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Best editor for viewing ROM files...?

RandomRetro

RandomRetro

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Any suggestions on best software to use for viewing ROM files on Windows? I am trying o find a text string and figured it would be easiest to just search the ROM files from MAME to track down a ROM Chip having issues.
 
HxD is a good, open source Hex Editor you can use for searching strings.

You could also use the 'findstr' command that's built into Windows.
 
HxD is my go to hex editor.

It is common for games to use interleaved roms, which means data is combined from 2 or more chips so a simple search may not working.

You also have the option to read your existing roms, then verify them using 'mame -romident rom.bin' and it will tell you if its a positive match to an existing rom. If no match is found you know it potentially is bad.
 
Perfect, thanks I am going to play around with HxD.

I am also going to desolder and dump the roms but was hoping I might narrow things down by inspecting the ROM files.

Thanks @benime and @brizzo
 
Depending what you want to do exactly, there are numerous ways to view roms content. MAME debug mode allows you to view the memory region you want.
 
Never played with MAME debug mode, but that is a really good idea. Hell I will learn a lot just playing with it either way. Thanks.
 
But if you just want to do a simple hex editing in a program rom, you may have to interleave it with the rom loaded before or after, check MAME driver to see how the game is loaded. Good hex editors are Winhex, XVI32 and HxD.
 
also recommend HxD. Their hex comparison tool is the best out of all the free hex editors I've tried. Fast and efficient
 
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