GameCube/Disc Formats

The GameCube has 3 known disc formats; the standard NROM discs which are used for retail games, the NR discs used by developers, and an internal-only disc which can be burnt and played in retail consoles (unknown name).

It is possible to dump both retail and NR GameCube discs using various methods.

NROM

Main article: NROM

The NROM format (Nintendo ROM?) is the main pressed disc format for the GameCube, later extended for the Wii. It is the format that retail discs were shipped in.

The earliest known (potential) NROM disc is the Luigi's Mansion disc shown at E3 2001, which appears to be a retail-style disc with a label.

NR Disc

The NR Disc is a WORM (write-once read-many) disc used by licensed developers in tandem with the NR Reader and NR Writer. They have different key data from NROM discs and won't work in retail consoles.

Early variants of the NR disc, used for the first year or so of the GameCube's life, had no label.

Certain NR discs also did not have a serial printed in the middle ring.

Internal recordable disc

There have been some recordable discs with game data on them found which can be read in retail consoles, sent out as review copies for early games before Nintendo started distributing NR Readers to game reviewers. This indicates Nintendo had internally produced writable discs with the retail key data.

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  An early version of the NR Disc, with no label. (The 'Mario's Mansion' text is a joke, not indicative of the disc contents)
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  A regular NR disc.
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  An internal recordable retail disc.
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  The early Luigi's Mansion disc from E3 2001.