CURATOR v2.0.0-beta.3

CURATOR v2.0.0-beta.3 is a prerelease.

Added

• Added five CURATOR-created Atarimania GameBase authority DATs for Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari Lynx, and Atari Jaguar.

Changed

• Added explicit nested-archive lineage and content-only DAT freshness.
• Changed matching to universal raw-first authority selection without filename or extension inference.
• Routed NeedsAttention output by authoritative media category and improved truthful Assembly, Matching, recovery, publication, and manifest progress.
• Changed Stage 10 plan loading and permanent publication to bounded, set-based database operations.

Fixed

• Fixed Windows-invalid A8P filenames without changing content identity.
• Fixed Stage 9 NO-GO sequencing and direct Stage 10 rejection.
• Fixed structural CUE materialization at the published authority-provenance boundary.
• Fixed full-run Append by retaining generation-owned physical-output evidence and allowing new plan entries while verifying every prior output by size and SHA-256.

Known limitations

• MAME support remains limited and preliminary and does not replace a dedicated MAME ROM manager.
• Some otherwise valid Alcohol MDF/MDS images may be incompatible with the bundled decoder; CURATOR preserves those sources and routes them for review.
• This is a beta release. Operators should use copied input, retain backups, and verify curated output before replacing original material.

Verified package

• Filename: CURATOR_v2.0.0-beta.3.zip
• Size: 31,118,127 bytes
• SHA-256: 896D81EE7BD953632019EE5234FB4E38E739FD91D655EE39F273CA79CF3FC754

See the complete public changelog.

CURATOR v2.0.0-beta.2

CURATOR v2.0.0-beta.2 is a prerelease.

Added

• Added content-based Atari 8-bit Preservation and Atarimania GameBase authority profiles, plus the verified Atari Lynx Dragnet supplemental DAT.
• Added shared Core-owned Redump CUE recovery and official MAME software-list XML authority with matching-release DTD validation.
• Added database-backed permanent collection manifests, retained reporting history, and explicit Standard, Full Audit, Reconcile, and Detailed Export reporting actions.
• Added Reporting announcements for new permanent collection items, including platform breakdowns.

Changed

• Added the three individually allowlisted CURATOR-created authority DATs to every public release while retaining empty operator-managed DAT surfaces.
• Replaced supported VerifyDump execution with CURATOR's faster deterministic unanimous native CHD/CUE resolver while retaining compatibility database structure and the protected dormant executable.
• Reused unchanged relational DAT authority through content-bound SHA-256 fingerprints and fail-closed Core.Database transactions.
• Retained permanent authority-first Matching and set-first Assembly indexes, refreshed bounded SQLite planner statistics, and used authoritative set identity for multi-member completeness classification.
• Routed stage path handling and bounded leading-text reads through Core.Secondary, clarified NeedsAttention counts and source-identity vocabulary, and optimized Organizer Append verification using complete Core-owned physical-output evidence.
• Published every authoritative platform membership for exact raw cross-platform hash collisions and added offset-aware cartridge-header normalization.
• Derived Reporting results from permanent database records and clarified long-running Organizer and Reporting console operations.
• Clarified README and Developer Handbook MAME scope language: supported software-list XML supplies exact ROM/CHD authority, while complete dependency-aware MAME collection management remains outside CURATOR's scope.

Fixed

• Fixed exact authority-ID reconciliation, CUE-source existence validation, case-distinct DAR sets, repeated member occurrences, and recovery of one exact missing authoritative CUE descriptor.
• Fixed MAME hexadecimal size canonicalization and changed-authority replacement, incomplete CUE-set completion, and unresolved NeedsAttention archive destination routing.
• Fixed Atari Lynx and Atari 7800 header validation, Stage 5 missing-CUE publication and loose-file SHA-1 initialization, and zero-new-item manifest reporting.
• Fixed Organizer Append duplicate totals, duplicate NeedsAttention physical planning, and authority-driven output classification independent of source provenance.

Known limitations

• MAME support remains limited and preliminary and does not replace a dedicated MAME ROM manager.
• Some otherwise valid Alcohol MDF/MDS images may be incompatible with the bundled decoder; CURATOR preserves those sources and routes them for review.
• This is a beta release. Operators should use copied input, retain backups, and verify curated output before replacing original material.

Verified package

• Filename: CURATOR_v2.0.0-beta.2.zip
• Size: 30,318,553 bytes
• SHA-256: 90520860C7889F197F734DEA43ED850CA2C68AEB3397E0278CE8B8234177E5D2

See the complete public changelog.

CURATOR v2.0.0-beta.1

CURATOR v2: Major SQLite Architectural Overhaul

CURATOR v2.0.0-beta.1 begins the v2 release line with a major architectural overhaul. Persistent, indexed SQLite authority and relational contracts now coordinate Stages 1–10 and Reporting, replacing the principal heavy in-memory processing paths while preserving Core-owned physical file work.

The v1 release line is closed and locked. Its eight prereleases, tags, packages, checksums, assets, downloads, and release pages remain unchanged and independently available as immutable history. All continuing development proceeds exclusively under v2.

Added

• Capability-based Bootstrap initialization through validated static call sheets and on-request Core activation.
• A persistent SQLite authority database and relational contracts used by Stages 1–10 and Reporting.
• Pinned Microsoft.Data.Sqlite, SQLitePCLRaw, and native SQLite runtime dependencies with integrity and provenance records.
• Complete output receipts, company manifests, placement evidence, recovery state, and collection-audit workflows.

Changed

• Replaced the heavy in-memory crunching paths in Stages 6–9 with indexed, set-based SQLite operations while retaining physical file work in Core-owned services.
• Changed Stage 10 to execute a frozen relational plan with durable receipt checkpoints, resumable publication, verified Append reuse, and optimized final cleanup.
• Changed Gateway startup to draw the console header before Core initialization, present Core readiness as numbered steps, and request only the capabilities needed by the selected action.
• Improved end-user announcements and truthful progress across Gateway, numbered stages, Reporting, cleanup, database loading, and publication.
• Updated current guides, legal notices, attribution, dependency records, component identities, and public-release protections for v2.0.0-beta.1.

Fixed

• Fixed Gateway option 8 pause behavior while preserving options 4 and 6.
• Fixed unresolved archive review lineage and nested-member path preservation.
• Fixed Stage 5 missing-source handling, Stage 7 relational validation scaling, optical CUE membership reconstruction, and several silent console intervals.
• Fixed authorized and Stage 10 workspace cleanup to avoid redundant enumeration while preserving failure evidence and required folder surfaces.

Known limitations

• MAME support remains limited and preliminary and does not replace a dedicated MAME ROM manager.
• Some otherwise valid Alcohol MDF/MDS images may be incompatible with the bundled decoder; CURATOR preserves those sources and routes them for review.
• This is beta software. Use copied input, retain backups, and verify curated output before replacing original material.

Verified package

• File: CURATOR_v2.0.0-beta.1.zip
• Size: 29,168,713 bytes
• SHA-256: 7A06D6F70EA4CB21CB8DD215EF198C84F4D030E3F85C18AE62D0BB4AB552580E

Read the complete changelog or visit the public release archive.

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.8

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.8

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.8 is a BETA prerelease for Windows.

Added

• Added the six managed Aaru libraries used for in-process CDI, NRG, and MDF/MDS decoding while preserving original source custody and continuing unsupported images through the normal review path.
• Added exact content-authoritative Redump CUE resolution for configured optical platforms, including Atari Jaguar CD authority data.
• Added exact AuthoritySetId collector-platform overlays, including Sega CD 32X presentation, without changing DAT platform authority.
• Added the output-wide receipt manifest used to validate deterministic Stage 10 Append reuse by destination, size, SHA-256, record fingerprint, and complete manifest fingerprint.

Changed

• Stage 1 now uses Core-owned bounded DAT leading-text reads and throttled progress rendering. Stage 2 reuses its fail-closed platform association. Stages 3 and 4 use indexed, batched, and single-pass construction paths that preserve their established output contracts.
• Stage 5 captures Size, CRC32, and SHA-1 during extraction or copying, reuses complete persisted identity evidence, performs bounded CHD extraction, and retains Core-owned fallback reads when trustworthy evidence is unavailable.
• Stage 6 trusts the completed Stage 5 handoff, reports checked and reused identities accurately, and reuses immutable matching evidence without weakening content-only authority.
• Stage 7 validates immutable upstream identity through keyed authority lookups without rehashing. Stage 8 uses a per-set keyed lookup for exact shared-source evidence. Stage 9 uses keyed destination collections while preserving collision handling and exact Stage 10 instruction order.
• Optical CUE correction is now last resort after ordinary prepared-hash, normalization, sibling, and exact/profile-compatible repository workflows. Complete optical sets with one safely derived structural CUE remain eligible for Official output only when every non-CUE membership is present and exact; the descriptor discrepancy remains explicit evidence.
• Core API documentation now covers 149 interfaces. Current operator guides describe the Stage 9 execution contract, output-wide receipt, company manifests, structural-CUE eligibility, and current component identities.

Fixed

• Fixed non-Redump structural CUE handling so a missing same-named Redump member falls through instead of aborting Matching; ambiguity and conflicting repository evidence still fail closed.
• Fixed a concurrent Core.Progress queue race that could terminate otherwise valid stage work while preserving TaskBar ordering and caller contracts.
• Fixed publication packages whose distinct authority entry names share exact physical content, while retaining strict non-publication and optical membership rules.
• Fixed configured non-set files (.txt, .exe, .dll, and .bat) entering Needs Attention output and corrected authoritative Jaguar CD CUE handling.

Known limitations

• Reporting can classify the root receipt manifest as unmanifested content; investigation remains deferred under DEFERRED-053.
• Stage 3/5 progress-presentation tracing, the Stage 6 prebuilt DAR index and output-publication investigation, and the distinction between upstream content identity and final copied-artifact evidence remain deferred under DEFERRED-055, DEFERRED-045, DEFERRED-057, and DEFERRED-059.

Package verification

• Package: CURATOR_v1.0.0-beta.8.zip
• Size: 28,759,136 bytes
• SHA-256: D42C1FE0CF5863A53F42367FB85EA46950277B1D60089C857C50BE789D1B3A57

The complete release history is available in the CURATOR changelog.

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.7

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.7 is a prerelease.

Package

• Filename: CURATOR_v1.0.0-beta.7.zip
• Size: 27,856,952 bytes
• SHA-256: 079E5CE8E97FF3AEBA23471529E44369BEBCAFD75CC0ECF7A2C2B6920BDD2018

Changed

• Stage 3 reuses its already-computed incoming company summary after a conflict-free merge only when platform, DAT, membership, and merge-accounting checks prove that it exactly describes the complete published company DAR. Every non-equivalent or conflicting case retains the full fail-closed summary reconstruction path.
• Stage 9 now publishes the complete ordered schema-1 physical-output execution contract, including stable identities, exact destinations, packaging, source relationships, cleanup ownership, and manifest authority.
• Stage 10 now consumes the Stage 9 execution contract directly and no longer reconstructs naming, routing, grouping, ordering, collision, or manifest decisions from historical records.
• Append now requires a valid output-wide receipt manifest and matching physical size/SHA-256 evidence before an existing target may be skipped.
• Stage 10 publishes a deterministic output-wide receipt manifest.
• DependencyIntegrity now validates the manifest-level redistribution policy and every entry's redistribution metadata.
• Completed DEFERRED-038: confirmed the bundled Binmerge executable as the publisher's exact 1.0.3 Windows release asset and identified the eleven Redump cue/GDI metadata archives as public-domain metadata. The manifest preserves the retired historical-endpoint limitation for three GDI archives.
• The Core API handbook now documents 146 current interfaces, including the Core.Primary dependency-path resolver used by DependencyIntegrity.

Fixed

• Removed superseded Stage 10 planning and authority-reconstruction paths.
• Completed a fresh live Stages 1-11 validation. Organizer produced 24,269 of 24,269 planned unique outputs with zero failures. Independent receipt checks found zero missing paths, size mismatches, or SHA-256 mismatches, and every output-wide and company-manifest fingerprint validated.
• Completed DEFERRED-051: Reporting now excludes needs_attention filesystem content and NeedsAttention manifest rows from every authoritative collection boundary, including reconciliation, audits, caches, ledgers, diagnostics, viewers, and publication.
• Reconciled current operator guides, component build indexes, source module identity, and the release inventory with the validated August 7 workspace baseline.

Known limitations

• Reporting classifies the administrative root receipt manifest 00_Manifest\CURATOR_Output_Manifest.json as unmanifested collection content. Collection paths, sizes, hashes, and fingerprints remain valid; the reporting-boundary investigation is tracked as DEFERRED-053.

See the complete changelog.

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.6

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.6 is a prerelease.

Package

• Filename: CURATOR_v1.0.0-beta.6.zip
• Size: 27,132,807 bytes
• SHA-256: F0B68BF6CB6A0BB8427C439EE2F3F9804E0EBA47CA20F1A5F658F9B052842969

Changed

• Complete Atari Jaguar CD authority sets now publish as ZIP, while complete optical authority sets for every other platform publish as CHD. Source container type no longer determines final optical format.
• CUE normalization now occurs universally after final DAR membership and authoritative naming are resolved. Organizer consumes that resolved contract without repairing or reinterpreting it.
• Successful ZIP and CHD creation is accepted from the owning creation operation. Production stages no longer reopen successful output for verification.
• Reporting remains focused on manifests, physical paths, sizes, and requested fingerprints; archive formats, CUE contracts, and CHD structure remain owned by producing stages.

Maintenance

• Removed 14 proven-unreachable private functions and 566 stale implementation and comment lines.
• Shortened 15 private functions and 31 private/local variables to CURATOR's established concise internal naming convention without changing public APIs, contracts, schemas, component builds, or runtime behavior.

Validation

• Completed Stages 1 through 10 individually and completed Reporting through the visible execution path.
• Organizer produced 7,334 of 7,334 outputs with zero failures.
• Reporting matched all 4,775 authoritative manifest fingerprints, and an independent physical audit matched all 4,785 authoritative payload entries to exact DAR membership, case-sensitive names, sizes, CRC32, and SHA-1.

Known limitations

• Reporting_DEV_53 still processes needs_attention filesystem content and NeedsAttention manifest rows. Complete exclusion remains unresolved under DEFERRED-051.
• Dependency provenance and redistribution-policy validation remain open under DEFERRED-038.

See the complete changelog.

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.5

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.5 is a Windows PowerShell prerelease.

Changed

• Reporting now keeps operator-facing output concise while recording detailed milestones in DEBUG logs.
• Physical-audit reconciliation now uses bounded summary and individual-review panels with Approve All, Review Each, Make No Changes, and Cancel; only approved findings alter manifests.
• The guides now distinguish the intended boundary from beta.5 behavior: official and unofficial physical output is authoritative truth, while needs_attention is intended to be a separate review queue.

Fixed

• Preserved original and immediate Reporting publication provenance through repeated transitive reuse.
• Preserved complete multi-member DAR sets across multiple source containers during Stage 9 planning.
• Corrected Core API handbook metadata so the application version is not presented as the component build.

Known limitation

• Reporting_DEV_49 in beta.5 still processes needs_attention filesystem content and NeedsAttention manifest rows through classification, counting, summaries, and presentation. Full exclusion remains unresolved under DEFERRED-051.

See the complete changelog.

Verified package

• Filename: CURATOR_v1.0.0-beta.5.zip
• Size: 27,720,883 bytes
• SHA-256: 8FAC2B1B46A7B4878F0C7CB3135673E40694B94B5B02FEDDEAE453F6B04EA042

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.4

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.4

Added

• Added END_USER_LICENSE_AND_LEGAL_NOTICE.md as a required release deliverable. It supplements the GNU GPL with CURATOR-specific no-warranty, assumption-of-risk, limitation-of-liability, backup, content-responsibility, third-party, trademark, modified-release, and support notices without restricting GPL-granted rights.
• Added schema-v2 company manifests with final-artifact SHA-256 evidence and immutable existing-record behavior during Append.
• Added Gateway option V for an explicit full physical SHA-256 collection audit with operator-reviewed manifest reconciliation.

Fixed

• Suppressed internal latest_status.json read messages so refreshed Gateway menus and confirmation screens start with a clean application header.
• Corrected Stage 7 validation of contextual CHD/CUE authority matches so current AuthorityProvenance DAT evidence is accepted without weakening missing-evidence or authority-integrity checks.
• Closed the selected-run pause correction after operator confirmation of the remaining acknowledgement-order paths.

Package

• File: CURATOR_v1.0.0-beta.4.zip
• Size: 27,454,555 bytes
• SHA-256: 6AC5AFBEFC5D8D2312F3C70661FE6B3D7240CF09B0AD48A22E4A0A3E5199FFCD

The complete public changelog is available in CHANGELOG.md.

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.3

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.3 improves visible progress and performance across Stages 5–10, updates MAME-native ROM-set guidance, includes the complete GPLv3 license text, and corrects packaged documentation.

Changed

• Added a standalone LICENSE containing the complete GNU GPL version 3 text.
• Added exact progress reporting across large Stage 5–9 workloads.
• Reduced unnecessary Stage 6 console rendering.
• Removed repeated Stage 7 and Stage 8 scans and reused validated Stage 8 authority membership data.
• Improved large Stage 8 assembly performance while preserving normalized results.
• Avoided redundant Stage 9 routing, receipt, and source-path preparation.
• Revised Stage 10 planned-source validation without changing output planning or destination safeguards.
• Updated the End User Manual and Quick Start Guide with current clrmame guidance.

Fixed

• Fixed long Stage 8 intervals without visible console reporting.
• Corrected Stage 8 final JSON progress.
• Added the missing blank line above the final stage resource-release message.
• Suppressed a redundant post-summary pause in selected pause-enabled Gateway options while retaining summaries and the final Gateway acknowledgement.
• Corrected the Core API Developer Handbook’s rendered headings and emphasis.
• Corrected the End User Manual cover version and update date.

Known limitations

• Binmerge build provenance and redistribution evidence for eleven cue/GDI ZIP packages remain unresolved under DEFERRED-038.
• The complete DEFERRED-046 acknowledgement-order validation matrix remains unproven.

Package

• Filename: CURATOR_v1.0.0-beta.3.zip
• Size: 27,457,817 bytes
• SHA-256: 3567C4847FD59C895634622CFA3D46DC7440577CBCDD9084AA5B0B1F92AB6EA3

See the complete changelog.

CURATOR v1.0.0-beta.2

This beta focuses on faster preparation of large collections, safer recovery,
clearer progress reporting, and documentation that is easier to use and keep
with the application.

Added

• Added a changelog to the application folder.
• Added stronger release-package inventory checks.
• Added CURATOR-owned Atari 8-Bit and Atari ST routing definitions.

Changed

• Stage 5 preparation now uses controlled parallel groups for faster processing.
• Recovery bookkeeping and archive progress reporting are more efficient.
• Verified normalized game data is passed forward after authoritative matching.
• User and developer documentation is now supplied as PDF files.
• The developer handbook now documents all 144 current Core interfaces.

Fixed

• Fixed Stage 5 workspaces located outside the application folder.
• Fixed interrupted archive recovery cleanup and empty-archive handling.
• Fixed Stage 5 error reporting after logging services close.
• Fixed supported disc matching using cue-sheet and track evidence.
• Fixed later stages receiving original rather than verified normalized data.
• Added safe cancellation to advanced Nuclear cleanup confirmations.
• Fixed the Core API handbook completion screen.

Known limitations

• In a pause-enabled multi-stage Gateway run, the final stage acknowledgement
  may appear after the separate timing summary.
• A very large interrupted Stage 5 recovery record can delay Gateway startup
  while saved work is validated.

See the complete project changelog.