ps2

[moneyman13]

ok, there was another topic on all of this, i didnt follow the clone xl and clonecd stuff, are both of them used just to make the back up game of PS2? or do you guys mean with both of those you can make a backup copy that will work in ps2 with a mod-chip? and is there going to be a boot-disc made for ps2, if so how long would that be

[adam]

Clone cd is not needed to copy psx and PS2 games and in fact it will not do ANYTHING that any other burning program cant do.

All psx and PS2 games have protection in the form of bad sectors. This is impossible to duplicate on your backup because of hardware limitations, so clone cd does nothing here. So no matter how you look at it, you will need a mod chip or other modification done to the console in order to boot the game.

As far as I know, NO PS2 games have any additional software protection on them. This is due to the fact that the mod chip is so new and that it is not completely perfected yet, although that will soon change. VERY soon. I do not follow PS2 released however so I may be incorrect. If I am I hope someone can correct me.

Even out of the thousands of psx games there was only one that would have required clonecd to make a working backup (Medievil sp??.) For the most part the only other protections used on psx games were antimod codes. This prevented the copy from being played on a modded console but it also kicked in on the original game as well. Again clonecd does nothing here. There was one other protection used only a few times which I wont go into but again clonecd could not get past it anyway.

What I'm saying here is that there is no protection on either PS2 or psx games which can be bypassed using clonecd. You can use it if you want to, but its not doing anything special.

Is there going to be a boot disk for the PS2? I can almost guarantee it...

The makers of the ps-x-changer (boot disk for psx) obviously found a way to duplicate the bad sectors all original psx and PS2 games have, otherwise the boot disk would not even boot up. So right there they have the hardware potential to create a PS2 boot disk. All they need is to program the software for the disk. This shouldnt be too difficult. A representative for the ps-x-changer claimed that a PS2 boot disk definitely would be released but not until further testing was done and until they felt the time was right to release it.

I don't think its too difficult to read between the lines. There is no reason to release a boot disk when mod chips are still marketable, that would just divide their sales. A no swap chip will be released very soon. After that, who knows maybe another chip will be released. Then after mod chip sales level off I'm sure a boot disk will come out.

Another issue is the claim that sony will implement mandatory firmware upgrades in order to play certain games. These firmware upgrades might render current mod chips useless. I think they are possibly waiting until this first wave of firmware upgrades comes out before releasing the disk, to see if there is some way to counter it.

[PimpInDaHouse]

I downloaded a boot-cd for ps2 on MyNapster the other day I don't know if it works yet. The read me text in the file I downloaded said that you can copy the files on the copied game cd and it will work like a normal game or you can just make a swap cd.

[moneyman13]

ok, thanks for the info adam, if you would keep my updated on the info, my email addy is troyshanks1@hotmail.com, and as for Pimpindahouse, why dont you try the program and get back with us

[adam]

PimpInDaHouse that is an obvious fake. Like I said in this thread and countless others, the bad sectors on PS2 and psx games are IMPOSSIBLE to replicate using a commercial burner. As long as the bad sectors are not present on your backup you will always need a mod chip or other hack.

There are numerous fake boot disks for both the psx and PS2. Eventually there will be a boot disk for the PS2 but regardless of when it is released, if you want a boot disk you will have to buy it, you will NEVER be able to download and burn one yourself.

[kinneera]

Does it in fact actually check for the existence of damaged sectors, or does it only check that data is in specific locations that skip around such bad sectors. It stands to reason that if the software could instruct the recorder to simply skip sectors in the appropriate locations (seems possible with drives that implement raw-mode writing), it could write all the data on the copy to the exact location where they were on the original disc, regardless of whether the intervening sectors are actually damaged or just blank.
Pure speculation, of course...

[adam]

The console checks for the actual bad sectors.

When copying the psx or PS2 game the file that contains the bad sectors will actually get copied to the backup (always if you used a dvdrom to read and only sometimes with cdr-roms depending on the capabilities of the drive.)

The problem is that your burner sees these bad sectors as exactly what they are, errors and it corrects them before burning. All commercial burners do this and there is nothing you can do about it. Unless the bad sectors are present the game will not boot up on an unmodified console.

[kinneera]

In what respect are the sectors bad? Actual physical damage, or invalid data, or what? Just curious.

[adam]

Basically its invalid data. The values these sectors represent are impossible, at least as far as your burner is concerned. Here's a detailed description...

"Sectors 12 through 15 contain a zeroised EDC/ECC checksum (impossible) so if the PSX reads and doesn't see an invalid EDC/ECC then it knows that the CD in the drive is a copy. (The EDC is simply a CRC type hash that is used as a checksum to determine if the sector was read correctly. The ECC is used to recreate the sector data). The entire range of sectors is written in a RAW format (2352 bytes) and is completely zeroed, even the XA sub-header and EDC/ECC are zeroed. When it is copied on a CD-R, these sectors are exact, except for the EDC/ECC code that is (correctly) written as 0x3F13B0BC"

taken from http://www.megagames.com

[moneyman13]

ok, thanks for the replies, i found this NEOKEY SBOX Modchip for $25 on the net, and its usb format, or there is the STARchip for PS2 also, anyone know which is better? also would i still have to do any soldering if the NEOKEY was usb?? and if i do, how risky/hard is it..dont want to screw up to PS2 already...

[pacmania_2001]

About these bad sectors though. Couldnt you just use nero and use the write uncorrected option?
Sorry if this seems stupid but never tried to burn a PSX or PS2 game.

[adam]

The correcting of data is done by the burner because of its own firmware. No software can bypass this because the burner itself views these bad sectors as impossible values.

Its like trying to type a word on a standard calculator, the letter keys simply arent there.

And no a hacked firmware upgrade wont do the trick either. From what I have read the only way to do this would be to hack both the burner firmware and the firmware of the cdr itself. People have been trying to burn these bad sectors since the psx first came out, it simply cant be done on a commercial burner.