Sega Dreamcast: Ball Breakers v0.800 GD-R Beta [Bananabreak] kvcd *updated*

Ola chaps

Firstly sorry for the delay between releases. I've had some stuff to post but problems in between. Firstly, the keyboard in my laptop went, it was replaced, then my HDD went, it was replaced, then the tools didn't work on Windows Vista x32 anymore as they had been updated and broke some features, then my PSU died and it was replaced, then I put Windows 7 x64 bit on it and the tools once again didn't work, then I built a new PC and spent a large chunk of time gaming, sorry!

Anyhow I present you with another Bananabreak release for the Sega Dreamcast: Ball Breakers v0.800 U GD-R Beta



This game may be more familiar to you as MoHo from the European PAL territories. Maybe there were licensing issues when moving the title over to the states, hence it was renamed, but ultimately this version of the game went unreleased.

I personally dumped this release myself using: Dreamcast (duh), BBA, SYSTEM-DISC 2 (before I sold them!), httpd-ack, -=FamilyGuy=-'s selfboot pack, -=FamilyGuy=-'s experimental batch SFD pack (man I love giving that guy extra work haha!), IsoBuster, HxD, Daemon Tools and last but not least the infamous Padus DiscJuggler.

As for differences, you'll have to spot them sorry.

Updated with kvcd video downsampling & the original audio. It is a very tight fit but I have been playing it whilst uploading and all seems fine.

http://www.multiupload.co.uk/80OXELOSWY
http://depositfiles.com/files/1ks6qn9ah
http://www.putlocker.com/file/8E468475E98C3340
http://turbobit.net/foo6p8lyiu26.html
http://bayfiles.com/file/llq3/HNuY94/Ball_Breakers_v0.800_GD-R_Beta_[Bananabreak]_kvcd.zip
http://BillionUploads.com/itaivyy5sela

Enjoy!

 

thank you very much

 

Top Banana!

Great upload Legit - Looking forward to messing around with this

 

So, is this the downsampled .cdi or the original dump source?

 

Downsampled .cdi otherwise there would have been no need to mention downsampling If you want the original dump source you'd have to buy the GD-R , but a) as the current owner is anonymous and b) the GD-R is not for sale it will be a long, long wait before it becomes available. I will however not be against repacking this game for the audiophiles as and when different lossless methods come to light.

I do try to avoid downsampling wherever possible, but for this particular game it was unavoidable. The videos lost 200mb simply by repacking them with the same bitrate but a different codec. Downsampling the audio to 22khz (lets not forget I kept it stereo!) meant it could just about squeeze onto a 700mb CD-R without having to ruin the video any more than it has been already. Even the unmolested 320x192 video stretched to 640x480 was never going to be pretty, there is no need to make it worse, not even for better sound!

 

You could still do 99min releases, or release the cdi along with the gdi... As long as the provider agrees.

 

thanks for the release, wish we had better file dump options

 

Given that the future is very likely to allow for a full GDI to be played with non-CD-R means I would think this would be a good idea. Especially if preservation is a goal.

 

99 min CD-R has something like 445500 extents unless my math is off and I'd need to leave space for the .cdi info too which leaves around 440000 extents of useable space. With no downsampling whatsoever, the game writes 483681 extents (944Mb), so it wouldn't even go on a 99 min CD-R without some form of downsampling anyway. If you want to keep 44Khz stereo audio then you're left with editing the video or textures. As you see textures all the time you dont want them to be hideuos, but videos is an occasional thing with a huge file so forgiveable to play with them.

If I leave the video at their original bit/frame rates (which is awkward as different video files have different bit/frame rates so time consuming), and the audio at 44Khz Stereo after using the SFD tools it repacks to a total of 357888 extents (699Mb) though bear in mind the video will have been compressed via a different method and space will need to be left over for the discjuggler .cdi information.

It is a tight squeeze, perhaps too tight, but I repacked it with 44Khz stereo audio regardless. The videos actually sound a little worse for it though (odd).

I'll EDIT my post with the link when it has finished uploading.

The game is more likely to be preserved if more people download and burn it ie the common 80 min. By the time you make any form of sensible alteration to the files the difference for 99min CD-R isn't worth it as you will have a lot of wasted space.

I'd also think considering the owner spent a small fortune to obtain it, any form of release, without reward, downsampled or not, cannot be considered a bad thing

 

*sigh* blazing 50k/s download froze 400megs in, yay

 

I think the point is - it wont need to fit on a CDR soon. Playing from SD/CF card is on its way. Size of dump will not matter.

 

Any chance of using something other then multiupload since user in the states can't use it as it is blocked here in the states. Also the kvcd codec works great to save space and retain alot of quality. I just selfbooted Spiderman with was 780mb after recoding to the same bitrate in KVCD it went to under 400mb and I can't tell the difference between my retail disc and the game i just made for my daughter.

 

How ironic that it was developed by a company called "Lost Toys"
I don't know if it came before the DC version or around the same time, but the US psx version of the game also had the name Ball Breakers, also the name Moho is somewhat reminiscent of "mofo" which is probably a name you don't want your product to be associated with.

Since this is a psx port, it's curious that the original disc contents would be so huge (this could explain the low res movie). I wonder if it has many extras over the psx version, or maybe just upgraded textures and/or higher polygon models take up the extra space?

Any kind of unreleased DC game is very welcome in my book! Thanks Bananabreak!

 

Bingo.

And yes any release is a good thing. Always has been, always will be.

 

I gathered the GD emulation project is moving along but only the hardcore fan / nutjob will go that route. Also there is the fact that the GD emulation project isn't here yet.

Many casual, busy, skint or even lazy players would rather just burn off a CD-R available from their local store and as such the size of dump will always matter. The GD-R owner themselves is one of such people, they're just happy to share the selfboot for others to use too. I guess we will cross that bridge regarding the .GDI as and when, but I think people asking for it will only put them off releasing it.

Anyhow, as you're stuck with CD-R for the time being, the 44KHz Stereo repack will have to do.

Most of the video files are 29.97 FPS / 5000k bitrate. I think one is 25 FPS / 5000k bitrate and a couple are at 3600k bitrate at various FPS - Lost Toys settings, not mine. I just kept the rates the same when repacking them. I suspect on my first pack I just did the entire batch at one rate / FPS hence the need for 22KHz audio as a couple of files probably ended up slightly larger than they could/should have been.

I'm having a small problem reuploading it though. I spent 30 mins uploading it, it failed at 99% with 0.05Mb to go. I just spent ANOTHER 30 mins uploading it, same again.

Can anyone reccomend a few other free hosts with no sign up/registration? FYI the 44KHz .zip is 565Mb. Most providers I'm finding have 2-300Mb limit.

 

I have a kvcd template just for DC encoding if you want to try it. Just drop it into Tmepg and it will do the rest, max bitrate is 2,500 minimum is 0 for blanks screens and averages around 1,750 VBR. I honestly even using my upscaler can't tell the difference most of the time when downsampling SFD files. I also have a nice autoIT script to use for de/re-muxing using the official tools from the Dreamcast SDK. And a nice batch file for encoding to 32k stereo using sox to save space and make it near impossible to tell the difference in sound quality. If interested just drop me a PM but either way thanks for this I can't wait to try it out once it is outside of multiupload as even my VPN will not allow me to download this. Anyone else in the US grab this yet? If so mind sharing how so I can play this today? Would be a nice Labor day game to play.


EDIT

BTW billionuploads.com is where we host our Dreamcast files without a file size limit and will work for anyone in any country.

 

I made him a sfdpack to downsample audio and/or video of sfds. Though it uses mpeg1video VBR 2 pass encoding instead of KVCD, I'll look into that! As far as I can tell, it can reduce about half the size of sfds (test are with sonic adventure 2 sfds) without noticeable quality loss using 2Pass VBR 1500kbps 24fps with same resolution.

 

Yup it sure can and best of all it is 2 pass as well as retaining progressive scan. Would you like my custom template? If so drop me a PM and I will happily send it to you as with any of my tools as yours have been useful to me over the years as well.

 

I found out I just have to add t "-K kvcd"' switch to ffmpeg to use the kvcd quantization matrix! I'll try that to see if it's really better!

I personally don't use gui programs to encode video, my geeky/lazy side I guess, as I script it instead. Yet we can share tools for sure!

[EDIT] This was an unintentional lie, the command to add is:

 

More then happy to toss any idea's your way man!! Thanks for the repack!!