Play US/UK/JAP games on US/UK/JAP machine

@PS_2

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Playstation

· 5 years ago

Play US/UK/JAP games on US/UK/JAP machine

NB: Original CD means the BOOT CD that's same country as your machine Play-CD means the other country CD you wish to play.

Firstly, Sony have been rather sneaky when they released their CD-ROMs for the PlayStation. Apparently, each country's CD consists of a small file on the header that the PSX reads first.. and if it's not the same as the machine it's using it on, it won't load up the game. So, if you can fool the machine to think you're using the same country CD on your machine, then you'll be able to play the game.

To do this, you must:-

SIMPLE METHOD (No Modifications required)

listTurn on your PlayStation without a CD in the system so that you get the Memory Card and Music option.

Select the music option, and pop in a CD game that's the same country as your machine. ie. If it's a Japanese PlayStation, then pop in a Japanese game. Incidentally, most people say it's best to use Ridge Racer because it works best with most games. But do not close the lid... in fact, you have to leave the lid open throughout.

Next, look at inside of the CD lid near the back right. You'll notice that there's a spiky plastic bit that if you close the lid, will protrude into a circular switch. This is the CD drive motor switch. What you have to do is use something to press and hold it down. Some people recommend using blue-tak, but I personally prefer using a flat end screw - not only will the end of the screw fit nicely into the switch, the slit on the head can be wedged onto the plastic spike to hold the switch down. (Better still, you can wire up a switch - see later).

When you hold down the switch (Screw or whatever), the CD spins for a few seconds... and then stops. Basically it reads the header of the CD (including the country code) and knows it's a normal PlayStation CD, so if you exit, the game will load up and you can play it. Of course, you don't want to play the game, so you swap the CD with your Play-CD, (The game you WANT to PLAY) and then Exit... and hey presto!... the game will load as normal.

PROBLEMS!!
The above system will work with all set-ups, but there are a few problems.
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lista) If you have an official PAL PlayStation and are playing the game through the RF aerial lead or the Video Out lead, then, doing the above when trying to play US or JAP games will only give you a black and white picture.... each CD is coded for NTSC/PAL. Unfortunately, the only way to play the games in colour is to get a Scart cable for your machine - that's assuming of course you have a 50/60hz Scart TV/monitor. If not, then you're a bit buggered and stuck with mono!!

b) This is the same if you have a JAPANESE or American) machine running PAL games when playing through the aerial, Video out or S-Video socket. So - you also need to RGB cable like in (a).

c) For some unknown reason, some Japanese machines won't play US/UK games using the above method (including my PlayStation!!). We've heard this only happens if you have a Japanese machine that doen't have a S-Video socket, although mine DOES and it's a series A machine. Whatever, there is a way to still play other country games on the machine, and that is to leave the original Japanese game in the machine when you Exit the music screen, where it will load and display the black screen with the PS logo. When this appears, you have to quickly remove the CD !!! This is a right bugger, as the CD is spinning at a fast rate, so you have to press the middle to stop it and then whip it out quickly... and replace with the US/UK CD... where it will continue to load in as normal!! This is a right sod, but it seems it's the only way around it... unless you know another easier way!!

d) Sometimes when a game does load, the music is sometimes missing. This is because when you pop in the original CD, the PSX checks what tracks are the music tracks and notes them down. Of course, when you swap it with the other CD, the music tracks are now at different positions. It's suggested that, if the music is missing, or even if the game crashes or something, you should try using different original CDs.

Curing Problem 'd'
To cure the music problem, and also some games that crash because of the original CD you put in... do the following:-
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listWhen you pop in the Original CD, and press down the switch, let the CD spin for around 1 to 2 seconds, then quickly, remove it (while spinning) and pop in the CD you wish to play. (You should remove the original just BEFORE it displays the music tracks)

If timed correctly, the CD you want to play will spin for a few seconds and all the music tracks will be displayed! So now you've by-passed country protection, and got the correct music tracks for the game you want to play.

Click on Exit and your game should Work perfectly.

Of course, if your game doesn't load as in 'problem b above', you'll have to swap the play CD with original to get to the PS-Black screen, and then change CDs.

IF music doesn't work properly, you'll have to remove CD quicker/slower.

By using this method - you can use ANY CD as a boot disc and get all music. So, you can have a USA PSX with the demo CD, and just using that, play every UK/JAP game with all sound!!

SWITCH IT! #1
Well... if you find that popping in Blue-tak or using any other items is a pain in the backside... you can opt to put a switch on the cd-motor switch.
To do this, all you need is a simple toggle switch, some wire and the usual solder, soldering iron, and a screwdriver.
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listTurn machine upside down, unscrew all the screws, remove top, then locate where the drive switch is.. it should be a small black thing which you can push down.

Now, the hard bit is to remove all the necessary screws to actually get to the switch's underside so you can solder the wires to the board. I won't go into detail, as it's too complicated. Be careful when removing the fiddly plastic CD data cable!

Once you've got to the underside of the circuit board... locate where the switch is and solder two wires to it... one on the left solder bit of the switch and another onto the right solder bit (diagonally is better, so you don't get mixed up!)... this is rather fiddly as it's small, so be careful.

Once done, it's a matter of soldering your toggle switch to the wires (unless you want to do it the other way around).

Next, the hard bit is to decide where you want to stick your switch on the PSX! - Drill hole and screw switch in place. Mine is just above the expansion socket at the back. Then it's just a matter of putting everything back together.
With the switch soldered, you can enter music mode, place Original in, switch the switch, let it spin for a few secs., change CD, close the lid of your machine, click on Exit.

Switch it #2
To make a switch that will cure the problem of games that don't play ALL the music tracks... you also require a simple toggle switch. All you have to do is open up the PSX... and locate the 4-wires power leads that connect to the CD drive. Apparently, locate the left-most wire to the power supply board, and cut it... and wire the switch between. (Drill hole, stick in switch, put everything back together).
With this in place, there's no need to quickly whip out the spinning original CD to place the Play-CD in... let the original spin, and when you want to swap, flip switch to cut power to the CD drive, then change CDs. This switch isn't needed, but it's suppose to safe-guard the drive motor.
*At the time of writing, I haven't done this myself but I've been told it does work*.

SCART IT
Okay, you're getting Black and white picture when using your system... so you want to get a scart lead. However, the lead cost around 20-30 quid(UK)..at the time of writing, you can't actually buy an official lead... so here's how to make one up. The following info. was taken from an article by 2TUFF.

Note that, this method requires you to solder the wires directly to the motherboard and NOT a proper scart lead - as you can't actually buy the AV connector of the PSX's. The following method does work 100% as I myself have tried it out - although I don't use it, as my S-Video-to-Scart box gives a much better colour picture.... and I don't have any PAL games at the mo.
(I would rather get US games if I want english text!).

What you need are the usual soldering iron, solder (low melt point/self flucing is the best), two IN4148 Signal Diodes (from Tandy etc.), Male Scart/Euro connector, 9 core signal quality cable, and a RGB TV!!

What to connect:-
If you open up your PlayStation (you have to remove all screws, etc,) and turn the board upside down with the AV connector facing you and on the Left side... you see the 12 solder bits:-

 
1 2 3 4 5 6 
0 0 0 0 0 0 
0 0 0 0 0 0 
7 8       9

The pins you need are:

 
1 = Green Out 
2 = Blanking 
3 = Video Earth 
4 = RGB Sync 
5 = Audio Out Righ 
6 = Audio Earth 
7 = Red Out 
8 = Blue Out 
9 = Audio Out Left

And what you have to do is connect them to the scart as follows:

 
PSX    Scart/Euro Connector 
1   =      11 
2   =      16/10 (see Diodes info!!) 
3   =      17 
4   =      20 
5   =      2 
6   =      4 
7   =      15 
8   =      7 
9   =      6

Diodes
Get the two IN4148's so that the LINE on the diode's are at the bottom, and join the wires together at the other end so they become one, so that the ends with the line on are still seperate. You now have to solder the two seperate ends - one end to pin 10 on the scart socket and the other to pin 16.