Merging multiple discs - remove & add files to bin/cue

[konfy]

Now, this is related to an earlier topic, PDS`s Debug Menu

K

Thread 'Panzer Dragoon Saga Debug Menu'

Sep 13, 2025

After selling most of my gaming stuff back in 2005 on Ebay, i never thought i would revisiting gaming ever. again. My PAL trilogy set of Panzer Dragoon; 1, Zwei and Saga sold for no less than 101 bucks back then. Little did i know ;-(

Well, 2019 hit different and i've seen myself looped back to retro games since; to the refreshingly different catalog of Saturn releases in particular. Learning about ODEs and the latest progress on handheld devices and software emulation made it even easier to access some unique games. But what i find most stunning is that, after all that time since Saturn...

• konfy
• Replies: 0
• Forum: Saturn

• 

I thought it would be fun to dump all files of the 4 discs into one image, so that one can access all points of the game without changing the disks or running into error screens ("file not found" screen requires hard reset every time).
Its not that easy of course; but there are some tools like SegaSaturnPatcher(SSP) and CDMage(CDM) to achieve this.

Here's what i've done so far:
1.) extracting all files of the discs 2-4; size ~1.7GB
2.) as the discs share some content; get rid of duplicate/redundant files
3.) to further reduce size, i removed most cut scene movies/CPK files as well; remaing files from disc 2,3,4: <500MB
4.) Edit the Image of Disc1; the only tool capable of actually removing most CPK files from the Image of Disc1 was AnyBurn, successfully reducing size to <230 MB
unfortunately, saving the results strips the image off the 2 audiotracks
5.) loading the edited Disc1 image in SSP, creating a Patch with content from discs2,3,4 - merging the files to one Image based on Disc1
6.) checking for corrupted Sectors with CDM
7.) checked/repaired IP.bin with HxD editor

So, this is some Frankensteinshit right there already, but...

-the resulting Image has a size within the boundaries of a CD
-it boots up and even plays the Intro-Movie but then resets the game and goes to the CD-Player GUI

As mentioned above, audiotracks are missing from the image, re-inserting them via SSP Patch results in SSP crashing :-(
Does anyone know if this is possible AT ALL?
Are the some other tools/steps i probably missed?
I assume AnyBurn may not be the best Software to deal with Saturn games.

Would be superfun to get this working 🙂

 

[zengzidane]

The movie are not only cpk files, also be bindded many voice, subtitles, realtime motion files and links. If want to split them, should know how to identify these programes first.

 

[konfy]

Hey thanks for the input. Actually i was able to check each cpk i wanted to remove with VLC player, and was able to confirm its a cutscene. I am aware that removing files will break the usual flow of the plot.

Do you know of any Win or Linux tool that could handle removing files without compromise the image file?

 

[zengzidane]

le to check each cpk i wanted to remove with VLC player, and was able to confirm its a cutscene. I am aware that removing files will break the usual flow of the plot.

Hey thanks for the input. Actually i was able to check each cpk i wanted to remove with VLC player, and was able to confirm its a cutscene. I am aware that removing files will break the usual flow of the plot.

Do you know of any Win or Linux tool that could handle removing files without compromise the image file?

Sorry I am not a hacker and can`t give techical support to you. As I know, if you play a CPK movie, will find the subtitles is missing, because the subtitles is another separated file in game, you could tracking them and error massege with DEBUG tool of a saturn emulator.