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Atari 7800 - A78 DAT file is empy

This is an open ticket.
Category: Generic
Reference: Generic

Anonymous » 2024-11-03 01:26:33

The DAT file for A78 is always empty has no values.

Anonymous » 2024-11-08 12:31:14

I second this. Even the daily download is empty for it.

Anonymous » 2024-11-09 03:07:03

They are in the Aftermarket-folder.

bigbro » 2024-11-11 03:57:27

yep doesnt work for me either, pls fix

jasonseeb » 2024-11-17 08:52:28

To the anonymous reply saying "They are in the Aftermarket folder". The non-aftermarket games are not in the aftermarket folder. These games exist on the .bin extension but are missing from the .a78 extension.

Psychofox11 » 2024-11-17 17:26:22

We can't really add A78 properly until we agree on a deterministic header format. The headers allow some 'type anything' fields like game name, version, etc. that are not essential to emulation, while NES headers contain ONLY what is essential, meaning 2 people will arrive at the same header. With A78, even an upper/lowercase or spacing issue would keep them from matching.
I've proposed an agreement to simply set all fields not used for emulation to 00, both in forums and on discord, but it has never gotten any traction. Atari Lynx is similar. Without that, headered will be hard to verify.
My understanding is the current a78 aftermarkets are using the headers provided by the devs, including whatever they typed in those fields. Just 'first working header found' - but it is hard to redump/verify that.
Outside of getting the communities to accept a new minimal header format for 7800/Lynx, we'll need to agree on blanking out the unnecessary fields, even if typed by devs. Somewhat similar to how devs typically provide NES with old iNes headers and we updated them to NES 2.0.
If there's something important from the dev in the original header (not for running but just important text), we should still blank it out, and maybe add a comment about it.
Though, my attempts at some consistency with headers on these have failed to gain any traction or agreement, and I've kind of given up that battle. I still support it and would jump in if others want more useable headered dats for these systems and can put in some work to do it! Emulators do sometimes require the headers, and they absolutely necessary for some aftermarkets.

bikerspade » 2024-11-18 06:38:19

It might be a good idea for someone to invite Trebor into the discussion on no-intro discord or forums, as they are one of the leading authorities on 7800 files. https://forums.atariage.com/topic/260584-trebors-7800-rom-propack/

Anonymous » 2025-04-19 02:42:29

Bumping this up for visibility. I feel No-Intro should adopt Trebor's headers until a better solution comes along. The leading 7800 emulators rely on Trebor's headers.

Psychofox11 » 2025-04-21 22:59:16

Yeah that would give consistency for what's covered, but still nothing deterministic for new releases. Still better than what we have, but only deterministic by referencing another source.

I'm not against it until some other agreement can be made, but ultimately we'd want something completely deterministic from the ROM and PCB behavior themselves, such as blanking out the 'type anything' fields with 00 or FF (we'd need to agree on one, and update current ones). Someone could update all to reflect those headers though, but I've got most of my energy in other places lately, and haven't had as much time to spend on stuff here.

Anonymous » 2025-04-22 23:35:02

I understand your point of view. 7800 has a very niche, but strong following for support. Trebor at this point is really the authority on this and tends to update headers when corrections are needed. Has anyone considered reaching out to them to ask if they'd want to provide assistance? I'm willing to contact them if it helps to get the ball rolling.