sega cd emulation question

[AmishSamurai]

So I downloaded a few Sega CD isos, and after unpacking the files, the folder had the iso in there, but also a bunch of audio files. Was I supposed to keep them packed to run on the emulator, like MAME or Neo Geo?

[scott33]

I think on some emulators you CAN run the games from a zipped folder. If you unpacked them that's okay. Just keep the audio files in the same folder as the iso.

[Dylan]

I used to use Kega Fusion, and I don't believe it could process packed folders. Placing all of the audio files in the same folder is the method that I used. You can actually run the game without the audio files, but it won't have any music.

[AmishSamurai]

Thanks everybody. May rezip them to save space.

Just out of curiosity, what was the reasoning for putting the audio files outside the iso? Is this just standard for old CD games? Was it so you could listen to the music on a CD player?

[Dylan]

Thanks everybody. May rezip them to save space.

Just out of curiosity, what was the reasoning for putting the audio files outside the iso? Is this just standard for old CD games? Was it so you could listen to the music on a CD player?

The latter, if I'm not mistaken. I always thought it was novel that you could do that with some CD based games.

[spiritplx]

Just out of curiosity, what was the reasoning for putting the audio files outside the iso? Is this just standard for old CD games? Was it so you could listen to the music on a CD player?

From what I understand, people would separate the audio and go the ISO/MP3 route instead of the bin/cue route because they could compress the audio this way. A lot of these releases were made in the day of dial-up, so every little bit would help.

[Ziggy]

Just out of curiosity, what was the reasoning for putting the audio files outside the iso? Is this just standard for old CD games? Was it so you could listen to the music on a CD player?

From what I understand, people would separate the audio and go the ISO/MP3 route instead of the bin/cue route because they could compress the audio this way. A lot of these releases were made in the day of dial-up, so every little bit would help.

Yes, that's what I always figured too, to save bandwidth. Also because I read something about the audio files being necessary when using the ISO format for CD's. People tend to reach for the ISO format because it's well known (people even refer to other image formats as ISOs, like calling a BIN/CUE an ISO, it's like calling all game consoles Nintnedo) but it is not always the best choice.

If you wanted to, you could re-rip them into BIN/CUE format so they're easier to keep. As far as playing them on emulators, some emulators will allow you to boot an image while others will only boot from a disc. For the later, you can mount the image in a virtual drive and then have the emulator boot this drive. I realize you're not looking to burn the images, but check out this guide for info anyway:

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/hacks/20 ... tware.html

It goes over how to mount the image in a virtual drive, as well as how to create a CUE for ISO/mp3 images if the CUE is missing or is damaged.

[Hatta]

Delete them and acquire BIN/CUE images. There's no reason to be dealing with ISO/MP3 garbage in 2011.

[Xeogred]

Thanks everybody. May rezip them to save space.

Just out of curiosity, what was the reasoning for putting the audio files outside the iso? Is this just standard for old CD games? Was it so you could listen to the music on a CD player?

The latter, if I'm not mistaken. I always thought it was novel that you could do that with some CD based games.

From what I understand Sega CD games have no kind of protection whatsoever, and the first track on the games contained all the game data, and the rest were the music tracks. Interesting stuff.

I use Kega Fusion and don't mind managing the ISO/MP3's, you're practically getting OST's as well which is cool with me.

[Hatta]

FYI: ISO format is meant for creating an exact copy of the CD. So when you have ISO you can open it using a NERO or using a virtual disc drive. Once you are on it you should browse its content just as you are inside a CD drive and select the roms to play.

ISO format can only create an exact copy of the data portion of the CD. Any CD with audio tracks should be imaged as bin/cue. It's trivial to extract data and audio from a bin/cue, it's harder to put ISO/MP3/WAV together correctly without a known cuesheet.