HOWTO: Replace PAL Tekken 3 with NTSC on PSClassic

subcon959

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** WARNING - WRITING INTERNAL STORAGE ALWAYS CARRIES SOME RISK **
** ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ARE WILLING TO TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY **

** THIS IS NOT A BEGINNERS GUIDE, IT ASSUMES A MEDIUM LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY **

You will need,

Bleemsync 1.0: https://github.com/pathartl/BleemSync/releases (+compatible USB stick)
Database editor: https://sqlitebrowser.org/dl/
FTP client: https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client
A text editor that respects proper line endings: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v7.6.3.html
A microUSB data cable to power the PSC from your PC USB port.
Tekken3 NTSC bin and cue.

Follow the instructions on the Bleemsync site to get through the initial install. We only need this to get the FTP server, so once the installation is successful you can stop following the instructions. We are only concerned with running the PSC stock, so won't actually be using Bleemsync or a USB stick after initial install.

Remove the USB stick and start the PSC. Everything should be working exactly as stock. Leave it sitting at the menu.

Provided your microUSB cable supports data, and not just power, you can now access the FTP server running on the PSC through this same USB connection that is powering the console.

Now fire up the FTP client on your PC. Use the following settings to make a connection:

HOST: 169.254.215.100
USERNAME: root
PORT: 21

NOTE - no password is required.

If successful, you should see a directory listing of the internal storage of the PSC. If it doesn't work, then you either didn't get Bleemsync installed properly or you have some other PC issues that are beyond the scope of this guide.

The folder we are interested in is "/gaadata". This contains all the stock games and the database and bios files. Ideally, backup the entire folder to PC to keep safe in case of problems. It's about 14GB, but the USB speed should be pretty good.

In our specific example, we will be replacing the PAL version of Tekken3 with the NTSC version. Therefore it is assumed you have the necessary CUE/BIN files already and named correctly (SLUS-00402)

Browse to "/gaadata/17". The Tekken3 files are in this folder named SCES-01237.bin, SCES-01237.cue etc, along with the pcsx.cfg file. Because we are replacing with the same game, we can just rename the image and license files to match the new serial instead of uploading new ones. Delete the PAL BIN/CUE files first, then upload your NTSC ones.

The folder should now look like this: pcsx.cfg, SLUS-00402.bin, SLUS-00402.cue, SLUS-00402.lic, SLUS-00402.png.

Re-download the pcsx.cfg (keep your backups from before untouched) and open it in Notepad++. Edit the line "psx_clock = 39" to "psx_clock = 54". Save and upload/overwrite the one on the PSC. This will help with game performance. I've used the 54 setting with all games without issue.

Ok, now we need to edit the database to reflect our changed filenames. Re-download a copy of "/gaadata/databases/regional.db" and open it in DB Browser. Click on the "Browse Data" tab.

You will see the list of all 20 games. The one we want is GAME_ID 17 (the same as the folder name). Edit the BASENAME cell from "SCES-01237" to "SLUS-00402". Click on "Write Changes" and close the app. There are other things that need to be edited if you are changing the game, but in our case we don't need to do anything else.

Upload/overwrite the regional.db file.

At this point we are basically done. One last thing that I would further recommend involves the BIOS files. A lot of people have issues with certain games not starting because the wrong BIOS file is trying to boot it. A simple way to fix this is to make sure that both BIOS files are actually the same file. Go into the "/gaadata/system/bios" folder. The "good" bios is the romw.bin. It's actually the same one the PSP used and has high compatibility with all regions. Download this file, rename it to romJP.bin and upload/overwrite the one on the PSC. Now both are just romw.bin with different names.

That's it. When you now restart the PSC, everything will look the same still, but when you start Tekken3 it will be the NTSC version running at the proper speed instead of PAL slow-motion.

NOTE - Previous savestates and memory cards will probably cause issues with this. If anyone needs instructions for deleting the previous appdata then let me know. For confident users, use FTP to browse to "/data/AppData/sony/pcsx/17/.pcsx/" and delete everything in there except the symlink to pcsx.cfg.
 
Last edited by subcon959,

subcon959

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For anyone using this guide to replace internal games with completely different games, you will need to do an additional database edit. After you change the BASENAME for the corresponding GAME_ID, click the "Table" drop down menu and choose GAME. There you can edit the extra information for the replacement game such as the name, publisher, year etc. Just make sure you always go by GAME_ID not the row number.

You could also use this to add extra games by creating a new entry in the database. Just bear in mind that there isn't a lot of free space and bad things could happen if you use too much. You should be safe adding 1 or 2 more single disc games. I would advise replacing any existing games you aren't likely to play first.
 
Last edited by subcon959,

VGA

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Thanks for this. This may come in handy if I lose my patience waiting for an automated solution to manage the internal games.
 

subcon959

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No worries. Yeah, I much prefer doing this to having a USB drive hanging off the console. This way, it looks stock but I have 22-25 games that I actually want to play in there.

Plus, because it's not using the dodgy USB over-mounting stuff there is no chance of corruption or power issues.
 
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BL4Z3D247

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Nice guide.

I wonder if anyone is working on a way to replace the stock emulator with and up-to-date version. I perfer the stock emulator over the libretro variant due to the options available.

That PSX CPU option comes in very handy for certain games.
 

elmerohueso

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I used this to replace Destruction Derby with Tony Hawk 2, but the game won't launch. I click on it, the screen flashes quickly, but the game doesn't start. Any idea what could cause that?
I did the following:
  1. Named the BIN and CUE files "SLUS-01066"
  2. Edited the CUE file to point to "SLUS-01066.bin"
  3. Created PNG "SLUS-01066.png"
  4. Deleted the BIN, CUE, and PNG from "/gaadata/3"
  5. Uploaded my new BIN, CUE, and PNG
  6. Replaced pcsx.cfg with a clean one from Bleemsync
  7. Renamed the LIC file to "SLUS-01066" and edited the title and copyright message
  8. Edited the "DISC" and "GAME" tables in regional.db to show the correct S/N (BASENAME), title, publisher, release, and players
  9. For good measure, I replaced the romJP.bin
Edit: It worked fine replacing Tekken 3 with the USA version, but I still can't get it to work with THPS2 in slot 3.
Edit 2: I was able to get it to work. For new games, you need to give them a new GameID over 20, not reuse existing GameIDs. So I deleted game 3 and made THPS2 game 21.
Edit 3: When replacing games, rather than deleting everything but the symlinks for the games at "/data/AppData/sony/pcsx/", it looks like you need to delete each game folder entirely when replacing games.
 
Last edited by elmerohueso,

The Real Jdbye

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** WARNING - WRITING INTERNAL STORAGE ALWAYS CARRIES SOME RISK **
** ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ARE WILLING TO TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY **

** THIS IS NOT A BEGINNERS GUIDE, IT ASSUMES A MEDIUM LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY **

You will need,

Bleemsync 1.0: https://github.com/pathartl/BleemSync/releases (+compatible USB stick)
Database editor: https://sqlitebrowser.org/dl/
FTP client: https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client
A text editor that respects proper line endings: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v7.6.3.html
A microUSB data cable to power the PSC from your PC USB port.
Tekken3 NTSC bin and cue.

Follow the instructions on the Bleemsync site to get through the initial install. We only need this to get the FTP server, so once the installation is successful you can stop following the instructions. We are only concerned with running the PSC stock, so won't actually be using Bleemsync or a USB stick after initial install.

Remove the USB stick and start the PSC. Everything should be working exactly as stock. Leave it sitting at the menu.

Provided your microUSB cable supports data, and not just power, you can now access the FTP server running on the PSC through this same USB connection that is powering the console.

Now fire up the FTP client on your PC. Use the following settings to make a connection:

HOST: 169.254.215.100
USERNAME: root
PORT: 21

NOTE - no password is required.

If successful, you should see a directory listing of the internal storage of the PSC. If it doesn't work, then you either didn't get Bleemsync installed properly or you have some other PC issues that are beyond the scope of this guide.

The folder we are interested in is "/gaadata". This contains all the stock games and the database and bios files. Ideally, backup the entire folder to PC to keep safe in case of problems. It's about 14GB, but the USB speed should be pretty good.

In our specific example, we will be replacing the PAL version of Tekken3 with the NTSC version. Therefore it is assumed you have the necessary CUE/BIN files already and named correctly (SLUS-00402)

Browse to "/gaadata/17". The Tekken3 files are in this folder named SCES-01237.bin, SCES-01237.cue etc, along with the pcsx.cfg file. Because we are replacing with the same game, we can just rename the image and license files to match the new serial instead of uploading new ones. Delete the PAL BIN/CUE files first, then upload your NTSC ones.

The folder should now look like this: pcsx.cfg, SLUS-00402.bin, SLUS-00402.cue, SLUS-00402.lic, SLUS-00402.png.

Re-download the pcsx.cfg (keep your backups from before untouched) and open it in Notepad++. Edit the line "psx_clock = 39" to "psx_clock = 54". Save and upload/overwrite the one on the PSC. This will help with game performance. I've used the 54 setting with all games without issue.

Ok, now we need to edit the database to reflect our changed filenames. Re-download a copy of "/gaadata/databases/regional.db" and open it in DB Browser. Click on the "Browse Data" tab.

You will see the list of all 20 games. The one we want is GAME_ID 17 (the same as the folder name). Edit the BASENAME cell from "SCES-01237" to "SLUS-00402". Click on "Write Changes" and close the app. There are other things that need to be edited if you are changing the game, but in our case we don't need to do anything else.

Upload/overwrite the regional.db file.

At this point we are basically done. One last thing that I would further recommend involves the BIOS files. A lot of people have issues with certain games not starting because the wrong BIOS file is trying to boot it. A simple way to fix this is to make sure that both BIOS files are actually the same file. Go into the "/gaadata/system/bios" folder. The "good" bios is the romw.bin. It's actually the same one the PSP used and has high compatibility with all regions. Download this file, rename it to romJP.bin and upload/overwrite the one on the PSC. Now both are just romw.bin with different names.

That's it. When you now restart the PSC, everything will look the same still, but when you start Tekken3 it will be the NTSC version running at the proper speed instead of PAL slow-motion.

NOTE - Previous savestates and memory cards will probably cause issues with this. If anyone needs instructions for deleting the previous appdata then let me know. For confident users, use FTP to browse to "/data/AppData/sony/pcsx/17/.pcsx/" and delete everything in there except the symlink to pcsx.cfg.
Won't it have slowdowns? I heard the reason they used PAL versions of so many games was that the emulator was not capable of doing 60 FPS for those games, and struggled even with 50 for some of them.
 

giogio5

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Any safer way to delete save states and stuff? Deleting everything in the .pcsx seems very risky to me at least.

Edit: well it seems save states are easily rectified, simply just replace the old one from the original game with a new one, seems to work fine.
 
Last edited by giogio5,

elmerohueso

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Any safer way to delete save states and stuff? Deleting everything in the .pcsx seems very risky to me at least.

Edit: well it seems save states are easily rectified, simply just replace the old one from the original game with a new one, seems to work fine.
The PSC will rebuild the game folder structure of "/data/AppData/sony/pcsx/" on boot if anything's missing.
 

Mamertos

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What is an otf file? It's located in some folders such as the Resident Evil Director's Cut. I wanna replace it with the french version instead but I don't now if this file is important.
 

subcon959

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Does mean I need to find a copy protection for some games? OMG
That's why it's best to stick with NTSC version as they don't have the stupid copy protection, but if you need PAL for language then just try it and see you might get lucky. I'm not sure if the emulator can only use OTF files or if it works with SBI too.
 
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VGA

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Does mean I need to find a copy protection for some games? OMG
Only some PAL games have Libcrypt. You just get the corresponding sbi from the redump site and put it in the same folder.

Or just use NTSC-U for everything. 60 fps are better than 50.
 

BL4Z3D247

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Hey everyone, so since we now have the ability to fully backup our EMMC I've decided to start changing the internal games to NTSC and change the cover art to the jewel case covers.

I decided to just start with Tekken 3, just replacing the game with the NTSC version. So I FTP'd into the classic no problem and have deleted the PAL Tekken 3 and copied over the NTSC files(bin/cue), re-uploaded the edited database. Now it starts up but I only get the PlayStation logo screen.

I've re-read the guide multiple times and I'm doing it exactly as it's explained. The only thing I can think it might be is my main computer is having technical difficulties at the moment so I'm stick with my old XP laptop, I'm thinking this may be what's causing this problem but I'm not sure and wanted to reach out to see if someone may know what's going on.

Thanks in advance!
 

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