Loading Files (Games, Patches & Favorites)

Once the MRA has been installed successfully you need to ensure that the MRA is aware of the location of your Fifa games and any Patches and Favorites you wish to use are set up correctly.

This is the most important part of ensuring you obtain maximum benefit from your MRA. To understand this is to understand the joy of the MRA. To master this is to master the game and enjoy your gaming experience like you never have before. Once converted always converted!

Games
The MRA provides the user with the ability to maintain multiple games and multiple installations of games if necessary. 

Sweetpatch MRA supports all Fifa games since Fifa 98 including:

• Fifa RTWC 98
• *World Cup 98 (temporarily withdrawn as naming convention clashes with World Cup 2002)
• Fifa 99
• Fifa 2000
• Euro 2000
• Fifa 2001
• Fifa 2002
• 2002 Fifa World Cup

To achieve this the MRA needs to know about the location of both the .exe programs and where your additional Patches and Favorites are kept.

This can now be easily achieved by selecting the "Add Game" option on the Settings tab.

Step 1: Naming the Game(s)
(click on picture hotspots for more information)

You now have 2 choices:

• to Add the game manually
• Use the Wizard to get Sweetpatch to do all the hard work for you

By selecting the "Search for Games" option on the Wizard this will find all Fifa games located on your PC. Using the Wizard Sweetpatch will take you through the 3 stages that are required to get your game setup correctly to operate with the MRA.

Whether you decide to set the games up manually or get Sweetpatch to do it for you the following rules apply to both.

• Game - this only needs completing if you are setting the game up manually and requires you to give each game a unique name, e.g. Fifa 2001.
• Select 'Next' button when you have completed this.

• Search for Games - if you get Sweetpatch to do all the work for you then select this option and she will find all the Fifa games on your PC.
• She will then take you through the process of setting up the MRA to work with your games.

Step 2: Identifying your Game(s) program files
(click on picture hotspots for more information)

• Game Root Directory - If you are setting your game details manually you will need to locate where your game is installed on your computer.
• Select the drop down box and click to your game directory,
• e.g. C:/Program Files/EA Sports/Fifa 2001
• Tip: To navigate down the list use the "+" sign to the left not double clicking on the drive folder
• Select 'Next' button when you have completed this.

Step 3: Identifying/Creating the MRA Patches directory
(click on picture hotspots for more information)

• Patch Path - if you are setting your game details up manually you will need to locate where your Super Patches directory is on your computer.
• Select the drop down box and click to your Super Patches directory,
• e.g. C:/Program Files/EA Sports/Fifa 2001/MRA Patches
• Tip: To navigate down the list use the "+" sign to the left not double clicking on the drive folder
  

• Create me an MRA Folder - if this is a new game you are installing Sweetpatch can create you a new 'MRA Patches' directory for you to store all your Super Patches in.

Step 4: Finished
(click on picture hotspots for more information)

• If you are happy with all the details you have now entered you can click on Finish and you are ready to load up your patches.
• If you got Sweetpatch to do all the hardwork for you then you won't need to perform this task

Your game is now setup and you are ready to load in and enjoy your great patches.

Patches
The MRA Patches directory stores the additional patches and favorites and each patch must follow the same directory structure as the Fifa game itself and must include either/or both of the data and user directories at the top level.

*Star Tip*: With the new "Add New Patch" feature this task is very easy and enables every single Fifa zip patch file to be MRA Compliant. Click here to learn how to maximise your benefit from this new feature.

Tip: The MRA will also support the older directory naming convention of "Leagues" and "Leagues and Patches".

Here is an example of how I have set up my MRA to work with Fifa 2001 (click for full size image):

The MRA Patches directory can then be populated by your selected patches through:

• Officially Compliant Patches install routines
• The new "Add New Patch" option (Click here to learn how to maximise your benefit from this new feature)
• Windows Explorer or 
• direct from WinZip

Before you continue, check below to see if you want to make use of Favorites.  

Once you have loaded and organised your patches files you are now ready to run the MRA.

Tip: The MRA will now install all required Fifa 2001/2 .fsh files into their .big files for you as long as you follow a simple rule. See below for details of this.

Add New Patch
(click on picture hotspots for more information)

Step 1: Select ZIP
Select from your computer the zip/exe file you wish to load either into your MRA Patches directory or straight into the Fifa game.

If the file is recognised as "MRA Compliant" then the check box will be ticked. This will mean the zip file is unzipped as is using folder structure within zip file. If you want the MRA to use its new feature of recognising EVERY Fifa file ever then untick the checkbox.

Step 2: UnZIP into
Select where you wish to load the Patch, either:

• into your MRA Patches directory (select existing folder from list or type name for new one)
• or straight into the Fifa game (select this option from drop down list)

Step 3: UnZIP file
When you are happy you have selected the correct file and decided where to load it now select the "UnZIP" button and Sweetpatch will install the patch for you. You are now ready to:

• install the patch into Fifa if you pre-loaded it into your MRA Patches directory
• or play Fifa if you loaded the patch straight into the game

Favorites
Favorites have been provided so you can always have your favorite patches loaded in FIFA no matter what patch you have loaded.  This is especially useful if you have favorites such as:

• Balls
• Turfs
• Stadiums
• Jerseys
• etc...

The MRA will automatically create you a 'Favorites' directory directly under your MRA Patches Path. 

As with patches the directory structure underneath Favorites must be the same as your FIFA game directory structure, i.e.:

To help you understand how Favorites operate, when you install a patch the MRA gives you the option to 'Use Favorites' aswell.  If you select this radio button option the MRA will firstly install your patch and will then load over the top any files contained in your Favorites directory.

*Star Tip*: With the introduction of Fifa 2001's .big files, which contain a number of .fsh files, the MRA now makes it very easy for you to install the above files into your game.

• you need to create an extra directory where the .big file is located with exactly the same name as the .big file
• e.g. C:/Program Files/EA Sports/Fifa 2001/MRA Patches/Favorites/Player/kits.big/[*.fsh files here]
• this rule applies for any .big files and works very well

Refer to screenshot below for graphical representation. (Click on image for larger picture).

Tip: For this to function correctly you must have the .big files installed on your Hard Drive in the correct location. With some of the standard installs of Fifa 2001 these files operate from your CD drive and not your HD. To check this look in the following directory to see if the .big files exist:

• ../Fifa 2001/data/player
  • face.big
  • flags.big
  • hair.big
  • head.big
  • jnum.big
  • kits.big
  • player.big
  • texture.big

If the required .big file is not on your HD you need to copy it from the same location on your CD onto your HD. Using Windows Explorer is the easiest way to achieve this.

Once you have loaded and organised your favorite files you are now ready to run the MRA.