| smbhax [sys=PC; cat=Utility; reg=UC] |
| | | $40 to register.
Can convert PS2 game isos dumped from PS3 store to a .chd-compressible format--I've done this with Fire Pro Wrestling Returns (see entry 922) and Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol.20: Space Harrier II (see entry 1844).
Used it to rip the audio tracks from the PC Engine's Fire Pro Joshi: Doumu Choujo Taisen ‑ Zenjo vs JWP (see entry 616) so I can use them as bg tracks in Fire Pro Wrestling World (see entry 1555). : )
ImgBurn (see entry 1741) was hanging while analyzing track 3--an audio track--of my Seirei Senshi Spriggan (see entry 600) PC Engine disc--and that occurs before read errors, so setting ImgBurn to ignore read errors was useless; but PowerISO seems to have ripped it successfully! It popped up a dialogue asking if it could ignore read errors, I said sure, and the resulting iso is running okay so far in Mednafen. Nice! The ripping procedure is also a bit more straightforward with PowerISO; might switch to using it as my go-to over ImgBurn, not sure yet. |
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| | | | The PowerISO program itself doesn't appear to be malware, but I've had one antivirus program freak out over its installer, which (version 8.8) does ask if you want to install a couple sketchy-sounding other programs during the PowerISO installation process. : P I clicked No. |
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| | | | Oh yeah forgot to uncheck on the new version I downloaded and it installed McAfee and similar junk. : P |
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| | | VirusTotal.com flags PowerISO as malware, probably due to the bundled junk, same deal with Alcohol 120%, sigh. https://alternativeto.net/software/clonecd/ says PowerISO is from China.
If I'd known that stuff I probably wouldn't have tried it in the first place, I suppose.
Being better at ignoring errors than ImgBurn is all well and good in a way, although for the most part I'd prefer to find non-scratched copies of the games I really want to have--since even if it can come up with a working rip, it's still damaged in some way. For instance, PowerISO could rip my first Goal Storm disc, while ImgBurn hung near start, analyzing track 2--but the PowerISO rip had no working redbook audio tracks (so no in-game menu music, for instance).
Whereas something like CloneCD could actually inject dummy data into the read-error segments, producing a rip with fully working music tracks. |
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| | | | On my old, Win10 laptop, having PowerISO rip that problematic Goal Storm PS1 disc resulted--every time--in the laptop's disc drive disappearing from the operating system until I rebooted! |
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| | | Supposedly the actual paid version--not the free or trial versions--of Alcohol 120% does NOT contain malware/PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) so if for some reason I really need something like CloneCD in the future and can't get the trial working again after 21 days, I suppose I'd just have to pony up for the paid version of Alcohol.
Not quite sure what that would be though since as far as I can tell, the console game discs I'm ripping--PS1, PS2, Saturn, PC Engine, Dreamcast, PS3--didn't actually have direct anti-rip protection, so if they can't be ripped by ImgBurn--or ImgBurn detects errors--or ripped through a Dreamcast with DreamShell, and played perfectly in an emulator, that means the disc is damaged (even if it plays okay in an actual console, like that Goal Storm disc plays seemingly fine on my PSOne, so sellers can't necessarily be blamed for not detecting the read error, as they're really only responsible for making sure the game can boot on its console hardware) and I should just go and buy another one off eBay. |
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| | | So I guess the use case for a ripper is my Seirei Senshi Spriggan disc as noted in the OP, ie an expensive game disc that is damaged but I don't want to have to pay for another one. : P
What I should do in that case is throw out the disc. Spriggan definitely since I'm selling rather than playing all my shmups now, and I won't sell a damaged disc.
PowerISO I originally purchased--per the OP--for another function: converting PS2 isos downloaded from the PS3 PS Store. |
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| | | I suppose I would first 1) clean the disc and try again in ImgBurn, then 2) try it in another ripper, such as PowerISO or CloneCD (if I can keep that trial going, since the program can no longer be registered)--not to see if I can work around disc errors, but just to see if an error is reported. Although everyone uses ImgBurn so eh hm that's a bit shaky.
I suppose I wouldn't feel comfortable selling a disc that ImgBurn can't handle; going past that gets messy.
So yeah for games I'm selling, if I can't get ImgBurn to rip it clean without errors, it's gone.
For games I'm playing, unless it's so ridiculously expensive that it just isn't worth buying another copy (and I really shouldn't buy a game that expensive in the first place!), I should chuck it and buy another copy.
I was going to say "or I just don't like it enough yet to spend any more money on another copy" but I really shouldn't be wasting time playing a game I don't think I care aobut; in other words, if I REALLY want to play it again, then it IS worth buying another copy.
(I'm often mistaken about the "REALLY"; that's the whole trick.) |
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| | | I suppose there IS a category of games that I simply would enjoy hate-playing from time to time, where playing a glitched copy could add to the perverse enjoyment. 'p'
I was thinking for instance that it if I don't end up liking it as a straight up game, but enjoy it as a bizarre first iteration of a beloved series, it could be useful for instance to have that glitched rip of Goal Storm which has no menu music but consequently is only 16.3 MB as a CHD, rather than ~93.2 MB for the CHD with working music.
... But then I figured okay really 80MB isn't that big a deal, and besides it's not worth misleading YouTube viewers with a version of the game that isn't fully functional. 'p'
So it would have to be a glitch that's both unavoidably obvious and worth preserving. |
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| | | I've seen people saying there are PS1 games that ImgBurn can't handle--possibly in combination with certain optical drives--but those comments never come with any list of such games or drives, so they probably aren't factual.
Well okay there was one saying they couldn't rip a game because they were using a cheap drive from Amazon and their link went to an out of stock link for a Riordan drive that looked just like the one I just ordered. ]_] So I guess we'll see. ; D |
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| | | | ^for the drive I had ALREADY ordered, I should add. 'p' |
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| | | | There's a lot of mythology out there about optical drives for ripping, for instance some people saying slim drives are somehow inherently not to be used--whereas the drive in my old laptop that I've been using all along must be pretty slim, and I sometimes have to hold it shut, it rattles so much. ; D But it never failed to rip an undamaged disc, as far as I'm aware. And if there WERE PS1 games that "cheap" drives couldn't rip (ie getting an error while ripping, not something to do with games with special codes in not-usually-read sectors, or needing patches or whatnot to get around libcrypt or similar stuff even in an emulator https://github.com/alex-free/libcrypt-patcher?tab=readme-ov-file#duckstation-specific-instructions), you'd think there would be some sort of list of such games by now, wouldn't you--but I sure can't find one. |
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| | | | Hm! The cheap new USB 3.0 Rioddas (not "Riordan" 'p') DVD reader I got off eBay read the troublesome Goal Storm disc fine the first time--not in ImgBurn, that hung right away on analyzing track 2, but in PowerISO, no errors reported, unlike from the internal drive on my old Win10 laptop. Well I'll be darned. |
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| | | Haha the Alcohol 120% paid version page says "Compatible with all Windows 32 and 64 bit operating systems up to Windows 10." ; D
According to https://www.free-codecs.com/download/alcohol_120.htm , the incompatibility has to do with its virtual drives feature. |
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| | | The second disc Goal Storm disc I got from eBay ALSO hangs ImgBurn right after starting, at analyzing track 2--so I guess this really is a PS1 game that is incompatible with ImgBurn. I wonder if it happens with other early US PS1 games. (Just like the other disc, it ripped without errors in PowerISO on my new drive and reported an I/O error at the exact same spot on my old drive, hung in ImgBurn in the old drive as well as in the new one, and played fine on my PSOne.)
I'd said I wouldn't sell a disc that didn't read without errors in ImgBurn, but errors with this particular game have happened in exactly the same way with two discs, and it plays fine in a PSOne, so it must be something to do with the pressing of the disc, and not something indicative of damage to the disc. So I'm going to sell the nicer-looking disc (the first one) and keep the second one. |
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| | | | ^ Explaining the software/drive compatibility thing in an eBay auction would be a bit of a nightmare so I'm just going to request a return (since that seller said the disc was "Like New" and showed a photo of a disc with no scratches, but the disc they sent me is as covered in scratches as you'd expect a used early US PS1 disc to be). |
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