DAT File

Emulators usually require files with ROM images to run games. All files must have the right contents and be correctly named so that the emulator is able to find and use them.

A DAT file is a list of all archives (and files inside them) that are required by a specific emulator. The list usually contains file names, sizes and hashes.

ROM Managers use DAT files to accordingly organize required archives and files in a device.

Because they are pure text files, every DAT file can be opened and edited by Windows' Notepad, for example. They have the standard  extension, or the   extension.

It is currently written in XML language and is defined by the Document Type Definition (DTD) that can be downloaded from Logiqx - datafile.dtd.

Sample
Below is a sample:

 <!DOCTYPE datafile PUBLIC "-//Logiqx//DTD ROM Management Datafile//EN" "http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/datafile.dtd"> file expects.

A collection of MAME DAT files is available at http://www.progettosnaps.net/dats/

To know what are the differences between two DAT files, use an application to compare pure text files such as Beyond Compare or UltraCompare. For other similar applications, check Wikipedia - Comparison of file comparison tools.

The differences between a regular DAT file and a SuperDAT follows: