Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone (PS1)

Looking for a gamerip to the PS1 – and ONLY the PS1 – version of the game.

This version has the demo recordings (same as the PC version) except probably at a higher bitrate. Any help would be appreciated.

Even a quick how-to of how to get the .xa files from the game ISO would help, or some point in the right direction.

VGMToolbox (https://sourceforge.net/projects/vgmtoolbox) should be able to extract .xa from PS1 Isos.

Thanks, it’s a step in the right direction. Since I don’t know anything about scripts I can’t really go much farther in the process, but it’ll be something to play around with in the future.

I skimmed the Article, hope it’s at least some help

PROPER XA FILE EXTRACTION:

Okay, this is going to be annoying to explain. PSX2HD used to do this for you,
but since that doesn’t work anymore, there’s only one other way that I know of
that will do it right– RAW sector extraction using CDRWIN. This is a
painstaking process that is done manually and takes a lot more time to do.

So, you’re going to need the sector range to extract this stuff. How do you get
it? This is where IsoBuster is going to come in handy. With your CD open in
IsoBuster, check out the files. There’s a column that says LBA. That is the
first sector for the file. To learn what the final sector is, look for the file
with the next highest starting sector. Subtract one from that number and you get
the final sector to the file you want to extract. Example:

NAME | LBA
———-|——
FILE1.XA | 3423
FILE2.XA | 35709
FILE3.DAT | 63935

FILE1.XA’s first sector is 3423. FILE2.XA’s first sector 35709. Subtract 1, and
FILE1.XA’s final sector is 35708. Likewise, since FILE3.DAT begins at 63935,
FILE2.XA’s final sector will be 63934.

So, write the file name and its sector range down. Repeat that until you cover
all XA files on the disc.

Directories on the discs tend to be orderly, so you if you sort the file view
in IsoBuster by LBA, the next file should be the true up of the one you noted.

If an XA file happens to be the last one in a directory, look around on the disc
for a file (or folder! Don’t forget to check the folder LBAs too) that succeeds
it. If the XA file turns out to be the last file on the disc, go over to the
tree on the left, right click the Track, and select properties. Size (Blocks)
will give you the final sector of the disc. Use that exact number as the final
sector number.

With the filenames and sector ranges recorded, it’s time to extract with CDRWIN.
Once in CDRWIN, go to the extract menu (the upper middle button). Do this:

1) Set Extract Mode to "Select Sectors".
2) In the Sector Selection part, set the Datatype to "Data Mode2 Mixed(2336)"
3) Under the Start Box, input the first sector for the file, and the final
sector in the end box.
4) Put the name of the file in the "Image Filename" box.

Press the START button at the bottom of the menu. It’ll start extracting the
sectors into a file. You can check the file with PSMPlay
(located at http://www.zophar.net/utilities/psxutil.html). If it plays in that,
then the file is definitely good.

Repeat as necessary for all the XA files. Note: These files should be around 15%
larger than they appear on the disc. THIS IS NORMAL, so don’t worry about it.

Now, just copy the files to the appropriate locations in your CD mirror
directory.

There, you should have a perfect mirror of the game disc on your hard drive.

This is all way over my head. :laugh:
I’ve sent off a PM to a certain Shriner who both has a good knowledge of ripping game music as well as a similar appreciation for the HP games. But thanks for the assistance!

Look for a program called PSound and have it scan the Potter.dat file in the ISO. It’ll come up with a lot of false positives, but there are over 200 sound files, including the sound effects.

Not sure how much better quality you’ll find opposed to the PC version since they’re mono files at 22150 hz.

Shit, they’re mono? Seriously?

The PC files are at 96kbps, so anything better than that I guess will be of some use at least. Thank you!

Hmm… PSound can read the files, apparently, but can’t play/convert them properly. The software thinks they’re all blank tracks.

Or maybe I’m being a yogurt-head again and missing something obvious. :ashine:

Try PsxMC (http://www.zophar.net/utilities/psxutil/psxmc.html) (personally used it to convert some .XA files) and either:

– Burn the ISO and later run a scan of the CD with the software;
– Add a SCSI Virtual Drive to the likes of DAEMON Tools Lite and use that to "virtualize" the disk, other virtual drives don’t work with PsxMC.

The .XA files are encapsulated within a large .DAT file; they aren’t freely floating around in some folder. Would PsxMC be able to read the files even if they’re not immediately available like that?

My problem isn’t with converting them, it’s extracting them/accessing them at all that I’m having trouble with. :erm:

I also was relieved to grab the audio for a walkthrough to this game on YouTube, and the music is indeed stereo (not mono as PSound reported; I assume that was on account of PSound not being able to read the files properly).

PsxMC should also allow you to extract the files without converting them to .wav/etcetera (there’s a setting which states something along the lines of "No Conversion"). As for it being able to recognize the data you’re after even if it’s not floating around in some folder… Honestly, how can you expect me to answer that? :laugh: In my experience, every game is kind of "its own thing": with PsxMC I managed to rip games which had .XA files in plain view and also games which had them stored in other files… Likewise, I had games which refused to be ripped, despite meeting such criteria as throwing the .XA files right in your face. Scan->See how it goes->Try to extract what you’re interested in, if it has been found.

I always have the worst luck with computers! I mounted the drive but PSXMC didn’t detect anything.

Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve done so far…

Here’s the ISO, all mounted and ready to go.

Here are its contents:

(The ‘MOVIES’ folder only has a single STR file.)

Here’s PSXMC set to read the ‘Virtual Drive’; I assume when it’s set to this it’s supposed to read the game ISO?

And… nothing.

For the heck of it I tried opening that one STR file…

I chose ‘Yes’.

Arrgh!

:confused: I have no clue what I might be doing wrong… on the other hand, I’m not sure what I’m doing right, either. I should probably leave this to a pro like Alpha23, when he starts taking requests again.

PSXMc will only work if the files are in a .XA format, which these are apparently not.

Everything is buried in that .DAT file and I’ve tried several programs to try to get the files to extract in a playable format. PSound is the only thing so far I’ve been able to get to even closely remotely play these files. I’ve also tried Cube Media Player but it sounds like it’s upsampling to 44100 hz as it’s finding the files, and the files to play at too high of a frequency and it sounds really sped up. I can’t remember if I tried resampling them back down to 22150 hz in Audacity or not, I’m going to try that again. In vgmtoolbox I was able to run the Sony ADPCM function, but all it did was output a bunch of binary files with no header so no encoders recognize what it is.

Just wanted to check, are you absolutely sure that the GC version of the game doesn’t have the songs you’re looking for? That version of the game is infinitely easier to rip. Below is a paste of the files:

http://pastebin.com/dLqMN8wX

Are you sure you’ve done the following?

– Add a SCSI Virtual Drive to the likes of DAEMON Tools Lite and use that to "virtualize" the disk, other virtual drives don’t work with PsxMC.

Lol, look at this. Someone had the exact same question a year ago (https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/2oxihn/xpost_from_rtas_any_tips_extracting_psx_game/). :laugh:

Maybe I’ll message him later and ask if he had any success.

Just wanted to check, are you absolutely sure that the GC version of the game doesn’t have the songs you’re looking for? That version of the game is infinitely easier to rip. Below is a paste of the files:

http://pastebin.com/dLqMN8wX

What happened is that the game originally came out in 2001 for PSX and PC. The game came out for GCN, XBox, and PS2 two years later. By 2003, the composer Jeremy Soule had been given time (and probably a bigger budget) to revise his earlier compositions. Thus, the PC and PSX versions are the only copies with the demo recordings. I already have the GameCube audio; it uses the newer recordings and from what I recall has SFX mixed in some tracks.

The PC game has the audio at a measly 96kbps (22.5 kHz), so I’m hoping Argonaut Games encoded the music at a much high bitrate for the PSX.

For what it’s worth, Argonaut also developed Chamber of Secrets for PSX as well. Alpha23 ripped that one and the music is in great quality, without SFX mixed in. The amount of cues that one included to other comsoles is pretty comprehensive, so I’m hoping that the files for this game were similarly organized.

Regarding "virtualizing" the ISO – I used the ‘Quick Mount’ feature in Daemon Tools Lite. I guess that didn’t qualify as an creating an SCSI drive?

Regarding "virtualizing" the ISO – I used the ‘Quick Mount’ feature in Daemon Tools Lite. I guess that didn’t qualify as an creating an SCSI drive?
No, the default virtual drive won’t work with PsxMC. I’m currently on the laptop with Windows Vista, so forgive me if what I’m going to say isn’t of much help, but at least since version 4.45.1 Daemon Tools Lite has added a button which allows you to add also an SCSI virtual drive, which is supposed to work with PsxMC. Of course, as a last resort, you may always burn the ISO to a CD-R and scan that, did it plenty of times myself.

Well, I mounted the ISO to a virtual SCSI drive and it didn’t read anything through there either. :-\ I think the file format needs to be reverse-engineered in a hex editor, which is of course far beyond any talent I have.

I PMed the Reddit guy and hopefully he can shed some light on this mystery.

Well… the Reddit fellow had as much luck as I had: none.

Yeah, sorry bud. Whatever is going on with this file format is above my head. I’m not really much of a programmer, I just pick up on things here and there and make use of various tools that are already available.

XAEX (http://www.zophar.net/utilities/psxutil/xaex.html) is a tool that claims to be able to scan and extract from .DAT files, though the executable refuses to open. :facepalm:

I’ll just wait for Alpha23 to start taking requests in his thread again. Or maybe pop into hsc64 and see if anyone there knows what to do. Thanks for all the suggestions, though! 🙂

XAEX (http://www.zophar.net/utilities/psxutil/xaex.html) is a tool that claims to be able to scan and extract from .DAT files, though the executable refuses to open. :facepalm:

I’ll just wait for Alpha23 to start taking requests in his thread again. Or maybe pop into hsc64 and see if anyone there knows what to do. Thanks for all the suggestions, though! 🙂
The .exe does nothing at all, or it returns some kind of error? If the former is true, tried "dragging" the DAT file into the .exe? I ask because when using ecmtools you have to drag image/rips you want it to compress into its .exe.

It doesn’t even open. Windows just spits out an error message.