PS1 BIOS patch for disc/PSIO Game ID (auto Memcard Pro VMC)

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bobrocks95
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Re: PS1 BIOS patch for disc/PSIO Game ID (auto Memcard Pro VMC)

Post by bobrocks95 »

donluca wrote: Sat Jun 21, 2025 9:24 am
bobrocks95 wrote: Wed Apr 30, 2025 5:15 pm BIOS versions have been interchangeable so far in my experience, though I'd stick to the same region if possible.

For those curious the "alternative code injection point" note is some early BIOS with a slightly different boot code that doesn't have some spare NOPs to replace with jump instructions for the Game ID routine. There's likely suitable spots to use but they'd need their own testing and when the versions appear interchangeable, not a huge demand.

It's also been a couple years since I looked at the assembly code and I've probably forgotten how most of it works by now :lol:
I've been toying with the Master System BIOS for a while so I'm still pretty fresh on assembly code.
If you have documented somewhere the changes I'd love to give this a shot in my free time, if it could be of use to someone.
The MIPS assembly code is up on the Github and commented!

The high-level summary of the reverse-engineering aspect was very straightforward if you've done any basic code injection before- keep an eye on memory during the boot process until the boot file on the disc has been read and stored, find a good point in the code after this to replace some NOP instructions with a jump, jump to a scratch or empty area of the code with your routine injected, save register states, do whatever you want to do, restore registers, jump back to the original injection point to continue the boot process. Replace step 1 with whatever you're trying to alter I'd imagine- region checks, whatever.
PS1 Disc-Based Game ID BIOS patch for MemCard Pro and SD2PSX automatic VMC switching.
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BuckoA51
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Re: PS1 BIOS patch for disc/PSIO Game ID (auto Memcard Pro VMC)

Post by BuckoA51 »

I've a customer says that he's tried 5501 and 5502 bios in both 7002 and 9002 PS1s and just gets a black screen.

Has anyone tried that combination and got it working?
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bobrocks95
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Re: PS1 BIOS patch for disc/PSIO Game ID (auto Memcard Pro VMC)

Post by bobrocks95 »

BuckoA51 wrote: Sun Jul 26, 2026 9:47 am I've a customer says that he's tried 5501 and 5502 bios in both 7002 and 9002 PS1s and just gets a black screen.

Has anyone tried that combination and got it working?
As a sanity check, if they're able to load burned discs, there's a tool for dumping your BIOS to check the CRC-32 and ensure it matches what's expected for the patches. I suppose that doesn't help if they can't get anything to load though.....

I haven't heard of black screens... I've had one person reach out to me recently with issues getting Game ID to work on a 9000 console, though they were swapping region and had no Japanese discs to check with. Again though, no black screens or failure to boot, just their MCP not getting the Game ID command.
PS1 Disc-Based Game ID BIOS patch for MemCard Pro and SD2PSX automatic VMC switching.
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