SA2 Selfbooting?
 

I'm wondering how ECHELON did their selfbooting of SA2 (Sonic Adventure 2), because I wanted to go ahead and make some modifications to their release (after the e-son2fx.ppf), but now it won't selfboot. Anyone have ideas on how to get it to do so?

I had experienced problems when I tried to apply the patch because I didn't have the original ECHELON RARs, only the SA2 cd (which had the protection). So i went and made a CDI image from the cd i had. Naturally the ppf-matic complained coz my image was different from the original but i went and applied the patch anyway. When i tested the game it did boot, and i was finally able to finish the last story but for some reason it would freeze on another place...

I decided to try one more thing. Since the ppf patch is probably just a modified 1st_read.bin I've copied it from the patched cd and copied the game data from the original ECHELON cd which had the protection. Used echelon selfboot tutorial (11702) and the game wouldn't boot. Tried it with CDRWIN (17000), no binhack,nothing and it worked great ^^.
I hope this helps!
(i.e. use CDRWIN)

So basically what you're saying is this:

1. Apply e-son2fx.ppf to e-sonic2.cdi.
2. Extract all files from e-sonic2.cdi to some folder. Don't forget IP.BIN.
3. Burn AUDIO.RAW as the first track using CDRWIN.
4. Assume the next sector open is 17000. Make the CD image as such using mkisofs and burn immediately using CDRWIN. Be sure to include IP.BIN and 1ST_READ.BIN.
5. Test and it should work.

Is this what you mean? What about IP.BIN insertion and everything? Not needed?

step 1-3 right

step4: I made a mistake here (sorry), it should be 11700. You can check with cdrecord -dev=x,x,x -msinfo.

step5: You don't have to binhack the 1st_read.bin because its already binhacked to the right lba so leave it as it is. But you will still have to insert the ip.bin after you have made an iso with mkisofs.

As i already said before, i had tried cdrecord method (11702) and the game wouldn't boot so i decided to stick with 11700.

I hope its clearer now.

CDRWIN 3.9e seems to have no Recording Options available, nor does it want to write after I have written the first AUDIO.RAW. Any suggestions? Lower versions of CDRWIN will not support my CD writer.

Wierd. Are you following the Echelon's selfboot tutorial correctly?

You could maybe use your friends' burner.

I have CDRWIN 4.0a. Atleast thats what it says when i run it...