Getting Started Guide

From Redump Wiki

Latest revision as of 13:28, 11 August 2024

The purpose of this page is to give you a brief overview about the process for contributing to redump and assisting the project!

More details can be found in the various sections of the wiki and on the forum, but the general process for contributing is as follows:

Getting Started

1. Request a redump account on the forum.

First, please read this thread, then make a post on the forum requesting an account. Please provide a brief reason for your request and how you plan on contributing.

(PLEASE NOTE: We are currently experiencing some problems with both Outlook / Hotmail, and also Gmail accounts. We apologize for the inconvenience, but please use another e-mail address to avoid delays and issues setting up your account. Thank you!)

Once your account is approved, you'll be granted access to more sections of the forum, and you can start contributing!

2. Review the wiki and particularly the Dumping Guides which cover a lot and answer most questions about contributions.

If you still have questions, you can reach out on the forum or in the VGPC (Video Game Preservation Collective) Discord.

3. Submit your first disc via a thread on the forum.

New Dumps is for discs where your hashes do not match any single entry in the redump database.

Verifications is for discs where your hashes match an existing entry in the redump database (even if your disc is a new region or variant).

IMPORTANT: Please review this thread for guidance on submissions.

Please allow the mods to review and provide feedback on your first submission, before submitting more.

After your first submissions(s) are accepted, you'll eventually get upgraded to 'Dumper' status.

From this point forward, any "New Dumps" you have (again, where hashes don't match an existing entry) will now go on the New Disc Form. You can access the New Disc Form by going to the main site, hovering over "Discs," and clicking on "New disc."

You will now submit "New Dumps" through this form, as explained in the forum thread under Step 3. Please remember to put a link to your logs in the comments section of the new disc form.

IMPORTANT: Verifications will always go on the forum, via threads in the Verifications section.

As you are getting started, please take your time with your early submissions. Many questions can be answered by reviewing the wiki and the submission guides / threads referenced above. However, if you still need more assistance, please reach out for help either in the General discussion area of the forum, or in the VGPC Discord. There are plenty of people willing to assist you!

Common Questions from New Users

Why hasn't my account been added yet?

Please be patient with us as it may take a bit of time for an admin to approve your account. We recommend you use this time to join the VGPC Discord and/or review the wiki and dumping guides to familiarize yourself with the process of dumping discs and submitting information.

How do I know if my disc is a 'New Dump' or a 'Verification' ?

"New Dumps" or "New Discs" are discs where the hashes (checksums) for the tracks for your disc, do not match a full existing redump entry. You can search any hash / checksum by using the 'Quick search' box in the upper right portion of the redump.org site. Please make sure to check whether or not ALL tracks for a multi-track disc, match the entry.

We strongly recommend using the MPF Frontend for dumping software. If you use the login settings inside MPF, when you dump a disc, it will check the database to see if your disc is new, and potentially fill in information during your dumping process to indicate an entry already exists in redump. However, please always check the resulting hashes for your dump to make sure.

"Verifications" on the other hand, are discs where your hashes (for all tracks) match an existing entry in the redump.org database. Please note: your disc could still be a verification, even if it is from a different region, has a different ringcode, or barcode, etc.

You say to search the 'hash.' Where do I find that?

All track hashes / checksums should be stored in the .dat file created by your dumping software. Look for "crc," "md5," or "sha1." Pick one of these, preferably MD5 or SHA1, and copy and paste the value inside the quotations, into the redump Quick search box.

If you are using the MPF Software, when your dump is complete it will generate a set of logs in the same folder. One of them is called "!submissionInfo.txt." You can find the hashes in this submission file as well.