I have some PSX discs from my childhood which were originally bought from game rental shops, so they have a lot of scratches.

The thing is, some of them are not yet in the database, and usually only one or two audio tracks can't be read properly.

Is it of any help to you if I try to dump these and just let out the unreadable audio tracks, or dosn't it help you at all?

2 (edited by topkat 2008-07-18 15:58:15)

I think the mods and/or the common dumpers should decide, but here my 2 cent about it:

In gerenal it's the best if you have a disk without any errors. But maybe someone has the same disk, but with different damaged tracks, so in the end we could compile a complete, errorfree enty in the db/dats.

Since there are not so many german dumpers, it could be difficult/expensive for them to get some german titles in perfect condition, in this case it could be helpful to dump a disk as far as you can, and somebody else does the missing tracks.

This could also helpfull for some of the exotic japanise/asian titles, which are even harder to get in a dumpable condition.

After collecting all the needed infos here in the forum, the disk could be saved in the db.

But, as mentions, some of the stuff/usual dumpers should decide.

I disagree sad The thing is that some games could be of different versions, also have some different audio track hashes, and if you dump the cd not completely, it could be that your damaged tracks differs from the other discs and you would not notice it !

It's a pity, because I have some damaged discs in my own too (some of them just the last track), but they must be in a good condition to add them to the database. We want to have clean system/db, and it is more important than quick dump collecting.

Moreover, I am also one of few German guys tongue and will get some more other German games in next time, so don't worry about it wink

PX-760A (+30), PX-W4824TA (+98), GSA-H42L (+667), GDR-8164B (+102), SH-D162D (+6), SOHD-167T (+12)

4 (edited by r09 2008-07-18 18:56:20)

Sometimes, if the errors are not too severe, using a different drive can help. For example, when I tried to dump the Spanish version of Metal Gear Solid, my BenQ DVD writer always gave an error at the end of the first disc, but my old Toshiba drive was able to read it without problems.

I meant of course deep scratches tongue

PX-760A (+30), PX-W4824TA (+98), GSA-H42L (+667), GDR-8164B (+102), SH-D162D (+6), SOHD-167T (+12)

6 (edited by topkat 2008-07-18 23:13:53)

It was just a idea, but now I see the problem. Browsing the db I noticed some titles with same IDs, but actually diffenrent hashes, so even when two people seems to have the same game (with identical IDs), they actually may not be the same, but different releases, pressing, re-releases ot what ever...

Proper CD-Dumping and preserving is really a hell of work. Introduced back in the early 80's as audio-only media., the CDDA was never meant to be a data storage. Time passed by, and over and over again new extensions to the orginal specs were invented, cd-rom. cd-i. mixed mode, multisession and so on..

No to mention some crazy nonstardard formats like the jaguar-cd (multisession, with data encoded in audiotracks (!) ). (BTW, is the any known way to dump these?)