Sorry, A List Of Gp32 Questions


mrdark

Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2005
Messages
182
You guys are either gonna get sick of me asking questions or get sick of me apologizing for them, but I'm trying to not be rude or TOO needy and nooby. Hopefully you guys won't hate me for this but I apologize once again if these questions are getting annoying. I guess I just realized that there's questions I have about how this thing works and it would be better if I just put down the ones that I can think of. In no order, here they are, please be patient with me!

My unit is a 166mhz BLU+.

1. Is there a version of the firmware that's commonly considered the best as far as ease of use and freedom from bugs? If so, which? Is it always just the current version?

2. Can the firmware easily or quickly be switched between in case one version is better for certain things? I hear Final Fantasy 3 is affected by this.

3. I see that games like Doom and Wolfenstein are available, but I sometimes see that they require shareware or other files. Can I play the PC versions of these two games on my gp32 using files only found on this site (it's the only one I feel I can trust for sure), and if so, is it as simple as flashing them, then double-clicking?

4. Am I even using the term "flashing" right? It does refer to the process of connecting my SMC card, dragging files to the application on my PC, and "saving" it to the card, right?

5. From the standpoint of a newbie, is it difficult to get the gp32 started? Mine's used and should therefore already have lots of stuff on it. But eventually I'll change or add some, so is it easy to connect and do this? I mean, does it speak in a language of numbers and versions to the point that I won't know exactly what's being changed, or is it a simple "drag files here to add to the SMC" and "Click here to delete files from the SMC" type of affair?

6. Can the light on my BLU+ ever be turned off?

7. As far as what's safer and easier on the system, what is better- rechargable batteries or an adaptor?

8. Is there a place other than filesharing networks where movies or episodes of shows such as the Simpsons are available to flash? Just yes or no, you don't need to direct me unless you wish to pm me.

9. Speaking of which, if the unit has a video player, can the files I play on it be in .wmv format or do they have to be changed or encrypted or something?

10. Since I bought a used unit, should I be concerned about the fact that I hear about having to register the unit and specify it with passwords and stuff, or does the unit even still have to do that?

11. Can I alter the appearance of my gp32 menu screen, such as placing the jpeg of my choice as wallpaper?

12. I see a topic about the BLU+ having a bad screen. Are all BLU+ equipped with this screen, the one from Taiwan, and if so, has the problem been corrected with recent applications? It was an old post.

13. Firmware again- If I'm satisfied with how my gp32 performs and don't care to change its functions or interface, will I ever have to flash firmware or similar "system update" type of things at all?

14. As a fan of Lucasarts games, I'd like to play Monkey Island on the gp32. Since this runs on the SCUMM engine, what do I need to do? Are these games emulated and I just drag the roms into the emu, or do I need to flash both the original PC game roms and a Scumm application or something?

15. Lastly, can I save in all my games? Barring specific game glitches, do I save any of my Nes and Snes games by doing so at their programmed locations in-game, or do I pause and do a save state? If so, do the save states appear in their own spot on the gp32, always to stay until erased over?


Okay, that covers the vast majority of specific things I was wondering about with the GP32. I know that a lot of this stuff may seem impatient, silly, or a waste of time to some of you, and for that I'm sorry. Long story short is that I bought my system used online and await its arrival, and I just want to know everything i can to make sure I know what I'm doing and have some kind of familiarity, so if a problem does occur I can be better prepared to handle it on my own.

Thank you all VERY MUCH to anyone who can answer these questions directly. If anyone can take the time to answer them all, thank you and that's cool. If you just wanna answer an individual question please just tell me which number and explain the answer. remember, I'm a noob, and I know I'm asking a lot, but I'm trying to be as friendly and un-annoying as possible, so please bear with me!

Thank you all for any help. My unit is a 166 mhz gp32 BLU+.
 
Hi mrdark

I've been out of the scene for a while so can't answer all your questions. However:

3) Doom, Wolfenstein, SCUMMVM (Monkey Island and other lucasarts games) require files from the original PC versions of the game in order to work. In the case of the Doom port, you need to find a file called "doom.exe" or "doom2.exe", which are part of the PC versions of Doom and Doom II respectively. I believe this code is still property of the company which made doom, so to get them legally you need to buy a copy of one of these games. If you can't buy or borrow a copy of these, you can get a copy of doom shareware from this site, a free playable demo of doom. It works, but because it's a demo it's much shorter and IMHO not nearly as fun as the full games.

Similarly, to play lucasarts games, in addition to the SCUMMVM emulator you also need to obtain a copy of the original game files.

4) Nope. Flashing specifically refers to copying new data to the flash memory built in to the GP32, which you only do when you're changing the firmware. There are plenty of guides to doing this on these forums. It's quick and easy, but make sure you understand the risk to your GP before doing it.

5) It's pretty simple. If you have a card reader, you just slot the SMC into the reader and use windows explorer (or whatever your OS is) to drag'n'drop game files onto it from your computer. As a general rule, files ending in .fxe go in the GPMM folder (along with any other files or folders they came with), MP3s go into the MP3 folder, and movies go in the MOVIE folder (if you have one). Files can be copied, deleted, put back etc however you want. Always read the Readme file which comes with a game, as it'll tell you where to put the files on the card along with other useful info.

8) Simpsons and other recent shows are subject to copyright, so if you're not able / willing to buy DVDs and convert the files yourself, the only sources for them will be - at best - legally dubious ones like filesharing and bittorrent networks. That said, an excellent source for legal movies pre-encoded for your GP32 is http://www.gptheatre.co.uk/.

9) They have to be .avi files, encoded with one of three video codecs. All the stuff you need to convert files for viewing is freely available, and it's easy to do, if a little time consuming (in processing time: it'll tie up your computer, but you don;t need to be there most of the time). Look at the GPCinema forum for advice and guides, or searcg Google. There are a few good guide sites, but I'm afraid I can't remember them off-hand. I've had excellent results using the RealMagic codec - look in the GPCinema thread for that.

12) BLU+ use a different type of screen to other units (NLU, FLU, BLU), which creates a glitch in the form of a blue band accross one edge of the screen in some games and apps. For a list of affected programs and fixes, look for a pinned thread at the top of either the general or troubleshooting forum.

13) If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The vast majority of games / apps don't care what firmware you're running. I have heard of a few apparrent conflicts between certain firmwares and games, but if you don't encounter these there's no need to change the firmware unless you want a different look / menu system. If you find a program which never works for you it might be worth looking on the boards to se if anyone else has reported problems, but this is very rare.

14) You need SCUMMVM for the GP32, and the main game file from the lucasarts game you want to play (eg monkey.exe from the monkey island CD / disks).

15) You need a save-state. Once you've made a save-state the file will sit on your card and be available to re-load with the emulator or copy until you delete it.

Hope this helps. AFAIK this is all correct and current, but anyone else please feel free to correct me.

Have fun,
Melville
 
1. Is there a version of the firmware that's commonly considered the best as far as ease of use and freedom from bugs? If so, which? Is it always just the current version?

You'll be fine with the default firmware that comes with the machine - I have never flashed mine, the Euro firmware does the job just fine.

2. Can the firmware easily or quickly be switched between in case one version is better for certain things? I hear Final Fantasy 3 is affected by this.

You can get GPBios HERE, which lets you try different firmwares without flashing (it runs them from the SMC). I've never heard of games working better with different firmwares, I would think it's just the emulator that's responsible for game compatibility, although I may be wrong.

3. I see that games like Doom and Wolfenstein are available, but I sometimes see that they require shareware or other files. Can I play the PC versions of these two games on my gp32 using files only found on this site (it's the only one I feel I can trust for sure), and if so, is it as simple as flashing them, then double-clicking?

The executable (.FXE file) is basically a replacement for the PC Doom executable, you have to provide a "WAD" file either from the shareware or retail game. It's illegal to provide this file to someone, but Doom/Wolfenstein can be picked up in bargain bins now for practically nothing.

4. Am I even using the term "flashing" right? It does refer to the process of connecting my SMC card, dragging files to the application on my PC, and "saving" it to the card, right?

People use the term "flashing" to mean writing to the firmware area of a machine, you're really just copying data when you write to an SMC. Think of it as a small removeable disk ;)

5. From the standpoint of a newbie, is it difficult to get the gp32 started? Mine's used and should therefore already have lots of stuff on it. But eventually I'll change or add some, so is it easy to connect and do this? I mean, does it speak in a language of numbers and versions to the point that I won't know exactly what's being changed, or is it a simple "drag files here to add to the SMC" and "Click here to delete files from the SMC" type of affair?

It's easy, just switch it on and navigate the menus. The default PC-Link software is pretty shitty, but it does work. Have a look at the file archive for all kinds of useful stuff, including file managers: http://www.gp32x.de/

6. Can the light on my BLU+ ever be turned off?

Yes, you just hold down the select button for a few seconds.

7. As far as what's safer and easier on the system, what is better- rechargable batteries or an adaptor?

Both are "safe". You'll obviously want to use batteries when you're on the move, unless you carry some kind of generator around with you ;)

8. Is there a place other than filesharing networks where movies or episodes of shows such as the Simpsons are available to flash? Just yes or no, you don't need to direct me unless you wish to pm me.

You can encode movies for the GP32 yourself, using your PC. There's a guide here:
http://newbie.gp32x.de/gp32/guides.htm Actually, check that whole site out, it answers your questions better than I've done!

http://newbie.gp32x.de/gp32/faq.htm

9. Speaking of which, if the unit has a video player, can the files I play on it be in .wmv format or do they have to be changed or encrypted or something?

MPEG or DivX/XviD only I think...

10. Since I bought a used unit, should I be concerned about the fact that I hear about having to register the unit and specify it with passwords and stuff, or does the unit even still have to do that?

That's not an issue with the newer machines like the BLU+

11. Can I alter the appearance of my gp32 menu screen, such as placing the jpeg of my choice as wallpaper?

You can try something like Windups if that's what you want to do. It's like a mini version of Windows that you can use to run programs/view files.

12. I see a topic about the BLU+ having a bad screen. Are all BLU+ equipped with this screen, the one from Taiwan, and if so, has the problem been corrected with recent applications? It was an old post.

All BLU+ units have the Taiwanese screen. Newer apps support it now, so it's no longer an issue. The screen's actually slightly better (slightly improved contrast) than the Samsung one it replaced, so you'll be fine.

13. Firmware again- If I'm satisfied with how my gp32 performs and don't care to change its functions or interface, will I ever have to flash firmware or similar "system update" type of things at all?

Nope, reflashing the firmware is not a "must do". I never have :)

14. As a fan of Lucasarts games, I'd like to play Monkey Island on the gp32. Since this runs on the SCUMM engine, what do I need to do? Are these games emulated and I just drag the roms into the emu, or do I need to flash both the original PC game roms and a Scumm application or something?

You need the GP SCUMM interpreter and the game files for Monkey Island, which you'll have if you own the PC version. The readme files for the interpreter tell you where these files need to be placed on the SMC. Get it from the file archive.

15. Lastly, can I save in all my games? Barring specific game glitches, do I save any of my Nes and Snes games by doing so at their programmed locations in-game, or do I pause and do a save state? If so, do the save states appear in their own spot on the gp32, always to stay until erased over?

You can either use the ingame method of saving (at specific points, or using a password), or "cheat", and use the savestate function of practically all the emulators. The save point is stored in a file on your SMC, and remains there until either you delete it, or overwrite it.

Check out the newbie site that I mentioned, it'll cover everything you want to know! :)

Edit: Beaten to it :D
 
Thank you both very, VERY much for taking the time to answer these questions so thoroughly. Like with the other responses I've gotten here, your answers have given me a much better understanding of my coming system.

I'm glad to know this all and get it straight. This does bring up a couple questions but they're pretty quick: I don't have a card reader, I'll just be using the system and default link cable. What makes this setup shitty? Is it the interface or speed or something else?

And if the SMC's are flashed when writing new data, which refers to changing the firmware, does this mean the SMC's can't be modified for me to just add on a new game? I mean, they don't have to be rewritten or flashed if I want to add a new rom or something, do they?

Well irregardless, thanks again to you and any future correspondents. If anyone has anything to add or dispute please do, but for the first of you two, thanks again so much.
 
3+14) For doom, You need to locate the .wad files (game levels) called doom.wad or doom2.wad which are the exact same ones used on the pc verson of the game. You also use the same files as the pc version of scummvm on the GP32 with no conversion needed.

4) As for flashing, You do seem to be confusing the term which is used for updating the firmware (just like you would do on a PC to update it`s bios) with installing software on the GP32.

Installing software on the GP32 is pretty straight forward, Most of the time it is simply dragging (if using a card reader) the required files over to the SMC, The difficulty usually comes down to the required location of certain files, Which can normally be sorted out by reading the readme/doc file supplied with the program.

1) Wait until you receive your GP32 and start using it before you even start to consider flahing the firmware.

6) Yes the light can be turned of by holding the select button for around 3 seconds, Though it can be abit annoying if a program or game uses this button for another use a well.

9) The video player on the GP (GPCinema) does not support wmv, It only supports the .avi format encoded with certain codec`s. So generally, Movies will have to be re-encoded to be playable on the GP, You also need to change the resolution of the movie to best fit the screen size of the GP and lowering the sound quality also helps went trying to fit a large movie into 128mb.

Trooper
 
I don't have a card reader, I'll just be using the system and default link cable. What makes this setup shitty? Is it the interface or speed or something else?

The software (PC side) can be a little flaky, but it does work OK, I still use it every so often. No card reader needed!

And if the SMC's are flashed when writing new data, which refers to changing the firmware, does this mean the SMC's can't be modified for me to just add on a new game? I mean, they don't have to be rewritten or flashed if I want to add a new rom or
something, do they?

You're not flashing when you write files to SMCs, just copying files over. The firmware stays the same until you reflash it, which I don't think you'll need to do. You can delete, overwrite and copy files to and from the SMC just like you would to a floppy disk, as many times as you like. It's just the GP32's equivalent to your PC's hard disk, except smaller ;)

Rob.
 
Ok got it, that helps. Can you be more specific about what it's like adding/deleting things to the SMC using just the original equipment? I don't understand yet why it's worse without a card reader. I mean, without one is it even click 'n drag anymore? I'm glad a card reader isn't necessary (cuz I don't have one!) but when people say it's easy still, I'm guessing you guys know a lot more about it than I do and I just wanna know what it's like.

Oh one more question (I promise): I have tons of games, and therefore have hundreds or roms for them on my PC (Nes and so on). This whole time I thought that, if I wanted to add some to my gp32, I'd link up and just add them to the proper GP32 emu. But with all this talk about recoding, was I wrong and what I actually need to do is somehow change the format of all my roms so they work specifically with the system? I'm new to that kind of thing. I mean, I play my mame roms in mame and my Nes roms within several different emus. The roms didn't have to be dedicated for use on certain emus, they just had to work for the system being emulated.

In other words, to play my Nes games on the Dreamcast, I just burned them with the Nes emulator onto the DC. The DC and PC obviously use different emulator programs, but they share the same roms, I never had to get roms that were specifically made to work on the Dreamcast, just the emulator.

Am I to understand that, with my mame and console roms that I've been using for their respective emus on my PC and laptop, I'll have to reformat, recode, or otherwise alter them before the emulators on my gp32 will recognize and play them? Jeez, please tell me no!
 
No, you don't need to do anything to your ROMs. An NES ROM will work fine on an NES emu, a Genesis ROM will work fine on a Genesis emu etc.

It's much like using ROMs with emus on your PC.

Sometimes you might want to rename a ROM to be in 8.3 format for some emus, and in MAME you need to find ROMs for the version it's based on. But other than that, a ROM is a ROM is a ROM. :)

All the coding talk you might be seeing is people working on making their own games - there's a whole lot of that around here. :)
 
Ok got it, that helps. Can you be more specific about what it's like adding/deleting things to the SMC using just the original equipment? I don't understand yet why it's worse without a card reader. I mean, without one is it even click 'n drag anymore? I'm glad a card reader isn't necessary (cuz I don't have one!) but when people say it's easy still, I'm guessing you guys know a lot more about it than I do and I just wanna know what it's like.
The original program (on the computer side of things) is very buggy. People (including me) have had many problems trying to get it to detect their gp32 properly, to copy over folders properly (it made me copy every file in the folder individually!), and from what I remember it has an 8 character limit on names so you have to rename everything you want to copy with it if its over 8 characters (example: would have to rename finalfantasy3.zip to ff3.zip, imagine doing that for every one of your roms!). I would recommend either getting a card reader (best solution), or putting gpdrive onto your gp32 (I use gpdrive because I'm too cheap to buy a card reader :p ). Gpdrive works like this:
1. You start up your gp32 and load gpdrive
2. Once it has loaded, you connect your gp32 to your pc using the provided usb cable
3. Your comupter will detect the gp32 as a "mass storage device" and you will be able to copy files over to it as if it were just another folder on your computer (it will be listed under "my computer", probably something like disk f)

NOTE: I don't know if gpdrive works with any operating system besides windows xp

I hope this helps.
 
Just get a card reader and then drag and drop like a PC. It is much easier then messing with USB drivers etc. Card readers are so cheap.

My advice is DON'T flash the firmware. You can render the GP32 useless if the flash fails.
 
Alpha2 posted on Sep 18 2005 at 05:14 PM said:
Becareful with adapters on the GP32, there were reports of people killing their systems if the adapter didn't have the right power output.

Especially mind the awkward "reversed" polarity on the GP32 power plug, it's not so common, and also get a 'stabilized' (dont know the english word) power adapter (one which gives only the exact voltage output, this way you wont have any "lines problems")

I also recommend using a card reader, especially since windows XP way of working with USB drives kinda not always so ok , plus this way you plug only 1 card reader to use for your digital camera, mp3 player and such...

Also, about the roms, some rom might not work because they are bad dumps, so non functionning roms, try some other dump of the same... + some emus support zipped roms but not all of them so take some time to read the "readmes"

to complete Trooper post, you need to reencode your videos in divx 4.12 or one of the earliest version of Xvid in order to work on the gp32 ... you might also consider reducing the size of the video to something fitting the 320x240 screen , there are some tutorials flying around on this site and settings to use with Vdub.

About doom, you will need the .wad files doom.wad , doom1.wad and doom2.wad in order to play the game (doom.wad being the free demo-shareware version)
You can also use addon wads, to have other levels/gfx/sounds, but these should only work with the registered/full doom wads .
I believe you can still buy Doom from Idsoftware on their websites, it's not that expensive .

about firmwares, I'm running a FLU i bought from GBAX which was flashed with MrSPiv multifirmware, and the other issue I ad with this one is that I need to run the official Korean Firmware to run my GP32 commercial games flawlessly , but normally you should not need to flash your firmware, I never did ...


PS. What's with the "I see what i'll can do" , alpha2 , dont see the point as Eng. is not my native language, looks weird somehow but cant point out why ... and, is this from a golgo13 or something game on Famicom(NES) ?
 
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Qingdan posted on Sep 18 2005 at 09:46 PM said:
to complete Trooper post, you need to reencode your videos in divx 4.12 or one of the earliest version of Xvid in order to work on the gp32 ... you might also consider reducing the size of the video to something fitting the 320x240 screen , there are some tutorials flying around on this site and settings to use with Vdub.

Thanks Qingdan, I was in a rush and had to shoot off to work, So i really only glanced over mrdark original post.

Trooper
 
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I'll definitely look into the Doom stuff- I must've misunderstood because I thought that all the files I needed were already on this site but that's okay. Not too cheap to find it elsewhere, just wanted to startup right away that's all.

Oh and THANK YOU for letting me know that my roms are fine. I was starting to think that I'd have to somehow alter all my roms to be able to play them on the gp32! I have literally about 1000 of them (all legal if you can imagine that, my brother and I are collectors!), so renaming and "re-coding" that many would be insane. As long as I can, yes, take the roms I play on my PC console emulators and toss them into the gp32's emulators directly, then that takes a huge load off my shoulders!

And thanks for telling me more details about the usb cable for connecting the gp32. Now I have an understanding of why it's not the best idea. I definitely have heard people telling me to get a card reader, but I didn't want to have to order yet another thing online and wait a week to even use it, so I was curious about how easy settling for the link cable would be.

However, I noticed something: This is my girlfriend's computer, and she doesn't have a stand-alone card reading device connected to her pc. However hers is a pretty recent PC and it does appear to have a card reader built in! On the front of the machine it says "Built in front access 7-in-1 media card reader and high speed USB 2.0 port". And yes, she would take her digital camera cards and snap them right in. As stupid as this probably sounds, is this the same thing you guys are talking about? It accepts her camera cards and I can only assume that they're the exact same thing we're talking about here- I'm just not sure because I thought people were talking about having to get a seperate piece of equipment...

Lastly, a few more have talked to me about encoding movies. Someone earlier said that if I was unable to encode my own dvds for use on my gp32, I could do some things next. Actually, I have quite a few dvds and would love to be able to pop them in my computer and somehow create a file that can play on my gp32. Is that what people are talking about? I don't even know how else someone would get movies and shows on those filesharing networks in the first place...

Anyway thanks for the help again, you guys have all been really helpful and informative. I think I'm really starting to understand the complexities of some of these details and I appreciate it!
 
You can rip DVDs to your computer with certain programs like DVD shrink or DVD decrypter, this creates a file that many times you can convert into AVI or XviD and resize to 320x240.

If your computer actually HAS a card reader there's no reason why you can't use that to place games on your card, just make sure they go into the GPMM folder.


Qingdan posted on Sep 18 2005 at 04:46 PM said:
PS. What's with the "I see what i'll can do" , alpha2 , dont see the point as Eng. is not my native language, looks weird somehow but cant point out why ... and, is this from a golgo13 or something game on Famicom(NES) ?

Yeah, it's Golgo13: the Mafat Conspiracy the second one for NES. Golgo,13 not being a very talktive person usually says no more than that when recieving a mission. I'd gotten into a habit of repeating that line whenever I try to help someone out, which because of my naturally helpful nature tended to be quite often. :p
 
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Sounds great; if anyone can tell me more please do but otherwise this sounds better all the time. I'd love to put my own dvds on the computer using some of those prpgrams, does anyone know of a good one that doesn't also add spyware and crap?

And Golgo 13's pretty cool. Did you happen to see the anime ("The Professional" or The Queen Bee)? The Professional was great, it had a great twist ending. And no, good old Duke probably only said half a dozen things in the whole thing, IF that.
 
mrdark posted on Sep 18 2005 at 09:16 PM said:
However, I noticed something: This is my girlfriend's computer, and she doesn't have a stand-alone card reading device connected to her pc. However hers is a pretty recent PC and it does appear to have a card reader built in! On the front of the machine it says "Built in front access 7-in-1 media card reader and high speed USB 2.0 port".


Yup, that's the thing, just put your Smartmedia into the Smartmedia slot, and then copy your files , following the guidelines provided by the readmes of the stuff you want to use... usually executables (.fxe) go into /GPMM subfolder in which you create subfolders for your data/roms such as /gpmm/genesis for the megadrive roms ...

oh, and do not use windows to format, best would be to format in your GP32 as you can mess up your smc by using windows format (FAT - not fat32(which most surely would prevent your card from working), should be ok , but it seems like the FAT system used by GP32 is not exactly the same used by windows , according to some posts read here earlier)

We were talking about a separative piece of equipment because of earlier PCs, since Digital memory cards were not that well spread, we didn't have such hardware included on the PC. I had only a SD slot on my laptop (which eventually broke, but which was not useful anyhow) purchased 2 years and a half ago in Japan.(and I remember only a few Sony's had memory slot for those Sony memory thing wich cost twice the price of CF or SD) thats why I bought a USB card reader then.

Edit : to rip your DVDs into your computer I recommend Gknot, that's the one I use

.... Qing, whose stomach hurt like hell tonight, and can not sleep, shitty night !

PS : Alpha2, thanks for the explanation :p
 
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Definitely get a cheap card reader. Because SM is old-tech you can get a reader for less than $15 if you look around. Mine was $12 and is xD/SM. The reader is a far safer way to transfer files, as you don't need batteries (I have no idea what would happen if the screen ran out of juice when you were transferring files...you'd probably be fine. Probably.) or have the GP's OS interfering.

I've never flashed my BLU+ and have no intention of doing so. It's a nice simple little interface that's quick too. Flashing your firmware is a risky business unless you know *exactly* what you're doing. Get it wrong and you have an expensive paperweight.

Btw when you get your GP and run out of juice you'll know it. The screen will go wonky and then cut out. Just put in new batteries and you'll be fine. Note that the red battery light on the front top of the unit does absolutely nothing except show it's turned on.
 
Thanks Aly, I didn't even think to ask how to tell if the batteries were low on this thing. Seems sort of silly to have a red indicator light just for power when it has a lit screen that clearly indicates the same thing. But oh well. Sad to hear that it seems to die pretty suddenly if they're drained, though.

And thanks for the advice, everyone seems to think the card reader is the way to go. At first I was sad that I'd have to get another piece of equipment, until I realized that my girlfriend's PC does in fact have a card reader installed right on the front, so it should be pretty automatic. In fact, this leads to-

2 OTHER QUICK QUESTIONS:
When using a card reader, I don't have to rename the files to an 8 character max? If I don't have to do this, then what does the card reader do- automatically name the game roms their proper title or does it stick with stuff like Castlevania_3(U).bin?

The other question is, is it an automatic interface when inserting an SMC? Meaning, when I put the SMC in the reader, does a menu then appear and I just drag my roms onto it, like that?
 
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