Gaming Any way to get real analog control for PSX games?

[Happy1337]

That's really nice.
I have a 2000@3000 where i can test Metal Gear @ Dino Crisis

 

[flamming_python]

Any chance of getting a save for Forsaken?

With digital only controls on the PSP it's a chore to play.
WIth left analog stick support it looks promising

 

[flamming_python]

Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere (fan-translated Japanese version) would be great with analog support too
Alien Resurrection.. many games

We need someone with a PSP Go to create those save files for us
I can't believe that someone figured out how to get analog support working for PS1 games on the PSP and it's just been buried here in some random thread for a couple of years

Maybe it's possible to emulate a PSP GO and create save files that way?
Does PPSSPP allow a PSP Go to be emulated and with an emulated Dual Shock controller connected?

 

[V800]

@Jayplay17 I've read your tutorial but there's one thing I didn't catch:
Which savedata do I need to use: Analog or Digital mode? Since you said Sony messed up this, I've got confused.

 

[Jayplay17]

@flamming_python
Glad to see that people are still interested in the project. I do not have a PSPgo anymore, however I did have an idea (back then) on how to create a save file with the Analog mode enabled - by using a PS Vita. as it also has access to PS1 emulation and does creates save files which should be in the same format.

@V800 If you're using the PSPgo paired with a DS3, you need to change the mode to : DIGITAL mode. Then save the game and move that save file back to your PSP.

EDIT: I misunderstood your question earlier. As you're referring to the zipfile I attached, use the Analog mode saves, As I have labelled them correctly. Though, when you boot the game you'll see that it is in [Digital Mode] which is actually in Analog operating status.

 

[The_Ho]

I had no idea this existed, really amazing. When I read the topic and saw that they were using a GO + DS3 to generate the Save Files, I automatically thought about why not generate with a PSVita and if it would work. No more, the save file of the GO or vita that includes the possibility of using the analog mode, has already been analyzed in order to find some parameter in common between these saves, which activates this function?. If they are the same parameter inserted in the same sector as a save, copying it or even creating an injector program in the future to enable the analogue mode will not be so difficult, but if the code is different, it complicates things even more.

 

[Jayplay17]

I had no idea this existed, really amazing. When I read the topic and saw that they were using a GO + DS3 to generate the Save Files, I automatically thought about why not generate with a PSVita and if it would work. No more, the save file of the GO or vita that includes the possibility of using the analog mode, has already been analyzed in order to find some parameter in common between these saves, which activates this function?. If they are the same parameter inserted in the same sector as a save, copying it or even creating an injector program in the future to enable the analogue mode will not be so difficult, but if the code is different, it complicates things even more.

I have another idea which could skip the part of analysing the saves.
Instead of trying to change the data in the savefile, why not change the Game ID of the GAME to match the ID of the savefile?

If my theory is correct, all the PS1 savefiles created on the PSP are actually a virtual memory card, which means that it could actually hold savedata of multiple other games in it.

For example, now we currently have a Analog enabled savedata of Spyro 2 which I have uploaded in my previous post.
So we take another game, say Gran Turismo. Inject the Game ID of Spyro 2 into the Gran Turismo GAME.
Therefore Gran Turismo will become analog enabled due to the matching savefile.

I thought of this idea because of your post that shared that in a PS1 Eboot, there are two game IDs, one affects the Popsloader BIOS booted (relating to region injecting) and the other is linked to the savefile. What do you think?

 

[flamming_python]

I have another idea which could skip the part of analysing the saves.
Instead of trying to change the data in the savefile, why not change the Game ID of the GAME to match the ID of the savefile?

If my theory is correct, all the PS1 savefiles created on the PSP are actually a virtual memory card, which means that it could actually hold savedata of multiple other games in it.

For example, now we currently have a Analog enabled savedata of Spyro 2 which I have uploaded in my previous post.
So we take another game, say Gran Turismo. Inject the Game ID of Spyro 2 into the Gran Turismo GAME.
Therefore Gran Turismo will become analog enabled due to the matching savefile.

I thought of this idea because of your post that shared that in a PS1 Eboot, there are two game IDs, one affects the Popsloader BIOS booted (relating to region injecting) and the other is linked to the savefile. What do you think?

Wouldn't that mean that all the analog-enabled games will end up with the same Game ID?
That could get unwieldy. Especially since POPS seems to rely on Game IDs to apply game-specific optimizations or fixes, or in some cases people have figured out workarounds to get previously non-working games to work (such as Rollcage Stage II) by switching their Game IDs to that of specific other games.

It seems a better idea to take an analog-enabled savedata and change its own Game ID that it's referring to, no?

 

[The_Ho]

I still haven't got the time to test it better, but the idea of using the IDs will possibly work, regardless of whether you use a correction GAMEID or not. As long as it's based on the Main Game ID and not the regular GAMEID. In games with more than one disk, even if I changed the GAMEID, the save that will manage the game will be the Main GameID, and in games with only 1 disk, put a notepad saved as 0.bin as CD2 and that's it, it will continue saving in the Main GameID regardless of use for a patch ID or not, to see how this works best:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/new-mode-to-fix-ps1-games-for-psp-and-psvita.607286/post-9842659

 

[Webardo]

I still haven't got the time to test it better, but the idea of using the IDs will possibly work, regardless of whether you use a correction GAMEID or not. As long as it's based on the Main Game ID and not the regular GAMEID. In games with more than one disk, even if I changed the GAMEID, the save that will manage the game will be the Main GameID, and in games with only 1 disk, put a notepad saved as 0.bin as CD2 and that's it, it will continue saving in the Main GameID regardless of use for a patch ID or not, to see how this works best:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/new-mode-to-fix-ps1-games-for-psp-and-psvita.607286/post-9842659

Well, that doesn't work after all. Apparently, each game has its own CONFIG.bin file in its save folder. Checking in a hxd editor shows that none of these files are similar to one another.

To check, i tried to convert a few games with analog support. I tried Crash Bandicoot 2 with Spyro 2's ID, for it to just stay in a black screen. Also tried Ape Escape with the RE2 save, and neither did that work.

So no, that doesn't seem feasible as of now.

 

[flamming_python]

We need someone with a PSP Go, Dualshock 3 and a little spare time I guess

 

[Jayplay17]

Well, that doesn't work after all. Apparently, each game has its own CONFIG.bin file in its save folder. Checking in a hxd editor shows that none of these files are similar to one another.

To check, i tried to convert a few games with analog support. I tried Crash Bandicoot 2 with Spyro 2's ID, for it to just stay in a black screen. Also tried Ape Escape with the RE2 save, and neither did that work.

So no, that doesn't seem feasible as of now.

So creating a game with the GAME ID matching the analog-enabled savedata ID does not work? How about editing the other ID in the game? (Apparently there are 2 Game IDs inside a game: Main Game ID and regular GAME ID)

We need someone with a PSP Go, Dualshock 3 and a little spare time I guess

We could also try the PS Vita route, it might work as I suspect the savefiles created would be in the same format as the PSP. That would also be easier to 'crowd-source' analog enabled savefiles.

 

[Webardo]

So creating a game with the GAME ID matching the analog-enabled savedata ID does not work? How about editing the other ID in the game? (Apparently there are 2 Game IDs inside a game: Main Game ID and regular GAME ID)


We could also try the PS Vita route, it might work as I suspect the savefiles created would be in the same format as the PSP. That would also be easier to 'crowd-source' analog enabled savefiles.

Tried again, and got the same result. Every game stays at a black screen, no PS logo, no menu. It surely is because of the PSP Go pops, because the games work well with the original from flash option in popsloader.

So yeah, your best bet is to use a PS Vita (as long as its config.bin doesn't differ from what a PSP expects).

 

[flamming_python]

In the meantime I can play around with the PPSSPP emulator. See if it's possible to emulate a PSP Go and attached Dualshock controller through it. If it is, then we can just create the game-specific saves we want that way, any of us can.

 

[Webardo]

In the meantime I can play around with the PPSSPP emulator. See if it's possible to emulate a PSP Go and attached Dualshock controller through it. If it is, then we can just create the game-specific saves we want that way, any of us can.

That's not possible, at least on PPSSPP, because it can't boot PS1 games.

Maybe you could try it in JPCSP? Don't expect much though, not sure if you can boot PS1 eboots in it.

 

[flamming_python]

- You also need the exact game savefile from the PSPgo with the Analog mode setting changed to Digital (this is because Sony messed it up backwards, [Digital mode] is the real analog mode, and the [analog mode] is actually digital mode. Yep that's whack I know) and you can only change the analog mode to digital mode when a DS3 is paired, maybe hacking/save file editing can solve this somehow. As the POPS settings preferences are saved in a settings file in the savedata, I couldn't manage to transfer the setting files to other games, it'll just make the game not boot up.

I had no idea this existed, really amazing. When I read the topic and saw that they were using a GO + DS3 to generate the Save Files, I automatically thought about why not generate with a PSVita and if it would work. No more, the save file of the GO or vita that includes the possibility of using the analog mode, has already been analyzed in order to find some parameter in common between these saves, which activates this function?. If they are the same parameter inserted in the same sector as a save, copying it or even creating an injector program in the future to enable the analogue mode will not be so difficult, but if the code is different, it complicates things even more.

Well, that doesn't work after all. Apparently, each game has its own CONFIG.bin file in its save folder. Checking in a hxd editor shows that none of these files are similar to one another.

To check, i tried to convert a few games with analog support. I tried Crash Bandicoot 2 with Spyro 2's ID, for it to just stay in a black screen. Also tried Ape Escape with the RE2 save, and neither did that work.

So no, that doesn't seem feasible as of now.

Well I decided to investigate for myself as seemingly waiting around for a PSP Go and DS3 owner with a little spare time to pop into this thread is something that could take longer than the heat death of the universe.

Basically yes it seems to be the CONFIG.BIN file in the save folder that stores the POPS configuration for each given game. I haven't tried but apparently if you remove it, the PSP generates a new one with I presume the default settings for POPS.

Nowhere could I find a specification of this file's format on the internet. Nor could I find any code pertaining to reading it in source code that I checked out such as the source of the popsloader plugins or of the procfw firmware. Evidently the code for reading/writing it is in the POPS emulator itself and that's of course something we don't have access to.
But the format is something that can be figured out, especially in the presence of both an analog and digital control version of the same settings for the same game as Jayplay17 had earlier provided us. In fact doing so should be trivial.

The real thing I'm afraid of is that nobody yet might have cracked this file yet as it appears to be encrypted. Every CONFIG.BIN file is totally different in every byte to every other even when the difference should only be a matter of one flag. This suggests that it's not just written to and read by POPS but also encrypted and decrypted as needed. And we don't know how.

So far I've tried using the KEYS.BIN from for example SCES00967 (Crash Bandicoot 2 PAL, https://renascene.com/ps1/info/39) to decrypt the SCES00967 save folder provided by Jayplay17 via a utility program (https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/PSP_SaveData_Encrypter-Decrypter_GUI#Credits).
Didn't work, but I'll try with some other KEYS.BIN files and other save files.
There's also a program called QuickBMS that I mean to try out (http://aluigi.altervista.org/quickbms.htm), it can sometimes figure out encryption techniques used on a file.
Does anyone else have any ideas or know anything about this file? Does anyone know somebody that might?

There are however a lot of keys used by the PSP to encrypt/decrypt a bunch of stuff (https://www.psdevwiki.com/psp/Keys#Keyset_0). PRX files, UMDs and so on. I'm not that knowledgeable in all this but it could be that one of these keys is used for encrypting/decrypting the CONFIG.BIN file as well.