ROMS - [f1] [b1] [!] on filename Question

[kyzumi]

Most of the rared ROMs I download (SNES and N64) contain many files of the same game. Usually in 2 or 3 different languages and each of those languages have 2 or 3 files with "[f1]" "[b1]" "[!]" or more on their names. And I wonder what are those for? I can't tell any difference from the roms. Please explain

Example:

Donkey Kong 64 (E) [!].z64
Donkey Kong 64 (E) [b1].z64
Donkey Kong 64 - Kiosk (U) [!].z64
Donkey Kong 64 - Kiosk (U) [f1] (PAL).z64
Donkey Kong 64 (J) [!].z64
Donkey Kong 64 (U) [!].z64
Donkey Kong 64 (U) [b1].z64
Donkey Kong 64 (U) [f1] (Save).z64
Donkey Kong 64 (U) [f2].z64
Donkey Kong 64 (U) [f3].z64

And I'm sorry but couldn't find a better board to post this

Thank you

[Dr Mario]

http://www.epforums.org/goodset-rom-...265/index.html

What this means is that, for general playing, you want either the (E)[!], (U)[!], or (J)[!] ROM depending on which region you wish to play. The [f] versions are supposed to be fixed for better emulation, but that seldom makes a difference for older systems and they tend to be outdated for newer ones.

[SegNin]

The [f] versions are supposed to be fixed for better emulation, but that seldom makes a difference for older systems and they tend to be outdated for newer ones.

Actually, IIRC, the [f]'s are the ones that were fixed to work or work better on certain copiers.

Copiers are similar to flash carts for the GBA or NDS.
You load the rom onto them, and then play the rom on the console.

[kyzumi]

So that means that the "[fx]" versions are always better than the "[!]" or regular files? And either "[!]" or "[fx]" will always play 100%?

Since I want to save some space and don't really want all the versions and hacks of a game, Should I delete all the other ones and Keep only 1 of those 2 files? If so, which one of them (Between [fx] and [!]) would be the best choice?

And if there is a [f1] [f2] [f3]... [fx], the last one will always be most "complete and working" file?

I know I may be asking too much but I'm trying to download all roms of all consoles so those will save me a lot of time and HD space.

[SegNin]

[!] means the rom is a verified good dump.

No marker of any kind, no [b] or [o] or [f], etc. means that the rom is believed to be a good dump, but this hasn't been verified.

So, you either want the [!] or the one with no marker.

You also might want to keep the [t] ones since they've had cheat codes added to them.

And for other romsets, you'll definitely want to keep the [T+Eng] ones which signify the game's been translated to English, with the + indicating that at the time the romset was released, it was the latest and most complete patch for that rom.

The [T-Eng] on the other hand are for older, usually less complete versions of those patches.

[kyzumi]

I think I get it. The "[!]" are the definitive versions, which means that they are 100% working. And that makes them even better than [Fx].

That was very helpfull, Thank you all

I have one last question for now though: Is "[o]" (overdump) bad?