The ODE thread

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm going to change this topic titles, and ask about ODEs, in general. I was asking about the PS3, but I wanna know about them ALL, baby.

OK, the ones I know of that are working 100 percent are

Phoebe/Rhea for the Saturn (got these)
USB-GDROM and the GDEMU for the Dreamcast (have the USB)
3DO Renovation is supposed to be good. Don't have one, as I have ZERO interest in this system.

OK, then we get into the "I dunno for sure" about these.

PSIO for the Playstation: Now, I heard about this WAY back, but the creators had a falling out...I don't even know. I've heard mixed things on it, but people complain about the software.
What's the skinny? Anyone have one?

PS3 Cobra: See Below


I know the Phoebe guy is working on one for the PCE CD, but I honestly don't know if he's ever going to finish it.
Are there any for the Gamecube? I know there aren't any for the Sega CD yet (so, I think).

I love these things, with a passion. So, any being worked on? Any exciting news?

I was hoping someone would come up with one for the PS2. I run games off the HDD, but it's not 100 percent. I'd prefer something better.

[Endymion]

This is going back a ways.

The skinny is that this thing was made to operate with an otherwise unmodified PS3, i.e. non-jailbroken. Meaning it would be usable when connected to PSN. A later firmware update nixed this prospect completely, and Cobra was never able to solve it. So if you can still manage to locate one of these relics and install it to your PS3 you will not be able to sign in to PSN without getting banninated. In which case, you might as well just jailbreak your PS3 and not spend the money on this thing.

The end.

[bobrocks95]

For fat and early slims any firmware lower than 4.83, which was released less than a week ago, you can install CFW. Later slims and super slims can use a software mod that's run each time you power on, which is still more convenient than the swap disc a Cobra needs on newer firmware.

[evil_ash_xero]

Aww....well, I'm out of luck then.

I'll have to wait until something else gets invented.

[bobrocks95]

What's the difference between an ODE and a softmodded console running a game off of the hard drive?

[evil_ash_xero]

What's the difference between an ODE and a softmodded console running a game off of the hard drive?

Nothing at all.
So, the PS3 has been broken, and you can work it like the PSP with custom firmware? Is it hard to pull off? The PS3s hard drive ain't that big.

[Joelepain]

Are there any for the Gamecube?

There is the wiikey fusion clones (WASP for example) + swiss-gc. The two main problem are if you want an easy install solution, I only know the megadrives from BadAssConsoles...so availability may vary to say the least...
And second problem, games that use Audio streaming have problems.

[Kez]

So, the PS3 has been broken, and you can work it like the PSP with custom firmware? Is it hard to pull off? The PS3s hard drive ain't that big.

Yeah, it's not too difficult. There should be plenty of guides around, Rebug is the main (only?) CFW around these days. Changing the PS3 hard drive is pretty simple, it's just a regular 2.5 inch SATA.

You wanna be using a fat or slim PS3 though, not the super slim.

[bobrocks95]

What's the difference between an ODE and a softmodded console running a game off of the hard drive?

Nothing at all.
So, the PS3 has been broken, and you can work it like the PSP? Is it hard to pull off? The PS3s hard drive ain't that big.

As long as you aren't on 4.83 firmware, which was literally just released, you'd have to have updated your PS3 within the last week. Anything below that can be manually updated to 4.82.

Installing the CFW is easy, you put some files on a flash drive and go to a website on the PS3 browser and follow the directions. Spoofing for PSN access is maybe a bit more difficult just because you should read up extensively so you don't get banned.

The most annoying thing I've heard is the USB ports can only read a FAT32 flash drive, which can only have files up to 4GB in size- i.e. you have to transfer disc games over FTP, or split files and then rejoin them on the console, or use an external NTFS hard drive and run a program when you start your PS3. Info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ps3homebrew/wiki/4gb_files

[nmalinoski]

The maker of the GDEMU and Rhea/Phoebe is also manufacturing an ODE for the FM Towns Marty. He's also considering one for the grey tower FM Towns as well, and there's been talk of one for the Sega CD.

PC Engine/TurboGrafx has the Super SD System 3, which both provides RGB output and simulates the CD addon like an ODE would.

As for the PSIO, it's not a drop-in replacement for the optical drive like the GDEMU. It was designed to live side-by-side with the existing optical drive, so you can boot from the disc, from the SD card, or from a PC via USB. An unfortunate side effect is that the installation is difficult and destructive; not only do you have to solder a bunch of wires to the underside of the motherboard, you also need to cut one or more fine traces. Personally, I wish the PSIO was more like the GDEMU and was stupidly simple to install, or perhaps only required soldering one or two wires and was thus non-destructive and reversible. I've not heard much regarding the quality of the software.

[opt2not]

The PSIO is less than ideal, and I don't know if it's a true ODE. It has an fairly invasive installation, requiring you to solder multiple points on the mainboard to a switchboard that piggybacks data lines to the parallel port.
You also can't install the PSIO on the smaller PSOne console, which is really a shame.

I would love to see an alternative to the PSIO with an actual ODE replacement board, similar to the Rhea's/USB-GDROMs where you just remove the optical drive and plug in the ODE board. Less invasive, or requiring much modding. Support for the different models can be easier achieved.

[Lawfer]

The PS3s hard drive ain't that big.

Yeah but it's removable and upgradable, you can get one of these 4TB SSDs in there if you so want it.

For PS3 there aren't that many games that interest me on it and most games are relatively small (nothing crazy like on modern consoles were plenty of games are like 50GB+) so I put in a 512GB SSD in it.

As long as you aren't on 4.83 firmware, which was literally just released, you'd have to have updated your PS3 within the last week.

Again!?? So much stability! They (unofficially) stopped manufacturing new PS3s for the western markets years ago (from the looks of it sometimes in 2015) and they (officially) stopped manufacturing new PS3 for the japanese Market since around Q2 or Q3 2017, you would think they would by now have released a final firmware and called it a day.

[SavagePencil]

TerraOnion's SSDS3 for the TG16/PC-Engine has a highly-compatible ODE. It's unfortunate that it is hampered by some severe audio and video snags.

[Syntax]

Im fitting some old Wii WODE chips into Gamecubes this week.
Hoping to have 3 usb HDD ODE Gamecubes with GCDual by the weekend.

Keep an eye out on ebay for some unicorns

[evil_ash_xero]

The PS3s hard drive ain't that big.

Yeah but it's removable and upgradable, you can get one of these 4TB SSDs in there if you so want it.

For PS3 there aren't that many games that interest me on it and most games are relatively small (nothing crazy like on modern consoles were plenty of games are like 50GB+) so I put in a 512GB SSD in it.

As long as you aren't on 4.83 firmware, which was literally just released, you'd have to have updated your PS3 within the last week.

Again!?? So much stability! They (unofficially) stopped manufacturing new PS3s for the western markets years ago (from the looks of it sometimes in 2015) and they (officially) stopped manufacturing new PS3 for the japanese Market since around Q2 or Q3 2017, you would think they would by now have released a final firmware and called it a day.

Can I rip the games from the disks, or am I going to have to find the ISOs somewhere?

[Kez]

Yeah there is a homebrew app called MultiMan which has a ton of features including the ability to rip discs. Pretty sure it comes bundled with the CFW, it's basically essential.

[Lawfer]

Can I rip the games from the disks, or am I going to have to find the ISOs somewhere?

With CFW? You can do both. I never installed CFW, I have the OFW and all my games are from the PSN and installed on my Samung 860 512GB SSD.

[evil_ash_xero]

Can I update the games online, or would I have to find the updates on the net?

I have a modded 360, and I've had to do a little of both with it. It'll have some updates, and then some just aren't on the server.

[evil_ash_xero]

Can anyone recommend a good hard drive to replace the one I have? I have a PS3 Slim.

I'm almost out of room on it, as it is.

I'm looking for a 1 TB. I know it has to be 2.5 SATA, and 5400RPM...but if someone could link me to one on Amazon or something, I'd appreciate it. I don't want to screw it up.
A good brand like Western Digital or something would be good.


EDIT: Would something like this be good? And would SSD make a difference in speed, on the PS3 like it does on PS4?

https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital- ... ive%2C+ps3

[nmalinoski]

Can anyone recommend a good hard drive to replace the one I have? I have a PS3 Slim.

I'm almost out of room on it, as it is.

I'm looking for a 1 TB. I know it has to be 2.5 SATA, and 5400RPM...but if someone could link me to one on Amazon or something, I'd appreciate it. I don't want to screw it up.
A good brand like Western Digital or something would be good.


EDIT: Would something like this be good? And would SSD make a difference in speed, on the PS3 like it does on PS4?

https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital- ... ive%2C+ps3

Pretty much any 2.5" SATA drive will work, and you're not limited to 5400rpm drives; a 7200rpm drive will work just fine, and might perform a little better than a 5400rpm disk.

Hybrid disks like the one you link and the Seagate FireCudas will work as well, but their SSD cache is typically far too small to provide any noticeable benefit.

SSDs will have the best performance, and they should result in a mild reduction in generated heat, but it won't necessarily feel like night and day like it is switching to an SSD on a PC, because the PS3 only uses SATA1, which is always going to be a bottleneck. Seek times will pretty much be eliminated, and load times may improve, but don't get an SSD and expect amazing performance.

[evil_ash_xero]

Thanks for the input.

Both of my PS3 Slims can be modded...but I'm going to have to look into getting updates for games, and hopefully doing something with my saves.

[Wolf_]

The GameCube has the Sd Media Launcher https://www.codejunkies.com/Products/SD ... 0580V.aspx (costs $20, plug it into memory card slot B (very important) and run the disc to get it loading media off an sd card). But tbh that's outdated now as you can play GC games much more easily of a jailbroken wii with Nintendon't and an external harddrive (as well as back up save games to it). The video quality is worse out of a wii but if you get it modded for hdmi then everything is perfect. The only downside is it won't play GB Games but Woozle's hdmi GB mod should be out eventually.

And I would just jb a ps3 to load games off a harddrive (external if possible) as well as any other console that works with them such as the Xbox, 360, Wii, Wii U, PS2, and PS3). I'd suggest against doing anything hokey with current gen consoles such as the Switch, Xbox 1, and PS4 because you never know what new updates will come out and get you banned/brick your console.

[BuckoA51]

Sad to see some hate for the PS-IO, Personally I really like how it lets you keep the optical drive. If you have an interest in collecting original games then you're going to want a console around with an optical drive so you can at least test that games you purchase actually boot. Plus it's handy for those small number of games that aren't compatible.

Software wise I'd say the PS-IO is pretty great. It has support for directories, long filenames, has a nice menu system and even lets you put cover art onto your games if you want to. Compatibility gets better and better with each firmware update.

I also found it a lot easier to get a PS-IO, it was a long wait on the waiting list but that was way way better than the insane system Deunan (Rhea/Phoebe/GDEmu) operates where you basically just have to play a lottery and grab one at whatever time of day he decides to open the orders up. For my USB-GDROM I didn't find the wait with 3do-renovation.ru to be too long at all, about a month and a half if I recall, though I put my name down for a 3DO ODE from them months ago and never heard anything. Neither of them is willing to work with resellers despite the fact that demand has consistently outstripped supply. Particularly in Deunan's case he can't ever keep up with demand or even operate a decent waiting list but if people get upset or frustrated he just goes on a rant about how it's his hobby etc, or just ignores them.

Deunan's devices work reasonably well but the software is a bit bare bones. Rather than being able to just chuck ISOs onto a folder you have to set things up in a specific way. Third party software makes it much better though. I've played extensively with his Phoebe for the Saturn and that seems to work on every game I've thrown at it. It's a bit picky about what image formats it will accept though this has greatly improved in more recent firmwares. The design could be better and it doesn't really fit all that well in the console, though 3D printed trays are available to fill the gaps.

Eventually, Prof. Abrasive's Satiator for Saturn should blow away Rhea and Phoebe with proper support for things like directories and long filenames etc etc. https://www.patreon.com/prof_abrasive

I've also been lucky enough to test both GDEMU and USB GD-ROM. GDEMU is okay once you have the improved menu software but USB-GDROM trounces it. You can use bigger, cheaper media with USB-GDROM, it supports long filenames, subdirectories, disc swapping etc etc. It feels much more like a polished, finished product. I definitely recommend it. Sending money to some strange Russian account might seem like a good way to throw it down the drain but they are trustworthy.

Both of the Dreamcast ODEs have glitches in some Dreamcast games. Gunlord is a particular example that springs to mind as that has glitchy music on USB GD-ROM, particularly noticeable on the end of level jingle.

Then there's the Super SD System 3 for PC Engine which I love, despite the problems with its RGB etc, this thing is great no matter what anyone says.. ok yes it could have been better still with a few more months of testing but, PC Engine CD ROM drives are in my experience the most unreliable of all. We've had machines in and re-capped them, replaced drive belts even lasers etc and still had issues with the drives, so to finally be able to play the PC Engine CD-ROM library without having to worry about a temperamental old CD drive (my old Super CD-ROM 2 used to work better upside down..) is just fantastic. It supports directories, long file names etc etc and has a reasonably nice menu, basically all the things that you'd expect it to support unless it was a Deunan device.

Anyway that's my ten cents on the subject.

[Wolf_]

Snip.

I feel that the Rhea is a better product because you can still use the mpeg cart with it and get enhanced visuals on the games that support it.

Also I am far less forgiving of the ssd3 team's attitude towards fixing their shit saying stuff like "quality can't be measured".

[nmalinoski]

Sad to see some hate for the PS-IO, Personally I really like how it lets you keep the optical drive. If you have an interest in collecting original games then you're going to want a console around with an optical drive so you can at least test that games you purchase actually boot. Plus it's handy for those small number of games that aren't compatible.

I think it's less hate and more disappointment. It's absolutely an achievement to get an ODE operating smoothly and seamlessly side-by-side with the original optical drive, and I think the PSIO is certainly the best of both worlds; but I think the severe increase in complexity, and thus difficulty, tediousness, and destructiveness of the installation of the switch interface (mainly the need to cut traces, especially in tight quarters), isn't worth it.

I also think this complexity is the source a good chunk of the PSIO's compatibility problems; if their approach was instead to simply replace the optical drive, not unlike the existing, drop-in-replacement ODEs, like the GDEMU or USB-GDROM, then I imagine high, if not complete, compatibility would be more readily achievable. A drop-in ODE would also be immediately compatible with both the original PlayStation models as well as the later PSones (basing this on the existing intercompatibility of optical drives between PlayStation consoles; you just need a ribbon cable extension to use the PSone's KSM-440BAM on the original models).

It it's feasible to tap some of the parallel I/O lines and connect them with a ribbon cable to the ODE, then a companion device, like what the PSIO is now, could remote control the ODE to switch images or feed it data via USB (one of the PSIO's neater features); I'm not sure that approach would be as cohesive as the PSIO, but installation would be non-destructive and the mod would be easily reversible.

In general, I question the need for maintaining both the original optical drive and the ODE in a console; if you prefer to use original media, I would expect you'd just spend the cost of a PSIO on 3 or more replacement drives, which should last you another couple decades; or, if you're up for getting an ODE for your console, I would expect you have more of an inclination to create backups of your originals, put them back on the shelf or in safe storage, and play using the ODE exclusively; or, if you truly have a need for both, the barrier to getting a second console (if you don't already have one or more lying around) and a replacement optical drive, at least when it comes to the PlayStation, is quite low.

[nmalinoski]

Snip.

I feel that the Rhea is a better product because you can still use the mpeg cart with it and get enhanced visuals on the games that support it.

I agree; the Satiator would need to also provide the functionality of the MPEG cart (togglable, of course) to really be the ODE solution for the Saturn.

Then all the Saturn community would need is a super-cart with expansion RAM, game save expansion (ideally non-volatile; run from RAM, cloned to/from an SD card, not unlike how the EverDrive 64 handles SRAM saves), region unlocking, Action Replay cheats, and a NetLink simulator that acts like a modem to the console but connects to your LAN with an Ethernet port or WiFi. Could probably preload network settings and cheats onto the SD card.

[BuckoA51]

I feel that the Rhea is a better product because you can still use the mpeg cart with it and get enhanced visuals on the games that support it.

There weren't exactly a ton of Saturn games that supported the FMV cart were there? All I can remember is some racing game... if I want higher resolution videos of Japanese girls fawning over 90s supercars there's always Youtube.

[Wolf_]

I feel that the Rhea is a better product because you can still use the mpeg cart with it and get enhanced visuals on the games that support it.

There weren't exactly a ton of Saturn games that supported the FMV cart were there? All I can remember is some racing game... if I want higher resolution videos of Japanese girls fawning over 90s supercars there's always Youtube.

Lunar Silver Star has an updated version that only works with the mpeg card. The list of games that use it is small and the updated version of Lunar Silver Star is the only game that requires it but Lunar is a really really good game.

[evil_ash_xero]

I finally finished soft modding my PS3. It wasn't hard, but it took forever to get my games on it.
I was kind of disappointed with it at first, as I had to go into Multiman, then back out...and it was irritating. Then I got WebMan, and the Webman MOD, and made some changes in the settings. Now it's just like anything else, and I load from the folders. Sweet.

Only problem I have is I can't find a version of Hard Corps: Uprising to work on it. It always stays in demo mode. I'm asking around.
I might have to reinstall it on my XBox, but I always thought that one looked a tad more pixelated. Might just be my memory messing with me.

[CZroe]

HuDebug is supposed to be a PC Engine CD-ROM² ODE in a HuCard. It’s been demonstrated in a Turbo Express / PCE GT. Hopefully it will also support the Duo, Duo R, Duo RX, and Shuttle, since they can’t work with the SSDSys3 or UpperGrafx UGX-02.

Speaking of the UpperGrafx / UperGrafx UGX-02, it doesn’t look like anyone has mentioned that yet. It’s like the PC Engine / TurboGrafx version of a Hi-Def NES crammed into an SSDSys3. The interface is a lot clunkier but it has improved by leaps and bounds over the last year. Heck, it didn’t even have a proper menu for picking your game before!

ElectronAsh was almost finished designing his PCE/Turbo ODE but it seems that he placed it on hold after seeing that Terra Onion beat him to it. I’d love to see him finish it! It looked like he had the board designs and everything nearly ready to go.

Duenan’s TG16/PCE ODE has been hinted at a couple times in his blog but there is no evidence that he’s still working on it. The first mention was basically just “Hey! I got a TG16. Maybe I’ll look into making an ODE for it.” and his next mention was basically just answering some off-topic comment on another news posting where someone asked how it was going. IIRC, it was a short and vague response like “Well.”

Furrtek recently resumed working on an ODE for Neo Geo CD toploaders but it seems that even more recently he made a splash in the MiSTer community about doing an FPGA Neo. Since that interest is where all his Patreon money is coming from, he’s already switched gears. Hopefully he’ll get back to the NGCD ODE soon, since he demonstrated working prototypes.

BadAssConsoles was selling a GC ODE that probably wasn’t much different from an adapted Wii ODE. I forget what it was called but it had “Mega” in the name.

In the early 2000s the Warez release group Crazy Nation once had plans up on their website for making a GC ODE. IIRC, it had an IDE port.