For GameCube: X: games. GAMEID game.iso (NOTE: file system must be FAT32) Exporting Wii Channels. In order to turn a channel installed on a Wii or vWii into a WAD file that can be played in Dolphin, follow this guide. When asked if you want to fakesign the ticket or TMD, you should press B.

1. Tech makers and tech buyers alike are switching over to a lower-capacity storage technology, the SSD.

2. Gen 6 and especially Gen 7 games are really big. Developers had more freedom than ever to bloat up their games.

3. Many people would like to keep a decent collection of game backups without having to purchase a NAS or desktop tower loaded with HDDs. 'Cloud' storage isn't local; it's inconvenient to use cloud storage solutions for big games because the game has to be downloaded to play.

So, for those of us that like to keep copies of our games stored on our computer for the purpose of emulation or backup, here's a brief guide on significantly reducing file sizes of those games. We're talking up to ~90% file size reductions on some games, while keeping those games playable in emulators! No extraction/decompression required to play!

NOTES: If I make a mistake or leave something out, please inform everyone in the comments (do NOT PM me). If I link to a tool that only works on Windows, try running the tool in WINE on GNU/Linux or in a Windows virtual machine on OSX. Don't ask me how to backup your games to ISO format, there are other guides for that. Don't ask about piracy; this is a strictly legal guide and there are other subreddits to ask about piracy.

PCSX2 (the PS2 emulator) supports loading games with the archive format GZIP. PCSX2 will build an index of each gzip compressed game it loads, so that there is no speed difference between playing an uncompressed and compressed game. The game will still play exactly the same in PCSX2, except you must wait for it to build an index the first time the game loads. The index is stored where your game file is.

1. Install 7-zip.

2. Right click on the ISO, select 7-zip, the select 'Add to archive'.

3. A window will pop up. For archive format, select gzip. For compression level, select Ultra to achieve the best compression, or a lower setting to have the operation completed faster. Press OK and wait for the operation to complete.

4. Repeat the process for each ISO you have, or use a command line tool (see alternatives below) to do them all in a batch.

5. Delete the uncompressed files (all the game files not in GZIP/GZ format). To quickly select these files in a typical file manager, sort the files by type (you may have to add this column to your file manager), click on the first of the files you want to delete, then hold shift while clicking the last of the files you want to delete.

Alternative: Pigz is multi-threaded for GZIP, so it will compress much quicker.

Alternative suggested by /u/Mad_Fun: PCSX2 also supports CSO/CISO files made with maxcso. These files are bigger than GZIP files, but the compression process is quicker.

Dolphin (the GC/Wii emulator) supports loading games with its native archive format GCZ. There is no speed difference between an uncompressed and compressed game.

1. Open Dolphin. If you have used it before, it should now be displaying a list of your games.

2. To select all your games in Dolphin, click the first game and then hold shift while clicking the last game in the list. All the games should now be selected.

3. Right click. From the context menu that pops up, select 'Compress selected ISOs'. Choose a location and press save.

4. The games should show up in blue text to indicate that they have been compressed to the GCZ format. They will play normally.

5. Delete the uncompressed files (all the game files not in GCZ format).

Alternative: Dolphin also supports CSO/CISO and WBFS for Wii games. Both these formats result in slightly smaller filesizes, and WBFS has a bonus of being usable on a real Wii. Wii Backup Manager can convert an ISO to both of these formats.

Those who keep backups of their 360 games usually do so by burning a disc that their modded console will play, eliminating the need to reduce the game's size. But now we have Xenia, a competent Xbox 360 emulator, so we need to store those files on our computer. Instead of storing those padded 8.5 GB ISO files, you can convert them to one of Xenia's supported formats: a folder with an Xbox executable (XEX), or a rebuilt ISO with its padding removed. I personally think that rebuilding the ISO is better, because the end result is one neat file rather than a folder full of files. Removing the padding from an X360 ISO file or extracting it will not affect its performance in the emulator.

ISO to XEX:

1. Download, extract, and run XBOX 360 ISO Extract.

2. Choose the ISO folder and destination folder.

3. Check 'delete iso' to have ISOs deleted automatically after extraction.

4. Press go.

Alternatives: Exiso-GUI or Exiso.

ISO to rebuilt ISO:

1. Download and open ISO2GOD. We will not be using the main function of this tool, which is creating 'Games on Demand' versions of Xbox 360 backups. We will use the tool for its optional ISO rebuilding feature.

2. Go into the settings menu. For simplicity, set the output and rebuild path to the same location. Make sure 'Always save rebuilt ISO' is checked and the padding is set to 'Full (ISO Rebuild)'. Save changes.

3. Press 'Add ISO'. In the window that pops up, browse for the ISO's location. Do this for each ISO you want to rebuild.

4. Press Convert.

5. Delete the folder that is generated, and keep the rebuilt ISO.

Trimming a DS or 3DS ROM will have no performance impact on the game. The ROMs will remain in the same format, and they will be smaller. All DS/3DS emulators can play these trimmed ROMs.

1. Download and run NDSTokyoTrim. Bonus: This tool also trims GBA ROMs.

2. Drag and drop all of your 3DS/DS/GBA ROMs into the NDSTokyoTrim window.

3. Press Trim.

4. By default, NDSTokoTrim overwrites the old ROM with the trimmed ROM, so there is no need to delete anything. You can change this behavior in the program's settings menu.

Alternative: rom_tool

PPSSPP (a PSP emulator) supports the CSO/CISO compression format. On a real PSP, playing backups in this format noticeably increases loading time, but according to the developer using this format in PPSSPP will not cause any noticeable speed difference.

1. Download, extract, and run CISO GUI

2. Drag and drop your games into the CISO GUI window.

3. In the lower left corner, select a compression level of 1-9, with 9 being the best compression.

4. Hit compress and tell it where to save the compressed files.

5. Delete the uncompressed files.

Alternatives: CISO or UMDGen or PSP ISO Compressor

Dreamcast emulators such as Demul and Reicast will play the archive format CHD. Use GDI to CHD Converter to convert your games.

The Playstation emulators Retroarch & ePSXe support the PBP format (thanks /u/Blood_Reaper). Use PSX to PSP Converter to convert your games.

Not all emulators have a nifty archive playing feature. However, there are some workarounds:

Solution from /u/fb39ca4: You can enable filesystem-level compression for the directory containing your ROMs. In Windows, this is called NTFS compression. Filesystem-level compression is transparent to the emulator and seamless to use.

Solution from /u/teeedubb: You can archive the games with 7-zip, and then use RocketLauncher to decompress 7zip archives and pass the contents onto the emulator.

Gamecube Iso Wbfs Manager

Gamecube Gcm Roms