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.

The primary objective of low-level optical drive emulation is to recreate the precise hardware responses of a physical disc drive. While format matrices focus on image files, the internal virtual drive stack must handle advanced hardware communication properties to reliably trick native disc-based copy protections without needing NoCD/NoDVD executable patches or broken DRM drivers.

Before diving in

Drive Properties and Configuration

Advanced emulators mimicking complete motherboard architectures (such as 86Box) allow users to configure up to eight independent optical drives. The structural behavior of these virtual drives is dictated by several low-level settings:

Bus

Storage bus to attach the drive to. ATAPI (IDE), SCSI and Panasonic/MKE interfaces are supported.

Channel/ID

Where to attach the drive on the selected storage bus. See Adding a new disk for more information.

Speed

Maximum transfer speed for the drive. Up to 72x is supported.

Type

Disc drive model to identify as, suitable for the selected bus to choose from if it is provided; various models by name or speed. Some emulated machines have manufacturer restore discs locked to a specific drive model.

EDC/ECC emulation

Enable checking of CD-ROM error correction data. Can be changed without a hard reset of the emulated machine. Disabling Use EDC/ECC emulation may be required for some copy-protected discs (such as SafeDisc) that deliberately inject damaged sectors into the physical disc layout. A standard drive would return specific read-error block codes, which the emulator must pass upstream instead of auto-correcting.

Emulation vs. Copy Protection Handling

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.

Even if the disc image supported in some capacity, it still can be highly volatile. 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.

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:

• DuckStation requires an .SBI file for LibCrypt-protected PAL titles even when subchannel data is present.[3][4]
• VLC uses libdvdcss, libdvdread and libdvdnav for copy protected DVD Videos. There are workaround methods for BD Video discs as well.

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, and 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 home media playback capabilities, see the emulators that support multimedia capabilities of the system section.
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	.mmi	Disc Passthrough
Dolphin	✗					✓	✗			✓	✗
86Box	✓	?	~	~	✓	✓	?		✓	✗
DuckStation	~			✗	✓	✗
BigPEmu	✓	✗
Ymir	✓			✗
Xenia Edge	✗										✓	✗
Xemu	✗										✓	✗
PCSX2	~	✗			✓		✗		✓	✗						✓
RPCS3	✗					✓	✗		~	✗						~
Cemu	✗											✓	✗
Flycast	~	✗											✓	✗
Snow	✓	✗
Ares	✓	?			✗	?				✗			?	✗	✓	✗
Emulator Name	?

CD

TurboGrafx-CD and CD-ROM²

TurboGrafx-CD/CD-ROM² and Super CD-ROM²

The System Card 1.0 was included with the launch shipments of the CD-ROM² Interface Unit in 1988 (which did not include the actual CD drive, by the way; that had to be bought separately. Altered Beast requires it as it hangs with the newer BIOS versions, and someone reported an unspecified problem with Populous as well.

The System Card 2.0 was included in later shipments of the CD-ROM² System sometime in 1989 (around the time they started selling the Interface Unit and CD drive as a set). It served as the basis for the TurboGrafx-CD BIOS, which features a different title screen to go along with the different naming of the platform and its add-on in the US. Unlike HuCards, CD-ROM² discs are all region-free.

The System Card 2.1, released in 1990 exclusively in Japan, was the first System Card that was sold as a standalone, intended to be a replacement for users who had their original System Cards lost or damaged. Its only new feature was its ability to auto-detect disc changes.

The System Card 3.0 was launched in Japan in 1991. It was initially available built-in with the PC Engine Duo, a model of the console with an integrated CD drive, but was quickly offered as an upgrade to owners of the original CD-ROM² System in the form of the Super System Card, and later as an updated model of the add-on itself known as the Super CD-ROM² unit. The later models of the Duo (Duo-R and Duo-RX) also have this BIOS built-in. Version 3.0 increases the amount of buffer RAM from 64KB to 256KB, hence the addition of the word Super. Games that required this BIOS, which are labelled Super CD-ROM² discs, will display an incompatibility notice when loaded on a prior System Card.

This BIOS was released in the US in 1992 and was similarly offered built-in with the Turbo Duo (the US version of the PC Engine Duo) or as an upgrade for the TurboGrafx-16/CD in the form of the Super System Card (which was available primarily as a mail order).

Sega CD and Sega CD 32X

Sega Retro: Mega CD, 32X, CD 32X.

The Sega Mega CD and Sega CD 32X were add-ons for the Sega Genesis that expanded its capabilities with Mega CD-ROM playback (It can also play Audio CDs and CD+G discs), enhanced processing power, and a limited library of CD-based games with 32X functionality.

• Ares supports CD+G images.

Philips CD-i Player

Using CD-i player, you are able to watch movies, concerts and music videos from a Video-CD using the CD-i_emulators#Digital Video Cartridge extension (DVC), watch your favourite photos on a Photo-CD, listen your best album from an Audio-CD, play and learn using a large list of CD-i titles including games, educational software and multimedia titles. You are also able to sing karaoke songs mostly through CD+Graphics. CD-BGM, CD-i Ready, CD-Text, CD-Midi and CD-i Bridge are some of the other formats supported by the system.[5]

Atari Jaguar CD

The Atari Jaguar CD peripheral has a double-speed (2×) drive and built-in VLM (Virtual Light Machine) software by Jeff Minter, using a spectrum analyzer for a sophisticated video light show for audio CDs.

• BigPEmu supports both Atari Jaguar CD images and Audio CDs, although for Audio CDs you need to use bios image.

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.

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

PlayStation 2's DVD player

PCSX2 MagicGate fork - DVD-Video menu demonstration

PS2's DVD player was a versatile and powerful feature for its time, it supports PlayStation2 format DVD-ROM, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 1 format CD-ROM and offering great playback compatibility for the most common disc formats. While it lacked official support for DVD Audio and VCD, its ability to play DVD Video and Audio CDs, along with additional options like progressive scan and upscaling, made it a compelling choice for entertainment and multimedia playback. Also Interactive film/movie formats like DVDi and DVDPG supported. Lastly, PlayStation 2 supports both DVD5 (single-layer, 4.7 GB) and DVD9 (dual-layer, 8.5 GB) DVD-ROM discs. However, some users report encountering issues with DVD9 discs, particularly on older PS2 FAT models.

To begin with, when a disc is inserted the request goes through what's known as a 'mechacon'. This chip's firmware determines whether or not a disc is valid, or should be ignored. As mentioned above, you can have PS2 CD, PS2 DVD, PSX CD, DVD VIDEO and AUDIO CD. If none of those apply, the mechacon will ignore the request and return an error, which then results in the scary red 'eject the disc'. After it has been identified it then gets sent to the respective routine to process it; PS2 DVD/CD; PS2LOGO PSX CD; PSXDRV DVD VIDEO; DVDDRV AUDIO CD; Present the browser Now, you might be asking yourself, what do each of those do? Well, PS2LOGO is the program responsible for decrypting the PS2 LOGO that you see on startup. Any failure will return you to the same red block error screen. PSXDRV is the PS2's native emulation system for PS1 titles. Since It doesn't run through PS2LOGO, there's no encryption, so you can hotswap on the browser and boot the games you own. DVDDRV is the DVD Player, running native on the EE/GS.

• PCSX2 has CD-ROM and DVD-ROM support so you can boot your game directly from your physical discs ( demonstration), however there are no DVD-Video support at the moment. Audio CDs only supported when disc images virtually mounted until .cue support added to the emulator. See DVD-Video compatibility, CDRWIN's BIN/CUE format + Audio CD support feature request pages, MechaCon section in PlayStation 2 emulation issues section and MechaResearch project for more information. DVD-Video, DVDi, and FreeDVDBoot are functional in custom PCSX2 builds that support MagicGate emulation:

Custom Build	Base Version	Notes & Required Settings
PCSX2-reliquary	Most Recent	The most up-to-date fork supporting MagicGate emulation. Includes numerous features absent from mainline PCSX2, such as DVD Video playback support.
MagicGate branch of 987123879113 fork	Older	Has no audio during DVD-Video playback.
AKuHAK's build	Very Old	Comes with FMCB (softmod) pre-installed to the virtual memory card. Required Configuration: To use DVD-Video playback, you must use the included FMCB memory card and enable the "MTVU" speedhack, GS "software mode", and "screen offset" option.
Requires a complete BIOS dump (4MB ROM0 + 4MB ROM1 + NVRAM), use this dumper tool for dumping those files from your PlayStation 2. Also requires MagicGate key files (civ.bin, cks.bin, eks.bin, and kek.bin).
Keep in mind that If your DVD-Video image has region-locked copy protection, change your BIOS region to match it. For other copy protection and encryption techniques, you may encounter artifacts when trying to play the disc image, using VLC media player software is recommended for those situations.

• PlayStation 3 has no PlayStation 2 DVD player interface support because: no emulation process needed to handle DVD-Video. PlayStation 3 already features a slot-loading 2× speed Blu-ray Disc drive for BD-ROM, PlayStation2 format DVD-ROM, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 1 format CD-ROM, Blu-ray Disc Video, DVD-Video, and Audio CDs. Having said that there is no support for VCDs for PlayStation 3 just like PlayStation 2.

Xbox's DVD Drive

consolemods: Xbox DVD Drive and DVD-ROM

xboxdevwiki: Xbox DVD Drive

xboxdevwiki: XGD/Xbox Game Disc

xboxdevwiki XDVDFS (XISO) images

OG Xbox DVD drive supports Audio CD and XGD discs. Optical disc drives for PCs usually aren't capable to read OG Xbox format DVD-ROM/XGD, you would need very specific drive and firmware for that. More info in ripping games section and reverse engineering section.

• Neither xemu nor CXBX-Reloaded support OG Xbox DVD-ROM/XGD physical discs even if you got compatible drive and firmware. Doesn't support Redump ISOs, you need to rip your disc and create .xiso disc image. See xemu: disc images and XISO for CXBX-Reloaded pages for further information. For xemu, there is a feature request for adding support for loading Audio CD discs and images, also there is another pull request for loading retail Xbox titles both in 'redump' format and xiso format with an unmodified retail BIOS. Xbox game discs also have a special DVD video partition before the real game partition so people can see something if they stick the disc into a DVD player. A "redump" is an accurate dump of the disc containing both this DVD video partition and the real game partition that follows it. But because xemu doesn't emulate the DVD drive hardware correctly yet, we need to repack this redump format into a disc image with just the game partition. Game files are stored on game discs in a special filesystem. Packing means to take all the game files and put them in this special filesystem so Xbox (or xemu) can read them. Unpacking does the reverse, giving you the game files. Extracting is synonymous with unpacking. "extract-xiso" is a legacy tool that can do both packing and unpacking.
• There was a pull request for adding Xbox-DVD Drive emulation to xqemu, but it seems discontinued.
• Xbox 360 console (Fusion) supports OG Xbox DVD-ROM/XGD discs.
• Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles (Fission) don't really support OG Xbox DVD-ROM/XGD discs because it only recognizes the disc, after that it is downloading/installing the game from Xbox Live not from the DVD-ROM.

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.

Xbox 360's DVD Drive

free60: Xbox 360 DVD Drive

consolemods: XGD3 games

redump: Microsoft Xbox and Xbox 360 Dumping Guide

The Xbox 360 uses a 12x DVD drive with transfer speeds at 16MB/second. Xbox 360 DVD drive supports Audio CD, PhotoCD, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video and XGD3 discs. Optical disc drives for PCs usually aren't capable to read XGD3 discs. More info in ripping games section and reverse-engineering section. For reading HD-DVD discs you need HD-DVD Player peripheral/drive.

• Xenia Canary or Xenia Edge has no support for Audio CD, PhotoCD, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video or passthrough support for Xbox 360 format DVD-ROM/XGD3. Only .XISO disc images for XGDs are supported.
• Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles (Fission) have support for DVD-Video, but there is no real support for Xbox 360 format DVD-ROM/XGD3, because it is only recognizing the disc, after that it is downloading/installing the game from Xbox Live not from the disc itself.

BD

PlayStation 3's Blu-ray Player

PlayStation 3 Blu-ray compatible PC Blu-ray Drives

For a long time, the PS3's Blu-ray player was a versatile and powerful feature and considered the best of all time, and many people still use it for this purpose today. Featuring a slot-loading 2 × speed (9 MB/second) Blu-ray Disc drive for BD-ROM, PlayStation 2 format DVD-ROM, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 1 format CD-ROM, BD-Video, DVD-Video and Audio CDs. Keep in mind that, original models also supports SACD but this functionality was removed with Slim and Superslim models. There is no support for VCDs or SVCDs just like prior generation. DVDi, DVDPG, BDPG and Blu-ray Interactive HD like interactive film/movie formats are supported.

Crucial to remember that disc images are only suitable for disc-based titles. PSN digital titles (PKG) are not compatible with disc image mounting, because they try to write data to read-only virtual directories → this will cause errors (see explanation here). For PSN digital titles, you should:

• Launch them directly from their extracted folder using RPCS3, or
• Use .VHDX virtual disk images instead.

System Specific

LaserActive's LD Player

Pioneer LaserActive supports Audio CD, Video CD, CD-G, LD-ROM², LD-G and Laser Videodisc. Advanced features like frame-by-frame playback or enhanced karaoke modes (e.g., for CD+G, a related but distinct format) may require inserting a Sega PAC (S-10) or NEC PAC (N-10) for improved functionality during VCD viewing. Without the Sega PAC, the LaserActive can still play the audio portion of a CD+G disc as a standard audio CD, but it won't display the graphical content. The NEC PAC (N-10) doesn't add CD+G support in the same way, as its focus is on TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine compatibility. Unlike most optical-disc standards, LaserDisc is not fully digital, and instead requires the use of analog video signals. Use this section for more infomation about LD capture.

• LD-ROM² disc image support added to Ares.

Dreamcast's GD-ROM Drive

All VA0, VA1, VA2 Dreamcasts universally support GD‑ROM, and all VA0, VA1 and some VA2 Dreamcasts (early VA2s, later VA2s had their BIOS having dropped CD support in an effort to combat piracy) support CD‑ROM, Audio CDs and CD‑DA. However CD+G?, Photo CDs? and Video CDs are not officially supported, though it's compatible with workarounds.

Wii U Proprietary Optical Disc Drive

The Wii U Optical Disc (WUP-006) is the retail physical game medium for the Wii U, with a capacity of 25 GB. There is no 50 GB dual layer version. The Wii U system software is backwards compatible with Wii Optical Discs, but not with GameCube game discs. The Wii U Optical Discs differ in appearance from most other optical discs in that they have soft, rounded edges.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated, "Wii U doesn't have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities. The reason for that is that we feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray, such that it didn't warrant the cost involved to build that functionality into the Wii U console because of the patents related to those technologies." Like with the GameCube and Wii optical discs, it was chosen by Nintendo to prevent copyright infringement of games, to reduce cost by avoiding licensing fees to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), and to reduce loading times. This also prevents the console from being modified into a DVD or Blu-ray movie player.