Thoughts upon PS1 / "Yaroze" homebrew community

But it would still be interesting from a technical point of view.

 

I couldn't agree more ... :thumbsup:

 

I'd say that the best thing would be to step back to the general concept that the cards are serial devices... I'd wager that if commands sent to the card by the boot disc were replicated, one could slap poll the card to see what it responds with.

Considering the card is bypassed with a very simple patch, I have a feeling that if that single response can be replicated in a microcontroller, we'd have a suitable replacement.

The other option is that the card is simply using the card ID to respond as to what it is. Somewhat like the dongle sample ideas mentioned in various docs across the board.

 

FYI, many game developers used otherwise standard memory cards as security dongles for beta software in the PS1 (and PS2 and Xbox) days.

They would typically use the TOC sector to store the config data so it couldn't be directly copied on a console.

-hl718

 

Looking at some of the docs about, doesnt the memory card/pad use something similar to SPI? If so that should be pretty easy to sniff with some simple hardware.

Alternatively Im pretty sure IDA pro supports the PSX-EXE format, so could that be another route?

 

I'm pretty sure it does, but I haven't had the time to sit down and start poking around with the system recently. I've seen some pretty solid writeups about the exchanges between the system and mc and agree.

 

I could probably figure it out and a replacement using a microcontroller would be very easy. However, I'm notoriously bad for staying focused. Also I need to clear my bench and wire up a scart adapter for my 15hkz monitor.