Project PlayStation Input Output aka PSIO - The First PS1 SD Card Hack - Play PS1 Games from SD

Published on 09-08-2012 04:59 PM

41 Comments

The PSIO Team stopped by PSX-Scene today to give us an exclusive announcement about the upcoming release of Project PlayStation Input Output aka PSIO. While not released yet; when it does come out (by 2013), it will allow you to play your PS1 backups on your PS1 from the comfort of a SD card. This is the first time this has been done, and it means several things for the PS1 scene. For instance, users will be able to get more out of their consoles than ever before, now that they don't have to worry about damaged discs, or slow reading times.

Originally Posted by past88

PSIO Play PS1 games from SD/HDD
Project PSIO

The worlds first, PS1 SD Card Hack

Project PlayStation Input Output (pronounced sigh-oh) is a project in development that will allow you to back up your PlayStation CD-ROM's and let you then play them directly off an SD card on the actual PlayStation 1 console.

We have also gone to the trouble of adding a PS1 Development section for the users who would like to program and share their work. This is basically a way of replacing the Yaroze server that Sony shutdown a few years ago, as well as preserving and providing a free and dependent backup of the SDK's, tools, manuals, code and much more that are impossible to now find.

Project PSIO (PlayStation Input Output. Pronounced 'sigh-oh') initially started as an idea on approximately August 15th, 2010.

The original concept, was to play any game on your PlayStation 1 off of a Hard Disk Drive. However, since the project has progressed a lot over the past few months, we have decided to just develop an SD card based version instead.

Some highly important benefits of adding PSIO to your PlayStation, is that it will lengthen the life of your CD-ROM drive, reduce disc read errors, choppy or skipped music/audio tracks, freezing, delayed frame rates and loud drive mechanical noises. We do plan to incorporate a GUI (menu interface) that will allow you to customise and personalize your menu. In more detail, it will be a replica of the Xross Media Bar (XMB) with more-or-less features. This means, that you will able to view pictures, listen to music and possibly even watch movies all on your PlayStation 1!

This website (PSDEV.psio.com.au) is also intended to replace the Net Yaroze (a programmable PlayStation development kit that Sony released in '97) website that was shutdown, and to also have a dedicated place for homebrew PlayStation 1 programmers, artists, sound designers, music designers, graphic designers, animators, modelers, composers and overall, general developers who would like to make games for the PS1. From this, it does mean that you can upload your games/homebrew you have made for the PlayStation/Yaroze to our server, and share it with all members within the PS1DEV section, and even the world.
It will also share to everyone, a solid backup and preservation of all the PlayStation 1 tools, documentation, manuals, libraries, code, compilers, disassemblers, hacks, mods and much, MUCH more. We will try to keep all links working, and provide a free and open source community.

We hope that you will enjoy this site, watch Project PSIO unfold and enjoy playing the many other projects that the users here have made.

Regards, The PSIO Team.

psio.com.au

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is (Project) PSIO?
PSIO is a way to back up your PlayStation CD-ROM's, preserve them, and let you play them directly from an SD card. This will decrease load times dramatically, as well as improve the overall performance of the console. Some highly important benefits, are that it will lengthen the life of your CD-ROM drive in the PlayStation 1, and reduce disc read errors, choppy music/audio, freezing, delayed frame rates and loud drive mechanical noises.

How much will it be?
At the moment, we can not say. The team plans to ensure high quality, at the lowest price possible to make everyone satisfied.

When will I be able to purchase PSIO?
Plans are to have it on the market and for sale by 2013.

What OS will be running?
Either a custom menu, or a replicated XMB menu found on the PSP and PS3 with more-or-less features.

Will it have a Virtual Memory Card?
Yes.

Can I listen to music?
Yes. However, it will be a custom format because the PlayStation 1's CPU can not decode MP3's.

What about multi-disc games. Can I play games such as Abe's Exodus that uses 2 discs?
Yes. This will be supported. While playing your game, you can simply bring up a menu (using a button combination) that will allow you to mount a different CD-ROM or we will simulate a disc swap. This will all depend how the prototype performs after our tests.

Can I watch movies/video?
Possibly. It is a real hard feature to add into the OS and make it work well with the PlayStation 1's CPU. If it can not decode MP3, then it will be near impossible to decode MP4 or AVI.

So, can I use a Hard Drive to play my games?
No. This is was originally planned to happen, but, after careful consideration we have scratched this idea. PSIO will only work with SD cards. However, if there is a big demand for a HDD based version, then we may go ahead with it.

How do I install PSIO?
At the moment, the alpha and beta versions (our test boards that we made) need to be soldered to the PlayStation main/motherboard. However, the prototype (which will be revealed to the public in full detail) will be plug-and-play (it will plug into the PIO port).

Ever heard of an emulator?
Yes, but, emulators are slow, somewhat poorly coded and are not 100% accurate. You can not emulate hardware in software 100%. This is impossible.

What is the point of this. I can play my games fine from a disc on my PS1 and even on my PS2 and PS3!
That's fantastic! In a few years, come back and visit us because those discs will be damaged and or have 'clouding' damage.

Will it have debugging options?
Yes. It will have a USB port for comms to a PC host so you may program games and upload homebrew to the PlayStation 1 (check out our PlayStation 1 Homebrew website here).

Will it have a built in GameShark?
Yes. We will add in a cheat system / hex editor.

Will you post Worldwide?
Yes, of course!

Official Site: Project PSIO

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RUT Dark Ronin, Jay-Jay, soratheultima and 4 others like this.

_{This article was originally published in forum thread:

Project PlayStation Input Output aka PSIO - The First PS1 SD Card Hack - Play PS1 Games from SD
started by
tthousand} _{View original post}

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_{Tags :

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41 Comments

RandQalan - 09-08-2012, 05:14 PM
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Good to see some old school stuff getting update

I was wondering if it will support the small late model PS1 since they do not have serial port

NerdcoreMC - 09-08-2012, 05:17 PM
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It's Refreshing to see that people are still working on PSX Hacks and mods. More than not in a scene like this, people move on after console life. I don't even own a PSX anymore, but I would pick one up just to use one of these. Seeing newer technology used to hack an older console is just plain awesome.

tthousand - 09-08-2012, 05:22 PM
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Originally Posted by RandQalan

I was wondering if it will support the small late model PS1 since they do not have serial port

Hopefully, that's all I have left.

RandQalan - 09-08-2012, 05:24 PM
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Well I have a older one and it boots but cd drive shot
but that slim of mine still works

froid_san - 09-08-2012, 05:25 PM
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nice to see this, i still got a old fat ps2 with a broken laser and a small white one that is begining to have difficulty reading cd's.

hope it can be modded on all version of ps1. PS1 lasers are hard to come by now, well in my country that is

jerrymh - 09-08-2012, 05:31 PM
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Good, new life to my old 6 consoles

Kushan - 09-08-2012, 05:58 PM
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This is great and I fully support it. However, I do have one tiny nit-pick:

emulators are slow, somewhat poorly coded and are not 100% accurate. You can not emulate hardware in software 100%. This is impossible.

Almost this entire statement is wrong in some way. Emulators are comparatively slow in terms of how much processing power you need to emulate a different processor, but the PS1 isn't exactly lightning fast, either. You can get full-speed emulation on a 10 year old PC. To say that it's "slow" implies that modern machines can't run games full speed, which isn't true.
The "poorly coded" remark is just plain wrong. Sure, the emulator might not be 100% accurate but that has nothing to do with how "well" the emulator is coded and everything to do with the fact that the difference in processing power it takes to go from 95% accurate to 100% grows exponentially.
You can emulate hardware in software 100%, it's definitely not an impossibility. The problem is, as I've alluded to above, you can generally get to about 90% accuracy (Read: Compatibility) with about 10x the processing power of the original hardware. From there, each 1-2% effectively requires double the processing power again. If you look at emulators for older machines, particularly the popular ones like the Atari 2600 or the Nes, they are very nearly perfect (cycle accurate) and given enough time, the PS1 emulators will be the same. We're currently at about the level where we can get near-100% accuracy of a SNES, so the PS1 isn't far behind (This decade, probably). That said, I'm not aware of any PS1 games that absolutely cannot be played on an emulator.

However, as I've said I love the idea of this project and I fully support it, but don't dismiss emulators so readily - after all, this product is designed to extend the lifespan of the original hardware by sparing the CD drive. Well, what about the rest of the hardware? Eventually it WILL die, it might take decades but it will. When that happens, Emulators will be there to save the day.

kada - 09-08-2012, 06:00 PM
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this blows up PS1 sales

i wonder where will we mount sd card reader and hacked os thing. I hate soldering tiny solder points.

matster107 - 09-08-2012, 07:40 PM
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i think this is pretty cool.especially for ps1's that have a broken laser etc. with mulitman and psp i can play so many titles digitally with psp and physically with ps3. Having said that i still have my whole library of playstation 1 cd's and I haven't had to replace them worse case scenario i could just burn a backup for ps3 or make an eboot for the psp. Realistically your playstation 1 will die before any of your actual games do. But for people who still sport their retro gaming this just might be a nifty device

Heran Bago - 09-08-2012, 09:17 PM
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Oh my goodness, battleworn PS1s with broken lasers will be able to play games with faster loading times and more conveniently than a brand new one could at launch.

Gradius - 09-08-2012, 10:14 PM
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NOT compatible with PSOne:
it will plug into the PIO port

RandQalan - 09-08-2012, 10:17 PM
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Dang but good to know can it work without cd working correctly if mother board is booting and can read bios

I have 2 with PIO port but both cd shot

Gradius - 09-08-2012, 10:32 PM
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Schematics (alpha/beta):
http://s017.radikal.ru/i405/1206/45/5fe1775c56cf.png
http://s017.radikal.ru/i443/1206/6d/2e5c7f3ee207.png

PSOne with wires (since there is no Parallel I/O) aside with alpha test board:
http://s007.radikal.ru/i301/1202/a7/16591e5148f6.jpg

RandQalan - 09-08-2012, 11:02 PM
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I see why with that thanks for the info
got any working with PIO direct yet

I have one of the old game sharks and it pugs in their so know their are way but not sure found a working board for it yet

one more ? estimated price

tthousand - 09-08-2012, 11:07 PM
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Originally Posted by Gradius

PSOne with wires (since there is no Parallel I/O) aside with alpha test board:
http://s007.radikal.ru/i301/1202/a7/16591e5148f6.jpg

Nice, so there will/might be an option for us slim owners. Thanks for clearing that up a little.

Gradius - 09-08-2012, 11:25 PM
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Yeah, I think it will be possible on PSOne, however you will need to soldering some wires on it. ;-)

I dunno if I will invest on PS1... I was waiting for PS Vita to be cracked to run ps1 games on it. I still have my PS2, but I prefer dedicate it for ps2 games only. For price it looks under $50, but will depends the final components used on this toy.

RandQalan - 09-08-2012, 11:31 PM
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I usually just use my PSP for PS1 but have someone who would like the real deal with backup ability the eye is going to go soon on that PSOne
From Final Fantasy Tactics

tthousand - 09-08-2012, 11:31 PM
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Lucky for me, I have had a PSOne barely used sitting a couple a feet away from me for years now. (also have a phat PS2 and slim PS2 I need to hack one of these days)

I think PSP runs the PS1 games, but they would look the best on the Vita. The Vita's screen is really what saves it, it's just so nice to look at things on there.

EDIT:

@RandQalan, that is actually one of the games I still have for PS1. The other is FF7. Sometimes I really wish I didn't trade off all my old stuff, but other times I think I'll live; who really knows anyways, right

RandQalan - 09-08-2012, 11:34 PM
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PS1 on the vita might have a lot of pix-elation if not properly filtered but yea the vita might look the best if it is outside of psp emulation

tthousand - 09-08-2012, 11:42 PM
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I am thinking I should DL FF7 on the Vita for my vacation. That might not be bad, and it saves my disc copy some life.

Off-topic Sony Hate Rant: I hate Sony. Last year, plugged in my PSP to my OFW console with PS+ and was able to transfer my PS1 titles over to the PSP. Well, I erased those games over times and also accumulated more. I go to throw some games on my PSP for my vacation from my OFW PS3 with PS+, and now there is no option. When did you take that away from me Sony? F*** you!