How many colors did PlayStation debugging stations come in?

Had no idea there were Grey debug stations will have to keep my eye out for one of those. In reference to my old Debug when I saw it pictured I originally thought it was a green unit but then realized it wasn't (S-Video port gave it away) I still ended up buying it though and kept it until I found one in better shape. My understanding was that Retrobrite should return it to the original color. Although I have no idea where the debug station ended up. (I sold it and the guy I sold it to sold it)

 

Also have heard sony used retail modded playstations at trade shows.

 

There are rumours that they modded playstation motherboards to put into the blue/green cases. I'm not sure I believe that though.

The grey DTL consoles exist, I have one in my collection. They probably don't turn up so often because they've been played to death after being "liberated". Kinda like how you find more US debugs in the UK and more UK debugs in the US, the own region ones got stolen sooner.

 

What I heard is they were normal gray consoles.

 

But it won't make sense. Why modify one of your own retail consoles when you can just stick a TEST unit there?

After all, TEST units are closer to retail consoles than TOOLs... and can play master discs.

 

This would be before the ps2.

 

But the Playstation still has TEST units anyway. :/

 

My only guess as to why Sony would end up using a modded retail PlayStation for a show or convention is that the internal supply of SCPH-100X units and debugger motherboards dried up. The manufacturing facilities that produced PlayStations would have switched over to the later revisions by then and it was easier to just mod what they already had laying around than go to the trouble of putting in an order for a whole new model line of debuggers.

Again, just a wild guess.

 

This is not a rumor. Thought it was a unique collector item because it isn't a debug. No idea what mod code they used though. Could have be custom programmed or they may have simply used one of the publicly available routines.

 

Change the mechacon from a retail PS1 unit from retail to dev and it's "modded".

It's more likely they were actually picked on the mfg line and reworked into debugs, so they would look like plain boring retails.

I mean SONY would not install a modchip in it, more likely they would just change the drive CPU chip for one which does not check security.

 

How about programming the MECHACONs of those units to not have region checks? It's Sony, so they probably had the tools to either flash or re-flash (replace the original firmware) a "region-free" firmware into the MECHACON. That's probably easier than picking retail units to have a debug MECHACON fitted in. @_@

I don't know how different the Playstation MECHACONs are from a Playstation 2, so I'm assuming that they are similar (Microcontrollers with their own firmware).

 

The Mechacon chips are usually Hitachi H8 (PU-07/08) or Motorola 68HC11 (PU-09 and all others) on PS1s. Both, of maskrom kind. So they would need to replace the whole chip if they wanted them to behave different.

 

Has anyone ever dumped the PS1 Mechacon ROM before? It'd be interesting to try to find a memory overwrite exploit in it. Same goes for the PS2 Mechacon, which is more likely to have an exploit, due to the increased complexity of the interface to the R3000A. Not to mention the ability to understand MagicGate once and for all.

Sony makes special "S" models of their debug kits that have the same casing as retail systems for use on trade show floors. I think that they were called "H" in the PS1 era - i.e., DTL-H1000H or something like that. On PS2 and PS3, it's "S".

You can easily differentiate between a modded retail system and a debug system. When you boot up with a game, if the black license screen says "SCEA tm" (or SCEE or SCEI), it's a retail system, possibly with a mod chip. A debug system, a Yaroze, or a Midnight Blue model will not show anything in that part of the screen.

 

The PSP does the same thing ( retail standard PSP) but that probably has to do with it not having a real mechacon chip or equivalent.

 

Remember this post?

Well, there is a poster on a Dutch forum who also has one of these, but his is brand new.



So perhaps these were a late run of systems using what was left over, after all.