* It is already possible to run backup/copied discs entirely using software methods (from memory card, HDD, or DVD video player exploit), and in the case of the 50k series and newer (Dragon MechaCon), can use the "force unlock" patch that does not require any patches to copied discs.
* The dumps, alone, does not give enough information to create an """hardware""" ODE (optical drive emulator). However, it is possible to make a modchip that replaces the MechaCon, relying on the DSP to continue to read discs.
* The current method to dump the ROM used in the SPC970 requires lots of writing to NVRAM.
* These dumps will eventually be useful for full-system low level emulation, as MagicGate and KELF/KIRX security goes through it.
* These dumps are useful for vulnability searching, which can allow functionality to MechaPwn (code execution on MechaCon, unlocking security e.g. set disc type and max LBN) or TonyHax (unlocking PS1 mode to read any disc, on SPC970 based MechaCons and all PS1 MechaCons).
* The contents of game discs (except those that use DNAS online authentication) are not encrypted. These dumps don't unlock anything additional there.
See https://gist.github.com/uyjulian/aaf4f4e2e74d980f620a9b73ba0... for updated info.
I get the feeling that the DVD exploit is fiddly and requires adjustments for each iteration of the possible PS2 hardware configurations.
FreeMCBoot continues to work, but is no longer updated. I would recommend https://ps2homebrewstore.com/ to check out the latest exploits and devices available, such as sd2psx, an open source reimplementation of a memory card that can also expose the filesystem on its inserted SD card.
This is next level commitment to the cause.
Also, I can totally imagine their reaction when they discovered the exploit and realized they could put down the ... chemicals. XD
[1] https://floooh.github.io/visual6502remix
But if you have a few examples of the chip and can break a few eggs to make an omelette, there are techniques that just involve hitting the epoxy with a blow torch and/or opening it up with plyers.
That post reads "After 4 years of effort, I'm happy to announce that one of the final secrets of the PS2 has been broken wide open!
It's been a long process of decapping, optical dumping, and now at last a software solution.
Thank you Libby for finding the exploit from our dirty optical dumps!"
Yesterday DiscoStarSlayer also promised details are coming: "Will share full write-up on how we got here soon!"
It seems like preservation of games for later consoles is a lost cause. If I pull out my PS5 30 years from now and pop in my Cyberpunk 2077 disk to play, I'm going to have a barely playable game.
It's better than nothing, I suppose, but I won't be able to re-play the excellent version that I played through last year.
Also the plastic gets brittle. I was replacing a fuse on a PS2 motherboard and some of the ribbon connector pieces just shattered on reassembly. There are many challenges to preservation. Eventually all that old hardware will be all gone.
Plastic may get brittle but I think modern plastics do this less than 90s plastics.
I am also impressed they managed to use worse flash than the 15 year old $10 USB 2.0 drive I plugged in as a replacement.
Yes, it was one of those projects you see what you still have in the bin. Hey, this one is period correct!
The problem with hardware is that it is scarce, and ultimately dies.
The problem with emulators is that they emulate. We can work to make it the same, but it is never going to be the same.
Even if the math all maths just like they did (bugs and all), and it takes precisely as long, and it shows up precisely at the same time in the same places as it did on the original hardware...and even when things like input latency are nailed down to nanosecond accuracy and the clocks are all just dead-nuts on: The code may run the same way, but the system is still not the same.
Part of the reason it's not the same is we haven't even touched the analog components yet and all and all of the things they do, whether amazing or ugly. (And no, improving the analog bits through simplification is not necessarily the sane goal at all. Improvement and emulation are different targets.)
Emulation is useful. It's great, actually. Right now, a person can think about that old PS2 they used to have and get started with playing some of their favorite games yet this afternoon. That's awesome.
But preservation, as an effort to keep old hardware to keep working as time marches on? That's a wonderful thing in its own right. The better we understand the old hardware, the more-able we are to preserve it and keep it running.
Getting past the layers of deliberate fuckery helps us to better understand what goes on behind the curtain, and that has now been achieved.
So things like making a clone of the hardware with an FPGA, making emulators cycle-accurate, removing game-specific hacks that are no longer needed due to more accurate emulation, and achieving 100% bug-for-bug compatibility with original hardware.
From what I can tell, this opens the door to things like optical drive emulators, which replace the disc laser with an SD card slot, allowing the console to read game disc images no differently than the console would read a retail game.
This may seem a little bit arbitrary, but this is not uncommon throughout history. For example, in a normal English literature class, you’re going to be assigned Shakespeare. You will be assigned a bunch of novels from the 19th century, but not very much in between. Yeah, sure, there are a few works, probably, from the 1600s and 1700s, but not many compared to those other ones that I mentioned.
Video games might be the same way, where the games that were made from the NES to around 2010 are the ones that people care about far into the future.
Game companies still have the source code an tooling sitting around. With some minor texture brushups, they can release a "remastered" version and get $20 out of people again.
Nintendo games are the odd ones here, because their love of novel gameplay means that a lot of first party games need to run on OG hardware for the full experience. Think Wii, DS/3DS.
Unfortunately these versions are usually inferior to the originals, so I dont think they can really be referred to as preservation.
1. Playstation purchases seem to follow accounts and most games will run on future hardware.
2. Cross-platform is near universal now. While you may not be able to play the PS5 version on your PS9, you will likely be able to run the PC version still.
There's a subset of the preservation community who are focusing on decomp/recomp with PCs as the target architecture. x86 / Windows will outlive all of us, and with the source code, games can be recompiled for newer target architectures. This is trivial with LLMs now (targeting new architectures, not the decomp/recomp - though that has made progress too).
It's not a perfect solution, but it's good enough, IMHO.
Until Sony decides you no longer own them.
The original fat PS3 and the first few years of slims are also completely “open” as well (with custom firmware that’s fairly easy to install).
If anything, the PS3 was easier to break its security on.
It depends if you have a ps4 disk or a ps5 disk.
The ps5 disk is the "Ultimate Edition" version. It was released 3 years after launch and contains the 2.0 update
If we're lucky, it won't be playable at all. Then they'll have the option of selling it to you again, and some shareholders (the only people who matter) will be happy.
With AI-driven hardware price spikes, I think there's a great opportunity to push for a transition to streaming, so users won't have any game files at all, and subscriptions can become the norm.
PS4 is AMD64 based. And so few games leveraged the cell processor in the PS3 to it's fullest, IIRC, the current emulation strategy is to translate the cell calls to x86. So the hard work is actually already done.
Even if they were pixel perfect clones with exactly the same play. As a person who vibe codes like there's no tomorrow to have custom software, I still find the color of the bytes important for something like a retrogame.
Otherwise it's like color photocopy of an art piece.
With the PS5, the disk is more or less a key that lets the console download the game. Having the console and the disk is a guarantee of nothing in the future other than you can probably play the buggy mess that they packaged up way before the game was done.
Maybe the real question is whether these games are worth preserving. Most valuable games have a PC port anyway and those get cracked sooner or later.