Making backups of PC-Engine/TG-16 CD's

[Graham Mitchell]

Lately I've been investing a lot of cash into a pretty decent Turbo CD and PC-Engine CD collection. Given the amount of money I've plunked into this stuff, I'd like to make backups of my discs and just play the burned copies.

I thought this would be a fairly easy task given the modern marvel of a computer I now own (an imac). Turns out, what I thought would work doesn't work.

I tried using the standard Mac disk utility to make an image of several game discs, but the operation failed every time, citing an "input/output error". Clearly I'm not as clever as I thought I was.

Can anybody provide some assistance on this matter? Googling the topic just leaves me more confused, especially since most of the guides on the 'net are regarding emulation or downloading .iso's from the internet. I just want to make my own that'll run on real hardware.

Thanks in advance, guys!

Graham

[Arkhan]

You could always do direct copies of the discs using Diamond Silverback or Teiyo CD-Rs.

Anything else isn't good enough.

I don't know much about doing this stuff on a mac because I rip discs with an old 1x CDR drive and Win95 (CDRWIN). It rips discs the best. I suggest you find a way to access that :)

It sounds like the problem is that OSX's default utility sucks (imo), and doesn't understand the old, strange layout of a PCE CD disc.

Try CDRTools, or Toast

[Graham Mitchell]

You could always do direct copies of the discs using Diamond Silverback or Teiyo CD-Rs.

Anything else isn't good enough.

I don't know much about doing this stuff on a mac because I rip discs with an old 1x CDR drive and Win95 (CDRWIN). It rips discs the best. I suggest you find a way to access that :)

It sounds like the problem is that OSX's default utility sucks (imo), and doesn't understand the old, strange layout of a PCE CD disc.

Try CDRTools, or Toast

Yeah, I think the osx utility is kinda shitty. Given that people often laud osx for being "intuitive", its pretty amazing how esoteric some of their utilities are, the disk utility included.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. Ill look into some of these options!

[Breetai]

A note of caution: the Turbo/PCE CD-ROMs do not apparently handle copied CD-Rs well over time. I have heard that they burn out the drive a lot more quickly than original CDs will.

As for burning games, I was able to do it successfully on my PCE Duo when I first got one and wanted to try out Dracula X before I got a real copy. :P I was using Windows XP and probably a version of Alcohol 110% or whatever, but I can't remember the details to be honest. I do remember making quite a few coasters before it worked. I ended up having to follow a tutorial I found on the net.

[Arkhan]

If you are on windows, its as simple as using Alcohol, Nero, or CloneCD and doing a disc-copy.



The silverback CD's are about as reflective and good as a real CD and won't put alot of strain on the gimpy ass laser/motor/gears in the PCE/TG CDs.

You have to get these

http://www.mediasupply.com/taiyo-yuden-silver-lacquer.html

or

http://www.gotmedia.com/prodisc-cdr-shiny-silver-diamond.html

or

http://www.mediasupply.com/mam43202-10.html

Anything else is crapass nonsense basically.

Even if the package says "HIGH QUALITY" or "HIGH DEFINITION GOLD DISC"

Junk. Don't buy it.


I burned the entire PC-FX library to the prodisc ones, and did extensive testing for Insanity w/ them also. They load up good, and after extended play/loading, didn't do anything a real cd wouldnt.

[Graham Mitchell]

If you are on windows, its as simple as using Alcohol, Nero, or CloneCD and doing a disc-copy.



The silverback CD's are about as reflective and good as a real CD and won't put alot of strain on the gimpy ass laser/motor/gears in the PCE/TG CDs.

You have to get these

http://www.mediasupply.com/taiyo-yuden-silver-lacquer.html

or

http://www.gotmedia.com/prodisc-cdr-shiny-silver-diamond.html

or

http://www.mediasupply.com/mam43202-10.html

Anything else is crapass nonsense basically.

Even if the package says "HIGH QUALITY" or "HIGH DEFINITION GOLD DISC"

Junk. Don't buy it.


I burned the entire PC-FX library to the prodisc ones, and did extensive testing for Insanity w/ them also. They load up good, and after extended play/loading, didn't do anything a real cd wouldnt.

Awesome, thanks! I was searching for the diamond silverback discs on the net and couldn't find anything, so thanks for the links. I'll let you know how this project turns out!

[Arkhan]

Good luck!

as a general rule of thumb too, if you load the game up and the audio tracks are skipping/popping/goony, take the disc out. It didn't burn right.


1x is the ideal speed for PCE CD burning.

[Graham Mitchell]

Success!

I used my girlfriend's Windows laptop and downloaded Alcohol 120% and it worked like a charm! I've also ordered some silver laquer discs so I don't burn out my drive.

Thanks for all your help, guys!

[Arkhan]

success!

[rbudrick]

TG discs must be burnt with the TOC (table of contents) in mind. The TOC tells your burning program exactly what byte address on the disc to start and end each file. I think I used either CDRWin or CloneCD or a combo of them to get perfect copies... can't remember.

-Rob

[PreZZ]

after sleeping for 20 years in its box, i finally got my us duo fixed and rgb modded! looks pretty darn good on my pvm! Ive been burning a couple of my final stack of hp lightscribe cds (they are hard to find and sell for 500$ for a stack of 100!) and made some pretty nice custom labels for my backups. Ive seen previous posts about using taiyo yuden cds but they discontinued cd production 2 years ago... so my question is are those cmc pro ''powered by TY'' as good as genuine taiyo? here is what ive read about them:

Since the development of recordable CD technology, professionals have chosen Taiyo Yuden/JVC blank CD-Rs. They were made in Japan using the highest quality recording dye, premium materials, and Taiyo Yuden implmented strict specifications and quality control standards. The resulting blank CDs were generally recognized as the best that money could buy, making them the preferred choice of large duplication houses and discerning home users.

With Taiyo Yuden's decision to stop production of optical media at the end of 2015, CMC stepped up to the plate, acquiring Taiyo Yuden's exclusive technology to develop its CMC Pro - Powered by TY Technology line of premium blank media. All CMC Pro blank discs, like this silver lacquer CD-R, are manufactured to Taiyo Yuden's specifications, using the exact same processes, raw materials, and strict quality control measures, ensuring that these discs match the quality and performance of Taiyo Yuden's original CD-Rs.

These blank CDs have a silver lacquer top surface and Taiyo’s own Cyanine (green/blue) dye recording surface. They have a maximum recording speed of 48x and come packaged in 100 disc cake box/spindle packs. Developed to be silk screened or printed with a thermal printer, these CMC Pro blank CDs are compatible with the Rimage Prism and similar thermal disc printers. This Taiyo Yuden CD-R was NOT designed for thermal retransfer printing like that of the Rimage Everest or TEAC P-55.

If you're tired of buying cheap discs and making bad copies and coasters, this is the disc for you!

[Graham Mitchell]

Good to know! I'm using the same stack I bought after starting this thread! Lol

[Steve W]

I always had a difficult time burning CD-Rs with a Mac because all of the help and info online is for Windows. I gave up a long time ago and now I just use emulation. OpenEmu on the Macintosh and a USB PS3 controller is all I need nowadays. Although finding decent ROMs of CD-based games is always challenging.

[PreZZ]

I can confirm that burning at 1x instead of default 8x or 16x has helped a lot in rondo of blood. I got one i burned at 8x and played stage 6 and it would stutter between bosses, burnt the same game at 1x and it is much smoother, same cd brand . Also got 2 burners and one of them my duo struggles reading them.

[Graham Mitchell]

The tough thing is that most, if not all modern optical drives don't support 1X. Even if you select it in your burning program it will only use the slowest speed it supports. A lot of people keep an old drive around for this purpose.