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 »
First of all, readers of our Forums know (with the assistance of our Members) we have recently been doing research into the PS3 RCO file format.
Note that it is different than that on a PSP, however, contains similarities as well. We have received a few questions as to "why" we want to examine the files... it's for a few reasons. First off- We are all curious! Secondly, the RCO files, in support with other files, enable/disable "links" to PS3 XMB options.
In related news, we have now accessed the PS3 Flash's FileSystem, and among other things (to be posted in Part 2 or 3 of this article) it contains a folder called "ps1emu".
What is it for? We found out! Inside the ps1emu folder, upon the insertion of a PS2 disc, a file is copied there by the name of "ps1_rom.bin". Oddly enough, it is actually the custom made PS2's BIOS for th... More »
Competition becomes even more vital in an industry that is technology driven. It's quite amazing that Moore's law, which states that computing power doubles every 18 months, still holds true.
This rapid evolution is primarily driven by competition. People are constantly trying to outdo each other. Consoles typically have a shelf life of about five to six years. What would happen without competition?
Where did the Genesis go? What happened with the PlayStation 2? Having nightmares yet?
In other words, we would potentially skip a whole generation of hardware. So what would make this such a likely scenario? Because when no competition exists, then you have a situation where a company's bottom line is less aligned with consumer needs.
As an example, Nintendo was once clearly dominating the market with the NES. While the Sega Master system was on the market, it had less than 5% marketshare. Nintendo was so comfortable in their positio... More »
We all know using the PS3 on screen keyboard to type, can be very tedious. So tedious, that I have had people whom I’ve sent a PSN message to, reply via email, just so they could just type on their computer.
I didnt really want a huge full-sized keyboard and mouse setup, as I game from the comfort of my couch. I dont have the space for it and its inconvenient.
There is a thumbpad accessory for the PS3. But many have reported that it was a waste of money, even some people claiming it couldnt even connect to the PS3.
So what is a PS3 owner to do to be able to type with ease? The answer? Logitech Dinovo Mini. Read the review below…
The Logitech Dinovo Mini, is marketed mainly toward Home Theater PC owners who do want a huge keyboard in their living room, much like my situation. However its not just for the PC. There is a switch on the backside of the mini keyboard that lets you switch from PC to PS3.
After a federal judge awarded the MPAA a summary judgment against former BitTorrent tracker TorrentSpy late last year, the only question left was how much it would end up costing TorrentSpy's admins.
We've got our answer, and it comes in the form of a staggering $110 million damage award, or $30,000 in statutory damages for each of the nearly 3,700 files in the MPAA's complaint.
The MPAA announced the award in a press release (PDF) earlier today.
"This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites," said Dan Glickman, Chairman and CEO of the MPAA. "The demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios and demonstrates that such pirate sites will not be allowed to continue to operate without facing relentless litigation by copyright holders."
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 »
Nintendo’s latest entrant into the console war has no doubt been the company’s most successful entry since the original Nintendo Entertainment System in the 80s. The Wii has managed to continually sell out in stores since its release in November of 2006. In just a meager year and half, its already managed to outsell its predecessor, the Gamecube.
It shattered the PS2’s record of selling 10 million consoles in the US by a near 4 months. It currently holds the most market share out of the next gen systems. Nintendo, without a doubt, must be extremely proud of Miyamoto’s latest brain child.
That being said, there is something seriously wrong with the Nintendo Wii. No, its not that it doesn’t have the graphical capabilities of the 360/PS3. Nor is it the lackluster online service Nintendo provides either. It isn’t the paltry amount of hard drive space, sometimes unresponsive accelerometers of the nunchuck, or even the chuckle-inspiring name of the conso... More »
OldPrisoneR has released the initial BETA of FuSa, a Custom Firmware plug-in that enables Slim owners to play PSP games on their television over standard composite cable.
Under normal circumstances, the PSP would require that you use a component cable, so this plug-in neatly removes that restriction.
Tested on CFW 3.80 M33-5.. For compatibility information and usage instructions, refer to the included readme file.
High street chains will be the next victims of cyber terrorism, some of the world's elite hackers have warned.
They claim it is only a "matter of time" before the likes of Tesco and Marks & Spencer are targeted.
Criminals could use the kind of tactics which crippled Estonia's government and some firms last year, they warned.
The experts were members of the infamous "Hackers Panel" which convened in London this week at the InfoSecurity Europe conference.
The panel includes penetration testers and so-called "white hat" hackers, who help companies tighten up their digital security by searching for flaws in their defences.
Previous panellists include Gary McKinnon, known as Solo, alleged by the US government to have hacked into dozens of US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense computers.
The "hackers" usually remain anonymous, "for security reasons", but this year's panellists agreed to break co... More »
I grabbed one of the drives last week and it arrived a few days ago, installed it into the PC, and can confirmJan70's findings- that it indeed reads PS3 Game Discs flawlessly!
Below are a few screencaptures illustrating the drive, dumping Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom for PS3 via DVD Decrypter which took 00:14:10 to copy 8.27 GB (8,880,652,288 bytes) of data. As you can see, the resulting .ISO image file is viewable in iSOBuster and as suspected the disc-based encryption layer is still present as is on dumps done via PS3 Linux/SAK... as illustrated in WinHex below.
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