Player buys a PlayStation 1 and discovers strange cables when cleaning inside

Nicht alle Kabel, die sich in so mancher alter PlayStation aus den 90er-Jahren finden, hat Sony dort verbaut. Sie erfüllen einen speziellen Zweck bei Raubkopien.
Bildquelle: Pixabay Not all cables that can be found in many old Playstation from the 1990s has built Sony there. They meet a special purpose in pirated copies. Image source: Pixabay

Although Reddit user SSJGuitarists bought the Playstation as an ambitious collector, especially for the shelf, he screws it up for cleaning. If he wanted to play with it, she should be better clean to avoid heat problems. But cleaning quickly becomes a minor matter - because what it discovers inside the console provides guessing rates.

The PS1 fan finds cable, which for him drove from one end of the main board cross bed to another. You can be seen here:

A complex modification with just one purpose

Of the puzzle solution:He and the interested community in the Subreddit PSX do not have to wait long for an answer, because there is obviously a real specialist in user cyber_akuma.

He describes extensive and detailedthat this is a progressive one for that timeStealth-Modchipacts.

What is a modchip?The strongly shortened explanation:

As copy protection and the recognition of the regional codes, each official PlayStation disc has special grooves.
It cannot be artificially generated by burners, only pressing works can be pushed into the blank.
At every start, the console reads the groove, fits it, invites the game, otherwise the process breaks off.
The modchip, i.e. the predecessor of the one built in here, (but more on that) ensures that the console simply gets this groove constantly. The games start - also burned discs or with inappropriate regional code.

Now Sony recognized the problem and ensured that the title of later generation crashed directly. At the software level, they are trimmed to recognize this constant transmission. Appearance stealth modchip:

The new version only sends the check data required at the start if the console requested it-never otherwise. The stealth chip perfectly accelerated both the hardware protection and the new software backup, everything was fine with the console.
This modern variant can still be recognized by additional cables today.Stealth modchips reveal themselves through a total of seven cables. The old have only four or five. According to the expert, the more capable variant is the one.

The complete (translated), slightly adapted explanation by cyber_akuma

Click for display

To explain it more precisely:Official Playstation games have a special groove that cannot be reproduced with burners and serves both as copy protection and as a regional code. When starting a disk, the Playstation tries to read the groove. If it is not available or the wrong region is given, the game does not start.

Modchips were developed to simply send the data directly from the Grove to the PlayStation, so that every CD could be booted regardless of its region and even when it was a burnt copy.

In order to counteract this trick, a few later games were designed so that it is checked immediately after boats whether the Playstation still receives these grooves. Usually this should not be the case, since the console only reads the data once and has already exceeded this point. If the PlayStation determines that the data will continue to be sent, she knows that a modchip is forced to send the data to the PlayStation. She ends the game with a warning message.

However, the problem is that there is no longer a distinction. As soon as the console has been made, official discs also fail their work. Even with a legally acquired game, the system no longer works if such a modchip is installed.

In order to counteract this, later modchips, generally referred to as stealth modchips, were developed. Instead of constantly supplying the console with groove data, check when the Playstation tries to read it. Only then does the new chip transmit the data.

This essentially duplicated, which the Playstation would see from a proper disc. However, this required more wires to solder, which is generally a tellty sign that a modchip is a newer stealth design. The older modchips have 4/5 wires, but the newer stealth modchips 7, like that in the photo.

SSJGuitanist seems more than satisfied with the answer and, after exuberant thanks, concludes with the apparently more fun request: "Now I would like to have a disc to use it."