Hi, [This is my first post, be gentle.] Here is some info, as I understand it, about the blue and green PlayStation (1) debugging units. Please reply with any additions or corrections. In particular I'm not sure of the power supply issues. All consoles can play original discs from any region, and games on CD-R, much like a "chipped" retail console. Depending on the console type, the boot menu/code will differ (e.g. PAL console's boot menu/loading screen outputs 50Hz PAL video, but NTSC games output in NTSC). Some people think the debugging consoles have more memory than a retail PlayStation. As far as I'm aware that's not the case, but it should be quite simple for someone who knows a little about PlayStation development to write a test program to settle that once and for all. (The PlayStation developer ISA & PCI cards DTL-H2000, DTL-H2500 do have more memory.) Blue consoles: Model numbers DTL-H100x, DTL-H110x, where x is 0 for Japanese, 1 for US, 2 for PAL. Have a corresponding label at the top right saying e.g. PAL (blue ink on silver background) for a DTL-H1102. DTL-H100x consoles plug directly into the mains, like retail consoles. DTL-H110x consoles take 12V DC power input, not mains. 12V DC is supplied by a small power supply which is connected to the mains by a cable with "figure 8" connector. (Some used debugging stations may have had their original power supplies replaced, e.g. if a previous owner didn't have the correct 12V AC adapter, they might swap the power supply board inside with one from a retail SCPH-100x console.) Have A/V outputs on RCA/phono plugs, like the first SCPH-100x retail consoles. All(?) blue debugging stations have an earlier revision of graphics chip than most (not all) retail consoles. This can easily be seen in games like Tomb Raider or Medal of Honor. In the first level of Tomb Raider, there is much more "banding" in the shades of snow than when played on retail consoles. There were some old newsgroup postings from people with retail consoles who noticed this problem. Green consoles: Model number DTL-H120x These probably use a later version of the graphics chip ("rev C", as in most retail consoles?). There are some programmer-visible differences between the earlier and later chip revisions, which Sony issued a note to their developers about. The DTL-H120x consoles may be designed to occasionally return errors on memory card and disc accesses, the idea being that developers can easily check their error-handling routines. Do the green consoles all have 12V input, or a wide-range mains power supply? -- M
I don't know much about debug units, but I could write you a program that checks for RAM size and GPU revision... oh and welcome to the board :smt023
That would be cool, preferably a CD image that I could burn to a CD-R. I'm surprised something like that doesn't exist already. -- M
How many varieties of debug console do you own, doofus? Do you have any other PS dev hardware, like the debug ISA cards? The info you provided sounds handy for my database in this forum :smt033
Here's how you can tell if a motherboard has been replaced, like someone ripping you off: Boot the system with a game. A green or blue PSX will not have "SCE_ tm" (_ varies) on the logo screen. A Yaroze will show whatever region disk is inserted (SCEA=America, SCEI=Japan, SCEE=Europe, SCEW=Yaroze system disk). A chipped retail PSX will always show the region of the system rather than of the disk. And finally, a chipped Yaroze will show literally a random selection from SCEI, SCEA, and SCEE. Melissa
I have (I think) a total of three blue consoles, all PAL DTL-H1002 and DTL-H1102. No green consoles. I have a DTL-H2500 PCI card with internal CD drive and controller box. A couple of external black CD-ROM drives (which would be used with the DTL-H2000 ISA card I think). Also (though I haven't got around to opening the package yet) what should be DTL-H2000 ISA card(s) and some other bits, with a SCSI hard disk containing - so the seller said - some kind of game code. Oh, and a PS2 CD/DVD-ROM emulator board DTL-T14000. Several sets of PS2 developer documentation (printed books). One or more of those possibly for sale if anyone wants to pay a ridiculous price. PS: I could get hold of RGB SCART cables for the DTL-H2500 (& DTL-H2000 if it uses the same) if anyone is interested. Also the pinout info if anyone wants to roll their own. -- M
That gives me an idea. It would be *really* cool if someone could write a program that allows the console's BIOS to be saved to memory card. Obviously that would take several cards, but in conjunction with a DexDrive or Data Deck (etc.) card reader (which can be had for a couple of $ on eBay) people could easily dump their consoles' BIOS ROMs. Useful to (legally) use a PlayStation emulator which requires a BIOS ROM image, plus to see what differences there are in various ROMs. A dumping program would ideally print out a checksum (MD5?) of all ROM data, to allow the user to verify it transferred correctly to the computer (and they didn't join the parts in the wrong order). A similar thing could perhaps be done to dump the code of Action Replay-like cheat cartridges, maybe even to allow code stored on a memory card to be flashed into a cheat cart. Any amateur PS developer fancy taking on a project like that? -- M
Hmm. I don't know how easy it is to make a program that will fit on a memory card and execute it from the memory card to dump the BIOS rom into the same or another memory card. I think using a program from the parallel port on the back is how you can probably execute third party programs, like BIOS dumpers.
Nah you don't execute the BIOS from the memory card also. Since all memory cards page 1M, it'd take 4 cards/pages for a BIOS! It'd be far easier for someone to use a HK EMS ARP/Caetla with Comm Link which I believe can already can dump the system's BIOS. The only way that wouldn't work would be with a 9000 model. Edit: Just did a Google, 0x0bfc00000 - 0x0bfc7ffff.. BAM!
Doofus, I would try but I have never used the memory card thus far with my PS projects... mind you I refuse to use Psy-Q so it's all a bit harder to do it on register-level without proper docs...
I'm not 100% sure right now, but my chipped SCPH-1001 used to show the region of the discs. SCEE for europeans, SCEI for japan,... I can't test it right now because i took it to a friend to fix it's lenses and cd spinning motor, but like i said i think a chipped ps1 show the region of the discs. Don't know about later versions / PCB revisions.
Retail units will say both the disc's region and the console. You can change the disc's "region", but you can't change the "Licensed to SCEI" (A/E) part though.
I got two blue debugging stations, a DLT-H1101 (NTSC US) and a DLT-H1002 (PAL). They both have normal PU-8 boards, and could easily have been mistaken for a SCPH-1001 and SCPH-1002 just by looking at the motherboards alone. I am pretty sure they have the standard 2MB system RAM, making them good for debugging release candidates that run perfect on the 8MB DLT-H2x00 development boards. Why not write something to 0x8020000, and try to read it back, just to check ;-) I can confirm that the "SCE_ tm" test Myria mentioned works great (to check if a debugging station is an original one or just a chipped retail). Cheers!
I mean 0x80200000 of course. ...and DTL, not DLT. Have been working way too much with tape drives. Hehe...
That was done a few years ago by Loser. Ask google about loser's bios dumper and it shouldn't be hard to find. If you can't find it I have it somewhere.
My DTL-H1200 runs on 100VAC as you can see here. by the way does it take longer to load PAL/US titles? Compared to JPN it takes bit longer to load??? Maybe I should swap the CD module with SCPH-9000 as that'll be much newer module? cheers
