Does Demul require special roms or CHD images?

[8BitMonk]

I've been setting up Demul lately and am having problems with some of the Naomi games. I've been getting the 'rom missing xxxx.bin file' error message. I'm using a set of mame .151 roms fully cmpro checked as my basis. Does Demul (.582 in particular) need special versions of the roms or do the CHD images need to be converted to GDRoms? I've been looking and am finding info that's either unclear or conflicting.

Some things I've heard and tried that haven't worked:

1.) Point the gdrom plugin in demul to the appropriate CHD.
2.) Use adebug version of mame to run the offending rom and look for a decrypted file in the folder to add to the roms zip file.
3.) Use older versions of the roms and CHD's.
4.) Downloading what was supposed to be Demul .582 versions of the roms. Ended up most weren't Naomi games.

[BadMouth]

The Demul roms are whatever MAME roms were current when that version of Demul was released.
A few times the Demul romset has been ahead of MAME though and included roms not yet in MAME.
(They are usually added to MAME shortly thereafter)

[8BitMonk]

Thanks for the info. So I guess for .582 it would be the .150 romset? Not sure why it wouldn't like some of them from the .151 set, doesn't seem like much changed in naomi roms from .150 to .151. I'd say about 80% of the naomi roms from .151 work for me. The ones with CHD's seem to be the most likely to give me the 'xxxx.bin' is missing.

[BadMouth]

Might be the format of the CHD.

There were recent changes to the CHD format.  (from "version 4" to "version 5")
If you run them through clrmamepro, I think it gives you the option of which format to use, but I haven't messed with it personally.

EDIT:  Found a post from when .58 was released where one of the devs said version 5 chds weren't supported.
http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=311211

[8BitMonk]

Huh, interesting. I had actually read that post but not read far enough down into it.

Still not clear on the consensus after reading it though, are they saying that v4 CHD's will work and V5 won't. If so, any idea when the CHD's went from v4 to v5 so I know which romset to pull the v4 versions from? Maybe if I used an old dat from .148 (or whenever the v4 CHD's existed) and rebuilt the CHD's I wanted from the .151's that'd do the trick. 

My .151 set of roms and CHD's completely checked out in clrmamepro and I don't remember seeing a v4 or v5 option, have to look again.

[Fursphere]

You asked this exact question on Hyperspin forums and here... lol  DEMul uses BIN files instead of MAME's CHDs.

Here is my response from Hyperspin...

So... I fixed my DEMul set by doing this.

CLRMAMEPRO setup for MAME pointed at demul.exe.

For a base set I used the mame .151 set, and let clrmamepro chew through that. Then spent a good 5 hours digging around the internet for all the missing ROMs that aren't formatted the same MAME's set (like CHDs for example).

I actually got the [romsite name redacted] DEMul torrent, and then compared it against my CLRMAMEPRO "Complete" set - and its totally different. The torrent is ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, and I wouldn't waste ratio points on it.

[8BitMonk]

You asked this exact question on Hyperspin forums and here... lol  DEMul uses BIN files instead of MAME's CHDs.

Your point? I asked the question on multiple forums to try and get a response that would help.

Here is my response from Hyperspin...

So... I fixed my DEMul set by doing this.

CLRMAMEPRO setup for MAME pointed at demul.exe.

For a base set I used the mame .151 set, and let clrmamepro chew through that. Then spent a good 5 hours digging around the internet for all the missing ROMs that aren't formatted the same MAME's set (like CHDs for example).

I actually got the [romsite name redacted] DEMul torrent, and then compared it against my CLRMAMEPRO "Complete" set - and its totally different. The torrent is ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, and I wouldn't waste ratio points on it.

[romsite name redacted] is a PITA and not something I wanted hassle with which is why I asked for other ideas, I already had a clrmame verified set of .151 roms. I was able to find a good set of Demul roms without having to go through [romsite name redacted] or another seeding site and the problematic roms work now. Thanks for the suggestions.

[pofo14]

Can you list a quick set of steps on how you resolved the Naomi ROM issue.  I am struggling with the exact same thing.  I have MAME sets (148 & 151) and niether seem to work.  I tried to rebuild one ROM (Marvel v Capcom 2) with the dat file created by demul but still get errors when loading the rom.  My next plan was to get the pile from PD but that doesn't look promising.

If you could walk me through the steps it would be appreciated.

Thanks