Note: I am aware of the inconsistencies in the naming scheme for some consoles. I plan to fix this after I've had time to do some more research.

Project Information

First off, if you're not familiar with how DATs work, then this project will not be of much use to you. A great explanation already exists on ROMVault's wiki page.

Since late-2018, I have been the "hash and patch" guy at RetroAchievements.org. For those who don't know, specific hashes (aka the "correct" ROM) of games are required to load and earn achievements. Each game has a "Supported Game Files" page which lists the ROMs that are compatible with its set. Here's the page for Jack Bros. for Virtual Boy as an example. I maintain the database for these and am responsible for making sure each hash is verified and correctly labeled. The majority of these match info found in the DATs for No Intro, Redump, Final Burn Neo, TOSEC, among others. More info on the hash labels can be found in the RetroAchievements Docs section about hash labels. Some labels are not tied to particular DATs and are mostly just generic labels. These include homebrew, itchio, msu1, etc.

In January 2021, I started the RAPatches repository with the intent to preserve patches to be used with No Intro and Redump bases that result in ROMs whose hashes match those linked on RetroAchievements.org.

RAPatches has been tremendously helpful in getting RetroAchievements' hash database organized by taking care of most of the hacks, translations, bug fixes, etc.

To further improve and organize things, I joined No Intro as a dumper. So far, I've submitted info for over 600 ROMs that were added to No Intro's DATs. This allowed me to switch the hash labels over to No Intro for those ROMs, which I find very satisfying, albeit very time-consuming.

However, there are many "other" hashes without a proper home within a DAT. These include many homebrews, bootlegs, oddball extractions (such as ripping GBA ROMs from a GameCube disc for Crash Bandicoot Blast!), betas, demos, prototypes, etc. A lot of these could be submitted to No Intro and Redump, but it would take a lot of time to do considering the amount of information that's required for submissions and with how often new hashes are linked to RetroAchievements. Additionally, there are many hacks, fixes, translations, undubs, etc. that are not feasible to add to RAPatches. This is usually due to the size of the patches, but there are other reasons to not do it, which I won't get into here.

I started Lost Level Archive as a way to give those "other" hashes a home without any red tape. I can add to it as often as I want and obviously the hashes need to be verified in order for them to appear. It's a win-win.

tl;dr = You know how No Intro has the Non-Redump DAT for stuff that isn't DAT'd by Redump? This is similar, but for both No Intro and Redump.

Ongoing and Future Plans

In addition to getting RetroAchievement's "other" hashes into a DAT, I'm either currently doing or plan to do the following:

• A supplementary "Extras" DAT for DOSBox Pure's DAT project. This DAT contains manuals, reference guides, and other extras that you can usually find on GOG, eXoDOS, MyAbandonWare, etc. I originally wanted to add them to the DOSBox Pure DAT, but that wasn't the right fit for them. This is ongoing and found here.
• Provide GDI and CUE files for disc images that appear in the Lost Level Archive DATs. You know, to make things slightly more convenient.
• Provide public domain ROMs where able, utilizing the naming scheme used for Lost Level Archive, RAPatches, etc., which is inspired by No Intro's naming scheme.
• Fully DAT 4am's 4am Crack and Woz-A-Day projects for Apple IIe.
• For any ROMs that are linked to RetroAchievements via an RA Hash, DAT them with the actual proper info.

ID Numbers

You may have noticed that the filenames of the DATs start with numbers that don't follow a discernable pattern. These are the Console ID numbers for RetroAchievements.org. Here is the full list:

ID Number	Manufacturer/Developer	Console/Platform
01	Sega	Mega Drive - Genesis
02	Nintendo	Nintendo 64
03	Nintendo	Super Famicom - SNES
04	Nintendo	Game Boy
05	Nintendo	Game Boy Advance
06	Nintendo	Game Boy Color
07	Nintendo	Famicom - NES
08	NEC	PC Engine - TurboGrafx-16
09	Sega	Sega CD
10	Sega	32X
11	Sega	Master System
12	Sony	PlayStation
13	Atari	Lynx
14	SNK	Neo Geo Pocket Color
15	Sega	Game Gear
16	Nintendo	GameCube
17	Atari	Jaguar
18	Nintendo	Nintendo DS
19	Nintendo	Wii
20	Nintendo	Wii U
21	Sony	PlayStation 2
22	Microsoft	Xbox
23	Magnavox	Odyssey2
24	Nintendo	Pokemon Mini
25	Atari	Atari 2600
26	Microsoft	DOS
27	N/A	Arcade
28	Nintendo	Virtual Boy
29	Microsoft	MSX
30	Commodore	Commodore 64
31	Sinclair	ZX81
32	Tangerine	Oric
33	Sega	SG-1000
34	Commodore	Vic-20
35	Commodore	Amiga
36	Atari	Atari ST
37	Amstrad	Amstrad CPC
38	Apple	Apple II
39	Sega	Saturn
40	Sega	Dreamcast
41	Sony	PlayStation Portable
42	Philips	CD-i
43	3DO Company	3DO
44	Coleco	ColecoVision
45	Mattel	Intellivision
46	GCE	Vectrex
47	NEC	PC-8000/PC-8800
48	NEC	PC-9800
49	NEC	PC-FX
50	Atari	Atari 5200
51	Atari	Atari 7800
52	Sharp	X86000
53	Bandai	WonderSwan Color
54	Epoch	Cassette Vision
55	Epoch	Super Cassette Vision
56	SNK	Neo Geo CD
57	Fairchild	Channel F
58	Fujitsu	FM Towns
59	Sinclair	ZX Spectrum
60	Nintendo	Game & Watch
61	Nokia	N-Gage
62	Nintendo	Nintendo 3DS
63	Watara	Supervision
64	Sharp	X1
65	Nesbox	TIC-80
66	Thomson	TO8
67	NEC	PC-6000
68	Sega	Pico
69	Welback	Mega Duck
70	Zeebo Inc	Zeebo
71	Arduboy Inc	Arduboy
72	Aduros	WASM-4
73	Emerson	Arcadia 2001
74	Interton	VC 4000
75	Elektor	TV Games Computer
76	NEC	PC Engine CD - TurboGrafx-CD
77	Atari	Jaguar CD
78	Nintendo	Nintendo DSi
79	Texas Instruments	TI-83
80	Belogic Software	Uzebox

Contributing

I will chip away at a proper guide for this. In the meantime, if you would like to help, contact me via RetroAchievements or via Discord @televandalist.

Links

• RetroAchievements.org
• RAPatches - patch repository for RetroAchievements
• RAHashes - repository containing ongoing lists of hashes exclusive to RetroAchievements
• PureDOS DAT - DOSBox Pure DAT project, which is a prerequisite for DOS support on RetroAchievements
• Clean CPC DB - DAT Project for Amstrad CPC, which was put together by D_Skywalk when he was helping us support it.
• ROMVault - preferred ROM manager
• SabreTools - DAT management tool that I use to make the DATs found here