Rockman X3 - Music issues on North American PlayStation

[PaulieORF]

I'm a bit of a Mega Man freak, and so I jumped on an opportunity to import a copy of the PlayStation version of Rockman X3 from Japan. Now, I have a North American PS1 model SCPH-1001 as well as an Action Replay for playing imports and backups. I don't have any trouble with audio on any other Japanese games, but when I play Rockman X3 I mainly get no music at things like the title screen and most levels. At moments where there is music, it's the wrong track.

I looked around on the internet quite a bit to try and find info on this, and all I could find is people who were working around the same issue but exclusively for playing in emulators. I stumbled upon a Japanese PS1 model SCPH-1000 on eBay for cheap so I picked it up on a hunch that perhaps there's something different about the hardware, because one would think the game should play fine on the console it was intended for. So I just got the Japanese PS1 and sure enough the game and all of it's music are 100% perfect.

Does anyone here know what is different about the Japanese PS1 from the North American model which would cause the audio to be troublesome in this game? Moreover, does anyone know if there is any kind of tweak or mod that can be made to the North American PS1 that will allow it to overcome this?

Thanks all!

[cr4zymanz0r]

Just a guess but the laser could be getting weak on your US PS1, especially with it being such an early model. I believe I had the same model forever ago (composite and audio RCA jacks?) that would still play the actual games without issue, games with redbook audio started having audio issues.

I'm not sure, but I think Rockman X3 uses redbook audio. If you have any other games with redbook audio I'd play them for a bit in your US PS1 and see if they behave fine or have similar issues.

[PaulieORF]

Just a guess but the laser could be getting weak on your US PS1, especially with it being such an early model. I believe I had the same model forever ago (composite and audio RCA jacks?) that would still play the actual games without issue, games with redbook audio started having audio issues.

I'm not sure, but I think Rockman X3 uses redbook audio. If you have any other games with redbook audio I'd play them for a bit in your US PS1 and see if they behave fine or have similar issues.

This is the one with the composite and audio jacks on the back in addition to the multi-out, yes. One thing I failed to mention is that I had already replaced the laser on this unit with one from a PSOne. The laser that originally came with this unit stuttered on lots of FMVs. The PSOne laser has been absolutely perfect. Nonetheless, I wanted to test your theory. The first thing I did was put the Rockman X3 disc into the NA system and attempt to play the CD tracks using the PlayStation's built in CD player. I was able to play all of the tracks that won't play in the game just fine. I had them play through multiple times to make sure I didn't hear any skipping or anything like that. It was perfect.

I went a step further though, just to be sure, and swapped the lasers between the NA and JPN PlayStations. The game functions the exact same way, missing audio on the NA system and everything fine on the Japanese one.

So one other thing I ended up doing after this was looking up which games I had that had redbook audio, Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider 2. Both play the in game CDDA music just fine.

[Chacranajxy]

Weird... are there any known Japanese games that won't play nicely on US PS1s? It's the first I've heard of Rockman X3 having issues, at least.

[PaulieORF]

Weird... are there any known Japanese games that won't play nicely on US PS1s? It's the first I've heard of Rockman X3 having issues, at least.

I've tried to find info on that, but not finding anything. I am going to see about picking up something like a SCPH-7501 sometime this week from a local game store and see if it's perhaps something to do with the model I have, or the exact one I have. I would ask if someone else is able to play X3 on thier NA PS1, but the game is so rare (not super rare, but not many out of Japan seem to have it) that I'm having a hard time finding anyone in North America who has it to try.

[BazookaBen]

Can you put your Rockman X3 in a CD player and see if it has audio tracks? If so, that explains your problem. Dodonpachi has the same problem when playing on a US PS1. When you're doing the swapping discs, the table of contents (AKA location of the audio and data tracks on the disc) is different for the game you're actually playing.

Search the forum for "Dodonpachi Redbook audio table of contents" and you'll see discussion of this problem.

[PaulieORF]

Can you put your Rockman X3 in a CD player and see if it has audio tracks? If so, that explains your problem. Dodonpachi has the same problem when playing on a US PS1. When you're doing the swapping discs, the table of contents (AKA location of the audio and data tracks on the disc) is different for the game you're actually playing.

Search the forum for "Dodonpachi Redbook audio table of contents" and you'll see discussion of this problem.

I actually just tried that, and I do hear all of the tracks.

What you're saying makes sense. I guess the only real way to play Rockman X3 and other Japanese games that have Redbook audio is a mod-chip so that there is no disc swap required, and thus the actual game TOC is loaded?

[BazookaBen]

I actually just tried that, and I do hear all of the tracks.

What you're saying makes sense. I guess the only real way to play Rockman X3 and other Japanese games that have Redbook audio is a mod-chip so that there is no disc swap required, and thus the actual game TOC is loaded?

Probably, but I just went the cheaper/easier route like you and bought a JP PS1.

[PaulieORF]

I actually just tried that, and I do hear all of the tracks.

What you're saying makes sense. I guess the only real way to play Rockman X3 and other Japanese games that have Redbook audio is a mod-chip so that there is no disc swap required, and thus the actual game TOC is loaded?

Probably, but I just went the cheaper/easier route like you and bought a JP PS1.

For the sake of not having to keep an extra PS1 lying around, I'll give a modchip install a try. Eurasia has them for $4 + like $6 shipping. That woudl be the ideal for my laziness.

[BazookaBen]

Another option is to sit back and wait for PSIO to be finished. I'm pretty stoked about that, since the laser assemblies in my 4 PS1's are all dead or dying.

[PaulieORF]

Another option is to sit back and wait for PSIO to be finished. I'm pretty stoked about that, since the laser assemblies in my 4 PS1's are all dead or dying.

Good point. I almost forgot about that thing! I thought it was going to end up being vaporware. I think I'll wait for news on the release of that.

[Xan]

Last time I checked, replacement drives were still cheap and plentiful on ebay, and of course trivial to swap in. As far as the PSIO is concerned, I'm not exactly thrilled with how they were building up the hype over the years and then suddenly came out with how it will need soldering and even cutting traces. I'd argue that a modchip would perform more reliably than whatever they are doing to implement CD audio playback.

[BazookaBen]

Thanks for the info, didn't know about all that.

Random side question: What's the estimated date that our PS1/Saturn CD's will start to rot/degrade and become unreadable? Within our lifetime?

[Xan]

It's hard to answer this, other than saying they obviously will last a lot longer than CD-Rs. There's the number of 100 years floating around, which might just be an unsubstantial estimate. What's more interesting is that black Playstation CDs in particular have this tendency to get nasty permanent marks from fingerprints, which apparently don't affect readability as much as scratches though.

[PaulieORF]

I think I'm going to order a modchip and attempt the install. MM3 chips seem easy enough to install via 4 solder points on the board, that I should be able to do that no problem even with my novice soldering skills. That will at least hold me over until the PSIO is released. I anticipate there may be good demand for them, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of those deals where you order it and then may not actually receive it for a long time. It'll also allow me to see how the PSIO handles things like Redbook audio prior to getting one.

[PaulieORF]

So I got my MM3 modchip from Eurasia today and installed it in my SCPH-1001. It was very easy to install (even with my novice soldering skills) and now Mega Man X3 runs perfectly correct audio!