Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What have you done with a PowerPC today?

pipetogrep

pipetogrep

macrumors 6502
Jan 27, 2021
348
499
alex_free said:
My Links2 port is a portable app. When launched you have the option of using a text only mode through terminal or a graphics mode which uses X11 and supports many gif/image formats and mouse usage.
Click to expand...
Where does one get Linsk2 to in portable form?
 
originaldotexe

originaldotexe

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2020
255
434
Kentucky
Macbookprodude said:
Nice MDD. Shame not many on eBay anymore.
Click to expand...
it's the DP 1.25 with 2GB of RAM, actually got many of my macs including the MDD in trades with one of my friends who owned a bunch of them that he didn't really use. the next upgrade i plan to do is a SIL3112 sata card and a 1TB HDD, as it currently only has a measely 80GB PATA drive that i can't really do anything with.
 
alex_free

alex_free

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2020
1,090
2,331
After lurking eBay for too long, found an October 1995 57x serial number SCPH 1001 PS1 for $52. Earliest I've seen still being sold as tested/working on Ebay, before this everything was manufactured either May 1996 or later.

For those not in the know, this legendary guide on the PS1 swap trick last updated in 1996 tells you how to play burned CD-R games on an unmodified PS1. The consoles manufactured with a serial number of 592x or later have to use a much more complicated double swap trick you have to use since Sony tried to "move the goal posts further" to deter obvious exploitation. And TBH, the double swap trick is very hard to pull off and not a reliably quick method. However, ANYTHING before the 592x serial number should be exploitable to the very easy swap trick methods:

============================================================================



Please check the table below to determine what Swap Method is best for
your particular machine. NB: the Double method will work on ALL models
of the PlayStation but is NOT very easy to do so I have only listed it
if your machine ONLY supports this method and no other.

Model Number Country of Origin Swap Trick?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SCPH-1000 [Initial batch] JAPAN Yes, all
SCPH-1000 [Second batch] JAPAN Yes, black
SCPH-3000 [Initial batch] JAPAN Yes, black
SCPH-3000 [Second batch] JAPAN Yes, double
SCPH-3500 [Third batch] JAPAN Not known
SCPH-1001 [Initial batch] USA Yes, all
SCPH-1001 [S/N 592xxx or higher] * USA Yes, double
SCPH-1002 [Initial batch] PAL Yes, all
SCPH-1002 [Second batch] PAL Yes, double
SCPH-2000 [Development machine] N/A N/A

* S/N = serial number, importantly linked to date of manufacture.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


============================================================================


There are five methods which allow you to use almost ANY PlayStation CD
in ANY PlayStation, regardless of origin. I have yet to hear of any
hardware damage using these methods although this doesn't mean that it
hasn't happened. Please understand NOT all PlayStations are created the
same.

The five methods are detailed below (one very easy, three quite easy and
one difficult.) Various terms are used below, please be sure you know
exactly what they mean before attempting any of the swap methods:


LOCAL:

A CD which is intended for your region, most likely bought at a local
store. The pack-in demo CD is a "local" disc.

FOREIGN:

Any CD which contains territory information other than that of the host
machine. Japanese, European and Australian CDs are all foreign if you
have a US machine.

NTSC and PAL:

It is important to note that running a PAL (Australia, Europe) on your
NTSC machine (US, Japan) or vice versa can cause display problems.
Take this into consideration when buying/using imports. See below for
possible solutions.

ROM:

The Read Only Memory section of your PlayStation where the different
country protection routines are stored.

AUDIO MENU:

Designed for listening to audio CDs or the audio tracks stored on PS
CD-ROMs but also provides a handy backdoor for swap trick-ers.

LID SENSOR:

A small button shaped object located near the CD tray at the rear on the
right hand side. Indicates to the PlayStation whether the lid is open or
closed and essential for any swap trick.

BLACK and WHITE SCREENS:

The White screen is the initial screen that appears on bootup and the
Black screen is the first thing to appear when you boot a valid CD-ROM.


============================================================================


METHOD ONE: The Audio Menu [Safe and very easy]
------------------------------------------------

Works on : Very early Japanese, European and American machines.
Success : 80%
Problems : Music is often corrupted. The TOC (Table of Contents)
from the boot CD is always used which is less than ideal.


o Power up your PlayStation WITHOUT a game or demo CD in it.

o Select the CD Audio menu.

o Get a local CD that matches the country of the machine you
have. (ie a Japanese game for a Japanese PlayStation etc.)

o Find some tape, Blu-Tak or something similar. Several people I know
have found the corner from a cornflake packet works well <shrug>.

o Open the lid and look at the top right of the bottom section,
near where the hinge is. See the small circle in the groove?
Good. This is the lid sensor.

o Insert your local CD.

o Put the tape, Blu-Tak or whatever over the sensor and *gently*
push it down. The CD will now spin for a few seconds.

o When the CD has finished spinning take it out and replace it
with the foreign game you wish to play.

o Now shut the lid and exit the CD Audio menu. The game should
now work fine (see above for exceptions.)

o When you have finished playing, open the lid and remove the
tape, Blu-Tak etc from the sensor. This will stop the CD.


Notes:

i Try and get a local CD with as many tracks on it as you can.
The local CD must have at least as many tracks as the foreign CD
or you won't get all the music. Depending on the boot CD the
foreign game may give poor results or even crash.

Unfortunately the number of music tracks is NOT the only deciding
factor (the length of the data track is another) and you may find
that you are unable to get your foreign game to work satisfactorily
with the choice of boot CDs you have. See the other methods, they
may give better results.

ii Owners of Japanese SCPH-1000 (later batch), SCPH-3000 machines and
later European/US models will find that this method does NOT
work. Sony has removed this particular loophole in the latest ROM
revision.

iii You can ONLY run PAL games on NTSC machines if you have an RGB
cable (not s-video, composite or ANYTHING else.) This also
applies to NTSC games on a PAL machine. In Europe this problem
is easily solved by investing in an import spec RGB/SCART cable
as sold for use with Japanese/US PlayStations. In North America,
Australia etc you will need to look into the options available to
you (an old or expensive monitor, probably.) I understand a cable
for 1084 monitors will shortly be available in the US.


METHOD TWO: The OLD Black Method [Fairly safe and easy]
--------------------------------------------------------

Works on : All early machines, see above for meaning of "early".
Success : 85%
Problems : Most games will work albeit sometimes with music glitches
or unexpected crashes.


o Follow the Audio method with a local CD in your machine. The lid
should be up and the lid sensor held down.

o When the black PlayStation screen appears (after the white Sony one)
QUICKLY lift the original game out and replace with the foreign one.
You have a few seconds to do this and it soon becomes second nature.

o If you must have the music working 100% or have a really stubborn
foreign game then try the NEW Black method detailed below.


METHOD THREE: The NEW Black Method [Fairly safe but tricky]
------------------------------------------------------------

Works on : The same machines that can do the OLD Black trick.
Success : 100%
Problems : Not supported by all models.


o This method is a variant on the White Audio menu method but involves
an extra step where you basically "piggy back" the OLD Black method
onto the White Audio menu hybrid.

o Try and get a local CD with lots of music tracks as this gives you a
little extra time to perform the first swap.

o Go to the Audio menu and press down the sensor, remove the local CD
just before the audio tracks pop up and replace with the foreign CD.
The foreign CD's tracks should appear and NOT those of the local CD.

o Replace the boot CD and exit the CD Audio menu.

o At the Black screen, replace the import CD as in the original method.

Note:

The territory information that normally appears before the TM at the
Black screen will be corrupted, this is normal.


METHOD FOUR: The White Method(s) [Fairly safe but tricky]
----------------------------------------------------------

Works on : The same very early models that can do the Audio method.
Success : 100%
Problems : Not supported by all models.


o Switch on your machine and count 1..2..3..4 and THEN swap discs. You
need to do this *JUST* before the white Sony screen appears. The
timing is tough, you want the PS to read the country code but NOT the
TOC so don't expect to get it right every time.

o Another variation is to use a hybrid Audio Menu swap trick: remove the
boot CD and replace it with the "foreign" game just after the original
country code is read and before the TOC. Many people find this method
easier then the original White method.

Note:

If you have performed the swap correctly then the import CD audio tracks
will be shown NOT those of the local CD.


METHOD FIVE: The Double Swap Method [Fairly safe but pretty tricky]
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Works on : All PlayStations to date, including the latest models.
Success : 100%
Problems : Do not kid yourself, this method IS difficult. The end

result is well worth it (especially if you have no other
options.)


============================================================================

I M P O R T A N T

I can NO LONGER accept any more questions on this method, everything you
need to know is here. Please, please do not e-mail me asking for help.

============================================================================


Note:

1x and 2x refer to the CD motor speed (single speed and double speed),
watch a few of your games boot up with the lid open and you can easily
see and hear the "gear changes". To get full music timing is highly
critical otherwise the original TOC is used.


o Insert your local CD.

o Remove the local CD when the motor changes to 2x and replace it
with your foreign CD.

[If you did this right, you *SHOULD* see the black PS screen now.]

o Watch and listen to the CD motor. It will slow down and then
speed back up to 2x.

o After a few seconds, the CD motor will slow down again. Replace
with your local CD once again.

o After another half second or so, the local CD will speed up again.
Finally replace your foreign CD.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|| ||
|| C R E D I T S ||
|| ||
|| Marty Chinn ....................... (for the SCPH-1000 and other info) ||
|| Joe @ Tronix ...................... (for the White method) ||
|| Tony in Hong Kong ................. (for the Audio and Black methods) ||
|| Nelson Fong ....................... (for the Double method) ||
|| ||
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Click to expand...
Been burning CD-Rs in the Mac Mini G4 at the minimum 8x speeds on the best CD-R brand to play. I actually have something called a "PSX Change v2.0 NTSC" which is essentially a boot disc that allows you to boot backups easily without any tricks, but this stuff is very interesting to me and I'll definitely try out the various "easy" swap methods just because why not...
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheShortTimer and RogerWilco6502
M

Macbookprodude

Suspended
Jan 1, 2018
3,306
898
Got the book OS 9 bible and learning more about OS 9 than even when it was still the main thing and in style. Planning on getting dreamweaver or bbedit to make a PowerPC blog site and also a webpage about myself and my PowerPC experience. Typing this on my brand new black Apple Pro Keyboard :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: MacFoxG4 and alex_free
alex_free

alex_free

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2020
1,090
2,331
Macbookprodude said:
Got the book OS 9 bible and learning more about OS 9 than even when it was still the main thing and in style. Planning on getting dreamweaver or bbedit to make a PowerPC blog site and also a webpage about myself and my PowerPC experience. Typing this on my brand new black Apple Pro Keyboard :)
Click to expand...
Favorite thing to do with OS 9/8.6 is to convert YouTube videos to QuickTime 6.0 compatible MPEG-4 480p using PPCMC7 and watch the Mac mini G4 play them TBH. MPEG-4 > MPEG-4 H.264 IMO, barely any difference...
 
  • Like
Reactions: MacFoxG4
alex_free

alex_free

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2020
1,090
2,331
YES! Figured out how to watch burned VCDs on Dreamcast using homebrew! Well, I took 3 .MP4 files and combined them to one file and then converted/burned them to a VCD, then used a very old school Dreamcast home brew VCD player! Looking forward to adding this in PPCMC7. Just watching my favorite anime on a Dreamcast using this don’t mind me...
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: NikolaPPC, TheShortTimer, MacFoxG4 and 3 others
Jubadub

Jubadub

macrumors 6502
Nov 1, 2017
342
425
Today I tested three different external FireWire drives with swappable disks (accepts any 2.5" SATA drive): OWC, super speed and acomdata, with SATA SSDs. Summary: OWC sucks, super speed does its job, and acomdata absolutely rules. Can't wait to try 4TB drives on OS9 someday to see what happens LOL (4TB AFP drives do work... a 5TB WD USB drive I tried did not)
 
  • Like
Reactions: repairedCheese and Amethyst1
Jubadub

Jubadub

macrumors 6502
Nov 1, 2017
342
425
Amethyst1 said:
Overpriced crap as usual, then? :)
Click to expand...
Here, it's worse than usual: the FireWire connection did not work altogether, be it on my PowerBook DLSD or MDD, be it Tiger or OS9, be there extra power being supplied externally or not. USB still worked, at least, so it's not downright trash. Using the exact same cables, SSDs, machines and OSes, both the super speed and acomdata ones worked, but acomdata went the extra mile and beyond:

Compared to the other two, acomdata's offers not only a FW800 connection, but also a "FW400" one, is slimmer, lighter, sleeker, faster to swap drives with, and came with FW400 and FW800 cables that included two big ferrite beads per cable, something I never saw in FW cables before, and rarely even on USB (and even when there, they were never as big and sturdy). Also no ON/OFF switch, which I consider an advantage (less clutter, less things to bother with, you never want it switched to OFF accidentally), yet retains the external power supply port if desired (like the other 2). Its only "disadvantage" is that its USB is 2.0 instead of 3.0, which doesn't matter on PPC OS X and especially not OS9, for which I bought all of these drive adapters. (Else I wouldn't have cared for the USB.)

Guess the super speed one gets a bit of an edge if you want both FW800 for your epic Macs and the USB 3.0 for whatever else, and interchange data the fastest way possible in this manner. Not my need or thing, but I recognize the worth of that. Oh, and I guess if you daisy-chain it, two FW800s are better than one "FW400" and one FW800.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Amethyst1
M

Macbookprodude

Suspended
Jan 1, 2018
3,306
898
Jubadub said:
Today I tested three different external FireWire drives with swappable disks (accepts any 2.5" SATA drive): OWC, super speed and acomdata, with SATA SSDs. Summary: OWC sucks, super speed does its job, and acomdata absolutely rules. Can't wait to try 4TB drives on OS9 someday to see what happens LOL (4TB AFP drives do work... a 5TB WD USB drive I tried did not)
Click to expand...
Can't wait to try 4TB drives on OS9 someday to see what happens LOL (4TB AFP drives do work... a 5TB WD USB drive I tried did not) - While I think all things are possible with good programming, who knows ? Maybe OS 9 could do that, but HFS+ only supports up to 128GB drives for now, perhaps the OS can be re-written to support drives larger than 128GB. All I do know is Leopard on my PB G4 Titanium supports and sees my 512GB M2-SATA ADATA SSD.
 
M

Macbookprodude

Suspended
Jan 1, 2018
3,306
898
Today, I got the source code for Netscape(its been open source now for years), and will study it to see if it can be revived under OS X and OS 9.
 
Jubadub

Jubadub

macrumors 6502
Nov 1, 2017
342
425
Macbookprodude said:
[...] HFS+ only supports up to 128GB drives for now [...]
Click to expand...
Uh... no. That limit is present on a hardware level for internal drives (pre-2002-QuickSilver) and Mac OS' own drive setup software (at least on some versions), so you format big drives with OS X, then use them on 9. In OS9, the only limit to be wary of is if the boot partition surpasses 190GB (it doesn't boot then), which is why I use 2 partitions: an OS one (2GB), and a programs/data one (remainder of disk). 2TB for drives is, allegedly, the OS9 limit (AFP aside), which I use as my internal drive. HFS+ itself works fine with 4TB+ drives, got one in my Quad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheShortTimer, RogerWilco6502 and Amethyst1
M

Macbookprodude

Suspended
Jan 1, 2018
3,306
898
Well, I have a 512GB M2 sata on the way, we will see - my G4 is the Titanium 1Ghz which has LBA-48 support for drives larger than 128GB, which is fine under Leopard.. we will see if OS 9 can see it, though I plan to allocate only 128GB for OS 9.
 
M

Macbookprodude

Suspended
Jan 1, 2018
3,306
898
Oh... so, you are on Tiger - the only way you can use safari 4.1.1 is by proxy given the browser is too old.. tenfourfox is also another possibility. Tiger is a great system.. TFF is optimized for G3 also.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom