Optical Drive Emulators

[Anonymous No.6396074]

Optical Drive Emulators usually use hard drives or SD cards to replicate the CD drive. Basically you become disc-free on original hardware.
I know a lot of consoles like the Saturn and Dreamcast have them.
Speculating the PS1 is a desired console to have an ODE. What's your opinion? Which consoles are hurting for an ODE?
Pic related - ODE for FM Towns Marty.

[Anonymous No.6396083]

What?

[Anonymous No.6396087]

>>6396074
Unsure what the point is to some degree. Do they interact with the original CD at all? Otherwise it's a great idea to preserve the playability on a console with optical drives failing left and right across all platforms due to age.

[Anonymous No.6396103]

>>6396074
Yes, it seems useful and practical.. but still,
This is considered emulation, since you are emulating a hardware component with custom software (software that one wrote and put into a chip)

Might as well play the system using an emulator.

[Anonymous No.6396115]

>>6396103
It shouldn't be considered full on emulation. It's somewhere between emulation and hardware - leaning heavily toward hardware.
The only thing being emulated is the data feed. Good for systems such as the Saturn where emulation isn't perfect.

[Anonymous No.6396119]

>>6396103
To anyone that's not speedrunning or something that's pretty irrelevant though. The convenience for CRT autists like myself is great.

[Anonymous No.6396120]

>>6396074
ps1 has a ode, wtf are you talking about

[Anonymous No.6396163]

The PS1 already has the PSIO but it's a steaming pile of shit. It only works on the earlier PS1s with the back serial port, ISOs need to be patched, requires soldering, the firmware is closed source, requires registration and is locked to one email per device and can't be changed. I'd rather get a modchip and CD-Rs for a fraction of the price of the PSIO.

I ordered the MODE for my Saturn and Dreamcast and that will be my introduction to ODEs, so we'll see how that goes.

[Anonymous No.6396181]

>>6396087
Or just i dunno
Replace the drive so you can play your physical games

>>6396074
Dont like em as they dont let me play physical games
Might as well emulate at that point

[Anonymous No.6396196]

>>6396181
>Or just i dunno
>Replace the drive so you can play your physical games
That makes sense if you can do that, but if you couldn't and wanted to stay as original as possible, it's not the worst idea out there.

>>6396181
>Dont like em as they dont let me play physical games
Really? Not even in Everdrive kind of way? If that's the case now I'm officially confused as to their intention.

[Anonymous No.6396208]

>>6396103
>>6396181
the only "emulation" issues you can have are from disc read timing. all the other hardware in the console stays the real deal. it's only emulation if you're an above-average pedant.
optical drives die. "just replace it!" sorry, replacement drives die too, usually faster than the original. start to see the problem?
i imagine the people staunchly opposing ODEs are boomer faggots that plug their ears when people talk about flash carts or any other methods of pirating games on hardware, and say "emulation is shit because you have too many games to play! if you really like them, buy them!"

[Anonymous No.6396270]

>>6396163
>The PS1 already has the PSIO but it's a steaming pile of shit.
uuuu
>It only works on the earlier PS1s with the back serial port,
"earlier" meaning all models before 900x. which is the vast majority.
plus you can solder it into 900x and psones, too.
>ISOs need to be patched
libcrypt-protected isos need to be patched.
there are like 5 yuro-exclusives with libcrypt, big fucking deal.
>requires soldering
so?
>the firmware is closed source
so?
>requires registration and is locked to one email per device and can't be changed.
poor scalper
>I'd rather get a modchip and CD-Rs for a fraction of the price of the PSIO.
modchip requires soldering too, but that's no problem now?

[Anonymous No.6396278]

>>6396196
>Really? Not even in Everdrive kind of way?
next time, before opening a thread, invest five minutes into researching the topic.
most ODEs are put in place of the disc-drive, so you can't use your discs with that console anymore (PSIO being the most notable exception).

satiator for saturn allegedly will keep the discdrive functional too, but who knows whenever that will be released.

[Anonymous No.6396291]

>>6396270
Could you make your shilling a little less obvious? He's saying it's completely inconvenient for the little it actually accomplishes. If you're going to tear apart your console you might as well do it for something tried and true like a modchip over something with 2003 epsxe compatibility, hell even that might be generous.

[Anonymous No.6396295]

>>6396278
>next time, before opening a thread, invest five minutes into researching the topic
What a faggot you're being. Let's just delete this entire webpage while we're at it.

[Anonymous No.6396323]

>>6396291
>over something with 2003 epsxe compatibility
who's the shill, bub?

>>6396295
you're confusing /vr/ with your personal assistant again?

[Anonymous No.6396331]

How hard are the Saturn ones to install?

[Anonymous No.6396337]

>>6396323
Try not to be a raging faggot, for the love of God, just for once.

[Anonymous No.6396346]

>>6396331
There's no app for that, I'm afraid.

[Anonymous No.6396368]

>>6396163
Getting a ps3 and softmodding it is probably the easiest solution for ps1 gaming. The emulator is pretty damn good. Not Medafen levels but good enough for 99% of people.

>>6396323
For people who don't know how to solder, it'd be nice to have a plug n play solution. Some people don't wanna learn or just fear damaging their consoles. Stop being a fag.

[Anonymous No.6396395]

>>6396368
the psio isn't plug-and-play, i'm not sure why they even bothered making it a parallel port device when it still requires internal modification

[Anonymous No.6396402]

>>6396270
>there are like 5 yuro-exclusives with libcrypt, big fucking deal.
You lying cunt, there are at least 250 libcrypt protected NTSC and PAL games that need patching. It took me two seconds to find a list.
>modchip requires soldering too, but that's no problem now?
I'd rather install a $10 modchip to play burned CDs than install a modchip for a $130 closed source ODE that still needs to run patched games.

You're either some dumb motherfucker who bought one of these and has to tell themselves and others that the PSIO is perfect actually, or you're an employee trying to defend your company's credibility. Either way, get fucked shill.

[Anonymous No.6396403]

>>6396208
Im actually only 24 but i love collecting and playing my physical collection on my consoles

Its a good option for when replacibg a drive isnt possible anymore but for me personally
So long as i can play my games the original way ill stick with that

[Anonymous No.6396424]

>>6396395
It marketed itself as plug and play until just before it came out because its programmer is retarded and wouldn't listen to the dozens of experienced people telling him the parallel port would never work in the Assembler thread and probably elsewhere. They also completely lied about the compatibility, saying it was 98% of the library or some shit, so by the time people got their hands on it became clear it wasn't even close to 50%. They've been patching it since and I'm sure it's gotten better but it more than deserves the lashing it gets online, whole thing was deceptive as shit.

[Anonymous No.6396445]

>>6396074
>FM Towns Marty
>DocBrown

[Anonymous No.6396449]

>>6396424
i do commend the effort and hope we do get an optical drive replacement for the psx, but yea, best not to hype your product past what it can currently do, you want people to be amazed at what it can do, not disappointed at what it can't

[Anonymous No.6396451]

>>6396331
Extremely difficult because you CAN'T even buy damn thing and chinks still hasn't cloned it. There's some new MODE ODE going around but right now it only exist as pre-orders.
Every ODE option for Saturn right now is either out of stock (for years) or extremely expensive. Your best bet is to use modchip (its named Phantom Universal) and CD-Rs.

[Anonymous No.6396471]

>>6396451
alternatively, you can buy one of those pre-flashed pseudo saturn carts from China. I bought one because it was an alternative to soldering a modchip. It's not terrible, but I don't know if it's the CD drive itself or the cartridge but sometimes the games don't work right away and I have to turn the system off and on again.

[Anonymous No.6396492]

>>6396331
>>6396451
>Your best bet is to use modchip (its named Phantom Universal) and CD-Rs.
there's a swaptrick for the saturn, it's no more difficult than the psx swaptrick, just requires any one bootable disc

[Anonymous No.6396516]

I hope we get a decent option for PS1 eventually. Laser replacements will dry up eventually and burning discs for every game is annoying.

[Anonymous No.6396529]

>>6396402
>You lying cunt, there are at least 250 libcrypt protected NTSC and PAL games that need patching. It took me two seconds to find a list.
1.) I wrote "yuro-exclusives". If you don't like patching the other ~220 libcrypt-protected yuro-games/language-versions, play the NTSC-versions. you're pirating them all anyway, so you shouldn't really care.
2.) There are 0 (zero) libcrypt-protected NTSC-games. ntsc = antimod, pal = libcrypt.
3.) No, Anti-mod-protected games are not the same as libcrypt-protected games.
4.) anti-mod-protected games don't need to be patched to be used with psio.

>$130 closed source ODE
130AUD, which is like threefiddy in real money

>get fucked shill.
stop lying, cunt.

>>6396451
>Every ODE option for Saturn right now is either out of stock (for years) or extremely expensive.
fenrir is ~100€, next batch to be sold in mid/end of may, caveats apply.

[Anonymous No.6396829]

>>6396074
>Optical Drive Emulators usually use hard drives or SD cards to replicate the CD drive. Basically you become disc-free on original hardware.
orly?

>>6396103
You should be emulating your JRPGs anyway. Phone translation at original resolution on a CRT is terrible.

[Anonymous No.6396881]

OP here.
Wanted to see what retro console players wanted out there. I was going to make a Sega CD ODE as a first project and go for the more obscure or lesser known consoles after that like PC-FX or an ODE for a TurboDuo.
I looked into the PS1 but I don't think I posses the skill at this time to 'translate' the digital data into analog signals at this time. The drive chips for the PS1 are on the motherboard. However for about 50% of Sega CD consoles (Model 1 and 2) have all the drive chips on the disc drive PCB. the other 50% are similar to the PS1 with drive chips on the main board.

[Anonymous No.6396906]

>>6396881
Well, we've already got a Sega CD ODE in the form of the MegaSD and the upcoming Mega Everdrive Pro, so unless you're going to make one that actually replaces the CD drive of a Sega CD, I wouldn't bother. Similar situation for the TurboDuo and PC Engine family with the Super SD System 3.
Really, if you're gonna do anything, do the PS1. I have PSIO and while I really like it, I'm sure others would prefer something that actually replaces the CD drive.

[Anonymous No.6396913]

PSIO is kind of a joke, I'd love to see a proper PS1 ODE. I've ordered the Fenrir for Saturn, looking forward to trying it out.

[Anonymous No.6396936]

>>6396074

A PsOne with the screen and an ODE would be awesome.

[Anonymous No.6396945]

>>6396906
My PCB would actually replace the disc drive of a Sega CD console. I have a concept sketched of the PCB already but I need to hook up my logic analyzer to see if I have the skills for it or if I need to improve my programming skills first.
When you get into hardware emulation because that is what an ODE performs you float dangerously close to a few philosophical questions. Are you trying to ONLY replicate the disc drive? How original do you want to stay? Do you want to add more bells and whistles (Terraonion for example)?
All I would do is some super simple GUI to select the game/disc folder. nothing ultra fancy like Terraonion does and even adding a GUI is floating close to NOT making an original disc drive.

[Anonymous No.6396975]

>>6396945
Well I personally would want the following things:
I want it to replace the drive with no need, or very minimal soldering.
I don't want to have to bugger around with converting files or finding files in odd formats. (eg: just bin/cue)
I don't care about the GUI. Just let me put the files on a storage device and that be it.
I want it to work as if I didn't know I was using as system with an ODE.
I'm sure others would like to be able to enable cheats and stuff, but honestly, if I wanted to use save states and other stuff, I'd just use an emulator.

[Anonymous No.6397003]

>>6396975
Basically what I'm shooting for although I can't help with file formats. I would probably use redump set to test since that's what I have. I like clone CD format and bin/cue format. I don't like ISO because ISO is not necessarily a clean rip for a disc format honestly.
I'll hang around this thread for a few more days to see if anyone else can find a dated console with an aging disc drive. I like the smaller obscure stuff but I think if I release a sega cd ode it would fund better tooling for further ODEs.

[Anonymous No.6397012]

>>6396945
>>6396975
I thought up one last thing I'd want. And this is probably the most important thing.
I want to be able to buy the product.
I'm not bothered if it's sometimes out of stock, as long as you give updates.
Don't make a system where you open an order window for 30 minutes every 4 months and sell out in 5 minutes.

[Anonymous No.6397020]

>>6397003
While I appreciate your desire to make ODEs for more obscure consoles, I think you'd be best looking to create something that hasn't been made for any other system yet, like maybe the Neo Geo CD.
You do what you want to do, but if you're gonna do anything, make sure it does something other products can't.

[Anonymous No.6397047]

>>6397020
Actually that was the very first console I looked at but it has the same issue as the PS1 for each variant where the drive chips are physically on the motherboard PCB.
A French man by the name of furrtek has already developed an ODE that is available. You have to get on his waiting list and it can take a while. His solution involves removing the drive chip (similar approach to Mnemo and his 3DO ODEs) and soldering wires on. Then the bios is patched from the MCU on the ODE to play games from the SD card.

I brought up PS1 from the first post because it's the one console that has very high visibility with a not-so perfect solution currently in place...more like a bandaid you have to keep changing.

[Anonymous No.6397182]

>>6396471
>pseudo saturn carts
Yes, you right. I use chip and cart both. Preboot of cart is annoying, good thing I have my chip too.

>>6396529
>fenrir is ~100€, next batch to be sold in mid/end of may, caveats apply.
Well, it seems like something alive and reviews just starting to pop-up, but its again situation when you need to wait. And it's a little expensive too.

[Anonymous No.6397381]

>>6396074
Hoping Terraonion or somebody else makes a competitor to the PSIO that doesn't require soldering.

[Anonymous No.6398884]

>>6396881
>a first project
Might want to try a blinking LED for that champ
>>6396945
> I need to hook up my logic analyzer to see if I have the skills for it
The fact that your talking about thinking about doing something that simple answers that question. Seriously, why do people fantasize about shit like this here? Literally a relevant to this board as waifu threads.

[Anonymous No.6398932]

>>6396163
I assumed it was a huge piece of shit, but fucking LMAO.

>>6396270
>I see no problem with hardware DRM guys, what's up with you guys, haha

[Anonymous No.6398971]

>>6396278
>most ODEs are put in place of the disc-drive
but why, though

[Anonymous No.6399041]

>>6396913
You cant have all mods handed to you anon; this is pussy shit compared to some of the old hardware hacks

[Anonymous No.6399063]

>>6399041
What are you talking about?

[Anonymous No.6399073]

>>6396074
I have one for my Dreamcast. I would love one for my PS1 or PS2.
Optical drives are the weakest link in those older optical disk based systems.

[Anonymous No.6399137]

>>6396120
Link

[Anonymous No.6399351]

>>6396368
>Getting a ps3 and softmodding it is probably the easiest solution for ps1 gaming.
using literally any computing device made in the past 10 years is the easiest solution

[Anonymous No.6399405]

>>6396529
>"actually, those libcrypt games don't matter dude, who cares lol?"
>130AUD, which is like threefiddy in real money
or, for $10 and the same amount of time soldering, you can get an MM3 modchip and play CD-R backups, and you don't have to patch shit.

[Anonymous No.6399415]

>>6399351
Fuckin raspberry pi 3b or whatever can emulate ps1 just fine.

[Anonymous No.6399470]

Do Optical Drive Emulators exist for PSX? I remember seeing a brazilian guy's shitty 240p video on youtube where he demonstrated his nigga rigged ODE but I've lost the link long since and I don't know if it was legit in the first place.

Seems like it would be obvious by now. Burning 9001 CDs is cumbersome, emulation is, well, emulation, and PSIO is both cumbersome and has bad compatibility.

[Anonymous No.6399498]

>>6396087
The point is that it's the most direct way of getting the data into the machine without having to modify the internals and/or utilize sketchy workarounds that require their own compromises. The hardware expects the game data to be coming from the optical drive, so if you can simply emulate that then you're set.

[Anonymous No.6399607]

>>6396529
>fenrir is ~100€, next batch to be sold in mid/end of may, caveats apply.
No thanks

[Anonymous No.6399621]

>>6398884
I don't really see the blinking LED as a first project. My first 'project' was a wireless PC Engine controller.

[Anonymous No.6399798]

>>6398971
Many reasons. Most common are it's cheaper, easier, and guarantees there's space.

[Anonymous No.6399813]

>>6396403
If someone put a GDemu dc in your face you would only know it wasn't a real disc because it wouldn't be screaming at you.
Some day you will get over the autism.

[Anonymous No.6399818]

>>6396451
What the fuck are you bitching about? Saturn ODE like fenrir are in stock regularly. Terraonion will be too, soon. By year end they will have too many to sell if they keep making them at this rate.

[Anonymous No.6399848]

>>6399607
>hard limit of 300 games
>no ability to swap discs in game for multi disc games
holy shit that's gonna be a hard no

>>6399470
The PSIO exists but it's crap. Best to emulate or modchip until a proper ODE comes out

[Anonymous No.6399853]

>>6399848
>proper ODE comes out
any takers?

[Anonymous No.6399856]

>>6396074
Umm... retard here answer me please; so if it's a just an SD card slot then why the fuck it's mounted in the laser place while it could be mounted... anywhere? Why rip your laser off?

[Anonymous No.6399864]

>>6399856
>so if it's a just an SD card
Its not just SD slot. Shit requires know how drive works and reconstructing it on some fpga or other chip.
>Why rip your laser off?
Most easy access in consoles. Just open the lid and change/insert the SD

[Anonymous No.6399867]

>>6399856
where else would you put it? The laser assembly is ripped off so an impostor can be put in place. The flex cable that transfers the 1s and 0s to the CPU still gets the data, but instead of getting it through the laser reading the disc, it gets it from a custom controller reading the SD card.

[Anonymous No.6399905]

>>6399848
>300 isnt enough games

[Anonymous No.6399916]

>>6396074
>Speculating the PS1 is a desired console to have an ODE
I have no idea why that's not a thing. PSIO is a trash solution.
You would think that an ODE would be out already considering the amount of 1000x series consoles with dead drives

[Anonymous No.6399920]

>>6399916
>You would think that an ODE would be out already considering the amount of 1000x series consoles with dead drives
my capitalism senses are tingling

[Anonymous No.6399931]

>>6399920
I personally use a 9k series as my main PS1 with a mayumi v4 and burned disks.
Past the 5k series the only drive failures on the PS1 are because you were disk swapping.
Those early systems really need saving though, even if you replace the drive the heat from the PSU tends to warp any plastic components and I think it fucks the laser too.

[Anonymous No.6400029]

>>6399073
>I would love one for my ... PS2.
no need, you can already run games from it's internal hdd... or usb... or a network

[Anonymous No.6401603]

>>6399607
>>6399848
lack of swapping ain't nice, and you have to gamble ton that being fixed by a future firmware update, but 300-games-limit? are there even 300 worthwihle games on saturn?

[Anonymous No.6401641]

why the hate for psio?
annoyed that you bought a chinesium-clone and you can't update it?

[Anonymous No.6401827]

>>6400029
>things I didn't know
That's pretty darned neat.

[Anonymous No.6401946]

>>6401641
PSIO IS GARBAGE!
* multi disk games don't work
* Only work on a specific ps1 model
* There's 20 solder points
do yourself a favor and just use a mod chip and some cds, this thing is crap and not in the same level as RHEA or GDEMU
7:35 "20 solder points"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbNEmO3qClo

[Anonymous No.6402102]

>>6401946
>PSIO IS GARBAGE!
Opinion discarded. Too much emotion.

[Anonymous No.6402148]

>>6399607
>>fenrir is ~100€, next batch to be sold on aliexpress for $25

>>6399813
Unless you've done the mod to create authentic sounding drive noises it would be obvious to anyone you're not using a real disc.

>>6399856
It's not just an SD slot but the answer to the question is monkey see monkey do

[Anonymous No.6402506]

One of the last left should be the cdi, there was a pc cd rom one that I saw once a few years ago but never saw it again. The jag flash cart was supposed to have limited support but has been delayed.

[Anonymous No.6402749]

>>6401946
why not use a PS2? Any specific reason?

[Anonymous No.6402773]

>>6402749
i'm not aware of a method of running ps1 games on a ps2 without a disc, and the ps2's backwards compatibility isn't perfect (i mean, i've never run into issues, but there are a very small handful of examples)

[Anonymous No.6402850]

>>6398971
Optical drives are usually the first thing to go, and some classic CD-ROM-based systems are ~30 years old at this point, so both drives and discs are starting to degrade.

[Anonymous No.6403157]

>>6402148
>>fenrir is ~100€, next batch to be sold on aliexpress for $25
That's how I'd like my Fenrir.
Just importing the Saturn itself for over $100 is enough for me.

[Anonymous No.6403173]

>>6402773
>method of running ps1 games on a ps2 without a disc
Its called POPStarter and is software emulation with ~50% accuracy.

[Anonymous No.6403194]

>>6403173
well that sounds quite useless

[Anonymous No.6403208]

>>6403194
Actually, I even beat SotN on it and didn't notice any flaws, but then started FFVII and got black screen in battles.
It has issues but if it work, it works.

[Anonymous No.6403225]

>>6403208
the first page i found on it states games like spyro2/3, resident evil 3, tekken 3, etc, some of my favourite games (and very popular in general), don't work

[Anonymous No.6403473]

>>6396074
ps1 and sega cd both need proper ODE.

[Anonymous No.6404167]

>>6401946
>multi disk games don't work
wrong
https://ps-io.com/faq/
"Do Multi-Disc games work okay?"
"Yes. You can complete games which use multiple discs since PSIO supports real-time disc swapping. Please read our ‘Systems Manual’ for information on how to set this up."
>Only work on a specific ps1 model
wrong: 100x, 500x, 55xx, 700x, 750x
>There's 20 solder points
wrong
https://ps-io.com/switch_board/
"You will be required to cut three (3) traces on the mainboard."

0/3, see me after class.

>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbNEmO3qClo
>Published on Oct 17, 2015
eh, ok.

[Anonymous No.6404178]

>>6402773
>but there are a very small handful of examples
because sony usa never cared about doing proper testing, and only for 75000-series ps2.
see the list made by sony japan for a proper picture of ps2's bc, especially on DECKARD-slims.

[Anonymous No.6404181]

>>6404167
>"You will be required to cut three (3) traces on the mainboard."
and 8 solder-points

[Anonymous No.6405820]

>>6404181
>8 solder points
That's basically the same as installing a regular mod chip, depending on the model of chip and system.

[Anonymous No.6405847]

>>6404181
The cutting traces is the bitch part that I just can't find myself wanting to ever do.

[Anonymous No.6406526]

>>6404167
No one will buy your overpriced garbage cbdyn!
stop the damage control!

[Anonymous No.6406776]

>>6396368
>>6399351
Honestly can name so many better options to play PS1 games than with the PSIO.
>modchipped PS1
>softmodded PS2 with either the LaunchELF disc swap trick with burned discs or with POPStarter with .bin files
>jailbroken PS3
>modded PSP (bonus points for the composite cables)
>PC emulators with either XEBRA (most accurate) or ePSXe (for better graphics)
>modded PS Classic

[Anonymous No.6406782]

>>6396074
Sounds like a good idea, but compatibility seems to be shit compared just plain emulating. And the main advantages of real hardware is muh accuracy and compatibility. So it's just a novel way to play.

[Anonymous No.6406842]

Did getting an ODE prompt you to toss all of your physical media or just the burnt ones?

[Anonymous No.6406980]

>>6406776
>POPstarter
>PS Classic
>Anything but trash
Most of the others are good options though.

[Anonymous No.6407586]

>>6406980
Never stated about the compatibility of the other options (outside of the PC emulators), only listed options that are cheaper and easier to set up than the PSIO.

[Anonymous No.6407603]

>>6406842
I tossed mine in a plastic bin and put it in a closet. No reason to chuck it, no reason to have it out on an autism shelf.

[Anonymous No.6407623]

>>6407586
That's fair, but you said 'better'. Not 'easier'.
And honestly I'm not even sure I'd agree POPstarter is easier, I found it a pain in the ass to get working with my HDD-equipped PS2.

[Anonymous No.6407736]

PSIO is a big piece of shit with a tons of problems and issues.

The world need a REAL ODE that just works on all Playstation 1 consoles family with no soldering and it can be bought by people anytime they want.

[Anonymous No.6407783]

>>6407736
>No soldering
Why does this always come back to people being too chickenshit to do simple stuff to their systems?
You don't want an ODE, you want a flash cart for a disc-based system.

[Anonymous No.6407796]

>>6407736
I don't think you understand the complexity of doing this for a PS1. The reason there's no drop-in replacement for the optical drive is that the system doesn't just ask the CD drive for a file and wait until it gets that file, it does a lot of the actual micromanaging of the drive itself. There's a shitload of signaling you'd need to be able to perfectly replicate.

[Anonymous No.6408080]

>>6406776
>>softmodded PS2 with either the LaunchELF disc swap trick with burned discs or with POPStarter with .bin files
what i did was just;
1. boot ps2 without a disc
2. go into browser
3. put in any real psx disc
4. once the disc shows up in the browser, swap it for a copy
5. select the disc from the browser
seriously, that's all there is to it, no idea how they missed this one

[Anonymous No.6408114]

>>6407796
from what i understand, since sony actually makes cd drives themselves, the psx has the cd drive electronics integrated in with the rest of the system, so the connection between the psx and cd drive is analog

not to sound like an expert, but perhaps it would make most sense to create a drop-in replacement of the cdrom controller chip, since i don't believe there is a convenient digital gap between the cdrom drive and the rest of the playstation

[Anonymous No.6408153]

>>6408114
upon further reading, this would be tricky on later psx's, since it seems from SCPH-7500+, they integrated all the cd-rom related chips together... along with the spu
i guess you could emulate the spu as well...

[Anonymous No.6408187]

>>6408114
>>6408153
Now you're starting to get the problem. The PSIO sidesteps the problem by hijacking the data lines elsewhere in the system and pointing them at the parallel port. It could probably be a simpler install, but part of the point of the switch chip is that it can seamlessly flip between the PSIO and booting from the real disc drive. Either way you need to reroute stuff, since the parallel port isn't rigged from the factory to be able to do anything like that. It can read stuff from it, but it can't treat it like it's the CD drive.

[Anonymous No.6408203]

>>6408187
i don't think it's that important to retail support for optical discs, at least once you can actually run 99% of games properly, because there's no shortage of playstations with worn out disc drives, people would convert an otherwise broken playstation rather than one that works fine

[Anonymous No.6408275]

>>6408203
Yeah, but while you're having to do modifications anyway, you may as well. It's not like it's the only thing holding you back from an option that's a plug-and-play replacement for the optical drive.
Plus there's still new replacement drives being made. Questionable quality ones that don't last as long, but it means for all of $20 on top of it you could have a fresh drive alongside your ODE, for when you might want to play retail games from time to time.

[Anonymous No.6408379]

ODE for PS1 when?

Someone needs to make it. First one who does it will get rich.

[Anonymous No.6408386]

>>6408379
Two thirds of this thread is arguing about the PSIO, the ODE for PS1 that already exists.

[Anonymous No.6408545]

>>6407783
>Why does this always come back to that kid who crows about how he learned to solder last week
Obviously you're too young to remember when PSIO was promised as a PnP solution and that's beside the point. The point is that many "retro gamers" are as retarded at soldering as you were last week. Like /vr/ the hobby is infested with retarded no-skill zoomies who would be a danger to themselves and others if allowed to play with hot pointy tools.

>>6408114
Aside from your reasoning, semantics, and technical bits that's basically right. There isn't a "drive" in the same sense as most other consoles or PCs. The "drive" is just a "mechanism". People have toyed with replacing various parts of the CD system but any solution along those lines would be far too complicated. We're talking about people who can't solder a few wires. They're not going to replace a SMD with 100+ pins.

[Anonymous No.6408574]

>>6396087
It makes the system think it's reading a disc when it's not. That's the point. The optical drive will die and with an SD you dont even need to burn discs

[Anonymous No.6408576]

>>6396103
>This is considered emulation,
No. It's one piece of hardware replacing another. By your logic using a racing wheel is emulation because its replacing a controller

[Anonymous No.6408708]

>>6408576
>Yes, my copefu is not strong. By my stupidity let me demonstrate why you should do nothing but laugh at tards like me

[Anonymous No.6408717]

>>6396103
>>6408576
the thread title is literally "optical drive emulators"
you are emulating the optical drive, not the whole machine
by people who use them, it's considered a fair tradeoff
of course you can't replace the optical drive with something else and not emulate the original drive, otherwise the rest of the system won't understand it
just because it's a form of emulation, doesn't make it pointless

[Anonymous No.6408861]

A sega cd ode would be nice. Who knows how long those lasers and mechanisms last.

[Anonymous No.6408865]

>>6396492
Why not use a Pseudo saturn kai?

[Anonymous No.6408891]

>>6408865
i've never heard of it
keep in mind i only owned a saturn for a short period of time over 10 years ago and only really to try out a couple games, the swaptrick was the cheapest method and i have no idea what other options there are

[Anonymous No.6408987]

>>6408717
This is where the semantic argument over the use of the word 'emulator' gets absurd. You're emulating an optical drive, but not a person on the planet means that when they talk about 'emulating games'. It's like saying a flash cart for a SNES or Game Boy is emulating the original cartridge.

[Anonymous No.6408998]

>>6408708
I'm sure you thought that was clever.
Doesn't make me wrong though.

[Anonymous No.6409002]

>>6408891
It's not much different from an Action Replay cart, except there's options for it to have the 1 and 4mb ram on a switch for the 1mb games that break with 4.

[Anonymous No.6409009]

>>6408987
exactly, we're not talking about emulating games

[Anonymous No.6409018]

>>6409009
How do you even emulate games? I thought everybody just emulated hardware.

[Anonymous No.6409038]

>>6409002
When I play burned discs on my Saturn it seems like it has a hard time reading them. Everything eventually goes through but it seems to take awhile and make a lot of noise, in comparison to when I run legit copies.

Is there any truth to the old belief that burned games put more of a strain on the lazer or am I being retarded?

[Anonymous No.6409045]

>>6409038
Depending on the quality of media and how you burnt them they might be harder to read, but that won't 'put more strain' on it as such.

[Anonymous No.6409091]

>>6408998
You've been wrong your whole life zoomie. In every way.
Deep down in your cope filled "mind" you know this to be true.

[Anonymous No.6409273]

>>6400029
>no need, you can already run games from it's internal hdd... or usb... or a network
And all 3 of those solution are mediocre, especially the last 2.

[Anonymous No.6409347]

>>6409273
how is running games from an internal hdd mediocre? i thought it was great, games loaded so quick it's almost like using a cartridge
i'm not sure what the state of compatibility is now, but last time i used it 10 years ago it ran everything i tried

[Anonymous No.6409370]

>>6409273
I agree with you to some point!
I have a slim ps2 so i have to rely on the raspi3 to use as a network pc via ethernet
however every damn pal game ( i need to games to be in french or italian) is black and white no matter what i change, so i asked in the forums and tell me to solder a mod chip or a crystal oscilator!
this is great no lag on fmv the usb is garbage lag on fmv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilx5NYoUkNA

[Anonymous No.6409393]

>>6409347
They aren't, he's just an ass blasted mad fag.

[Anonymous No.6409451]

>>6409347
Compatibility isn't perfect and the games don't run as well as the original on a disc due to overhead from those backup loading methods, there is the advanteage of better loadtimes provided they don't break other things, FMVs in particular is one issue you'll see often as it pops up on every single method to some degree regardless of settings.
The closest you can get it to behave mostly issue free is
>official adapter
>SATA mod board
>SSD (doesn't matter as there's no write being done, does smooth out some stuttering and due to very low power draw with no large spikes less risks to the console itself) and obviously complete silence
>latest OPL
>disable IGR / VMC
>use appropriate compatibility flags for your game
>hope your game isn't "one of those games"

>>6409393
I have several fat and slim PS2s, several network adapter including 2 official one with the SATA board and the other without, I've tested everything there is to test and backup loading on PS2 is far from issue free.
Keep your shitty standards to yourself.

[Anonymous No.6409624]

>>6409370
>however every damn pal game ( i need to games to be in french or italian) is black and white no matter what i change
and you are using a yuro-tv? with composhit? or rgb-scart? or rgb-scart with sync on luma?
INFOS!

[Anonymous No.6409681]

>>6409370
i doubt that's an issue with how you're loading games
then again, i've never used an american or japanese ps2, i've run both american and japanese games on all my pal ps2's no problems, pal/ntsc/pal60..

[Anonymous No.6410217]

>>6408861
>What is MegaSD
>What is Mega Everdrive Pro

[Anonymous No.6411393]

>>6410217
For the actual hardware, not a flash cart emulator.

[Anonymous No.6411620]

>>6411393
if an optical drive emulator is an emulator, then a flash cart is a cartridge emulator

ODEs are also "for the actual hardware"

[Anonymous No.6412310]

>>6411620
I meant more for the actual sega cd attachment. The cartridge looks cool and all, but it doesn't look authentic.

[Anonymous No.6414481]

>>6411620
And then all the coping faggots heads exploded and they never shitposted again and everyone lived happily ever after. The End.