Pretty sure that the model of the Playstation dictates which games won't run without being patched. My chipped PS is a launch model and boots everything I throw at it without being patched, as I believe they didn't have the lockouts they introduced in later revisions.
I know some games could be played on earlier versions of the playstation without modchip just by swapping the cd in the cd player
as long the cdda track toc was bigger than the one you swapped it for.