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Some examples:
* Super Mario Anniversary (Wii): 4.7 GB (original) > 12 MB (GCZ) (!!)
* Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii): 7.8 GB (original) > 7.1 GB (GCZ) (main cause is FMV's low compression)
* Xenoblade PAL (Wii): 7.8 GB (original) > 6.3 GB (GCZ)
* Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii): 4.7 GB (original) > 1.8 GB (GCZ)
* Tales of Graces (Wii): 4.7 GB (original) > 4.2 GB (GCZ) (game data already fills the disk)
* Animal Crossing (GC): 1.4 GB (original) > 26 MB (===GCZ)* Zelda Four Swords Plus Japan (GC): 1.4 GB (original) > 480 MB (GCZDolphin native archive format)* Zelda Twilight Princess (- GC): 1.4 GB (original) > 1.4 GB (GCZ) (game data already fills the disk)* Megaman Collection (GC): 1.4 GB (original) > 1.1 GB (original) (sound data is stored as uncompressed stream to fill disk)/Wii===
People used to resort to WiiScrubber * '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes for GC games, No for Wii games.* '''Gain:''' Immediate (WiiISO dump size lowers) and GCM Utility . Considerable, depending on game.* '''Tools Used:''' Dolphin; right click the game(GCs) to scrub/trim in the games to end up with dumps that while they had no immediate size change, their randomized garbage data (like list and select "dummyCompress ISO...", ("paddingCompressed selected ISOs..." or if more than one is selected)* '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. You can right-click on the GCZ-compressed (in blue) ISOs in Dolphin and choose "znullUncompress selected ISOs") was still there but . Garbage data for Wii titles will be zeroed out making archived dumps using zip/7zip/rar formats , but will have stunning gains (from 1.4GB uncompressed to 26MB zipped for Animal Crossing for example!)no effect on gameplay. Of course the file still needed to be uncompressed to its full size everytime you wanted to play it* '''Playable on Hardware?''' No* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Only Dolphin.
However compressed formats incorporating the "padding zeroing" part were made since then, and Dolphin supports them! (Of course, if you're into moddingScrubbing games zeros out garbage/rom-hacking games, dummy data in the previous tools might ISO file. The resulting file will be of interest to youthe same size, but this is a story for another timeit will be able to compress better than unmodified ISOs.The difference can be huge depending on the game.Animal Crossing, for instance, will compress to just a 26 MB .) gcz file after being scrubbed!
===GCZ (Dolphin native archive format) - GC/Wii===* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes for GC Trimming games, No for Wii games (doesn't keep MD5 hash)* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Considerable, depending on game.* '''Tools Used:''' Dolphin emulator<br />You need to add will remove the games in your game list under Dolphin (Configurationgarbage/Paths).<br />Select game dummy data outright, resulting in game list (you can hold Shift and select multiple ones).<br />Right-click and choose "Compress selected ISOs". Choose a directory.<br />It saves a compressed GCZ copy. You might want to delete the original uncompressed smaller ISOfile. * '''Can The trimmed file can be reverted?''' Yes. You can right-click on used immediately at a smaller size without compression, but the GCZ-compressed (in blue) ISOs in Dolphin and choose "Uncompress selected ISOs". Garbage data is still there but zeroed out, which has no effect since itgame's randomized anywaysinternal structure will be wholly modified.* '''Playable on Hardware?Several games will break if you trim them.''' No* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Only Dolphin.
==LET'S PLAY GAME BUTCHERING GAME==
Of course, there are also the devs who don't merely use garbage data for padding, but also bloat '''the game data part'''. For instance, Tengai Makyou IV PSP has a specific FMV movie duplicated a dozen times, and the Megaman Collection on GC stores its sound data using an uncompressed format bringing the size of that portion alone to 1GB. In many of these cases, there's just not much you can do about it without destructively altering game data.
So what do some people do? Note when I say "delete" it often means replacing the file with a 1KB dummy file to prevent the ISO file structure from collapsing on itself. Of course, it's not like some idiots care anyways about keeping the thing in a semi-playable state.
* They delete all videos: this brings Super Smash Bros Brawl to 4.7GB.
* They delete all voice acting and occasionally sound and music: this brings Xenoblade PAL to 4.2 GB with even only one of both dubs removed.
* They delete unused content you could get with emulator cheats like rooms and stuff
* They delete "extra" languages other than English
* If game has multiple quests, they delete some characters / quests they don't like. Especially seen in compilations and stuff with demos included.
Since this results in most of the case in very noticeable detrimental effects in gameplay (if the game doesn't crash outright), this is nothing short of mutilating the game image, and the fuckers doing this then instead of keeping it for personal use are instead uploading the game to "archive" it (bonus points if they remove chunks from the game to make room for a shitty intro screen) while being proud of themselves, have a special spot in Hell.
tl;dr: Avoid.
This page was based partially on this [https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/3g933n/guide_reduce_the_size_of_your_ps2_gc_wii_x360_ds/ guide].
Cleanup, but more needs to be done. Updated GC/Wii section. Removed immature section at the end.
There are many ways. Some alter the dump copy forever. Some are playable on only some specific emulators. And many light dumps are unplayable on real hardware (though a bunch are). All depending on the method and the console. So you might want to consider all of this before.
This page was based partially on this [https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/3g933n/guide_reduce_the_size_of_your_ps2_gc_wii_x360_ds/ guide].
=Audio-CD=
<br />CUE is the datasheet file
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' NoDepends on what format you convert the audio to.
* '''Gain:''' Several hundreds of MBs to just a few dozen, depending on how much this specific game relies on the Audio-CD sound format
* '''Tools Used:''' Load the BIN+CUE using a virtual drive, then use a CD dumping tool
* '''Can be reverted?''' Yes, just burn the ISO+MP3/WAV+CUE again using a CD burner tool (ImgBurner) either to a physical disk, or as a ISO+BIN file. Lossy audio formats will result in data loss.
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' No, but can be reverted to be
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes (use virtual drive if needed). Some aren't compatible with MP3 so convert to WAV with MP32WAV if that's the case. You may need Sega Cue Maker.
* '''Tools Used:''' PakkISO or ECM Tools (from emuparadise download page). Drag-and-drop the iso on the specific tool, then compress it with 7zip.
* '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. Using , using the same tools (unECM). ThereHowever, there's a data loss (error correction data) which can damage a select few games. Check the hash with Redump to make sure nothing was altered.
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' No.
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Only recent SVN builds of PCSX-R and ePSXe (they also support 7zip/gzip/zip archives so use them with ECM). Other emulators don't, so you convert manually the ECM dump to an ISO dump whenever you want to play it.
* '''Tools Used:''' PSX2PSP. Generates an EBOOT.PBP file.
* '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. Using same tool, to generate BIN+CUE files. There's negligible data loss, although it's negligible in terms of functionality.
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' On PSP, not on PS1.
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Retroarch, PCSX-R and ePSXe.
However, you must never mess with LBA and TOC when removing padding. So you try change the size of the padding file inside the ISO to 0 MB, or alter it directly with a hex editor so that it's all zeroed out.
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' YesNo
* '''Gain:''' Not Immediate (ISO dump size the same). Coupled with compression, however... the gain is really noticeable.
* '''Tools Used:''' UltraISO
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size the same). Coupled with manual scrubbing, it can be bigger. Not as much of a gain as GZIP though.
* '''Tools Used:''' maxcso
* '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. Using , using the same tool. No data loss.
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' NO
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes - PCSX2.
<br />UMDGen is a PSP ISO editor. You can save to either the CSO format with this.
* '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. Using , using the same tools, but and saving to in ISO (Uncompresseduncompressed) format. No data loss.
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' Yes. Longer load times though.
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes. PPSSPP.
==GameCube / Wii==
Dolphin can't play game dumps off games directly from compressed archives (7zip/zip/gzip/rar...) directly. Instead, it utilizes its own compression method.
===Scrubbing and Trimming - GC/Wii===* '''Archive-quality dump?''' No* '''NOTEGain:''' Trimming and Not Immediate for scrubbing (in Wiiscrubber terms) aren't ISO dump size the same! While they both are terms ); Immediate for "zeroing garbage data" to make it more compression-friendly, trimming does not just that like (ISO dump size lowers).* '''Tools Used:''' GameCube ISO Trimmer (scrubbingand trimming for GameCube), but takes the extra step of relocating the garbage data to the end of the fileWiiScrubber (scrubbing for Wii, hence altering its TOC and requiring the disc to although compressing with Dolphin will scrub it anyways).* '''Can be fakesigned, reverted?''' No.* '''Playable on Hardware?''' Yes for a not-so-big compression gainscrubbing; some games won't work trimmed. Hence why * '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes for scrubbing is by far the most authentic and safe way to solve the garbage data problem; some games won't work trimmed.
===WBFS - Wii-only===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Considerable, depending on game.
* '''Tools Used:''' Wii Backup Manager<br />Under the "Files" section; after adding your game, choose go to "AddTransfer" then choose the ISO file you're converting.<br />Tool is compatible with ISO, CSO (aka CISO) and WBFS disk dumps. When you're done, select the ISO files you added.<br />Under "TransferWBFS", use the destination format. So, in our case, WBFS. Choose the directory to save it.<br />It saves a copy in the WFBS format. You might want to delete the original uncompressed ISO. * '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. You "Add" the WBFS disk dump and "Transfer" it to the "ISO" format. Garbage data is still there but zeroed out, which has no effect since itwon's randomized anywayst affect gameplay.
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' Yes!! WBFS dumps are playable on Wii.
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes - Dolphin
===CSO (aka CISO) - Wii-only===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' Yes
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ISO dump size lowers). Less than WBFS.
* '''Tools Used:''' Wii Backup Manager. Same ; same as above, but "Transfer" to select "CISO".* '''Can be reverted?''' Yes. You "Add" the CSO disk dump and "Transfer" it to the "ISO" format. Garbage data is still there but zeroed out, which has no effect since itwon's randomized anywayst affect gameplay.
* '''Playable on Hardware?''' No
* '''Playable on Emulators?''' Yes - Dolphin
==GameBoy Advance / Nintendo DS / Nintendo 3DS==
===Trimming===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' ABSOLUTELY NOTNo.
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (ROM dump size lowers).
* '''Tools Used:''' NDSTokyoTrim (GBA/DS/3DS), rom_tool (3DS)<br />NDSTokyoTrim: Drag-and-drop roms, and press "Trim". The original file will be overwritten!
===XEX (Xbox Executable) + Data folder (a.k.a Spilling The ISO Guts)===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' ABSOLUTELY NOTNo.
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (total file size decreases). It still works with Xenia
* '''Tools Used:''' XBOX 360 ISO Extract, Exiso-GUI or Exiso. (These might be useful for rom-hacking too I guess?)
===Rebuilt ISO===
* '''Archive-quality dump?''' ABSOLUTELY NOTNo.
* '''Gain:''' Immediate (total file size decreases). It still works with Xenia.
* '''Tools Used:''' ISO2GOD (also a "Games on Demand" X360 image convertor). <br />Under Settings, set the output and rebuild path to the same location. Check "Always save rebuilt ISO" and set Padding to "Full (ISO Rebuild)", then save changes.<br />"Add ISO", and press "Convert". Keep generated ISO, and delete generated folder.
===Decompression on Demand===
You can keep your ROMs/ISOs compressed in a 7zip archive and use RocketLauncher or any other [[Frontends]] to decompress 7zip archives and pass the contents onto the emulator.
[[Category:FAQs]]
