When a CHD (Compressed Hunks of Data) file refuses to mount, when an emulator protests with a cryptic error, the immediate response is technical: compare hashes, swap dumps, apply a known patch. But equally urgent is the moral question: which version do we honor? The original retail copy, with its idiosyncrasies? The corrected image that behaves the way modern emulation expects? Preservationist instincts pull one way; pragmatic playability pulls another. The fix becomes an act of curatorship.
European versions are region-locked and protected. If the game crashes early, your emulator may be using the wrong BIOS.
However, if the original source disc was scratched, or if the ripping process was interrupted, the resulting CHD will be flawed.
Older versions of CHDMAN (pre-v0.200) sometimes fail to preserve the sub-channel data required for PAL copy protection.