ISO size limit

[Former user]

Original [issue 244](https://code.google.com/p/genplus-gx/issues/detail?id=244) created by exoskyflyer on 2012-07-08T15:17:08.000Z:

What is the file size limit for an ISO for a SEGA-CD/ MEGA-CD game?

What steps will reproduce the problem? 1. Downloaded 'Lunar - The Silver Star (U)' containing .CUE and .BIN files 2. Mounted .BIN file with MagicISO Virtual Drive to create a MagicISO .UIF (ISO) file of 419 MB 3. GenPlus-GX 1.7 states the file is too big

What is the expected output? What do you see instead? GenPlus-GX 1.7 was able to load the .BIN/.CUE file combo (without audio). When I converted to an ISO, I met a file size limitation.

What version of the emulator are you using (official, SVN revision,...)? Official 1.7

Please provide any additional information below (Emulator settings, Console setting,...) All system settings are set to default.

[Former user]

Comment # 1 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-07-08T15:32:09.000Z:

There is no size limit as the ISO file is never completely loaded, only accessed when needed by the game.

The error message you got simply means the converted ISO file is not a valid Sega CD image anymore. You have to remember Sega CD image used a specific format, which is not \*exactly\* ISO9660 file format. In particular, a valid .iso file should have the string "SEGADISCSYSTEM" at the start of the file header.

There is no need to convert a bin file, as you stated yourself, the emulator is able to load .bin just fine.

[Former user]

Comment # 2 originally posted by exoskyflyer on 2012-07-08T16:23:40.000Z:

Intricacies not familiar to me.

I'll be trying this out soon enough.

Thanks for the fast response.

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

How do we put "SEGADISKSYSTEM" at the start of the file header? I used a hex editor but it doesn't work.

[Eke ekeeke]

Why would you want to do that ? Just because you add some string in the header does not mean you made the file into a valid Sega CD image file...

There should be no need to modify anything, any CD file that returns an error is likely not a valid Sega CD file, there is nothing you can do besides using supported image files.

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

Okay, I got a valid Sega CD image file, but I got one problem. Before I put in the music files, the hex had "SEGADISKSYSTEM", but when I put in the music files, it disappears. This happened with
every ISO I can find for Sonic CD. What can I do?

[Eke ekeeke]

What do you mean exactly by "putting in the music files" ? As said earlier, you are not supposed to modify or hexedit anything.

If the iso comes with separated audio files, make sure they are either wav or ogg files (if not, convert them using existing PC tools) and that they are named like the iso file (for example, Sonic CD 02.wav, Sonic CD 03.wav, etc... if the iso file is named Sonic CD.iso). The emulator will use them automatically providing they are located in the same directory as the iso file you loaded.

If there is a single .bin file, it should come with a .cue file which tells the emulator where the audio tracks are located within the bin file.

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

I think I did it. The music files are outside the .bin file, I have the .cue file, but when I loaded it up, I didn't hear music, but what I did hear was a more distorted sound. What did I do wrong now?

[Eke ekeeke]

No idea with so few details, it's not supposed to be that much complicated. What is the extension of the music files ? Did you modified them in any way or renamed them ? Also copy the content of the cue file here so I can see it.

[Eke ekeeke]

As you can see in the cue file, the audio tracks should be .bin files, not .wav files. Did you renamed them to .wav files or did you originally had .wav files?

If you had .bin files (should be 35 files), make sure they are ALL named like in the .cue file and with proper extension (not .wav or .iso !) then load the .cue file in the emulator, it should be working fine with audio.

Again, it's not clear what you did exactly, what files you got and where you got them from so, PLEASE give more details and the exact things you did if you want some help, please keep in mind this is not a customer technical support.

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

And how can I convert music files to bin files? All the results is to do with a PSX emulator. On the topic, I got the Sonic CD game from Emuparadise and converted the .ape files to .wav files using VLC music player. I tried the same with VLC to convert it to .bin, but the emulator thinks the .bin files are games. Maybe I should give up?

[Eke ekeeke]

1) Sonic CD is a Sega CD game and this is not a PSX emulator

2) you don't convert music files to bin files (those are raw pcm files without any wav header which are specific to "redump" .cue files) and you don't load the audio files in the emulator (damn, there are 34 audio files, how could you think that would work?), you either load an iso file or a cue file.

3) you don't use a random cue file downloaded from elsewhere if it does not correspond to the original files you have. A cue file, as you must have noticed by now, is a text file with specific filenames and telling the emulator which file(s) to use for data track, audio tracks, etc... unless you know what you are doing, you should never try to modify it or modify original files to match an unrelated cue file.

4) it's still not clear what files you exactly downloaded or how they were named but I guess the original game you downloaded came with an .iso file if it had separated audio tracks as .ape files. In that case, you should have kept that .iso file intact, convert the .ape files to .wav files (make sure output format is CD Audio format, i.e 16-bit stereo PCM at 44100 Hz), rename the .iso to someting simple like SonicCD.iso and rename the .wav files to SonicCD_02.wav, SonicCD_03.wav.... up to SonicCD_35.wav then load the .iso file in the emulator. As explained before, the emulator will automatically detect the audio files if they are named like the iso file and in same directory.

5) Don't give up, read the user manual that comes with the Wii version (README.pdf), read online tutorials to learn about CD images format for emulators, it's not as simple as loading a basic ROM file but it's really not that much complicated

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

I did what you said, I renamed the tracks to this:

SonicCD.iso

SonicCD_02

SonicCD_03

SonicCD_04

SonicCD_05

SonicCD_06

SonicCD_07

SonicCD_08

SonicCD_09

SonicCD_10

SonicCD_11

SonicCD_12

SonicCD_13

SonicCD_14

SonicCD_15

SonicCD_16

SonicCD_17

SonicCD_18

SonicCD_19

SonicCD_20

SonicCD_21

SonicCD_22

SonicCD_23

SonicCD_24

SonicCD_25

SonicCD_26

SonicCD_27

SonicCD_28

SonicCD_29

SonicCD_30

SonicCD_31

SonicCD_32

SonicCD_33

SonicCD_34

SonicCD_35

However, when I load the game, it still doesn't work! Should I create a .cue file, because the other one makes the music distorted? Now, I know what you said. I shouldn't create or modify a .cue file just to match the other files, but I am really confused. Maybe I should?

[Eke ekeeke]

What do you mean by "it doesn't work" ? Be more precise, what exactly does not work ?

Why audio files do not have any extension ? It should be .wav if you converted them to wav.

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

What I mean by "it doesn't work" is the music! The only music that works is the sound effects and the music when you go to the Past. And it is .wav. The Windows properties literally says ".wav". Perhaps the emulator is broke, or it can't scan the .wav files.

[Eke ekeeke]

The emulator is not "broke" and it can perfectly read .wav files as long as they are in the same directory as the .iso file and have correct format (16-bit stereo 44.1KHz PCM). Open the .wav files in a media player to verify if they play fine and have correct format.

Does windows hide your file extensions? In that case, desactivate this option to make sure the iso file is actually named SonicCD.iso (and not SonicCD.iso.iso) and that audio files really have .wav extension in their filename.

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

Alright, I found out the problem. The .wav files in Properties say ".wav.wav". I tried to change it, but it didn't work. I even went back to the old .ape files and converted it, but nothing changed. What do I do?

[Eke ekeeke]

What do you mean by ?

Did you managed to fix the file extension and it still has no sound in-game or did you fail to fix the file extension ? Again, it's not very clear...

You should also check if the .iso is not named .iso.iso as well.

Also check that converted wav files have correct format. Open one of the .wav file in an hexeditor and copy the first 32 bytes here so I can have a look.

Otherwise I don't know, download a cue/bin version of the game somewhere else.

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

Here is the first 32 bytes of Track 02:

RIFFF§..WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

You know what? I'll put in of them just to be correct. Track 03:

RIFF..#.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 04:

RIFFÖ)Ù.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 05:

RIFFF>â.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 06:

RIFF¶...WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 07:

RIFFÆRÕ.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 08:

RIFF¦ÙÚ.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 09:

RIFFæn5.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 10:

RIFF¦AÖ.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 11:

RIFF¶UÐ.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 12:

RIFF†è..WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 13:

RIFFV.Ï.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 14:

RIFF."®.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 15:

RIFF6«÷.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 16:

RIFFÆϦ.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 17:

RIFF6]Ö.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 18:

RIFF¦G3.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 19:

RIFF6.Ä.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 20:

RIFF¦Í³.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 21:

RIFFv.ä.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 22:

RIFF–.±.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 23:

RIFFöŽÃ.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 24:

RIFFfùÖ.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 25:

RIFFƨß.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 26:

RIFF†ÒP.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 27:

RIFF†ÒP.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 28:

RIFF†@..WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 29:

RIFFFÞ<.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 30:

RIFF¶.;.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 31:

RIFFf¦..WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 32:

RIFFVFH.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 33:

RIFF.ÄM.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 34:

RIFFæj÷.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

Track 35:

RIFFÖêé.WAVEfmt ........D¬...±..

If nothing is incorrect, then Windows is wrong about ".wav.wav". And also, I checked the .iso file, and it says .iso. Correct.

[Eke ekeeke]

I need the hexadecimal values, not the ascii characters.

Also, who said nothing is incorrect? Obviously there is something incorrect with your files since they do not work.You also did not answered my question: did you managed to correct the file extension or not?

To make it clear, when the file you load is named xxxx.iso, the emulator is specifically looking for files named xxxx_02.wav, xxxx_03.wav, etc... If the files are named .wav.wav or .iso.iso, it can not find them obviously. A file named .wav.wav is still a valid wave file with a valid wave header, it's just that its fullname is not the one looked by the emulator.

The best way to be sure is not to look into windows property but to make sure windows does not hide file extensions, there is an option for this in windows folder options and you need to disable it then look at the file extensions in windows explorer.

Can you post a screenshot of the directory with your files visible? You could also upload one of the wav file (the smallest for example) somewhere so I can have a look.

[Eke ekeeke]

.wav files format seems correct

Can you also copy the first 64 hexadecimal values of the iso file ?

You can make a screenshot of your directory in windows and upload the picture somewhere (http://tinypic.com/ for example)

What version of the emulator are you using btw and on which platform? Is it standalone Wii version ? Retroarch version ?

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

Here is the hexadecimal values of the iso file:

53 45 47 41 44 49 53 43 53 59 53 54 45 4D 20 20

53 45 47 41 53 4F 4E 49 43 43 44 00 01 00 00 01

53 4F 4E 49 43 43 44 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 08 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Also here is the link for Track 02(the smallest file) in tinypic.com:

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=2ymvk7q%3E&s=9#.V827tk0rLIU

Also what is Retroarch? I am a bit confused of what you meant.

[Eke ekeeke]

This emulator is multi-platform and used by various frontend (Retroarch is a multi-emulator frontend that uses this emulator). My question was to know which version of this emulator you were using.

[Eke ekeeke]

Just to make sure, download this script (liste.bat) in the directory where your .iso and .wav files are, execute it and report the result here

http://www.filedropper.com/liste_1

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

Here's the result:

F:\genplus\roms>dir

Volume in drive F has no label.

Volume Serial Number is 4E93-1A2C

Directory of F:\genplus\roms

01/01/1601 01:00 <DIR>
. 01/01/1601 01:00 <DIR>
.. 12/08/1997 00:17 4,194,304 Sonic 3 & Knuckles.bin

04/09/2016 14:49 19,077,150 SonicCD_03.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 14,232,030 SonicCD_04.wav

03/09/2016 19:27 112,840,704 SonicCD.iso

04/09/2016 14:49 32,107,230 SonicCD_35.wav

01/01/1991 11:00 524,800 SONIC1.SMD

20/11/1992 15:08 1,049,088 SONIC2.SMD

12/10/1996 14:07 2,097,664 Sonic3.smd

04/09/2016 14:49 14,827,086 SonicCD_05.wav

06/09/2016 07:48 10 liste.bat

04/09/2016 14:49 17,567,166 SonicCD_06.wav

24/12/1996 23:32 262,144 Sonic The Hedgehog (World) (v1.1).gg

24/12/1996 23:32 524,288 Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (World).gg

24/12/1996 23:32 524,288 Sonic The Hedgehog - Triple Trouble (USA, Eu rope).gg

24/12/1996 23:32 524,288 Sonic Chaos (USA, Europe).gg

24/12/1996 23:32 1,048,576 Sonic Spinball (USA).md

04/09/2016 14:49 13,980,366 SonicCD_07.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 14,342,574 SonicCD_08.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 20,279,022 SonicCD_09.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 14,041,518 SonicCD_10.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 13,653,438 SonicCD_11.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 18,016,398 SonicCD_12.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 13,573,470 SonicCD_13.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 11,411,982 SonicCD_14.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 16,231,230 SonicCD_15.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 3,869,118 SonicCD_30.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 3,989,070 SonicCD_29.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 1,458,318 SonicCD_28.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 5,296,782 SonicCD_27.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 5,296,782 SonicCD_26.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 10,932,174 SonicCD_16.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 14,048,574 SonicCD_17.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 20,137,902 SonicCD_18.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 12,881,982 SonicCD_19.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 11,783,598 SonicCD_20.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 14,942,334 SonicCD_21.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 11,607,198 SonicCD_22.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 12,816,126 SonicCD_23.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 14,088,558 SonicCD_24.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 14,657,742 SonicCD_25.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 1,091,406 SonicCD_02.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 2,008,686 SonicCD_31.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 21,513,822 SonicCD_32.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 21,873,678 SonicCD_33.wav

04/09/2016 14:49 16,214,766 SonicCD_34.wav

          45 File(s)    577,439,430 bytes

           2 Dir(s)     101,974,016 bytes free

Also, the version I'm using is a standalone Wii version.

[Eke ekeeke]

That's definitively weird. I just tested with an ISO+WAV and it works on my side when using exact same filenames and loading SonicCD.iso.

1) What version are you using (latest from here or some older version) ? You can check the version number at the top of the exit window in the emulator.

2) What happens if you press A when the BIOS intro starts to go inside CD player menu ? How many tracks does the CD player see ?

It should be like in the pictures below (using model 1 or model 2 BIOS)

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

For some reason, the CD player shows 99 tracks. When I want to listen to 03, which is Palmtree Panic, it only went for 2 seconds before going to the next track. The others don't work either.

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

Also, the CD player didn't look like anything that you showed me. So I decided to get a new BIOS from Emuparadise. Which of these BIOS is European?

Mega CD - M1 V1.00.bin

Mega CD - M1 V1.00p.bin

Mega CD - M1 V1.00s.bin

Mega CD - M2 V2.00.bin

Mega CD - M2 V2.00w.bin

Sega CD - M1 V1.10.bin

Sega CD - M2 V2.00.bin

Sega CD - M2 V2.00w.bin

Sega CD - M2 V2.11x.bin

Sega CD - M2 V2.21.bin

[Eke ekeeke]

You didn't answered my question about which version of the emulator you were using (1.7.4, 1.7.5, latest build or an older version?)

For some reason, the CD player shows 99 tracks. When I want to listen to 03, which is Palmtree Panic, it only went for 2 seconds before going to the next track. The others don't work either.

Yes, that's what the emulator does by default when it couldn't find any valid audio track files. This confirms why you don't get any CD audio.

I didn't tried PAL version but US version, hence why BIOS screen are different. It does not really matter which one you get, the problem is with your .wav files, not the bios or the emulator.

One last thing, just to check something out, could you zip track 2 wav file (the smallest one) and upload it somewhere like https://filetrip.net/ ?

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

I have uploaded the zipped wav file:

https://filetrip.net/view?sG9vdqfgwl

And the version is: 1.7.3

I got the emulator not by the internet, but the HomeBrew Browser.

[Eke ekeeke]

The WAV files format is incorrect, it contains extra parameters (LIST, INFO, ISFT) in the header that shouldn't be there. What did you use to convert .ape into .wav ?

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

I used this website:

http://online-audio-converter.com/

I also used Switch Sound File Converter. Because I needed to change the output format.

[Eke ekeeke]

Online converters seem to all use libavcodec from FFMPEG, which according to this link (https://github.com/teragonaudio/MrsWatson/issues/207) adds LIST INFO tags as metadata in the file header that many applications do not support.

I guess I could modify the emulator to ignore those useless metadata fields but it would be simpler for you to convert .APE files using this program: http://www.monkeysaudio.com/download.html

Drop all your .ape files inside main window and select Decompress button

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

I have decompressed the .ape files to .wav files. What do I do now? Do I test it on the emulator or do I give you the hexadecimal values of the .wav files?

[Eke ekeeke]

If there are no more LIST-INFO-ISFT strings in the wav file header then it should work fine now.

Alternatively, I just pushed a fix to the emulator to support WAV files generated with metadata in header.

Either way, Genesis Plus GX 1.7.3 is quite outdated so you should better update to latest build.

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

Thanks for that. And how do I update it? Do I download the latest update with WiiBrew or update it with the HomeBrew Browser?

[Eke ekeeke]

Latest Wii build can always be found here: https://bitbucket.org/eke/genesis-plus-gx/raw/master/builds/genplus_wii.dol

Once genplus_wii.dol downloaded, rename it in boot.dol and overwrite existing boot.dol in sd:/apps/genplus (or sd:/apps/genplus-gx, depends where homebrew brower installed it).

[Al-Ameen Adewunmi]

I can't believe it. After WEEKS of trying to get the music files to work, it finally does! Thanks for all your help. You know, I'm actually surprised you even bothered to help me. You must have had other things to do. Once again, thanks.

[Eke ekeeke]

yes, but you got me curious to understand why it didn't work... and it ended up showing up an odd case that i was not supporting (and that likely exist within many generated wav files, thus causing frustration to many other end-users like yourself) so it was worth it ;-)