Diablo PS1 debug disc: everything seems OK but it really isn't

[LuxKiller65]

Yo!

I don't want to screw up the debug disc or the console, or both, so I thought I'd ask here. Do you people know what I could use to read PS1 debug discs? They could work on standard PS1 consoles but the ex-owner assured me they don't, and that he had to test them on a PS2 test console.

Should they not work on standard consoles, will I screw up something by trying to do so? If I can't read them anywhere, is it safe to put them in a DVD burner and dump the ISO with Nero (6.6) on my hard drive?

If anyone has a link or more info on how I could do this safely, it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[ProgrammingAce]

Pop them in a PC and dump them as an iso.

[PapaStu]

Its pretty much impossible that any of the protos/betas/previews/finals that are out there will play on a regular system without modifications to the disc image. They need to run on a debugger (PS Debugger is fine, I bet the seller just didn't have a PS Debugger around and used his TEST PS2) or modded system to work.

Nothing will be screwed up, the game just won't boot. It'll either never leave the PS startup screen or kick back to the no disc in tray menu.

Doing any dumping/burning, remember the slower the better.

[LuxKiller65]

Thanks for the replies.

How comes they won't play on regular systems? And what's the main difference between regular systems and test units (I guess the answer lies here)?

Is there a way to dump, let's say, both the debug ISO and the commercial ISO and then compare them without playing through? Is the size of both ISOs a safe way to determine something is different, or will they be different anyway since they don't share the same format?

[LuxKiller65]

That's unfair, I keep on getting an error but the disc looks good and only has minor surface scratches. Is there something I can do? Here's the Alcohol 52% error log:

Dumping/Recording Progress Log

Time stamp of this log file: 25/05/2009 17:18:22

17:18:22 Processor info: AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3400+ (1989MHz)
17:18:22 Disc dumping: ( G: ) TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203P(1:0)
17:18:23 Reading Mode: RAW + SUB-96
Selected reading speed: Maximum
17:18:23 Source Info: Session: 1, Track: 1, Length: 650.8 MB / 74:03:00
17:18:23 Writing image file: E:\Alcohol ISO\Diablo Debug\Diablo.img
17:21:04 Disc read error at: 281906
17:21:04 Disc dumping failed!
17:21:04 Error message: [04/3E/02] - Timeout On Logical Unit
17:21:04 E:\Alcohol ISO\Diablo Debug\Diablo.ccd: Image file writing aborted!

[ProgrammingAce]

You can play with some options like automatic error skipping and the like, but the disc is probably toast. Doesn't take much to ruin a CD-R.

Your best bet is software called isobuster, it can sometimes restore a damaged disc using the discs own error protection.

As for the difference between debug PS1 and retail, retail discs won't play burned games. The debugs will.

Once you have the image dumped from the retail and the debug discs, normally you can use something called an MD5 sum to see if they're the same. If the files have the same sum, then the discs are identical. In this case however, since the CD-R appears to be damaged, they may not be reliable.

If you pop the disc in your PC, can you see any files on it?

[LuxKiller65]

Thanks for the reply.

Actually, before reading your message I installed both IsoBuster and CDCheck.

IsoBuster finds no physical errors but cannot successfully write an ISO out of the disc. CDCheck finds no errors either but gets me a note with code 54:

"For at least one file only file readability was tested because no valid hash file was found (code: 54)"

I have no idea what it means, and Google didn't really help this time. I can see everything in the CD folders; I tried a copy/paste of the whole CD to my hard drive and everything got properly copied.

I'm not sure the disc is dead (not yet at least). I was able to run an emulator and play the game by using the partial ISO that I created with Alcohol. It's just tremendously sloppy and the sound is all messed up. I believe there is still hope... maybe it's a disc protection thingie or something. Is this related to the hash error?

[ProgrammingAce]

The hash is part of the error correction on the disc. Either it's a bad burn, or the disc is damaged. That part of the disc is unrecoverable, but enough of the data seems to be there that the game may still run. It really depends on how fault tolerant the game is.

[LuxKiller65]

I see. Let me know if there is anything else I can do.

It's a shame because that Diablo debug had some really interesting options and didn't look exactly like the final release.



By the way, this is all I could do with PS-X-Change... it just doesn't go beyond this screen:



And a screen from the emulator:



It's weird no read error gets found; couldn't this really be a protection? There are two weird files named "zzzzzzzz.zzz" and zzzzzzzz.zz2" of 32 and 17MB... dunno.