Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3

[Overlord5]

Hi everyone! Happy new year.
Ok now for business... I would like to back up Tony Hawks 3 as its the best game and I think that it is suffering from overuse!

I have successfuly backed up my CDr games but this is a DVD and I had to a bit of research. After learning that I had to rip the DVD and looking through examples I examined TH3 and it looked quite simple as it contained several huge video files that could easily be replaced by the (dreamcast) dummy file.

I downloaded Weejees tutorial and the kit that was made from it. It had 3 batch files that created a ppf file; then replaced the dummy files; then created an iso from an iml file.

Now at last here are some questions- quite basic sorry! I have tried to look in the archives for (a) previous answer(s).

Basic Questions
1) What is a ppf file and do you need to use it for most games?

2) Can you replace music wad files with dummy wads and header wads or does the code point to a reference within the header and then crash the game?

3) What is an IML file (image layout?) and how do you edit it? I tried wordpad/nero/cdrwin, but to no avail. I need to edit it so it points to another drive as I don't have the space on C: for a whole DVD's contents or even the 700mb that it shrinks to.

As I couldn't edit the iml file I then tried to create my own compilation using cdrwin. I am not familiar with cdrwin and i'm not asking you to tell me how it works but is it possible for nero to either burn the iso files or create a compilation that works with an action replay 2 / sbox combo?

When I did use cdrwin the 2 74 min cds I created using a dummy music file didn't work, nor did the 80 minute cd that had the full music file.

Normal CDr backups and PS one backups also work so I know that the chip works.


If I need to use some hex editing could you also please point me in the right direction for some tutorials as they are always helpful. Maybe the lead in/out on my cds were not at the right (LBA)? addresses?

Anyway any help would be appreciated. I think the main way to get the problem sorted is to edit the IML file so if someone could please suggest how to edit it- that would be great thx.


Here ends my first msg.

John