Hey guys

I've been a member of the site for a year and am still just as confused as I was when I started.

I have an opportunity to dump some very rare items, and before I do, i want to make sure i'm doing it right.

The problem is, there are quite a few guides but none of them seem to give everything needed.


So, I'd like to request that the mods or powers that be who happen to be knowledgeable in these matters please clean up the dumping guides.

It would be most awesome if we started with Sega Saturn ;-)

I'd like to see all systems specifically covered and "start here" page that indicates things that should be common to all dumps (ie, pictures of disc, ring code, or anything else of that nature).

IF this isn't likely to happen, then I'd really like a sega saturn specific guide that goes through step by step of all the items needed to present a brand new dump. 

Please, do not direct me to an existing thread unless you indicate EXACTLY where the instructions are.  It isn't helpful and my (now second, and likely final) window of opportunity for this is closing VERY quickly.

I need to know what program to use (DIC it seems), what commands/settings to use, what additional information i need to include, where the end results should be placed (online file storage?  FTP?)

I've asked in this forum already but didn't really get an answer that helped, and trying to find the answer on my own via browse/search only caused me more confusion.  There is a LOT of unorganized, outdated, or plain missing information here.


Thanks all!

I don't get notifications from this forum, and i don't often check PMs here as a result. If you need to reach me, please just email me or contact F1ReB4LL.

2 (edited by A Murder of Crows 2016-10-28 19:37:29)

Adding this as a starting point, from the previously noted Saturn dumping guide.  I'd REALLY love to see the following edited and updated to whatever the current needs are.

==========

INFORMATIONS TO BE PRESERVED

You have also to know and understand which informations has to to be preserved in DB to identify a dump from another one (revision, alternative and so on). What follows is the needed data:

1. Title

2. Alternative title expecially for Japanese releases
You can find them easily on Sega website (search it with serial), by the way something could be different on box / disc:

Saturn Sega releases: http://sega.jp/archive/segahard/ss/soft.html
Saturn 3rd party 1994-1995: http://sega.jp/archive/segahard/ss/soft_licensee1.html
Saturn 3rd party 1996: http://sega.jp/archive/segahard/ss/soft_licensee2.html
Saturn 3rd party 1997: http://sega.jp/archive/segahard/ss/soft_licensee3.html
Saturn 3rd party 1998-2000: http://sega.jp/archive/segahard/ss/soft_licensee3.html
and / or
Saturn all: http://www.satakore.com/

Mega CD Sega releases: http://sega.jp/archive/segahard/mcd/soft.html
Mega CD 3rd party: http://sega.jp/archive/segahard/mcd/soft_licensee.html

All western characters must be in unicode MS Mincho ---> japanese subcategory (Shift-JIS) ---> latin symbols (you can easily find this character set)

3. Region (Japan, USA, Europe, Germany, France, etc.)

4. Languages (En, Jp, Fr, De, Es, It, etc.)

5. Serial ---> normally you find it on sides of jewel case

6. Ring Code ---> you find it in the inner ring of cd-rom

7. IFPI Code ---> normally you find it in the same inner ring where you found Ring Code (a text box should be added in the SS/SCD DB sheet). You can post it along with Ring Code and please the inner IFPI near CD hole, the one normally on trasparent sector, is not required because it's the media code.

8. Barcode (optional)

9. EXE Date ---> you can it in the header

10. Header in text format with hex values (not full 512 bytes, but only used bytes)

11. Revision ---> you find it in the header

12. Edition (Original, Satakore, Taikenban, Genteiban, etc.)

Saturn Collection <=> Satakore
Limited Edition <=> Genteiban
Demo Edition <=> Taikenban

13. Write Offset ---> you have to calculate it manually as in the standard guide or get it with px_d8 command help if your drive supports read command

14. Perfct Rip log (if dumped with perfect rip)

15. Eac log

16. Cuesheet (Perfect Rip one if PR and EAC dumps match)

17. px_d8 log (or Isobuster sector you used to take combined offset)

18. subcode taken with CloneCD (mandatory if you'll get situations I'll explain below)

I don't get notifications from this forum, and i don't often check PMs here as a result. If you need to reach me, please just email me or contact F1ReB4LL.

You should start with a DIC dump of something. EAC isn't needed, PerfectRip is ok as an additional verification, but not mandatory. Clone CD sub is useless, we use own tool to dump the subs. Ringcode scans would be nice (though, scans don't always have the ring text visible, in that case the photos would be nice). Revisions are on the ringcodes, not in the headers. No "EXE Date" for Saturn, "Build date" instead (from header, yes). Titles/barcodes can be found on satakore.com, unless you have something very special (try to amaze me via PM in that case, I'm pretty familiar with the entire Saturn library and the rarity of each release).

PM sent.  So far i was able to make a clonecd image of Eyeful Home as that disc went back to california this past week.  The others are still up here.

I don't get notifications from this forum, and i don't often check PMs here as a result. If you need to reach me, please just email me or contact F1ReB4LL.

A Murder of Crows wrote:

PM sent.  So far i was able to make a clonecd image of Eyeful Home as that disc went back to california this past week.

I don't think the clonecd image has any use for us, since the audio there is definetely cut from the end due to lack of the offset correction. If you were in such a hurry, you could either follow the old guide or to run DIC without any additional parameters (it has a built-in help to figure out the basic commands). Of course, if you have a proper drive (you haven't even mentioned the drive(s) you were trying to use).

F1ReB4LL wrote:


I don't think the clonecd image has any use for us, since the audio there is definetely cut from the end due to lack of the offset correction. If you were in such a hurry, you could either follow the old guide or to run DIC without any additional parameters (it has a built-in help to figure out the basic commands). Of course, if you have a proper drive (you haven't even mentioned the drive(s) you were trying to use).

I have a plextor premium and a pair of plextor Premium 2 drives.

My final output has to be in Clone CD format for compatibility with the rhea device.

When I search for Saturn the old guide which did not mention DIC was the only thing I could find. When I asked about the parameters of the old guy being correct I was told it wasn't. This is why I'm so frustrated right now. I have a real rare golden opportunity to get some really nice things dumped that have not been dumped before properly but I can't find a single step-by-step guide that is current.

I don't get notifications from this forum, and i don't often check PMs here as a result. If you need to reach me, please just email me or contact F1ReB4LL.

The guide is VERY old, way before DIC was available.

You can follow the guide up to number 12, unless otherwise mentioned by F1ReB4LL.

After this, you can use DIC for everything, I guess F1ReB4LL recommends subdump for the subs though wink

DIC calculates the offset for you, that value can be found in %1_disc.txt (where %1 is what you named the dump). (around line 175)

DIC automatically creates CloneCD-style dumps, aswell (with ccd, img and sub). So no need to use the original program.

For a Plextor the usual command would be:

DiscImageCreator.exe cd D: imagename 0 /c2

Where D: is the drive you want to dump from and imagename is what name you want to give to the image.

A Murder of Crows wrote:

My final output has to be in Clone CD format for compatibility with the rhea device.

When I search for Saturn the old guide which did not mention DIC was the only thing I could find.

Both PerfectRip and DIC support CloneCD format, so there was/is no point in using Clone CD at all (except certain protected PC games maybe). Also it's just a format, you can convert any Redump dump (or any other random dump in any other format) into the Clone CD format without any loss.

A Murder of Crows wrote:

PM sent.

You've ignored the reply, btw.

9 (edited by Blackened15 2017-03-24 18:14:48)

I'm just trying to be 100% clear, as the info is a bit all over the place on this.

I have an internal drive which supports the DIC cd command (or at least doesn't give me an error like my external drive does), and my drive is listed in the driveOffset.txt ( VendorId: HL-DT-ST ProductId: BD-RE  WH16NS40 ).

Is that all I need to create proper dump with

DiscImageCreator.exe cd D: imagename 48 /c2

?

Currently trying to match some verified Saturn dump to see if I'm doing it properly, yet after 3 different game dump, all my hashes differ for every track, and size is different for the Data track.

Edit: If my drive is not compatible, which one would your suggest I get (preferably from Amazon.ca) that is affordable? I have games from just about every CD consoles, Atari Jaguar CD, sega cd, Saturn, 3DO, CD-i, Dreamcast etc...

Blackened15 wrote:

Currently trying to match some verified Saturn dump to see if I'm doing it properly, yet after 3 different game dump, all my hashes differ for every track, and size is different for the Data track.

Dunno, post the dump results for a few games (.dat, .sub, .ccd, .cue and all the .txt files) along with the ringcodes for the discs.

11 (edited by gaijin 2017-03-25 10:08:16)

WH16NS40 supports D8 reading mode? Also in review WH16NS40 doesn't read in Lead-Out. You can use your drive for dumping DATA CD only without Audio.

gaijin wrote:

WH16NS40 supports D8 reading mode?

Seems the link to the test tool is down in the few place I saw it posted on this forum, but if you tell me that I can't read Lead-Out with this drive (no clue how to test this, info is really all over the place), I'll start looking for a plextor on the DIC recommended list.

You don't need any specific tools. Take IsoBuster and try to open the next sector after the lead-out (in the "Sector View").