Playstation Emulation Info/help Needed

[the-damango]

I have a few old PS1 games I want to 'convert' to software ready to store on my SD card in preparation for the Pandora, but have no idea how i go about this.

I'm not very technically minded, so does anyone have a link to an idiots 'how to' to help me along?

Cheers all.

 

[aaron11193]

I have a few old PS1 games I want to 'convert' to software ready to store on my SD card in preparation for the Pandora, but have no idea how i go about this.

I'm not very technically minded, so does anyone have a link to an idiots 'how to' to help me along?

Cheers all.

I think by 'software' you mean .iso files?

In that case you need to find a good iso maker, like Magic ISO or ImTOO ISO Maker.

Aaron.

 

[gruso]

Google has the answers, as long as you ask the right question.

 

[the-damango]

Thanks both.

Have just downloaded 'alcohol 52%' and made an image of my daughters 'spyro' game which works off my hard drive perfectly

One final question, the game file was a .img file not a .iso, what is the difference? Also, will the Pandora PSX emulator play PSX games that are .img files??

thanks again!

 

[bartleby]

you might want to check this thread on psx files in the other forums for more info.

 

[paddy]

make your isos with power iso and they should be created as .iso
test them with your fav psx/ps1 emulator to make sure they work fully as sometimes a prefectly good disc doesnt make a perfectly good working iso - should get 99% of your games working fine.

theres lots of different image formats when creating an iso,but they are all isos,tho some formats arent as compatible when running them in
emulators,for instance .iso is perfect for emulators but not as acurate at
burning back to a recordable cd,but nrg or img are great as you will most prolly use the same software that you created the iso with to burn it back to disc. nrg is nero iso and burning nrg with nero to disc is a safe way to get a correctly burned disc.

go with .iso tho for your emulation.

 

[the-damango]

make your isos with power iso and they should be created as .iso
test them with your fav psx/ps1 emulator to make sure they work fully as sometimes a prefectly good disc doesnt make a perfectly good working iso - should get 99% of your games working fine.

theres lots of different image formats when creating an iso,but they are all isos,tho some formats arent as compatible when running them in
emulators,for instance .iso is perfect for emulators but not as acurate at
burning back to a recordable cd,but nrg or img are great as you will most prolly use the same software that you created the iso with to burn it back to disc. nrg is nero iso and burning nrg with nero to disc is a safe way to get a correctly burned disc.

go with .iso tho for your emulation.

Thanks for the advice. With regard some formats not being as compatible with emulators / buring back to cd - if I never want to burn back to CD and only want to create the image for use with the pandora, will .img be ok, or would you still recommend .iso?

I'd rather not shell out money on power iso (i know its only £17 approx, but £200 for the pandora has already wiped me out!!), but if i NEED to to get my PSX games working correctly on Pandora i will.

Thanks for the advice / help so far !

 

[darkriku]

Just so you know if you dont have a large memory card you may want to learn how to rip your games. This will take something out of the game like music or cutscenes or something to make the file alot smaller i once had a megaman x 8 game 12 megabytes.

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

Yeah, before I got Alcohol 120% and PowerIso, I used Alcohol 52% to rip PSX ISOs, it works well for a free program. There are plenty of guides on how to use it out there, just check google. Good luck!

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

There are many tools for the PC which can emulate a CD drive. You can put in any kind of image into your "virtual drive" and it will behave like a real one. This way you can use any disc image format with any emulator even if the emulator itself does not support the format or disc images at all (some emus work only with real CDs).

A good "virtual CD drive" tool which is compatible with all formats should be made available for the Pandora, too. If such a tool was availbale, emulators wouldn't even have to provide this function themselves.

 

[Ryzure]

There are many tools for the PC which can emulate a CD drive. You can put in any kind of image into your "virtual drive" and it will behave like a real one. This way you can use any disc image format with any emulator even if the emulator itself does not support the format or disc images at all (some emus work only with real CDs).

A good "virtual CD drive" tool which is compatible with all formats should be made available for the Pandora, too. If such a tool was availbale, emulators wouldn't even have to provide this function themselves.

Wouldn't a virtual cd drive on the Pandora be too much overhead? Not sure how they work

 

[Prometheus]

Most Linux distributions (as well as Mac OS X, if memory serves) tend to offer that functionality out-of-the-box, at least for ISO 9660 stuff, without the need for extra applications in order to do so. You pretty much just mount the disc image as you would with a physical disc.

 

[javaJake]

For Linux users, this is an excellent guide that worked for me.

 

[grasshoppir]

download a ripped iso, if that is legal in your country.

 

[CoMiKe]

Wouldn't a virtual cd drive on the Pandora be too much overhead? Not sure how they work

A virtual CD Drive on the Pandora (without protection emulation) is as simple as executing the following command under Linux:

mount image.iso /mnt/cdrom

 

[bzar]

Wouldn't a virtual cd drive on the Pandora be too much overhead? Not sure how they work

A virtual CD Drive on the Pandora (without protection emulation) is as simple as executing the following command under Linux:

mount image.iso /mnt/cdrom

You forgot the "-o loop" B)

 

[nubie]

Don't forget SmartProjects' ISOBuster: http://www.isobuster.com/isobusterdownload.php

It is completely free if you don't need DVD UDF support (you don't for PSX discs and CD games.)


It will also open an image file and you can copy it to a new format (AKA ISO.)