[game_preservation] Archivist's Burden

[Andrew Armstrong]

Addition; If this discussion gets something nailed down I'll add it to 
the wiki. We need to start developing a library of technical information 
so that anyone can find reliable information on this, CD copying is a 
good starting point since other places have floppy disc copying covered.

Andrew

Andrew Armstrong wrote:

> I don't think the Software Preservation Society has looked at CDs, but 

> I wonder what their standards might be (any members want to comment?).

>

> A automated solution would be key, yeah. A linux script would be good 

> since there are few windows ISO/CD tools in any case, and none provide 

> reliable logs (or don't simply crash when encountering bad data) from 

> what I've found.

>

> Looking up the dd command it looks pretty simple to get an ISO of a 

> complete CD and it seems to be able to log enough information - 

> especially useful for those glaringly obvious read problems some CDs 

> have (from being poor quality to scratches to mess on them - so the 

> noerror might even want to be omitted so you can check out any read 

> errors so the ISO isn't broken).

>

> One thing on the error sections, it doesn't seem to have a "repeatedly 

> try reading data" option - odd, but I presume it does try more then once.

>

> The only site I know that has ISO's (or CD contents more accurately) 

> is Textfiles, Jason Scott might have an automated solution he's 

> willing to share, might be worth asking.

>

> Oh, for audio too, yeah, FLAC would be the preferable one in my 

> opinion next to the raw files themselves if you want to save space. 

> FLAC is open, so it's a pretty good one for standards for getting to 

> read it back later, lots of tools that read and write them.

>

> Andrew

>

> Mike Melanson wrote:

>> So I was thinking recently about how I didn't have enough to do with 

>> my life (that's sarcasm at work) and I came up with yet another project:

>>

>> I have a 750 GB RAID-1 storage device (i.e., mirrored 750 GB drives 

>> for redundancy) that recently freed up. I have somewhere around 800 

>> games on CD-ROM (of which a fair number consist of multiple discs). 

>> So how about archiving the discs? I guess it's sort of a duty when I 

>> am sitting on this kind of collection. Who else knows more about 

>> forgotten educational games and licensed Barbie titles?

>>

>> The question becomes "how to archive?"

>>

>> My first impulse: Write a Python script that automatically copies the 

>> data track from a CD-ROM ('dd' Unix command). Additionally, for any 

>> audio tracks, automatically rip them and compress them losslessly 

>> using either FLAC or ALAC (Apple Lossless).

>>

>> Comments?

>>

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