Getting ROMs (legally) from Retro Collections on Steam

Guide on how to get ROMs as legally as possible from game collections sold on Steam

Definition and legality of legal ROMs

ROM ("read only memory") represents a digital copy of a game to be used in emulators and Retroarch. Depending on the source of ROM, it can be said to be legal or illegal.

DISCLAIMER. While this guide discusses legal issues around ROMs, it does so out of pure curiosity and is not meant to determine the legality or illegality of things. I'm not a lawyer and cannot give any legal advice, so don't take any.

Illegal ROMs

ROMs from pirate or abandonware sites are illegal because they clearly violate copyright. Abandonware is not a legal term and doesn't cancel copyright. Additionally, ROMs that are sourced by decryption are also illegal under the DMCA, as decryption can be interpreted as DRM circumvention.

ROMs that are found on archiving sites such as Internet Archive can be argued to be legal, but in a very limited capacity and only in the US, and maybe not for long given recent cases of Internet Archive vs publishers. The idea is that archived ROMs as well as DRM circumvention may be legal for the sake of preservation. It also may be legal to play ROMs on Internet Archive, as the site acts as a public library. It is, however, most probably illegal to download ROMs from Internet Archive for sake of emulation and entertainment.

Legal ROMs

Legal ROM is such that is acquired from legal sources. One way to acquire legal ROMs is backing up official copies of the games from owned physical medium using cart readers or modded consoles. As long as a physical copy is owned, it is considered to be legal to use a digital copy for personal use. It is not legal, however, to download it from the Internet just because a physical copy is in possession. This, however, is expensive, given high prices for physical copies of old games and that game copying device might not be easily available. And even then, a local backup might differ from the known ROM of the game.

Another way to get legal ROMs is to extract ROMs from digital releases. While this can require minimal technical knowledge, it's much easier than dumping ROMs on your own and can provide a 'legal' way of owning and enjoying retro games, both in official collection releases and in Retroarch.

How legal are legal ROMs?

They may be legal, but whether they are is unclear. It depends on several factors, such as the jurisdiction, the specific facts and circumstances of each case, the agreements that you have accepted, and whether encryption was bypassed. Therefore, a confident answer can be provided only in court.

Extracting ROMs from a game collection can be illegal if it involves DRM circumvention (decryption), but even ROMs that are found within game files unencrypted might not be as legal to grab, and it really depends on licensing agreement (specific game EULA or Steam Subscriber Agreement). The licensing agreement typically states that you may not, in whole or in part, copy or modify the game, whereas moving, renaming, reformatting ROM files to use them in emulators might be considered a violation of that agreement. Moving files to another devices might contradict agreement as well, if it limits the number of devices the product can be used on. Some companies might even want to argue that game copying devices (and therefore, game backups) are illegal because they infringe copyright and/or circumvent DRM.

Although the licensing agreement is not a law, a violation of it may have legal consequences, even if it's unlikely. However, it may be fine to get ROMs from physical mediums or digital releases if encryption is not bypassed, as such use can be considered fair use and can have some protections as a format-shifting (in most jurisdictions). And even if encryption is bypassed, it may still be legal under certain circumstances, such as for archival purposes or restoring access to a game with broken DRM.

Getting started

Quite often, game collections on Steam can be used to acquire ROMs. For some, getting ROMs can be as easy as finding them in the game's folder. In other cases, ROMs can be stored in (unencrypted) game archives or executables. While it is possible to extract and format these ROMs manually, it is much easier to run Python scripts written specifically for that.

Game Extraction Toolbox[github.com]

One of such tools is Game Extraction Toolbox, a toolkit that makes ROMs extraction more feasible without additional legal risks for average user (such as decryption). To install it, you'll need Python 3.11 and pipx.

Installing Python

For Linux and MacOSX, Python should be installed by default.

For Windows, you can download latest Python 3.11 version here[www.python.org].

UPD. Please do not install "Latest Python 3 Release - Python 3.12.2", as game-extraction-toolbox doesn't yet work with Python 3.12!


As of time of writing this guide, I'm using Python 3.11.4 and Windows installer (64-bit)[www.python.org] of that version.

Once the installed is downloaded, open it. Before proceeding further, select Add python.exe to PATH checkbox to run Python from command line.


Press Install Now to finish installation.

To verify that Python is installed, search for Command Prompt (cmd.exe) and run the command

python --version

In my case, the output is Python 3.11.4.

Installing pipx

Now you need to install a specialised package installer, pipx. Run these commands to install it:

Windows or Linux

python -m pip install --user pipx
python -m pipx ensurepath

MacOSX

brew install pipx
pipx ensurepath

Close and open your command prompt, and run

pipx --version

As an output, you should get a version of pipx installed (1.2.0 in my case).

Installing Game Extraction Toolbox

If Python and pipx are already installed, it's easy to install Game Extraction Toolbox. Just run this command:

pipx install game-extraction-toolbox

To verify installation, run

gextoolbox version

In my case, the output is Game Extraction Toolbox v0.1.7.

Collections with extractable ROMs

Below is the list of retro collections on Steam with unencrypted ROMs available to extract, sorted by the count of ROMs that can be extracted.

ROM count might be higher than game count, as per one game there might be several regional variants. Note also that not all ROMs will be 'good', as devs and publishers may modify ROMs for re-release (new themes, difficulty, copyright changes, and so on).

Additionally, arcade ROMs are in MAME format (zip files), but they often cannot be played with latest MAME or FinalBurn Neo core. The reason is that often extracted MAME ROMs have missing proprietary files that can be left out or filled with placeholders only in earlier versions of MAME. The safest bet for some ROMs may be MAME 2003 core, but others may target later MAME versions or even work with FinalBurn Neo. While it's not the best idea to mix arcade ROMs from different collections, you can always run this command

gextoolbox tasks details --task [task name]

for any additional info as to what MAME each specific ROM targets (task name being a code for specific collection, like snk40 for SNK 40th Anniversary Collection).

Atari Vault + DLC (Arcade, Atari 2600, 5200) [delisted!]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/400020/Atari_Vault/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1104680/Atari_Vault__50_Game_AddOn_Pack/
A collection of 100 Atari games for Arcade and Atari 2600 systems. A DLC has 50 more games for Arcade, Atari 2600, and Atari 5200 systems. Unfortunately, a collection was delisted ahead of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration release, but ROMs in the latter appear to be encrypted.

Base game of Atari Vault comes with DLC ROMs regardless if DLC is owned, and Game Extraction Toolbox extracts both base game ROMs and DLC ROMs. Whether to use DLC ROMs without owning DLC for a delisted game is up to you to decide.

To extract ROMs from Atari Vault, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task atarivault --srcdir "path to Atari Vault" --destdir "path to output folder"

To play Atari 5200 games, find among extracted ROMs file 5200_BIOS.a52, rename it to 5200.rom and put it to system folder of your RetroArch installation.

Not all ROMs are extracted as some are partial (unplayable outside of collection) and Pong doesn't have a ROM file at all.

Overall, 110 game ROMs are extracted. 82 Atari 2600 ROMs, 16 Atari 5200 ROMs to work with a5200 core, and 12 Arcade ROMs.

SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics (MegaDrive / Genesis) [delisted!]

https://steamdb.info/bundle/10143/

A collection that used to have 58 MegaDrive / Genesis games. It was fully delisted on December 6, 2024, and 3 Sonic games were removed from the store ahead of Sonic Origins release in 2022: Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Sonic Origins versions of these games are remakes and don't have ROMs in them.

To extract ROMs from SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task genesis --srcdir "path to SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics" --destdir "path to output folder"

This commands extracts 64 or 67 (if you have 3 Sonic games) MegaDrive / Genesis ROMs, including regional variants.

This command extracts only ROMs that are sitting in uncompressed ROMs folder of the game. According to the RED Project Wiki[github.com], you can also extract 9 additional ROM variants from pak archives of the game (regardless whether you have the delisted games). This makes the total of ROMs 73 or 76.

SNK 40th Anniversary Collection (Arcade, NES)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/865940/SNK_40th_ANNIVERSARY_COLLECTION/

SNK collection of classic arcade games and their NES ports.

To extract the ROMs, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task snk40 --srcdir "path to SNK 40th Anniversary Collection" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 56 Arcade ROMs (at least 2 ROM variants per game) and 18 NES ROMs (2 variants per game). In total, 74 ROMs.

ColecoVision Flashback (ColecoVision) [unavailable in certain regions!]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/529860/ColecoVision_Flashback/
The collection is clearly neglected by the dev/publisher, has mixed reviews and unavailable in a dozen of regions[steamdb.info]. While this game barely works, it does have unencrypted ColecoVision ROMs and BIOS that can be extracted for the sake of much better experience in RetroArch.

To extract ROMs and BIOS, you'll need to use Colecovision Flashback 40 Game Pack ROM Extractor, written in Python.

Go to this page[github.com], press Raw button and save opened page as extract_roms.py.

Next, move extract_roms.py to the root folder of the game (where CV40-121514.exe is). Then open command prompt and move to that folder.

In Windows Command Prompt, that would be the letter of the drive, on which you've the game. For example,

E:

And then cd command with full path to the game, written as following

cd "E:/path/to/the/game"

Finally, execute the script by running

python ./extract_roms.py

As a result, the script will create ROMs folder within the game folder. Open it. The first file, [BIOS] ColecoVision (USA, Europe).col, is to be renamed to colecovision.rom and put to system folder of your RetroArch installation. The other 54 files are ColecoVision ROMs that can be used with GearColeco core.

Capcom Arcade Stadium + DLCs (Arcade) [old depots!]

Capcom Arcade Stadium is an arcade from Capcom that uses MAME for emulation[datahorde.org].

As a two-part release, Capcom Arcade Stadium Complete Pack has Capcom Arcade Stadium and Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium, each with 1 game for free and 31 other games as paid DLCs. Overall, 62 arcade games.

Unfortunately, ROMs in the current version of the Capcom Arcade Stadium and Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium seem to be locked and cannot be extracted at the moment. This wasn't always the case, as the first Capcom Arcade Stadium ROMs used to be extractable before 2021. It is possible to access this old version of the Capcom Arcade Stadium 1 by downloading old depots with Steam console.

To download them, open the following link in your browser:

steam://nav/console

It will open console in your Steam client. Run in it this command:

download_depot 1515950 1556690 5034024650887104340

The first number is appID of Capcom Arcade Stadium 1, followed by DepotID for 1943: The Battle of Midway free game, and ManifestID for a specific version of that game. This and others depots of the game are to be downloaded to steamapps\content subfolder of your Steam folder, the full path should be C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\content for Windows.

If you own any of the paid DLCs in the pack, you can download associated depots by consluting the table in the next section. Then continue by extracting ROMs from depots you download with this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task cas1_old --srcdir "(path to your Steam folder)/steamapps/content/app_1515950" --destdir "path to output folder"

This should extract from 1 to 42 (if you own the whole pack) Arcade ROMs in zip format, including Japanese and English versions. ROM files should work with different versions of MAME (current or 2010) and FinalBurn Neo. Overall, 95% of the games can be extracted and played. For example, Japanese version of a free game is missing too much and is not extracted, but English version works fine with FinalBurn Neo core.

List of old depots for Capcom Arcade Stadium

If you own DLCs for Capcom Arcade Stadium, consult the table below to reference all DepotIDs and ManifestIDs needed to download old versions of Capcom Arcade Stadium games.

To download depot, open steam://nav/console link in your browser. This should open console. In it run the command

download_depot 1515950 DepotID ManifestID

This should download the depots to steamapps\content subfolder of your Steam folder (full path would be C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\content for Windows).

Game	DepotID ManifestID
Powered Gear	1556723 305464856399220085
Warriors of Fate	1556720 4950348891858375781
Senjo no Okamill	1556714 4064909307706647901
Captain Commando	1556718 2975445377289899248
Street Fighter II	1556717 7823458246757484640
Varth Operation Thunderstorm	1556719 2957041054036881699
1942	1556702 7110820738848130277
Bionic Commando	1556707 3238877912290772385
Commando	1556703 5154503909431550517
Dynasty Wars	1556711 5906401061810674850
Final Fight	1556712 1427558570204465271
Forgotten Worlds	1556708 2495421590891474725
Ghouls 'n Ghosts	1556709 7553746399143380961
Ghouls 'n Goblins	1556690 5034024650887104340
Pirate Ship Higemaru	1556701 3568513687229079528
Legendary Wings	1556706 8788446018740704096
Mega Twins	1556715 7832027131156162352
Section Z	1556704 7517264779277019420
Strider	1556710 8512960795726908906
Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting	1556721 317521835646003561
Tatakai no Banka	1556705 7200344018849026230
Vulgus	1556700 9143855046040096923
US Navy: Carrier Air Wing	1556716 187920547906050452
Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness	1556724 4293976514552436962
19XX: The War Against Destiny	1556725 4171961223274458606
Battle Circuit	1556726 5500917457208551111
Giga Wing	1556727 1585945610334979859
1944: The Loop Master	1556728 3525105251099559918
Progear	1556729 6184184127241976915
1941: Counter Attack	1556713 2745567461535328718
Super Street Fighter II Turbo	1556722 2744654918197522324
1943: The Battle of Midway (from base game)	1515951 1597238681896386079
3 Wonders (from referenced above depot of Ghouls 'n Ghosts )	1556709 7553746399143380961

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection (Arcade)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/586200/Street_Fighter_30th_Anniversary_Collection/
A collection of 12 Street Fighter arcade games from Capcom. Some games don't have associated ROMs, and Japanese ROMs will only extract if you have an International Edition of the game.

You can extract available ROMs with this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task sf30ac --srcdir "path to Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 26 Arcade ROMs that can be played with some version of MAME (usually 2003 or 2010). Without Japanese ROMs, the number should be 12 Arcade ROMs.

Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol 1 & 2 (Game Boy Advance)

https://store.steampowered.com/sub/821963/

Two volumes of Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection that collects Mega Man Battle Network series, originally developed for Game Boy Advance.

To extract GBA ROMs from the Vol 1, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task mmbnlc1 --srcdir "path to Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol 1" --destdir "path to output folder"

This should give you 8 GBA ROMs.

To extract GBA ROMs from the Vol 2, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task mmbnlc2 --srcdir "path to Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol 2" --destdir "path to output folder"

This gives you 12 GBA ROMs.

Total number is 20 GBA ROMs from two volumes.

Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection (Arcade)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1018000/Anniversary_Collection_Arcade_Classics/
This KONAMI collection features arcade games from the 1980s. All games apart from Scramble can be extracted.

To extract ROMs from Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task acac --srcdir "path to Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection" --destdir "path to output folder"

The resulting output is 19 Arcade ROMs.

Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King + DLC (NES, SNES, MegaDrive / Genesis, Game Boy)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1126190/Disney_Classic_Games_Aladdin_and_The_Lion_King/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1636800/The_Jungle_Book_and_MORE_Aladdin_Pack/
A Steam release of 16-bit classics from Disney: Aladdin and The Lion King. A DLC adds even more Aladdin variants and The Jungle Book game.

All of them can be extracted with this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task disneyalkb --srcdir "path to Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King" --destdir "path to output folder"

If you don't own the DLC, the script will end in error because it couldn't find a file (bundleDLC1.mbundle), but regardless will extract 5 ROMs for the base game's Aladdin variants. Unfortunately, this way script doesn't extract ROMs associated with The Lion King. These ROMs can be extracted manually, as per instructions here[github.com]. This should give you 4 more ROMs.

If you do own the DLC, the script should extract all 16 ROMs available with no errors: 1 NES ROM, 5 SNES ROMs, 7 MegaDrive / Genesis ROMs, and 3 Game Boy ROMs.

Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle (Arcade)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/885150/Capcom_Beat_Em_Up_Bundle/
7 arcade games in the beat 'em up genre from Capcom, each with English and Japanese versions.

To extract ROMs from Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task cbeub --srcdir "path to Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 14 playable Arcade ROMs that can be played with different MAME versions (2010 or current).

Capcom Fighting Collection (Arcade)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1685750/Capcom_Fighting_Collection/
10 fighting arcade games from Capcom, each with English and Japanese versions.

To extract ROMs from Capcom Fighting Collection, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task cfc --srcdir "path to Capcom Fighting Collection" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 14 playable Arcade ROMs. Two games, Red Earth (U) and Warzard (J), cannot be extracted yet.

Sonic Adventure DX (Game Gear)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/71250/
Sonic Adventure DX is a PC port of Sonic game released for Dreamcast in 1998 and GameCube in 2003. The game is a part of Dreamcast Collection on Steam, but none of the games in the collection appear to have Dreamcast disk image. Nevertheless, this game has hidden Game Gear games that can be extracted.

To extract ROMs from Sonic Adventure DX, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task sadxgg --srcdir "path to Sonic Adventure DX" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 14 Game Gear ROMs.

Mega Man Legacy Collection (NES)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/363440/Mega_Man_Legacy_Collection/
A collection of six 8-bit Mega Man games from Capcom.

All the games can be extracted with this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task mmlc1 --srcdir "path to Mega Man Legacy Collection" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 12 NES ROMs (English and Japanese versions for each game).

Collection of SaGa/Final Fantasy Legend (Game Boy)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1642620/COLLECTION_of_SaGa_FINAL_FANTASY_LEGEND/
A digital release of three original Game Boy titles SaGa, SaGa 2 and SaGa 3 (released as THE FINAL FANTASY LEGEND, FINAL FANTASY LEGEND II and FINAL FANTASY LEGEND III in North America).

All the games here can be extracted with this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task saga --srcdir "path to Collection of SaGa/Final Fantasy Legend" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 6 Game Boy ROMs (2 variants per game).

Disney Afternoon Collection (NES)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/525040/The_Disney_Afternoon_Collection/
A collection of classic Disney games for NES.

All of them can be extracted with this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task disneyac --srcdir "path to Disney Afternoon Collection" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 6 NES ROMs.

Mega Man X Legacy Collection (SNES)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/743890/Mega_Man_X_Legacy_Collection/
The collection is 16 and 32-bit Mega Man X games from Capcom, originally released for SNES and PlayStation. Out of them only 16-bit games can be extracted in English and Japanese versions, whereas PS1 game doesn't appear to be ROM-based.

To extract 16-bit games, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task mmxlc1 --srcdir "path to Mega Man X Legacy Collection" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 6 SNES ROMs.

PAC-MAN MUSEUM+ (Arcade)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1665130/PACMAN_MUSEUM/
A collection of 14 Pac-Man games, but only some of them can be extracted and played: PAC and Pal, Pac Land, PAC-MAN, PAC-MANIA, Super PAC-MAN. Others games either have ROMs that are partial (unplayable outside of collection) or are ROM-less (source ports).

To extract playable ROMs from PAC-MAN MUSEUM+, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task pacmanmplus --srcdir "path to PAC-MAN MUSEUM+" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 5 Arcade ROMs.

Namco Arcade Game Series (Arcade)

https://store.steampowered.com/sub/90320/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/403410/ARCADE_GAME_SERIES_Ms_PACMAN/
The series contains of 4 Arcade titles from Bandai Namco: Dig Dug, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, and Pac-Man. Each game can be extracted with following commands:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task ags_digdug --srcdir "path to Dig Dug" --destdir "path to output folder"

gextoolbox tasks extract --task ags_galaga --srcdir "path to Galaga" --destdir "path to output folder"

gextoolbox tasks extract --task ags_mspacman --srcdir "path to Ms. Pac-Man" --destdir "path to output folder"

gextoolbox tasks extract --task ags_pacman --srcdir "path to Pac-Man" --destdir "path to output folder"

The resulting output is 4 Arcade ROMs.

Breakers Collection (Arcade / Neo Geo)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1786230/Breakers_Collection/
The collection is about Breakers fighting games.

To extract ROMs from Breakers Collection, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task breakers --srcdir "path to Breakers Collection" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 2 Neo Geo ROMs that should work with MAME.

Bubsy Two-Fur (SNES)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/426630/Bubsy_TwoFur/
Authorized digital release of Bubsy’s first two games, originally released for SNES.

SNES ROMs are just sitting in the game folder, but to extract them with Game Extract Toolkit, run this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task bubsy --srcdir "path to Bubsy Two-Fur" --destdir "path to output folder"

This extracts 2 SNES ROMs.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Ghoul Patrol (SNES)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1137970/Zombies_Ate_My_Neighbors_and_Ghoul_Patrol/
A pack of 2 16-bit SNES games re-released on Steam.

ROMs are pulled out of the main executable with this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task zamn --srcdir "path to Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Ghoul Patrol" --destdir "path to output folder"

This gives you exactly 2 SNES ROMs.

RED Project Wiki collections (various systems)

The list of collections above is not exhaustive by any means. Even more collections on Steam have extractable ROMs, if you're willing to look beyond Game Extraction Toolbox. For instance, RED Project Wiki[github.com] is also worth noting.

RED Project, or ROM Extraction Documentation Project, documents extraction of ROMs from various sources, including games on Steam that are not covered by Game Extraction Toolbox.

Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 & 2 (NES)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1250250/NAMCO_MUSEUM_ARCHIVES_Vol_1/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1254620/NAMCO_MUSEUM_ARCHIVES_Vol_2/

Collection of 8-bit games from Namco. Each volume includes 10 classic games and 1 newly released game. A total number of 22 games can be extracted, according to this instruction[github.com].

Castlevania Anniversary Collection (NES, SNES, MegaDrive / Genesis, Game Boy)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1018010/Castlevania_Anniversary_Collection/
Castlevania Anniversary Collection collects various games for Castlevania series. They can be extracted, as per instruction here[github.com].

As a result, you should get 7 NES ROMs (and 1 save file), 2 SNES ROMs, 2 MegaDrive / Genesis ROMs, and 4 Game Boy ROMs. 15 ROMs in total.

Contra Anniversary Collection (NES, SNES, MegaDrive / Genesis, Game Boy)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1018020/Contra_Anniversary_Collection/
A collection of Contra games for different consoles and arcade. Arcade game is not yet extractable, but consoles games can be extracted, following this instruction[github.com]. This should give you 4 NES ROMs, 3 SNES ROMs, 4 MegaDrive / Genesis, 3 Game Boy. 14 ROMs in total.

Castlevania Advance Collection (SNES, Game Boy Advance)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1552550/Castlevania_Advance_Collection/
Here is the instruction[github.com] on how to extract ROMs from Castlevania Advance Collection, which should give you 9 bin files and 3 SFC files. SFC files are SNES ROMs. And bin files are GBA ROMs that lack audio, it's possible to patch it back following the same instruction. In total, 12 extractable ROMs.

Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection (Neo Geo Pocket / Color)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1586350/NEOGEO_POCKET_COLOR_SELECTION_Vol_1_Steam_Edition/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1575670/SNK_VS_CAPCOM_THE_MATCH_OF_THE_MILLENNIUM/
The collection has 10 SNK titles, the 11th title is sold separately, all the titles were originally released for Neo Geo Pocket / Color handheld. According to RED Project Wiki[github.com], all 11 games can be found in Data\game\SNK\NGPC subfolder of the game folder and are ready to be played outside of the official re-release.

Videopac Collection 1 (Odyssey² / Videopac)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2193100/Videopac_Collection_1/
A collection of games for Magnavox Odyssey² / Philips Videopac G7000 system. As per RED Project Wiki[github.com], 10 games and BIOS (g7400.bin file) can be found in data subfolder of the game folder.

Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection (Arcade / Neo Geo)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/999660/SAMURAI_SHODOWN_NEOGEO_COLLECTION/
A collection of Samurai Shodown fighting games from SNK. A total of 7 games are present, out of which only 4 can be extracted into MAME ROMs, according to this page[github.com].

Raiden Legacy (Arcade)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/407600/Raiden_Legacy__Steam_Edition/
Four arcade games from the Raiden series. All 4 can be extracted into MAME ROMs, according to this page here[github.com].

Double Dragon Trilogy (Arcade)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/314150/Double_Dragon_Trilogy/

The first three Double Dragon arcade games. All 3 can be extracted into MAME ROMs, according to the page here[github.com]. The first two can also run with FinalBurn Neo core.

Retro publishers (various systems)

While not technically a collection, retro publishers can also provide many ROMs in their games. In alphabetical order, these retro publishers are worth noting.

Console Games

Console Games re-published N2O: Nitrous Oxide and other PS1 games that supposedly have PS1 disk images. Those can be extracted, according to this GitHub issue[github.com]. At the same time, said publisher doesn't offer these games for a lot of Steam regions[steamdb.info], and 2 are even delisted.

Dotemu

Dotemu published Wonder Boy remake originally released for SEGA Master System. It comes with Master System that comes with original Master System ROM. It can be found in bin_pc/rom subfolder of the game folder or extracted using Game Extraction Toolbox, specifically this command:

gextoolbox tasks extract --task wonderboy3 --srcdir "path to Wonder Boy The Dragons Trap" --destdir "path to output folder"

Other games from the publishers here may not be covered by extractors, but they still can have ROMs. You can check a game for ROM by using SteamDB. For example, go to SteamDB page for Wonder Boy[steamdb.info], press Depots button. Then press on a game depot, here it's Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap - Game for Windows version. On this page, look for ROM folder or ROM extensions (sms, in this case) among game files. Alternatively, you can always buy a game and return it if no ROM is found.

Piko Interactive/Bleem!

Another publisher to look for is Piko Interactive/Bleem!. For example, their game Super 3D Noah's Ark (a DOOM clone with Christian theme) comes with SNES ROM in the root of the game folder.

Pixel Games UK

Pixel Games UK publishes games that often specify the systems in their name. For example, California Games (C64/DOS/Atari/Lynx/NES/SMS/Genesis) release has ROMs for said systems in data subfolder of the game folder.

Retroism

Retroism is another retro publisher. They published Bubsy Two-Fur and other retro games, including many DOS ones.

Systems that are not covered here

This guide is mostly focused on ROMs for consoles, which leaves out the following.

Most notably, there are DOS games, which are playable with DosBox core in RetroArch. These games are listed by Powered by DOSBox curator.

Similarly, many adventure games run perfectly well with ScummVM core, as listed by Powered by ScummVM curator.

Look up for Amiga, C64, DOOM WADs, other systems on Legal ROMs Wiki[legal-roms.fandom.com], but mind that not all games have extractable ROMs or are available on Steam.

Notable collections with ROMs that may or may not be extractable

Some retro collections are source ports or remakes, but even if a collection is ROM-based, not always ROM files can be extracted, or they can be extracted but with decryption. The latter means that such decrypted ROMs may not be as clean, for decryption can be interpreted as DRM circumvention.

Atari 50 The Anniversary Celebration [decryption risk]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1919470/Atari_50_The_Anniversary_Celebration/
Over 100 games spanning for Arcade, Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, Atari 8-bit computers, Atari Lynx and Jaguar. According to this GitHub issue[github.com], ROMs can be extracted, but this might involve decryption[github.com].

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Cowabunga Collection [decryption risk]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1659600/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_The_Cowabunga_Collection/
A collection of arcade and console games about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Konami. While ROMs here can be extracted[github.com], it also might involve decryption.

Additionally, extracted arcade ROMs are not in MAME format, as outlined in the issue here[github.com]. These ROMs can be converted into MAME format by using this shell script[github.com].

Modern SEGA titles

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/26688/The_Judgment_Collection/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2375550/Like_a_Dragon_Gaiden_The_Man_Who_Erased_His_Name/

Modern action-adventure games from SEGA that also contain some retro games in them. Specifically, in Judgement game SEGA Arcades games can be played, whereas in Lost Judgement and Like a Dragon Gaiden both Arcade and Master System games can be played.

According to this GitHub issue[github.com], ROMs in these games may be extractable by using ParTool[github.com] on certain game files (m3e_00.par and m3e_01.par files in case of Master System). Additionally, in case of Like a Dragon Gaiden game Master System ROMs can be found uncompressed in runtime/media/data/minigame/m3e/00 and runtime/media/data/minigame/m3e/01 folders of the game folder.

Capcom Arcade Stadium Complete Pack [locked, use old depots]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/32602/Capcom_Arcade_Stadium_Complete_Pack/

62 arcade games from Capcom that appear to be locked. Nevertheless, 32 of them, the entirety of the first Arcade Stadium, can be extracted by downloading old depots (see above).

Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection [not playable outside the release]

A delisted collection[steamdb.info] that covers Arcade Mortal Kombat games, but ROMs from the release miss crucial files and cannot be played outside official release.

Psikyo Shooter Collector's Bundle [not playable outside the release]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/18805/PSIKYO_SHOOTER_Collectors_Bundle/

While this collection is not delisted, ROMs in it also miss essential files upon extraction.

Notable collections WITHOUT ROMs

Sonic Origins

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1794960/Sonic_Origins/
At least 4 games[github.com] from this collection are remakes. Whether other games have associated ROM files, it's not known. That being said, games remade in Retro Engine[en.wikipedia.org] have associated GitHub projects that may make these games more moddable: Sonic-1-2-2013-Decompilation[github.com] for Sonic 1 & 2 remakes, Sonic-CD-11-Decompilation[github.com] for Sonic CD remake, and Sonic-Mania-Decompilation[github.com] for Sonic Mania (a separate modern game in retro style).

These Mega Man Collections don't appear to have ROMs

https://store.steampowered.com/app/495050/Mega_Man_Legacy_Collection_2/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/743900/Mega_Man_X_Legacy_Collection_2/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/999020/Mega_Man_ZeroZX_Legacy_Collection/

Atari Mania is also unlikely to have any ROMs

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911800/Atari_Mania/

Further reading

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2678538760
Game Extraction Toolbox[github.com]

Legal ROMs Wiki[legal-roms.fandom.com]

RED Project Wiki[github.com]

Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie - RetroPie Forum[retropie.org.uk]

[Chris]

Update to my last comment: It does work for the most part, but apparently I need to have the BIOS for the arcade roms.

[Chris]

Will the codes work on non Steam copies of these games (Amazon app version of SNK collection)?

[Daslim Linol]

What about Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days Collection?

[DaniPhoFani]

If you extract the roms of the Mega Man collections and want to patch them so that their hashes match that of their original console releases (and then patch romhacks on top of that), you can get IPS and xDelta patches here.


IPS patches for Mega Man Legacy Collection:
https://github.com/htv04/mmlc-dac-extractor


Here's some xDelta patches I made for the Mega Man X roms:

https://github.com/DaniPhoFani/Mega-Man-X-Legacy-Collection-xDelta-Patches-/tree/main

[Scottrick]

Okay. I completely removed Python 3.12 from my computer, removed the environment variable for it and only have 3.11 installed, now I just need to make it so that it actually FINDS Python. Right now it comes back saying "No Python at '"C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\python.exe'"

[Gamersofta]

Sonic Origins had 12 Game Gear games added in its Plus Expansion DLC. Are those able to be extracted?

[BrootsWaymb]

dont forget to add Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection. Roms are available right in the game directory in common. happily playing on my mamegear.

[mokMan23]

Just so everyone knows, the encryption for Capcom Arcade Stadium 2/the latest version of 1's finally been cracked, so you can finally use the latest versions. More info on farmerbb's RED-Project [github.com]

[Flakey]

Note SEGA Mega Drive - Gold Collection (PC CD) is identical to the steam version of the Classic Collection so if you want to play mega drive legaly you are welcome!

[smashpro1]

Has any work been done for extracting the roms for Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection?