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The Ripping Thread - How to build your own legit retro ROM library.

C

Cheerilee

Member
Chacranajxy said:
So, is there a recommended program/method for ripping ISOs of CD and DVD-based games, in order to get a 1:1 copy?
Click to expand...

AFAIK, there are a bunch of methods, but they're all basically the same.

CUE/BIN was an old standard that created a large "binary" file, and a tiny "cue sheet" which was basically instructions on what to do with the binary. (IIRC, using this standard to create a 1:1 copy was what defeated early CD copy-protection, which was achieved by varying the amount of empty space between the tracks. If you simply copied the data tracks off the disk and burned those individual tracks to a CD, the CD would fail because the empty space was wrong. You needed a perfect 1:1 copy to get around that clever protection.)

Then a software program called "CloneCD" came up with their own format called CCD/IMG which created a large "image" file, along with a tiny CloneCD-branded file which contained instructions on what to do with the image. It was basically the same thing as CUE/BIN, but self-branded by a popular new program, so people made simple programs that could convert one format to the other (because they're basically the same thing, and you could convert from one to the other while still having a 1:1 copy of your original game).

Then Alcohol 120% (a "virtual drive" program you could install on your PC so that ISOs loaded into the program looked and behaved more like physical disks inserted into a physical drive on your PC) invented another new standard called MDS/MDF. It does... you guessed it, the exact same thing as CUE/BIN and CCD/IMG.

Whatever program you use to create an ISO, it should be able to make a perfect 1:1 copy, with an insignificant detail in what format your program decides to use for the ISO. Emulators like ePSXe hardly bat an eye at the various different formats, because they're all basically the same, so they're all supported in the emulator.

I don't know which ISO ripping programs are currently popular, as the last time I ripped an ISO was back when I was using Windows XP.
 
C

catabarez

Member
Double post but you can dump Game Gear games with the Retrode. The Sega Master System adapter has a spot to solder in a game gear connector.

I also found out how to dump the Sonic Game Gear games from a PC or Gamecube copy of Sonic Adventure DX if anyone is interested.
 
C

Choppasmith

Member
Wowfunhappy said:
In addition to what Khaz and others have said, by downloading ROMS you are supporting shady websites who make money off of other people's work (a majority of users download games they DON'T own, remember).

****

As others have said, the easiest method for legally obtaining roms of early Nintendo games is by ripping Wii VC titles. You can do so with this wonderful program.
Click to expand...

Sorry for quoting the old post, but I saw this program, VC Rom Claim, mentioned in the Wii U Homebrew thread and I had some VC titles, mostly SNES, I'd love to rip and eventually use with my SNES Classic. The only thing is the download is JUST a Python script and I have no idea how to use it. Can anyone help?
 
W

Wowfunhappy

Member
Choppasmith said:
Sorry for quoting the old post, but I saw this program mentioned in the Wii U Homebrew thread and I had some VC titles, mostly SNES, I'd love to rip and eventually use with my SNES Classic. The only thing is the download is JUST a Python script and I have no idea how to use it. Can anyone help?
Click to expand...

Y'know, when I originally posted this program I don't think I'd actually used it myself, or I would have mentioned that it doesn't have a UI. I since have used the program and it does work, but if you're not used to the command line it may seem somewhat inaccessible.

You need to use python to run the script wiimetadata.py. On my Mac, I can just drag the directory into the terminal and run:

Code: 
python wiimetadata.py <path to Wii's NAND dump>

If you're on Windows, you need to install Python.
 
C

catabarez

Member
Choppasmith said:
Sorry for quoting the old post, but I saw this program, VC Rom Claim, mentioned in the Wii U Homebrew thread and I had some VC titles, mostly SNES, I'd love to rip and eventually use with my SNES Classic. The only thing is the download is JUST a Python script and I have no idea how to use it. Can anyone help?
Click to expand...

I was having trouble with this too. I figured it out so I was going to post a detailed guide soon, along with dumping Game Gear games from Sonic Adventure DX.

I also found a way to dump the ROMs from Mega Man Legacy Collection.
 
C

Choppasmith

Member
catabarez said:
I was having trouble with this too. I figured it out so I was going to post a detailed guide soon, along with dumping Game Gear games from Sonic Adventure DX.

I also found a way to dump the ROMs from Mega Man Legacy Collection.
Click to expand...

That'd be great! I'm using Dump Mii NAND to dump my vWii NAND as we speak, I also have Python installed on my PC so hopefully I can figure it out myself. Thanks to both of you.

I thought the games in MMLC were rebuilt and recoded as a part of it's "Criterion Collection" like Archival process and weren't just straight ROMs?
 
C

catabarez

Member
Choppasmith said:
That'd be great! I'm using Dump Mii NAND to dump my vWii NAND as we speak, I also have Python installed on my PC so hopefully I can figure it out myself. Thanks to both of you.

I thought the games in MMLC were rebuilt and recoded as a part of it's "Criterion Collection" like Archival process and weren't just straight ROMs?
Click to expand...

No problem! Most guides out there are pretty vague so I just wanted to make sure the information is out there.

Apparently, the ROMs are still in the data so they can be extracted.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Megaman/comments/6v818t/extracting_roms_from_the_legacy_collection/

I wonder if the same can be done with the Disney Afternoon Collection.
 
C

Choppasmith

Member
Well Python must be different on Windows. I made sure to download 2.7 like the readme for vcromclaim says, I've tried both the IDLE Gui and the Python Command Line. Whenever I try to put "python wiimetadata.py <path to Wii's NAND dump>" or anything similar (quotes, no quotes, full directories, whatever) I just get a Syntax Error.

Since the new Haxchi for the SNES Classic isn't out yet, I'm in no hurry or anything. But I definitely need some pointers.
 
C

catabarez

Member
Choppasmith said:
Well Python must be different on Windows. I made sure to download 2.7 like the readme for vcromclaim says, I've tried both the IDLE Gui and the Python Command Line. Whenever I try to put "python wiimetadata.py <path to Wii's NAND dump>" or anything similar (quotes, no quotes, full directories, whatever) I just get a Syntax Error.

Since the new Haxchi for the SNES Classic isn't out yet, I'm in no hurry or anything. But I definitely need some pointers.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem. I made a .bat file to make it a little easier for the future. I'll be able to give some more detail in a couple of hours.
 
C

catabarez

Member
Okay I can help out now. Have you already extracted the nand so the contents are in a folder now instead of in a .bin file?
 
-shadow-

-shadow-

Member
I've been trying to rip my GameCube collection, but CleanRip has been throwing errors constantly at me around the last ~20% of a bunch of the discs. Guess I can try it with WiiFlow?
 
C

catabarez

Member
-shadow- said:
I've been trying to rip my GameCube collection, but CleanRip has been throwing errors constantly at me around the last ~20% of a bunch of the discs. Guess I can try it with WiiFlow?
Click to expand...

Is it a read or write error? If it's read the discs may be dirty or scratched. If it's a write error try saving to an SD card instead of a hard drive.
 
S

Seik

Banned
Chacranajxy said:
So, how does one go about dumping roms from arcade boards? That's a fuckin' mystery to me.
Click to expand...

I'd be curious to know this as well.

As for the problem with CleanRip up there...is the disc scratched? That would be my main reason, this or a faulty disc drive but hey...if it loads 80% of the disc why stop there.
 
-shadow-

-shadow-

Member
catabarez said:
Is it a read or write error? If it's read the discs may be dirty or scratched. If it's a write error try saving to an SD card instead of a hard drive.
Click to expand...

When writing it just stops reading and shows: "no seek complete", nothing more. But it consistently (Luigi's Mansion and F-Zero GX) does this with a couple of games, and inconstantly (Doshin the Giant) with a couple of others. All discs, except for Mario Party 5, have relative minor scratches that shouldn't cause any reading problems. So I'm really confused.
 
C

catabarez

Member
-shadow- said:
When writing it just stops reading and shows: "no seek complete", nothing more. But it consistently (Luigi's Mansion and F-Zero GX) does this with a couple of games, and inconstantly (Doshin the Giant) with a couple of others. All discs, except for Mario Party 5, have relative minor scratches that shouldn't cause any reading problems. So I'm really confused.
Click to expand...

Are you dumping to a hard drive?
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
This thread is old but I just now ran across it. Thanks for posting so much information! I may attempt this with SNES cartridges one day.
 
-shadow-

-shadow-

Member
Sorry for the dp, but ripping onto the SD card ends up giving me the same result. Trying through Wiiflow gives me an error that there's not enough blocks (?). Guess I'll try USB Loader.

Edit: And USB Loader gives me an error also that there's also not enough space (both SD and HDD should have more than enough regardless of where it's trying to write to). I give up, guess I'm going for the not so legitimate ways on a few of my games.
 
gingerbeardman

gingerbeardman

Member
-shadow- said:
Sorry for the dp, but ripping onto the SD card ends up giving me the same result. Trying through Wiiflow gives me an error that there's not enough blocks (?). Guess I'll try USB Loader.

Edit: And USB Loader gives me an error also that there's also not enough space (both SD and HDD should have more than enough regardless of where it's trying to write to). I give up, guess I'm going for the not so legitimate ways on a few of my games.
Click to expand...
If you're ripping to FAT32 then you'll hit the size limit.
 
-shadow-

-shadow-

Member
The SD is FAT32 and the HDD is NTFS, but the GC game would only be around 1.5GB so that shouldn't be a problem regardless, so I'm really bumped about why Cleanrip does work perfectly fine with some, works with some retries with others and just doesn't want to finish at all with the rest :(
 
P

Peltz

Member
Cheerilee said:
AFAIK, there are a bunch of methods, but they're all basically the same.

CUE/BIN was an old standard that created a large "binary" file, and a tiny "cue sheet" which was basically instructions on what to do with the binary. (IIRC, using this standard to create a 1:1 copy was what defeated early CD copy-protection, which was achieved by varying the amount of empty space between the tracks. If you simply copied the data tracks off the disk and burned those individual tracks to a CD, the CD would fail because the empty space was wrong. You needed a perfect 1:1 copy to get around that clever protection.)

Then a software program called "CloneCD" came up with their own format called CCD/IMG which created a large "image" file, along with a tiny CloneCD-branded file which contained instructions on what to do with the image. It was basically the same thing as CUE/BIN, but self-branded by a popular new program, so people made simple programs that could convert one format to the other (because they're basically the same thing, and you could convert from one to the other while still having a 1:1 copy of your original game).

Then Alcohol 120% (a "virtual drive" program you could install on your PC so that ISOs loaded into the program looked and behaved more like physical disks inserted into a physical drive on your PC) invented another new standard called MDS/MDF. It does... you guessed it, the exact same thing as CUE/BIN and CCD/IMG.

Whatever program you use to create an ISO, it should be able to make a perfect 1:1 copy, with an insignificant detail in what format your program decides to use for the ISO. Emulators like ePSXe hardly bat an eye at the various different formats, because they're all basically the same, so they're all supported in the emulator.

I don't know which ISO ripping programs are currently popular, as the last time I ripped an ISO was back when I was using Windows XP.
Click to expand...

Oh man... This whole post reminds me of 2002. I haven't ripped or burned a game in over a decade now.
 
-shadow-

-shadow-

Member
catabarez said:
Unfortunately I think it's either the drive or the disc then.
Click to expand...

I managed two more games with some serious perseverance, but despite Luigi's Mansion looking pretty good with rather faint scratches, it usually just stops anywhere between the 45% and 99%, so who knows what's up with that one. Mario Party 5 was already questionable when I purchased it, but it was only €1, so can't complain to much about that one. Oh well, can't have it all!
 
C

catabarez

Member
-shadow- said:
I managed two more games with some serious perseverance, but despite Luigi's Mansion looking pretty good with rather faint scratches, it usually just stops anywhere between the 45% and 99%, so who knows what's up with that one. Mario Party 5 was already questionable when I purchased it, but it was only €1, so can't complain to much about that one. Oh well, can't have it all!
Click to expand...

Maybe you can find a place to resurface the discs.
 
C

catabarez

Member
Choppasmith said:
Done. Extracted a bunch of files and folders under nand-extracteda. What now?
Click to expand...

Open a cmd prompt and drag the wiimetadata.py file onto the cmd prompt. That should give you the directory location. Press space and now drag the nand-extracteda folder onto the cmd prompt. Press enter and it should begin extracting the ROMs.
 
C

Choppasmith

Member
catabarez said:
Open a cmd prompt and drag the wiimetadata.py file onto the cmd prompt. That should give you the directory location. Press space and now drag the nand-extracteda folder onto the cmd prompt. Press enter and it should begin extracting the ROMs.
Click to expand...

Oh nice, that did it. I thought I had to use Python's unique command line terminal, but I just opened up Power Shell and it's doing it just fine. Thanks!
 
C

catabarez

Member
Choppasmith said:
Oh nice, that did it. I thought I had to use Python's unique command line terminal, but I just opened up Power Shell and it's doing it just fine. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yup pretty much nothing to it with clear instructions. I recommend creating a .bat file with what was entered into the cmd prompt. That way if you want to do this again in the future you just need to open the bat file.
 
C

Choppasmith

Member
catabarez said:
Yup pretty much nothing to it with clear instructions. I recommend creating a .bat file with what was entered into the cmd prompt. That way if you want to do this again in the future you just need to open the bat file.
Click to expand...

That would be just having what I copied (wiimetadata.py *space* nand folder directory) in a text file saved as a BAT, right?
 
T

twinturbo2

butthurt Heat fan
Since the AtGames Genesis Flashback can be used with an adapter that has an SD card slot, this will be useful to have. Thanks.
 
C

Choppasmith

Member
catabarez said:
That's right.
Click to expand...

Thanks, just one last question. Since I have more games to "rip", I'm going to have clear my vWii's space and download the other titles. When making a dump, it's strictly the flash memory, right? I can't download the games to an SD card and rip them that way?
 
C

catabarez

Member
Choppasmith said:
Thanks, just one last question. Since I have more games to "rip", I'm going to have clear my vWii's space and download the other titles. When making a dump, it's strictly the flash memory, right? I can't download the games to an SD card and rip them that way?
Click to expand...

Not as far as I'm aware. I've been moving the games I already dumped to my SD card.
 
L

L.O.R.D

Member
Thanks for the thread

There is better way to rip DS games if you gave CFW 3DS, from godmode9


DUMPING A GAME CARTRIDGE

Insert the game cartridge you intend to dump into your device
3DS game cartridges will be dumped to an installable .cia format
NDS game cartridges will be dumped to a non-installable .nds format compatible with flashcarts and emulators
Launch GodMode9 by holding (Start) during boot
Navigate to [C:] GAMECART
Follow the steps applicable to your game cartridge:
3DS Game Cartridge: Press (A) on [TitleID].trim.3ds to select it, then select “NCSD image options…”, then select “Build CIA from file”
NDS Game Cartridge: Press (A) on [TitleID].trim.nds to select it, then select “Copy to 0:/gm9/out”



https://3ds.guide/godmode9-usage.html#dumping-a-game-cartridge
 
C

Choppasmith

Member
I wanted to make a quick step by step guide for users like jholmes wanting to rip their VC Collection. I'll eventually make an easy all inclusive zip package when I get some time off from work in a few days but this should get you started, My setup is a Wii U and PC running Windows 10. The process shouldn't be too different on original Wii/other OS. This tutorial will assume you have a Wii/Wii U already hacked to run Wii Homebrew

Getting Started:

What you'll need:

Dump Mii NAND: Download and extract to your SD Card used for Wii Homebrew (The Homebrew Channel will not read high capacity cards) I recommend an 8 GB Card). When properly extracted, it should have the folder structure: SD Card/apps/DmpMiNND/

Python 2.7: Download the installer (x86 for 32 Bit or x86-64 for 64 Bit Windows) run the setup and install.

Show Mii Wads Download and extract to a folder. This is a PC program.

VC Rom Claim Python Script: Click Clone or Download and Download to Zip. Extract to a folder.

Got it? Okay let's get started!

The Process

1. Self Explanatory step: Make sure your Wii/vWii has all the games you want downloaded to SYSTEM memory. This process will not work with VC Downloads stored on an SD Card. If you have a lot of games, you'll have to delete/move your games and repeat this process.

2 Load up The Homebrew Channel with your SD Card and run Dump Mii NAND. It should be an automatic process. This will take a good 30 minutes or so. Just let it run and your system will reboot automatically when finished.

3 Remove the SD Card and load it up on your PC. In addition to the apps folder, you should see two files, nand.bin and keys.bin. Copy these to your PC in an easy to find place (I recommend the vcromclaim folder, but it really doesn't matter) and delete them from your SD Card.

4 Run ShowMiiWads and go Tools > Extract BootMii Dump. Find and select nand.bin (It is IMPORTANT that keys.bin is in the same directory as nand.bin!)

5 The window might hang with a Not Responding message for about a minute. There's NO indication! The program does NOT notify you about completion! At least for me on my PC. Afterward check where you've placed nand.bin and you should see a folder called nand-extracteda.

6 Open a Command Prompt/Power Shell

7 Now go to vcromclaim folder and drag wiimetadata.py to the the Command Prompt/Power Shell window. The full directory should appear at the prompt. In my case it's C:\Users\X\Downloads\vcromclaim-master\wiimetadata.py After this press Space. DON'T HIT ENTER JUST YET!

8 Like Step 7. Click and Drag the nand-extracteda FOLDER into the Command Prompt/Power Shell window.

9 The prompt should now have the line something like this
Code: 
C:\Users\X\Downloads\vcromclaim-master\wiimetadata.py C:\Users\X\Downloads\vcromclaim-master\nand-extracteda

10 With a space between the two directories. NOW press Enter and it should bring up another window detailing the extracting process. Shouldn't take much longer than a few minutes. Check your nand.bin directory and you should see your ROMs and any save files that might have been present.

11 As said above, if you have MORE games, delete the bin files, and the nand-extracteda folder, move or delete the current VC games on your Wii/vWii's system memory, download your other games from the Wii Shop Channel and just repeat the process.
 
J

jholmes

Member
Thanks for this! I do really appreciate it and I'm sure others will use this post in the near and distant future. Is there anywhere in the thread that explains about VC games on the Wii U side? Not looking to make another project for you, just a simple question!
 
J

jimjonjimmy

Member
So I just got Homebrew on my Gamecube so I can use the app Gameboy interface. This is great and all but I was wondering if there was a way to rip GB and GBC games using this? I found a way to rip Save files from GBA games using the GBA Link Cable. But nothing about ripping the games themselves. This would be pretty handy for me since using a flash cart and a DS its possible to rip GBA games but I have no way to rip GB and GBC games.
 
C

catabarez

Member
jimjonjimmy said:
So I just got Homebrew on my Gamecube so I can use the app Gameboy interface. This is great and all but I was wondering if there was a way to rip GB and GBC games using this? I found a way to rip Save files from GBA games using the GBA Link Cable. But nothing about ripping the games themselves. This would be pretty handy for me since using a flash cart and a DS its possible to rip GBA games but I have no way to rip GB and GBC games.
Click to expand...

I couldn't find any way to dump GB games using the link cable, just GBA.
 
J

jimjonjimmy

Member
catabarez said:
There are several GB dumpers out there if you don't mind searching a little.
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw the ones mentioned here and have looked up others as well. This was just something I already had at the moment and was just kinda hoping I could rip them this way. Thanks anyway though. I may get something down the line though. Considering getting an N64 Everdrive to rip GB and GBC games with the added benifit of having all my N4 games in one place as well.
 
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