v1.4 - The Metadata and Xbox release

rom-properties 1.4

It's been a bit over a year since the previous release, and lots of changes have accumulated for this release. See NEWS.md for the full changelog, including the list of bugs fixed.

Major changes:

• New UI frontends: XFCE (GTK+ 3.x), MATE
• Transparent gzip decompression support. Primarily used for VGM (VGZ).
• ROM images with "dangerous" permissions for Nintendo DS and 3DS now have an overlay icon on KDE. (The Windows implementation was disabled in this release due to unexplained crashes.)
• File metadata is now exported to the desktop environment. This includes e.g. dimensions for textures and duration for audio. Currently supported on KDE and Windows.
• New parsers:
  • Audio formats: ADX, BCSTM, BCWAV, BFSTM, BRSTM, BFSTM, GBS, NSF, PSF (and related), SAP, SID, SNDH, SPC, VGM (and VGZ)
  • Wii: WADs, encrypted Wii save files
  • Mach-O binaries (Mac executables)
  • Neo Geo Pocket (Color) ROM images
  • Xbox: XBE, XEX, disc images, XPR textures, STFS packages
  • iQue Player content metadata and ticket files
• New parser features:
  • DMG: GBX footer
  • DirectDrawSurface: BC7 texture compression
  • GameCube: NASOS image format, CHN and TWN region codes, standalone Wii partitions
  • NES: Internal footer present in some ROMs.
  • NintendoDS: "Access Control" is now shown for DSi-enhanced ROMs. DSi flags are shown for NDS ROMs released after the DSi.
  • SegaPVR: Support for SVR files used on the Sony PlayStation 2.
• Other changes:
  • Removed S2TC decoding. The first version of rom-properties with support for S3TC, v1.2, was released after the S3TC patents expired. Since the patents expired, S3TC can be unconditionally enabled, and we don't need the S2TC decoder or test images anymore.
  • The Linux UI frontends will no longer initialize if running as root. rpcli will still run as root for now, though it's not recommended.
  • The XDG MIME database rom-properties.xml is now installed on Linux systems. This provides MIME types for formats not currently present in FreeDesktop.org's shared-mime-info database.

The Ubuntu packages have been moved from GitHub downloads to an Ubuntu Personal Package Archive. Builds are now available for Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial" Xerus, Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic" Beaver, and Ubuntu 19.04 "Disco" Dingo.

To add the PPA and install rom-properties, run the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gerbilsoft/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rom-properties-all

This will install all rom-properties frontends and executables. Individual frontends can be installed by installing the relevant rom-properties-* package.

UPDATE: The Windows package had an incorrect setup for tinyxml2.dll due to a bug in the packaging script. Specifically, the 32-bit version was located in bin/, and the 64-bit version wasn't included. The PKG1 ZIP has both DLLs in the correct location. The packaging script will be fixed for the next release. (TinyXML2 is currently only used for parsing the manifest section in Windows executables. If the DLL isn't present, the section won't be parsed.)

v1.3.3

• GameCube: Fixed a crash when downloading external images for Disc 2 from multi-disc games. Thanks to @Nomelas for reporting this bug.

This bug affects the libromdata backend, so all users should upgrade.

The Ubuntu packages have been moved from GitHub downloads to an Ubuntu Personal Package Archive. Builds are now available for Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial" Xerus and Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic" Beaver.

To add the PPA and install rom-properties, run the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gerbilsoft/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rom-properties-all

This will install all rom-properties frontends and executables. Individual frontends can be installed by installing the relevant rom-properties-* package.

v1.3.2

• Linux: Fixed a crash on GNOME and XFCE when using Ubuntu 16.04. IFUNC was not being disabled on gcc5 in the GTK+ directory.
• XFCE: The Specialized Thumbnailer file has a MimeTypes key, not MimeType.

NOTE: These bugs only affect the Linux build, so only Ubuntu packages have been rebuilt. Packages are available for Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial" Xerus and Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic" Beaver.

To add the PPA and install rom-properties, run the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gerbilsoft/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rom-properties-all

This will install all rom-properties frontends and executables. Individual frontends can be installed by installing the relevant rom-properties-* package.

v1.3.1

• Windows: Fixed a bug that caused Explorer to crash if a supported file had an internal image whose width was not a multiple of 8.

Thanks to @Clownacy for finding and helping track down this bug.

NOTE: This bug only affects the Windows build, so only Windows packages have been built. The latest version in the Ubuntu PPA is v1.3.

v1.3 - The Internationalization Release

rom-properties 1.3

New features:

• Internationalization. The GNU gettext library is used to provide
  translation support for most of the UI. This version includes a
  complete pt_BR translation from Null Magic, and partial ru and
  uk translations from Egor.
• MMX/SSE2/SSSE3-optimized byteswapping functions.

New texture formats:

• Khronos KTX
• Valve VTF
• Valve VTF3

New systems:

• ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) [includes Wii U RPX/RPL]
• game.com (Tiger Electronics)

New compressed texture formats:

• Ericsson ETC1 and ETC2
• Variations of S3TC compression, including RGTC and LATC.
• DXT1 with and without 1-bit alpha. Only VTF supports selecting this;
  for other texture formats, DXT1_A1 is used.

See NEWS.md for the full list of changes.

The Ubuntu packages have been moved from GitHub downloads to an Ubuntu Personal Package Archive. Builds are now available for Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial" Xerus and Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic" Beaver.

To add the PPA and install rom-properties, run the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gerbilsoft/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rom-properties-all

This will install all rom-properties frontends and executables. Individual frontends can be installed by installing the relevant rom-properties-* package.

v1.2 - The Dreamcast Release

New features:

• rpcli, rp-stub, rp-thumbnailer-dbus: PNG images now have an sBIT chunk. Images without an alpha channel are now saved as RGB PNGs instead of ARGB, which usually results in a smaller file.
• Some functions have been optimized using SSE2 and/or SSSE3.

New systems:

• Sega PVR and GVR texture decoding.
• Microsoft DirectDraw Surface decoding.
• Nintendo Badge Arcade files.
• Sega Dreamcast disc images. (Track 03 in ISO or BIN, and .GDI)
• Sega Saturn disc images.
• Atari Lynx ROM images. (Headered only)

See CHANGES.md for a full list of changes.

The Ubuntu packages have been moved from GitHub downloads to an Ubuntu Personal Package Archive. Builds are now available for Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial" Xerus, Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty" Zappus, and Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful" Aardvark.

To add the PPA and install rom-properties, run the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gerbilsoft/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rom-properties-all

This will install all rom-properties frontends and executables. Individual frontends can be installed by installing the relevant rom-properties-* package.

v1.1

New features:

• rp-config is now available for KDE4 and KDE5.
• rp-config now has a Key manager tab.
• XFCE: Thumbnailing is now supported using tumblerd.

New systems:

• Nintendo 3DS firmware binaries. 1.0-11.4 retail FIRM is supported, as well as a few well-known homebrew titles.
• Sega 8-bit (Sega Master System, Game Gear)

New system features:

• Nintendo 3DS
  • Support for encrypted DSiWare CIAs.
  • Logo section is now checked.
  • Application permissions are now listed for CIAs and CCIs.
• Mega Drive: New "Vector Table" tab, and support for checking the locked-on ROM for Sonic & Knuckles lock-on.
• PlayStation Saves: Support for more PS1 save file formats.
• EXE: MS-DOS executables now show more information.

See CHANGES.md for a full list of changes.

Note: The Ubuntu packages were compiled with LTO disabled due to an internal compile error when compiling the KDE5 frontend. This will be investigated and hopefully LTO will be re-enabled for v1.2.

The Ubuntu packages have been moved from GitHub downloads to an Ubuntu Personal Package Archive. Builds are now available for Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial" Xerus and Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty" Zappus.

To add the PPA and install rom-properties, run the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gerbilsoft/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rom-properties-all

This will install all rom-properties frontends and executables. Individual frontends can be installed by installing the relevant rom-properties-* package.

v1.0

The first non-beta release version of ROM Properties Page!

New systems:

• Windows/DOS executables
• Nintendo Wii U disc images
• Nintendo 3DS ROM images and CIAs, both decrypted and encrypted

New features:

• JPEGs are now supported for image downloads.
• rpcli supports verifying keys in ~/.config/rom-properties/keys.conf.
• GameCube now has partial support for WIA disc images.
• (Windows) rp-config, a new configuration program, is included. This program allows you to configure image types for supported systems and download options. The thumbnail cache tab is only partially implemented at the moment; it supports clearing the thumbnail cache on Windows Vista and later.
• (Windows) A new installer is included that replaces the two install scripts.

For other changes, see CHANGES.md.

v0.9-beta2

Lots of changes in this release.

New features:

• GTK+ frontends (GNOME, XFCE)
  • No thumbnailing in XFCE yet.
• Command line frontend (rpcli)
• Windows: Fallback handling for common file extensions.

New systems:

• Nintendo 64
• Super NES
• Sega Dreamcast save files
• Virtual Boy
• amiibo NFC dumps
• Nintendo Entertainment System

See README.md for a full list of changes.

ROM Properties Page shell extension v0.8.1 (IExtractIcon fix)

The IExtractIcon implementation (used for icons on Windows) was setting GIL_DONTCACHE in the Debug build, but not the Release build. Turns out we aren't setting the caching information correctly (and I'm not sure what's needed for that), so the Release build was causing all handled files to have the same icon as the first file that was checked.

This build sets GIL_DONTCACHE for both Debug and Release.

NOTE: For Linux, use v0.8-beta1. This build only has changes to Windows-specific code.