Ripping PSX Games

[Dauric]

Re: New PSX4Pandora video

Won't this just dump the disc, exactly as it's stored, bit for bit? So a game that uses 100mb will take up 700mb, 600 of which is just zeroes?

(Never used dd with ISOs before, but from my work on HDDs, I was pretty sure it copied it EXACTLY).

Yep, pretty much. There's some files that standard file-copying won't work on, DRM of the late 90's, and it's absence was used to detect copied disks. Another technique was for the copy-protection to look for a file on a specific location on the disk, with some blank space before it. Conventional disk-copying would move the file to fill that empty space, and when the copy-protection went to find it it wasn't where it was supposed to be.

Then someone made a disk image copier based on the ISO standards, and both those techniques became depreciated, though the PSX and other hardware still supported that method of copy-protection (in large part because most casual disk-copy attempts were still done by people who didn't know about the ISO).

 

[javaJake]

Re: New PSX4Pandora video

Won't this just dump the disc, exactly as it's stored, bit for bit? So a game that uses 100mb will take up 700mb, 600 of which is just zeroes?

It will certainly try, but because of the way the disk was burned, or data was stored, ripping PSX games using this method will result in read error messages in your kernel log.

There's a special way of reading these discs that rip the data from the contorted format on the CD and store it in a .bin/.cue file. That's what cdrdao is all about above.

 

[Poem58]

Re: New PSX4Pandora video

(in large part because most casual disk-copy attempts were still done by people who didn't know about the ISO).

Ha ha, that brings to mind the fact that a lot of casual PC users used to (and probably still do) put a CD in the drive, dragged oh let's say the "Track 5" icon from the explorer list to the desktop, then call and complain that they "ripped" or "copied" the CD to the computer and it wouldn't play. Memories...

I always thought of emu images being:
Tape = Cassette
Disk = Floppy
Rom = Cartridge
Iso = CD/DVD

I always thought they called the cartridges "ROMS" specifically due to the code being ripped being from a ROM chip and discs ISO's cause that was the original form of copying the whole disk.
While other forms may be read only or not really doesn't matter. It's just the jargon created for if you wanted an N64 game you looked for "Mario 64 ROM" instead of searching for "Mario 64 ISO" or "Mario 64 game data ripped from the original cartridge for use in an emulator"
One could argue Floppies and CD's and DVD's are all disks so they should all be called "disk images" I mean that could work but it takes more typing.
I guess I'm saying that didn't this stuff get named on the internet specifically for the purpose of finding it on the internet, regardless of hole in the thinking?
So in my opinion when the original poster was corrected then he was more likely to find what he needed. If he couldn't get a game disk to rip and tried to find out how to copy roms...that may have given him some confusing results.
Just my $0.02 and it ain't worth that much...