Do bad ISOs/BINs/ROMs/whatevers even exist? Can they be compromised?

[Zorlon]

I recommend you do not get OCD over Xbox dumps there are very few verified xbox dumps yet anyway and these are all DVD9 even though some games fit a CD and only 3 or 4 games actually take up the space of the DVD9 disc aka dual layer disc, most games will fit a standard DVD5 disc, there is no advantage to having a full DVD9 image of a game that will fit a CD, xbox games like a few other systems have a lot of junk data that is not game data to fill out a full DVD9 disc so a RAW dump v.s. an iso file made up of all the game data is going to be half the size of a raw dump and not have any data missing from it

It would be better if there was a database of the files that make the games up for xbox rather than a database of raw dumps

xbox dumps are not the only ones like that wii and gamecube can be like that also, just not to the extreme of xbox games, i.e. gamecube games came on 1.4GB discs all dumps are 1.4GB when a raw dump is done due to junk data, Wii games are the same except that they came on standard DVD5 discs and only came on DVD9 discs if the game data used more space than a standard DVD5

for Wii and GC I do recommend raw images though to avoid any chance of bad scrubs ect... this has happened in the past with much better dumps done later on, but this is a learning curve for dumpers always has been hence bad dumps and rips existing on all platforms.

[BLAHblahBLAH123456]

Renascene is pretty much the best source on all things PSP scene and they give accurate information on all dumps, if a game is listed as unverified its unverified, etc. etc.

Gotcha. So there are sites like Renascene for each system, I presume? So a scene site for GBA, GBC, GC, etc? Are you familiar with any of the others? It’d be good to have a catalog of the best sites so I can check out scene dump details.

Still the best way and is no way as old as the dumps done
Though that exe to change the wav to bin may detect as a virus as it is a simple convert from a batch file that just changes the file extension from wav to bin just create the bat file or just change the settings in Monkeyt audio to output in raw bin format

So Monkey Audio now has the option to output to bin directly? That’s pretty neat. I haven’t had the time to get to the decompression yet, mostly because the game plays just fine without having done so, but I will probably go with Monkey Audio.

Absolutely correct.

Thank God. I was worried I had done all that reading umsonst.


May I ask how you guys all came to understand these things so intimately?

Well not necessarily verified by a second group. Simply not discredited by a second group is enough.

So the Redump policy of needing a REdump/second dump doesn’t really apply anywhere else? Too bad. I rather thought it was a good system. But I suppose additional groups will eventually dump the new games and, upon finding a different checksum, wouldn’t hesitate to speak up to get their name on the dump.

There's no real benefit. You can go for better if you want, it comes down to how OCD you want to get on everything.

Hm. Well, as I started this thread to voice a concern that many people find groundless… I would say I’m pretty OCD. As it turns out, anyway. But I don’t see any inherent risks with the scene isos.

This is a game that needs fixing. The fix packs it mentions are uploaded on the forums here.
http://renascene.com/info/umd/2839

There are a lot of underdumps like this. Just dumped with old software AFAIK, and the missing 2kb are usually just 0's that don't do anything.
http://renascene.com/info/umd/91

So how does one apply a fix pack to an iso like this? Does it involve special software, or is it rather intuitive?

I recommend you do not get OCD over Xbox dumps there are very few verified xbox dumps yet anyway and these are all DVD9 even though some games fit a CD and only 3 or 4 games actually take up the space of the DVD9 disc aka dual layer disc, most games will fit a standard DVD5 disc, there is no advantage to having a full DVD9 image of a game that will fit a CD, xbox games like a few other systems have a lot of junk data that is not game data to fill out a full DVD9 disc so a RAW dump v.s. an iso file made up of all the game data is going to be half the size of a raw dump and not have any data missing from it

Well, that’s certainly not something I would have expected. I don’t emulate Xbox at the moment, but I’ll remember this when I get to it. Same goes for GC and Wii. I’m guessing Sony never did this with its disks.

My original concern has been pretty well addressed, so I won’t mind if asked to end the thread. Of course, I have plenty more questions, but I appreciate the need for the forums to be moderated. Thank you all very much for all the helpful answers.

Cheers,
BLAH

[Zorlon]

[QUOTE=BLAHblahBLAH123456;1794377]Gotcha. So there are sites like Renascene for each system, I presume? So a scene site for GBA, GBC, GC, etc? Are you familiar with any of the others? It’d be good to have a catalog of the best sites so I can check out scene dump details. [Quote]

Roms aka NDS and under you really want to look at no-intro

Renascene is a scene dumps site but there dumps recorded are raw dumps i.e. none of this silly trainers adds or scene group logo inserts

GC you have a few options, redump is one of them, as for the best ones to use I'm not sure

No not all systems have dedicated dump verify sites though, actually very few have now, there used to e for GBA and NDS and other sites for PSP but mostly taken over

PSP did not originate from Renascene there has been (might still be up actually) a site I used for a very long time that recorded GBA at first but moved to PSP and NDS also had fix patches for GBA if I remember, not so much for bad dumps but more for emulator fixes and flash kit fixes some just to allow game x to work without needing the extra hardware that was part of the cart like a tilt censor or a light censor and make those functions with key combo's instead

So Monkey Audio now has the option to output to bin directly? That’s pretty neat. I haven’t had the time to get to the decompression yet, mostly because the game plays just fine without having done so, but I will probably go with Monkey Audio.

Not looked at it for a while myself so don't remember off the top of my head, might get back to you on that

So the Redump policy of needing a REdump/second dump doesn’t really apply anywhere else? Too bad. I rather thought it was a good system. But I suppose additional groups will eventually dump the new games and, upon finding a different checksum, wouldn’t hesitate to speak up to get their name on the dump.

No they all do this a second or more check, not many actually report on exactly how many dumps have been done but all the groups do use a verification dump so at least two dumps

Hm. Well, as I started this thread to voice a concern that many people find groundless… I would say I’m pretty OCD. As it turns out, anyway. But I don’t see any inherent risks with the scene isos.

redump ect are scenes only older scenes would have trainers ect but now most of the scene dumps are raw dumps, i.e. nothing added or removed as that is what people want now, but back in the day most the scene groups had been hackers and programmers and cracked a lot of software on Amiga and PC that had copy protection of some sort and progressed into consoles keeping there style of scene group intro's and trainers, but over the last few years this has dwindled in favor of pure raw dumps lots still done y the same old scene groups but in a raw form with patches released separate that bypassed protection or other issues like dump fixes

So how does one apply a fix pack to an iso like this? Does it involve special software, or is it rather intuitive?

Not something I remember off the top of my head, but I was sure it came with it's own patching software all you needed to do was rename the iso to what the patcher looked for, the txt file that came with the patch would tell you want to name the file to and how to run the patch

I don’t emulate Xbox at the moment, but I’ll remember this when I get to it.

This will not happen any time soon there are only 2 xbox emulators/converter one can just about boot up Halo the other can't run anything yet but has WIP progress unreleased though can play a bit more than the other emulator it still has major issues and has never had sound

Same goes for GC and Wii.

at least those are emulated, but yeah they have dummy data and can't be read by a PC by normal CD/DVD reading methods, the data is not seen y a PC if you simply insert the disc in a PC drive

I’m guessing Sony never did this with its disks.

I don't know about PS3 or PS4 but unlike PS2 and PSX discs PS3/4 can't be read in a standard PC drive