Modern Blu-ray drives can now rip GameCube, Wii, and Xbox 360 games to PC

(tomshardware.com)

87 points | by 01-_- 6 hours ago ago

24 comments

  • anonymousiam 2 hours ago ago

    Twenty years ago, I bought two Wii consoles for my family when they first came out. Being concerned about the rough treatment my family gave the discs, I eventually modded both of the Wiis so they could read normal discs, and I purchased a HP 410125-200 drive, which I used to back up the more costly titles.

    https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-those-recommended-dvd-...

  • piperswe 5 hours ago ago

    I'm assuming this firmware also functions as a LibreDrive firmware for use with MakeMKV?

    • cosmotic 4 hours ago ago

      My understanding is that LibreDrive leverages a bug in the drives firmware such that decryption keys for Blu-ray was accessible. This OmniDrive seems to have little to do with decryption.

      • rainernotfound 4 hours ago ago

        LibreDrive only works on certain firmwares that have the bug or are patched to expose it.

        OmniDrive is one of the latter.

  • mmmlinux 4 hours ago ago

    Who uses a green X for not supported.

    edit: (on the github readme)

    • krackers 2 hours ago ago

      red-green colorblind folks?

    • bozhark 3 hours ago ago

      Yes, we absolutely don’t support this one, we should make it super duper clear how certain we are that we know we don’t support this one.

      Maybe a X shape?

      • rolph 3 hours ago ago

        maybe an :-( emoticon ?

  • nom 6 hours ago ago
    • hypfer 4 hours ago ago

      It is unclear to me why OP linked to an article that linked to a video that talks about the repo (I guess? Didn't click) instead of just.. you know.. LINKING THE REPO.

      Thank you.

  • charcircuit 2 hours ago ago

    This bypasses DRM which makes it illegal.

    >for the purposes of game preservation and game emulation

    Those purposes don't make breaking DRM legal either.

    • theandrewbailey 2 hours ago ago

      This firmware is code, and code is speech[0]. Any law making speech illegal is unconstitutional. I'm puzzled as to why the DMCA (or this part of it) hasn't been overturned yet.

      [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junger_v._Daley

      • charcircuit an hour ago ago

        It hasn't been overturned for the same reason copyright hasn't been despite it restricting people's speech.

    • altairprime an hour ago ago

      The legality is subject to the court’s opinion, and a court is not compelled to interpret the situation the same way you do. Their job is to interpret written laws using their opinions and available case law, and also to pass human judgments on laws that aren’t encoded in machine-parseable structures (such as fair use rights). Declaring this particular instance illegal this early requires more case law references than you’ve provided.

    • pirates 2 hours ago ago

      We all do illegal things all the time, I’m fine knowing that this one goes in the “bad” pile. I’m sure something terrible will happen to me soon.

      • charcircuit 2 hours ago ago

        It's not just you who you are affecting, but also all the people who worked on the game, Nintendo and Microsoft, and even the entire video game industry by doing things like this.

        • isidisjcisjcud an hour ago ago

          Yeah, Nintendo AND Microsoft of all companies really do deserve all the pity they can get, seeing as they’re such pro-consumer, fan-friendly, not-at-all monopolistic, completely altruistic entities. Right?

        • whycome 2 hours ago ago

          Continuing to play discontinued games and sharing that joy with new people and generations seems like a good way of strengthening an industry

          • ASalazarMX an hour ago ago

            Well, yes I guess, but will it create short-term value for shareholders? Mountains of it if possible?

        • CursedSilicon 32 minutes ago ago

          Won't someone think of the multi billion dollar corporations?!

          If peop- THIEEEVES can just download old games forever, how will these companies make money by selling new games? Or reselling the old games in their half-baked emulation offerings!

          Truly the author behind this software deserves a special place in hell for creating such an evil!

          (Obligatory reminder the above is to be taken as hyperbolic sarcasm. The very idea that someone would jump to defend corporations against software designed for cultural preservation is saddening)

        • theandrewbailey 2 hours ago ago

          We already had copyright law for that. We didn't need to make some code illegal, too.

        • fortyseven 2 hours ago ago

          Oh no!

    • tacticalturtle 2 hours ago ago

      Is it actually breaking DRM? Or is it just creating a 1:1 copy of a proprietary format?

      > Game consoles that are supported include the original Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, Wii, and Dreamcast. Physical media from other consoles, such as PlayStation 3, 4, 5, and the Xbox One/Series consoles, technically work, but the content on physical media for these consoles is encrypted.

      Breaking encryption is definitely “illegal” - but backing up a binary format is not. I can backup my GBA cartridges ROMs for personal archival use if I have a device that can read them.

      • charcircuit 2 hours ago ago

        I would consider changing the format of a disc to prevent it from being copied by a regular drive to be considered a protection measure. The content is still encrypted so if not the disc, it would be the emulator decrypting it which would be the problem.