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

[BrianHardy]

Well I can certainly tell you which games I'm interested in (North American versions unless otherwise stated):

- Forsaken
- Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere (Japanese version)
- Future Cop L.A.P.D
- Gran Turismo 2
- M.D.K
- Silent Hill
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
- Vanishing Point
- Wipeout 3: Special Edition (European version)
- Carmaggedon (European version)
- Championship Motocross 2001 Featuring Ricky Carmichael
- Jacky Chan Stuntmaster
- Moto Racer
- N2O: Nitrous Oxide
- Nascar 2000
- NHL FaceOff 2001
- Rally de Europe (Japanese version)
- RC de Go!
- Rollcage Stage II
- S.C.A.R.S.
- Spider-Man
- Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro
- Syphon Filter
- Syphon Filter 2
- Vagrant Story
- Actual Golf 3 (European version)
- PGA European Tour Golf (European version)
- Akuji: The Heartless
- Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins
- Ducati World Racing Challenge
- Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver
- Omega Boost
- MTV Sports: Pure Ride
- MTV Sports: Snowboarding
- NHL Championship 2000
- Actua Soccer 3 (European version)
- Brave Fencer Musashi
- MediEvil
- ISS Pro 98
- RC Revenge
- V-Rally 2 (European version)
- Colin McRae Rally
- Colin McRae Rally 2.0
- NGEN Racing

That should do for the time being. Got all that?
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Well okay, just from whichever of those you end up installing and playing in your own time, I'd appreciate any configs you do post here

Plus other people have requested their own in the thread, such as this guy:



And I'd love to see these games too!

Alright, sorry for the late response. Busy summer.

As a test run I'm gonna send the first 10 on your list (plus Crash Bandicoot 2). Let me know if everything works and if I should change anything for the rest. I've put the saves twice in the file, once with each save put in a folder of its own and once with all saves together.

 

[flamming_python]

Awesome, I'll give them a whirl this week

 

[flamming_python]

Well, I've tried out 5 of those games today

That's Forsaken, Future Cop L.A.P.D, Ace Combat 3, Carmageddon and M.D.K.

And with the exception of Future Cop L.A.P.D, all of them gave me a black screen upon startup with the 6.60 PSPGo POPS version that I was running on my PSP 3000. I couldn't access the menu or anything, just a black screen.
Future Cop L.A.P.D did work however, presumably because out of all of these it was the only official eboot release.
So in other words this is the same problem that @rariteh detailed here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/any-way-to-get-real-analog-control-for-psx-games.127995/post-9649475

For whatever reason, while the PSP Go itself presumably has no issue running custom eboots, a different PSP model running the PSP Go's POPS version can't run custom eboots, only official ones.
I'm wondering what's behind this. Perhaps the copy protection system is responsible, the codes for different PSP revisions might be different, such that when a custom firmware on the PSP is installed, all these protection systems are cracked or circumvented, including the POPS related ones, but only for the PSP revision which is being flashed. And so when you run a POPS version designed for a different PSP revision on your PSP, the copy protection for POPS won't have been cracked, even if the rest of your PSP has been. At least from my little knowledge of the PSP's system, that's the only explanation I can come up with.
One way to test this is for a PSP Go owner to try out a POPS version meant for say a PSP 1000 or 2000 on their own device, via the procedure detailed by @Jayplay17 in this post https://gbatemp.net/threads/any-way-to-get-real-analog-control-for-psx-games.127995/post-9648848 and see if custom eboots run or not.
But even if we determine that this is the case, I don't have the expertise to update all these flashing utilities and custom firmwares with some kind of solution.

I don't know if it's possible to generate KEYS.BIN files for custom eboots. I seem to recall hearing that everything about the PSP has now been cracked and that it's possible to sign custom eboots to run them on official firmware. Or something like that. That might be the solution. Does anyone know more about it?

Alternatively, perhaps the recent updates to the pop-fe utility @ronniesahlberg relating to increasing the compatibility of generated EBOOTs might help here https://gbatemp.net/threads/pops-on-psp-vita-config-research.607286/post-10473584
Kind of a long shot but I'll investigate it when I get the time

Failing any of those solutions, we'll basically be confined to just those PS1 games which got an official eboot release and which haven't been provided with some sort of key compatibility fixes in pop-fe. And I'll draw a new list up of such games that would be nice to get analog support for if it comes to it, but for now let's be optimistic that we won't be confined to just them.

Now as for Future Cop L.A.P.D, I found that it both played and controlled beautifully. And I encountered none of the slowdown that Jayplay17 warned about in his posts. The issue was only that the game didn't support navigating with the analog stick in the menu and interface, which meant that the d-pad still had to be bound to the arrow keys and I couldn't use it to bind to the L2 and R2 buttons; unless you can be bothered to rebind the controls each time you move from menu to gameplay and vice-versa. And that unfortunately, made this control scheme impractical. I suspect we may run into this problem with some other games too, but until we try them we won't know which.

Post automatically merged: Aug 13, 2024

UPDATE:

About Future Cop L.A.P.D, I found that if you bind the analog nub to the directional keys, then the nub will register as d-pad presses for the menu and interface, allowing them to be navigated. HOWEVER, during gameplay the analog nub's analog inputs seem to take precedence over the digital ones. I can adjust my speed and turn rate depending on how much I move the nub.

I mean I guess the plugin working means that the analog inputs always take precedence over the digital inputs, just that while in the menus the analog inputs do nothing so the digital inputs are being recognized instead.

Well whatever the case this is an excellent result as now I can rebind the d-pad to the L2/R2 keys and have a working control scheme. In the past, with just digital inputs, the only thing that was impractical when it came to Future Cop L.A.P.D on the PSP is walking; which required the L2 key to be held (i.e. analog nub left) while using the d-pad.
However with analog inputs, there is no need for any such combination as now you can walk by moving the analog nub only slightly. So in fact the control scheme for this game has now improved.

I'm hoping that sort of trick will work for other games whose menus can't be navigated by the analog stick. But even if not then it occurs to me that it's possible to update the POPSAnalog plugin, to say bind the musical note button or some such to switch between d-pad and analog inputs for the analog nub. Something like that. So I'm not too worried.