Disc Smasher / Bio Disc

[MeganGrass]

Here's a little frontend-type utility I made for the creation of PSone discs.

As a bonus, Bio/RE games are supported. Currently, 31 (!) various versions of Bio Hazard and Resident Evil are supported, though this preliminary version only supports a few (18).

Unlike other 'packers' and 'rebuilders', this toold does not disable checsum routines for Bio/RE games - instead, it calculates and places that data into the exe before iso compilation. Many thanks to 'someone who cares' for the checksum routine (even though it's only 1 line of code)

Please view the readme for more information.

[Dark Biohazard]

WOW! this is simply amazing Mark! Thanks for share it!!!

Also, glad to see you back. ;)

[Carnivol]

That's a neat surprise. Always nice with a bit of streamlined solutions for this stuff (but, man, buildCD ... does it still act like ass in Vista/W7/W8?)

By the way, if you repack it as a RAR, the forum itself supports the attachment of it (so no need for external hosting). Don't think I ever added ZIP to the approved list.

[MeganGrass]

WOW! this is simply amazing Mark! Thanks for share it!!!

Also, glad to see you back. ;)

You're welcome.

...wasn't aware that I went anywhere, but I appreciate the concern!

That's a neat surprise. Always nice with a bit of streamlined solutions for this stuff (but, man, buildCD ... does it still act like ass in Vista/W7/W8?)

By the way, if you repack it as a RAR, the forum itself supports the attachment of it (so no need for external hosting). Don't think I ever added ZIP to the approved list.

Thanks!

Well, I hadn't planned for usage of 'buildcd' at all, when I first started the app - it wasn't meant to be anything more than an executable patcher for a select-few bio/capcom games.

Then, I had planned to just write my own iso/bin creator... but even after 20 years it seems that the iso/bin format is still unknown (certain aspects, anyway).

I found some good info at nocash's site, but there's still not enough info... so, I had to use buildcd, in the end. I'm not sure if it cocks-up on newer systems, but it shouldn't because I use a customised 'CreateProcess()' function to execute it. If it does, however, just let me know and I'll figure another solution (cd-tools?).

..and about the rar, I suppose I'll use that feature in the next update.


Speaking of updates, a few notes:

The 'NEXTTETRIS' volume/disc label and 'Hasbro Interactive' publisher titles is placeholder data that does not effect gameplay.

Game data must remain in the 'DISC' folder. I had a 'Select Folder' dialog in-use that I had to can. Long story short, blame ancient-ass DOS code and 'buildcd' for that, not 'Disc Smasher'.

As I mentioned in the 'readme' file, STR attributes are either hard-coded into the executable or disc track sectors - 'Disc Smasher' is not causing corruption for a rebuilt 'RE Director's Cut Dual Shock' - the intro video stops short because it is programmed to do so.

[Dark Biohazard]

Hey Mark, I want to rebuild "Bio2 Beta v2", but I have a few of problems:

1-I can't convert the LICENSEX.DAT files to 24.0 KB, because I can't find "lconvert.exe" in google, you can give me some help to find it?

2-I can't fix the .STR and .XAS files using the option "Disc->xa_extract", I try a lot of times, but the tool not fix it... maybe I have to try to use commands?

Thanks in advance.

[Guest]

Very nice!!! Thanks for sharing!

[Zombie_X]

So it says I need lconvert.exe, I assume it's some copyrighted file as it's not included, right? I already have the buildcd and stripiso files as well as the liscence files, but can not locate the lconvert.exe file. Could anyone toss me a hint via PM?

[RMandel]

Thank you, Mark. This I intend to try out as soon as I get the time.

[MeganGrass]

I can't fix the .STR and .XAS files using the option "Disc->xa_extract", I try a lot of times, but the tool not fix it... maybe I have to try to use commands?

Hmm, just noticed that this only seems to work when the xa or str is placed into the same directory as 'discsmasher.exe'. Stupid commandline apps.

I'll most likely remove 'xa_extract.exe' and just build my own functionality for it, as previously planned.



@ALL - I added 'lconvert.exe' in the first post. It should be included in the 'buildcd tools' zip archive, but...

[Dark Biohazard]

Thanks a lot for providing us "lconvert.exe", Mark!

Well, now I try to rebuild "Bio2 Beta v2", but not work for me, when I run "bio2.bat", looks like the tool is working fine, in the process I can see that this files appear:


But, when the process finish, disappear almost all the files from the folder... and just keep this 2 files:


You know what can be the problem?

I'm not using spaces in the main folder, I'm using "\cd" directory.

Also, I'm using Windows XP SP3.

I hope you can help me, I'm really motived with this tool!

Thanks in advance Mark!

[MeganGrass]

Thanks a lot for providing us "lconvert.exe", Mark!

Well, now I try to rebuild "Bio2 Beta v2", but not work for me, when I run "bio2.bat", looks like the tool is working fine, in the process I can see that this files appear:


But, when the process finish, disappear almost all the files from the folder... and just keep this 2 files:


You know what can be the problem?

I'm not using spaces in the main folder, I'm using "\cd" directory.

Also, I'm using Windows XP SP3.

I hope you can help me, I'm really motived with this tool!

Thanks in advance Mark!

If you provided pictures of your results, I'm sorry; I cannot view them with this browser. :/


When 'bio2.bat' is complete, the only files that should be in the directory are:
disc.cti // provided with the app; used by buildcd
disc.cue // provided with the app; used with the *.bin image
disc.log // a cd image logfile output by buildcd
disc.bin //the actual cd image, output by buildcd

.. and of course, the readme, executable and folders.

[Dark Biohazard]

When I run "bio2.bat" appear this files:
disc.bat
disc.ctl
CDW900E.TOC
DISC.IMG
DISC.LOG
QSHEET.TOC

When finish the process, disappear almost all and just keep this 2 files:
disc.ctl
DISC.LOG

So, the more important file: "DISC.IMG", disappear...

I hope you can help me to fix it, thanks!

[MeganGrass]

DISC.IMG is supposed to disappear; it isn't needed after conversion to BIN format and is deleted. It would appear that 'STRIPISO' isn't working for you, or that you've obtained an old version.

Here are the stats for the 'STRIPISO' version I use:
8.53 KB (8,736 bytes)
Saturday, November 30, 2002, 12:44:56 PM

Just in-case, I'll remove the parameter that deletes the 'disc.img' file, and you can manually convert the IMG file to a BIN yourself.


I really wish documentation were available for the iso/bin format, so that I didn't have to rely on these ancient-as-fuck DOS commandline apps.



EDIT:
Here, save the CTL file before it gets deleted and try this batch file instead:

.\utility\buildcd -e1 -i -l -m -zjp disc.cti
.\utility\stripiso s 2352 disc.img disc.bin

If that ^ doesn't work, you've definitely got an old/bad build of STRIPISO.

[Dark Biohazard]

I see, yeah I have a old version of STRIPISO (October 24, 2000, 21:38), I will try to get the new version.

I will try rebuild again and I will tell you if work or not.

A last question Mark, I also want to rebuild BH2 Trial Edition, so, I made the "filelist.txt" for it, you can tell me if I made it correctly? here the filelist:

http://www.mediafire.com/view/ycai6ozbm17e8bt/bio2trialfilelist.txt

Thanks for all the help Mark!

[MeganGrass]

Ah, simple mistake; could've happened to anyone.


I noticed that the version of STRIPISO I use isn't (c) to SN Systems (it's an independent "Revenge of StripISO" version), so I provided it in the first post.

At this point, I may as well repack the archive to include those tools.


EDIT: Your filelist looks fine, except for a few things.

First, you want to remove all the ROCKMAN NEO data; there's no point in bloating your results.
Also, the LBA value is wrong - it should be 23.

Other than that, everything looks fine.

Just to note: The bio2/re2 trial EXE contains checksum data for select RockMan Neo data, but is not needed (unless one plans to make a stand-alone version of that game trial )