GoodGUI 2.0 - A Frontend for the GoodTools

polarz · 12-27-2010, 01:40 AM

I've posted GoodGUI 2.0 final builds for Windows, Linux and OS X at http://polarz.home.mchsi.com/GoodGUI/

GoodGUI is a frontend for Cowering's GoodTools, http://www.allgoodthings.us/. Version 2 was written in C++ using the Qt application and UI framework. For Windows users nothing is new from the .net version and some items may have been stripped out. Hopefully Linux & OS X users will find this app useful.

Email me with questions/comments or post them here.

Best regards,
polarz

InVerse · 12-27-2010, 03:14 AM

While I'm sure the GUI is nice, why would anyone ever use Cowering's GoodTools? The databases are horribly wrong and encourage people to collect bad & non-existent ROMs. If you want an organized ROM set, use the No Intro databases and stay as far away from Cowering's crap as possible.

polarz · 12-27-2010, 04:21 AM

Horribly wrong is rather harsh, but some of the tools could use an update. Just because the tools identify bad roms doesn't mean it encourages people to collect them. People will collect what they want to. Granted some people do have to get everything in a miss list regardless of the quality of the rom which I feel is a waste as well assuming a confirmed good dump exists. I see the GoodTools as one of many tools out there to help organize rom collections. Your opinion doesn't offend me, but I don't agree with it. Whether people choose to use the GoodTools or GoodGUI for that matter is up to personal preference.

InVerse · 12-27-2010, 05:15 AM

The Good tools routinely identify corrupt ROMs as "Verified Good Dumps" and include hundreds of randomly corrupted files. A large portion of the titles are completely wrong. If you're using GoodTools to verify your ROMs, you'd be better off just doing it at random.

Again, I'm in no way attacking your GUI, I'm just morally obligated to divert as many people as possible from allowing Cowering to rape their ROMs.

polarz · 12-27-2010, 11:20 PM

I would love to see some examples of what you're talking about as I haven't run into this in the past or at least I wasn't aware of problems. Thanks.

Reaper man · 12-28-2010, 01:17 AM

From what I've encountered, A Boy and his Blob had such an issue. A bad dump was marked as "good."

polarz · 12-28-2010, 01:41 AM

I remember that particular issue. I don't believe it was marked as a confirmed good dump [!], but I do recall a rom marked as a bad dump for A Boy and his Blob was actually the good dump; my memory says it was [b9]. Frankly before Bootgod http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/ started his redumping/cataloging project the NES roms were a mess and there was no real reliable source for confirmed good dumps. In helping Bootgod I dumped at least a half dozen USA games that had never been dumped correctly or maybe I should say were never included in goodnes, nestoy or any dat. I believe the No Intro people have used Bootgod's site as their main source for their NES dats.

I guess what I'm trying to say is picking one rom from a set that no one had accurately cataloged does not indicate the kind of systemic problems inferred by InVerse. This issue does intrigue me and I would like to have more information on this issue if it is available. If there are problems with the GoodTools I'd like to know about them. Thanks.

InVerse · 12-28-2010, 03:04 AM

I don't recall which specific ROMs but I know multiple games that the most recent GoodNES database had identified as good were summarily deleted when I switched to clrmamepro. I still have a backup of the old set, so I'll try running it again at some point to see which ones it eliminates.

You'll also be hard pressed to find any translators who don't wish Cowering a quick and painful death for fucking them over.

polarz · 12-29-2010, 02:03 AM

I decided to compare the most recent GoodNES & No Intro NES dat for USA games. There was one discrepancy. GoodNES contains Karate Champ (U) (REV0) [!].nes. This does appear to be an error as I believe that rom is bad. GoodNES also does contain Karate Champ (U) [!].nes & Karate Champ (U) (REVA) [!].nes which are the only two good dumps to my knowledge.

To me the GoodTools are a reliable source for rom management, but it never hurts to crosscheck with another source.

InVerse · 12-29-2010, 03:45 AM

I don't consider the recognition of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of imaginary ROMs to be reliable in any sense of the word. I will admit that my personal beliefs color my opinions on the matter. If Cowering were to be raped to death by a pack of rabid hyenas, I would bake a cake in celebration.