PS1/2 PSX Backup Help

[farmin]

Hey all, I scored a PSone at a garage sale recently and have been having some issues trying to play backups. I'm pretty sure the console has a mod chip installed as it came with a burnt copy of Tomb Raider III that works perfectly and I was also able to burn a copy of boot disk that worked fine. The problem is that every other game I've tried burning either refuses to load at all or hangs on a black screen.
It's a PAL console and a PSone original model with a dual shock controller.
I've tried the following games:

- Medievil (NTSC): Hangs on a weird cream coloured screen with a black square in the top left corner
- Final Fantasy Tactics (NTSC): Displays the Squaresoft logo then hangs for a few seconds before fading to black and not progressing any further
- Tomba! (PAL): Language selection screen works fine but after selecting a language the screen hangs black.
- Ape Escape (PAL): Game sits on the Playstation logo screen, does not progress any further.
- Spyro the Dragon (NTSC): After 'sony computer entertainment presents' game fades to black and hangs.

I'm burning onto a Kodak CD-R 700mb using PowerISO.
The only difference I can see between the Tomb Raider III disk is that it's a MITSUI 650mb CD-R, could the different file size have something to do with it? Like I said Tomb Raider III works perfectly so I don't think it's the console.
Other than that I'm stumped.
Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[tbgtbg]

What speed are you burning at? Try a slower one.

Disc size shouldn't matter (so long as the game fits, anyway).

Dunno if Kodak discs are any good or not, wouldn't hurt to try another brand.

 

[farmin]

Thanks for the response, tried re-burning Tomba and Ape Escape at 8x speed but was met with exactly the same results.
Also tried Sony and Samsung brand CD-Rs but was again met with the same results.
Could it perhaps be bad ISO dumps?
I'm getting the backups off the internet but It seems fairly unlikely to get 5 bad drumps.

 

[Cyan]

What's the Mitsui surface color?
Black and blue colored disc worked better. some brand worked better than another too.
700MB discs are working, as long as it's CD-R.

Some games are protected and will require that you dump/burn the sub-channels.
Always burn the game in Raw DAO 2352 Mode2-Xa. (but it should be selected automatically by your burner)


It's a PSone (the "slim" model), not a PS1 (PSX from 1995)?
If it's an old one, from 1995 (SCPH1002 ?) maybe you should try to put the console almost vertically as the lens rails was in plastic and with time it becomes bad and unaligned. putting it vertically helps the lens alignment with the gravity.

 

[farmin]

Thanks for the response Cyan.
The Mitsui surface colour is just a clear reflective surface same as the Sony, Kodak and Samsung discs so I might try and track down some blue or black surfaced discs.
Can confirm I've been burning at Raw DAO 2352 Mode2-Xa for each disc including the original Kodak copies.
It's an original fat psone model SCPH-5001. Have been propping the console up vertically but still no luck.
Will try another brand with blue or black surface colour and post results.

 

[blaisedinsd]

I guess there was never some sort of patching on PS1 like the ESR thing on PS2?

I would suggest you rip the working game and try to burn a copy of it. Should let you know if it's your burning method/media or you isos. You can also try to run your discs with an emulator.

I use image burn and been very happy with it's performance.

Could just be a crappy laser....seems like most models did not have very good ones.

 

[tbgtbg]

Thanks for the response, tried re-burning Tomba and Ape Escape at 8x speed but was met with exactly the same results.
Also tried Sony and Samsung brand CD-Rs but was again met with the same results.
Could it perhaps be bad ISO dumps?
I'm getting the backups off the internet but It seems fairly unlikely to get 5 bad drumps.

8x is still pretty fast. If that's the slowest your burner can go, not much you can do, but if you can lower it to 1x, maybe 2x and see if that helps. Maybe try a different program to burn with.

Only other thing I can think of is make sure the discs are CD-R, not CD-RW.

 

[farmin]

Thanks for the help everyone, very much appreciated.
After doing some googling I came across this webpage which has been a big help: http://sadbuttru.tripod.com/5.htm
It makes mentions of what blaisedinsd said about the crappy lasers in the earlier models and how finicky they were with what type of disc was used so I grabbed a bunch of Verbatim Datalifeplus discs from ebay which a lot of people strongly recommend.
Seems like a bit of trial and error involved with finding a brand of discs that actually work so when they show up I'll post the results.

 

[Rayder]

It has been my experience that older CD readers (such as that in the old PS1's) can have issues reading a disk that was burned at a faster rate than then reader reads at.....I think the old PS1's only had 2x or 4X readers in them.

Do store-bought original PS1 games work? You didn't mention anything about originals, only burnt iso's.

Here's a link to a thread about burning PS1 games that might help:
http://forums.ngemu.com/showthread.php?t=34515

Personally, I just emulate PS1 on my PC, but I understand the whole "original console" nostalgia. Still though, when using the original console, original disks would be best. If you could find a place that still sells used PS1 games, they should be dirt cheap.

 

[tbgtbg]

If you could find a place that still sells used PS1 games, they should be dirt cheap.

Depends what games he wants to play. Yeah, you can probably get people to pay you to take old Maddens or stuff like that, but if he wants to play Suikoden 2, that's gonna cost a pretty penny.

 

[MAXLEMPIRA]

download alcohol 120% and use Raw SAO + SUB in "Burn Method"(Metodo de Grabación, I don't know how it's called in english that option :/) option with the lowest speed

 

[MAXLEMPIRA]

 

[farmin]

Depends what games he wants to play. Yeah, you can probably get people to pay you to take old Maddens or stuff like that, but if he wants to play Suikoden 2, that's gonna cost a pretty penny.

This, my local store that sells psone games is still selling Tomb Raider II for $70.

 

[farmin]

It has been my experience that older CD readers (such as that in the old PS1's) can have issues reading a disk that was burned at a faster rate than then reader reads at.....I think the old PS1's only had 2x or 4X readers in them.

Do store-bought original PS1 games work? You didn't mention anything about originals, only burnt iso's.

Here's a link to a thread about burning PS1 games that might help:
http://forums.ngemu.com/showthread.php?t=34515

Personally, I just emulate PS1 on my PC, but I understand the whole "original console" nostalgia. Still though, when using the original console, original disks would be best. If you could find a place that still sells used PS1 games, they should be dirt cheap.

Sorry I forgot to mention original PS1 games, I have a collection of about 12 legit psone games that all work fine so like I said I don't think it has anything to do with the console. I'll definitely try a new burning speed when the new discs arrive, thanks for the link.

 

[farmin]

download alcohol 120% and use Raw SAO + SUB in "Burn Method"(Metodo de Grabación, I don't know how it's called in english that option :/) option with the lowest speed

Thanks I'll give that method a go.

 

[farmin]

Verbatim discs arrived today and I'm happy to confirm backups are now working perfectly!
Thanks for your help everyone, much appreciated.

This method is working perfectly for me:
Burning Software: ImgBurn
Burn Speed: 1x
Disc Type: Verbatim Datalifeplus Crystal AZO

I'm off to play Castlevania, thanks again everyone!