The CD-ROM

System Card based games require a special kind of CD-ROM. The first track of one of those CD-ROMs is an audio track, containing a warning, that the CD-ROM can not be played in a normal CD-player.

The second track contains the game and it's data. The following tracks can contain audio-data or additional data.

Every sector is 2048 bytes. The first sector contains some information, that has not yet been identified. This is the boot-sector (#2):

Games, that are based on the "Games Engine" system card use a standard ISO-9660 file-system.

00IPLBLK Hload start record no. of CD
01IPLBLK Mload start record no. of CD
02IPLBLK Lload start record no. of CD
03IPLBLNload block length of CD
04IPLSTA Lprogram load address L
05IPLSTA Hprogram load address H
06IPLJMP Lprogram execute address L
07IPLJMP Hprogram execute address H
08IPLMPR2ipl set mpr2 (+ max mapping)
09IPLMPR3ipl set mpr3 (+ max mapping)
10IPLMPR4ipl set mpr4 (+ max mapping)
11IPLMPR5ipl set mpr5 (+ max mapping)
12IPLMPR6ipl set mpr6 (+ max mapping)
13OPENMODEopening mode
  • [bit 0] data read to VRAM
    • 0:not read
    • 1:read
  • [bit 1] data read to adpcm buffer
    • 0:not read
    • 1:read
  • [bit 5] bg display
    • 0:disp on
    • 1:disp off
  • [bit 6] adpcm play
    • 0:play
    • 1:not play
  • [bit 7] adpcm play mode
    • 0:single
    • 1:repeat
14GRPBLK Hopening graphic data record no.
15GRPBLK Mopening graphic data record no.
16GRPBLK Lopening graphic data record no.
17GRPBLNopening graphic data length
18GRPADR Lopening graphic data read address L
19GRPADR Hopening graphic data read address H
20ADPBLK Hopening ADPCM data record no.
21ADPBLK Mopening ADPCM data record no.
22ADPBLK Lopening ADPCM data record no.
23ADPBLNopening ADPCM data length
24ADPRATEopening ADPCM sampling rate
25(reserved)
26(reserved)
27(reserved)
28(reserved)
29(reserved)
30(reserved)
31(reserved)
32-"PC Engine CD-ROM SYSTEM", 0, "Copyright HUDSON SOFT / NEC Home Electronics,Ltd.", 0
Program name, 16 bytes
reserved, 6 bytes