DC backups

[nerdocalypse]

Hey everyone,

I've read through the pinned step-by-step guide to burning ISOs a few times, as well as others like it on the web. I tried burning a backup of DOA2 LE. I used Nero 6. My DC wont play it. It stays on the swirl logo for 20-30 seconds then goes to the main DC screen. If I put my DC-X in first, then the game(I dont know if its the import version), the game does not load and it stays on the DC-X screen indefinitely.

 

The guide above says that Oct 2000 DCs(like mine) should work, but others say they wont. I'm just trying to figure out for sure if its my DC thats the problem, or if I'm overlooking something. I do use cdi2nero, but I dont know the exact settings of nero to use, or if there's something else i have to make sure of...

and if it is my DC thats the problem, I've read some 'workaround' techniques for them, where the audio is put after the data. but people are telling me that those guides are fake. I'd rather not have to buy another DC so any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

[Agozer]

If you ask me, all audio tracks that are in CDDA format always come after the data track. Track 1 is always reserved for data, unless the original GD-ROMs used some kind of a strange layout that deviated from the norm.

[Tynvar]

You could try other image burning software like Alcohol. I could give you help on burning images with it if you wish.

[ken_cinder]

If you ask me, all audio tracks that are in CDDA format always come after the data track. Track 1 is always reserved for data, unless the original GD-ROMs used some kind of a strange layout that deviated from the norm.

 

Self booting games use two methods, one has a dummy audio track in the first session, where the game follows as data in the second session. Games with CDDA tracks always have the game CDDA in the same session as the game data. Anything found in another session is dummy data/audio.

The other method is data/data and is also dummied.

 

Oh and it's been disproven for years now, that certain Dreamcast models manufactured after a certain date won't boot homebrew/backups. They ALL do.

 

btw, cdi2nero isn't always accurate in it's conversion. The much better choice is to mount a CDI in Daemon Tools and do a Disc Copy from the virtual drive in Nero.

Newer games that utilize modified boot methods in order to make them self boot won't parse in CDI2Nero properly, and CDI v4 images almost always mess up.

[Shibathedog]

what he said^

 

What kind of CDR are you using? and i doubt its your DC, thats pretty much a rumor, almost all my friends have DCs that supposedly dont boot burns and they do anyway.

[nerdocalypse]

well, it is uplifting to hear that it isnt my DC's fault, but I still cant get anything to work.

What type of CDRs? The first few were attempted with SOny, now its memorex.

 

"""The much better choice is to mount a CDI in Daemon Tools and do a Disc Copy from the virtual drive in Nero.""" - uhhh ok? well, i understand a few words there.. hmm i guess i shoulda mentioned that i'm technologically retarded, so i dont know what "mount" "daemon tools", virtual drive, and many, many other terms used by ppl mean. i'm completely new to emulation et al.

 

Here are the steps to creating a DC CD, as I understand it. Please add/ alter anything incorrect. I must be missing something or getting something wrong.

1. get an RARed image

2. unRAR it

3. use cdi2nero if applicable

4. use nero in raw dao (?) mode to burn it.

 

alternately, I sometimes get.bin and.cue sets. I cant figure out how to translate these into.nrg... I tried using bin2boot, but it keeps asking me to create an ip file, i click 'y', then it asks me what the name of 1st_read.bin is, so i type it in and hit enter, then (!!)the program closes!

 

please help to turn me from , , and into a mixture of , , and

[Agozer]

Deamon Tools, Virtual Drive: Daemon Tools is a program that creates a virtual drive for you. Basically, it creates a fake (phantom) CD/DVD-ROM drive for you, that acts exactly the same way as a normal CD/DVD drive would.

 

It uses CD images as it's medium, so when we say "mount a CD image into Daemon Tools", we mean to attach a CD image to this phantom drive so it acts like there is an actual disc in the drive. Daemon Tools emulates the data found on the CD image as a real disc. Once mounted, you can use the virtual drive the same way as you would a normal CD-ROM drive, including Disc-to-Disc copying method from one CD drive to another, etc.

 

Needlesss to say, since the advent of DT and virtual drives, not all people feel the need to burn the PSX games (not just applicable to those burn, but for all disc-based media) they intend to emulate on a disc. Instead, they simply mount the CD image to the virual drive and play from there. Real discs are also far more succeptible to read errors and such.

 

But since you have a real DC, of course you want to burn your games. Like I said earlier though, a Disc-to-Disc copy in Nero should be a lot less painless that going through multiple programs just to convert a CD image to some other format.

[Shibathedog]

okay those brands of CDR should be fine (sonys arent too durable though in my experience so be careful with them)

 

What i would do is hunt down a copy of Alcohol 120%, and burn the image with that in RAW/DAO mode. That reallllllly rarely fails for me, and when it does i can just burn it with DiscJuggler in RAW/DAO mode and it will work (make sure to enable overburn in DiscJuggler first though, its default is off for some reason if i remember right)

 

CDI2Nero doesnt always work, but most of the time it does.

[nerdocalypse]

well it sounds pretty clear that alcohol or discjuggler are really mandatory! could someone send /post the actual program file for either of those? the reason being that my 80-dollar used computer wont let me install anything using Windows Installer, and both of those use it when i download the setup.exe from their websites. andrewto@uvic.ca

thank you

[Madman]

From my experience: Use DiscJuggler. And DOA needs BootCD to start anyway

[nerdocalypse]

hmmm i dunno... i've tried seemingly everything now, nero with TAO, nero with DAO, bootdreams cdi record, bootdreams discjuggler image record... nothing works. not DOA, power stone 2, rez(and that kills me cuz i cant wait to play it), utopia, mr driller, daytona... nothing. the only prog i havent tried yet is alcohol, and as i said, i am unable to use it since the setup requires windows installer, which isnt working for me at all. in any case, i dont see how alcohol could be so different that it would work where so many similar progs have failed.. but i do hope that i can somehow install it and that it''ll work.

any other help/advice at this stage would be highly appreciated, since I'm on the verge of giving up, believing in the rumour of some non-bootable DCs, and buying another, earlier one.

 

oh, I noticed 2 things that may be important: some burns only resulted in a single-track cd; one had as many as 6! isnt the correct number supposed to be 2?

and: when using bootdreams to burn, at one point a popup asked me which file is the main binary. i didnt know what to choose here. what is it, the image or a 1st_read or something?