Rip Blu-ray GameCube, Wii and Xbox games – legally

Retro game emulation has a legal gray area: copying games you already own is generally permissible, but few have a practical way to do it. A recently released custom firmware for PC optical drives changes the rules for several consoles that use proprietary disc formats.

GameCube, Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360 owners who want to create copies of their games for use with emulators — without resorting to piracy — can now do so using standard computer optical drives. The process is a bit complicated and limited to specific hardware, though anyone who has ripped Blu-ray movies will likely find the process familiar.

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Backing up games from consoles that use standard disc formats, like the Sega Saturn or the original PlayStation, has always been relatively simple. Later systems that adopted proprietary formats, like the Dreamcast, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, and Xbox consoles, are a different story.

The solution was usually a modified console. Flashed PC drives offer an alternative for anyone looking to digitize their collection before getting newer hardware.

OmniDrive , which came out of beta in February, brings support for MediaTek's MT1959 chipset, allowing discs to read proprietary formats that were previously prohibited. It can create backups or playable digital copies and works best with GameCube, Wii, original Xbox and Xbox 360 games. PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and Wii U discs can also be copied, although they remain encrypted.

The Disc Preservation Project Wiki contains a list of compatible optical drive model numbers, which includes many internal and external drives, mainly from LG and Asus.

MakeMKV , a popular application for backing up movies from DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD Blu-ray, is probably the easiest way for users to confirm whether their drives are compatible. The startup screen should display the drive's model number and chipset on the left side of the window once it launches.

YouTuber Archades Games posted a detailed walkthrough covering installing OmniDrive and backing up discs with Media Preservation Frontend (MPF).

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