Most of these rips were flawed. They might have missing audio tracks, corrupted video files, or incorrect error correction data. Why? Because PC CD-ROM drives handle errors differently than a PlayStation or Saturn drive does.
To the uninitiated, "Redump" sounds like a technical glitch or a piece of software you run to clear hard drive space. But to archivists, collectors, and preservationists, it is a sacred standard. It is the gold standard of optical disc dumping. what is redump
In the early days of emulation (the late 1990s and early 2000s), getting a game to run on your PC was the Wild West. People used a chaotic mess of tools like CDRWin, BlindWrite, or Alcohol 120% to rip their discs. The result was a tower of Babel: BIN/CUE, CCD, MDS, NRG, and the dreaded ISO. Most of these rips were flawed
Furthermore, the community is fighting "bitrot"—the slow decay of data on hard drives hosting these sets. By keeping the database alive, Redump ensures that if a hard drive dies in Argentina, a user in Japan can re-rip their disc and re-upload it, verifying it against the same hash. Redump is not a sexy topic. It is not a flashy front-end like RetroArch or a cool handheld like the Analogue Pocket. Redump is boring, technical, obsessive, and pedantic. Because PC CD-ROM drives handle errors differently than
However, the use of Redump is tied to piracy. When people download a "Redump set" from the Internet Archive or a private tracker, they are downloading the actual game data. Redump is the standard used to ensure those pirated copies are high quality.