Burning CDs

Legal

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The cue file

Cue files define the structure (track organization) of the CD. As iso images can't hold CDDA data, cue files are necessary to indicate which files to use to the burning software.

FILE "Game - Track 01.iso" BINARY
  TRACK 01 MODE1/2048
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Game - Track 02.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    PREGAP 00:03:00
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Game - Track 03.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    INDEX 01 00:00:00

Windows

The iso image must include the necessary files and respect the Game CD structure.

The CDs have to be burned in "mixed mode" (files + Red Book compliant audio tracks).

There is a higher chance of obtaining an unreadable disk at high speeds, burning average quality disks at 1x~16x speed is recommended.

Some iso packs have their audio tracks encoded in MP3 to reduce the archive's size, they generally have to be decoded to 44100Hz 16bit WAVE files with an audio file editor or converter. Some burning software can automatically do this conversion.

Nero and some versions of Nero Express should accept cue files and burn the iso and wav files right away.

For incompatible burners (old or some laptop ones), an alternative way consists of using Daemon Tools to mount the cue file as a virtual drive, and use CloneCD to make a copy of it to the real drive (in "Game CD" mode).

Reading problems

CD I/O Errors, no "PUSH START", Manufacturer/model ID or brands (reliable ?) for good CDs ?