Support for proper GD-ROM images

[Merrick]

I think support for using these images (ie. track03.iso) natively is very important, primarily for the following reasons:

1. Only way to LEGALLY play your own backed-up original games (rip them through coder's cable or BBA). They won't require protection to be cracked or repacking or downsampling etc. It's the only way to achieve true emulation other than using the real thing.

2. Some games are too big to fit on even 99 minute CDs (Skies of Arcadia, for example). It is impossible to make working burns or even images or these games due not only to media limitations but to limitations of the format (99:59:74 is the maximum possible LBA allowed by the CD specifications).

I hope this will be taken into consideration. I know a lot of people here never bought a game in their life and only have their collections of pirate rips, and I'm not going to get on a high horse about that, but some of us are real enthusiasts who're interested in preserving and enhancing our games and this is the only way.

Maybe you could make this thread a sticky?

 

[Trotterwatch]

There are too many stickies in this forum for the moment - not sure if this merits one for the moment anyways.

From what I know a lot of research has been done into getting GD-Roms natively supported, but it requires things like hacking firmware etc

 

[Merrick]

Not GD-ROMs themselves, as that's pretty much impossible, I'm talking about the already ripped (but fully in tact, ie. iso file) user-data.

 

[chevi]

not impossible, if my memory doesn´t lie me, it has already been done, an spanish man called Yursoft made it some years ago but kept it to himself

 

[WhiteX]

what hardware is able to read a GD-rom?

 

[PsyMan]

Let's see...
A dreamcast
A NAOMI board
A development kit
A pionner 303s drive with modified firmware
And a Yamaha 400t drive with modified firmware

 

[WhiteX]

It is kinda restrictive to have a GD rom native support in chanka and it is quite off the purpose to see it now because of the amount of things to improve it the way it is being played now.

 

[Merrick]

Restrictive? In what was is it restrictive? Please read the original post, not the posts misreading that I was talking about GD-ROM support.. I am talking about GD-ROM ISO support. These can't be used via mounting, they require direct support.

Anyway, not sure why I have to defend this POV against people who misunderstand or don't have any particular use for it themselves.

 

[WhiteX]

So, asking once again, what hardware is able to make such images?
If they are the same hardware posted by PsyMan, to acquire it legally would be restrictive and i believe (by this stating as a personal opinion, not an imposition to the coders) that there are more important things now and here my friend we do not "defend" anything "against" anybody because we are clashing opinions the good way, sorry about any misreadings of your post from my part.

 

[ADnova]

Merrick: I agree, full image support would be nice.
What Merrick is talking about (from what I understand) is adding support for an .iso track ripped directly from the GD-ROM disc. I've done this before through the coders cable. For those that don't seem to understand, you can attach your Dreamcast to your PC through either a coders cable or a BBA. There are programs available that allow you to then copy a real GD-ROM disc track to your computer. No compression, no hacks, just the full game. Adding support for these ripped tracks is what Merrick is talking about.

 

[Herecles]

It doesn't make that much difference anyway, so why bother? let the chanka team concentrate on more important things

 

[dreamer]

what is a 'coders cable' i would like to copy my skies of arcadia GD- rom, seeing as i actually own it and want the full quality sound (music tracks). yeah i supose i could google it but does anyone have any straight forward advice?

 

[ADnova]

what is a 'coders cable' i would like to copy my skies of arcadia GD- rom, seeing as i actually own it and want the full quality sound (music tracks). yeah i supose i could google it but does anyone have any straight forward advice?

It's a cable which connects the serial port of your Dreamcast to the serial port of your PC. It's called a coders cable since it's main intention was to allow transfer of dreamcast executables compiled on your computer to the Dreamcast. It also allows you to rip tracks directly from GD-ROM. Tellling you which program does this would likely be against the rules, so I can't.
As for the cable itself, you can purchase one from Lik-sang.com, as I did, or you can actually build one yourself. There are various guides on the net which will tell you how to put one together.

 

[dreamer]

It's a cable which connects the serial port of your Dreamcast to the serial port of your PC. It's called a coders cable since it's main intention was to allow transfer of dreamcast executables compiled on your computer to the Dreamcast. It also allows you to rip tracks directly from GD-ROM. Tellling you which program does this would likely be against the rules, so I can't.
As for the cable itself, you can purchase one from Lik-sang.com, as I did, or you can actually build one yourself. There are various guides on the net which will tell you how to put one together.

thanks for this help, i also noticed you on gamefaqs.com, i used to be there. it's nice to see you are making codes for skies of arcadia, i have made a few myself.

 

[HowardC]

My 2 cents.... it matters a lot and is a necessary addition. Why? Hand-ripped gd-rom images are difficult to convert and the reason many of the dc games don't work is due to booting problems. If the gd-rom format was supported then, in theory, all games should at least boot and people wouldn't have to worry if the image was the reason the game in question won't run.

 

[Herecles]

All the hand ripped DC games i have work fine on my real dreamcast, and compared to the real gd discs, i cant notice any significant difference.
Chankast has problems booting games sometimes because the emu is still in early stages.
As the emu becomes more accurate, all the ripped dc games will work fine.

 

[euphoria]

2. Some games are too big to fit on even 99 minute CDs (Skies of Arcadia, for example). It is impossible to make working burns or even images or these games due not only to media limitations but to limitations of the format (99:59:74 is the maximum possible LBA allowed by the CD specifications).

I know this is off the point of this thread, but to let you all know that Plextor (a CD/DVD drive manucf.) has a feature called GigaRec that can record on a normal CD-R(W) up to 1131 Mb (in Mode2 Form2) of data. They're also supposed to be theretically readable on a non-plextor drive.

 

[Herecles]

Will a DC rip still boot with this cd in mode 2?

 

[hp1978]

There is also the HD-BURN technology by Sanyo, witch allows burning 1.4GB of data on a conventional CD-R media.

http://www.digital-sanyo.com/BURN-Proof/HD-BURN/

I know this is off the point of this thread, but to let you all know that Plextor (a CD/DVD drive manucf.) has a feature called GigaRec that can record on a normal CD-R(W) up to 1131 Mb (in Mode2 Form2) of data. They're also supposed to be theretically readable on a non-plextor drive.

 

[WhiteX]

I was goig to post smth relevant to the matter of the question, but i am bored, let ppl talk tech stuff while i play shenmue.