Can someone shed a little light on PSX dumps?

[ThrashOmen]

So I have a pretty big PSX library, but I just started getting the games through torrents and what not, and I've come across alot of garbage so I had a few questions.

What is the difference between these three structures?:

.ISO (Sometimes .ISO/.CUE)

.BIN/.CUE

.IMG/.CCD/.SUB

And what is the best format of these three? So far it seems like the 3rd one is the best and most reliable, but I rarely come across it :/

I'd think there was someplace where I could find perfect dumps for games on the internet but I've given up.

I might just take the time to try to properly dump my own games in the future but I'm a pretty busy guy.

Another thing, What does mounting games to a virtual drive do exactly? Also in ePSXe all the cdrom plugins confuse the hell out of me. Any of you who have games running perfectly, what do you use?

Any pointers and tips on how to get ePSXe running smoothly would help me out a ton. Thanks!

[Ziggy]

I've asked similar questions before. I'm not an expert on the matter, but let's see if I can explain a little.

First of all, the ISO format should not be used for CD based games. It cannot handle the audio on it's on which is why you get ISO+mp3 which also needs the CUE. It also has a good chance of "breaking" the image. People tend to favor this format because they hear "ISO" and think it's good. ISO should only be used for DVDs.

When you rip into IMG/CCD/SUB you have the option of also creating a CUE. This format became the standard for PS1 images because it is capable of copying the disc with out breaking the protection. I've ripped PS1 games straight to BIN/CUE before with out any problems though, so I'm not sure what the big deal is. I've never been able to get a clear answer on that. What's more, I've also re-ripped CCD images to BIN/CUE a few times with out any problems.

I guess if you wanna stay on the safe side, go with CCD. From my experience, BIN/CUE is alright. But definitely stay away from ISO+mp3.

And what is the best format of these three?

Are you asking for PS1 images in specific or for ALL games? It seems different systems can have different chosen formats. For example, PS1's format of choice is CCD. Saturn, Sega CD and others use BIN/CUE. Dreamcast uses CDI. Et cetera.

I'd think there was someplace where I could find perfect dumps for games on the internet but I've given up.

Underground-Gamer

What does mounting games to a virtual drive do exactly?

Mounting an image to a virtual drive allows you to use the image as if it were a physical disc. Some emulators allow you to load an image with out having to mount it in a virtual drive.

[ThrashOmen]

This is definetely more help than I've gotten anywhere else. Thanks for the insight dude.

I did mean for PS1 games. And yes that's what I figured. It seemed to be the easiest to use.

So if I have an .ISO of a multitrack game such as Jet Moto or Soul Blade for instance, if there are no .MP3 files or a .CUE there's no possible way of making it work correct?

I Actually don't have any .ISO games with seperate .MP3 files...




One game I play in .ISO format, and mainly the only reason I don't play it on my PS1 anymore is because it's pretty damaged, I'm surprised it hasn't disintergrated, is Intelligent Qube. But the music works fine. I know the difference between a multi track game and a game that just has just one track (like Resident evil or Crash Bandicoot) but why is it like this?

I'm pretty sure the question is irrelivent and is the same as asking "What's the meaning of life?" but I was just curious.

[Ziggy]

These questions are slightly beyond my understanding on the matter.

From what I've read, the CCD format is suppose to be the best format to rip a PS1 game to in order to maintain quality. I forgot who posted this, but I copy and pasted it to a txt file so I can refer back to it. They seemed to be pretty knowledgeable on the matter.

ISO doesn't cover audio tracks. ALL Sega Saturn, ALL PC-Engine CD, ALL PC-FX, heaps of PSX and old PC games use audio tracks. Ripping them as .iso will end up with tiny single data tracked images that have no music. In fact, for NEC systems (PCE, PC-FX) you'd end up with a useless coaster since the first track for those systems is always an audio track THEN followed by the data and several other audio/data tracks. Ripping that to .iso will only result in a single audio track (the generic voiced message telling you not to insert the disc in a CD player).

ISO doesn't support multi-session
This is important for Dreamcast games. No multi-session = no selfbootable games. Basically re-ripping a selfboot DC game as an .iso will get you being chased by angry pitchfork&torch-wielding villagers. Heck, not even non-boot DC games were dumped as .iso

- CD protection.
For those who want 1:1 copies of protected games, ripping them as .iso will break the protection (in a bad way) making the game unplayable and needing to look for a crack patch which is what some people wanted to avoid doing in the first place. CloneCD (ccd/sub/img) and Alcohol120% (mdf/mds) are to be used here.

From personal experience, I find .iso an unstable format that breaks or gets corrupt easily. There is no checksum or any type of file consistency security or extra information accompanying it.

There is a program out there that can rip CDs as iso/cue. But that's basically a bin/cue, just the .bin happens to have a different file extension, an .iso. I don't like this iso/cue combination cause it's not dummy-proof. I can see many beginners ignoring the cue and going right for their preffered .iso and burning that instead (resulting in a bad burn that has no music or will not run at all).

I know from experience all the ups & downs of the formats to know for myself what CD image to rip to. I use CDRwin (bin/cue) for basically everything cause it's a well-established old format that's been around for years and supports audio tracks, which all old games for several systems have. Many ripping/burning programs support bin/cue. For CD-protected, I use CloneCD (sub/ccd/img). The protections on these games are all old and can be burned on CloneCD.

.iso is to be used only if you know all the facts I stated above to avoid making bad rips. Yes, it's alot to read but if you plan on ripping games correctly you have to know these things, either now or by error.
So you must know beforehand that you are ripping a game that has no CD protection and no audio tracks or multi-session. Then .iso is ok. (though I still don't recommend it, cause like I said it gets corrupt/breaks the easiest).

[ThrashOmen]

Great post. Really shined some light on everything. Thanks for everything man!

Also I checked out Underground Gamer and looks like it's private! My ratio in uTorrent is about 0.6, and thats ONLY because whenever I find a terrible rip I never seed it

But I do seed alot when I find good stuff and I want to get my ratio at least up to 1:1 before I try joining any private sites. I used to have great ratio when I used Demonoid alot but the site doesn't properly keep track so I stopped trying so hard, haha. I've read alot of stuff on Underground gamer. Really sounds like the willy wonka's chocolate factory of emulation.

Once again, thank you.