Fun with XStation

Couldn't wait for Voultar to send me my PlayStation back with an XStation so I bought a premodded console on eBay. Of course, having two XStation-modded SCPH-100x PlayStations was always the plan for link-cable goodness.

Things to document before I forget:

Updating a GameShark is possible with the XStation. You want to select the Enhancement Disc with Full Load, and then you'll go back to the GameShark menu where you can update. As an aside, the CD-based GameSharks, or at least the CDX, won't work on SCPH-100X. At least according to this old GameShark thread. (Web Archive threads of interest: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

The preferred SD card brand for the XStation is... up for debate. I've read to stay away from, and go for, Samsung cards. I'm not sure which of my games are streaming audio (does that mean just not Red Book audio?), but right now I'm using a 256 GB SanDisk SD card for the Switch, and everything seems to work well.

Rip your own games with ImgBurn in the BIN/CUE format, and not the ISO or CCD formats. This is for three reasons:

1. You'll run into audio problems if your rips are in a format other than BIN/CUE. In my Tekken 1 test, which I know for sure has Red Book audio, the music wouldn't play from the CCD rip, but the other Tekkens were fine... until I beat Tekken 3 and the end credits theme wouldn't play from the CCD rip either. So once I reripped the games, all the games worked fine, including from Tekken 3's Theater Mode where swapping discs from 3>1>2>3>1>2>3 works. 
2. Redump's rips are also in BIN/CUE. 
3. When converting your own PSN-purchased PS1 classics (this tutorial is great), the final result is also BIN/CUE (...among others, but you want BIN/CUE).

If you decide to rename your BIN/CUE rips after they were initially created (and you kinda have to if you converted a PSN PSone Classic), be sure to also open the CUE in Notepad and edit the name to match. I can't be bothered to explain my own naming logic, so here are some of the file names of my own rips:

• Bust A Move Dance & Rhythm Action [J]
• Bust A Move 2 Dance Tengoku Mix [J]
• Metal Gear Solid Integral (1 of 3) [J]
• Metal Gear Solid Integral (2 of 3) [J]
• Metal Gear Solid Integral (3 of 3) VR Disc [J]
• Resident Evil Director's Cut [U]
• Resident Evil 2 Preview [U]
• WipEout 3 Special Edition [E]

Always make sure the file name extensions of the BIN/CUE rips are in lowercase; otherwise you'll get an ugly ".BIN" after each of your games in the game list. Be sure to edit the CUE to reflect this as well.

Soundtrack-swapping in Ridge Racer works as well as it ever did (i.e. not very well); you get the same problem of songs starting anywhere they feel like it. It was originally done by simply opening the PlayStation lid during gameplay and swapping in any music CD. Now you rip the music CD like you would a PlayStation game and make the music CD the second disc of a multiswap. I'm not familiar enough with Monster Ranch, Vib-Ribbon or Internal Section to see if they perform any differently.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that loading a ripped music CD takes you to the original PlayStation music player, so owners of "audiophile" PlayStations don't lose anything.

Lastly, if you for whatever reason decide to change the video mode to PAL and find yourself unable to see the screen and unable to set it back to NTSC, get another SD card and prepare it for use with the XStation (format it and put the "00xstation" folder with loader.bin and update.bin). Start XStation with that SD card, hit Triangle to go to options, and save. Turn off the PlayStation and connect the SD card to your computer. Drag and drop config.txt to your desktop. Remove that SD card and insert your original XStation SD card (the one with your games) and replace the config.txt there with the new one. 

UPDATE: The new firmware update displays only 47 characters, now simply cutting the file name off;  no more ellipses. 

Superman & Lois

Can I just say how much I love this series?? Brought me back to the superhero shows after I left with the end of Arrow. I binged the first five episodes of S&L on HBO Max and now I'm catching it on TV live. I can't think of a single criticism. 

And can I also say how much I love this Lois?? She looks exactly how I would picture a real-life Lois. She's just as pretty as the animated Lois from Superman: the Animated Series and Justice League. What a beauty!!

TiVo blanking problems fixed?

 A couple months ago the TiVo Mini in the living room didn't like the old HDMI 1.x cable was using, so I had to switch to one of those newer, fancier 2.x cables. Apparently that fixed it, so I switched back to the old cable just to see if the problem would come back... and it did, and the 2.x cable is still used for the TiVo Mini. (UPDATE: I see the TiVo Mini's resolution was set to "auto" after the update, which meant 4K; no wonder the old cable wasn't working. Pretty sure TiVo used to max out at 1080i.)

Back in my room, I would notice random blackouts every 10 minutes or so. At first I thought it was the Tendak HDMI-to-VGA adapter, but then I switched to a monitor that had native HDMI and it happened there too. So after Google yielded no useful results about intermittent blackouts/blanking/blinking, I tried switching the resolution from 1080p to 720p, and that seems to have fixed things.

USB and RJ45 wiring for Brook Universal Fight Board

I'm in a joystick-building mood again and I found out very quickly that anything other than a proper Neutrik RJ45 connection sucks.

The problem: The Brook Universal Fight Board uses a USB Type-B connection, which obviously isn't RJ45. But a Brook UFB with headers also has the headers for another type of USB connection if you so desire.

The solution: Order a bag of Cat 6 RJ45 ethernet cables, verify the colors, and learn how to crimp Dupont connectors using this crimp tool and this tutorial. (This tutorial is for putting on the Neutrik)

According to Toodles (assuming RJ45 clip on bottom):

RJ45 pin 1 = black - ground (USB) = orange/white stripe (T568B RJ45)

RJ45 pin 5 = white - D- (USB) = blue/white stripe (T568B RJ45)

RJ45 pin 6 = green - D+ (USB) = green (T568B RJ45)

RJ45 pin 8 = red - VCC (USB) = brown (T568B RJ45)

So left to right on a Brook UFB is this: 

1. G (orange/white stripe)
2. D+ (green)
3. D- (blue/white stripe)
4. VCC (brown)

This means the wires you can safely cut/eliminate are:

• green/white stripe
• brown/white stripe
• blue
• orange

The alternative is to actually use the USB connection, cut the end of the cable, and crimp on an RJ45 to that. You would only need to cut (and not even strip) four wires, and this is indeed how you would make cables for other systems with a multi-console board. But I think using an RJ45 cable in the first place is easier, not to mention cheaper.

For reference: USB pinouts and wire colors

Asagiri Gen-isms

We're all watching Dr. Stone on Crunchyroll, right? Good.

Took me a while to realize these were just backwards Japanese words...

りむ

じま

ばいや

ごいす

どいひ