On the PlayStation back in the day, this series called Monster Rancher (Monster Farm in Japan) was a thing. It went on for a few games, including onto the PS2, and had a gimmick involving summoning monsters from whatever CDs (or DVDs for PS2 games) were placed in the console. For games not on a disc-based system and others, including the re-releases of these games on non-disc systems, there was some other method. For whatever reason I've decided to just put as many CDs as I can in my PlayStation to figure out what monsters come up.
A few notes about this database:
This is using the NTSC/US original disc releases of the original Monster Rancher games on an unmodified PS1 and/or PS2. The game on both systems gives the same results as far as I have tested. I have not tested on PS3, but it may possibly produce similar results.
This does not cover the Switch/Mobile/Steam/etc. ports, as those use a different built-in system, instead drawing from a database that likely has different results and effectively limited selection.
The save files used have all monster breeds unlocked. This is especially important for Monster Rancher 2 which has most breeds locked behind varied game progress.
I have given as many details about the discs as I can, but results may potentially vary depending on slight unmarked differences in re-releases, or significant degradation of disc condition and/or system(s) used, or other unknowable factors.
I do not currently own all of the discs in this list, as some were previously borrowed or owned. Those I do own have been accumulated over time from various sources and may not accurately represent my past, present, or future musical/software taste.
Results are very much not guaranteed using any kind of unofficial emulation. This goes double for image files of the source discs. If an emulator does manage to replicate this game's behavior exactly, wonderful.
Custom burned or duplicated discs are not in this list, this is only for mass-produced discs of at least a minimal degree (some batch-produced types of bootlegs may be included but are infrequent). This is not a page on how to engineer a disc for specific results.
Audio: Typical music (or other recorded audio) CD. May also be Enhanced CD format or similar.
DualDisc: Short-lived experimental audio CD format consisting of a CD-formatted side and a DVD-formatted side on the same disc. May not read in some drives due to not being ISO standard.
PC/Data: Typical PC CD mainly composed of data readable from Windows, Mac, Linux, or other computing devices. May be Redbook format or similar.
Dreamcast: The CD-readable section of a Sega Dreamcast GD-ROM, typically consisting of a data/info track and a second audio track with a recording stating that this is a GD-ROM disc.
PS1: A PlayStation format game CD, typically black on the data side.
PS2: A PlayStation 2 format game CD (as opposed to the more common DVD format for the system), typically blue on the data side.
