PS2 game versions

[silikone]

I just recently found this site, good to see that people care about preserving discs.
I was looking at some different PS2 titles, and I noticed that not all have version 1.00 available. This made me wonder if there is any way to know if earlier (or later) versions of the same game exist.
For example, NTSC Half-Life is dumped as version 2.40, but I suspect that there is a version tagged .10. Whether this is a real version, a leak, or a fake, I don't know.

[iR0b0t]

Version 0.10 might be a demo.

[silikone]

I'm also trying to dump some Half-Life PC discs. I see you have already dumped some on the database, but various discs give an unreadable sector error at 99% when I use IsoBuster. Care to help a newbie out?

[pablogm123]

I hope that my message doesn't get deleted this time, because I posted a well intended message another time in this section, and got deleted, but I don't know the reason, because I never write offensive content.

Anyway, silikone, try another drive. Perhaps, it is the same issue with noEDC PS1 games, where many drives cannot read properly the last sector of data track. From my experiencie, only Lite-On CD/DVD writers, and real Plextor drives can handle it, with D8 command or ReadCD with ECC off. Which kind of drives do you own?

[iR0b0t]

I hope that my message doesn't get deleted this time

I don't think it has been deleted. I moved some topics to dumping section maybe it was among them.

various discs give an unreadable sector error at 99% when I use IsoBuster

Half-Life discs contain audio tracks. Your problem is most likely that you are trying to extract the whole 1st track using "extract track" option, which has 2nd track's pregap appended. I know, the dumping guide is outdated, but it says how to handle redbook (audio) discs. I would recommend you to dump some data track discs only at first.

[silikone]

Blue Shift gave me the same trouble, but it doesn't seem to have any tracks, neither on the database or on my disc, though the US version does have music. I guess this is an oversight of Sierra.

[pablogm123]

Try another drive. If another drive cannot read those non-standard sectors, the only realistic options are real Plextor drive and CDToimgD8, or any drive and hotswaping, and descrambling by software. Do not do the last option until you understand fully the method.

The idea is insert a standard CDDA, wait until the disc stops spinning, or use the startstop program to stop disc, and use the eject hole to open the tray, replace disc and close tray, applying a litlle of force at the end, so that the pick-up goes up and the magnetic holds the new disc. If drive resets when opening the tray, unfortunately you will have to remove the cover to load/unload manually discs, without drive realizing that disc is changed. Once done, dump the proper range using CDTool, and run descramble_cdda to descramble.

[iR0b0t]

Blue Shift gave me the same trouble

There are 2 dumps with audio tracks and 1 without in the database by now. Blue Shift is SecuROM protected, and this protection includes one MODE2 sector which is in the very end of the data track. Your drive might have an issue extracting different DATA MODE TYPES inside of a single track. So yeah, try an other drive ))

[silikone]

I am currently using an XJ-HD166S. Old stuff.
Are there any drives besides Plextor with great compatibility?

[iR0b0t]

LG drives are pretty good, for dumping data only discs at least.