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As we promised earlier this week, we are going to explain a PS3 game's boot process, as well as explain why the PARAM.SFO is so important.

The Flowchart in the image attached below explains a PS3 game's startup procedure from insertion to its execution.

Most of it is self-explanatory upon viewing the chart, however, there are a few notes. Any Retail SELF on a Blu-ray disc is flagged so it can only be decrypted and executed from the disc, and nowhere else.

Furthermore, the PARAM.SFO is also of importance... Upon insertion, the PS3 reads the Title ID of the disc in the PARAM.SFO and inserts it into the DB. Once the game is executed and decrypted, the Title ID is checked yet again to make sure it matches. If it does not (think a disc swap), the PS3 will silently error, and return to XMB.

In a final note, our PS3 Devs have been digging through numerous documents and patents, and came to the conclusion that the PS3 uses AIX (Advance... More »  


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XVISTAMAN2005 has discovered a method HERE which allows Retail PS3 console owners to install PS3 Debug Firmware on them... however, before considering attempting this PS3 "HDD Swap" be sure to read below.

Upon following the instructions your retail PS3 console will update to a partial Debug/Test console. Partial is stated because upon doing it the PS3 will possess what is pictured below, specifically non-functioning Debug options.

Debug PKG files won't install, port 1000 is open but you can't connect to it, and the PS3 no longer plays Blu-ray movies. Additionally, the Sony S... More »  


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With the great ongoing work in our PS3 Forums with the RCO files, we are also going to talk about component two of the PS3's XMB includes- its XML Files!

Inside the directory exists 30 XML files. They control quite a bit in regards to the PS3's appearance and functioning, from telling the XMB what types of information to display, all the way to letting you download PlayStation Home!

Do make sure to check out the attached image, as it is code snippets of the XML files we're speaking of below.

For example, in category_game.xml, it appears upon disc insertion, the insertion is added into a database, along with what type of media it's on (CD/DVD/BDVD), and if it detects, what format it is (PS1/PS2/PS3) and so on. Now there are your different media types of course: PS1 CD, PS2 CD, PS2 DVD, PS3 DVD, PS3 BD.

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We mentioned in previous Site News posts that we're working on converting a Retail PS3 into a Debug PS3.. and we have some updated news on the process to share today.

For starters, we had quite a delay. Our PS3 Devs have been using an expensive external programmer to do the job, however, these dumps differed than the dumps from the Infectus chip. It was quite a puzzling issue indeed.. which was the proper dump?!

After many hours of examination spanning over a few weeks time, it turns out the external programmer was the culprit! The software that the manufacturer provided had a flaw in it that would drop certain bytes, resulting in a corrupt dump missing OOB 64 bytes of data. Luckily our PS3 Devs managed to find and correct the initial problem, so a big THANKS to them!

Once that was sorted, testing began by modifying both the IPL and METLDR..... More »  


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Those clever hackers have done it again! Hacker group VladsBoys’ analysis of the pirated copy of GTA IV for the 360 (leaked days before retail release) has reeled in a big one. The cyber-sleuths knew they were on the trail of something big and yes, you guessed it, they found another never-intended-for-retail-consumption chunk of code in a GTA game.

What the hackers found seems to be an abandoned mission that Rockstar at some point intended on including in the game. We have no idea how far into the process this mission got before it was pulled, but we’re pretty sure they knew what they were doing by the mission name… that name was Hot Coughing.

Hacker R*Fan4Lyfe noted in a forum post that while the audio files for the mission were not included in the disc image (and presumably are not on the retail disc either,) the subtitles for the mission dialogue were still present. The mission involves Niko going to the hospital after pulling a groin muscle in... More »  


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A thread on the US PlayStation boards (linked above) about GTA IV freezing issues has now reached over 1,600 comments from angry gamers requesting a patch ASAP.

The forum members have been angered further as videos of the game freezing uploaded to YouTube have been removed due to a "copyright claim by Take 2 Games."

Many now believe Rockstar are now trying to cover up the issue. We did however manage to find one video of the game freezing from cooleyre as you can see below... how long it lasts is undetermined though. :P




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Grand Theft Auto IV is one day away from release, and already Jack Thompson has begun to step up his war on the title. The embattled Florida attorney has written a letter to the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, R. Alexander Acosta, demanding that legal action be taken against Take Two and retailers for selling the game. This time, Thompson appears to have an unlikely ally thanks to video gaming news site IGN.

Thompson sent a copy of the letter to Ars Technica, and his demands are far-reaching. "Indictments should be returned against Take Two corporately and its Chairman, Strauss Zelnick, along with other Take Two officers. Indictment should also be against Sony and Microsoft which are making this pornographic game available to minors, and openly so, on their PS3 and Xbox systems," Thompson wrote. "Further, indictments should be handed down against Wal-Mart, Best Buy, GameStop, and all other retailers distributing this game to minors at their retai... More »  


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Criterion Games have announced today that Burnout Paradise Custom Soundtracks will be coming to the PS3 as part of the Cagney software update.

To play your own music while in Paradise City you will have to hit the Easydrive menu (without interrupting the game), select Soundtrack and hit Custom.

This will bring up the XMB Custom Soundtracks page, where you can select what you'll play, whether you want to shuffle or repeat, and group music as well.


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