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Make-A-Monster - MR1

Check out the  Tips  or  Tutorial  Make any monster at the Shrine in the original PS1 game (1997)! Create Ready-To-Burn files for monster CD shrining, or use the files directly in emulation. No optical drive needed! Files created here contain no copyrighted content, only track lengths and blank data, and only create what is available within the game's limits.
Select Monster:
Select File type:
Select Program:

Why can't I use RetroArch?

You must use one of the indicated supported applications as shown in the "Select Program" dropdown menu. So why isn't RetroArch listed?

RetroArch has 3 cores that work with MR2:

  • Beetle PSX HW
  • ReARMed
  • SwanStation.
However, between all 3 of them, they can't properly read the Table of Contents from files during the disc swap mechanic of the game, and therefore cannot generated the desired monster using Make-A-Monster.

Explanation: MR2 generates monsters by reading the Table of Contents of the disc, specifically from these values

  1. Last minute of the last track (LN-PMin)
  2. Last second of the last track (LN-PSec)
  3. Starting minute of the last track (LT-PMin)
  4. Starting second of the last track (LT-PSec)
  5. Starting second of the 2nd track (T2-PSec)
Each core reads these values differently, but none of them read them correctly.

Beetle PSX HW reads LN-PMin and LN-PSec correctly from the .bin file however, it assigns a value of 0 to LT-PMin and a value of 2 to LT-PSec regardless of what disc you're using.
It also adds 2 seconds to T2-PSec.
Since LT-PMin and LT-PSec are assigned fixed values, it blocks out a majority of the sub-breeds that can be generated. The main breeds can still be varied using LN-PMin.

ReARMed reads LN-PMin correctly, but assigns a value of 0 to all the other variables, so this is even worse than Beetle PSX HW.

SwanStation does not read .cue files, so it will only generates Pink Kato regardless of what disc you use.

In conclusion, it's currently not possible to make the Make-A-Monster app compatible with RetroArch. At most, one can use it to generate the main breeds one wants, but not the exact sub-breed and rare monsters.

Instructions to generate files

  1. Select Version (NTSC is North American version. PAL is Europe/Australia version).
  2. Choose A Monster by picking Main & Sub.
  3. Choose a pair of File Types (You can also rename the file name if you want, but by default it will be the breed).
  4. Choose a Program, which program you pick matters! (It will generate slightly adjusted files because various software programs will read files differently).
  5. Click Generate Files to create the ToC and Data file pair.
  6. Click Download on both generated files and save to the same directory.

Tips for Console

  • Download both files to a directory (CCD+IMG or CUE+BIN). Use CloneCD or ImgBurn to create the CD. Point to the .ccd (or .cue) file, depending on which pair you downloaded.
  • CloneCD is hosted on LegendCup. See instructions here. If you use ImgBurn, it is recommended to download/install it from ninite.com which will strip out any 3rd party software included.
  • For PSX and PS2 only use CDRs. PS3 can read CDRW but there is a chance the emulation in PS3 may read the disk incorrectly.
  • Disk Swap process for Console -- Follow the in-game prompts to swap out the game with the burned disc, then back to the game.

Tips for Emulation

  • Emulators can read the burned CDs if they support CD swapping, with the right settings.
  • Emulators can read the .ccd+.img or .cue+.bin files directly (without needing a physical CD) if they support CD swapping, and with the right settings enabled.
  • .zip file downloads cannot have stats customized because they are pre-generated, but are 99% smaller while zipped.
    The Stats are normalized to Index 1: 0, and Index 2: 38 which equates to: Base stats plus: LIF +21, POW +3, INT +6, SKI +10, SPD +31, DEF +13, Lifespan +0

For Physical or burned Media, At the shrine, when prompted to insert a CD:

  1. Use "Change Disc" option in your emulator for physical Media
  2. Insert a CD into the tray and close.
  3. When prompted, use "Change Disc" in the emulator and place the Game CD back into the tray to proceed.
For Emulation and Make-A-Monster files (No optical), At the shrine, when prompted to insert a CD:
  1. Use "Change ISO" option in your emulator
  2. Of the two downloaded files, Point the game to the ToC file (.ccd or .cue file).
  3. When prompted, use "Change ISO" in the emulator choose the game ISO file.

Additional troubleshooting for Mobile Emulation

If the Emulation steps don't work, try these additional steps.
  • On mobile, sometimes the generated file can be too large for the mobile phone to handle and it will simply refresh the page. If that happens, choose the .zip file type option for the monster you want, then extract it after it is downloaded.
  • After downloading on Mobile, the file extensions may be getting renamed or appended to. This MUST be corrected before the files will work, example:
    Monster-name.cue gets renamed to Monster-name.cue.txt after download
  • If the file names contain a space, try removing the spaces in both files in the cue/bin pair: example: From "Monster (Name).cue" to "Monster-(Name).cue"

Assuming any file extention issues have been resolved, if the regular Emulation steps aren't working, the data file may need to be cached first before reading the ToC file. To do this on Mobile, follow these steps:

  1. Change Disc and Point to the Data file first (.bin or .img)
  2. Then Change Disc and point to the ToC file (.cue or .ccd)
  3. THEN change Change Disc and point it back to the Game's ISO file to resume the shrining process.

 

Tutorial/Demonstration

Credits: Teawch
This page was last modified: July 27 2024
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