PSX Game Copy Protection?

[jmine83]

It has recently come to my attention that some PSX games have copy protection programmed into the software of the game. Or rather to say, that despite having a Matrix Infinity modchip with the latest firmware update, some PSX game backups that I have made will not play because I get some kind of weird black error screen with a red circle cross in the middle, a bunch of text I can't read or make out and what appears to be a phone number. According to my research, this is happening because some PSX game titles can detect the presence of a mod chip being used or something to that effect and I need a special patch of sorts that needs to be applied to the disc image file(s) before burning the discs. For example, the game Legend of Dragoon is such a game that is affected by this issue. I was able to find a patch for the game and applied it to Disc 1 of 4 of the disc set, but in doing so it added some lame stupid hacker/pirate intro screen to the loading process and I hate those!

I am wanting one of either two things. One, working patches for specific PSX games affected by this copy protection that does NOT add a hacker/pirate intro screen to the game. Or two, perhaps the Matrix Team is working on an automatic patch for games affected by this issue in their next firmware update that when enabled can auto apply the patch when game is played? Or perhaps the current firmware can already do this and apply a fix to these games and I'm not aware of it yet?

[bodger2uk]

imo its highly unlikely the matrix team would bother with hacks for psx games in their firmware updates especially as there are patches out for em in the 1st place, as far as the intro's are concerned on patches already out there,its a small price to pay for someones hard work to enable the backups to play & its not as if its on all the patches, but if it does really annoy you that much then the only other solution is to buy the original.

bodger

[flamingo24]

you must have a ps2 v1-v8; the matrix infinity already has this anti-mod ps1 code but for some technical reason it will only work on v9-v14+. so if you don't have a v9-v14 you need to patch the disc :-) as for patches it depends on the patch some have advertisements some don't ;)

[jmine83]

I do have the V14 slimline PS2 console with the Matrix Infinity mod chip that has a green dot on it, and updated to the latest firmware 1.75

So according to your criteria, I should not be having these problems right?

[flamingo24]

its not my criteria it is the matrix teams look for this line on the link below!!!

"SUPPORTS ANTI-MOD PS1 GAMES !! (Only for V9 - V13 PS2) "

http://www.infinitymod.com/cgi-bin/m...=chip_infinity

I know it says only upto v13 but if you read this line "Compatible with Playstation 2 USA/PAL/Japanese - V1, V2, V3, V4, V4R, V5, V6, V7, V8, V9, V10,V11,V12,V13" on the same page you can see that is doesnt have v14 listed yet as the page hasnt been updated to reflect the new version!!!

if you don't beleve me send the matrix team an email and they will tell you just what I have!!!

[jmine83]

I didn't mean to imply or convey that I didn't believe you flamingo24 about V14 PS2 consoles. I'm sure that the Matrix Team has implemented the appropriate support for anti-mod PSX games for the V14 PS2 consoles, I'm simply saying despite that, I am still having problems with anti-mod PSX games as the games affected by this problem seem to still detect the mod chip. I merely wish to know if perhaps Matrix Team will improve upon counteracting the anti-mod PSX games so that its full proof sort of speak.

Also if perhaps I can get a complete comprehensive list of all anti-mod PSX games for USA/NTSC region so I know which games are affected by this issue. Finally, is there a site besides MegaGames which hosts up-to-date patches for this sort of issue? Or a way I can find these patches in general?

[xjet]

I remember having to copy psx games with clonecd or Alchohol 120% to get around copy protection. This may or may not be your problem. Hope it helps.

[_zaphod_]

You are having the classic "anti-mod" problem.

Simplest solution is buy a psone and mod it with a good stealth chip. they are pretty cheap.

You also must use good copy programs like clonecd/alvohol 120% to copy them or you will get weird crashes due to libcrypt failures (most antimod games have libcrypt too)

[spedmetal]

This is strange that you are getting the anti-mod error with a V14. You mentioned the game is a multi-disc PSX game right? Have you enabled the multi-disc support? I dont know if that would have anything to do with it but maybe it does.

For you old timers.... does anyone remember precisionmods PSX stealth addon chip? Here is the thread http://www.psx-scene.com/forums/show...hlight=stealth

Havent seen precisionmods around in a long time


This list might not be 100% correct but it is close.

Mod protected games

-----US-----
Breath Of Fire 4*
Cool Boarders 2001
Crash Bash*
Dino Crisis
Emperor's New Groove
Grind Session
Legend of Dragoon
MediEvil 2
Mo-Ho Lost World
NBA Shootout 2001 US/NTSC
NCAA Gamebreaker 2001
NCCA Final 4 2001 NFL Gameday 2001
NHL Faceoff 2001
Resident Evil 3*
Resident Evil: Nemesis
Resident Evil: Survivor
Spyro 3 - Year Of The Dragon
Strider 2
The Grinch
Tomba 2
Toy Story 2*
Vandal Hearts 2
Wild Arms 2

-----Jap-----
Ape Escape
Beat Mania-Gottamix
Biohazard 3
Breath Of Fire 4
Bust a move 2
Bust a Move 2 Dance Heaven Mix
Chase the Express
Chocobo Racing
Clash of the Superheroes EX Edition
Dance Dance Revolution
Dancing blade Katte ni Momotenshi II
Exceed My Corpse
Final Fantasy VIII
Global Force
Guitar Freaks
Gungage
Justice Academy 2
Konami 80's Arcade Gallery
Legend of Dragoon
Legend of Mana
Lord of Monsters Magical Tetris Charange featuring Mickey
Marvel vs. Capcom
Metal Gear Solid Integral
Omega Boost
Parappa 2 (Um Jamma Lammy)
Pop n Music Animation Melody
Poprogue
Robbit Mon Dieu
Saga Frontier 2
Sarugecchu
Silent Hill
Spyro the Dragon
Street Fighter EX 2
Street Fighter EX 2 Plus
Tabidachi
Tabidachi no uta
Tears of Eden
Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series Vol.3
UmJammer Lammy
Wild Arms 2
Winning Eleven 2000

[jmine83]

I do have multi-disc support enabled and working for all my other multi-disc PSX games like the FF games. So I haven't had any problems there.

Also so are you mentioning this stealth PSX add-on chip as a recommendation to repair my issue? Would it work given my model of PS2 console? Do they still sell them and are there complete comprehensive installation instructions for the chip?

I have noticed before in testing all my PSX games on my modded PS2 console that some of them did give me the red cross circle, but at the time I assumed it simply meant it was a disc read error message or something as I could not read the text and therefore threw away those particular backups. And only recently with Legend of Dragoon have I been able to find out about mod-protected PSX games. The games in question specifically I have tested for USA region that have given me the red circle cross error are:

Crash Bash^
Dino Crisis
Grind Session^
Legend of Dragoon
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis^
Resident Evil: Survivor^
Spyro 3 - Year Of The Dragon
Wild Arms 2^

The games listed with the ^ symbol means that I have working backups of these games in my collection that I have tested and have never given me the red circle cross error before. So the games Dino Crisis, Legend of Dragoon, and Spyro 3 I did have backups for, but they were most definately consistently giving me the red cross error for some reason. Although specifically in the case of Legend of Dragoon, I am able to play for a long time the first disc in the set fine without any errors, however when I insert any of the other following discs first and from the main menu and select New Game, it will query for Disc 1, I insert Disc 1 and it immediately gives me the error upon attempting to load. I know for a fact that on my Final Fantasy multi-disc games that I tested, disc switching was working fine without any problems.