Regions
There are three data areas on a GD-ROM disc. The first is in conventional CD format, and usually contains an audio track with a warning that the disc is for use on a Dreamcast, not an ordinary CD player (such as "This is a Dreamcast disc and is for use only on a Dreamcast unit. Playing this disc on a Hi-Fi or other audio equipment can cause serious damage to its speakers. Please stop this disc now," usually in different languages). Other variations use the game's character's voices in a lighthearted or humorous message (for example, Skies of Arcadia gives the message "We can't save the world from a CD player! Put us back in the Dreamcast so we can do our job!"). The CD section also contains a data segment, readable in PCs. Although most discs include only text files identifying the game, its copyright and bibliography, some contain bonus material for home computer users (for example, Sonic Adventure contains images of Sonic characters to use on the desktop). There then follows a separator track which contains no data except for the text Produced by or under license from Sega Enterprises LTD Trademark Sega (Similar to the Sega Saturn, it was believed that the security key was stored in this area to prevent piracy). The final (outer) section of the disc contains the game data itself in a higher density format. This section is 112 minutes long, with a data size of 1.2 GiB.
A normal CD-reader will not read beyond the first track because, according to the CD table of contents (TOC), there is no data there. With modified firmware that looks for a second TOC in the high-density region it is possible to read data from the high-density region even on a normal CD-reader. One can also utilize a "swap-trick" by first letting the CD-reader read the TOC from a normal CD with a large track and then swapping that disc with a GD-ROM in a way that avoids alerting the CD-reader that a new disc has been inserted. It is then possible to read as much data from the high-density region as indicated by the TOC from the first disc.
The most popular way to access data from GD-ROMs, however, is to use the Dreamcast itself as a drive, and copy the data to a computer by means of a "coder's cable" or a Dreamcast Broadband Adapter; another alternative is modding the Dreamcast to add a USB connector. Sega has discontinued production of GD-ROM media.
Read more about this topic: GD-ROM
Famous quotes containing the word regions:
“In common with other rural regions much of the Iowa farm lore concerns the coming of company. When the rooster crows in the doorway, or the cat licks his fur, company is on the way.”
—For the State of Iowa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Nature seems to have taken a particular Care to disseminate her Blessings among the different Regions of the World, with an Eye to this mutual Intercourse and Traffick among Mankind, that the Natives of the several Parts of the Globe might have a kind of Dependance [sic] upon one another, and be united together by their common Interest.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“In place of a world, there is a city, a point, in which the whole life of broad regions is collecting while the rest dries up. In place of a type-true people, born of and grown on the soil, there is a new sort of nomad, cohering unstably in fluid masses, the parasitical city dweller, traditionless, utterly matter-of-fact, religionless, clever, unfruitful, deeply contemptuous of the countryman and especially that highest form of countryman, the country gentleman.”
—Oswald Spengler (1880–1936)