How to burn PS1(PSX) on Linux Mint… Probably.

So, I have blogged about the fact that I no longer run ANY Microsoft modern OS (I do run some old MSX etc with one by them) and I am gathering information on many things as I learn more and more. One issue I had this week was burning PS1 discs onto a CD-R. Fairly simple you may think but due to copy protection on re-dump images, not so at first. The solution turned out to be very simple thanks to one guys efforts to get his fork into the official package of CDRDAO.

You see, some of the tracks on a PSX disc are in fact EDC-based additional copy protection. This changes what data the game itself reads from a specific part of the disc during a specific time/check function resulting in an horrendous white noise instead of music or voice etc. Normally I would just use the text below for bin/cue files:

cdrdao write --device /dev/cdrom yourdisc.cue

But this will just copy the .bin files complete with EDC, which results in random noise instead of audio tracks in various parts of playing the game when burning an accurate re-dump image.

So, a solution was needed and that solution is:

--swap

Simple but badly documented to the point that after five fail burns using various gui and non-gui solutions I was starting to assume ever single rip of a certain disc was just badly done.

So, how I fixed it and bear in mind this may not work for you and it isn’t needed for every image but so far all the re-dumps I have used required it. Firstly, install CDRDAO:

sudo apt install cdrdao

And if unsure what your devices are try:

sudo apt install wodim

Replace /dev/cdrom with your actual burner device if needed, check with:

wodim --devices

Now for the simple solution that should work in near all cases. Pop a CD-R in your burner. Navigate to your downloaded image folder, probably in Downloads. (I will assume if you got this far you already know how to CD to the correct location).

cdrdao write --speed 10 --device /dev/cdrom --swap --eject yourcuehere.cue

Replace device if needed, adjust speed as desired and if you are in the image folder as you NEED to be you can change the .cue to your own desired burn.

You can also use the --help to find out more and then -help on each individual command, aka --speed -h

A few minutes later, pop it in your Retro Real Hardware and enjoy your game.

There are other programs to do this but I’ve tried three now on Linux and none of them are as good at providing information and control as the command lines above using CDRDAO.

Issues? Leave a comment. If I can help, I will do.