are named after the images filenames minus the media flag part:
$ ls /st-m3u
[..]
Berlin 1948 (1989)(Time Warp).m3u
Bermuda Project (1987)(Mirrorsoft).m3u
Beverly Hills Cop (1990)(Paramount Pictures).m3u
[..]
The regular expression can be tested again the romset without writing anything by combining verbose mode and dry run mode:
$ m3uragen -v -d /st-flop /st-m3u -m '\(Disk \d+ of \d+\)'
This will output M3U files that would be generated without really create them.
If the romset directory is organised into subdirs e.g.:
├── Berlin 1948 (1989)(Time Warp)(Disk 1 of 2)
│ └── Berlin 1948 (1989)(Time Warp)(Disk 1 of 2).stx
├── Berlin 1948 (1989)(Time Warp)(Disk 2 of 2)
│ └── Berlin 1948 (1989)(Time Warp)(Disk 2 of 2).stx
├── Bermuda Project (1987)(Mirrorsoft)(Disk 1 of 2)
│ └── Bermuda Project (1987)(Mirrorsoft)(Disk 1 of 2).stx
├── Bermuda Project (1987)(Mirrorsoft)(Disk 2 of 2)
│ └── Bermuda Project (1987)(Mirrorsoft)(Disk 2 of 2).stx
├── Better Dead Than Alien! (1987)(Electra)
│ └── Better Dead Than Alien! (1987)(Electra).stx
├── Beverly Hills Cop (1990)(Paramount)(Disk 1 of 2)
│ └── Beverly Hills Cop (1990)(Paramount)(Disk 1 of 2).stx
├── Beverly Hills Cop (1990)(Paramount)(Disk 2 of 2)
│ └── Beverly Hills Cop (1990)(Paramount)(Disk 2 of 2).stx
Simply tell m3uragen to scan the directory recursively using '-r':
$ m3uragen -v -r /st-flop /st-m3u -m '\(Disk \d+ of \d+\)'
This Amstrad CPC romset is more challenging as it mixes many images formats (cdt and dsk), presents a more complex media flag naming scheme and is organized into subdirs:
├── A
│ ├── Academy - Tau Ceti II (E) - Side A.cdt
│ ├── Academy - Tau Ceti II (E) - Side A - EACH SIDE A IS DUPLICATED ON SIDE B.cdt
│ ├── Academy - Tau Ceti II (E) - Side B.cdt
│ ├── Academy - Tau Ceti II (E) - Side B - EACH SIDE A IS DUPLICATED ON SIDE B.cdt
│ ├── Academy - Tau Ceti II (F).dsk
[..]
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Disk 1A.cdt
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Disk 1A.dsk
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Disk 1B.cdt
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Disk 1B.dsk
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Disk 2A.cdt
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Disk 2A.dsk
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Disk 2B.cdt
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Disk 2B.dsk
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Side 1A.cdt
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Side 1B.cdt
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Side 2A.cdt
│ ├── Aventuriers (F), Les - Side 2B.cdt
[..]
├── B
│ ├── Baba's Palace (E).cdt
│ ├── Baba's Palace (E).dsk
│ ├── Baby Jo (E) - Disk 1A.dsk
│ ├── Baby Jo (E) - Disk 1B.dsk
│ ├── Backgammon (E).cdt
[..]
Generating M3U files for this collection can be handled in two passes, one per image format.
The media flag pattern is the following: - (Disk|Side) [A-Z0-9]+[^.]*.
Each pass is filtered by file extension using -i <extension>. In order to prevent clash
in M3U filenames between formats, a flag containing the image format will be added at
the end of the M3U filename, using -s <suffix>:
$ m3uragen -v /romset /romset-m3u -m ' - (Disk|Side) [A-Z0-9]+[^.]*' -r -s ' (cdt)' -e cdt
$ m3uragen -v /romset /romset-m3u -m ' - (Disk|Side) [A-Z0-9]+[^.]*' -r -s ' (dsk)' -e dsk
$ ls /romset-m3u
[..]
Academy - Tau Ceti II (E) (cdt).m3u
Aventuriers (F), Les (cdt).m3u
Aventuriers (F), Les (dsk).m3u
Baby Jo (E) (dsk).m3u
[..]
Two options are available to move image files from the romset directory to others directories:
-S <dir>: Move single image software files to this dir-M <dir>: Move multi images software files to this dir
This allows to make importing images into RetroArch playlists easier by importing single image software files dir and m3u dir per emulated machine for example.
Images files can be filtered out by providing regular expression to the filter option:
-f <regex>
This can be useful to exclude images flagged as alternate or bad dump in a
TOSEC collection for example. The following pattern excludes all images flagged
'a, b, cr, m, o, u, p, h and t):
-f '\[(a|b|cr|m|o|u|p|h|t)[0-9]{,2}( [^]]+)?\]'
The -f option can be used many times in a command.
The Atari ST TOSEC romset example given above is deliberately simple for tutorial purposes but does handle exhaustively TOSEC romsets. The following pattern is more complex but handle almost all cases:
-m '\((Disc|Disk|File|Part|Side|Tape) [^()]+\)(\(.+\))?(\[.+\])?'