Page 1 of 1

the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 11:52 am
by migles
hello, simple question, what is the most recomended way to shrink games?

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 7:54 pm
by novenary
The most recommended way is not to shrink games. You can and will run into problems with it, and there is little benefit considering how cheap SD cards are nowadays.

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 1:53 am
by emu_kidid
I second what Streetwalker has said. There are many shrinking tools out there and there may be one that is 100% compatible with all games but the risk just isn't worth it. If a file hasn't been aligned properly or if a game is specifically checking for a particular file at a particular offset (they shouldn't be but you never know) then you're risking reduced compatibility.

If it's for storage long term, just 7z them if you really want to save space.

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 7:20 pm
by Andross89
I'm confused if you're talking about ISOs specifically ... If so:

With the exception of Need For Speed - Hot Pursuit 2, all of my ISOs are shrunk. Most of the problem is related to the main DOL that is corrupted. Just make the exchange for the original after the process. Create an ISO with a DOL that takes up more space so the file size error does not occur. Alignment at 32k is the biggest problem here. Some games do not start with 32k, if I'm not mistaken. I hope I have been helpful.

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 1:28 am
by novenary
That sounds like an awful lot of effort for so little benefit, and it really should be handled by the shrinking tool.

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 9:45 am
by Andross89
Streetwalker wrote:
Sat Aug 04, 2018 1:28 am
That sounds like an awful lot of effort for so little benefit, and it really should be handled by the shrinking tool.
Maybe ... To put 110 ISOs of games that I bought over my 10 years of Gamecube on a 128GB card was worth all the effort. And I even got space to make a collection of old systems. And I still use the space to save some files. I would do all again.

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 1:18 pm
by novenary
For archival you should definitely not be scrubbing those games. I hope you have full copies on a few other hard drives.

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 2:16 pm
by Andross89
Streetwalker wrote:
Sat Aug 04, 2018 1:18 pm
...I hope you have full copies on a few other hard drives.
I only have an exact copy of these ISOs in a HD. I still do not trust SD card fully. All ISOs work perfectly. I do not care about audio problems. Now, just wait for some games to work in the future.

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 9:58 pm
by migles
Streetwalker wrote:
Wed Aug 01, 2018 7:54 pm
The most recommended way is not to shrink games. You can and will run into problems with it, and there is little benefit considering how cheap SD cards are nowadays.
emu_kidid wrote:
Fri Aug 03, 2018 1:53 am
I second what Streetwalker has said. There are many shrinking tools out there and there may be one that is 100% compatible with all games but the risk just isn't worth it. If a file hasn't been aligned properly or if a game is specifically checking for a particular file at a particular offset (they shouldn't be but you never know) then you're risking reduced compatibility.

If it's for storage long term, just 7z them if you really want to save space.
i understand the risks, i always keep 1:1 dumps in my roms\games drive (and i always verify them against redump), i was already 7ziping most of them for archival purposes (nintendo striking rom games, NGC games are becoming hard to find)
but i still would like to shrink.. some games weight as little as 100MB and the rest of the data is just empty waste... it would be great to shrink most games in my "installed drive", i can always restore back a 1:1 copy in case i find problems with specific games

my problem is exactly that there seems to be too many shrinking tools, i wanted to know the one that is most reliable

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 9:12 pm
by novenary
I guess the best thing you could do is try for yourself and see what works well with each game. I've never actually tried to scrub games myself so I don't really know.

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 2:50 am
by emu_kidid
GCMUtil 0.5 is OK for most things but don't try it on Mario Baseball or any Audio Streaming enabled game.

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:50 pm
by migles
emu_kidid wrote:
Tue Aug 07, 2018 2:50 am
GCMUtil 0.5 is OK for most things but don't try it on Mario Baseball or any Audio Streaming enabled game.
thanks will try that one.
is there one that is friendly with audio streaming games? or these are an absolute nope due to the nature how they work?

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 9:54 am
by novenary
As far as I know, they should work as long as the tracks are aligned properly on the disc.

Re: the most recomended way to shrink games?

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 10:42 pm
by emu_kidid
If they aren't aligned you'll hear garbage. Programs like fstfix were made to fix this but I believe they bring the ISO back up to full size to achieve the alignment.