Standard Rip Rules (S.R.R).

Standard Rip Rules (S.R.R).

  In 1998, and again on March 26th 2000, three rip game groups collaborated
  to bring about rules with the hope of ensuring quality in a constantly
  evolving rip fscene. These rules lasted a long time, but as technology moves
  forward, so to must the rules governing it. It is time once again for
  the standards by which the games scene operates to be updated.

  As we are all aware there have been major developments in the scene. These
  new rules may seem to be quite radical as a result. Those fearful of change
  may very well be opposed to them - but let us not forget that had there
  never been any change, we would not have any of the existing rules in the
  first place!

             In lieu of past events, the deciding figures of:

                      Myth, Divine, Vace, and Instinct

  have converged and agreed upon a new set of rules based on those that
  came before. These new rules have been updated, modified, and
  agreed upon by a consensus, and should provide a new standard better suited
  to the scene in this day and age.

  These groups have been active participants in shaping the scene in the
  last six months, and were given active participation in voicing their point
  of view. These new rules will allow for a fair and competitive scene
  while ensuring a quality-minded environment for all, bringing game rips
  forward into a new era and restoring their relevance.

  It should be noted that CLASS and BACKLASH chose not to attend due to their
  reduced role within the scene. However former NSA groups (such as CLASS and
  BACKLASH), who have chosen not to sign up for these new rules, will still
  be required to abide by the former NSA rules, which they signed.

  In the past, groups setting the rules have been called the SPA, The Faction,
  or as in the most recent case the NSA (Network Software Association).
  Some have claimed the exclusive nature of these organizations have locked
  them out of the process. Hence from this time forth there shall be no
  organization dictating to the others. All groups are invited to adopt these
  rules, and every effort has been made to contact the various players in the
  games rip scene.

  These rules shall be identified simply as the Standard Rip Rules (S.R.R).
 
  They have been ratified and approved among the four groups and will be
  recognized and followed immediately on this date and thereafter:
  March 5th, 2004.

  The Standard Rip Rules are as follows:


  1.  Files:

      The disk limit is as of now 55 x 5,000,000 bytes.
      This equates to a total of 275,000,000 bytes of
      compressed data. Groups may not exceed the total
      size (including when crack.ace or similar files are
      are needed in the first disk of a release) to prevent
      any future cheating. Groups caught cheating on file
      size WILL be nuked!

      The limit for standard game add-ons is 25 x 5,000,000
      bytes for any add-on that includes Music, Speech,
      Commentary or Play By Play for the original release.
      Any add-on that does not fit these criteria will be
      restricted to 15 x 5,000,000 bytes. Only the group
      that won the game release is allowed to release the
      add-ons for that game.

      Due to an increasingly limited number of file names,
      and the ability of all modern operating systems to handle
      long file names, it is now permissible to use file names
      up to a maximum of 12.3 characters (filename/extension).

      Acceptable compression formats at this time are ACE or
      RAR or any future compression that supports multiple
      volumes and long file names, followed by the
      traditional PKZIPing.

      The traditional packaging methods (ZIP/DIZ) shall be
      maintained, with a DIZ file being present in each zip.

  2.  Proper Rips:

      To prevent sloppy rips, a re-release of a game is allowed
      to ensure groups release proper and respectable rips.
      The following provisions include:

         it can be ripped in >=7 disks less than the previous
         release or less than half the size of the previous
         release by using only lossless compression methods.

      That means all the essential game data must be still
      included in the re-release. No essential data is allowed
      to be removed to be considered a valid re-release. A re-
      release from a competing group may not use tools, original
      crack or any other files from the previous release that
      were modified for the original game rip. A group may NOT
      use DDS conversion on a proper rip unless used on
      the original rip. Lossy audio conversion is allowed in
      proper rips; downsampling is not.

      The re-release of a rip can be done by any group and must
      be done within 48 hours of the original rip, as possibly every
      game is rippable in a smaller size if enough time is spent.

  3.  Functionality:

      Every release under this limit MUST be a functional and
      playable complete game with no essential data missing to
      finish the game. This means that included will be every
      component  necessary for the successful completion of the
      game e.g.:

      - all game executables that are needed,
      - every level (single AND multiplayer),
      - every track (including practice),
      - all actor graphics & models etc,
      - sound effects
      - registry settings to play on the Internet (Zone/etc.)
      - if the serial of the game is checked online thus making
        it impossible to play online with any possible rip, it is
        allowed to rip out multiplayer, LAN play should still be
        fully included if it exists

  4.  Packers:

      Any lossless compression method to reduce the size of
      selected game data is ALLOWED (e.g. uharc).

  5.  Lossy Compression:

      Lossy compression is ALLOWED for sound, videos and non-
      texture graphics (menu screens and loading screens) but
      lossless compression is encouraged before using lossy
      compression. Lossy compression of textures is allowed
      only using DDS. If a game includes separate texture
      sets for hires AND lowres systems you are allowed to
      rip lowres only but the game still has to work on all
      hardware platforms.

  6.  Sound:

      Sound effects WILL and MUST be included. To reduce the size
      of rips when possible, standard wave format files (PCM)
      should be compressed. If the sound files exist inside a big
      file it's highly regarded when time is invested to extract
      those files to compress them. Groups are not required to
      index big  files though. A downgrade of sound quality to sound
      files to allow the game to fit the limit will NEVER be permitted.

      Acceptable sound compression formats are:

            <22/1 <22/2 22-32/1 22-32/2 44-48/1 44-48+/2 (khz/channels)
      mp3   32    32    48      56      56      112      (kbit)
      ogg   32    32    48      48      56      64       (kbit)
      wma8  20    20    20      32      32      80       (kbit)
      wma9  16    16    16      20      20      64       (kbit)

      It is allowed to rip music, commentary/speech and ambience
      files as long as the game remains playable. speech files
      MUST be included if there exist no on-screen subtitles.
      Speech can be downsampled, but only to the above SOUNDS
      quality or to WAV 22.050 quality. No lower. It is okay
      to remove commentary from a release if size does not
      permit it.

      It is highly regarded when all sounds, speech and music
      are included in a rip and not intentionally put out as
      add-ons.

  7.  Movies:

      Movies (intros, cut scenes) should be removed if they
      are not game related. Movies must be ripped in a way so
      that the  game play  experience is  not compromised, e.g.
      framing of movies is highly regarded. It should always be
      avoided to create situations in which user-input is
      necessary on black screens because the video  normally
      shown has been blacked out.

      Downsampling of Movies is allowed under the following
      guidelines:

      Divx 3-5 / Xvid / Original codec (used in game):
      - Kbit rate: 650 kbit+
      - Quality: 93%+
      - Quantizer: 4.0 (no more)

      RadVideo (BIK):
      - Compress to 50%+ of the original file size.

      Windows Media Video (WMV) / MPEG2:
      - Allowed resolution change, but no less than 50% of original
        resolution (width/height divided by 2).
      - Allowed recompression to same resolution but with lower
        kbit rate.

      *NOTE* Movie conversion on enduser machine is FORBIDDEN.

  8.  Add-ons:

      Other allowed add-ons for games include:

      - cut scenes/movies
      - commentary/speech
      - music
      - editor

      No more than 2 add-ons should be released for a game
      release.

      Intro and Outro add-ons are EXPLICITLY FORBIDDEN.

      Only the group that released the initial game release
      can release the above add-ons, unless there is a
      problem with the release. This is to prevent third
      party groups that may not understand how to release
      these properly to correctly support the initial
      release, and to prevent multiple add-on dupes from
      appearing.

      This will be ENFORCED on group SITES!

9.  Kiddie:

      Children's games (aka Kiddie  games) and Edutainment
      software do not qualify under these rules guidelines for
      acceptable releases. Kiddie games are usually defined via
      the game target audience of '5-12 years' as stated by the
      game's producer. Common sense should be applied by all
      groups to identify what  really is a kiddie game.
      Platform games are not to be considered kiddie games
      unless explicitly stated by the developer/publisher.

 10.  Official:

      Level packs, game add-ons etc. for rips are only allowed
      if they are officially released/authorized by the same
      company, developer or publisher that put out the original
      game. If possible by its size, the add-on should be made
      as a standalone and not needing the original game release.
      The original missions may be removed to allow the game
      add-on to become standalone if not size can not permit
      the original game. It should be explained in the NFO
      if and why a game add-on isn't made to be standalone.

 11.  Dupes:

      In regard to games distributed in the United States that
      are  LATER distributed in Europe or vice versa under the
      same or different name/publisher. These games if released
      AFTER another group's release are counted as DUPES unless
      it can be proven that there is a clearly noticeable
      PLAYABLE difference in the latter release (more than just
      tiny differences in graphics or sound). Differences in
      file dates and Game Titles between Euro and US releases
      are NOT a good enough reason to re-release the game.

 12.  Information:

      A brief outline of what  has been  stripped and any
      explicit lossy compression used should  be clearly stated
      in the game-release in the .NFO or CRACKTRO file. This file
      should be placed within the first file of a release so
      everyone knows where to find it.

 13.  Enhancements:

      Trainer releases & Update patches:

      Fully cracked Update Patches and Trainers are highly
      regarded, though they are not the responsibility of
      any group (including  the group which released the
      original game title).
     
      If 2 trainers from the same or different groups are released
      for 1 game, this does NOT qualify as a dupe unless the latter
      trainer provides no new features over the prior trainer.
     
      Patches that are the same do qualify as a dupe. Also beta
      patches fall under the area of betas and should also be
      nuked  accordingly. Even the companies that make beta
      patches do not support them so, why should the scene?
     
      All trainers must work the same on all formats that the
      game supports. If the game supports W9x/WME/NT4/WXP/W2K3
      /WOW64, then the trainer's options must work on all those
      formats too.
   
      No TMK/Magic or trainer making utility releases will be
      allowed in making trainers. These will be banned as they
      lack the quality that a real trainer employs and can be
      unreliable on games that check for these in later levels
      or situations.
     
      Beta update patches will not considered a valid release
      among any game group. No group shall release a cracked
      patch for a  game if a generic patch exists for a particular
      game in the scene. If a generic crack exists, a new
      patch-release must specify that the generic crack does
      not work anymore.

 14.  Competition:

      If two or more rips of the same game get released, the first
      complete working rip wins. Sites should not nuke any release
      until the winning rip has been proven to work correctly and
      follows the above rule set.
 
 15.  Stealing:

      No group shall use another's groups work - be it an iSO
      crack or tools written by another competing group. Any
      third party tools are acceptable. A crack from an iSO or
      past release (even in other languages or iSO's) shall
      not be used unless permission is given from the cracker or
      creator of the original release group. This permission can
      only be given by crackers and not leaders or seniors. Thus
      making sure crackers control their own cracks and are not
      dragged into group politics. It should be noted that most
      iSO cracks are actually cracked by rip group crackers. Thus
      without permission from the rip group, said crack cannot be
      used by other groups. Even if no rip currently exists, as
      that would be stealing. An example of this is groups like
      TECHNIC who steal cracks all the time and should be banned
      and nuked on all sites for reasons of quality.
     
      If however a group or member makes their said tools/source
      public, then they loose their right to prevent others using
      their tools as they have made it public domain. This should
      act as a deterrent to crackers who wish to brag to everyone
      as protection companies gain an insight into the scene when
      people make standard scene tools public.  This then in turn
      hurts the scene when protections get updated.

 16.  Flaming:

      While baiting and harping within a groups release has always
      been a part of the scene, at times groups have taken this
      too far. This causes all groups to look lame and childish
      within the eyes of end users; worse still it can lead to
      security breeches. In order to avoid this being taken too
      far in the future, direct naming/nicks of individuals (not
      groups) within NFO files and other materials is STRICTLY
      PROHIBITED.
 17.  Ancients:

      No game can be ripped where the latest file date of a file
      on the original media (CD/DVD) is older than 6 months prior
      to the releases of the rip. This is to avoid the emergence
      of new technologies being employed to resurrect past un-rip
      able games & create a mess of hundreds of ancient games
      being released. And to promote faster rips at the time of
      game release. No rips that were deemed unrippable before
      the date of March 5th, 2004 shall be released because
      the new rules deem them rippable!

18.  Rules:

      These rules should be placed in the first zip file of every rip
      release. It is hoped that this will prevent groups down the
      line from feigning ignorance of the rip rules. This should
      also allow these rules to travel far and wide in the hope that
      all sites/groups will adopt these standards for game rip
      releases, thus ensuring the quality we have come to expect
      within the scene.

 19.  Sites:

      It is highly regarded for all groups to establish a /GAMERIPS
      directory on their affiliated FTP sites which will contain
      game-iso rips and (optionally) DVD rips. Trainers and patches
      belong to 0day.

 20.  DVD Amendment Rules:

      With the advent of games on DVD media, albeit in minor
      quantities, it has been decided to pre-empt any more rule
      changes in the future by including the following DVD rules.
      These rules will be based mostly on the existing rip rules
      and will allow people to get used to this new and developing
      scene.

   a. Installation:

      The DVD rip release should install from the CD and only
      run the game from the hard drive. HD running of a game is
      the goal, not running off CD. This is the usual way with
      rips.
     
   b. Size:

      The game size for DVD RIPS should be made into a burnable
      CD iSO format for easy burning and distribution. The .bin
      and .cue format where possible. The release must not have
      more than 3CD's of 80mins. Regardless of how many DVD's
      there were. This should only be the case where the normal
      rip sizes cannot apply and the original media format was
      indeed DVD. It should not be used as an excuse to rip down
      6 CD releases, as these have been proven to be rippable
      even under the old rules in the past.
     
   c. Format:

      Release files should be in RAR format or any future
      compression that supports multiple volumes and long file
      names, followed by the traditional SFVing. And in also rip
      sites/places should therefore adjust their scripts to
      handle the new DVD rip formats as well as the usual ZIP
      files. Siteops UPDATE your SCRIPTS!
       
   d. Valid:

      A rip release of 55 x 5,000,000 bytes and the release of
      a DVD rip of the same game, are allowed as they will
      accommodate to different users.

   e. Singular:

      No add-ons are allowed for DVD rips as the current size
      should be enough. For patches and trainers the current
      normal rip rules should apply.

   f. CD/DVD availability:

      No DVD rip of a game is allowed if a certain publisher
      releases a game on CD and DVD unless the DVD game increases
      some game features (like highres movies, etc.).

   g. General:

      In general the standard rules should be applied also to
      DVD rips. If a group removes any allowed data and a
      competing group can leave the data in and make it
      the same CD count, their release is considered a
      proper and is the valid release. It is preferred to
      include as much data as possible on DVD rips.
      Only if it is not possible to fit all data on 3 CDs by
      downsampling and other means of compression it is legit
      to remove data from the game. This means a 3 CD release
      with movies included is preferred over a 2 CD release
      with movies ripped out. Reasons for proper are:

      A) If a group can rip a game to the same CD count
         as the previous groups rip by including gamedata
         ripped out by the previous group. Downsampling
         IS ALLOWED. The size of the cds do not matter
         in this case.

      B) If a group can get 350mb smaller in size
         as long as all previous data in rip is included
         and NO downsampling occurs.

      C) If a group can get 1 CD smaller in size
         as long as all previous data in rip is included.
         Downsampling IS ALLOWED.

      To cease any confusion examples are provided:

      Scenario A)
     
      If group A releases a 2 CD DVDRip with movies and some
      audio ripped, and group B releases their rip which is also
      2 CD's with all movies/music included but downsampled,
      group B's is the valid release. Regardless if group B's
      release has bigger sized cds.

      Scenario B)

      Group A releases a 2 CD DVDRip with everything included,
      both CD's being 700mb. Group B releases a 2 CD rip
      with everything included but because of better technique
      CD1 is 700mb and CD2 is 350mb, hence half a CD
      smaller as long as movies are NOT downsampled it is the
      valid release.

      Scenario C)

      Group A releases a 3 CD DVDRip, 2 CD's being 700mb, CD
      3 being 200mb. Group B releases a 2 CD rip with everything
      included from previous rip, because of better technique
      or downsampling it is the valid release. This is true
      regardless of the size of the last CD, be it 700mb or 10mb.


  S.S.R. March 5th, 2004

    Signed and ratified by Leaders & Council Members of the
    following groups: Myth, Divine, Vace, Instinct, Dynasty,
    Oceanine, Cubic, Delice, Bowling, NLrip and Storm.

Dupe 2k4:
http://www.theisonews.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=116052

dupeowned!