Play Station is a doddle (Score 1)

For what it is worth, the regional/anti copy coding on a playstation game is just some data written to a part of the original CD that CD burners cannot write. (I'm not sure, possibly it cannot be read in a conventional rom drive either, doesn't matter anyway) Well, most burners can't, some can, with suitable mods, but they are few and far between, mostly old SCSI devices with altered firmware, I've never personally seen one. Anyway, all the 'hidden' track holds is, IIRC, a single ascii charachter indicating region, which may or may not be repeated, either way, it doesn't matter much. If the playstation gets this charachter, and it matches it's region, it is a happy bunny, and will play your game. If not, it sits there catatonic. Now, for some reason best known to Sony, this 'authentication' data is clocked along it's own serial line. A line that does nothing else. If the device at the end of the line gets the right data clocked to it, it is happy. Think about that for a moment. Not very clever, Sony. So, your $15 mod chip is an absolute bottom of the line Microchip PIC, (12C508 or 12C509 for those technically inclined) which uses one input to pull the serial line low on one side of j-random buffer, and an output line to clock out all the possible correct country codes, regardless of what comes in. They can be internally clocked against the PIC's oscilator, or externally by the Playstation. The playstation's authentication mechanism is then so fooled, it will try to play belly button fluff if you give it the chance. Thoroughly lobotomised. I know all this because I managed to lash up a PIC to do this for my flatmates little brother. It is a doddle if you have a PIC programmer and a couple of spare pics lying about. As regards the commercial modchips, they are just what I described with nice clean code and the chip identification scrubbed off. The PICs themselves cost about $1 in small quantities, and take about a squillisecond to blow. A nice little earner, I'd say! Mark you, why anyone would want to play a playstation game in the first place is beyond me. :) Dermot Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open your mouth and prove it. C. M. Conner.