Converting CHD MAME files to bin / cue - "On a Technicality" - Video Game Esoterica

[@Rod_Zaramella]

Thanks for the tuto! With your help, I create a ".bat" file that AUTO-DO the process. Create/Edit a ".bat" file with this lines: for /r %%i in (*.chd) do chdman extractcd -i "%%i" -o "%%~ni.cue" -ob "%%~ni.bin" (exactly like showed here, with quotes and everything). Now put it on the same directory of the ".chd" file/files you want to extract, along with the "chdman.exe" and run the ".bat" you created. This will extract every ".chd" file in that directory.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Glad it was useful :)

[@henriqueap3730]

THANKS! THANKS! THANKS! ... ITS VERY EASY! VERY, VERY THANKS!!!

[@NicholasVossVader545]

Thanks a bunch!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Np!

[@stevenbenson9976]

You are a goddamned legend sir. Searching the internet endlessly for a simple command to do 80 disks rather than do them one at a time. You deserve half the thumbs up that this video gets.

[@videogamer3999]

This tutorial was perfect step by step instructions thank you, was able to convert Saturn chd file to work with Mednafen emulator since Mednafen does not run chd. Really appreciate people like you that upload these tutorial videos for random issues.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha happy to do it!

[@TheNickybocker]

Example how to convert to IMG file: (The name "YourFile" below will be replaced with the name of a target file you need to covert) Starting with 'YourFile.chd' placed in a folder along with 'chdman.exe' from a MAME release package Open a cmd prompt, navigate to folder where 'chdman.exe' and 'YourFile.chd' is (you can also do this by right clicking in the target folder and opening the command prompt right from the folder) Use this command: chdman extracthd --input YourFile.chd --output YourFile.img Wait for extract..."Extraction complete" You can open your new IMG file with a program like 7-Zip, (Trying to open with Windows ten default explorer it says "file is corrupt," But it isn't, use a zip program and it opens fine.)

[@HandyFox333]

MVP right here

[@aname6408]

THANK YOU i have these .chd files I couldn't emulate but now i've gotten it working

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Glad it helped!

[@bparks2193]

Is there an easy way to revert these to their original multi bin form if they originally had multiple bin files instead of combining them after extraction? I want my extracted bin/cue games to the original form to match redump dat.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It should unpack exactly as it was packed

[@bparks2193]

@@VideoGameEsoterica No it's a known limitation of CHDMAN.

[@epic8088]

IDK if this needs to be said, but I wracked my brain for the last 45 minutes trying to figure out step by step where I was going wrong. The only thing that solved my Issue was the original file name having spaces. So if this doesn't work for you, edit the file names so there's no space. you can always rename it after.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Thanks for posting this. I haven’t seen that issue but if someone else encounters it in the future your comment will be helpful!

[@FrameRater]

I'm having extreme difficulty finding that CDRDAO.exe file which is required for XDuplicator. Running it without that file renders the software useless it seems. The only CDRDAO related thing I can find is Linux software, which isn't going to work for me using Windows.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Let me check my system for the file. I must have it somewhere

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Email me

[@bjornh1527]

I don’t own any cd based arcade games yet, but it’s good to know there’s a tutorial if a scratched disk needs to be replaced...

[@DontPaniku]

Thanks for the help. I always forget how to use CHDman.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Same. It’s half the reason I made this. To remind myself!

[@leepit7178]

Great! Thanks for clear instruction.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Happy it helped!

[@Arbuz-gf3is]

I want to extract cobra the arcade chd but there's "unable to recognise CHD file as a CD Fatal error occurred :1"what should I do?

[@royandfrida]

I would recommend using quotes when putting file names for the chd and the bin and cue I ran into problems without them

[@travismcmurry]

This can be done as a PowerShell script or a one-liner (below is the one-liner version). Just make sure chdman.exe and the .CHD files are in the same directory. Feel free to modify it to add more: $list = Get-ChildItem *.chd; foreach ($listitem in $list) {$listinput = $listitem.name; $listcue = (($listitem).basename+".cue"); $listbin = (($listitem).basename+".bin"); ./chdman.exe extractcd -i $listitem -o $listcue -ob $listbin}

[@ralphjb]

Hi there. I know this video is old but I'm hoping you can help. I'm trying to follow your tutorial but it won't work. I keep getting an error message after I put in your command prompt. The error says "ERROR: EXPECTED OPTION, NOT PARAMETER." Do you have any idea what this means? I've tried two different chd files and get the same error each time.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

That sounds like you mistyped a command. Try the file name in quotations...example : "game.chd" and not game.chd. May help!

[@shadowman7408]

if you want to extract game music stored in there, would this work? Also my cue and bin files will not extract so I don't know what wrong the command worked without error with your command.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It depends on how the game audio was stored so I cant REALLY answer it

[@tobaya3388]

Thanks a lot for your great explanation

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Glad you liked it. Hope it helped :)

[@kevinthorn9672]

I made folder like you did same thing and notta workn? Im tryn to get area51 site 4 to a bin file and wont work

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Should work. What error are you getting?

[@AmyraCarter]

Let us hope this works... Addendum: Using the batch file as Rod had instructed, I finally got the bloody thing to work.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha yeah if you don’t write things perfectly it fails instantly. It’s a useful program but it’s 100% precise

[@AmyraCarter]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Seems the PlayStation Classic Tools pack has an incorrectly written batch file (that and it's a 64-bit version of the software).

[@michaelmyers3924]

Hi, i would like to convert a PC-Engine CD game (a cue file with a toc, two iso and lots of wav files) to cue \ bin(s), but i didn't find a way to do that, any idea please ? i tried to convert these to a CHD file, then to bin \ cue, but then there's only one bin file instead of a lot more.

[@berckk]

Thanks !! Excelent tutorial !!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Appreciate the feedback!

[@cowerkerdouch505]

Can this work on ps1 games? And how do you extract more than 1 files at once into cue bin files, because I have hundreds of ps1 games.

[@boywithanearring]

IT WORKED!!! THANK YOU!!!!!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Glad it helped!

[@lcb2884]

PLEASE HELP: the program I use to convert the games closes immediately and I can't find a solution

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Run as administrator perhaps

[@lcb2884]

@@VideoGameEsoterica It didn't work :(

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Hmm. I am not sure. What OS are you on?

[@lcb2884]

@@VideoGameEsoterica I'm on windows 10

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yeah it should just work. Try a diff version of CHDMAN. There is more than one p

[@LoiAbdullah]

this tutorial is so useful. thanks. I still have a big issue about converting virtua cop 3 .chd from mame to get work on xemu emulator. I know there are already patched ones float around. However, can't I just get learn how to convert it myself. thanks in advance

[@4malulz104]

chdman - MAME Compressed Hunks of Data (CHD) manager 0.249 (mame0249) terminate called after throwing an instance of 'decltype(nullptr)'

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Never seen that before

[@4malulz104]

@@VideoGameEsoterica I get all the info from the .chd, like it's type 5, etc. Tells me it's okay at the end... And chdman will copy the files and re-compress them too, but no extractxx a thing, always that error. Maybe just bad d/ls and I've had them stored for a LONG time... Guess I'll change versions and find a better source?!?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’d start there yeah. Try an older version of CHDMAN too

[@brkbtjunkie]

Nice, following your instructions didn’t work but there was a batch file in the download called CHD to ISO which did work

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

odd it didn't work. Must have been a diff vers of CHDMAN

[@jun_projecty]

Hi, i have a problem with XDuplicator, the program says that cdrdao.exe is missing, I searched that on Google and downloaded it but the file was cdrdao-1.2.3.tar.bz2, I renamed it to cdrdao.exe but XDuplicator gives me an error. Could you help me with this?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Just try another program. Anything should be able to handle bin/cue files :)

[@johnnybravo1907]

anyone know how to replace audio tracks from .cdi files to another because poweriso ultraiso isobuster cdmage cant read any .cdi and even converting .cdi to .nrg still cant read the content.

[@dinotenka1014]

It did not work for me, that put me: Unable to recognize CHD file as a CD Fatal error occurred: 1

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Are you sure the game is disc based? And that you didn’t miskey anything? The command line will fail if even one space or character is out of place

[@dinotenka1014]

@@VideoGameEsoterica I don't know but it's a sega system sp game

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Can you tell me the exact name of the game?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s not a disc. It’s a CF card. So this command will not unpack the CHD for you, as it’s not optical disc based hardware

[@dinotenka1014]

​@@VideoGameEsoterica Ok but despite this is it possible to convert the file to bin/cue?

[@TopShelfTheology]

Hey @Video Game Esoterica, please tell me Krebstar Media is a reference to Pete & Pete!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You know it! My router is “Krebstar 2000” too

[@thelukhulk0509]

i tried as explained as in your video but no result...could u help? Starting with ‘voyager.chd’ Get ‘chdman.exe’ from a MAME release package Open a cmd prompt, navigate to folder where ‘chdman.exe’ and ‘voyager.chd’ is Use this command: chdman extracthd -input voyager.chd -output voyager.img Wait for extract…”Extraction complete” (from aracde punks star trek voyager)

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

This is for extracting a CD image. Voyager is a hard drive. So the comment won’t work. Google “extract CHD hard drive image” and I’m sure you will find the correct directions

[@ICUP321]

Does this tutorial also work for DreamCast games converted to CHD?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Not exactly. CHD files would be from Naomi games, which won’t boot on a Dreamcast. But if you needed to duplicate a GD-Rom I’ll have a tutorial up soon :)

[@illuminatidad]

could you convert arcade chds to bins/cues to run on a psx emulator?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You mean arcade chd’s that used the PS1 hardware in an arcade pcb format? I’m not sure if they work in emulators, and most of the PS1 based arcade games used ROMS, not cd. PS2 based arcade hardware used discs, so maybe that’s possible? I’ve never tried. I’d assume it might be possible but you’d have to Google if anyone has attempted it before

[@illuminatidad]

@@VideoGameEsoterica ok because I know this game called carnevil and it has lots of similar traits to the ps1, Like lots of textures, not much movement, an fmv animating nearly the entire game, a pixely fmv at that, and that most of the code is in the chd. No big load screens though.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

CarnEvil shipped on a hard drive. So you’d have to use CHDMAN to create a HDD image. It can be done easily. I’d Google the commands

[@illuminatidad]

@@VideoGameEsoterica could one of the formats make the file extractable?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

www.thekillerinstinctproject.com/kiproject/chdman.html Just follow that. You can extract the HDD image from the CHD. But follow it exactly...screw it up and you can accidentally format an existing hard drive on your PC. So do it at your own risk

[@dragonhaven100]

I did as shown: chdman extractcd -i Dark Wizard (USA).chd -o Darkwizard.cue -ob Darkwizard.bin got nothing.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

isn't that a Sega CD game? If so just find the bin/cue. I never see Sega CD games in CHD format?

[@DCstar]

After typing cd desktop it says “system cannot find find path specified”

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Then you either put the command in incorrect or or you pointed it to the wrong location. It means it can’t find the folder

[@OrderedEntropy]

i keep finding chd to bin, where the hell is a tutorial for bin cue to chd, i can do singles manually, but i am not tech savvy how does one do the darn multi tracks

[@SaSha-ps6kp]

What should I do in "Unable to recognize CHD file as a CD"? Here's the file:drive.google.com/file/d/1tS1uf1Cj_DGFiwDm4eJyN2CvpRuA0fOu/view?usp=sharing

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

That means it’s not a disc based game. What’s the game? It’s probably a HDD so you need to use the command for a hard drive (sorry not gonna click a random drive link. Safety first!)

[@ArcadeRave]

when I enter the file name for chdman it keeps saying its not recognized edit: nvm got it, thanks for the video!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

👍

[@sylveonloveheart6783]

I just want to play Pop'n Music 4. Can you help?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

For Dreamcast?

[@ShutUpBubi]

It sucks I have to do rocket science just to run Sega CD games on a Wii in 2021 especially when regular games work fine. However came up with this CHD file format deserves to be locked away for life

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Lol CHD is a bit odd for sure

[@MrDroidleadr]

4 years later an the process to do this is still trash, im convinced Mame devs just hate ppl an wanted to make this as difficult as possible to spite mankind as a whole, instead of doing what everyone els does an making it a simple programs that you dont need to use command promt.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Google “CHDMAN UI” and you’ll feel foolish lol (I mean this as a joke. Not insulting you…barely anyone knows it exists and honestly I still recommend the command line)

[@jincen3306]

so so complicated

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s highly annoying for sure

[@oscaragp]

What to do with kinst.zip when boot.bin doesn't work?