.m3u multi-disc playlist loads into bios screen (flycast 1.8.6, retropie 4.6)

[ChronicBurnout3]

I have .m3u playlists working properly on PCSX rearmed, so its formatted properly. These are .chds which load properly when opened as individual games. When I create the .m3u playlist and change the .chd files to .CD1, CD2 etc, the games don't load properly, going directly into the bios screen.

Whats the solution for playing multi disc games on DC? If I leave them all as .chd, can a single VMU save file be shared among the discs without editing it? (thats the main issue with PCSX rearmed requiring .m3u)

Please advise, thank you

[bslenul]

When I create the .m3u playlist and change the .chd files to .CD1, CD2 etc

I don't have a retropie so I can't test if it's really broken there or not, but this part in your message is a bit confusing, inside your .m3u you should just list your .chd files without renaming anything, like this for example:

edit: I just tried like this (if that's what you meant with ".CD1, CD2 etc"), and it doesn't work, boot to BIOS like you said:

So yeah, if that's what you did, rename the files back to .chd and edit your .m3u as well, then it should work just fine!

[ChronicBurnout3]

Thanks for your reply. So the main goal in renaming the files to CD1, CD2 etc is so they wont appear in Emulationstation - only the .m3u will, making for a single game entry. This convention works for PSX games as they support .m3u by default, but for some reason .m3u needs to be added to ES flycast file types manually. But even then, .m3u doesn't seem to work.

But in the end, it doesnt matter much as the Dramcast save system (VMU) works across game discs. When you change games with flycast, just as with real DC hardware you goto the BIOS screen or just restart the console. The game save transfers from Disc 1 to Disc 2. This doesn't work with PSX games, which have PER DISC game saves on Retropie. .m3u solves this issue entirely, but with DC the issue is mostly just cosmetic. But given there are only a handful of multidisc Dreamcast games you'd want to play (Shenmue 1&2 and Skies of Arcadia), its really no big deal.

[nimdarotartsi]

So the main goal in renaming the files to CD1, CD2 etc is so they wont appear in Emulationstation - only the .m3u will, making for a single game entry.

I ran into this same issue; to work around it, I reverted to the .chd extension, then prepended the filenames with a period to hide them, which Emulationstation apparently respects.