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How to Rip Your PS1 Games

Posted on November 11, 2024 by Viljami

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.

Getting Into PS1 (What Games Should You Play?)

Posted on September 13, 2024 by Viljami

There are thousands of games for Sony PlayStation 1 that have been published since the console was released in the middle of 1990s. The amount of games can be overwhelming especially if you are new to PlayStation 1. In this blog post I am going through some of the best games for PS1 in different genres from roleplaying to 2D and 3D platformer games.

Lets start with RPGs. Roleplaying games usually take longer to finish. It is improtant to know something about the game that you are about to start to play. First RPG for PS1 that comes to mind is, of course, Final Fantasy VII. While there are more RPGs, also, this must the most improtant out of all of them. It practically brought the Final Fantasy series to Europe and made it a popular game world wide. You can also check titles like Breath of Fire, Grandia, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story and Suikoden.

Maybe the favorite genre in PS1 games for me is racing. The first racing game that comes to my mind is, once again and of course, Gran Turismo. There were two Gran Turismo games released for PS1. If you are new to Gran Turismo I suggest that you start from the first game. Other good racing titles include Colin McRae Rally 1 and 2.0, Ridge Racer (at least Ridge Racer Type 4), Need for Speed series and Driver 1 and 2.

PS1 has also some great FPS games in its game library. While the graphics aren’t as impressive as with some later releases in this genre with some newer hardware. My first suggestion if you are interested in FPSes is Medal of Honor and the sequel Medal of Honor Underground. There was also a port of Doom and also Final Doom and I think these are also worth of getting into. I mention here also Alien Resurrection.

What would a list of the most significant PS1 games be without some survival horror games? If you’re into this genre you have the opportunity to check and play the games that almost started it all. I am saying almost because maybe the first survival horror game that was ever released was Sweet Home and it was originally designed for NES. Games that I have in mind right here are Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3, the first Silent Hill and Clock Tower.

Lets take a look at some fighting games that were released for PS1. Fighting Force 1 and 2 delivered some classic street fighting in a 3D environment. Games like Mortal Kombat Trilogy and many versions of Street Fighter brought you some 2D fighting while Tekken series and Battle Arena Toshinden presented some fighting content in 3D. I can also mention Bushido Blade here. If you are into stealth style of fighting you should check Tenchu and also the sequel for it.

There are also some very good 2D and 3D platformers for PS1 and I have to mention some good games in this genre also. We cannot forget Crash Bandicoot. There were a total of three games released for PS1 in this series. Spyro The Dragon is also one good game in this genre. If you like 2D platformers check the first Rayman and also Oddworld Abe’s Oddysee and the sequel to it.

Other good games that I haven’t mentioned yet in this list are: Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2, Metal Gear Solid, Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, all sport games, Spider-Man series, Wipeout, Tomb Raider series, Castlevania Symphony Of The Night and all other titles that you might find just if you look deeply into the PS1 game library.

There must and there has to be a game that I forgot. And of course this is the list of most important PS1 games in my opinion. You might have a different idea of it. If there are thousands of games there also have to be some hidden gems and you have to spend some time with PS1 to get to know these games. But anyways I hope you did find something from this blog post. I hope this gives you some sort of an idea of what games you shoudl play when you are starting to get into PS1 and its huge game library.

My PS1 Games Collection (Currently)

Posted on February 12, 2024 by Viljami

I recently wrote a blog post about the first PlayStation. This gaming console was first released in 1995. That makes it almost thirty years old. I had to make a decision and move my PS2 away to storge from my gaming setup. I replaced it with my PSOne console. That made me to take a look at my current PS1 games collection for this retro gaming system.

I have well over sixty games in my collection of PS1 games. Some games are definite classics. I have to mention the Final Fantasy series. I have four games in this series. They are FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII and FFIX. I would like to own some day FF Anthology and/or FF Origins. There is also a pixel remaster collection of FF games from I to VI for Nintendo Switch out there and I have a feel that I might some day buy it, also.

PS1 was actually my second gaming console that I owned. My first console was Sega Mega Drive. PS1 turned to a more mature way in a sense. It also introduced real 3D graphics to gamers all over the world. I sold my PS1 and all games and other accessories in the beginning of 2000s. This is something that I greatly regret.

Some other games that are of good quality are the first three Resident Evil games, Vagrant Story, Colin McRae series of two games, Tenchu 1 and 2 and also Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1 to 4 and the first two Grand Theft Auto games. These are just few good titles that come to mind when I look at this collection.

Some PS1 games are cheap and some are expensive. You can get a sense about this as you browse through your favorite gaming web shops. The library for PlayStation 1 is enormous. There are almost eight thousand games in it. You have to understand that some of these games haven’t been sold in every region so there might be some games that are only available in some areas of world. PS1 was in production all the way to 2006 and it received new games through all these years. I believe there are no limitations for a new game to be released for it even today.

I am keen to find some new games for my collection. I think I do have almost every most important game that I used to play back in the days. I also have some titles that I somehow didn’t have some way an opportunity to get into and that I just recently had a chance to get into. I think there is lots of games still out there waiting to get discovered.

Visually PS1 graphics are appealing but you definitely cannot expect so much from this retro console. If you desire I can also recommend to getting into some DreamCast or GameCube games if you want some more powerful graphical experiences. There definitely are limitations in these retro games. You have to remember that these games are retro and you yourself have to like retro games if you wish to play PS1 games in 2024. And this is why we are using the term “retro” all the time.

PS1 was there among one of these 3D capable gaming consoles. It introduced gaming to many of us. I remember hearing for the first time that some over or almost 30-year-olds were also getting into playing video games. PS1 was the most powerful of Sony all the way to when PS2 was released. There were over 100 million units sold. PS2 sold over 150 million units.