In this blog post we are going to go through about how to rip your PS1, PlayStation 1, games to rom files so that you can play with an emulator or a piece of hardware like Raspberry Pi 4/5. This way of copying your games for your personal use is completely legal. What is currently illegal is copying rom files of games that you don’t own and/or if you share some games that you have ripped to someone who doesn’t own that particular game. We are dealing with a sensitive legal issue right here and things can change, for better or worse, in the future. I don’t want to encourage you to break law in any way.
So you have your PlayStation 1 game. What else do you need? Here’s a list:
- External DVD drive
- A PC running, preferably, Windows 10 (this guide has been written using this OS)
- Magic ISO Maker (the software that actually rips the disc and converts it to the rom file)
External DVD drives today cost something from 40 euros to maybe 60 euros. You don’t need a special DVD drive. You just need something that works. The DVD drive should be connected to your PC through USB. Many PCs today don’t have a DVD drive so you might need an external one. If you have internal DVD drive or something like that you can also use that.
The discs that PS1 uses are colored in black on the side that gets read in the DVD drive. That doesn’t stop the disc from being read. Note, also, that you can rip your PS2 games in this similar way if you are into emulating PS2 also.
You do need a special software. I am using currently Magic ISO Maker (trial version). However there are also some other alternatives. You might want to check them out also. Ripping the disc is pretty straightforward. You select “Tools” from the upper main menu. Then you select “Make ISO from CDRom”. There is a new window that pops up. Select your DVD drive that has the disc in it and make sure that you have connected the USB cable of the DVD drive to your PC.
Then you select your DVD drive from the drop-down menu. Now click the folder icon on the right side of the part that says “Output File” and choose the destination where you want to save the rom files and also give these files names. This doesn’t have to necessarily be the name of the game that is being ripped but that could make things somewhat easier. Then change the file format (“File Format”) to “BIN image file”. That way your game will be in a form of two files that are .bin and .cue. You need to copy both of them to your game library or the location that you are running your emulated games from.
Now make sure that there is Make CD Image selected from the radio buttons that is titled “Option”. Then just click “OK” button. Now the disc of your PS1 game gets ripped to a BIN-file and a CUE-file. You can rip multiple games and place them in some folder where you can have one game in one folder. That way you will find your games easily.