Is it possible to include software (a game) on an Audio CD?

[alfie]

I have done some searching on the net, but cannot seem to find an answer to this question.

The Audio CD's I am refering to are primarily those that are given away by newspapers ( in the UK ).

Any info or links on the subject appreciated.

[PoV]

Yes. With some burning software you should be able to make a combo data/audio disc. The 2 ways this works, is either the first audio track is the data, or it's the last track. There's some silly names for this, I'm not even sure what they are, something like red book, orange book, green book, some sort of colored book... it's wonky. You'll probably notice some PC or Playstation games do some interesting things when placed in a CD player.

I don't know all the specifics. You'll have to do some research. Search for the "books", and fire up some burning software and play.

[alfie]

Thats interesting PoV, thanks.

I will try and do some research on this "books" thing.

[Anthony Flack]

You don't need to know about the books, unless you're writing your own low-level something-crazy. The books are, I think, actual books, which contain all the boring technical stuff about the different CD formats.

All you need to know is how to work whatever CD burning software you have. They will probably call it something like a "mixed-mode" cd.

[alfie]

You don't need to know about the books, unless you're writing your own low-level something-crazy. The books are, I think, actual books, which contain all the boring technical stuff about the different CD formats.

All you need to know is how to work whatever CD burning software you have. They will probably call it something like a "mixed-mode" cd.

Yep, those books are technical spec stuff.

By the way, I dont want to burn them myself but to know if it's possible to have my game included on those give away audio albums by newspapers. It looks like it's possible from what you and PoV have said, it would however be very helpfull if anyone new the technical term from a cd duplicators perspective e.g. "multi session" etc.

[Anthony Flack]

Ahhh... well, I'm not sure on the names. "Multi-session" does allude to one of the possible ways of doing it, though. Audio CD players can only read the first session of a disk, so you can include data on a second session which will be invisible to audio players, but will pop up in a computer's CD drive. But I'm not sure if there is an industry-standard term for this, although any half-decent CD burning software ought to support it, and will call it something-or-other.

[Emmanuel]

It's the CD-Extra (CD-XA) specification, the Blue Book. I've done a few of those in another life for Play It Again Sam (PIAS) records. The idea was to enhance audio CDs you found in stores with multimedia content. The format never got much commercial traction.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[alfie]

Thanks Emmanuel, done a search and it seems that it's also called Enhanced CD. I wonder if there is a cost difference, anyone know?

[Andy]

I can't help a lot with specific information on issue. But I know for sure it could be done and easily. Probably without too much additional cost.

MS guys were doing so with MS Pinball Arcade we were developing for them. Every table has its own background music. All tracks were burned on CD in regular CD format and we were starting the appropriate track from there. If I recall correctly the software itself was burned as the first track on that CD to have it autostarted at the beginning.

[James C. Smith]

Yes. It is very easy to put music and data on the same CD. But here are also many different ways to do it. With a “mixed mode� CD, you end up with 1 tack that is visible to audio players but actually contains data. This is what is used by many game CD. The game is on track 1 and it plays the music from tracks 2 – 13 (or whatever). If you put the CD in a CD Players you will hear either silence or noise on track 1.

CD-Extra (CD-XA) specification is a more sophisticated format that hides the data so that it doesn’t show up as a track when you put it in an audio cd player. But some older computer will not read the data in these CD. It isn’t really a problem anymore since it was fixed back in Windows 95 OSR2 or some other OS upgrade that now seems ancient

My main point is, if this a primarily an audio CD, and you want to include some bonus “data�, then you probably should not use the same format that MS Pinball Arcade probably used. One format sacrifices a little bit of compatibly with older PC, but the other format sacrifices a little but of user experience when playing the CD in an CD Player. You need to choose the format that is more in line with the primary use of the CD you are making.

[alfie]

My main point is, if this a primarily an audio CD, and you want to include some bonus “data”, then you probably should not use the same format that MS Pinball Arcade probably used. One format sacrifices a little bit of compatibly with older PC, but the other format sacrifices a little but of user experience when playing the CD in an CD Player. You need to choose the format that is more in line with the primary use of the CD you are making.

Thant makes sense James. With the primary use of the CD being music tracks from a compilation album then it seems logical to use the format that tags the game on at the end.