How to dump/rip your unlicensed Datel discs

by SGYT

This guide will show you how to rip/dump your unlicensed Datel discs (e.g; the Action Replay or Freeloader discs.)

A big issue when it comes to dumping unlicensed Datel GameCube media, is that they are VERY picky when it comes to extracting the data from the disc. Datel purposefully filled their discs with garbage data which will hinder/error out any dumper you throw at it. Garbage data shown in a hex editor, it purposefully repeats the values A8 and 55 to error out any dumpers (such as CleanRip, more on that program later).

To dump your Datel discs, you will need CleanRip by Emu_Kidid. (can also be used to backup normal game discs.)

Load up the software on a homebrewed GC or Wii. I'm not going to go into how to homebrew either, there's plenty of tutorials on YouTube.

Insert your Datel unlicensed media into the GC/Wii and click yes when this message comes up. trust me, don't even try clicking No. Your DVD drive will have a VEEEEERY hard time. :P

This will work for typical AR and FreeLoader discs, HOWEVER. Not all Datel discs may work with this. As far as I know, the Advance Game Port disc, FreeLoader disc(s), and AR disc(s) work with this. There are certain Datel discs that may not work however. This is because the garbage data that hinders the dumpers are different on every unlicensed disc (I think.)

Not that may people will do this, but dumping Datel discs via those special DVD-ROM drives that can read GC discs will NOT work, due to the garbage data. I own one of these special DVD drives and tried it, with no luck. It gets stuck at exactly 31 Megabytes of data on the disc, which is near the garbage data which hinders the data.

(fun fact, the reason the disc name is labelled as 'NHL HITZ 20-02' is because Datel bought a bunch of copies of that game and used it to circumvent the GC disc protection :P)