Overview; About The Game Discs; Game Disc Structure; Game Disc Id - Nintendo GameCube Manuallines

Optical Disc Drive Guidelines

1. Overview

This document offers guidelines when using the Nintendo GameCube
games that are user-friendly with regard to Game Disc access. This document differs from the "Disc
Drive (DVD.us.pdf)" document, in that it is meant not only for the programmers, but also for the
designers who design the screen layout for error messages and the like, and for the bug testers. For
information that is more specific to programming, see this section in the Nintendo GameCube
Programmer's Guide.

2. About the Game Discs

2.1 Game Disc structure

The structure of each Game Disc can be broadly divided into two components:
• The program part (the dol file)
• The user file part
The dol file is the game program itself, converted from the elf file when loadrun/odrun is executed.
Because the format of the elf file built by the program will differ slightly depending on the linker, the elf
file is converted into a custom format called dol for storage on the Game Disc. The dol file is loaded
and executed by the IPL.
The user file part is the part that is treated as files by the program part of the Game Disc. It does not
matter how these files are used (for data, for re-locatable modules, etc.).

2.2 Game Disc ID

Each Game Disc has a region for storing its unique ID. This unique ID is comprised of the following
four elements:
• Game code
Each game has its own specific code. The code is set by the NOA Lot Check Department.
• Company code
Each publisher has their own specific code. This code is also set by the NOA Lot Check
Department.
• Game Disc number
Every Game Disc for each game is allocated a Game Disc number. The first Game Disc of a
game is numbered "0" and subsequent Game Discs are numbered 1, 2, 3...
• Game version
Every version of the game is allocated a game version. It does not matter whether the game has
been released or not.
The Optical Disc Driver uses the Game Disc ID to determine whether the Game Disc is a correct
Game Disc.Note:
You may use any numbering scheme to distinguish Game Discs. (For example; Game Disc 1 and
Game Disc 2, Game Disc A and Game Disc B, Chapter Blue and Chapter Red, and so on.) The
Game Disc to be used when starting the game should be described in the Instruction Booklet, when it
is not obvious (such as with Chapter Blue and Chapter Red). Only in the Game Disc Number portion
of the Game Disc ID, is the first Game Disc of a set to be numbered "0".
DOL-06-0026-001-A5
Released: 4/18/02
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optical disc drive to design
4 © 2001-2002 Nintendo of America Inc.
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