Welcome to the Laboratory!
The Monster Rancher laboratory started in 2001 as a collaboration between MRM and LC to capture the meta data on a CD (timestamps, track numbers and lengths etc.) to distribute for others to download and burn their own CDs to create it's corresponding monster without distributing actual albums
Make A Monster - Web App
The newest, simplified process with all of the options! Choose Monster, Generate Files, Burn CD with ImgBurn or CloneCD!
Many Emulators can also read these files directly, without the need of a physical CD.
Manual Edit Process to Make a Monster
MR1 and MR2 can use "Make-A-Monster app" for Physical CDs or Emulation, however, you can use this process if you want to follow the original steps discovered in 2001 for playing on the Console games. These steps include CloneCD/ImgBurn/Text file edits for burning physical CDs for MR1, MR2, MR3, MR4.These were the original instructions/process discovered in 2001, but they still work well for burning physical CDs with the monster you want.
The Make-A-Monster files are created Ready-To-Use and can be immediately burned to CD to create the monster you picked!
TOTAL MONSTER SUBCODES: 592!
- If you have a ??? Type Monster not listed, PLEASE consider submitting to LegendCup (See contact page) so we can add to the collection for everyone's benefit!
- If you have read the instructions, or already know the process, here is the TOC data you'll need!
- NOTE** For the games with Books that can be copied from 1 game save to another, if a monster is not listed, you can try to copy the book data from the Game Saves page to get the monster you want.
Monster Rancher 1 (NTSC/US)
Web Tools (NTSC/US compatible):
Manual Tools for NTSC/US specific files:
Monster Rancher 2
Web Tools (NTSC/US + PAL/UK/AUS compatible):
Manual Tools for NTSC/US specific files:
Monster Rancher (2) PAL/UK
Manual Tools for PAL/UK specific files:
Monster Rancher 3 (NTSC/US)
Monster Rancher 4 (NTSC/US)
Monster Rancher EVO - (NTSC/US)
Overview and Requirements
These are instructions are Written & documented by Monster Fenrick (Taylor Walker) for public reference.
This Process was discovered by Lisa Shock, owner of Monster Rancher Metropolis.
PLEASE see the MRM archives for technical troubleshooting.
- WINDOWS and a PC are needed to do this process (Not Mac Compatable)
- The files mentioned in this process (image.ccd, IMAGE.img) are Hidden Files.
You MUST have Hidden Files and Folders enabled or you won't be able to see/edit the file.
How to enable hidden files in Windows 10 - Before you can create a Monster, you must first complete "Part 1 of 2" below (This creates the files that you will edit in this process)
Overview of process:
- Use CloneCD to read a CD that you own.
- Use a text editor to open a file that CloneCD makes.
- Replace the contents of that text file, with the "Subcode" (TOC) in the text files on this site
- Use CloneCD to write the altered data onto a blank CDR
- Use this "Burned" (written to) CDR in Monster Rancher to get a Monster.
Video Demo
While this video uses ImgBurn (instead of CloneCD), the process of swapping out the data from the .ccd file is the same.If you used the Web Application to generate the files, you do not need to do any swapping at all since it will already contain the correct subcode data.
If written instructions aren't your thing, watch Teawch's instructional video!
Written Instructions using CloneCD burning softwareStep by Step - Part 1 of 2:Prepare and Create the CloneCD fileFirst step for making the monster you want. This splits the TOC and actual content data apart. |
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DO NOT USE WINDOWS DEFAULT CD WRITING SOFTWARE: Windows simply writes files to the media. You will need a CD burning software such as CloneCD to be able to utilize this process of changing the TOC data.
Clone CD for WinXP/Win7 compatible version (1.74Mb) Do not update this free version or it will expire!
Clone CD software:
(You can also download from the developer: https://www.redfox.bz/en/ However, these versions are saved locally in case future releases do not allow for this process.) While these instructions were written for CloneCD, You should be able to use ImgBurn as well. |
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Once you have installed this software (and restarted your computer if it asked you to) you can launch it by double clicking the application Icon on your desktop. | |
Insert any CD with an Audio track on it that you wish CloneCD to read. Audio CD -length of the track does not matter. (DO NOT use an MP3 CD or CD with MP3 contents or it may skew the process) | |
Select "Read To Image File" from the toolbar on the top (looks like a CD with an arrow pointing to a floppy disk). A box will pop up, check the first option "Read SubChannael Data From Data Tracks" | |
Click the button below "Start Disc Read (a picture of a CD & drive with an arrow pointing to a floppy disk.) this will copy the Data to your Hard Drive and could take between 5 to 10 minutes | |
Insert a blank writable media disk
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- The Image.ccd file contains the Subcode Data (which is actually the TOC - Table Of Contents).
- the IMAGE.img file contains physical data (Mb, Kb or however large the CD actually is).
- Do not move either of these files out of this directory!
Step by Step - Part 2 of 2:Edit the subcode (T.O.C.) data and Insert the TOC data of the monster you want to create.To change the Subcode data you must Right click the Image.ccd file and select the "Open With" option. Uncheck the box that says "always use this program to open this file" and then select Notepad. |
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delete all the information in the Image.ccd file | |
Copy the subcode data from one of the .txt subcode files you downloaded from above, or from the MRM Archives | |
Paste the Subcode into the Image.ccd file and select "file", then "Save" | |
The Text file contains the version of the software it was created with.
IF CloneCD Software version, and the version in the TXT file are different: simply change the version number on the image.ccd file (or txt file) to match the version of CloneCD you are using. (Re-save the file if you edited the version #) |
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in CloneCD now select the "write from Image File (a picture of a Floppy disc pointing to a CDRW drive) | |
It will have a directory of where the Image.ccd file is. Make sure the path leads to the Image.ccd file. | |
Click "Start Disc Write" (a picture of a Floppy disc pointing to a CDRW drive) | |
Make sure you "Keep TOC as on source" and write to end of image file |
Congratulations and have fun raising your new monster!
BonusQUICK CD-Burning / Monster Making Tip! Everyone knows less data copies/burns/finishes faster...Here's how you can create a base IMAGE.img file that completes super fast! If your initial CD (used in Part 1 of 2) is very small in size, this is the information saved to the IMAGE.img file.
You can Do this by:
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Create a .txt file with nothing in it. | |
Insert a blank CD into your CDRW. | |
Burn the empty text file onto your CD. | |
Going forward, Use This CD to create your original Disk Image in "Part 1 of 2" steps above. | |
In future "Part 2 of 2" steps, After you have altered the image.ccd data and go to create the CD, it will literally take only seconds to create a monster from now on. |