icarus is a separate tool bundled with higan that allows you to bulk-import ROM files into higan’s game library.

Bulk importing ROM files

icarus’ main window is a filesystem browser, with customisations:

  • The filesystem browser only lists files with extensions typically used for ROM dumps from consoles higan emulates, plus .zip files since ROM dumps are often compressed.
  • Each matching file has a check-box next to it.
  • You can tick the check-box next to every listed file at once by pressing “Select All” in the bottom-left.
  • You can un-tick all the check-boxes by pressing “Unselect All” in the bottom-left.

Pressing “Import …” in the bottom-right will close the filesystem browser then try to import all the files whose check-boxes are ticked into the game library. icarus displays a progress dialog during the import process, and a result window if any errors occurred.

Note: Some games require extra steps to import correctly; see Importing and playing games for details.

The icarus Settings dialog

Pressing “Settings …” in the bottom-right corner of the main icarus window opens the settings dialog.

The icarus Settings dialog contains the following settings:

  • Library Location determines where icarus puts the games it imports. See Moving the Game Library for details.
  • Create Manifests causes icarus to include a manifest file inside the game folder for each imported game. See Ignoring manifests for details.
  • Use Database causes icarus to use manifest information from its database of known-good manifests, if it’s importing a game it recognises. For unrecognised games, and for all games if this box is unticked, icarus guesses the manifest data. This option is still relevant when “Create Manifests” is unticked: higan uses icarus to generate a manifest when a game is loaded, not just at import-time.

Command line

icarus can be launched in any of the following ways:

icarus

icarus --import FILE

icarus --manifest GAME

When run without arguments, icarus runs interactively as described under Bulk importing ROM files above.

When run with the --import flag, FILE should be the path to a ROM file for one of the consoles higan supports, or a .zip file containing such a ROM file. icarus will import it into the game library just as it would if running interactively, and the full path to the ressulting game folder is printed to icarus’ standard output.

If the game cannot be imported correctly due to missing firmware, icarus prints no output.

When run with the --manifest flag, GAME should be the path to a game folder, such as a game previously imported into the game library. icarus will examine the game, come up with a manifest describing the game’s memory layout, and print it to standard output.