First post, by Neville
- Rank
- Oldbie
These days I've been busy creating ISO+OGG images of some of my games. In order to get started, however, I needed some newbie advice which I couldn't get from VOGONS, so I imagined a small FAQ was in order...
1) Why would I want to create ISO+OGG images from my games?
Tha main advantage of doing the conversion is disk space. A regular CD image (ISO, BIN/CUE, etc.) can take up to 700 Mb of valuable disk space. An ISO+OGG image will take much less, because the audio data will be compressed.
How much space you'll save depends on how much space in the CD-ROM is data and how much is audio. The more data, the less compression.
A rule of thumb is to expect more space saving from older games.
2) What games can I convert to ISO+OGG?
Obviously, games which store their music in CD Audio format. You'll know you have one of those when you insert it and Windows tells you it's a mixed format CD. That is, one or more data tracks plus CD Audio.
You also have an incomplete list of DOS games using CD Audio here.
3) What do I need?
a) Games in CD-ROM format.
b) A software that rips separately data and audio tracks. I used TurboRip. UPDATED LINK
c) A software to convert WAVE files into OGG. I used Format Factory.
4) This is how I do it...
a) Insert your CD-ROM...
b) Start TurboRip. You'll be prompted for the number of your CD-ROM drive (usually it's the first one) and a base filename.
The ripping process will start inmediately.
When you're done, you'll end up with a new folder with contents similar to these:
c) Now you send the WAV files to FormatFactory. When prompted for an exit format, choose OGG.
You can delete the WAV files when done.
d) Now edit the CUE file with a text editor like Notepad. Do the following changes:
- Change every instance of WAVE (in capitals) to MP3 (also in capitals)
- Change every instance of .wav to .ogg
- Exit and save. You're done.
Now you can use the CUE file to mount this image under DOSBox. It should behave just as any other CD-ROM image, for a portion of its size.
5) Troobleshooting.
a) TurboRip didn't finish ripping the CD-ROM.
I'm afraid you've come across a CD-ROM that uses a copy protection such as unreadable sectors / files. I suggest you to give up on this one.
EDIT: In some of these cases, I've observed you can still use AnyToISO and fre:ac to separately rip the data and audio portions of the CD. Together with the CUE file created by TurboRip they can save the day.
b) TurboRip finished creating an image, but now DOSBox tells me to insert the CD to play the game.
I'm afraid the CD-ROM uses some other type of copy protection. I suggest you to get a cracked game EXE from elsewhere. And no, I can't tell you where as it's probably against phorum rules.
So essentially, that's it. Feel free to share, offer program alternatives and other hints.