IBM PC Compatible Moderation Guide

From Redump Wiki

Revision as of 20:21, 25 September 2024

General Notes

• Most of the IBM PC Legacy Guide still applies.
• When a DVD-ROM version of a multi CD-ROM game is added, add "DVD-ROM" to both edition and datname. Example
• If two titles from different developers share the same name, add the developer name to the less common title's datname. Example

Notes on error count

It has been agreed by staff that the "error count" field on redump should follow the output of redumper/edccchk. When adding verifications, this may result in discrepancies with historic information prior to this change - if in doubt, the error count should be set according to the redumper/edccchk output

Technical notes

There are various types of error that may occur / be detected when dumping a disc:

1. ECC error: ECC recovery information doesn't match the data ECC apply on
2. EDC error: CRC error that says that sector is damaged
3. CDXA subheader mismatch, this affects only mode 2 sectors, basically each sector from mode 2 contains a copy of subheader information, this is an error when copy doesn't match original
4. Data sector has invalid sync header
5. Sector has invalid mode (according to specs it can be 0, 1 or 2, nothing else)

For the purposes of redump, error count focuses on the first three entries - ECC/EDC errors and CDXA subheader mismatch - and these are what is output by redumper/edccchk. The remaining two may be useful indicators of mastering issues and, in some cases, it may be helpful to add notes to the comments of the entry regarding these, but they should not be included in the "error count" field.

Notes on specific editions

OEM Bundle

When a disc was bundled with a computer at retail, it gets labeled as the edition "Bundle Version OEM"
If the distributor is known, add their name to the edition: e.g. "Bundle Version Gateway OEM"
Add (OEM) to the datfile name of the disc, if there is more than one OEM for that disc, you may add the distributor too (e.g. Gateway OEM). If distributor is not known, (OEM) (Alt) or (OEM) (PVD Date) can be used instead.

Sold Out Software

Dumpers will occasionally mistakenly add e.g. "SOV. 2.5.4" to either the serial or version fields. This should be removed, as this is an internal publisher reference and is not a serial nor does it relate to the true version number of the software.

Notes on specific copy protections

As a general guideline, for multi disc releases please add the protection only to the disc that actually contains the protected executable file, usually it's just the first or the last disc. For example, on a 3 disc release, if the main executable is on the first disc, only the first disc should have the protection field filled.

CodeLock / CodeLok / CopyLok

Due to a known bug in the Plextor firmware, any dump of these discs made using a Plextor and any tool is likely to be bad. It incorrectly reports the total number of errors, usually multiplying this by 2 or 3 times.

For example, when dumping http://redump.org/disc/53929/ with either DIC or redumper and a Plextor drive, the error count is incorrectly reported as 1516, exactly double the correct 758 errors

An incorrect _c2Error log looks as follows:
LBA[002312, 0x00908] Detected C2 error 380 bit
LBA[002313, 0x00909] Detected C2 error 20 bit

A correct _c2Error log looks as follows:
LBA[002312, 0x00908] Detected C2 error 300 bit
LBA[002322, 0x00912] Detected C2 error 300 bit

These discs can be correctly dumped using a non-Plextor drive and any of the following tools:

• DIC (using an ASUS or compatible firmware drive)
• redumper
• CloneCD (note: may require fixing with CDMage and manual replacement of error sectors with 0x55)

SafeDisc

SafeDisc discs with active protection always have some errors in the first 10000 sectors. The number can be really small (under 100 errors, SafeDisc Lite) or up to 800+ errors, in some cases. If you see 0 errors in the data track, the protection is not active, and it doesn't need to be added to the protection field.

SecuROM

SecuROM discs with active protection always have one single error in the data track, always in the third from the last sector.

However, this does not meet the official redump definition of an error (following the redumper / edccchk error count), and SecuROM discs should have a 0 error count (unless any other, non-SecuROM error sectors are also present).

Discs with 99 SecuROM sectors dumped by DIC may have an erroneous offset of -59 reported initially in _disc.txt, followed by the correct offset of -647. Any PC disc with reported offset -59 should be carefully checked as a result.

Mastering Characteristics

CD-ROMs can have weird mastering quirks which present themselves in the listed pregap for Track 2 in the cuesheet.

• 01:73 pregap with 2 audio silence sectors at the end of Track 1 = "Last 2 sectors of Track 1 contain audio silence."
  
• 01:74 pregap with 1 audio silence sector at the end of Track 1 = "Last sector of Track 1 contains audio silence."
  
• 02:01 pregap with 1 scrambled data sector = "Track 2 pregap contains 1 scrambled data sector."
  
• 03:00 pregap with 75 scramble data sectors = "First 75 sectors of Track 2 contain scrambled data."
  
• 04:00 pregap with 150 scramble data sectors = "First 150 sectors of Track 2 contain scrambled data."
  

Periodic Checks

Link to plaintext list of discs in database (minus discs you have marked as "have"): http://redump.org/list/miss/yourusername/
Check for:

• Double spaces
  
• "! -"
  
• "? -"
  
• Articles at the start of a title instead of end.
  • English: A, An, The
  • French: Le, La, L', Les, Un, Une, Des
  • German: Der, Die, Das, Des, Dem, Den (Ein/Eine/Ein* ?)
  • Italian: Il, I, Lo, La, L’, Gli, Le, Un, Uno, Una, Un'
  • Spanish: El, La, Lo, Los, Las, Un, Una, Unos, Unas
  • Dutch: De, Het, Een
  • Afrikaans: Die, 'N
  • Albanian: I, Të, Një
  • Arabic: Al
  • Catalan: El, En, Els, Un, Una, Uns, Unes, La, Les, Na, L’
  • Danish: En, Et, Den, Det, De
  • Irish/Gaelic: An, Na
  • Greek: O, I, To, Ton, Ta, Tin, Tis, Tou, Oi, Tous, Enas, Ena, Enos, Mia, Mias, Mian
  • Hebrew: Ha
  • Hungarian: A, Az, Egy
  • Norwegian: En, Ei, Et, Den, Det, De
  • Portuguese: O, A, Os, As, Um, Uma, Uns, Umas
  • Swedish: En, Ett, Den, Det, De
  • Turkish: Bir

Invalid barcodes

Download the datfile: http://redump.org/barcodes
Use the text import wizard in Excel, Delimited with Semicolon. The first column are the disc id's, e.g. 51805 = http://redump.org/disc/51805/. Use text to columns, delimited with a comma, to split all the barcodes for each row into different columns. Move all the barcodes in the different columns to a single row (this takes some excel handiness). Remove any T's, spaces and special characters. UPC's should have 11 digits and EAN 12. If a number in the excel sheet has 10 digits or less, then you probably have to add leading zeroes. Format the cells as custom with 00000000000. Use a website like www.eancheck.com to enter all the barcodes. if you find erroneous ones, look up the corresponding disc id in the excel sheet or .dat and determine the correct one. In some cases, EAN numbers have extra numbers behind them. This is correct for magazine titles. These numbers should be omitted from the check. If you find an erroneous barcode, but the barcode field is locked, then ask the admins to fix it. It should be possible to make this check scripted/automated, or to build a validation check into the forms.

Wrong errors count

CDs with functional SecuROM protection should have 1 error, not 0. Use keyword filters to search for these discs: http://redump.org/discs/quicksearch/securom/protection/only/media/cd/errors/0/ http://redump.org/discs/quicksearch/securom/protection/only/media/cd/errors/null/