EDC + DDR 2nd Remix - Does EDC protection work on PS2s?

[LMS737]

Not an issue. Since I trashed multiple CDs, I think I should share my findings.
The game is DDR 2nd Remix (NTSC-J) , and as we know this game has APv2 + EDC.

I followed your guide and used CDRDAO with Arch Linux + external burner. I had the exact same results as you, except near the end after "flushing cache" message I had errors in the terminal. I also tried with admin rights, and still same errors. These errors cause the disc not to be read on any platform/OS. I did not write down the exact error messages, and decided to try something else.

My solution was to use Alcohol 120% (Free edition) on Windows. The existing instructions were not very clear to me. And it was not shown inside the "Burning Software" table in your ultimate guide. This is how I got it to work.

1. Startup the program.
2. Select Image burning Wizard.
3. Select the .cue file and press next.
4. In this new window, at the bottom left the Datatype is set to 3DO by default.
5. Change this datatype to General Protected CD.
6. Change write speed to the speed you prefer.
7. Click start and it will burn correctly.

• The game will now work fine on a PS1 stealth chipped when burned this way. Otherwise it will freeze.

• On a PAL PS2 39xxx chipped console, it behaves differently. Use Tonyhax International 1.5.1 to prevent APv2 from triggering and it will work. It does not care about EDC. The freeze is not triggered even if you burn incorrectly with ImgBurn.

• I also tested Um Jammer Lammy (Europe) on the PS2 + chipped. It boots up no problem with Tonyhax International 1.5.1.

Overall the software and boot disc is very useful to maximize PS1 compatibility on early PS2.

[alex-free]

Not an issue. Since I trashed multiple CDs, I think I should share my findings. The game is DDR 2nd Remix (NTSC-J) , and as we know this game has APv2 + EDC.

I followed your guide and used CDRDAO with Arch Linux + external burner. I had the exact same results as you, except near the end after "flushing cache" message I had errors in the terminal. I also tried with admin rights, and still same errors. These errors cause the disc not to be read on any platform/OS. I did not write down the exact error messages, and decided to try something else.

My solution was to use Alcohol 120% (Free edition) on Windows. The existing instructions were not very clear to me. And it was not shown inside the "Burning Software" table in your ultimate guide. This is how I got it to work.

1. Startup the program.

2. Select Image burning Wizard.

3. Select the .cue file and press next.

4. In this new window, at the bottom left the Datatype is set to 3DO by default.

5. Change this datatype to General Protected CD.

6. Change write speed to the speed you prefer.

7. Click start and it will burn correctly.


* The game will now work fine on a PS1 stealth chipped when burned this way. Otherwise it will freeze.

* On a PAL PS2 39xxx chipped console, it behaves differently. Use Tonyhax International 1.5.1 to prevent APv2 from triggering and it will work. It does not care about EDC. The freeze is not triggered even if you burn incorrectly with ImgBurn.

* I also tested Um Jammer Lammy (Europe) on the PS2 + chipped. It boots up no problem with Tonyhax International 1.5.1.

Overall the software and boot disc is very useful to maximize PS1 compatibility on early PS2.

Thanks for the info. This is quite interesting...

Questions:

1. Did you use cdrdao from arch or cdrdao-pled from https://alex-free.github.io/cdrdao/ ? It really shouldn't matter since arch is apparently using cdrdao 1.2.5 (which is required to burn all EDC games correctly) according to https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/cdrdao/ but still I am curious.

2. Your CDRDAO issue occurred every burn? Could you copy paste the output here?

3. So your saying SCPH-39XXX isn't getting locked up by EDC, but PS1s are? I wonder, if somehow EDC isn't triggered on PS2s or if this is something else (do you maybe have the CD read speed for PS1 games increased in the PS2 settings?).

I never got around to documenting the alcohol 120% instructions, I'm glad you figured it out though. You got it down.

I am glad you see the use of this for the early PS2s. Something else this does, is some PS1 games when burned to 80 minute CD-Rs just don't boot even on a mod-chipped PS2 if it is an early model... the boot disc does solve that as well and allows 80 minute CD-R backups of games that have that problem to work correctly.

[LMS737]

1. I tried cdrdao-pled (your link) previously.

2. Yes the errors I had on 3 burns, unfortunately I don't have the output saved. Today I tried to reproduce it for you, but I get a different problem on both cdrdao from arch and cdrdao-pled. It gets stuck at Writing lead-in and gap step.

My guess, is there is some kind of incompatibility with my external burner that splits the cable into two USB inputs for power that causes all these problems with CDRDAO. Alcohol120% works without problems and is a good alternative when CDRDAO does not work.

3. Yes the PS2 SCPH-39XXX does not care about EDC on default PS2 settings, there is no increased read speed. I did not change anything. The game boots fine with Imgburn after bypassing APv2 with Tonyhax International. But that same burn will freeze on the PS1 due to EDC getting triggered.

Finally, I have one question for you.

4. We know this software does not work for models such as SCPH-50XXX and higher PS2. On these models, the stealth functionality from the chips does not always work properly. And Mechapwn creates other issues and drawbacks.

Do you think the AP patches could be applied and adapted to those models that have a chip installed? In other words, they use your bootdisc on a non fully stealth chipped PS2 SCPH-50XXX or higher. Swap game disc + apply the AP patches and boot the game succesfully.

I wonder if you have thought of this use case :)

[alex-free]

1. I tried cdrdao-pled (your link) previously.
2. Yes the errors I had on 3 burns, unfortunately I don't have the output saved. Today I tried to reproduce it for you, but I get a different problem on both cdrdao from arch and cdrdao-pled. It gets stuck at Writing lead-in and gap step.

My guess, is there is some kind of incompatibility with my external burner that splits the cable into two USB inputs for power that causes all these problems with CDRDAO. Alcohol120% works without problems and is a good alternative when CDRDAO does not work.

3. Yes the PS2 SCPH-39XXX does not care about EDC on default PS2 settings, there is no increased read speed. I did not change anything. The game boots fine with Imgburn after bypassing APv2 with Tonyhax International. But that same burn will freeze on the PS1 due to EDC getting triggered.

Finally, I have one question for you.

4. We know this software does not work for models such as SCPH-50XXX and higher PS2. On these models, the stealth functionality from the chips does not always work properly. And Mechapwn creates other issues and drawbacks.

Do you think the AP patches could be applied and adapted to those models that have a chip installed? In other words, they use your bootdisc on a non fully stealth chipped PS2 SCPH-50XXX or higher. Swap game disc + apply the AP patches and boot the game succesfully.

I wonder if you have thought of this use case :)

it may be some usb shenanigans in Linux with cdrdao, it does sound like maybe not enough power or the usb connection is unstable under those conditions especially if it hangs like that. Makes sense.

Very weird EDC protection doesn’t work on PS2s… I might have to get my SCPH-10000 launch PS2 out and test that myself.

On the 50XXX series, it probably already works! At least someone mentioned to me before that newer PS2s seem to work fine. They just get treated like Japanese PS2s (even if they are USA or PAL consoles, it has to do with the cdrom bios firmware version reported). I don’t have any newer PS2s to play around with so I never really looked into it. But if you do have the ability to play around with it let me know what happens.

[LMS737]

Very interesting read here about the 50XXX. Unfortunately I don't have other PS2s to test it. A chipped PS2 that spams the SCEX string on the SX wire, in combination with this tool can achieve close to 100% compatibility with PS1 games.

Actually I thought of one edge case where I believe it would fail. The scenario of a multi game disc with AP protection without the possibility of saving before disc swap, and where the game requires different AP patches across discs. I am not sure if there exists such games.

Going back to the EDC discussion. I agree that it is weird how the EDC fails to activate on my 39XXX PS2. When you have some free time, it would be interesting to know if your SCPH-10000 is going to ignore the EDC check as well.

[alex-free]

Very interesting read here about the 50XXX. Unfortunately I don't have other PS2s to test it. A chipped PS2 that spams the SCEX string on the SX wire, in combination with this tool can achieve close to 100% compatibility with PS1 games.

Actually I thought of one edge case where I believe it would fail. The scenario of a multi game disc with AP protection without the possibility of saving before disc swap, and where the game requires different AP patches across discs. I am not sure if there exists such games.

Going back to the EDC discussion. I agree that it is weird how the EDC fails to activate on my 39XXX PS2. When you have some free time, it would be interesting to know if your SCPH-10000 is going to ignore the EDC check as well.

I believe even SCPH-90XXX PS2s will work as is. You need to trick the lid sensor on the slims, which is much more involved then on the PS1. Any SCPH-50XXX just needs the swap magic tool to trick the drive (and the DVD drive faceplate removed), identical to Japanese instructions for PS2. Once I'm able to, I want to go into this further and purchase a few more PS2 models (50XXX especially).

You bring up a really good point. That is a limitation with the Japanese consoles in general, but if it is mechapwn'd beforehand it should be able to swap to the next disc just fine! Same if it is chipped (even SCEX spamming chips).

Eventually, I want to hack the disc swap process in-game to allow non-chipped Japanese consoles to seamlessly play multi-disc games. One day...

If you are on disc 1 of a multi-disc game containing anti-piracy, and switch to disc 2 in-game I don't think it activates any checks. The anti-piracy checks happen usually when you full-boot disc 2 from power off, so I think the anti-piracy bypass system is covering that edge case. There's really only a few games that don't allow you to use the last save made on disc 1 on disc 2 from full-boot. I'm not sure of any protected game which can't function this way.

[alex-free]

So I bought a 50001 for an insane deal! Can't wait to see what happens

[LMS737]

So I bought a 50001 for an insane deal! Can't wait to see what happens

Nice!!! Let me know what happens.