How to extract ROMs from the Castlevania & Contra Anniversary Collections on Steam

[farmerbb]

If you've purchased one or both of these game collections on Steam, and want to know how to play the included games with whatever emulator you want, here's a guide on how to extract the ROMs.

--------------------------------------- UPDATED 12/28/2019 ---------------------------------------

1. Download and install .NET Core from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download

2. Download MArchiveBatchTool from https://github.com/farmerbb/RED-Project/releases

3. Extract the zip file and copy alldata.bin and alldata.psb.m from your Castlevania or Contra Anniversary Collection install into the extracted directory.

4. Now, open up a command prompt (or shell) inside the MArchiveBatchTool folder, and run this command:

Windows:

MArchiveBatchTool.exe fullunpack --keep alldata.psb.m zlib 25G/xpvTbsb+6 64

Linux:

./MArchiveBatchTool fullunpack --keep alldata.psb.m zlib 25G/xpvTbsb+6 64

5. When finished, the ROMs will be located inside of the "alldata.psb.m_extracted\system\roms" folder. Enjoy!

[8bitGuru]

+1 this is great information. I'm likely not going to do this , but I like having the option if my steam executable has issues. Perhaps we should leave the legal battles for the publisher and Steam though. While awesome that users have so much knowledge of legal systems, the post hasn't been removed so why not focus on the content of the OP message and not their right to post it. Take that advice with however many grains of salt you so wish.

[themazingness]

Messaggio originale di ziomekgorna:

I'm not good with law and legal agreements, but as far as I'm aware you don't actually own games you buy on steam, which in term means you don't own the ROMs you are ripping from this edition

What you refer to is exactly what I was referring to. A EULA is a license agreement (that's what the LA stands for). If they don't want you using the software in certain ways such as extracting files, the EULA is where they make you agree to that (and many of them do this).

To give an example, Second Dimension has a EULA for their collection of games on Steam that they have given you license to if you purchase it. The EULA can be seen on the right hand column of the store page, in yellow where it is for every game that has one: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1137930/Second_Dimension_RetroPak_Vol_1/

Read it. It'll have language that says only they have the right to say whether you can make changes to the game files or use it on other devices.

Yet, it also says they can give permission, which they tell you how to use the ROMs from collection here (which is pretty classy of the company in my opinion): https://steamcommunity.com/app/1137930/discussions/0/1643170903490514162/

When there isn't a EULA, you may not own the software but you may use it as you wish so long as you don't break copyright law, which goes back to what I said about it depending on the country you live in.

[Kamul]

Much appreciated! Thank you so much for this!
I've got a question, though: are the arcade versions of Contra also included within the extracted roms? I can't see they are, but maybe I'm missing something.
Thank you so much in advance though!

[+]

Thank you very much for sharing this.

[gia]

Messaggio originale di ziomekgorna:

The question is: is this legal?

its ethical to backup since you bought the access to the software (not to modify and/or sell since that would need an agreement), legal depends on your country

[fenderjaguar]

"legal" means somebody wrote something on a piece of paper.
"lawful" means you didn't initiate any force on anyone that didn't initiate force on you.
is it legal? who knows...
is it lawful, hell yeah

[Leilas_Dad]

Hi farmerbb. I was wondering if you knew of a way to be able to extract/repack the various image (pictures and art) files that are a part of the Castlevania Collection and Castlevania Advance Collection?

[Evolution]

Is there a way to extract the Arcade version from "Contra Anniversary Collection"?
Because the slowdown is unbearable, I want to play with other emulators. thanks~

[Wehzy]

Thats pretty cool

[dowidh]

Do you think you'll ever do guides for:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/495050/Mega_Man_Legacy_Collection_2/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/999020/Mega_Man_ZeroZX_Legacy_Collection/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/743890/Mega_Man_X_Legacy_Collection/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/743900/Mega_Man_X_Legacy_Collection_2/

I'm sort of a Mega Man fan. I was a Sega kid and never owned a Nintendo and missed out on it :p

Messaggio originale di farmerbb:

I'm currently working on a documentation project that covers extracting games from all sorts of different compilations, including a few others that use the MArchiveBatchTool.

The project is located here: https://github.com/farmerbb/RED-Project/wiki

Keep in mind that it's still a work in progress :)

[themazingness]

Messaggio originale di dowidh:

Do you think you'll ever do guides for: (omitted list of all the MM Legacy Collections)

I'm sort of a Mega Man fan. I was a Sega kid and never owned a Nintendo and missed out on it :p

Messaggio originale di farmerbb:

I'm currently working on a documentation project that covers extracting games from all sorts of different compilations, including a few others that use the MArchiveBatchTool.

The project is located here: https://github.com/farmerbb/RED-Project/wiki

Keep in mind that it's still a work in progress :)

The readme.md for the tool used for the Mega Man Legacy Collection covers what can and can't be done. Most of the games were ported rather than emulated so there aren't any roms there. I believe only Mega Man 1-6 and Mega Man X-X3 were emulated.

[Paratech2008]

The Contra collection is on GOG for $3.99, I think they are more lenient on the EULA than on Steam but I might be wrong.

I just extract what I can for my own personal use. I don't care if they like it or not. I paid them, sometimes more than once for these games. I even purchased some like the MegaMan games (1-6) so they should be happy with my support as-is...

[kakiss4]

Worked perfectly, thank you.

[JunglePredator]

Thanks for the post; where do you get the codec & seed values from?

[AgitoM]

Extracted the roms for Contra.
Does anyone have a list of which rom file is which game? Am rather confused with the English and Japanese names.