Backing Up/Preserving PS1 Games

[Apollo]

Now, before I begin, I want to note that this thread is not intended to be about emulation.

I recently found some of my old PS1 games today, and looked through them. A few of my favorites, most notably Legend of Dragoon, had a bit more scratches than the rest did. Now I generally am very careful with my discs, and I was sure that the scratches just came from me playing the game so much. Soon enough, I figure that the game will be essentially unplayable.

Now, on to the point. Is there any way I can backup the actual CD? I thought about ripping all 4 CD's to my computer, and then burning them onto regular blank CD's, but I'm pretty sure that my PS1 would still need modification in order to get them to run, even though they aren't just one giant .ISO file. So, do I have any real options for keeping my games around and playable?


Also, if this thread belongs in a different area, feel free to move it.

[Sudo]

Get a mod chip for your PSX, that's what I did. You'll be able to play your backups, as well as import games, which is a nice bonus.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

While mod chips are certainly the most "convenient" solution in terms of just putting games in and having them run, however, if you're not super savvy with a soldering iron (Or the mod specs, considering there are over 10 hardware revisions of the PS1 counting the PSOne), PS1 BOOT DISCS work great as well, and are pretty cheap these days.

http://www.linker4u.com/pp/linker4u.asp

Though, if you're looking for longevity / archival of PS1 games, I'd STRONGLY reccomend picking up "archival grade" CD-R's (they shouldn't be that much more expensive than regular ones) as I recently found that all of my PS1 backups had failed after 10 years.

And as far as software - use NERO and make an "exact copy".

[norkusa]

Though, if you're looking for longevity / archival of PS1 games, I'd STRONGLY reccomend picking up "archival grade" CD-R's (they shouldn't be that much more expensive than regular ones) as I recently found that all of my PS1 backups had failed after 10 years.

What brands would be considered 'archival grade'? I know Taiyo Unden's are the best but I always buy Verbatim's since they're a lot easier to find in stores.

Tried using Sony dvd-r's before the Verbatim's but my PStwo had a lot of problems reading them.

[Apollo]

So just to make sure I'm getting all this right, my best bet is to get a mod chip?

And no, for the record, I've never even picked up a soldering tool.

[Flack]

Or a swap disc, or a blue PSX dev unit. You can get those for between $50-$100, and they play CD-R backups.

[ScourDX]

I'm pretty sure software like CloneCD or Alcohol 120 allows you to make perfect backup game and you don't need modchip.

[Cornelius]

Also, no need to bother with the 'archival grade' stuff if you are only worried about additional scratches... just play your backups and leave your original on the shelf.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I'm pretty sure software like CloneCD or Alcohol 120 allows you to make perfect backup game and you don't need modchip.

Nothing can copy the verification track on a pressed PS1 CD. You'll need either a mod chip, swap disc, "magic finger" expansion port device ... or one of the above options.

If you've never soldered anything to anything ... I'd suggest a "boot"/"swap" disc. I wouldn't steer ya wrong. (I'll bring one to the next NAVA and show you how easy they are to use.)

And even though they won't make a copy that will run without a system modification - Alcohol, Nero, or just about any other CD burning software that will make a 1:1 copy and not get hung up on "rights copy protected" software will do fine.

AND (lots of and's) I only suggest the "archive" grade CDRs due to my experience with backing up PS1 games and recently discovering that they all (about 100 of them on several different brands of "standard" CDR media) failed after about 7-10 years of storage.

http://www.mediasupply.com/goldarchivecd-r.html

at least a product like that has a "guarantee" of non-corruption/failure for x amount of years.