What modchip is this?

Obiviously a anti-piracy modchip into a Yaroze is as stupid as installing a Modbo 760 in a TEST PS2.

Things would make sense if:
1.It was a retail 100x in a Yaroze case(yet a such kind of PS1 would be really hard to find,as I guess most Yaroze systems that you can find are not even opened)
2.It was spray-painted to look like a Yaroze (could be done if you have time,for example I painted my 7502 as the same blue as a Debug Station,except I didn't write back the "Sony"and"Playstation"text)
3.Again,the owner didn't know the black Playstation (aka Net Yaroze)can play CD-R copies.

 

That's the point though - a Yaroze can't play CD-Rs, which is presumably why the modchip was installed. It will play originals from any region (including the special "W" region that the Yaroze boot CD uses), but won't boot copies at all.

And there is also a reason someone might put a modchip into a Test PS2 - because that way you can boot direct copies of retail games rather than having to master patch them.

 

Yes,but not everyone knows soldering about 18-20 wires in a PS2,so a TEST PS2 is good for playing copies of retail games by master patching them.
And for the Yaroze-they can anytime plug a cheat cartridge or do the swap trick rather than install a modchip.

 

Both of which are less convenient, and in the second case prevents you from running multiple disc games that require a disc swap during gameplay.

I can understand if you have a philosophical objection to modding non-retail systems, but I don't think you can honestly claim that it's never a useful thing to do.

 

Actually,I think cheat carts act as modchips,so you can play multi-disc games (such as Abe's Exoddus,which came in 2 CDs)with it.
Here's a bit from IGN,from "Playing PSX Imports FAQ".I guess it works for copies too,not only imports.

 

Modchips are the best way to play with backup copy.
Swap trick, action replay and company can prematurely kill the console, faster than CD-r can kill drive .
Also lots of games contains theanti ar protection. Plus some model don't have PIO port (psone 900x)

 

Gameshark isn't affected by this I think.Plus,while the PAL games are the ones protected,very few NTSC-U games are copy protected and NTSC-J are almost not protected at all.

We're talking about a Net Yaroze system.The Net Yaroze console is based on SCPH-1000/1001/1002 hardware but with 8MB RAM,is region free and it's used as a development unit.
Here's a picture of the backside of a Net Yaroze:
View attachment 9187

 

Where the hell do all these myths about RAM come from? It's the same as a retail unit. As the TEST PS2 are to the retail machines.

 

Wrong.
The retail has only 2MB RAM while debug units have 4MB of RAM.(I did a typo and said 8mb RAM)

Here's the retail RAM specs:

Main RAM: 2 Megabytes
VRAM: 1 Megabyte
Sound RAM: 512 K
CD-ROM buffer: 32K
Operating System ROM: 512K
RAM cards for data save: 128K EEprom

And here's the Net Yaroze specs,from Engadget site:

• CPU speed 66 MHz
• Video RAM 1 MB
• System RAM 4 MB
• Internal ROM 512 KB

You can clearly see the Yaroze uses 4MB RAM and a retail PS1 uses 2MB RAM.

 

Yeah, because having a do a double-swap in the middle of playing a game is really so convenient - especially as compared to changing disks on a system with a mod chip and the door switch wired up:

1) Press "Open" button
2) Remove old disc
3) Install new disc
4) Close cover
5) Err.. That's it.

Oh, and incidentally, I can absolutely assure you (because I've owned them) that debugs and the Yaroze only have 2MB of RAM, just like a retail unit. There was never any system that had 4MB - and if there had been it would have been useless anyway because the development tools only allow you to link for either 2MB or 8MB.

 

I find it funny this guy has done nothing but argue since joining, about things he really shouldnt on a forum like this.

 

As usual this is completely wrong. Yaroze is identical to retail units but with a different mechacon in order to be region free.

Someone mishmashed dev PC requirements with the console specs.

Also as TriMesh said not a single model came with a 4 MB of RAM. Only 2MB (retail) and 8 MB (dev) proof of that is in the PsyQ SDK.
That "Playing PSX Imports FAQ" you have quoted is also wrong. CD-ROM drive maximum speed is 2x not 4x.

Your sources are not reliable at all.

 

And now it has 4GB of RAM.

 

Whoever wrote that did it without much thinking - link.
It says that Yaroze has a 10 MB HDD and a 28.8 k modem (while that, again is just a requirement for a development PC).