IBM PC Compatible Moderation Guide

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Revision as of 14:07, 11 September 2023

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 specific editions

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.