Note: Unlabeled CDs were CDs that were burnt incorrectly. However, they may still provide information that will later be useful.
Of Particular Note:
1) There are 392 creature cards. This may be used in calculating which creature is generated.
2) All tracks burnt were of silence. Another test will determine if the actual data affect the creature type or stats.
3) All CDs were burnt using the same program with similar parameters. They were all burnt using the same brand of CDs. Later I try out similar burns with CD-RWs (in order to save the expense of burning CD after CD).
Personal Conclusions & Theories:
1) Although the first few CDs (1B, 2B) demonstrated little evidence that the frame-time did not affect the type of creature was produced, CD (Unlabeled 2) countered this evidence. It is quite possible that the difference of one, two, or three frames do not affect the type of creature, but the difference of 5 or more may. This should be investigated more thoroughly.
2) Consider this: If the main and subtypes were calculated strictly by times and track numbers, that means any breed--ANY--are possible. However, the game clearly does not allow certain combinations (such as Undine/Beaclon). I feel that there is a table used to calculate the type of monster (and, along with it, a template of abilities). Furthermore, I believe that this table is the same used for the card numbers. However, without proof, this is merely a theory.
Further, the lookup table may not be precisely the card numbers; there may be a secondary lookup table that calcuates which card matches such creature. This would explain the erratic patterns of the C-test CDs.
3) The number of tracks did not affect the type of creatures (1A, 3A), or at least in these tests. It is still my personal opinion, however, that the number of tracks do affect the type of creature, but the difference must be greater than 3.
Why do I believe this? CD databases use a CD's total time (actual burn time) and number of tracks to uniquely identify CDs. I don't believe that it's coincidence that Mariah Carrey's Christmas album just HAPPENS to produce a Satan (Santa) Claus, or that Tecmo's CDs just so happen to produce the special creatures they do. I suspect that there is a preset "exception" case statements just prior to the equation to calculate the table entry for each creature.
I don't believe that Tecmo would overlook this simple check and throw out this piece of input.
4) But why would different pressings of the same CD, same track times, etc, produce different monsters? The answer would be in the frames.
Let's say you own BMG music. You have a deal with Griffen to press you own copies of My Damn Christmas by the Foo Bars. However, there are plenty of pirates out there who are more than willing to forge your company's name, logo, etc etc, to appear to be the real deal.
But how can you PROVE that these pirates are stealing your CDs? One method is to read the internal information of the CD. But this can be easily copied and forged. The method to deter and reveal piracy is by minor changes. Dollar bills have watermarks; CDs have frames.
There is usually a silence between tracks. (There is *always* a lead-in time for audio CDs). Let's say that Griffen uses 2.1 seconds as a track-buffer time. If you, owning BMG, want to differentiate between your CDs, Griffen's, and a pirates, what should you do?
CHANGE THE BUFFER TIME. Instead of 2.1 seconds, use 1.9. A precise CD reading program will tell you the *exact* burning times. And, if you were a pirate, you may overlook this little detail and burn you pirated copies at 2.0 seconds.
Of course, I may be making the simple very complex (or violating Occam's Razor). Human beings are at the heart of burning, and still are prone to mistakes. What if the buffer time, at the first pressing, was 2.5 seconds, and the next was 2.25. A very minor change, but would greatly affect the total burnt time. Or, even simplier, perhaps a given track was 5:20:03 and, remastered or redubbed, it is now 5:20:44 (0.547 seconds added). The time printed on the CD cover would not be updated, CD players would not show the exact change, but any program that pulled the exact burnt time would notice (such as CDDB or (gasp!) Monster Rancher 2).
5) Seconds definately change the type of creature produced. In these examples, the creatures were all the same main type and differred in sub-type. Their cards were also very close to each other (however, the card values themselves differed as the seconds increased; in other words, an increment of 1 second did not necessarily increment the card count by one).
6) Offhand, I do not see any "magic number" in 392, the total possible creatures that could be generated from a CD.
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