Unofficial Deunan's GDEMU Thread

The 99min aren't really downsampled. Only cd2 and a few minigames are, and very barely really, you shouldn't hear a difference. Trust me, I did those discs .

Now I'm all for people having the choice, and a lot of people seem to want undub. I'm sure toxic9's version is perfect for them then. The Full99 version is no use on gdemu anyways because there's no advantage over the normal gdi.

 

Nothing is downsampled here. That's the main purpose I decided to convert the game into GDI format. It's working great. It was tested on GDemu.

When you find where my image is different from yours, let me know! I'm also curious!

My dump is 1:1 from the original disc. No patches, no mods... nothing.
The image was created with CloneCD.
As long as I remember I just used a custom firmware on my Liteon drive to read as slow as possible, and what took much time was to find the better settings on CloneCD's incredible feature: jump bad sectors... (default is 100 sectors). If you jump too many sectors at once, you take the risk to jump over necessary data.
On the other hand, if you try to read one by one, it took forever to clone the disc! So I just took some time to get the magic number! And voilá!
After lots of failed burns, I had success! And I keep that proof of success over time on an 8cm miniCD! The one I recorded on the video.

 

I have noticed the file dates/times change occasionally. Does this mean you silently update GDMENU?

Ted.

 

Nope. You will see a post and probably a higher version

 

I managed a simple way with a batch script to replace manually the LIST.INI file within GDmenu, without having to use the SD card application. It's useful when you have your card created and only want to add, remove, or replace some games. If anyone wants to try it, be my guest! Just ask.
I created this method myself because Madsheep's application is designed to copy from HDD to SD and I found some issues when we have our games already on the SD card. It tells you the card is full! And also you need to rename all your games to default: "disc.cdi" or "disc.gdi" for the games to be recognized in 1st place. I also created a batch to rename all your games to default, in case we need to use Madsheep's program. Maybe Madsheep could be interested in fix this issues on a next release!

 

the disc.gdi is used because > https://gdemu.wordpress.com/details/gdemu-details/

can you explain to me the "card is full" problem?

 

It seems we have lots of differences in our images. And not only complete dummy sectors, but also a few bytes here and there in tons of sectors. Looks like improper ECC on my end. You also have sectors full of "bleem!" or "0x00", whereas mine are full of "0x55" at same address.

It's crazy that I was this close to get it. If only I had tried a few more times. I even remember messing with the skip bad sectors options in CloneCD too.

Could you try to burn the CCD you sent me and check if it works? I'm asking because it seems like I have data in the pregap that you don't have. And I feel like it should be there. But maybe it was simply lost when you made the copy of the 8cm CD-R.

 

Hi FamilyGuy.
I made several tests... Let me tell you about this experience:
Just to add: The 8cm CD-R with Bleem was burned on that time with CloneCD with a LG GSA-4160B I think. All DC images burned with this drive worked on 1st attempt. I always used 8x. I don't have this burner anymore =(
1- I was surprised I tried to burn several times the CCD I sent to you, and it doesn't work. But I believe it has something to do with my burner because today's burners don't let you choose slower speeds. I used 16x as this is the slowest speed available.
2- Then I tried Alcohol, Nero... even Discjuggler. nothing worked =/
3- Almost giving up, I tried to dump as CDI again with new settings on Discjuggler.... then burned with discjuggler again... voilá! Success! (I uploaded this new CDI of my miniCD-R. Check my folder on Mega please). The settings I used for dump were none- no checkbox marked! The settings for burning were: "rw"; "pq"; "add post-gap 3rd party images..."; "raw write".
4- Tomorrow I will try to convert the image I sent to you from CCD to CDI, and then burn with the same method... Just for curiosity. Now I am sure it has something to do with the burner too because I can see a difference on naked eye between the miniCD-R and this new working copy I made. On the mini CD-R you can see a "blank" area between the 1st and 2ns session on the disc. Also the burned area is much more intense than the CD's I burned with my recent burner.
Please take a look at the new CDI and tell me about the differences between mine and your dump. Btw, do you keep your dump in what format? I'm so upset I didn't keep my very old dump in file format, just on CD-R =/

 

I kept my old dump in CDI format.

Some software/settings don't read the pregap and assume it's all zeros, so even if you can burn an image, making an image of the resulting CD-R could result in a non working image. Idk if I'm clear...

Can you tell me if the working CDI Image you got has non-zero pregap data? Just look for SEGAKATANA to find 11702 lba and then look back a few sectors. I'll take a look at it myself in the next few days.
So I checked and your CDI image doesn't have the pregap either... Can you confirm it boots GT2 properly? I always assumed that this pregap data was needed, but I may have been wrong. You can burn a backup of GT2 if you don't have the original available right now, bleem doesn't implement the PS1 copy protection . I'll check with the cracked version too to see if it's there.

Cheers!

 

@toxic9 Nice your image works on gdemu but it stuck at the legal stuff like the cracked one !!!

 

That's probably what he means by "not working".

@toxic9 Your disc and the cracked one are virtually the same, except some of the metadata of the cdi.

Also, I checked back and you got the pregap data, I just didn't look far back enough.

 

Hi!
I compared my CDI dump and the cracked one with an hexadecimal editor, and the differences are only the metadata as you said. There's also a small difference in the total size of the file, but it probabily has something to do with Discjuggler's version. Sorry again for not sharing it earlier =/ I think it could make a difference, because on that time, there were much more skilled people interested in breaking the code and who knows, today we could have the code available with no protections and then it should be compatible with GDemu.

I will continue my research in the GDemu not booting Bleem.
The boot process on the real hardware with my CD-R is something like this:
1- The drive reads the TOC (sometimes it is very silent, but on another times it seems completely in pain making lots of noise!)
2- The drive detects the bootstrap and it shows the Dreamcast logo with Bleem "correction" message.
3- Then I think it interprets the IP.BIN information of the main executable. As I said before, the main executable is called "0A" in ASCII and not "1st_read.bin" as usually. This is probabily one of the supposed protection.
4- It jumps to the "0A" executable and shows the Legal Stuff screen.
5- Here, it paused for a moment, then the laser moves one last time and it shows the "Insert disc" screen.
I think in this pause, between step 4 and 5, the main executable performs an action to "see" if the disc is a valid copy or not, and maybe this is why GDemu fails to boot the disc. I will check why all my other copies on CD-R failed to boot, and why the last one made with DJ works. I will compare, with sector viewer a working copy and a non-working copy. I think I will find the real difference between them, (the key!).
I am afraid the executable looks for "Data Position Measurement" information on the disc. GDemu cannot emulate this information, and because it is not a "mechanic" drive with moving parts, it fails here. It could also look for another kind of information on the disc. I will give you my feedback.

 

your copy is exact as the cracked one is this normal?

 

I don't know why people insist in call it cracked. There's nothing cracked, unless the difficulties of passing the laser over the rings.
The image I provided is a real dump of the Bleem GT2 I made, and CloneCD inserted dummy sectors passing over the rings. Nothing more need to be cracked. It just need to be a very good dump and a really good burn to work, and nothing more.
What I call a cracked version is the one released on internet with the tag: "No CD Check". This is a true cracked version of Bleem GT2, but it only cracks the Playstation disc you can boot! There's no protection cracked! On the uncracked version it only accepts PSX GranTurismo disc 1 and 2. On the other hand. the "No CD Check" version accepts any PSX disc.
In fact, we are assuming it has some hard protection, but I am still researching if it has any kind of protection or not.
It could only be the insertion of blank space (for putting the laser-lock rings) within the image which became the image non-standard, and so difficult to make it boot.
In my tests I extracted from the CD the IP.BIN, the "0A" file (main executable) and a bleem4DC.ini file, and then I created a 100% standard MIL-CD (Audio-Data selfboot disc), but it failed to boot on GDemu. I didn't recall to try it burning it to a CD-R. (I have 2 Dreamcasts: 1 with GDemu. 1 with GD-ROM)

For you understanding,
If you try to extract the file contents within Bleem disc, and then recompile it in on brand new ISO and then make it a selfootable CDI, it will not work. This is what I call the true Bleem protection: The protection inside its code which prevent it from booting on a disc without the dummy/blank space.
If you extract Bleem content, it's nothing more than 85Kb plus the IP.BIN !!
The Bleem disc is ~150MB, so there's a huge blank space. Somehow, if you remove this blank space, the executable will not execute and the disc doesn't work.
Now, the ring protection is phisical, not a "software protection". It's only a feature they inserted on manufacturing to prevent dumping and sharing!
It works on a pressed CD-ROM and on a burned CD-R. So there's nothing to crack over there. That's why I was able to copy the disc. It was hard, but not impossible. I had much more trouble dumping certain DVD-Video discs with ARccOS and bogus titles protections!

 

The guy that made the bleemcast release is the same that made the no cd check version. I actually sent him two images of the whole disc taking with data/audio trap discs in order to try and reconstruct the real image. I don't know if he ended up using them to reconstruct the working image, or if he simply redumped it.

BTW, the DC reads the big endian TOC, it completely disregards the little endian one.

Maybe @japanese_cake, could say more about the bleemcast executable? I've seen he worked with that a while ago...

PS: do you still have the LTD-165H custom bios?

 

Whoa, really? What a hard work you had to create such a trap disc and then recontruct the image piece by piece.
It's not necessary such effort.
I have the custom firmware somewhere. Just give me some time. I'm at work right now.
The custom firmware is created by a tool, and you set the read speed manually for any kind of disc. Then, just use the 'skip bad sectors' feature of CloneCD, and you're good to go.
Since today's burners are not very good for this tests, cos' Dreamcasts never liked CloneCD burned discs, we'll never know if it really works or not =/ It could trick us. Remember my tests yesterday? CloneCD didn't work this time for burning. I will try to convert CCD dump to CDI and then burn with DJ to see if it works.
I don't have the knowlegde to inspect the executable myself. I don't know if it's scrambled or not.
How can we ask @japanese_cake to inspect the executable? I can upload it if you want, but I'm sure you can extract it yourself.

EDIT: I just uploaded the image content. Maybe @japanese_cake can find a way to selfboot this content.

 

Hmm... I just verified with the man that made the BC! version online, and he had to remove copy protections and decode a lot of stuff for it to boot, which might just explain the differences between my image and his.

There's no way that you created that image by only reading. You'd have to hack it. I don't believe you anymore, you're lying.

Futhermore, the sectors full of "bleem!" data were inserted by the hacker, he found it nicer than simply padding with zeros, those aren't on the original.

You made me waste 12 minutes of my precious time. Congrats.

My only question left is: Why the lying?

 

You don't know what you're saying man. You are insulting me. Nothing was hacked, I said. I don't even know how to hack the image. I'm studying it, because I believe the protection is in the executable.
this is just a dump with dummy sectors made with CloneCD. And I can do it again, and record it if you want.
I have lots of experience on dumping discs with errors (like PSX). This is nothing more than a disc with errors (the rings).
I did this myself, I swear.
I thought we were here for the same objective. But I was wrong.

 

He put the bleem! text there himself.

Sorry, better luck next time.

 

Wait, there is a possibility that 8cm disc wasn't my 1st dump from that time.
I'm not at home, I'm at work. but don't worry, tonight I'm going to make another dump of the disc. And I'm going send it to you.
Hope you believe me. I swear to you, I made a working copy of it, without patching/cracking anything.