Disc Drive emulation

For information about home media playback support for emulation software, see Home media players#Emulators.

For copy protection situations, see Copy protection.

For proper ripping and dumping methods and information, see Ripping games.

For compressing, compress formats and emulator support, see Save disk space for ISOs.

While the aim is to retain the original copy protection, making the game believe the original disc is present: the virtual/emulated drive is performing "emulation" of the drive itself to deliver the preserved protection data to the game. If the MDF/MDS image is correctly ripped (a near-'perfect' replica) with proper settings (like enabling subchannel and DPM capture) with using capable hardware, and the software that mount the disc image correctly interprets the DPM and subchannel data (emulators, hypervisors, or virtual drive software with optical drive hardware emulation capability), games should be run without emulation of copy protection or NoCD/NoDVD executable patches. SecuROM may require precise DPM timing, which emulation settings help simulate. Also, SafeDisc may expect specific error codes or sector access patterns, which the virtual drive must emulate. However, success is not guaranteed even in these cases: as the game’s protection code may still expect drive-specific behaviors (or by a drive with specific characteristics or firmware) that virtual drive solutions (emulators, hypervisors, or virtual drive software with optical drive hardware emulation capability) does not provide, causing the protection check to fail. If that is the case; mount the image in virtual drive software like Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools with emulation settings (e.g., SecuROM, SafeDisc, SCSI/IDE mode) to mimic the behaviour. For instance, VirtualBox’s parser is very strict, it does not recognize the multi-track disc image or FLAGS DCP, so it throws: VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED. VMware on the other hand only supports ISO images.

Niche Cases

 - Multi-Session Discs: Some CDs (e.g., mixed-mode or enhanced CDs) use multiple sessions, requiring formats like MDF/MDS or .aaruf to capture session metadata accurately.
 - Hybrid Discs: Discs with both CDFS/ISO 9660 and UDF partitions need formats like MDF/MDS or .aaruf to preserve both file systems.
 - Firmware-Specific Protections: Protections like Tages may require drives with specific firmware to read unique identifiers, complicating ripping.
 - Obsolete Dependencies: Some discs rely on external software (e.g., old DRM drivers) that may conflict with modern systems, requiring emulation or virtualized environments.

Limitations

DPM variability prevents perfect 1:1 copies, and protections like SecuROM 7+ or StarForce 3+ may require online activation, which images cannot replicate. Modern Windows (NT 10) blocks SecuROM/SafeDisc drivers; Microsoft intentionally blocked the secdrv.sys driver used by SafeDisc and SecuROM due to perceived security vulnerabilities, making these older disc-based games unplayable on modern Windows versions without workarounds (like noCD/noDVD executable patches or specific shims (e.g., SafeDiscShim), or using older OS environments e.g., Windows XP in a VM). Even a “perfect” rip does not guarantee usability. The emulator or media player software must still support the relevant disc features (like supporting sidecar files like .sub, .sbi, or .m3d to bypass protections, or emulate the disc image capabilities precisely). For example, VLC uses libdvdcss, libdvdread and libdvdnav for copy protected DVD Videos. There are workaround methods for BD Video discs as well. DuckStation requires an .SBI file for LibCrypt-protected PAL titles even when subchannel data is present.[1][2] Software developers often avoid fully reproducing low-level drive behavior due to legal risk or copyright concerns, and the significant reverse engineering effort involved. Instead, they usually rely on workarounds such as patches, plugins, libraries, decryption methods.

Comparison

Only emulators that are recommended in the EmuGen Wiki are listed here.
For the low-level archival capabilities of specific disc image formats, see the Ripping comparison section. For compressed or scrubbed disc image formats and emulator compatibility, see Save disk space for ISOs. For arcade hardware utilizing analog video discs, see Arcade LaserDisc.
If an emulator's virtual disc drive lacks the full structural architecture to handle a format's native Copy protection mechanisms such as loading the image but ignoring subchannels or skipping physical topology checks (whether due to technical limitations or copyright compliance concerns), mark the capability as {{~}} instead of {{✓}}.

Emulator Name	CDs					DVDs, UMDs, HD-DVDs and BDs				System-Specific
	CDRWin BIN/CUE	CloneCD CCD/IMG/SUB	Alcohol 120% MDF/MDS	Aaru .aaruf	Disc Passthrough	UDF ISO	Alcohol 120% MDF/MDS	Aaru .aaruf	Disc Passthrough	.gcm	.xiso	.wud	.bin or .gdi / .raw	.dmg	Disc Passthrough
Dolphin	✗					✓	✗			✓	✗
86Box	✓	✓	~	~	✓	✓	?		✓	✗					✗
DuckStation	✓	~	~	✗	✓	✗				✗					✗
Emulator Name 4	?
Emulator Name 5	?
Emulator Name 6	?
Emulator Name 7	?
Emulator Name 8	?

CD

Saturn's CD Player

Sega Saturn supports CD-ROM discs. Also supports Audio CD, CD+G and Photo CDs. You need Sega Saturn emulators#Video CD Card for VCDs. On top of that, later revisions of the Video CD Card negate the need for "Photo CD Operating System" disc software by giving the Saturn native Photo CD support.

• Ymir (v0.2.0 and later) introduces low-level CD Block emulation, which requires a valid CD Block ROM and enhances accuracy for CD drive operations and game commands.[3]

PlayStation's CD Player

PlayStation CD player supports Audio CD and PlayStation format CD-ROM. However there is only one PlayStation model that can play VCDs, and that is the PlayStation SCPH-5903, released in Asia only, see here and here. They're hard to find and expensive. Also there is a third-party peripheral called Gamars Movie Card (similar to Dreammovie for Sega Dreamcast) gives you the ability to play Video CDs (VCD) through your PlayStation and it is compatible with all types of PlayStations (PAL and NTSC), this third-party peripheral is very user-friendly as it works by just attaching the unit to the back of the PlayStation. A number of PAL region games use LibCrypt protection, requiring additional CD subchannel information to run properly.

• Duckstation has Audio CD and CD-ROM support so you can boot directly your physical discs but there is no VCD support at the moment. Also there is no capability for handling the LibCrypt protection even if you're using one of the capable image format that supported by the emulator, so you need .SBI files alongside the disc image for those PAL games. CDRWin BIN/CUE and MDF/MDS supported. Recently, CloneCD image support added.
• Swanstation libretro core has issues with CD-ROM support at the moment.
• PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 (backwards compatibility) have support for Audio CD and PlayStation format CD-ROM discs but no support for Video CD/VCDs.

DVD

GameCube's Game Disc

The GameCube Game Disc (DOL-006) is the game medium for the GameCube, created by Matsushita/Panasonic, one of the ten founders of the DVD Forum, and later extended for use in the first Wii model backward compatibility mode. The GameCube is Nintendo's first optical disc console, after mainly ROM cartridge-based platforms. The GameCube Game Disc is a 1.46 GB, 8 cm miniDVD-based technology that reads at a constant angular velocity (CAV). It was chosen by Nintendo to prevent copyright infringement of its games, to reduce manufacturing costs compared to Nintendo 64 Game Paks, and to avoid licensing fees to the DVD Forum. GameCube Game Discs don't use the Content Scramble System found on normal DVD-Video discs, as Nintendo wasn't satisfied with its level of security.

The GameCube is unable to be used as a general DVD player, except for the Panasonic Q which is a uniquely customized GameCube with DVD capability that was released only in Japan.Wikipedia:Nintendo_optical_discs#GameCube_Game_Disc GameCube Game Disc

• Dolphin has support for GameCube Game Disc dumps and disc images. Most regular optical drives for PCs are unable to read GameCube & Wii discs. However, you can use some out-of-print models of DVD drives that may read GC and Wii discs but they are rare and primarily used for dumping the game data into an disc image file, and you need a compatible software tool to dump it. There is no passthrough support.

Wii Optical Disc

The Wii Optical Disc (RVL-006) is the physical game medium for the Wii, created by Panasonic. Nintendo extended its proprietary technology to use a full size 12 cm, 4.7/8.54 GB DVD-based disc, retaining the benefits of the GameCube Game Disc, and adding the standard capacity of a double-layer DVD-ROM. Wii Discs always include a partition with files to update the Wii system software, which are installed before starting the game if needed. This ensures that systems that can't connect to the Internet are still updated. For the same reasons as the GameCube, the Wii can't play DVD-Videos or CDs. However, earlier Wiis (typically those with serial numbers starting with LU64 or lower, or older RVL-CPU-30 boards) have hardware physically capable of reading DVD-ROMs, Nintendo never officially enabled this feature to avoid paying licensing fees. Those ones can play DVD-Video using homebrew such as WiiMC.

• Dolphin has support for Wii Optical Disc dumps/images. Most regular optical drives for PCs are unable to read GameCube & Wii discs. However, you can use some out-of-print models of DVD drives that may read GC and Wii discs but they are rare and primarily used for dumping the game data into an disc image file, and you need a compatible software tool to dump it. There is no passthrough support. See Ripping_games page for more information. On top of that, there is no support for DVD-Video if you plan to use Dolphin with WiiMC homebrew software for DVD-Video.
• Virtual Wii has support for Wii Optical Disc ( demonstration). It can't play DVD-Videos though, but we don't know if it is possible to play DVD-Videos using Virtual Wii and homebrew software (similarly to earlier Wii models as mentioned above). According to some user reports, it is possible with using external optical drive.