Some Piracy Protection (I think)

[Ilya-v]

It happens on mortal kombat trilogy PAL

Also Tomb Raider is not starting after I enter the training (Laras home).

[jonc2006]

for PAL region games you either have to patch them with a .ppf patch or you can make an image of the disc in .bin/.cue format and that should work just as well.

[patrickp]

Both the PAL and NTSC versions of Mortal Kombat Trilogy are not listed as being protected, Ilya-v. However, some versions of some Tomb Raider games are listed as being copy protected. Which game and which version are you playing?

Also, how are you playing your games, from the original CDs or from images and, if images, what format?

As jonc says, patching the game may work with copy protected games, but you must make sure the patch you get is the correct one for the exact version you have. The .bin/.cue format does not work to defeat copy protection as it does not include subcode from the CD and nor, of course does the .iso format. The formats that should enable pSX to play any copy protected game if ripped properly (unless there are other compatibility problems) are CloneCD's .ccd/.img/.sub and Alcohol's .mdf/.mds ones, as these include subcode from the the original CD, which is needed to defeat copy protection.

The PAL versions of Mortal Kombat Trilogy are in the pSX Compatibility lists as not working ATM.

[jonc2006]

the .bin/.cue format can hold the subchannel data depending on what program you use and how you set it up, if that is what you are referring to.

[hanibal81]

Originally Posted by Ilya-v

It happens on mortal kombat trilogy PAL

Also Tomb Raider is not starting after I enter the training (Laras home).

Post your PC/OS/Emu + plugins info!

[patrickp]

No it can't, jonc, regardless of program or settings. The .bin/.cue format was not designed to include subcode, any attempt to make it do so would mean it was no longer the .bin/.cue format, and there would be no support for it in applications using CD images - it's taken long enough for the CloneCD and Alcohol formats to achieve even the limited support that they now have.

It's one of the problems of using Linux that, although there are applications to rip to and use .iso and .bin/.cue formats, there are no applications that will rip to a format that includes subcode information - both .ccd/.img/.sub and .mdf/.mds are proprietary formats, and no application that can rip to these formats will run in Linux - I've even tried running CloneCD in Wine and it's a no go. In fact, ripping is the only reason I still keep a Windows installation running.

Supposedly, the .img file of the .ccd/..img/.sub format is supposed to have the same structure as a .bin file. However, I always found when I was still using ePSXe that .img images for some reason always work better than .bin images. ePSXe, of course, doesn't use the descriptor files (.cue, .ccd or .mds, only the image files by themselves, so .bin and .img images should perform identically - but they don't. Go figure...

Edit:

Originally Posted by hanibal81

Post your PC/OS/Emu + plugins info!

Ahem! This is the pSX Emulator forum, hanibal81. pSX doesn't use plugins. I would assume that, since Ilya-v started his thread here, he's running pSX.

[hanibal81]

Ahem! This is the pSX Emulator forum, hanibal81. pSX doesn't use plugins. I would assume that, since Ilya-v started his thread here, he's running pSX.

ooops

[Squall-Leonhart]

Originally Posted by patrickp

No it can't, jonc, regardless of program or settings. The .bin/.cue format was not designed to include subcode, any attempt to make it do so would mean it was no longer the .bin/.cue format, and there would be no support for it in applications using CD images - it's taken long enough for the CloneCD and Alcohol formats to achieve even the limited support that they now have.

WRONG.

[patrickp]

OK, why doesn't someone tell me how you can effectively include subcode in a format that doesn't support it?

[Squall-Leonhart]

Damned if i know, but all of the bin format images i have report subcode is ok in the EPSXE logger.

[patrickp]

Well, I have no idea what the "EPSXE logger" is, Squall-Leonhart, but I can assure you that .bin/.cue format images don't include subcode. I suspect that whatever "EPSXE logger" is reporting is either wrong, or you're misinterpreting what it is saying.

[jonc2006]

i believe its the output epsxe creates, it will show the status of the emulator as well as listing any errors or conflicts when the emulator is in use, if no subchannel data is able to be detected it will specifically say so. and if you have used epsxe 1.5.2 before, it is that black DOS-style window that appears once you launch the emulator (edit- it looks just like what is in the screenshot that is shown in the 1st post of this thread). in later versions i think you can have it displayed by use of a certain command switch.

[patrickp]

Thanks, jonc. Now, can you tell me how you can effectively include subcode in a format that doesn't support it, please?

[Squall-Leonhart]

its not our job to tell you anything. go do your own research.

[patrickp]

You're being silly now, Squall-Leonhart. You've made an incorrect, unsupportable statement - it most certainly is up to you to put up or shut up.

That is, to make it easy for you, demonstrate that there is a practical way to include the subcode information from a CD in a .bin/.cue image of it, or withdraw your statements.

[hushypushy]

If you rip an image to bin/cue, it won't contain the subchannel data. What do you think is in the .sub file?

[jonc2006]

i guess you are right but why does the logger not mention anything about the data not being present and why dont any of the games i have in that format not work correctly due to the subchannel data being missing?

[patrickp]

Only some games in the PAL and NTSC-J formats are copy protected and would be affected by the absence of subcode, jonc. No NTSC-US game is copy protected; mod protection is the only protection used for North American games, and it's fairly unusual.

So it's quite likely you you simply don't have any protected games.

I would imagine the logger doesn't mention anything about subcode being present because it's not looking for it. AFAIK ePSXe CDR plugins, when they do read subcode, deal with it entirely apart from actually running the game from CD or from an image. AIR with some plugins, like Pete's, if you have a copy protected game, you can record the subcode from the CD and save it as a file. Then to play the game, you instruct the plugin to use the file to duplicate the subcode.

However, pSX actually reads the subcode directly, so as long as you have an optical drive (and driver) that can read subcode, or an image that includes the subcode, you don't bother about whether the game is copy protected - you just play it. And with a copy protected game, you can't do this if it's in the .bin/.cue format, only if it's in the .ccd/.img/.sub or .mdf/.mds formats.

[jonc2006]

hmm i see, my bad then. oh and dont mind squall, he probably just has a little sand in his vagina atm, he tends to get cranky when that happens.

[patrickp]

LOL! No problem, jonc. You post here a lot and Squall does sometimes, so I know you're both Ok.