[PS2] POPS stuff & POPStarter

@ElPatas

Thanks very much for posting your files. Very much appreciated ! POPStarter now has got an internal database of 358 discs .

As for Lucky Luke: Western Fever (SLES-03530), I've tested it with the released POPStarter 13 build (WIP 01) and with the build I'm currently working on. It works. At least the into video plays fine and I've been able to start a new game and kill a bunch of opponents. I don't know why your copy no longer runs, sorry.
No LibCrypt crack has been published for this game, right ? If so, I think I figured out why... Below is the game running with my LibCrypt crack :
http://youtu.be/15jQ4ED5Tok#t=210
It seems that my LibCrypt crack does something completely wrong, or the game developers added another protection against the LC routine alteration. As you can see, when the game is run with my crack, the level starts without the intro animation, there is no opponent (except a hidden bastard who throws you skulls), and the game finally crashes when you enter the village.

Thank you for reporting that my LC crack for Jackie Chan Stuntmaster does not work. I've read somewhere that the LibCrypt related crash happens during the loading of the Level 3 of the Chinatown area. So I tried loading that level with the LC crack I made and integrated in POPStarter :
http://youtu.be/EEMj2PLeOb8#t=93
It loaded no problem; but then I tried again without the crack and it also loaded... My VCD is possibly already cracked or my tests were done with the wrong level... Well, I'll see what I can do to that game later.


Comrades, I can't give you an ETA but the release of the next POPStarter build is a matter of a few days, not months or years. For now I'm adding everyone's contributions in the damn code. Then I'll have to :
- Fix the POPS bug that was mentioned here;
- Maybe modify the POPStarter configuration table structure so you can set more than one compatibility mode (with a PPF, GUI, whatever...);
- Write stuff in the documentation, make a list of all the auto-activated modes/cracks with credits to the contributors;
- Review the USB compatibility list that is maintained by Algol before its publication;
- Package, upload and publish POPStarter.


EDIT : Confirmation, as for Lucky Luke. I did the equivalent of my LC crack under pSX with CEP, poked my values when the LC routine was deobfuscated, and the result was the same as what happens with POPS. No enemies then crash.
Writing the magic word directly to the BPC via the debugger does not cause this shit, so now we're sure that the game doesn't like when we mess the LC routine up. Perhaps my LC crack also has to "help" the routine to be re-obfuscated for making the whole thing work LOL...

EDIT2 : Muahahah. Yep, the restoration of the original obfuscated stuff did the trick . Sooooooo, I'm gonna see if I can update the trojan file...

 

Great news sir! Thanks!

 

This is what i don't understand, i remember played the game before, i have the original game
and i created and installed the image following the same steps as always i made.
Maybe cue2pops do not make well my image? or maybe the fragmentation inside of
a partition of the internal HDD can break a game also like in the USB loading?

Yes, there is no a scene patch for this game.

Seems this one is very hard, i hope you win the challenge.
The LC protection of this game acts in the way that one mexican guy do
not wake up from the floor in front of a bridge for give you one key for
use it in the hotel.

Check the video from 10:47, and later when you have the key he opens
the door of the hotel at 11:24:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJUD4Z4NWTk

Also happened to me a strange thing using the sbi file in ePSXe, the mexican guy
give me the key, but the key not worked when i liked open the door of the hotel,
then it seems that can have various protection checks.

Yes, is possible that is cracked, i have the original game also of the Jackie Chan Stuntmaster.
But is not in the loading screen of level 3, do you need play the entire level 3, and is in the
loading screen for play the level 4 when it freezes, after the problematic loading screen
you start a single fight versus a boss who is a chef in a kitchen.

Check the video starting from 6:12, the loading screen is exactly at 6:30, after that the
fight in the kitchen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dssJU3jx1Z4

Great news indeed as always from you, keep the good work.

Best regards.

 

USB disk copying speed has got me into trying to hunt down a driver for ps2fs so I can just mount my PS2 hard drive on my PC and copy stuff directly... So far, I found apascan which is a utility to just map partitions on a PS2 hard drive - it works...



But of course I have no filesystem module for ps2fs, so I can't mount any of the mapped partitions. The readme for apascan points out ps2fs-tng for FUSE, but that's nowhere to be found - no code repos, nothing...

This is basically off topic, but if anyone has any ideas where I could find ps2fs-tng or something similar that'd sure put my mind at ease...

I have tried pfsshell; I can't find the source for that so compiling it for Linux hasn't been possible, and it crashed in both Wine and Windows with the same error. So that's no good...

 

Here's the PFS Shell source code. If you can get it to work under Linux, please let us know.

 

I am working on a tool that allows us to mount and manipulate the content of the PlayStation 2 HDD unit. It is called "PS2HDDFileInstaller" at this point, and I am still waiting for further reliability reports before carrying on with its development.

 

Do you mean a tool like the PFSshell for copy stuff to the partitions of the internal HDD
connected locally to the computer but with a GUI?
If it have the reliability, safety and speed of PFSshell would be fantastic, most people
have troubles or encounter that is not easy to use the PFSshell because it's a only
command-line tool.

Best regards.

 

Bonsoir ElPatas.

Même si PFSshell n'est pas parfait , à moi il me convient. Toutes mes dernières installations sont faîtes avec lui et je remercie kHn pour m'avoir fait une petite documentation en Français expliquant son utilisation de façon très simple mais parfaitement conviviale.


Good evening ElPatas.


Although PFSshell is not perfect, to me it suits me. All my recent installations are doing with him and thank kHn for making me a little French documentation explaining its use of very simple but perfectly friendly way.

Kind regards.

 

I'm really happy to hear this. I'm totally fine with risking my data, so if you need a guinea pig I'd be happy to help test it.

 

Offtopic: If anyone is interested in trying out this tool that I'm talking about, it's this one here: http://psx-scene.com/forums/f153/un...e-package-obt-119562/index13.html#post1141776
It's currently hardcoded to install FHDB v1.94, although it can be upgraded to support other stuff too. The libraries used are ports of the HDD and PFS IOP modules.

Its reliability is not proven. If you really value your data a lot, do not use this tool.

 

So after destroying my data and installing FHDB with this tool, I will be able to browse files and manipulate them directly? On the PC?

Eh, what's the harm in backing up my FHDB config and spending another 10 minutes transferring over HDL images? I'll give it a go later, thanks for doing this.

 

It's not meant to destroy data, lol. What I meant is that the tool was designed to allow file browsing... but that hasn't been done yet because I am still waiting for further usability reports before deciding on whether to continue with its development or not. As of today, it can only install FHDB and nothing else.

I started working on one because I didn't find a nice program that I can use to copy files onto the HDD unit. In this case, it is for installing FHDB for people who don't have a way to do so with their PlayStation 2 consoles.

 

I figure it's not meant to

I'm only one dude but for what it's worth I'd really appreciate a tool to do just that. I'm no programmer so I can't help in that regard, but I'm quite happy to test it out and such if you decide to go ahead. Tools for that kind of thing are so sparse and at the end of the day it's what we'd all appreciate being able to do.

 

@krHACKen,

I'm successful in solving the problem of the frezze with my game of Lucky Luke: Western Fever,
copying it again to the HDD, i do not know why it not worked before, maybe was not well
transfered by the RadHostclient program.
Although none of the trojan files works well for pass the LC protection.

I got the game Technomage spanish version, i could do the trojan file, tested in the
emulator and working well, i have also made the trojan files for the LMA Manager
2001 and 2002 spanish versions of the games, i think the 2002 one i already sent
it to you, but i send it again just in case.

Also i provide the files to include the compatibility modes in the emulator for
various games, everything is in the pack:

Compatibility Modes:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bust A Groove (SCES-01313)
Bust A Groove (SCUS-94263)
Bust A Groove (Limited Edition) (SLPS-01232)
-Mode 4 fixes the slowdowns.

Bust A Groove 2 (SLUS-01159)
Bust A Groove 2 (SLPM-86219)
-Mode 4 fixes the slowdowns.

Dragon Valor (Disc 1) (SLPS-02190)
Dragon Valor (Disc 2) (SLPS-02191)
-Mode 4 fixes the slowdowns.

Mobil 1: Rally Championship (SLUS-01103) Mode 4 fixes the general low FPS.

Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter (SLES-01792)
Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter (SLUS-00793)
Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter (SLPS-01915)
-Mode 1 fixes the second music in the "Cross Over" mode.

Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (SLES-02305)
Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (SLUS-01059)
Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (SLPS-02368)
-Mode 1 fixes the music of the second form of the boss Onslaught in "Battle" mode,
and also fixes the second music in the "Cross Over" mode.

N-Gen Racing (SLUS-01155) Mode 4 fixes general low FPS.

Street Fighter Collection 2 (SLES-01721)
Street Fighter Collection 2 (SLUS-00746)
Street Fighter Collection 2 (SLPS-01725)
-Mode 1 fixes freezes in the demo mode and sometimes in loading times between stages.

Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense (SLES-02162)
Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense (SLUS-00868)
Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense (SLPS-02615)
-Mode 4 fixes slowdowns in FPS and in the music during gameplay but still is not perfect.
Also sometimes when the vehicles receive an explosion appears graphical glitches in
the vehicles, nothing fixes them.

Wipeout 3 (SCPS-10098) Mode 4 fixes the slowdowns.


LibCrypt:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

TechnoMage: El Retorno de la Eternidad (PAL-Spain) (SLES-03244)


LibCrypt plus Compatibility Modes:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

LMA Manager 2001 (PAL-Spain) (SLES-02979) Mode 4 fixes the slowdowns.

LMA Manager 2002 (PAL-Spain) (SLES-03607) Mode 4 fixes the slowdowns.


Best regards.

 

Where can i find the basic informations about this project without reading 600+ posts?

If i understand it'san effort to allow psx games to run from a ps2 HD in HDloader fashion right?

how is it executed? How well it works? how are games loaded? from psx original cds? supports usb?

these are just a few questions that answered in first topic would be useful to all the forum users.

 

@ElPatas,

Thanks very much for uploading the files and for the reports. I've added them in POPStarter this evening.
Now POPStarter recognises 402 discs, after integrating the compatibility modes for games that were reported here at ASSEMblergames, in Algol's compatibility list, at Elotrolado and in the EOL Official Compatibility List you made.


Lucky Luke : I've integrated my new crack in POPStarter (it's the one I've posted at Metagames), and I did the following tests :
- Played from an USB HDD, after loading a saved game
- Played from an internal HDD, after loading a saved game
- Played from an USB HDD, after starting a new game
- Played from an internal HDD, after starting a new game
The Mexican guy gave me the key no problem.
Oh by the way, I've noticed a few sound glitches when the music is fading out, like this one, but haven't tried the compatibility modes yet.
As for the PPF, I'm not sure that the patched disc image could pass the LibCrypt protection in a real PlayStation. It worked with Xebra and POPS, but not in PSXeven for some reason... it's kinda hit or miss. I'll burn the patched thing to a CDR and test it in my PlayStation when I'll have some free time.


Jackie Chan : I'm out of luck. None of the scene patches allows me to load the Boss level on POPS (thanks for the PDX patch you've posted at Metagames btw). I don't even see the "LOADING" screen, the poor POPS crashes before displaying it. Looks like a "compatibility" issue to me.
Normally, an uncracked (or badly hacked) copy freezes while the "LOADING" screen is shown. All I get is a black screen, after clearing the level 3, and I tried a Paradox patched VCD in multiple HDDs (USB HDD too) and multiple PS2.
As for the B.A.D crack, well it works in Xebra, the level loads then I can kick the chief's ass, and it patches the game EXE like our IdentRip-made crack does.
Since my non-working TROJAN and the PDX crack are conflicting (the game wont load when the two cracks are active), I prefer to not integrate anything for Jackie Chan Stuntmaster in POPStarter for now.


Thanks A LOT for buying the Spanish version of TechnoMage and making the TROJAN file. Brillant contribution ! Here's a PPF for the disc image : SLES-03244_LC1.PPF.
Tested with pSX v1.13, it loads fine after the FMV.


There's a bunch of games I couldn't make cracks for, last month, including :
- OverBlood 2 -
Because I don't know where/when the LibCrypt protection is invoked in the game

- Football Manager Campionato 2002 -
Here too, I haven't been able to trigger the LibCrypt protection

- The Italian Job (Italian Version) -
I've got a dump, but I don't have a SBI

- World Championship Snooker -
This one is weird. Everytime you touch a ball with your cue, a NULL magic word is loaded in the BPC... I haven't seen anything else.

- Radikal Bikers -
Mmm, I can't remember exactly what's wrong with that one. I think I played it a few times, with a proper .sub or .sbi, and it crashed somewhere in a race



@karsten,

Yeah, if I had the time, I'd write a quick introduction in the first post, describing briefly what POPStarter is, what it does, and what it allows you to do; and also attach it some kind of progression log...
...but since a truckload of erroneous and misleading (and unfortunately viral) things were written here and there in popular forums including PSX-Scene, I should also write a glossary or something that gives the readers genuine info.

HDL emulates just the CDVD drive, while POPS emulate the PlayStation. Otherwise yep, the point here is the same, it's to run our PS games in the PS2, CD-less, but using the PlayStation emulator that Sony gave us.

POPS (the emulator) is executed by POPStarter, which is launched by the user from an ELF launcher (like uLaunchELF, FMCB/FHDB, the APPS launcher of OPL...).
Example : uLaunchELF -> a POPStarter ELF -> POPS
Since POPStarter does not have a GUI/Frontend, one POPStarter ELF per installed game disc is needed. The POPStarter ELFs have to be renamed to match the names of the installed game discs, as detailed in the POPStarter documentation.

Pretty good judging by the compatibility reports that were made. Personally I am one of those who don't find POPS that good, mainly because some valuable PS classic games like the DAMNED Ridge Racer can't be played.
Multi-disc based games that require the user to exchange the CDs while the game is running aren't "supported" unless they're hacked/combined. I mean, POPS doesn't have an option that lets you change the disc.
As for the "Compatibility Modes" which were introduced in POPStarter Revision 13, these are unofficial hacks.
More hacks (like compatibility fixes, trainers, cracks...) can be coded by anyone, then be loaded by POPStarter just like a add-on (without the need to recompile POPStarter). I haven't made a decent documentation for that yet.
POPStarter seems to work well too. At least, I had no feedback about a potential bug. To be honest, POPStarter isn't a super complicated piece of code, and it works way better with all the rubbish code of the revision 12 removed haha.

POPS uses its own disc image format. Basically, it's a 1048576 bytes long proprietary header followed by the raw contents of the game disc (Mode 2, 2352 bytes/sector).
I made an horribly coded DOS application which converts PS1 disc images in that particular POPS disc images format. It's CUE2POPS.
So the POPS user must firstly dump the PS1 CDs to the PC, then convert the dumps in the POPS native format using CUE2POPS, and to finish, copy the POPS disc images to the PS2 formatted HDD.

POPS and POPStarter don't have a native USB support. Delcro has developped a nice little wrapper that makes the loading of games from a USB device possible.
Initially published as a patch for POPS-00001, an updated version of the wrapper will be bundled with the upcoming POPStarter package. In other words, no USB support at the moment, but the USB support will come with the next POPStarter version.


Oh, a "questions/answers" section in the first post of the thread could be a good approach as for a basic introduction to this project. Thank you, I'll think about it when I'll have enough spare time to update the first post.

 

Due to the policy problem(Google is blocked in my country), I can not visit Google's website. So I can only post my compatibility report(POPStarter Revision 13 WIP1) here.

Tales of Phantasia (SLPS-0117): Mode1 fixes voice issue so the game is no longer hang at the first demo battle and is playable now.
Crisis Beat(SLPS-01430): Pops freezes after character selecting. I tried all modes, none of them can fix it. I think the PAL version(SLES-02793) has same problem.
Shachou Eiyuuden: The Eagle Shooting Heroes (SCPS-10139 &SCPS-45510): FMVs breaks in the halfway; character’s voices are missing from time to time. I tried all modes, none of them can fix it.

I will wait for USB support coming with the next POPStarter version

 

FR : je me nomme "Algol" (ici AlGollan84) sur le site de "metagames-eu.com" (en Français).
Si vous me le permettez, je dois pouvoir vous aider en vous envoyant assez souvent une copie de la liste la plus à jour au format "xlsx" et/ou "pdf".
La liste au format "xlsx" (Excel 2007 et plus) est modifiable, vous pourrez ainsi me la retourner et je la mettrai à jour avec vos données enregistrées.

Cela vous intéresse-t-il ? Cette aide vous sera utile ?

A bientôt.


EN : I am called "Algol" (here AlGollan84) on the site of "metagames-eu.com" (in French).
If you allow me, I must be able to help you by sending you quite often a copy of the most up to date in the format "xlsx" and / or "pdf" list.
The list format "xlsx" (Excel 2007 and above) is editable, so you can return it to me and I will update it with your stored data.

Do you find it interesting? This assistance will be helpful to you?

Kind regards.

 

Thank you for your work in the integration, the list you provide with already integrated
modes and LC files is very very useful and important.
You check also my list of EOL? it is only in spanish language i hope you understand it
or i imagine you are using a online translator.

Mmh...i go to try it again.

Strange, i tried now again my original game patched with the Paradox crack and it
works fine in POPStarter r13, loads perfectly, no black screen, and do not
need any compatibility mode.
Maybe there is something wrong or different in your game.

You are welcome! its nice you made also a ppf patch for the disc image.