Atari 2600 ROMS Help

[ECWSandmanECW]

So I downloaded a few Atari 2600 ROMS(1,576 to be exact) and then after that I downloaded Stella, a emulator. Now here's the problem, the Roms are .a26 and Stella can only read .bin. Is there a easier way to rename all these files as .bin without manually renaming them?

[ddockery]

Go to a command prompt and type "ren *.a26 *.bin"

That should take care of it. This will ned to be done in the dir your roms are in, of course.

[ECWSandmanECW]

Alright, Im getting a error

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Brian>Desktop\Games\ROMS>ren*.a26*.bin
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

C:\Documents and Settings\Brian>Desktop\Games\ROMS>"ren*.a26*.bin
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

C:\Documents and Settings\Brian>Desktop\Games\ROMS>"ren*.a26*.bin"
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

As you can see, ive tried it different ways, can you tell me the right way?[/quote]

[AlanD]

Not sure if it is just the post or the way you actually entered it but you need to add some spaces by the look of it:


ren [space] *.a26 [space] *.bin


Obviously replace the word [space] with a space and see what happens
Alan

[ECWSandmanECW]

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Brian>Desktop\Games\ROMS>ren *.a26 *.bin
'Desktop\Games\ROMS' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Documents and Settings\Brian>Desktop\Games\ROMS\ren *.a26 *.bin
'Desktop\Games\ROMS\ren' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Documents and Settings\Brian>Desktop\Games\RO
'Desktop\Games\RO' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Documents and Settings\Brian>Desktop\Games\ROMS>ren *.a26 *.bin
'Desktop\Games\ROMS' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Documents and Settings\Brian>


Thats what I got this time.

[slapdash]

Why are you adding this part?:


Desktop\Games\ROMS>

You need to either go to that directory if the *.a26 files are there, or delete that part if they're not.

To put it more clearly, you need to be in the directory where the ROMs are before the command will work.

[NE146]

What directory is your roms in. Like slapdash says, you need to go to that directory.

use the command "CD" to change directories in DOS. What's the path of your roms? Once you know that, you can just plop that in there..

say it's in D:\ryan\games\2600\roms

Then you can just say: CD D:\ryan\games\2600\roms

And that will get your there fine. THEN you can do the old rename command

[jonjandran]

These youngsters nowadays.....
Ahhhh to be back in the old Dos days........
LOL

[zektor]

These youngsters nowadays.....
Ahhhh to be back in the old Dos days........
LOL

Yeah...DOS is getting "deader" every day I suppose. Someone that cannot manuever through directories at a command prompt should get the command prompt powertoy from M$.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

Download the open command window here powertoy and install it. After this you will be able to simply right click on the directory with your ROMS and "open command window here"...then do your renaming. After all of this you must promise however to get to a local library and take out a book on DOS commands. :) j/k

[nesuser2]

i put a prog on my laptop when i was in the renaming ROMZ! biz....can't remember the program. but it was real basic, you pick the folder and scan for folders with the exact text you type in, in your case:

.a26

and in the rename part you would put:

.bin

and bam..........chugga chugga, it's done. i wanted to remove country codes from the roms, so i just type in the code and leave the rename blank......presto and it's gone. look on download.com for renamers though....

[zektor]

The thing is that extension renaming is already there within Windows (as has been with DOS) with the REN command. It always has been.

[nesuser2]

some people get lost in commands though.....not that i can't run the commands but i'm less apt to screw things up if i use a program..

[zektor]

Although I'm an old fart and hate the idea of renaming with a GUI, here's something that may help:

http://www.foryoursoft.com/batchren2.htm

Its a GUI renamer that is actually quite good.

[NE146]

Although I'm an old fart and hate the idea of renaming with a GUI,

Heh.. there are some operations that you can't do too easily in DOS (like say... substituting a certain common text string on a thousand files with sequenced numbers.. 01, 02, 03. etc). THAT'S when a GUI comes in handy to do that kind of crap in under a second :P

There's lots of good renaming programs, but here's one that's pretty small (56KB) and also free. It's at this site under programs (renamer.exe)

http://www.albert.nu/common.asp

Tiny, runs great. The catch is it might take a little figuring out.

[ECWSandmanECW]

Thanks for the help, I got it to work with the Powertool Command.

[zektor]

Although I'm an old fart and hate the idea of renaming with a GUI,

Heh.. there are some operations that you can't do too easily in DOS (like say... substituting a certain common text string on a thousand files with sequenced numbers.. 01, 02, 03. etc). THAT'S when a GUI comes in handy to do that kind of crap in under a second :P

There's lots of good renaming programs, but here's one that's pretty small (56KB) and also free. It's at this site under programs (renamer.exe)

http://www.albert.nu/common.asp

Tiny, runs great. The catch is it might take a little figuring out.

I do have to say this program is great. Thanks for the link!