I Just Succeeded in Creating a Self-Booting PSone Backup.

I primarily utilized this tutorial, in combination with several others, as well as some modified firmwares, and was able to successfully create a self-booting PSone backup, capable of launching on consumer-unmodified hardware.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/tm.asp?m=10784&mpage=1&key=&#240105

I'm...just blown away.

I want to post a full-on tutorial, but am morally torn...regardless, I will go into further detail down the road, omitting crucial details.

Additional details EDIT: It's worth noting that the linked post was only a starting point, and got me thinking about the process on a whole. I can safely tell you that there are errors in that tutorial, and in order to do this at all, it requires very specific models of optical drives, with specially written firmware to modify the behaviour of the burning process.

This is the result of 11 months of on-again off-again research, trial and error, nearly $4,000 of money spent, overall.

I did not pursue this with the intent of piracy, or creating bootlegs, but out of a simple pursuit of knowledge, and the burning question of, "Can it be done?"

None of this would have been possible without the assistance of people who are much more knowledgeable than me, some of which requested they remain anonymous.

While more details will be released in time, I can irrefutably CONFIRM that self-booting CD-Rs IS possible on unmodified consumer hardware, without need for the aid of boot discs, modchips or swapping devices..but the amount of time, effort and expense is not worth it, especially with the innumerable means to accomplish this cheaply and inexpensively.

 

Why would you be morally torn if this is true? It's not like psx wasn't hackable with a 10$ modchip and widely pirated even if there's no selfboot like for dreamcast. And it's an old dead system.

Detail your findings, or you'll receive a lot of doubting. That said, it's a very interesting topic!

 

I was going to agree with you FamilyGuy. But I was thinking there is a potential reason why this could be bad to share if a certain condition is met. Basically, once you can burn a PS1 disc that will boot on a normal unmodded system you'll have some people that might decide to try to clone all the artwork and everything they can to an expensive game and then attempt to sell fakes and rip people off. However, in the case of the PS1 I don't know of any black bottom printable CD-Rs in existence. I have seen black bottom CD-Rs but usually not with printable labels. Ofcourse many PS1 games don't have full color disc artwork so you couldn't fake them effectively.

So anyway, I just thought I'd throw out there that one reason why it could actually be a bad thing but I don't think it's actually a problem since the CD-Rs that would be needed don't exist. So that black bottom actually did turn out to be good for something if this is shared.

I'd say I'm for sharing it and discussing it. I'm sure people would like to hear about the details and see everything on it. I remember for a long time hearing that it was theoretically possible if you modified a firmware for a CD writer. But I always found it strange that no one ever did it.

 

I apologise for this idiotic question but could this self-booting could work on unmodified PS3 consoles as well? And could this bypass the Region Locking (not able to play import Japanese titles) problem on NTSC american systems?

 

That post was a troll, nothing in it is worth reading.

I look forward to reading what you came up with though.

 

Bah.......

 

Let's see how this turns out.

 

Such claims are worthless without any proof... And I notice you're putting a lot of emphasis in your post about not being able to enclose certain information, and on holding back your results.. *joins smf as a skeptic*

 

I don't think that not releasing info because of "potential bootlegs of expensive games" is a valid reason nowdays.
Noone would bother making quality printed bootlegs (both disc and artwork) for a ~20 years old console to pirate expensive games. Low quality crap will be spotted miles away.
The market is not really there to make it worthwhile using quality methods and still turn a good profit.

 

I've seen enough wild claims turn out to be true before, so I'm 50/50. It's just that the link he posted had nothing credible in it at all, it was either written by a pathological liar or someone who didn't realise they had a modchip or a blue/green debug.

 

Bootleg games come on pressed discs anyway. And there is/are already method(s) for making pressed discs that will boot on the PlayStation consoles.

Even if you released the "necessary" information, I don't think that there will ever be a new season of mass-piracy/mass-creation of bootleg games. Not only because the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 are now dead consoles, I'm quite sure that pressing discs is going to be better for mass-production. And they might even last longer too.

 

Not to mention that recently hackers discovered the unlock commands for disabling security on retail PS1 units. That effectively turn them into DTL hardware.

 

Where can I see that?

 

I second this. I mean, I already have my own DTL models, but this is something that interests me.

 

http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=557

Long read btw.

From dumping the CD-ROM drive controller firmware the commands to unlock the drive were figured out.

 

I believe it! You'd be surprised at all the things you can figure out if your just try. BTW, I sent you a PM. Please read it and Congratulations on cracking the code.

 

Sorry for asking but, could this be used on the PS3? cuz i would love to try out your method for my Racing Lagoon copy soon!

 

why do people still bother with this? just let the thread die , there is nothing here

 

Probably nothing here, unless there is more proof.

It's not a complete method to run games, even on the original PlayStation. The commands still need a way to get entered into the MECHACON.
Plus these secret commands might not be emulated on any of the later consoles like the PlayStation 2 or PlayStation 3.

For the PlayStation, I was thinking that maybe the unlocking code can be run from a custom flash cart that gets plugged into the parallel port, since I read that it can be used to run code. But there's no way to run customized PlayStation code for the PlayStation 2 and 3, without going through the CD/DVD drive.

 

ahh I understand now! my apologies :-(