Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Includes but not limited to: SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Game Gear and I guess the Virtual Boy.

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Dark-Show
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Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by Dark-Show » Tue Nov 22, 2011 12:57 pm

Would it not be possible to add a few interpreters some data lines on the ps1 and a reciever to the 2nd player port and use cycle sync, and control sending online to a PS1 system.

I was thinking of using a WRT54G router with a mod to read input from the PS1 system then output the data to the controller port.

just a few questions if anyone knows.
I know modchips work by listening for a check for a cd variable (for american constoles "NTSC") but can we listen for a SLUS number of the disk being played, such when the cd's executable launches.

And can the cycle of the ps1 be paused using hardware? (for lag/sync function controlled by the router)

If this system could be made using cheap stuff and a simple wrt54g mod, i think a new PS1 comunity could be made with online 2 player gaming, even without a computer present if we can get the router to randomly map a player.

As a bonus using a wrt54g (my favorite modding router) you get wireless access point connections so no ugly lan cables.

Just an idea to test my software and hardware knowledge and ability to parse data lines.
Input would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: even if it would be an ugly manual system, i think it would be a cool POC.
EDIT2: another thought on the sync functions would be a switch for the clock, cutting down a few X to sync with the "host"

Dark-Show
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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by Dark-Show » Tue Nov 22, 2011 10:13 pm

after talking to a man smarter then myself i realize ram syncing could be best. and this would also remove the need for a second port controller, cutting back on external hardware.

I wonder if ram manipulation can be done through the older ps1's parallel port.

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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by armarares » Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:37 am

1:We were expecting an kid that would ask something like:"Hey!Can I hook up an ps1 to internetz?"so we could explain him for half an decade that it is very hard...
2:Instead we saw your post and we were rendered speechless
3:If you did it then do you expect an generous amount of people to do wat you have done just so they can play ps1 over the internet?
4:ps2=internet connection
ps2=ps1 games
you think the rest ^^
5:good luck and if you succed I will do it too. :)

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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by evilteddy » Wed Nov 23, 2011 9:34 pm

Never seen anything like this thought of before. If you are thinking of somehow sniffing what's in the RAM and sending that over an internet connection I can say straight away that that won't work. I don't know what the speed of the FSB on the PS1 is but I would expect that its at least 20Mhz. When loading something into RAM the PS1 will be sending data into the RAM as fast as possible. Assuming the worst case scenario of 32 bits being loaded every cycle then the internet connection required would be 80Mb/s. What would be a nice way to do it is stream the audio and video over the internet connection and then get the controller data back in reverse.

Dark-Show
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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by Dark-Show » Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:17 pm

indeed i thought about that, but what i was going to do first was the controller sending and sync, but games with dynamic content wouldnt work without sending ram from each console aswell, it wouldnt need to be sent as fast as its written, just synced periodically (as fast as possible mind you) but lag is a factor in any online system.

another thing is im trying to do all this on the cheap, if it runs a fortune i wont do it, but id love to get two systems to do it :D would be awesome. and using wrt54g's as the basis gives me a cheap starting point with a lot of capabilities as it runs linux and has serial ports and (if modded) usb 1.1 ports.

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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by sanni » Fri Nov 25, 2011 4:54 am

You could do it the same way that the OnLive service works.

Meaning:

One "Server PS1". This is the PS1 where the game runs on. Also the 1st players plays it there.
The video signal from this PS1 is streamed via the internet just like with the OnLive service with the help as a "little magic box" thas splits the av signal and send it through the internet.
People that tested OnLive service said that the input lag was almost not noticable if you got a good internet connection.
The server PS1 also has a "controller input receiver" plugged to it's 2nd control port.

Now there is the "Client Box", it's actually no PS1. It just a box that has video outputs, a PS1 pad input and an internet connection. The image is received from the "Server PS1" to this "Client Box" and therefore displayed on the 2nd players TV. His controller inputs are send back to the "controller input receiver" plugged into the "Server PS1".

Today we have internet connection that have a faster response time than some 3D plasma TV's so the input lag should be not to noticable and still playable.

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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by Dark-Show » Fri Nov 25, 2011 4:28 pm

this method is cool but defeats my idea.
I'd like this mod to be able to be done to existing systems, rather then people having to buy new 2nd player online units. (who would do that?)

its just an idea and just wanted to see if anyone thought of it before, i mean syncing both consoles and sending 2nd input across the web is awesome but the dynamic content would be different if the rams were not sync'd as well.

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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by armarares » Mon Nov 28, 2011 8:19 am

If you really want to connect the ps1 with another ps1 then there was an thing called an "link cable"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Link_Cable" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (info)
It only works with the fat PS1 but there are some advantages .... and disadvantages

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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by Haunted360 » Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:08 am

You have the right idea, but also the incorrect ones.

The PlayStations Parallel Port is a sort of miss used name. It is not a Parallel Port, but more of a port that allows access to everything on the local BUS. Sony however, does not allow access to the BIOS ROM, even though it is on the BUS.

You can RAM sync the data and output it through the 'Parallel Port', however it would require a custom IC with the correct headers on the EEPROM to instruct the system what to do. This is something I am working on. Then again, it would also have serious issues with performance as the processor can not handle 2x the amount of data travelling through its BUS to the Parallel Port JUST to snoop some RAM information to a server.

The PlayStation has 2 MB of RAM on-board, however not all data is stored here for what would need to be synched. Some is in VRAM for example.



It is possible, but very very very very complex. Especially Sony's hardware, as it is poorly documented, basically 'locked out' and designed to be 'restricted to public access'.

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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by Dark-Show » Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:13 pm

i see, love the feedback but i was thinking of making some hardware to snoop the chips rather then going through the port. As for the Vmem, both consoles are going to have the same game and be "soft" reset so they are in sync, if the dynamic data from the ram was sync'd the Vmem would not have any usefull data, as it would be generated using the sync'd ram.

Or do i have the wrong idea.

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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by Haunted360 » Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:13 pm

I think you have the wrong idea. haha.

You telling me, that people will have to open there PS1 console and solder many fine wires to the RAM and VRAM IC's, etc to get it connected to the internet.
I do not think people at all would do that. Not unless there really desperate and will do anything to get it online.

This is a very complex design, and by all means it would be possible to use the parallel port, but it would require creating some sort of nano algorithm to snoop bits of data with out harm to the processor.

It would be interesting to try it anyway, and see the results. Even if you tried it with the clock running at a higher rate if it was successful to see if it can be overclocked.

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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by Dark-Show » Sat Dec 17, 2011 3:30 pm

well im no longer thinking of ease when making online capable ps1's ahaha was just a small idea, but yes the port idea would be nice, but i totaly understand the bus speed issue. sometime im going to try this just dont know when might not be until summer but its fun for me to think about the design and programming that im going to have to put into it.

One question though, i understand syncing the ram, but also the VRam? if both players have the same disk, wouldnt syncing the ram be enough to make both VRams be in sync as they both only have access to the same content anyway, the only difference would be the dynamic variables in the ram that change the way the ps1 loads things into its vram. So syncing the ram from the beginning would cause both ps1's to have the same vram, without syncing these over protocol aswell.

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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by Haunted360 » Mon Dec 19, 2011 3:43 am

Depends on what the programmers did.
You may or may not have to sync the VRAM.

All in testing will this give a answer.


Either way, this is not an easy task at all to do.

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Re: Has anyone ever though of PS1Online?

Post by Dark-Show » Tue Dec 27, 2011 3:14 pm

true but as i said in a previous post its quite fun to think about, imagine making a clip on solution to the chips then a small circuit to send the ram (and maybe vram) to the router to then transfer.

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