I guys I was wondering if anybody know if is possible to link a chip modded PS1 NTSC-U console, with a Chip Moded PS1 PAL console. I own both consoles and I tried to link them with WIpeout 3 SPecial Edition, but both consoles doesnt seem to detect between them. ANyonw knows any way to fix this?
I'm a bit confused here - you can't link with a PSone at all, because it doesn't have the serial communications port that the older consoles had. How are you connecting the consoles together?
I think he has 2 different region consoles, one NTSC-U and one PAL which are both mod chipped and playing the same region of the game on both consoles. (Mod chipped units don't care about region locks, even if the game looks broken when not using RGB SCART it will still boot it)
Just brain failure on my part, yeah, I read is as being a psone. The only reason I can see it might not work if if the Psygnosis comms code is really timing critical and is using vblank as a reference, since a modded NTSC console running a PAL game runs the video about 1% faster than a real PAL console. (This also applies the other way around - if you run an NTSC game on a modded PAL console, it's about 1% slower than a real NTSC console).
Thats was something I figured. I was thinking it could be cause those 50hz and 60hz trying to run together. But I needed someone who could confirm this, since I dont know how the chips works. Reason is my both modded PS1s doesnt look to run the games in wrong speeds. I mean If I place a Ntsc game on the Pal console, It doesnt look slower than normal and viceversa. Bt of course the explanation looked pretty accurate. I was wondering if someone here that also own both NTSC and PAL PS1, and whit the proper skills , could confirm this. Nowa new question is o my mind. This faillure linking PAL and NTSC PS1 consoles, could be a succes if I were able to mod both consoles in 60hz and 50 hz? Or I am catching something wrong here? ( I have almost any electronic knowledge / skills)
The timing error is very small, and you probably wouldn't be able to notice it by eye. The basic reason is that PAL and NTSC consoles have different master clock oscillators for the video - the PAL consoles use 53.203425MHz (12 times the PAL subcarrier frequency) and the NTSC ones use 53.693(18)MHz (15 times the NTSC reference frequency). When you switch a PAL console to NTSC, then it changes the dividers, but it's still running from the PAL reference clock, so the resulting frame rate is slightly off (NTSC should have a field rate of 59.94Hz, but with the wrong clock it actually comes out at about 59.39Hz instead). Similarly, an NTSC console switched to PAL runs at a frame rate of 50.46Hz rather than the 50.00Hz that PAL is supposed to use. Edit: OK, I just tested this, and it appears that Wipeout is highly sensitive to frame rate errors. This was done using the NTSC:J version of Wipeout (SIPS 60003) SCPH-9003 (no mods) <-> SCPH-7000 (no mods) - works, as expected Baseline test SCPH-9003 (no mods) <-> SCPH-7000 (with modchip) - works Same console as test 1, but with a modchip installed. No change. SCPH-9003 (no mods) <-> SCPH-9002 (with modchip) - connects, but then fails with "Link terminated". SCPH-9003 (no mods) <-> SCPH-5502 (with modchip and dual oscillator) - works The dual oscillator mod allows the console to generate correct frame rates in 60Hz mode, and this configuration works - despite the PAL boot ROM in this console. I then modified the SCPH-5502 to bypass the NTSC oscillator and run both GPU inputs from the PAL one (basically, returning it to stock) - at this point, the game started producing the "Link terminated" message, just like the 9002. Conclusion: Wipeout can't even tolerate even an about 1% error on the frame rate, and loses sync.
This is awesome thanks a lot!! I will try to take as much gaming advantage from this info as I could! xD I mean you at least found one configuration whit a PAL and NTSC consoles working linked together, so as soon I can grab those PS1 models I will try as many weird test I could figure. By example, I am thinking right now about one of those strategic games like Command and Conquer Red Alert or Retaliation or Z or Dune 2000 , I remember at least one of them have Pal versions whit dubs in Spanish, German or maybe other languages, so I figure It will be fun to try a linked vs Match with the same game with different languages and experience the results xD I wonder what would happened. xD Yeah , I am pretty nerdy xD!!
OK, I wouldn't be in a hurry to get a SCPH-5502 - the reason it worked isn't because of the model, but because I had modified that specific console so that it contained both the original 53.203MHz PAL reference oscillator and a 53.693MHz NTSC one. As a result, when it's switched over to NTSC mode then it runs at exactly the same speed as a NTSC console rather than with the slight error I mentioned earlier. This was enough to make it work - also note that I was doing testing with 2 identical copies of the game, both NTSC:J - I suspect that a PAL and NTSC version might not be able to sync at ll.
