This appears to be a database of checksums and other metadata about game discs? Not entirely sure how useful that is, but seems cool.

It's pretty common for disc-based media. AccurateRip should be its equivalent for audio CDs ripping, about 5 million unique discs in its database.

http://www.accuraterip.com/

Redump does also have audio CDs in their database.

Their tools also have specialized support for audio CD ripping, under GPLv3.

It’s used as the “gold standard” of disc dumps. Your own dumps can be verified and people can create tools against “redump dumps” knowing what everyone is talking about.

Presumably they also have the ISO stored but can’t distribute them for obvious copyright reasons.

Commonly used on private trackers, considered the gold standard for accurately preserving rips.

It's useful to check if you dumped your discs correctly.

According to the Wiki that's exactly what it is.

http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Redump.org

I agree that it seems of limited utility. Helpful if you are trying to verify that a disc isn't damaged I guess?

It's frustrating when a site makes you hunt for the about paragraph. That should be the first thing you see on landing, not the news list.

They should do some more research into how to accurately dump using other drives, those old Plextor drives (that are the only ones supported by redump) are going for 200-1000€ on eBay, and the supply is slowly drying out since they're out of production for ages now

Plextor are required(1) for multitrack CDs, meaning audio and mixed-mode(2) CDs.

DVDs and Blu-ray discs are basically a single filesystem.

Vendor-specific discs like GD-ROM(3) have other drive recommendations.

1: http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Optical_Disc_Drive_Co...

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_Mode_CD

3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GD-ROM

Yes, that much I know. I mean they should find a way to dump correctly using other drives. For example by oversampling the disc a couple of times at the track intersections. Or by analyzing the firmware and finding other vendor-specific read commands in non-plextor drives.

IMHO their new redumper tool, and other, similar projects (like Aaru) are going in a good direction, trying to create reproducible dumps with other drives.

I have a feeling that the redump guys are not actively researching other options since they know the Plextors work (for now). I would love for someone to do some more research on other drives, that's all

Bless archivists.

Is there a project like this for Switch games?