# Any Suggestions How to Play Backup Games for Retro Gaming Consoles?



## hau77 (May 19, 2017)

I decided to collect some old gaming consoles last week. After the whole week, I have got a lot of them such as ps1, ps2, GameCube, NES, SNES, N64 and Dreamcast. Honestly, I don't have too much money collecting all the original games for these consoles, so my only choice is using backup games disks on modded consoles or flash cards. I love the feeling of putting disks or cartridge into the consoles that's why I'm trying to collect some old consoles instead of using emulators. I currently have all the ROMs for all of them, so I don't need to worry downloading ROMs.  This is how I'm thinking:

- PS1 portable with LCD + Regular Ps1: still thinking about it. I don't have any skills about soldering, is there any soft mod methods for this device? Is swapping disk the only choice for me?

-PS2 with HDD: I did something for this ps2 couple years ago, and I could transfer the game and made it worked. However, I'm not sure it can play backup disks or not.Do I need to get the mod chip for it to play backup disks?

-Gamecube: I bought the SD Media Launcher and still waiting for the shipping. Hopefully, it works. Any soft mod methods besides it and Xeno GC chip?

-NES + SNES + N64:  IS the Everdrive the best option for me? I can't find any clues hacking these old devices.

-Dreamcast: I got a Dreamcast from eBay. Fortunately, the date is before 2000. I tried to burn Shenmue and PowerStone 2 and they played perfectly. I just have one more question, cuz it's region locked, so what is the best method for me to play another region games?

Thank for reading and have a good night, guys!

P/s: I have the complete Hyperspin set up with 8tb so don't give me the advises using emulators or get the psp and Gpd xd .


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## Tom Bombadildo (May 19, 2017)

For the PS1, disc swapping is your only choice if you can't solder. 

For the PS2, if you want to play backup discs, you can use a FreeMcboot memory card. Basically what FreeMcBoot does is allow you to launch .elf files, which can be anything from loading disc backups, loading backups from your HDD, or loading backups via networking. Since you want disc backups, you'll want ESR launcher. 

For NES-N64, Everdrive would be your best bet. There are other flashcards, but they're either trash clones or super expensive compared to the everdrive.

Dreamcast, burned games are ignored region-wise, so it doesn't matter.


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## hau77 (May 19, 2017)

Thanks. I just tried to burn the Anismaster ( Japan region ) and it worked with my Dreamcast. Does it mean my Dreamcast is modded already? I got it from Ebay, btw.


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## Tom Bombadildo (May 19, 2017)

As I said, for burned games, region makes no difference on the Dreamcast.


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## Catastrophic (May 20, 2017)

A good alternative for playing Gamecube games would be to get a GC compatible Wii and softmodding it to run GC games on an HDD. For PS1, you can get a swap magic disk which makes the process easier.


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## hau77 (May 22, 2017)

Catastrophic said:


> A good alternative for playing Gamecube games would be to get a GC compatible Wii and softmodding it to run GC games on an HDD. For PS1, you can get a swap magic disk which makes the process easier.



Can I burn that swap magic disk? If not, where can I buy it?

Btw, Can I play backup ps1 disk games on my PS2 with FreeMcboot?


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## Psionic Roshambo (May 22, 2017)

Tom Bombadildo said:


> As I said, for burned games, region makes no difference on the Dreamcast.



Some pal games have to be patched but most will just boot and work fine. 

I don't think I can post links here but just a quick Google search for Pal patching Dreamcast games will turn up something that is super easy to use. 

For most of those super old systems... I would suggest the OP buy some sort of Android TV box (My personal recommendation is of course the Shield TV because you can get the one for 200 bucks and it comes with an excellent game controller that works perfectly for almost all the systems.)  

For the GameCube, I would say buy a Wii that is backwards compatible and mod it. 

Everdrives are fantastic devices and if you must play your games on original hardware are probably the best way (only way?) to go. Just keep in mind they are expensive and you have to use an old TV with those VS HD via emulation. 

I wrestle with these issues on a daily basis lol 

Dreamcast is a system you need actual hardware to use but lucky you can just burn a disk if you don't have it available or it's one of those games that costs 2 life savings and an organ or two.... 

Honestly I do both things, emulation and hardware when I can. The hardware thing is getting more and more expensive....

Every thing has it's pro's and con's. Posting all of them here would be a small book... 

Last thing to think about (I promise!!! lol) Space. 
A Shield TV if you get the pro model (300 bucks) comes with a 500GB hard drive inside of it, this will store almost every ROM it is capable of emulating (up to PS1 and N64) so something the size of one SNES box can hold the largest library one could imagine (many thousands of games if you include MAME) meanwhile even with everdrives and burning games and it can get a bit daunting space wise... (I have 1 room filled and lots of stuff in my garage and many cubic feet in almost every room in my house devoted to games.) 

Almost all of it fits in that small box....


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## hau77 (May 22, 2017)

http://www.ps2cover.com/products/PS...er.com/products/PS-X-Change-V2-Boot-Disc.html

Does this one work as well as what the ad describes?


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## bakageta (Jun 8, 2017)

The ps x change works fairly well, but it's got some downsides compared to a chip. It uses something to hold the lid button/sensor down for the swap, which means most multi-disc games aren't playable. Without letting off the lid sensor, the game won't think you swapped, and letting off the sensor will recheck the disc when you close it again, failing on copies. There are a small handful of multi-disc games that you can still play, I forget the specific titles. If the game let's you save at the disc swap and the next disc can load that save directly, you can save, power off, and move to the next disc. I want to say one of the FF games did this, but I switched to a modchip and don't really recall.

Some games may have anti-piracy code that get set off, I didn't have major issues with this but others have. You can enter AR codes to bypass this if you can find codes for the game, or patch the disc image before burning it.


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## wiired24 (Jul 4, 2017)

Just to let you know @hau77  for PS1 you DO NOT have to soder. There is a third method apart from traditional disc swapping and installing a hard mod. This method is awesome as you will never have to disc swap again. For this you will need just a few things.

1. PS1 with the parallel IO Port (SCPH 1000 to SCPH 7500 had them)






2. Cheat Cartridge (Gameshark, Xplorer,etc)
    You can find these on ebay for pretty cheap generally
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GameShark-P...773698?hash=item58f57da302:g:CugAAOSw9a5XPyKj


3. Some tape and a black CD-R (You will also need ImgBurn for burning the software to disc)


Now that all of the plumbing is out of the way I'll describe the process to you. It's very simple. First you need to download Unirom v6 and burn it to a blank CD-R. You can download Unirom here http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=722  Now once you have Unirom downloaded, go ahead and extract the archive. Open up ImgBurn and write the Unirom image to disc. Once you have successfuly burned Unirom to your blank CD-R go ahead and head over to your PlayStation.

Now open the lid of your PS1. In the far back to the right there will be a small button. Take a small piece of tape and push it down. This will trick the PS1 into thinking that the tray is closed when it is not. Now you will do the infamous PS1 Swap Trick. Once you manage to load up Unirom you are going to plug your cheat cartridge in the back Parellel IO port of the console. Then you will detect and  flash your cheat cartdrige. Once flashed you will restart your PS1 and once it boots congrats you now have a soft-modded console with the ability to play backups and imports as well as homebrew. If you'd like a more in depth guide I will post a couple videos below that really helped me that show in detail how to do this.

1. Swap Trick


2. How to soft-mod with Unirom v6


*Note: Despite what the video says, After you flash your Cheat Cartridge with Unirom and upon restarting, In order to launch your backups from you simply press x to bring up the menu and scroll down to where it says "Fastboot" and hit X. For some reason R1+R2 doesn't seem to work
*
If you have any issues feel free to message me. I actually just recently did this soft-mod to my PSX just a couple weeks ago so it's still fresh in mind.


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## bakageta (Jul 5, 2017)

Doesn't that soft-mod run into some of the same issues as a swapdisc or the swaptrick? Namely that multi-disc games that need in-game swaps will fail on the disc swap?


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## wiired24 (Jul 5, 2017)

bakageta said:


> Doesn't that soft-mod run into some of the same issues as a swapdisc or the swaptrick? Namely that multi-disc games that need in-game swaps will fail on the disc swap?



As far as I'm aware no because this eliminates the need for swapping at all


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## bakageta (Jul 5, 2017)

I couldn't really find info either way with a quick google, but I thought it didn't eliminate the disc check after open/closing the door. Psxdev seems to be having forum issues this morning, but I spotted people saying both sides.

If it doesn't work well on disc swaps, that's still a pretty minor issue. I'm fairly certain the FF games let you save, power off, and load the next disc later, so there are only a few titles that require an in-game swap.

I also spotted this from assemblergames, which probably isn't an issue for most people but still worth noting. Unirom does mention something about dis c autoswap for JP systems instead, not certain how that works.



> Just one other note for anyone wanting to try this - the CD-ROM drive unlock that Unirom uses does not work on any revision of the Japanese region consoles. This is not a problem in the coding of Unirom, the function is simply not implemented in the mechacon chip.


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## Plstic (Jul 5, 2017)

hau77 said:


> I decided to collect some old gaming consoles last week. After the whole week, I have got a lot of them such as ps1, ps2, GameCube, NES, SNES, N64 and Dreamcast. Honestly, I don't have too much money collecting all the original games for these consoles, so my only choice is using backup games disks on modded consoles or flash cards. I love the feeling of putting disks or cartridge into the consoles that's why I'm trying to collect some old consoles instead of using emulators. I currently have all the ROMs for all of them, so I don't need to worry downloading ROMs.  This is how I'm thinking:
> 
> - PS1 portable with LCD + Regular Ps1: still thinking about it. I don't have any skills about soldering, is there any soft mod methods for this device? Is swapping disk the only choice for me?
> 
> ...


1. Don't bother with portables. A ps1 modchip is really really easy to install. It was my first soldering experience.
2. ps2 can play ps2 backups with ESR but not ps1. If you wanna play ps1 backup's you'll have to install a 20 wire modchip that's extremely hard.
3.Use swiss with the SD launcher. The compatiability is hit or miss though.
4. Everdrives are the only option unless you want to make repro's or deal with one of those old floppy backup machines.
5. Dreamcast requires zero modding. Though some big games have their audio transcoded to very low bitrates and mono audio(i.e de la jetset radio) or they are too big and can't fit on the disc (i.e shenmue)


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## bakageta (Jul 5, 2017)

Plstic said:


> 5. Dreamcast requires zero modding. Though some big games have their audio transcoded to very low bitrates and mono audio(i.e de la jetset radio) or they are too big and can't fit on the disc (i.e shenmue)



Well, zero modding for burned discs of any region. If you want to play legit imports you'll need to burn a boot CD, install a modchip, or just burn a backup and play that instead. It's slightly annoying that any pirated title works but you have to jump through hoops for legit imports.


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## Plstic (Jul 5, 2017)

bakageta said:


> Well, zero modding for burned discs of any region. If you want to play legit imports you'll need to burn a boot CD, install a modchip, or just burn a backup and play that instead. It's slightly annoying that any pirated title works but you have to jump through hoops for legit imports.


I sometimes forget that since I have a region free bios installed.


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## Sonic Angel Knight (Jul 5, 2017)

Psionic Roshambo said:


> Last thing to think about (I promise!!! lol) Space.
> A Shield TV if you get the pro model (300 bucks) comes with a 500GB hard drive inside of it, this will store almost every ROM it is capable of emulating (up to PS1 and N64) so something the size of one SNES box can hold the largest library one could imagine (many thousands of games if you include MAME) meanwhile even with everdrives and burning games and it can get a bit daunting space wise... (I have 1 room filled and lots of stuff in my garage and many cubic feet in almost every room in my house devoted to games.)


All hail Shield TV 4K 
Now only we can get good Dreamcast and Dolphin emulation on it. 
Serious note, ps2 is backwards compatible with ps1 games, so couldn't that be used for both ps1 and ps2? I was gonna suggest a ps3 but since not everyone has hackable model, is not as easy, free mc boot is easier to just buy a memory card, and ps3 has ps2 specific problems so i guess not the best option.


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## Psionic Roshambo (Jul 5, 2017)

Sonic Angel Knight said:


> All hail Shield TV 4K
> Now only we can get good Dreamcast and Dolphin emulation on it.
> Serious note, ps2 is backwards compatible with ps1 games, so couldn't that be used for both ps1 and ps2? I was gonna suggest a ps3 but since not everyone has hackable model, is not as easy, free mc boot is easier to just buy a memory card, and ps3 has ps2 specific problems so i guess not the best option.



For PS1 I would say emulation is better than playing on original hardware, the filters and with sub pixel precision now a lot of graphical glitches have been fixed and the games look way better.  

For Dolphin and PS2 I use my PC to do the heavy lifting and stream the games to my Shield TV lol I should update my nightlies of those and make some new video's.... (when I have some time) 

Shield TV 2 maybe will pull off Dolphin? lol


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## Sonic Angel Knight (Jul 5, 2017)

Psionic Roshambo said:


> For Dolphin and PS2 I use my PC to do the heavy lifting and stream the games to my Shield TV lol I should update my nightlies of those and make some new video's.... (when I have some time)


You have a tutorial for this?


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## Psionic Roshambo (Jul 5, 2017)

Sonic Angel Knight said:


> You have a tutorial for this?



It's pretty easy, just install Steam on your PC, it will show up in the Shield TV or you can use Moonlight on other Android things. Set up controls and stuff, you might have to fire up the game on your PC and then switch to the Shield TV but most games will work just fine.

Edit: You can also use other PC's and stuff. 

Moonlight is a great program. http://moonlight-stream.com/


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## Sonic Angel Knight (Jul 5, 2017)

Psionic Roshambo said:


> It's pretty easy, just install Steam on your PC, it will show up in the Shield TV or you can use Moonlight on other Android things. Set up controls and stuff, you might have to fire up the game on your PC and then switch to the Shield TV but most games will work just fine.


Is there any lag delay issues, is it full playable with no problem? I wish shield tv had screen extension so i don't have to use HDMI cable in my tv.


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## Psionic Roshambo (Jul 5, 2017)

Sonic Angel Knight said:


> Is there any lag delay issues, is it full playable with no problem? I wish shield tv had screen extension so i don't have to use HDMI cable in my tv.



I have my Shield TV directly wired to my router and from that to my PC, so there is zero lag that I can tell. I have heard if you use Wifi there is some but when I run moonlight on my old router I didn't notice any there either.


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