
Underground Filetypes For n00bz By SHEER BLACK FAMILY

Here's a guide to what the most common formats are, and what you're supposed to do with them.


When a release group first releases something on the net, no matter if it's a program, a game or a movie or whatever, they pack it with winrar. This has been common practice for years now.

Inside the rar's there is usually a bin/cue file which is a cd-image of the original thing. (cracked and without bad-blocks etc that securom etc use).


Archives
* .RAR .R00 .R01 = Multi-span rar-archives. Usually 15.000.000 bytes large (15mb or 14,6mb if you count 1mb as 1024 bytes)
Use WinRar 3.0 or newer to unpack (www.rarsoft.com)

* .001 .002 .003 = Multi-span rar-archives. Usually 15.000.000 bytes large (15mb or 14,6mb if you count 1mb as 1024 bytes)
Use WinRar 3.0 or newer to unpack (www.rarsoft.com)
This extention is used by some groups, like Fairlight (flt) or immersion (ims), instead of .rar .r00 etc

* .ZIP = Zip archives. Size varies, 2.88mb is still the rule i think for ripped games (games that has movies/music/speech etc removed to get smaller).
Use WinZip, WinRar, WinAce to unpack (www.winzip.com) (www.rarsoft.com) (www.winace.com)

* .ACE .C00 .C01 = Multi-span ace-archives. Probably still used for ripped games.
Use WinAce to unpack (www.winace.com)

* .TAR = Tar archives, usually only used on linux/unix, basically just a way to keep several files in one big file, no compression.
Use WinRar to unpack (www.rarsoft.com) (Should work with winace, winzip etc too).

* .tar.gz = Tar archives, that is also zipped. Usually only used on linux/unix. Like Tar but with compression.
Use WinRar to unpack (www.rarsoft.com) (Should work with winace, winzip etc too).

To unpack these files, either right-click on them and select unpack. If you get no "unpack" option in the right-click menu, then start the unpack program, and use it's internal file-browser to go to the file and try to unpack it that way. .001 files are not associated with winrar by default.

Remember that the .RAR file is the first in the span of archives, thus it's that one you should unpack, likewise is with .001 files.


Other
* .SFV = Simple File Verification, contains a checksum value calculated from the original files, *ALWAYS* included in an original release. When checking, the program calculates a value from the files on your computer, and compares them to the ones in the .sfv file. If the values match, the file is 100% exactly the same as when it was released, if not, something has gone wrong and you should download/resume it.
SimpleSFV (h**p://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Mouse/4668/)

* .NFO = Information file, also *ALWAYS* included in an original release. Contains information about who released the thing, who supplied it, who cracked it, WHAT TO DO WITH IT (s/n, how to burn, requirements etc), etc. If you do not read the nfo yourself, do not expect to get any help from anyone.
View with notepad, Terminal font size 9 (to get the ascii-art right), or DamnNFOViewer (h**p://www.damn.to/software/nfoviewer.html) or any of the other 1 million nfoviewers out there.

CD-Images (copied alot of stuff from h**//mitglied.lycos.de/madmetzi/Brennerinternet/image.htm)

CD-Images are copies / almost exact copies of the original CD.

format and what to use to burn it (burn as image):
*.bin BlindWrite, CDRWin, Discjuggler, Fireburner, Nero
*.bwi BlindWrite
*.c2d WinOnCD
*.cdi Discjuggler
*.ccd CDRWin, CloneCD
*.cif Easy CD Creator
*.cue BlindWrite, CDRWin, Fireburner
*.dao Duplicator - Image
*.img BlindWrite, CDRWin, CloneCD, Fireburner, Nero
*.iso BlindWrite, Discjuggler
*.mdf, *mds Alcohol 120%
*.nrg Nero
*.p01 Gear
*.tao Duplicator - Image
*.xmf ,*.xmd SimDisc,Gamejack 2.0 und Movi Jack 2.0 Image

If your program complains about the bin/cue combination, try opening the cue in notepad and verify that there is no path in front of the filename, so FILE "file.bin" BINARY is good, while FILE "c:\stuff\file.bin" BINARY is not (just remove the c:\stuff\ part).

Some people just love to tell you to use isobuster or vcdgear or something to extract the movie from the bin, i personally hate those programs. If you do not want to spend money on a blank cd-r, you can use a cd-emulator to make a fake-cd unit and "mount" the image in that.

Good ones are:
Daemon-tools (free) (www.daemon-tools.com)
FantomCD (can also burn/create images + it's powerful, not free) (www.copystar.com.tw/)
Alcohol 120% (powerful? never used it :P, can burn/create images)
(www.alcohol-software.com)
Nero Image Drive (included in Nero (www.ahead.de), after installation there will be an option in the startmenu folder to install image drive)

Comics
Comicbooks comes basically in two formats
* .CBR = A rar archive, renamed to work with CDisplay, a comicviewer (http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/CDisplay)
* .CBZ = A zip archive, renamed to work with CDisplay, a comicviewer (http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/CDisplay)

When viewing the comics through CDisplay you do not have to unpack the files, just double click the .cbr or .cbz and CDisplay will start, load the file and start displaying the first image (and the .nfo if there is one). Use PageDown/PageUp to go forward/back, arrow keys to scroll image, m to minimize CDisplay.       


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