RetroBoxDB SNES

English | 中文说明

Single-file SQLite preservation database for Super Nintendo Entertainment System / Super Famicom. The public Catalog holds metadata only (checksums, DAT and provenance records, header fields, archive recipes and the processing code); it contains no ROM data and cannot restore files. The populated database stays local.

Item	Value
Original size	6,734 source ZIPs, 6.06 GiB (No-Intro 4,898, RetroAchievements sets 1,836); 6,734 ROM files, 10.90 GiB uncompressed
Stored size	populated database 1.77 GiB; public Catalog 54.1 MiB (no ROM data)
Ratio	29.1% of the source ZIPs, 16.2% of the uncompressed ROM files
Technology	storage v4: SHA256-deduplicated 64 KiB blocks packed in No-Intro family order into solid LZMA2 groups of up to 128 MiB (128 MiB dictionary); per-block SHA256 and per-object CRC32/MD5/SHA1/SHA256 verification; source ZIPs reproduced byte-for-byte from TorrentZip plans
Export performance	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8650U CPU @ 1.90GHz, idle, Python 3.14.4, all checks included. whole newest-DAT set with export_set.py (4,261 files, each checked against the DAT hashes): 28.0 MiB/s, 52 ms per file on average; single file with a cold cache (the group is decoded up to the file): ROM 1.094 s, TorrentZip 1.397 s on average

Downloads and documents

File / document	Content
RetroBoxDB.SNES.Catalog.sqlite	Public Catalog (Release asset with SHA256SUMS)
Storage v4 guide / 中文	Storage evaluation, contents, RA, names and maintenance for every platform
Technical design	Storage format, platform adapters, incremental updates, verification
RA list / summary, build report, audit resolution	Detailed data

Storage choice and platform specifics

Change against 32 MiB groups on real data (first 16 family-ordered groups, 484 MiB): 64 MiB −0.24%, 128 MiB −0.51%, 256 MiB −0.78%; 128 MiB chosen by the rule.

• ROM sizes are 0.25–6 MiB; regional versions and revisions are similar but often shifted, so aligned XOR deltas (the NES v3 approach) catch little and a large LZMA2 dictionary over family-ordered data captures the redundancy.
• Internal header: the location (LoROM 0x7FC0, HiROM 0xFFC0, ExLoROM, ExHiROM) is chosen by a score over checksum/complement, map mode, title, ROM-size byte and reset vector; below the threshold a dump stays unclassified (mostly betas, prototypes, pirate carts and enhancement-chip firmware). Map mode, FastROM, chipset and coprocessor, SRAM size, region, maker/game codes and both checksums are stored.
• A 512-byte copier header (file size % 1024 = 512) would be cut off as its own block so the body deduplicates with headerless dumps, and the RA hash is computed after it; the local collection contains none.
• Most RA games without a No-Intro counterpart are hacks, translation patches (for example the RA sets for Bahamut Lagoon and Rushing Beat use English-patched ROMs) and subsets.
• Satellaview (BS-X) .bs files found in the RetroAchievements SNES folder belong to a separate platform: the SNES import skips them and RetroBoxDB-Satellaview holds them; RA games whose ROM is there are reported as local_other_platform.

Contents

Item	Value
ROM records / games / releases	5,239 / 1,996 / 4,329
DAT coverage per version	20260710-203222: 4,255/4,318; 20261003-140326: 4,261/4,331
Local ROMs in no DAT	978
ROM files of the RetroAchievements set	in a No-Intro DAT 889, RA only 932, hash not in the latest RA snapshot 15 (list); RA games still without a local ROM: gap list
No-Intro DB Export + Dump Log 20261003-140326	4,365 archives, 5,457 file identities, 5,399 documented hardware assertions; Dump Log Verified 1,871
RetroAchievements (console 3)	1,185 games with achievements: 1,089 with a local ROM (1,845 ROMs), 6 with the ROM in a sibling database, 0 DAT only, 0 DB file only, 90 without a No-Intro counterpart
Chinese names	3,942 of 4,154 rows translated (2,030 unique); 3,909 local ROMs have a Chinese name
Populated-database audit	5,243 objects, 57 groups, 5,774 archive plans, all passed

Every source ZIP is reproduced byte-for-byte from its TorrentZip plan (v_file_checksums.exported_bytes_equal_source).

Usage

# Query-only audit with the Catalog's embedded engine (also: stats, checksums FILE_ID, help)
python3 -B -c 'import sqlite3,sys; c=sqlite3.connect(sys.argv[1]); s=c.execute("SELECT content FROM resources WHERE name=?",("engine.py",)).fetchone()[0]; c.close(); exec(compile(s,"RetroBoxDB:engine.py","exec"))' ./RetroBoxDB.SNES.Catalog.sqlite audit
# Populated database: export by DAT version, 1G1R, RA achievements, TorrentZip or plain ROMs
python3 -B tools/export_set.py RetroBoxDB.SNES.sqlite OUT --set 1g1r --ra achievements --container torrentzip --layout ra-category
# Add new DATs, DB Export / Dump Log snapshots, ROMs and an RA snapshot incrementally
python3 -B tools/update_db.py RetroBoxDB.SNES.sqlite --discover --ra --catalog RetroBoxDB.SNES.Catalog.sqlite

Python 3.10+ standard library only. engine.py and the other resources entries are executable code; run them only from a database you built or a Release asset whose SHA256 you verified. Releases are produced by .github/workflows/publish-catalog.yml: it starts from the base Catalog pinned in release/catalog-release.json, injects the engine and documents of this commit, checks every data-table digest, runs the tests and the audit, then publishes.