1 Reply by Justin Bailey

(3,497 replies, posted in General discussion)

It's funny that the previous message is talking about dumping Dreamcast GDROM, because that's exactly what I would try to do with my Plextor PX-708A (it's reported to be a compatible drive).
After dumping hundreds of PC-Engine CD and 3DO games (mainly), I would like to try to dump Dreamcast games too.


I've read a few different dumping methods here, but they are all old, so maybe obsolete?
How can I dump GDROMs with DiscImageCreator? Do I still need the Swap Disc trick?
Dumping the Low Density area is easy, but I'm not sure how to dump the High Density area.

So far I've tried the following:

1)
I tried to dump a GDROM using the gd command, but it reported:
"couldn't read a data sector at scrambled mode. Please start it again from 1st step or after waiting a little".
What 1st step is it talking about? And when I wait, it displays that message a few times then quits.

2)
I tried the Swap Disc method, then DIC's gd command, but it wasn't able to read the write offset and didn't dump anything.

Am I doing something wrong? What's the current method to dump GDROM with DIC?

Thanks ;-)

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2 Reply by Justin Bailey

(4 replies, posted in General discussion)

Thanks for your answers, I'll send the checksums and required informations very soon then smile

@ RiMMER
Oh, a Silent Hill fan? Well, I am.
Did you know that Heather will be in the Silent Hill 2 movie?
[EDIT] Ah I forgot to mention it, but in the "PSM2 DVD", there's also a Silent Hill 3 Making Of.

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3 Topic by Justin Bailey

(4 replies, posted in General discussion)

I was just wondering if you accept discs that are related to video games, but that don't contain any playable game or even playable game demo...? And if so, what do you consider as being too much "off-topic"? Where is the limit?

Here are 3 examples of discs I dumped recently and that I would like to contribute to your database:

1) "PlayZone DVDs"
^ PlayZone was a french DVD-based magazine dedicated to the PS2. There are no playable demos, only tests, news, previews, trailers, gameplay videos and exclusive stuff from time to time.

2) ".hack // Liminality Vol.1 - In the Case of Mai Minase"
^ The french PSX PAL game ".hack // Infection - Part 1" came with a bonus disc; it's a 45 minutes episode of a .hack anime.

3) "Silent Hill 2 - The Making Of"
^ I didn't check if this one is already in your database, but the Special Edition of the "Silent Hill 2" in France came with a Making Of DVD.

Is #2 too much off-topic?
Would you like me to submit those discs?

I currently have:
- 3 "PlayZone" DVDs
- 1 "PSM2" DVD (it's similar to "PlayZone")
- 1 .hack anime
- 1 Silent Hill 2 Making Of (earlier I submitted a MGS2 Making Of too, it's bundled with the french version of MGS2)

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4 Reply by Justin Bailey

(17 replies, posted in General discussion)

Namida, did you start to dump anything yet? And if so, is it successful?
I'm very curious, because I loved the PC-Engine CD, and I would love to have a complete set one day smile

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5 Topic by Justin Bailey

(1 replies, posted in General discussion)

I was trying to dump a game that's not in your database, and I'm having troubles.
Will someone be able to help?

  • Title: "Tail Concerto" (PAL PSX game)

  • It has only 1 data track

  • It's not in a perfectly good shape, but there's no big scratches either

  • I ran "perform a surface scan" twice with IsoBuster, it says that the game is in a good shape

  • I dumped the game around 8-10 times and always got a different checksum

  • The size of the .bin was always the same though!

  • Finally I ran psxt001z --libcryptdrvfast D: 3 times:
    Test 1: Original sectors: 63 / Other sectors: 1
    Test 2: Original sectors: 62 / Other sectors: 2
    Test 3: Original sectors: 62 / Other sectors: 2
    ^ The sector always giving me "unknown" instead of "original sector" is the 3rd one

Is it because the CD is too scratched (and IsoBuster screwed its surface scan job twice), or is it a case of copy protection, maybe?
Let me know if you need more informations.

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