GameBase 64 Reorganizer SD

Do you have a 1541 Ultimate or a SD2IEC, uIEC/SD, etc? Want to extract your GameBase 64 collection to an SD card or memory stick, with an optimized folder structure and file names, quick and easy? GameBase 64 Reorganizer SD is what you need.

Latest version: 4.0.4.1
Download: GB64ReorganizerSD.zip
For Windows 8, 10, and 11.

Introduction

GB 64 Reorganizer began as a little utility to extract a Gamebase game archive collection into a folder structure ideal for the 1541 Ultimate. Over time, additional features such as filter support, HVSC SID file inclusion, and support for sd2iec devices has been added. The original title was “GameBase 64 Reorganizer for the 1541 Ultimate,” and this has been changed in version 3 to “GameBase 64 Reorganizer SD.”

In the end, the goal of Reorganizer is to create a folder and file structure ideal for your Commodore 64 mass storage device, whether it be a 1541 Ultimate or one of the many sd2iec devices available, with all (or as many as you have not filtered) of the titles from GameBase 64.

The “SD” is really a legacy title. This utility is really just about a folder structure, and the actual storage medium is not important. If you’re using a USB memory stick on your new 1541 Ultimate-II, this is still what you need!

To use this utility, you must have a Gamebase “games” folder with zip files containing the disk/tape images and VERSION.NFO files. This utility requires the VERSION.NFO files within each zip file to create the output directory structure. You do not need to have a complete GB installation or even have the actual GB database itself. This utility only works with the zip files containing the disk/tape images.

Additionally, if you have the High Voltage SID Collection, the SID files for games with SID: entries in the NFO files can also be copied to the output folders for each game.

Finally, if you are using the GameBase64 Front End you can export filters if you want Reorganizer to only include a subset of the games.

Screenshots

Key Features

  • Extract GB64 .zip archives into individual folders containing disk images, VERSION.NFO (optional), etc. VERSION.NFO files are re-formatted for easy reading on a 40-character display, either through the 1541 Ultimate file viewer or JiffyDOS ASCII file list command (@T:).
  • Optimal, logical folder structure makes browsing the collection easy on your real C64 without extremely large directory listings.
  • File names optimized for your particular device (optional): 1541 Ultimate, or sd2iec-based drive. Each of these has its own strengths and Reorganizer names files to appear as best as they can on a real C64 depending on the device.
  • For sd2iec devices, Reorganizer can automatically create AUTOSWAP.LST files for multi-disk titles and also extract T64 archives into .Pxx files. (sd2iec can’t access T64s but seamlessly supports Pxx files.)
  • Include sid files from HVSC right along with the games (optional). Supports raw sid files and PSID64 packed sids.
  • Supports GameBase 64 front-end filter lists! No need to include the entire collection if you just want a subset of it.

Note for 1541U-I users: as of this writing, the current official firmware for the older 1541U units (before the Ultimate-II) doesn’t support file viewing. I have made a non-official build of the firmware that does support file viewing as well as sid playback. You can find that here.

Compatibility with Gamebase versions: I have tested this release with GB versions 10 through 16. It likely works with all previous versions and should work with future versions as well.

Version History

4.0.4.1:

  • Fixed a file name comparison issue that could cause games with identical names to be extracted to the same folder under certain circumstances, even when they should have unique IDs appended. This was causing the games Moonshadow and MoonShadow to extract into a single folder.

4.0.3.1:

  • Added .REU to the recognized file types for extraction (GB16 support).

4.0.2.1:

  • Fixed failure to export archives if the archive source set ended with a folder with exactly 251 zip files of the same first letter.

4.0.1.1:

  • Improved GameList.csv output includes error messages on each folder/game (if any).
  • Recognize and extract .D81, .CRT, .G64, and .TAP files from archives (in addition to .D64 and .T64 files).
  • Change 1541-U folder name case to be mixed instead of forced upper-case. Added “Ancient 1541-U Uppercase Mode” for 1541-U file optimization (uses the previous behavior for file case naming). Use this option if you prefer the old way or if you have a really old firmware and you need it for proper sorting/searching on the 1541-U.
  • Added Test Mode. THIS STILL DELETES ANY PREVIOUS REORGANIZER OUTPUT IN THE DESTINATION FOLDER. This mode does everything except create the folders and extract the files, and you can review the GameList.csv file for results.
  • Added Load/Save Settings function.
  • Some cosmetic changes such as an improved icon design and changes to the faux-C64 status screen, just because.

3.0.3.1:

  • Fixed poor icon quality.
  • Really fixed bug this time: reformatting some NFO files on some systems could cause extraction to freeze.
  • Other minor bug fixes.

3.0.2.1:

  • Bug fix: freeze on reformatting certain NFO file.

3.0.1.1:

  • Changed UI option for file and folder structure.  The old “Uppercase folder names” option has been removed and incorporated into  the 1541U option.
  • Added sd2iec optimization support
    • File and Folder structure which uses all  lower-case names and limits names to 16 characters.
    • Option: Generate AUTOSWAP.LST for multiple disk  games
    • Option: Extract T64 archives into .Pxx files
    • When including HVSC SIDs, or PSID64 packed HVSC  SIDs, change name of .SID and SID .PRG files to GAMESID.SID and GAMESID.PRG  respectively.
  • Changed output base folder name to GameBase SD  (was GameBase 1541U)
  • Changed name of this utility to GameBase  Reorganizer SD
  • Improvements to folder separation logic.

2.1.1.1:

  • Changed handling of VERSION.NFO file inclusion.  You can now choose to include an optimized (reformatted for 38 columns)  version, or keep the unaltered file, or exclude it entirely. I recommend the  first option, but if your SD card is too full with the .NFO files you can  suppress them by selecting Exclude.
  • Added Filtering by exported RomLister XML file  option.
  • If there are fewer than 251 games, all of the game  folders are placed in the root output folder.
  • Added Unique-ID column to the output .csv file.
  • Minor changes to UI.

2.0.1.1:

  • Added HVSC SID source files support.
  • Added option to optimize the format of NFO files  for the 1541U file viewer.
  • Other improvements.

1.0.1.8:

  • Added “reduction” to base character for accented  letters which the C64 doesn’t display properly anyway.

1.0.1.4:

  • Initial release.

66 thoughts on “GameBase 64 Reorganizer SD”

  3. Mattias

    Great software. Seems to have a problem with Gamebase V10. Dont know if it was in previous versions as well or not.

    It sorts a bit wrong and put the wrong games into the wrong subfolders.
    For example, all games starting with STU (Stunt Bike) are put into the STR folder with all the games starting with STR (Striker etc).

    SPY games goes into SPR folder (Spy VS Spy, etc).

    Makes it very hard to find the games you are looking for sometimes =)

    Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      That sounds like it’s working properly. SPR means the first item that begins with SPR is placed in that folder. It doesn’t mean that every item in that folder starts with SPR. The next folder might be STA, for example, which would mean that everything between SPR and STA would be in the SPR folder.

      Reply ↓
  4. Jonathan

    I’d like to port this to Java so i can run it on mac and Linux (thats the only computers i have). Would you consider open source it?

    Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      Since it’s developed in Delphi and uses third-party components that have to be licensed (purchased), there would be no use in open sourcing it. Why not just write your Java application anyway? There’s no need for me to open source parts of this just so you can write one.

      Reply ↓
      1. Stakker

        I just reorganized a GB16 library on my Mac using Crossover and popped it into my C64 with 1541-Ultimate II+ and can confirm that it works 100%. No tweaking or hassle, worked just like that. So it probably will also work with some other Wine version, if you want to get into that. (Crossover is only 38€ though and you can try it free for two weeks.)

        Reply ↓
  5. Joe

    Hi,
    It is a very cool tool, thanks. however, in my case, it marks almost all my files as invalid, and I can perfectly open them with my winzip. Any idea why? Also, if a corrupted zip file is found is stops the whole scan without any error, maybe should just skip them.
    Thanks for doing this for the C64 community.
    Regards,

    Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      No idea why that would be happening, and, it should not stop when it comes to an invalid zip file. It would just move on. Keep in mind that WinZip can open files that aren’t actually valid zip files, so that doesn’t mean anything. GB64 Reorg can only deal with actual, valid zip files (for example, it would not be able to open a rar file with a zip extension).

      Reply ↓
  6. Rio

    Would it be possible to convert T64 to files with a PRG extension, other than a P00 extension?
    Seems that Frodo on Android can’t accept P00, only PRG

    Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      Well, not sure what the need would be, since this is meant to be used with devices that do support .p00. I’m curious how you are using Reorganizer with an Android emulator.

      Reply ↓
  7. John H.

    I’ve been looking for an easier way to get my collection onto an SD card for use in the sd2iec. (The thought of trying to lay everything out by hand was pretty daunting) I’m so glad to have found this utility – thanks for putting this together!

    Reply ↓
  8. Titofff

    Hi !
    I like this tool ! but what is VERSION.NFO ??

    i have TOSEC compilation games zipped, but where i can found version.nfo for use this tool ?

    Thanks.

    Reply ↓
    1. rootfather

      The VERSION.NFO files are created by the Gamebase64 team and part of their database. There are no VERSION.NFO files for the TOSEC collection, therefor you can’t use this tool to reorganise your TOSEC files.

      Reply ↓

  9. Pingback: Minor update to GameBase 64 Reorganizer (3.0.2.1) | Obliterator918's Commodore 64 Project Haven

  10. rootfather

    Hi, great tool!

    I would like to suggest a new renaming for the Folder Optimization settings. Can you include a setting that renames the folders, but won’t change the capitalization? I tested some folders using my 1541U-II, no problems at all, and it looks a lot nicer 😉

    Thanks!
    rootfather

    Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      The 1541-U’s sorting algorithm is case-sensitive, so not forcing all capitalization to be the same case actually creates an unwieldy folder structure– you end up with items in the wrong places alphabetically.

      Reply ↓
      1. rootfather

        Are you sure that this “restriction” also applies for the 1541U2? I tried a renaming like this “the sloppy way” using TotalCommander’s ability to mass rename each folder and capitalize the first letter of each word. I haven’t noticed any wrong sorting using my 1541U2 and the latest official firmware. Can you maybe include this option anyways and mark it as “experimental”?

        Reply ↓
        1. Obliterator918 Post author

          The test you describe doesn’t seem valid because you would need mixed-case to be sure, not one uniform mass rename. Anyway, you can disable the case normalization by selecting “None” for the file and folder optimization setting. I know that the case normalization was necessary when I initially developed this — without it, the quick-search in the 1541U tree browser wouldn’t work correctly, but Gideon may have changed to case-insensitive sorting/matching since then. Try “none” for the file/folder optimization type and see if that gets you what you want.

          Reply ↓
          1. rootfather

            Hi,

            “none” did the trick. It seems that the firmware on the 1541 U II doesn’t have any problems with mixed case filenames. No hickkups in the file list, nothing improperly sorted. 🙂

      2. Obliterator918 Post author

        Update: version 4.0 of Reorganizer no longer forces upper-case for the 1541-U optimization method. I confirmed looking at the firmware code for the Ultimate that it no longer uses case-sensitive compare functions, so it’s no longer needed.

        Reply ↓
  11. Markus

    hi,

    full GoodGB64 v3.00 + HVSC-62 and your cool tool says: 883 sids included but 2853 missed, what wrong with my set? please help 🙂

    Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      Basically it means that the Reorganizer couldn’t find the sid files that are named in the GB NFO files. I haven’t tested with the combo you are using there, though, sorry. You need to make sure that you are using the same HVSC release that the GB database matches. You’re using a recent version of HVSC but an ancient version of GB64, so there are bound to be differences in the file names/etc.

      Reply ↓

  12. Pingback: New version of GameBase 64 Reorganizer SD (3.0.3.1) | Obliterator918's Commodore 64 Project Haven

  13. Pingback: GameBase 64 Reorganizer SD version 4 released | Obliterator918's Commodore 64 Project Haven

  14. Merman

    Just a thought – Gamebase stores original tape, disk and cartridge files under the Extras tab (in the subfolder Extras).

    Could the Reorganiser add these files (where available) to the game directory?

    Reply ↓
      1. arthur

        May I second the above request?
        eg, the Game ‘ Z ‘ is by default a tap file, but there is an extra of a .D64

        I would like to have all the options of all file formats to chose from. Ideally I would like some way to extract only all the tape files, or all the Cart files and create a seperate folder structure for them (with the same .nfo naming used), but a compromise would be all the relevant playable files including those in the extras folder, in the same folder as the main game entry, sid etc.

        Regards,
        Arthur.

        Reply ↓
  15. Aut0mat3d

    Thank You verry much for this handy tool!
    If there was an option for Output to a single folder with long filenames (Filenames like the folders are currently named) this would be great for People running VICE via EmulationStation.

    Perhaps you could implement this Feature in a coming release?

    Thanks sincerly

    Reply ↓
  17. hmm

    It still freezes a lot.
    Using wxp in virtualbox, reorganizer v4.0.1.1, zips extracted from GB v14 iso.

    First it says “Invalid size or check sum of file or unsupported compression format – Native error: 00008. File processing error, possibly disk is full” (abort/retry/ignore)
    Then after ignore, on second file it encounters there is no more error information or anything, it just hangs.
    When rerun, this happens with exact same files again. After removing files one by one, it continues but just until the next problematic one comes up, one in every 50-200 files or so.

    Or is this due to using newer GB, should I go with v13? 🙂

    Reply ↓
  18. hmm

    Okay, another update.
    Don’t know where my 2nd comment disappeared, but it was about using a “native” disk in vbox instead of a mapped one – worked until H_I_Q where the initial scan stopped. Then in the next zip beginning with H etc.

    Anyway, I took GB v13, unpacked the Games dir in “native” vbox drive, ran your renamer and presto, worked flawlessly on the first run now with it.

    Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      I just ran Reorganizer against GB 14 and did a full extraction/reorg and it completed successfully, including the two Hi-Q archives. Since GB 14 has been out since August 2015 and I have not been getting a bunch of reports, I suspect something unique to your system/etc. I don’t have time to test outside of running it on a real Windows machine.

      Reply ↓
  20. xyb0t

    Is there a bug or am i doing something wrong? I end up with 24.954 games, but the gb64v15 i start out with has 24.970 games. I use latest version 4.0.2.1 with settings:

    – No SIDs
    – No RomLister file
    – 1541u optimization
    – Exclude VERSION.NFO
    …nothing else 🙂

    Thanks for a really great tool! I wish you’d make it able to spit out a nice set for RetroPie use also (1 zip file for every game, which can hold several disks).

    Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      Take a look at the GameList.csv file in the output folder in a spreadsheet viewer… any errors should be logged in the fourth column.

      Reply ↓
      1. xyb0t

        Well, the error-column is completely empty 🙁 I tried it again twice, and i end up with the exact same result: 24.954 games.

        The full Gamebase64 has 25.700 entries. Of these, 730 is missing game-file, so that would be 24.970 games in total. This is also the exact number of lines that is represented in the gamelist.csv file, but i end up with only 24.954 games (counting folders in the output dir, since some games can hold several files, and i also subtract the alphabetizing parent-folders).

        I was thinking that i was counting the wrong way, or that some games had weird chars in their filename, eventually causing them not to be written to disk but still registered in the csv-file or something!? Or some filenames was close to certain system expressions, and they were not allowed to be written, kinda like when trying to create a folder named ‘con’..

        I usually am quite ok with computer stuff 🙂 I must be doing some stupid mistake or something. Any input will be much appreciated.

        Thx

        Reply ↓
        1. Obliterator918 Post author

          The csv file also shows which folder the associated game was extracted to. Maybe sort the list by the folder and see if there was a collision. I know I should be doing this myself but at the moment I don’t have a full set to look at.

          Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      Sure, but why? The sd2iec supports .pxx files and Ultimate 2 supports T64 archives directly. The only reason I have .pxx file extraction support is because sd2iec doesn’t support T64 archives. Extracting T64 archives to PRGs (etc) would be like adding D64 file extraction support, which could be a nice added feature some day, but isn’t really the point of this tool…

      Reply ↓
  23. Maruicio Franco

    I was looking for a way to rename the .zip files of the GameBase64 to a human readable format. Keeping the initial letter folder (0,A,B,etc) and the .zip structure although, zip can be optional. My goal is to browse from an emulator like VICE or CCS64 easily. Actually I’m using Combian64 in a Raspberry Pi.
    Your tool is almost perfect doing it, except I do not have a 1541 Ultimate or any of this hardware.

    Would you be able to modify your excellent piece of software to do so? Maybe is just a slight modification.
    Thanks!!

    Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      Can you be more specific about the modification you’re requesting? This program doesn’t actually use or require any specific hardware.

      Reply ↓
      1. Maruicio Franco

        Thanks for your reply!! I think it works perfectly as it is now. I just exclude INFO files and I got a perfectly alphabetically organized T64/D64 files. That’s all I needed! Maybe recompress every T64/D64 file to .zip would be a plus in order to save some space in a small SD card.
        Anyway, this is what I do now: I put a Combian64 image in a Micro SD card (which is based on VICE emulator); I copy all the Gamebase64 collection converted with your tool, to the SD card; I put the card in a Raspberry Pi; I connect that R-Pi to C-64 keyboard with an interfase that I developed to convert it to USB, also the joysticks. So, I have an “emulated” C-64 with all the existing games, but with a real C-64 fully functional keyboard. If you want some info about the interfase I’ve developed, just throw me an email. Thanks again.

        Reply ↓
        1. Obliterator918 Post author

          Hooking a real C64 keyboard to a Pi sounds nice. I like that. If you put any details online just reply here with a link, I’d love to see it when it’s done.

          Reply ↓
  25. Cory Hammer

    Thanks, this is awesome, I was starting to write my own and then found you already did it and better than I was planning to do!

    Reply ↓
  26. Rio Baan

    Hi,
    v16 of Gamebase 64 is about to come out.
    This release contains an .reu (a ram expansion file) file for the first time, and unfortunately the organizer is filtering it out. Any possibility of a fix?

    Reply ↓
  27. Marco

    One of the features I really like is that GB64 reorganizer SD, handles very well filenames also on SD2IEC (where differently from 1541U2+ they are messed up if the name is too long, there are numbers, initial capital…8.3 standard). Is it possible to use GB64 reorganizer SD with a personal collection (eg my top 1000 titles), to get the same result, and if it is how?

    Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      Only through the Gamebase filter support. If your top 1000 titles are a filer in Gamebase then you can do it, see the documentation. If you’re talking about 1000 d64 files on your hard drive without NFO files, then no.

      Reply ↓
      1. Marco

        They are not from GB, but maybe there is a way to create nfo files, as many as the files are via batch, filling the needed attributes (I think path and filename are the necessary attributes)? Let me know if it’s feasible, thanks a lot. Otherwise there’s no way.

        Reply ↓
        1. Obliterator918 Post author

          You’d need to look into the NFO file format and see if you want to go through the work to do that. All I can say is that GB Reorganizer is specifically designed to work with GameBase 64, not random collections of d64 files, etc. If you have the skills to write a tool to build NFO files for your collection, you may as well just put those skills to use making a tool that renames the files the way you want in the first place, IMO.

          Reply ↓
  28. José Luis Correa

    Hi. I have a TheC64 MINI and with your program I have been able to adapt the Gamebase64 collection for it.
    TheC64 MINI also has the limitation of 256 entries per directory.
    In addition TheC64 MINI needs to know for each game in which port the joystick should be. Through the filters in Gamebase64 that your program accepts, I have been able to separate the games with Joy1 and create appropriate .cjm files for each file and then copy them using .bat scripts to their corresponding place next to each game.

    It also allows you to adapt Gamebase64 for Bare Metal C64 Emulator for Raspberry!

    Thank you very much for your program!

    Reply ↓
  29. Ikrananka

    Thank you for this fantastic utility. I just used it with GameBase64 v19 with no errors logged.

    One request. Would it be possible to add an option to include tape and disk files from the Extras folder (often the original tape and disks)? Sometimes I don’t want to use the cracked version of a game and so have to manually copy the uncracked originals from the extras.

    Reply ↓
  30. Bill Howland

    Thanks a million for this tool! I’d love to be able to run OneLoad64v5 through a tool like this. Can that be done as-is, or would changes need to be made?

    Reply ↓
    1. Obliterator918 Post author

      Doubtful it would work as-is. That would require the collection to be in the expected structure and with the necessary information files, which as far as I know are unique to GB64.

      Reply ↓

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