/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.9676909]

So i just grabbed a SCPH-5501 from the local gameshop today with the intent to install xStation when it arrives in a few days, and what am i greeted with?! A Fucking Modchip! This thing can already play burned CDs and different regions apparently. Datecode is April 99.
...i'm honestly not sure what to do with it now lol

[Anonymous No.9676913]

here she is, 12C508VP, 15th week of 99. those are some damn thin wires though man lol

[Anonymous No.9676916]

based fucking Adam Michael playing burned games and imports back in the day. fookin legend.
thank you for reading my blog

[Anonymous No.9676927]

>>9676916
His name was Adam Michael.
His name was Adam Michael.

[Anonymous No.9676931]

>>9676909
>i'm honestly not sure what to do with it now lol
Burn some game and play them.

[Anonymous No.9676936]

>>9676931
i'm screwing it back together now and probably have some CD-Rs in some random drawer. what should i burn?

[Anonymous No.9676971]

>>9676936
Go to cdromance and look for recently translated games, you'll find some gems that never got here.
Or serch by genre, the library is huge, man.

[Anonymous No.9677042]

>>9676936
Klonoa

[Anonymous No.9677068]

Pretty common occurrence, especially depending on where you live. PS1 modchips are dirt fucking cheap since it's just a single component that needs to have some code flashed it it. You can buy a PIC chip for basically pennies, or a couple bucks to get one pre-flashed.

[Anonymous No.9677074]

>>9676936
pepsi man
also there are hacks of RE1 that allow you to play the original japanese version (uncensored, proper auto-aim, color FMV) while having english text.

[Anonymous No.9677076]

>>9676909
>A Fucking Modchip!
odds of finding a ps1 with mod chip are quite high

>>9676913
they had to be thin.

>>9677068
my friend used to install them in people's machines for $100 a pop and like you said, just a few cents to make. the pic data was distributed around online and wasn't difficult to obtain for your programmer.

[Anonymous No.9677126]

>>9676971
>>9677042
>>9677074
Welp, a rather lackluster ending to our tale. it's this. stuck in the BIOS. It doesn't say "Please Insert a Playstation CD" like it is supposed to, but it doesn't do anything else either. It works fine with retail games, but it will not play burned CDs...
I used imgburn from the .CUE file so they should be correct. I tried an English translation of Front Mission II, no dice. i also tried regular 'ol English Twisted Metal, thinking it might be a problem with the translation, nope. Our modchip is toast. On a positive note i don't have to feel bad about removing it and installing xStation.
So ends the tale of Adam Michael and his modded PS1. May it live a glorious new life loading from an SD card in the near future. Amen.

[Anonymous No.9677141]

>>9677126
What are the odds Adam Michael connected the modchip the wrong way around?

[Anonymous No.9677151]

>>9677126
It's probably having an issue loading the game.
Adjust the pot on the laser.

[Anonymous No.9677153]

>>9677126
Couple possibilities:
1) some of the soldering has disconnected
2) it wasn't soldered correctly in the first place (easy to do since there are a fuckton of PS1 board revisions and each needs the modchip soldered to different points)
3) it wasn't programmed with the correct code
4) the CD-R you burned isn't good (protip: test it on an emulator)
5) the laser has weakened or needs re-calibration. It's not uncommon for failing lasers to still read legit games fine but not CD-Rs, since CD-Rs are harder for the laser to read.

[Anonymous No.9677165]

>>9677126
>>9677153

Actually I didn't read the post fully. If you're getting to the SCEA splash screen on a burned game, that means the modchip is working fine. The issue is the console is having a hard time reading the game. That means there's either an issue with the game (bad burn, bad media) or an issue with the laser assembly like I mentioned previously

careful doing pot adjustments though. Don't do that shit blind without a multimeter or you're liable to just totally blow out the laser by sending it too much voltage. I'd try another CD-R first and carefully clean the lens with some alcohol.
Also unironically try setting the console on its side to see if that gets it to boot the game.

[Anonymous No.9677221]

and if all that doesnt work you could try pissing on it

[Anonymous No.9677321]

>>9677141
>>9677151
>>9677153
>>9677165
> it might be the lazer
Well whaddaya fuckin know. IT LIVES!!!
I took the drive assembly from my 9001 and slapped it in, and guess what, it fired right up! the ribbon cable is not long enough since the models are different, and this is not a permanant solution obviously, but it's cool that the Adam Michael modchip lives again for one last swan song and still works after 20+ years!
My question is, is it possible to install this modchip on a 9001 psx? This 5501 is getting the xStation and this modchip removed most likely, but i would love to have it in my other playstation.
i mean i also have a FreeMcBooted PS2 so i would probably never need it, but it would be cool to have and fun to do.

[Anonymous No.9677420]

>>9677321
Should work just fine. The soldering points will be different though.
Of course, we don't know exactly what the PIC chip is running. There are several types of modchips and you can't necessarily tell just from looking at it.
For example, depending on how old the modchip is, it might be an oldschool one that's not a "stealth modchip", meaning it won't work with certain games that have modchip detection.

IIRC dino crisis and RE3 both have modchip detection and there will be a screen that pops up telling you the game won't function if you have one installed. Try burning (if you don't already own a copy) a copy of either of those games and see what you get.

[Anonymous No.9677428]

>>9676936
Try Spyro 3. If it loads, then your chip can probably handle most of everything else

[Anonymous No.9677701]

>>9677126
Which model is it?

[Anonymous No.9677708]

>>9677420
>>9677428
based. so far so good. i know there is weird ass copy protection baked into Spyro 3 but i did play a few minutes just fine, so i assume it's a pretty good chip.
i'll take pics of where it was soldered before i remove it, try to figure out mod it is, and move it over to the 9001.
i also put the original drive back in, it seems to be "waking up" as i play it more, but the xStation is on the way so i'll hang onto it for a spare i guess. FYI, if you are a purist who insists on discs, the 9001 drive is far superior, if you ever get the chance to swap for one i absolutely would.
thanks for all your help guys, it was a fun adventure. but mostly, thank you Adam Michael you fucking god amongst mortals for your decent modchip and correct model PS1. Godspeed and goodnight.

[Anonymous No.9677720]

>>9677701
Modchip is a 12C508VP, that's all i know. Seems to be one of them fancy shmancy stealth mods as it can play spyrah'
PS is a 5501 for xStation, the highest it will support. there is the possibly a future HDMI mod somewhere down the line, but i have a beautiful trinitron so there is no need for that as long as she keeps spittin out 'lectrons.

[Anonymous No.9677845]

>>9677720
>5501
I definitely recommend the Xstation, my modded PS1 also stopped reading discs reliably

[Anonymous No.9677869]

>>9677720
>Seems to be one of them fancy shmancy stealth mods as it can play spyrah'

The stealth modchips had nothing to do with Spyro 3, or any game that used Libcrypt. The stealth chip was for the first round of anti-mod games that tried to detect the presence of a modchip and refuse to startup if they did. They worked because all early modchips did was constantly feed the wobble code PS1 games used to authenticate themselves to the system. Realistically a PS1 should only see that code once when it tries to read it but it doesn't change it's behavior in any way if it's getting the code when it should not, all the early modchips did was as soon as the system was powered on feed that code to the PS1 nonstop so it sees it when it checks and boots the game. The anti-mod games after the PS1 had booted them would check if the PS1 was still getting the authentication code when it no longer should and stop booting with a warning message.

This method was extremely stupid because all it did was check for the presence of a modchip in the system, not if the game was authentic or not. So even a legit game would refuse to boot on a modded system with this and just display the error message seen here, and it did not stop the even older swap trick. Plus the later "stealth" modchips got around this by having extra wires to sense when the PS1 would authenticate the game and only send the code at that time.

Libcrypt was something completely different, it depended on special wobbles and irregularities manufactured into the disk that the PS1's disk drives could read, but very few PC drives could read, much less replicate when burned. This meant that not only would an authentic disk pass on a modded system, but no modchip would be able to bypass it because it was the game's own software all doing their own unique checks in different ways with different irregularities to check for.

Thankfully seems like Libcrypt was only used on PAL games.

[Anonymous No.9677878]

>>9677869
Different anon. My PS1 reads everything, region free burned discs what have you, but a handful of Konami games will show that screen, even though they're authentic discs. DDR games and MGS Integral iirc

[Anonymous No.9677928]

>>9677068
lol they are dirt cheap now, but installs were obscenely expensive even after some goon reverse engineered the ICs from china and offered his own pic12 hex file for free, online. I know someone that bought a house with the amount of money coming in.

[Anonymous No.9677954]

>>9677878
I just explained why. I had an authentic DDR2 disk that also did that. Those early anti-mod protections were easy to bypass though, even a GameShark code could do it.

[Anonymous No.9677958]

>>9677928
>that kid who paid $100 to have a mod chip glued to his ps1 with spooge and is still trying to justify it years later

[Anonymous No.9678381]

>>9676916
Payfags tremble at the mere mention of Adam Michael.

[Anonymous No.9678393]

>>9677126
>I used imgburn from the .CUE file so they should be correct.

hahaha, no. every single time I see someone complaining about a burning coasters, it's because they've sued imageburn.
Use a proper app (Nero, CloneCD, Discjuggler) and try again.

[Anonymous No.9678518]

This was a cool thread. Major nostalgia. I think i still have my modded ps1 around here somewhere

[Anonymous No.9679037]

>>9676916
>two first names
>pirate hillbilly confirmed