GCN Is it possible to trim Gamecube isos?

[Deleted User]

I've started to use Nintendont on my Wii, and I've noticed that most games are EXACTLY 1.4GB, 1.3GB, 1.1GB in size.
I was wondering if there's a tool to "clean" a Gamecube iso in order to get the whole game for a much smaller file size.

I've tried to look at relatble posts, but all the info I get is that the computer might be rounding up file size and that GC Mini Discs does not holds more than 1.35GB in space.

For instance... Animal Crossing, on the Gamecube.... surely weights waaaaaay less than 200MB no?

 

[Wuigi]

@Jonton Yes, there is a programm from the original developer of nintendont, it's called DMToolbox.
You can compress your gamecube games to be pretty small afterwards in many cases, especially Mario Party games are really small.
However, after compressing they won't work with dolphin and they can't be converted back so you should keep a copy of the original backup.

 

[Deleted User]

@Jonton Yes, there is a programm from the original developer of nintendont, it's called DMToolbox.
You can compress your gamecube games to be pretty small afterwards in many cases, especially Mario Party games are really small.
However, after compressing they won't work with dolphin and they can't be converted back so you should keep a copy of the original backup.

THANK YOU VEEEEERY MUCH FOR QUICK REPLYING ME

I've found this software called Gamecube ISO Tool and now I'm trimming testing F-ZERO.
But as you just said that there's a tool made by the developer of Nintendont I will change to that instead.
Again, thanks!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Sorry to bother you.... but how do I trimm an iso file?
Which do I choose:
RAW
Optimized
Extracted

Also, the Align part what's used for?
I read somewhere that loading isos from SD needed to be formated at FAT32 @ 32kbps for optimal "disc reading"... is that's what supposed to be on the Align options on DMTool?

 

[Ryccardo]

For instance... Animal Crossing, on the Gamecube.... surely weights waaaaaay less than 200MB no?

The European version is 144 MB in CISO format (which is the recommended "trimmed" one, although compatibility is limited - but including Dolphin and Nintendont), the Japanese e+ version is 32 MB

WIT is considered one of the best trimmers (and the one I use): to convert to CISO, the command to use is `wit convert -C /path/to/the/game.iso`

 

[Deleted User]

Ugh... I'm even more confused right now.
So... CISO is an Trimmed Iso format?

Right now I've tested with F-Zero and no matter which option I use on DMTools or Gamecube ISO Tool, they output an game.iso of the same exact original size, on other words, trimming isn't working

EDIT: God damn forgive me for being stupid... I just can't believe that F-Zero is THAT BIG. I mean... trimmed saves up to 1.6% of space.
Original file size: 1.35GB
Trimmed size: 1.34GB
Who knew?

 

[Ryccardo]

Ugh... I'm even more confused right now.
So... CISO is an Trimmed Iso format?

Trimming, in the common definition, means removing useless data at the end of a disc/disk/rom image (to save space)

With most games on optical disc consoles, this would fail to save space, as significant data is often pushed near the end of the disc (to get a higher data speed on CAV optical drives), and (without using sparse files, which FAT32 for one doesn't support) you can't "remove some middle part of a file"

So people invented file formats that are made of the original backup, minus useless space, plus a table of where the gaps originally were (to allow for accessing sectors by their original number, something disc games not that rarely do); CISO is one of those for GC and Wii games (one which is directly playable, with software that supports CISO; other less known gap-discarding formats are not, and must be converted back for use)

While I don't know how those other programs work (I tried one of them on Animal Crossing and the result didn't work), I suspect they do the equivalent of extracting all files, then creating a new filesystem with those files (removing gaps but obviously changing their position)

I just can't believe that F-Zero is THAT BIG

Remember it's 2 games in one... (GX and AX)

 

[Deleted User]

I've ran into a problem... Nintendon't turns off my wii spontaneously.
It has happened with Metroid Prime and Twilight Princess.

Some pages on Google states that that happens because I have "bad" copies of the games.
I'm assuming that this issue has to do with the whole trimming thing... as I believe having an 1:1 copy is better than having a trimmed copy.

How do I solve that?

 

[Ryccardo]

I'm assuming that this issue has to do with the whole trimming thing... as I believe having an 1:1 copy is better than having a trimmed copy.

How do I solve that?

Well, if they have indeed been destructively changed... the solution is re-dumping them with accurate backup tools like CleanRip (or finding someone else who did that)

 

[Deleted User]

Oh man...

Well, if they have indeed been destructively changed... the solution is re-dumping them with accurate backup tools like CleanRip (or finding someone else who did that)

I'm assuming this because BEFORE I trimmed my roms, Nintendo didn't crashed at all.
I'll try by downloading the roms and pasting them again, without trimming them, and if that doesn't work... well, I have plenty of physical discs that I can play instead.
The only ones I'm truly missing are the Megaman X and Anniversary collections, Zelda Twilight, Luigi's Mansion and Metroid Prime and Prime 2

 

[Drud1995]

I remember getting an Animal Crossing rom years ago, that was only something like 20 MB. Most likely due to the fact, that it only tweaked a few minor details from the original Japanese version on the N64.