Successfully merge two disc psx game

[Izzy]

This is how i successfully merged the psx game Driver 2´s multiple discs. Go to: PSX Kits and download the kit for your game. Decompress the zipfile and follow the readme file. Note that i haven´t played through the whole game so i dont know what will happen when it´s usually time to change discs. But so far so good.

[SentaiBrad]

That would be interesting to say the least. I know Sony has a solution digitally for all of their games, but it's all one package then you just open the settings and "swap discs". This would be awesome, we all know that multiple discs are just a relic of what was and we certainly don't need them anymore and can actually get rid of them. Albeit that's a lot more tricky... but still. Thanks for sharing.

[niglurion]

I use .PBP files for every multiple discs games and it's working great (with ePSXe, I don't think it's working with Mednafen for the time being). You can choose the disc you want when requested. All with PSX2PSP. It's very easy.

[SentaiBrad]

niglurion said I use .PBP files for every multiple discs games and it's working great (with ePSXe, I don't think it's working with Mednafen for the time being). You can choose the disc you want when requested. All with PSX2PSP. It's very easy.

Yea it's essentially the method I was talking about, the Sony solution.

[niglurion]

Ah yes ok. Sorry. I thought you were only talking about the swap system in the PSP/PS3/PS4 menu

[SentaiBrad]

No, no need to apologize at all. Actually, they're the same thing. PSX2PSP (PSX annoys me btw... it's PS1... :P) is a fan created tool for modded PSP's to put PS1 games on the PSP. However, it's the same exact system that Sony uses. So that settings swapping feature is still at the root of it all. They created the system for PS3 and PSP. If it's available for PS2 games on PS4 I haven't come across that yet as no PS1 games are on PS4... at least yet. But they are certainly he same thing, just this is now adapted for emulator use too apparently.

[weltall]

I have used these in the past and I just have to suggest to avoid Final Fantasy 8 and 9. The image ends up being a DVD5 image, which ePSXe can't read at least and either the user will have to use an old 1.70 version of the emulator or not be able to play it. I am not sure if these are more then these two, but with these two I ended having problems, which made me stop using these kits. But they are quite useful if the game you are playing does not have a save during the swap disk phase. If it does, I honestly prefer to save there, close the game and start the next disk.

[SentaiBrad]

weltall said I have used these in the past and I just have to suggest to avoid Final Fantasy 8 and 9. The image ends up being a DVD5 image, which ePSXe can't read at least and either the user will have to use an old 1.70 version of the emulator or not be able to play it. I am not sure if these are more then these two, but with these two I ended having problems, which made me stop using these kits. But they are quite useful if the game you are playing does not have a save during the swap disk phase. If it does, I honestly prefer to save there, close the game and start the next disk.

Save States also work too.

[Lordmonkus]

It looks like the Retroarch Mednafen PSX core is getting support for PBP files. Just updated the core and I noticed when I loaded the core it says (PBP Test) in the core name. I haven't tried to merge any multi disk games to try this feature out yet. Edit: Ok I just tried this out by merging Lunar - Silver Star Story Complete. I merged the 2 disks into a single PBP file and it loaded just fine in Retroarch. So far though the extent of my test is just to load the image, I have no idea how it would handle the game further in once you get to the point where it would want to switch disks.

[weltall]

I never thought of using Savestates for that... *facepalms* darn it! Thanks a lot for mentioning it Brad. I will be using that since it works. :)

[SentaiBrad]

No problem. :P

[Lordmonkus]

Just for confirmation I asked over on the Retroarch forums if the new PBP support in the latest PSX core worked with merged multi disk games and they said yes it does. So feel free to merge your Lunars and Final Fantasys and any other multi disk games into one nice and easy to manage PBP and enjoy the goodness. But as always keep a backup of your individual images just in case.

[alec100_94]

I'm also interested in this, I've been using .pbp's since the PSP days and usually use that format for all my PS1 games, However i've generally found that using the -nogui option (as launchbox does) in epsxe or pcsxr , stops you being able to change disc.

[SentaiBrad]

It doesn't launch right in LB without that command, but in other emulators save states should work fine with swapping discs. Also, trying to make PBP's for RetroArch and I got a runtime error for RA... not a blank screen or opening and closing... a straight runtime error.

[Lordmonkus]

I don't know what tool you are using to merge your disks. I used PSX2PSP v1.4.2, chose the disk images in the ISO/PBP drop down menu. Picked the output folder and clicked convert, let it do its thing then just renamed the finished output file to what I wanted it to be. I could then load the PBP file in Retroarch itself and I could import it into Launchbox and load it that way. I also tested loading it using ePSXe on its own (not through Launchbox) and on load it let me choose which disk and it loaded fine. This is as far as I went with the test.

[SentaiBrad]

Using the same program. I chose the two discs, output directory and converted it. I took the existing game entry and edited the cue sheet to the pbp file and RA run time errors me. Here's a secret I get to tell to everyone, I have to learn too. :P

[SentaiBrad]

Single disc game converted great, not the dual disc game.

[Lordmonkus]

Hehe yeah im learning all the time too. Maybe the fact you are using a cue sheet. I Just used the straight PBP and no cue sheet.

[SentaiBrad]

No what I meant by that was I edited the LaunchBox entry, which was pointing to a cue sheet previously, and pointed it towards the PBP file. The application won't let you select cue sheets. Single disc games are working just fine though.

[Lordmonkus]

Ahh ok, I thought you meant you edited the cue sheet to point to the PBP instead of the bin file. Probably a stupid question but you did select all your disk images for each of the File #s in psx2psp right ? I'm sure you did but I have to ask so please don't slap me lol