Entry 239

Each disc file by file, and the four discs' unknowns

2026-09-27disc

Filesdocs/disc/layout.mddocs/disc/mutation.mddocs/disc/outbreak.mddocs/disc/quarantine.mddocs/disc/volumes.mddocs/disc/unnamed-code.mdtools/voldiff.pytools/iso.py

Asked for: settle the four unknowns docs/disc/volumes.md listed, and give each game its own disc page, as Infection has.

The tools

• tools/iso.py sums IMAGE: every file's SHA-1, in disc order. Each disc page's listing names, file by file, the other discs that hold the same bytes.
• tools/voldiff.py report ELF: every stretch of code that no carried name covers, as markdown. Each row gives its place, the names either side, its function prologues, and its strings and named calls. gaps and look now share its code (stretches, look_data).

The pages

• docs/disc/mutation.md, outbreak.md and quarantine.md follow layout.md:
  • the volume;
  • SYSTEM.CNF;
  • every file in disc order, with the discs that share its bytes;
  • what each file is;
  • what changed from the volume before.
• All four are packed without gaps: 377-1830439, 386-1859588 and 390-2176898. All fit a DVD-5.
• docs/disc/unnamed-code.md holds the three reports: 423 stretches, 351 of them starting a function, 17 all zero.

The unknowns

• KFED.BIN / KFAED.BIN. Quarantine's opcode 169 (0x001c52e8):

  1. sets game+0x7c;
  2. reads both files into $gp -29188 and -29184;
  3. loads ending.ccs;
  4. runs gcmn 0x004f0a30, which starts STFROLL_VOL4 (the staff roll, thread 0x004f0950) and waits for it;
  5. frees both.

  A scan of every word of the executable and the four overlays found:

  • four instructions using those $gp offsets, all the handler's (two stores, two loads for ccFree);
  • no absolute references and no stored pointer.

  The staff roll draws with ccKanji, on the ef fonts. So the kanji are loaded and never read.

• STRT.BIN (Outbreak). Six gzip tmp.ccs members:

  • title1_st1t, title1_st1t2, title2_st1: the title's xdt_ models;
  • str9999e, str9999: hack / coming planes and rings;
  • trial_v2st: trilog00-10.

  They date from 2002-10-01 to 2003-03-13 (gzip times). No code opens the file: ccCdInit's list has no STRT, no string contains it, and no stream table names those scenes. The live title2_st1 is STRCMNE's, at another size.

• VOICE2. The skill words (spcVoiceData). SPC00-17 and _E are Infection's VOICE/SPC* byte for byte. SPC18-20 are charTbl rows 18-20, Tsukasa, Subaru and Sora: in Japanese, two clips each. Outbreak's disc lacks their English files, though its table (shared with Quarantine) names them; Quarantine has them.

• The CD modules. They did not move into IOPRP243.IMG.

  • The image is the same on all four discs, built 2001-12-05. Its ROMDIR lists 15 modules, CDVDMAN and CDVDFSV among them (0x021a, PsII... 2430).
  • ccCdInit reboots the IOP with it, then loads ten modules by name from MODULES. No executable names cdvdman or cdvdfsv.
  • Infection's and Mutation's MODULES/CDVD*.IRX are 1.04 (PsIIcdvdman 134), never loaded. Outbreak and Quarantine dropped them.

• The stretches. All listed (above).

Infection's page had two open questions and one stale entry:

• OUTSIDE.BIN: no string OUTSIDE in any volume's code.
• Reads by sector: every sector read comes from a name.
  • sceCdSearchFile has seven callers: ccCdInit's six files and ccMcard::MakeDir's ICON.BIN.
  • demo.prg's strFileOpen looks up the movies.
  • The rest opens by path: the overlays, the modules, and the IOP's voice files.
• ICON.BIN was already decoded in the save page (iconBinTbl).

Measured along the way:

• Mutation's STR1 and STR1E. Infection's sizes. 19 members differ only in the gzip time stamp (packed again on 2002-10-23; the inflated bytes are equal). One scene changed: str9102.
• Quarantine's STR3E. 230 MB smaller than Outbreak's, the same 48 scenes. 23 of them drop one of Outbreak's two Pcm tracks; the two setup chunks differ only in a padding byte (+0x07, per CCSTRM_PCM's DWARF). Frames are unchanged.
• Fidchell's voice group (19, BOSSTALK). Only Outbreak's disc carries it, though Quarantine's tables name it (and MIAE.BIN).

volumes.md is now solid. Its code table has the current carry's figures: Outbreak's gcmn is 15.4% unnamed, not 20.4%.