Plextors indeed seem unable to read the TOC. The Optiarc is reading them fine though:
Only tested the PX-760A so far. If all my Plextors refuse to read them, I'll use an audio trap disc for the first session.
I'm not expecting any problems dumping these discs, it's prolly gonna take a while though to read through all the rings And we'll also need to finish our multisession 'standard'.
Last edited by Jackal on Wed May 22, 2019 11:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
I'm just using CloneCD for now and reading the stuff that's in the TOC.
But Maddog informed me that there's additional hidden data. Some info found on google:
There's data between the two sessions, in the lead-in of session2 actually. Without this data the disc reboot at the "legal stuff" screen. If you look at the cdi image and search for "SEGAKATANA" (beginning of ip.bin very first block of session2, LBA45000) you'll see that there's some data right before it. By inputting this data into the session2 pregap of a cdi image of the disc, and burning it with a compatible drive (that won't assume pregap is full of zeros), you can make the BC! backup boot up to the "insert disc" screen. However once a game disc (gt2/mgs/tekken) is inserted it won't boot it.
There's an hidden session passed the TOC of the disc with only one file named "bleem" in it, consisting of "bleem<NL>" (<NL> is linefeed or carraige return I don't remember). Burning this session with a swap trick, as I tried, doesn't make the game boot the psx disc. As this session is not in Patriot's release we can assume he cracked the code that checks for it.
But protection data between 2 sessions sounds pretty farfetched, maybe it's actually data between rings in the 2nd session, which previous dumps were missing because it wasn't dumped properly.
Last edited by Jackal on Wed May 22, 2019 12:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The layout seems to be identical for all 3 discs:
0-301 - Session 1 (audio track, all zeroes)
302-11566 - Session 1 lead-out/ Session 2 lead-in? (all readable sectors are zeroes)
11567-11701 - Pregap? (mixed data/audio)
11702-77006 - Session 2 (data track with unreadable rings / error sectors)
So the google source was right, there is some data between the 2 sessions. This data is included separately for now.
It probably needs to be added to the image to get a working backup. Besides inserting the data at offset 710304 of the .img and 28992 of the .sub, this also means that the .ccd needs to be hacked/modified in some way. Hopefully someone (sarami?) knows how to do this.
ps. It would be nice also if someone could test the normal/unmodified dumps on a real console to see what happens.
Last edited by Jackal on Mon Jun 10, 2019 2:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
To get the Bleemcast ones working, I guess we have to somehow modify the .ccd and include the additional data between the 2 sessions and in the lead-out area in the image (see attached .png).
I'm abandoning this research until sarami or someone else can help out with creating working images for testing on actual consoles or maybe in emulators.
Attachments
Imported Redump attachment 3063
mil-cd layouts.png (5.63 KiB) Viewed 3 times
Last edited by Jackal on Fri Jun 14, 2019 3:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
Yeah, but when using cdarchive and reading backwards, ranges such like those actually become readable... I've ordered a SOHD-167T which hopefully reads more sectors (supposedly it was better at reading LaserLock than the OptiArc).
Do you have any idea how we can accomplish this?:
I guess we have to somehow modify the .ccd and include the additional data between the 2 sessions and in the lead-out area in the image (see attached .png).
Last edited by Jackal on Sun Jul 14, 2019 9:39 am, edited 1 time in total.