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

PSX-SCENE: The Pinnacle Scene Xenocracy

● Latest News ● Report News ● Search Forums ● Hall of Fame ●
● Facebook.com/PSXScene ● RSS ● Twitter.com/psx_scene ●

Share
- Share this post on
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
- Technorati
- Twitter

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}

Categories:

Exploit Payloads

_{Tags :

playstation input output,

ps1,

ps1 hack,

ps1 sd,

psio,

psio team}

41 Comments

RandQalan - 09-08-2012, 11:45 PM
- Reply
Is your psp OFW if so should work but you are using CFW you have to fake 6.60 and usb to fool it

I just do it the easy way I convert my own

zzk2001 - 09-09-2012, 12:15 AM
- Reply
I keep going back and froth on ("Good Idea"..and .."WHY!?")

1. -computers even around 3-4 years old can emulate PSX games out 100%...Maybe 99% for some games. I know i do it all the time.
2. -If you have a PSP(hacked) You can turn any PSX iso into a format to play on the PSP...
3. -PS3 can play PSX games off Burned CDs (Not the best But ...Good")

I think we should work on getting the PS3 to run PSX .iso's, Now that would be cool. And for that matter How about getting the Other Eumaltors going on PS3 like N64,Dreamcast, "PS2, One i am really waiting for"

I think there is N64 and A Dreamcast emu but not working 100% IDK... Just ignore me LOL I have not really kept up with everything.

Gradius - 09-09-2012, 12:45 AM
- Reply
'cause emulation sucks!

jalaneme - 09-09-2012, 12:55 AM
- Reply
there are millions of other ways to play ps1 games for free, just saying.

yes159 - 09-09-2012, 06:49 AM
- Reply
This is great news! The best thing about this is that it is running on original hardware. Even if emulation usually is good, running on real hardware is always the best thing to ensure 100% compability. This is nothing that i will use personally, but it is still very cool to hear about it

Originally Posted by tthousand

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!

You must redownload the PS1 games on the PS3, then you can copy them over again. The PS1 games must be in bubble-form (as in not installed on your PS3) for it to work. I'm not sure why Sony changed it like this, maybe it had something to do with upcoming Vita for extra security reasons. But at least it is possible to do PS3 -> PSP transfering of PS1 games.

Goldfire - 09-09-2012, 10:13 AM
- Reply
This is good news, I thought the PS1 days were pretty much over. As far as video playback goes, I remember back in the day I had a small PIO device (some sort of Gameshark clone) that allowed me to play VCD's, although it was only capable of a maximum resolution of 352x288 MPEG-1, it was very watchable back then. Maybe they music playback could use the audio stream from the old VCD standard?

indirect76 - 09-09-2012, 01:23 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by zzk2001

I keep going back and froth on ("Good Idea"..and .."WHY!?")

You make some good points, but to me it's all about options. For some people this is a perfect solution.

tthousand - 09-09-2012, 07:44 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by yes159

You must redownload the PS1 games on the PS3, then you can copy them over again. The PS1 games must be in bubble-form (as in not installed on your PS3) for it to work. I'm not sure why Sony changed it like this, maybe it had something to do with upcoming Vita for extra security reasons. But at least it is possible to do PS3 -> PSP transfering of PS1 games.

Thanks, this is working!

UPDATE: Games working on PS Vita too!

yoshi314 - 09-10-2012, 02:20 AM
- Reply
Originally Posted by zzk2001

I keep going back and froth on ("Good Idea"..and .."WHY!?")

1. -computers even around 3-4 years old can emulate PSX games out 100%...Maybe 99% for some games. I know i do it all the time.

it doesn't mean the emulation is 100% correct. because it usually needs various hacks.

2. -If you have a PSP(hacked) You can turn any PSX iso into a format to play on the PSP...

psp lacks a few buttons ps1 controller has. and compatibility is all over the place - that's why there is a popsloader in the first place - what works with one firmware ps1 emu, fails on another version. the really good thing is portability of the console, but other than that it's more of a big load of problems.

3. -PS3 can play PSX games off Burned CDs (Not the best But ...Good")

similar to psp emulator - various degrees of compatibility.

I think we should work on getting the PS3 to run PSX .iso's, Now that would be cool. And for that matter How about getting the Other Eumaltors going on PS3 like N64,Dreamcast, "PS2, One i am really waiting for"

ps3 uses 70-130W of power (depending on model). ps1 uses ~10W.

doesn't that seem like a waste, especially that ps3 offers minimal improvements?

I think there is N64 and A Dreamcast emu but not working 100% IDK... Just ignore me LOL I have not really kept up with everything.

speaking of dreamcast, there is a mod for dreamcast that allows it to use an SD card, despite the fact that that console has been long dead on the market.

now, if someone wants to make something similar for ps1 i say - why not? if it's affordable i think i'll even get a ps1 and fit it with that device and have fun with it.

Dreamcast SD Card Mod - Play Homebrew And Games From SD Card - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gTpy...feature=relmfu

yes159 - 09-10-2012, 02:37 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by tthousand

Thanks, this is working!

UPDATE: Games working on PS Vita too!

No problem

Gradius - 09-10-2012, 07:28 PM
- Reply
ps3 with ps2 hw consomes 180W easily.

I was thinking to get a ps3 60gb fat due to HW, but since it consomes so much the heat problem is just a question of time to "explode" (aka YOLD).

stepchilders - 09-10-2012, 08:02 PM
- Reply
thats really great.

retrofreak - 09-10-2012, 09:15 PM
- Reply
Cool but I think HDD is much better option for ps1, and one thing to say I have PS3 with cfw 3.55+cobra dongle and 1TB HDD internal + 750GB EXTERNAL and more than 1300 games for PS1 on those hdd's and every games runs perfectly perfect with HDMI quality picture on ps3 and playing them with dual shock 3 , so this project absolutly has no sense for me!

cannibal20 - 09-10-2012, 11:13 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by zzk2001

I keep going back and froth on ("Good Idea"..and .."WHY!?")

1. -computers even around 3-4 years old can emulate PSX games out 100%...Maybe 99% for some games. I know i do it all the time.
2. -If you have a PSP(hacked) You can turn any PSX iso into a format to play on the PSP...
3. -PS3 can play PSX games off Burned CDs (Not the best But ...Good")

I think we should work on getting the PS3 to run PSX .iso's, Now that would be cool. And for that matter How about getting the Other Eumaltors going on PS3 like N64,Dreamcast, "PS2, One i am really waiting for"

I think there is N64 and A Dreamcast emu but not working 100% IDK... Just ignore me LOL I have not really kept up with everything.

'
yeah dude get a cobra usb, you can play ps1 and 2 isos, perfectly fine. (ps2 only on 60 and certain 20gb and 80 consoles)

JOshISPoser - 09-10-2012, 11:49 PM
- Reply
it'd be nice if someone figured out cobra's way of doing psx iso's...

crazyc - 09-12-2012, 12:04 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by yoshi314

speaking of dreamcast, there is a mod for dreamcast that allows it to use an SD card, despite the fact that that console has been long dead on the market.

now, if someone wants to make something similar for ps1 i say - why not? if it's affordable i think i'll even get a ps1 and fit it with that device and have fun with it.

That's for homebrew though. I'm skeptical of this (for commercial games) as you'd need (baring some amazing exploit that they just discovered) a full firmware replace mod for starters. Unlike the PS2, the PS1 bios runs from rom so it can't be patched on the fly.

Gradius - 09-12-2012, 12:36 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by retrofreak

Cool but I think HDD is much better option for ps1, and one thing to say I have PS3 with cfw 3.55+cobra dongle and 1TB HDD internal + 750GB EXTERNAL and more than 1300 games for PS1 on those hdd's and every games runs perfectly perfect with HDMI quality picture on ps3 and playing them with dual shock 3 , so this project absolutly has no sense for me!

Yeah, that's cool, but wait until it explodes.

As for HDMI I could careless, I have XRGB-3.

Gradius - 09-12-2012, 12:38 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by crazyc

That's for homebrew though. I'm skeptical of this (for commercial games) as you'd need (baring some amazing exploit that they just discovered) a full firmware replace mod for starters. Unlike the PS2, the PS1 bios runs from rom so it can't be patched on the fly.

You can do that via Parallel I/O, for those whom don't have it, they will just need to soldering some pads.

darkpower - 09-12-2012, 02:15 PM
- Reply
thats so awesome. i actually just pulled my original playstation out of retirement. lol my 2 ps3's, 4 ps2 (latest mod chipped one just died), and all my psp's died too(slim models). Good ol' ps1 built like a tank. i never beat mgs1 and a little tony hawk 1, for the nostalgia. i also seen hella ps1's at thrift stores. i been trying to get it to play my backups. but i pop up here and see this. i know ill buy one or three psio. along with a couple more ps1's.

crazyc - 09-12-2012, 09:18 PM
- Reply
You can do that via Parallel I/O, for those whom don't have it, they will just need to soldering some pads.

That's just for start though. It may be real but I need more detail before I'm convinced.