Does the hardware to burn a Sony disc exist outside of a Sony factory?

As the topic suggests - and this is really just a personal curiosity inspired by reading a few threads here lately:Okay, so in order to make a disc self boot on a Ps1 or Ps2 without a modchip you need the 'wobble groove' which is impossible to burn with a regular cd/dvd burner -

But, has anyone ever seen a machine that actually burns the wobble groove outside of a Sony factory? I'm asking because two things got me curious:

1) Someone here mentioned selfbooting HK silvers - I spent two years in SE Asia and snagged lots of ps1 and ps2 games (cdr and silver) but I NEVER bought a game that was selfbooting. The closest I ever saw were the Action Replay discs, etc...

Has anyone ever purchased a game that was selfbooting?


2) Probably a load of crap, but someone mentioned a firmware mod that could burn the wobble groove. I say 'a load of crap' because if it was so simple, someone would have already leaked the info on the web.


So, outside of a Sony factory - has anyone seen anything close to something that can reproduce the 'wobble groove' ?

 

1- These do exist but since SONY caught the people who were doing it really fast, they're rare.

2- The idea involved replicating the trick DATEL uses on it's discs with a hacked CD/DVD burner. The package that containhed the theory was called "Zone loader", because it was included within the sources of the said program. (I think it was a sort of cog swap loader)

Didn't go forward though. Reasons are quite obvious. It's possible that SONY scared the guy out through bullying.
Or that the theory was good but it was not really possible in the end. We know that the method works for silvers, but can't really be sure about burnt discs.

 

Thanks Olvieira - I'd like to know a bit more about these self booting HK silvers... Do you remember any specific games?

Also, the HDLoader discs (like Datel's Action Replay) can't be legit authorised Sony products - So how did Datel actually produce these self booting discs? Did they reverse engineer the wobble groove and build custom cd/dvd duplicators?

 

I'd suggest you look for the "Zone loader" sources and read the stuff in it.

DATEL discs use a licence key from a existing game and a trick to fool the drive, which is described on the said sources file.

 

If still interested here are the ZoneLoader Links
http://sksapps.com/mis/PS2_ZONELOADER_CD.rar
http://sksapps.com/mis/PS2_ZONELOADER_DVD.rar
http://sksapps.com/mis/PS2_ZoneLoader_SRC+Direct-Boot_Docs.zip
Other Tools
http://sksapps.com/index.php?page=mis.html

 

Did I read it correctly that it's impossible, even with modified firmware, to burn a bootable disk with ZoneLoader's method? I guess in the end you still need access to an industrial disk mastering system to create the disk.

Also, SuccessHK/SuperUFO use to sell self booting bootleg games through their website. Not sure if they still do this, but they used to sell bootlegs of import games that were modified to boot on US consoles without a modchip or swap disk. The CD-ROM disks they make in particular are terrible. I remember waiting over a minute for my system to detect a SwapMagic CD before seeing the PlayStation 2 logo. Almost half the time the system would just reject it.

Whoever manufactured the disks for CodeBreaker, on the other hand, must have had a better technique for making the disk. Maybe it was just better equipment, but my CodeBreaker disk boots every single time without trouble. There's a valid IFPI number on the disk that could uncover the manufacturer, if anyone wants me to find it.

 

Datel for all their products use licensed code to boot their discs. Sometimes the discs failing loading... but it's rather rare. Not sure what Blaze use for the XPLODER.

 

Licensed code? Sony wouldn't allow use of any kind of licensed code in Datel's products. Most probably they are done through reverse-engineering or a little help from an insider.

 

I said that DATEL just used a existing licence key (SCPS-XXXXX/SCES-XXXXX/SCUS-XXXXX) of a existing title.


Common ones for the US region were Crazy Taxi and Timesplitters.

 

Ask Haunted, he knows how.

 

Yeh but he likes to keep all the good stuff a secret.

 

I guess it's safe to assume Datel built some sort of custom burner that was capable of replicating the barcode on a legit Sony disc?

Also, can anyone pinpoint a 'specific' game for these SuperUFO (HK) self-booting silvers? Does anyone actually own one - or seen one with their own eyes?

 

well the rumor is Datel for the PS2 has a stolen/leaked glass master
and according to wikipedia and other Internet rumors they made a mold of the glass master
cut off everything but the licence leadin area and made a new Glass master with there code on it