Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- carts:sony:vita [2021/10/12 00:39]
jonasrosland
+++ carts:sony:vita [2021/12/30 02:31]
hiccup [Method 2 - NoNpDrm Method]
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== PlayStation Vita ======
+todo: rewrite, add info on what to do with the data that is stripped by PSVStrip, and mention that its probably best to dump all carts both with PSVGameSD and NoNpDrm.
 ===== Introduction =====
-**//[copied from No-Intro wiki - needs polishing]//**
+The PlayStation Vita is a powerful dumping machine for Vita carts, just bear in mind it might take a few tries for someone setting up their homebrew-enabled console the first time to be able to get the tools working. Patience will pay off though, so please continue reading :)
-The PlayStation Vita is a powerful dumping machine for Vita carts, but it might take a few tries for someone setting up their homebrew-enabled console the first time to be able to get the tools working. This page is a work in progress, and will soon include more step-by-step instructions on how to set up a "standardized" PlayStation Vita for dumping purposes.
+Highly recommend reading [[https://gist.github.com/yifanlu/bcc8ebb102704ae136c650a912c6f70c|this great comparison between available tools]] written by [[https://twitter.com/yifanlu|Yifan Lu]].
 ===== Methods =====
@@ Line 14: / Line 15: @@
 ==== Method 1 - PSVgameSD + PSVStrip Method ====
-This dumping method is based on '''Motoharu's tool''', created in 2017. The PSVgameSD application acts as a '''dumper tool''' as well as a '''virtual drive''' for the dumps it makes.  It allow us to create a 1:1 dump from the game cartridge, that can be virtually mounted on Ps Vita, emulating the exact same behavior as we inserted the original game cartridge on the PS Vita. This leads to a perfect dump for preservation archival purpose.
+TL;DR - Go to the [[#Dumping]] section
-However, this method was allowed in No Intro in 2019, once user "'''iCEQB'''" provided a solution for the "unique license file" problem (as the license file generated inside each game cartridge is different, two dumps from different game cartridge of the same game will never match). This solutions is called '''PSVStrip'''.
+=== History about the tools ===
-PSVStrip, developed in collaboration with user "'''KippyKid'''", is a tool that allow us to strip all data introduced by "PSVgameSD" and null all unique bytes within a PlayStation Vita dump. This makes sure that No-Intro only preserves all common bytes across multiple cartridges of the same game, while at the same time staying as close as possible to the original media as it can get.
+This dumping method is based on [[https://github.com/motoharu-gosuto/psvgamesd|PSVgameSD]], created by [[https://github.com/motoharu-gosuto|Motoharu Gosuto]]. The PSVgameSD application acts as a **dumping tool** as well as a **virtual drive** for the dumps it creates. It allow us to create a 1:1 dump from the game cartridge, which then can be virtually mounted on a PlayStation Vita, emulating the exact same behavior as we inserted the original game cartridge on the device. This leads to a perfect dump for preservation archival purpose.
-This modified version is useful for preservation according to No Intro standards, but will leave the dump unplayable in Vita. An option in PSVStrip was developed in order to reconstruct the dump quickly and make it playable.
+This method of dumping was approved in No-Intro in 2019, once user **iCEQB** provided a solution for the "unique license file" problem (as the license file generated inside each game cartridge is different, two dumps from different game cartridge of the same game will never match). This solution then grew into a tool called [[https://github.com/Kippykip/PSVStrip|PSVStrip]].
-PSVgameSD is a tool that '''still needs some further modification and fixes'''. Motoharu has given his blessing for '''anyone to fork it and improve it'''.
+PSVStrip is a tool that allow us to strip all data introduced by PSVgameSD and null all unique bytes within a PlayStation Vita dump. This makes sure that we only preserve all common bytes across multiple cartridges of the same game, while at the same time staying as close as possible to the original media as it can get.
-Please, mind that, as the rom file generated by PSVgameSD has a ".psv" extension, this method and its results are totally unrelated to "BlackFin" project. For more information, see [https://github.com/motoharu-gosuto/psvgamesd/blob/master/README.md#relation-to-cobra-blackfin]
+This modified version is useful for preservation according to No-Intro standards, but will leave the dump unplayable. An option in PSVStrip was developed in order to re-add the licensing data and header info back to a stripped dump and make it playable.
-==='''NOTE: Compatibility with game cards that have grw0: partition'''===
+Note: The dumps generated by PSVgameSD has a ".psv" extension, however this method and its results are totally unrelated to the "BlackFin" project. For more information, [[https://github.com/motoharu-gosuto/psvgamesd/blob/master/README.md#relation-to-cobra-blackfin|see this explanation]].
-There are some game cards that have a writeable partition called "grw0". Its been confirmed that this partition allows to write save data and updates files into the game card .
+=== NOTE: Compatibility with game cards that have grw0: partition ===
-Currently, such kind of Game Card can be dumped, but the "grw0" partition won't get dumped on it.
+There are some game cards that have a writeable partition called "grw0". Its been confirmed that this partition allows to write save data and updates files on the game card itself.
-Due to the partition's nature, the game cartridge dump mounted with PSVgameSD app, acts like real game cartridge inserted, and so, bad behaviour is expected to happen when using them, at least when trying to save or updating the game. Further research on this is needed.
-As we haven't confirmed in "grw0" situation can be addressed without the need of dumping it or not, dumps coming from these game cartridge will be accepted but marked as "Bad Dump" in order to identify them. In the same way, we advice dumping these with NoNpDRM Method too, as these dumps do not need "grw0" to work properly.
+Currently, those types of game cards can be dumped, but the "grw0" partition won't get dumped.
+Due to the partition being used by the game, if the a dump is mounted with the PSVgameSD app, bad behavior is expected to happen, at least when trying to save or updating the game. //Further research on this is needed.//
+Due to this, dumps coming from game cartridge with a "grw0" partition will be accepted in No-Intro but marked as "Bad Dump" in order to identify them. In the same way, we advice dumping these with NoNpDRM method as well, as dumps with that method do not need the "grw0" partition to work properly.
+You can easily confirm if a game cartridge has "grw0" partition by looking at the cart contents through [[https://github.com/TheOfficialFloW/VitaShell|VitaShell]]. Once the game cartridge is inserted, you should see "gro0" partition (this belongs to the game cartridge). If "grw0" exists, it should be just next to it.
+Please, even if are not interested in dumping, helping us identifying these kind of game cartridge would be really useful.
 **Games confirmed to have "grw0" partition:**
@@ Line 59: / Line 66: @@
 [PCSB-00047] Touch My Katamari [EU]
 [PCSB-00031] Virtua Tennis 4 [EU]
+[PCSG-00018] Katamari Damacy No-Vita [JP]
 </code>
-To confirm a game cartridge has "grw0" partition, just look for it on VitaShell. Once the game cartridge is inserted, you should see "Gro0" partition (this rute belongs to the game cartridge). If "Grw0" exists, it should be just next to it.
-Please, even if are not interested in dumping, helping us identifying these kind of game cartridge would be really useful.
 ===Tools===
-  * A PS Vita (1000 original model or 2000 revision model)
+  * A PlayStation Vita (1000 original model or 2000 revision model)
+  * At Vita Memory Card (minimum 4GB)
+  * [[https://enso.henkaku.xyz/|Henkaku]] software installed (able to load homebrew, [[https://vita.hacks.guide/|https://vita.hacks.guide/]])
+  * [[https://github.com/TheOfficialFloW/VitaShell|VitaShell]] homebrew installed (to be able to navigate through the Vita's file system, as well as enabling access to it by USB on PC)
+  * [[https://github.com/motoharu-gosuto/psvgamesd|PSVgameSD plugin and app installed]]
-  * At least, a 4GB Vita Memory Card
-  * Henkaku software installed (able to load homebrew).
+=== Dumping ===
-  * VitaShell homebrew installed (able to navigate through the Vita's file system, as well as enabling access to it by USB on PC)
+. Once all the tools are correctly installed, go to the LiveArea menu and launch the **Virtual GC** bubble.
-  * PSVgameSD plugin and app installed (See Installation point) [https://github.com/motoharu-gosuto/psvgamesd]
-===Dumping===
-. Once correctly installed, go to LiveArea menu and search for the Virtual GC bubble. Launch it.
-. Upon launching user app you will be presented with console UI. Press "Left" or "Right" on d-pad to switch between different modes of the driver. The one we want is Physical MMC mode.
+. You will be presented with a console UI. Press "Left" or "Right" on the d-pad to switch between different modes - **choose Physical MMC mode**.
 . Once selected, press "Up" or "Down" to navigate through dump files and select the Game Cart.
-. Press "Cross" to start dumping the came card (this option is only available if real game card is correctly inserted)
+. Press "Cross" to start dumping the came card (this option is only available if a game card is correctly inserted)
-. Process should start automatically, displaying the "Dump progress" numbers, indicating the sectors left to be dumped. The process takes long to finish (30-45 minutes), so just leave it aside.
+. Process should start automatically, displaying the "Dump progress" and indicating the sectors still to be dumped. The process can take long to finish (30-45 minutes), so just leave the device to do it's thing.
-. If the dump was succesful, .psv dump file will be stored at "ux0:iso" folder.
+. If the dump was successful, a FILENAME.psv dump file will be stored in the "ux0:iso" folder.
-. In order to extract it to the PC, enter VitaShell and then connect your PS Vita to the PC with the USB. Open VitaShell settings menu by pressing the START button of your PS Vita. Once opened, go to the "USB device" option and select "Memory Card". Press START once again to close the settings menu.  Then, press the "SELECT" button of your PS Vita and it will enable USB connection. Your PC should detect automatically the Memory Card and give you access to the it.
+. In order to transfer it to a PC, enter VitaShell and then connect your PS Vita to the PC using a USB cable. Open the VitaShell settings menu by pressing the START button of your PlayStation Vita. Once opened, go to the "USB device" option and select "Memory Card". Press START once again to close the settings menu.  Then, press the "SELECT" button of your PlayStation Vita to enable the USB connection. Your PC should now automatically detect the Memory Card as a new USB device.
-. Search for the "Iso" folder and copy the ".psv" file to your desktop.
+. Copy the ".psv" file from within the "iso" folder to your computer for further analysis.
 ===PSVStrip treatment===
-.
+To be able to compare your dump to other dumps for verification purposes you have to remove the license information using PSVStrip:
+<code>PSVStrip.exe -psvstrip source.psv destination.psv</code>
+Another method for users on Mac and Linux is described on the [[https://forum.no-intro.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4717|No-Intro forum]].
-===Submitting Info to No-Intro===
+Once that's complete, you can continue to [[#Gathering and Submitting Dump Info]]
-In case you want to submit the data to our forums, follow these steps. Otherwise, you can always contact us in private and we will make sure your dump makes its way to the database.
-<code>
+==== Method 2 - NoNpDrm Method ====
- - Write the game's name and its Serial ID (PCSG-XXXXX, PCSB-XXXXX, PCSE-XXXXX....)
- - Make a picture of your cart, showing proof the dump came from it
- - Use any Hash tool to obtain hashes from the ".psv" file generated by PSVStrip. Needed hashes are MD5, SHA-1, CRC and Size.
- - (OPTIONAL) Provide Barcode, Serial ID writen on the game cover, mould codes writen in the game cart (front and back).
- - (OPTIONAL) Provide scans for the artwork cover and the game cart (front and back)
-</code>
-If you have datter rights you can submit the dumpinfo using the "Submit" form in [http://datomatic.no-intro.org/ DAT-o-MATIC].
-Otherwise post the info in the New Dumps & Redumps section of the [http://forum.no-intro.org forum].
-==== NoNpDrm Method ====
-With this method, what we are actually going to do is just to extract the encrypted game files from the Game Card as they are and generate a fake license in order to make them usable. These will not be perfect dumps from the game cartridges, but still all the original game related files inside the game cartridge will be kept without being modified or patched, and it will let us preserve the "Grw0 partition" games till the problem around these cartridges is fixed.
-Tools
+This method extracts the encrypted game files from the Game Card as they are and generates a fake license in order to make them usable. This is not a perfect dump from the game cartridges, but will still keep all the original game related loose files (but not the raw filesystem data) inside the game cartridge without being modified or patched, and it preserves games with the "grw0" partition until the issue is solved with PSVgameSD or another tool.
-*A PS Vita (1000 original model or 2000 revision model)
+=== Tools ===
-*At least, a 4GB Vita Memory Card (optional, this method can be used with "psvsd" mod, that uses the 3G module on 1000 3G Vita models as a MicroSd port)
-*Henkaku software installed (able to load homebrew). [https://henkaku.xyz/]
-*VitaShell homebrew installed (able to navigate through the Vita's file system, as well as enabling access to it by USB on PC) [https://github.com/TheOfficialFloW/VitaShell]
-*NoNpDrm plugin installed [https://github.com/TheOfficialFloW/NoNpDrm]
-For the tools installation, follow the instructions inside their Github profiles. The following steps are exactly basedin the same ones you can find on "NoNpDrm" Github page made by TheFlow, so all gratitute to him. We advice to read it, including the "Troubleshooting" point in case you want to test your dump and something goes wrong.
+  * A PlayStation Vita (1000 original model or 2000 revision model)
+  * At Vita Memory Card (minimum 4GB) - (optional, this method can be used with "psvsd" mod which uses the 3G module on 1000 3G Vita models as a MicroSD port)
+  * [[https://enso.henkaku.xyz/|Henkaku]] software installed (able to load homebrew, [[https://vita.hacks.guide/|https://vita.hacks.guide/]])
+  * [[https://github.com/TheOfficialFloW/VitaShell|VitaShell]] homebrew installed (to be able to navigate through the Vita's file system, as well as enabling access to it by USB on PC)
+  * [[https://github.com/TheOfficialFloW/NoNpDrm|NoNpDrm plugin installed]]
-===Dumping===
+=== Dumping ===
-. Having the game cart inserted in the Vita, use VitaShell to navigate through the Vita's file system and look for "gro0" path. This path corresponds to the Game Cart.
+. Having the game card inserted in the Vita, use VitaShell to navigate through the Vita's file system and look for the "gro0" path. This path corresponds to the Game Cart.
-. The game files are stored on "gro0:app/TITLE_ID" where TITLE_ID corresponds to the game Serial ID. Example: Uncharted - Golden Abyss (Europe) is "PCSF-00001", so "TITLE_ID" folder should be called "PCSF00001"
+. The game files are stored in "gro0:app/TITLE_ID" where TITLE_ID corresponds to the game Serial ID. Example: Uncharted - Golden Abyss (Europe) is "PCSF-00001", so "TITLE_ID" folder should be "gro0:app/PCSF00001"
-. You now have to options:
+. You now have two options:
 .1 Fast PC transfer: You can mount the Game Card over USB. To do so, open VitaShell settings menu by pressing the START button of your PS Vita. Once opened, go to the "USB device" option and select "Game Card". Press START once again to close the settings menu. Connect the PS Vita to your PC by USB. Then, press the "SELECT" button of your PS Vita and it will enable USB connection. Your PC should detect automatically the unit and give you access to the it. Just enter the "app" folder in the unit, and copy "TITLE_ID" to your desktop.
-.2 Copying files to the Memory Card and then, transfering these to PC: The first method sometimes doesnt work (Windows can throw an error when connecting "Game cart" unit, not recognizing it correctly). In this case, just use VitaShell to copy "gro0:app/TITLE_ID" folder and to "ux0". Then, select "Memory Card" on "USB device". Press "START" to close the menu and press "SELECT" afterwards, to active the USB connection from your Vita to the PC (make sure you connected both with the USB). The Memory Card unit should be correctly detected, allowing you to copy the "TITLE_ID" folder to the desktop.
+.2 Copying files to the Memory Card and then transferring these to PC. Use VitaShell to copy the "gro0:app/TITLE_ID" folder to "ux0". Then, select "Memory Card" on "USB device". Press "START" to close the menu and press "SELECT" afterwards, to activate the USB connection from your Vita to the PC. The Memory Card unit should be properly detected, allowing you to copy the "TITLE_ID" folder to your computer.
-=== Applying Fake License===
+=== Applying a Fake License ===
- To finish our dump, we must generate a fake license file for it. For this, you just need to launch the game in your Vita as you were going to play it, with the NoNpDrm plugin enabled. As soon as you start it, just get out and enter VitaShell.
+To finish the dump we must generate a fake license file. For this, you need to launch the game in your Vita as you were going to play it, with the NoNpDrm plugin enabled. As soon as you start it, exit the game and enter VitaShell.
- The fake license will be a ".rif" file with a really long name, that should be stored at "ux0:nonpdrm/license/app/TITLE_ID/6488b73b912a753a492e2714e9b38bc7.rif".
+The license to be faked will be a ".rif" file with a long name, which should be stored at "ux0:nonpdrm/license/app/TITLE_ID/6488b73b912a753a492e2714e9b38bc7.rif".
- This file must be copied from your Vita to the PC. Rename it as "work.bin" and copy the file to "TITLE_ID/sce_sys/package/", so you have "TITLE_ID/sce_sys/package/work.bin". With this step, the "NoNpDrm" dump is now completed.
+Copy this file from the Vita to the PC. Rename it as "work.bin" and copy the file to "TITLE_ID/sce_sys/package/", so you have "TITLE_ID/sce_sys/package/work.bin". With this step, the "NoNpDrm" dump is now completed.
-===Submitting Info to No-Intro===
+Once that's complete, you can continue to [[#Gathering and Submitting Dump Info]]
-In case you want to submit the data to our forums, follow these steps. Otherwise, you can always contact us in private and we will make sure your dump makes its way to the database.
+===== Gathering and Submitting Dump Info =====
-<code>
- - Write the game's name and its Serial ID (PCSG-XXXXX, PCSB-XXXXX, PCSE-XXXXX....)
- - Make a picture of your cart, showing proof the dump came from it
- - Download "GameHeader v0.4.2.0": [http://www.no-intro.org/gbadat/tools/GameHeader_0.4.2.0.zip]. Open GameHeader.exe and select "File", "Open Directory... (Recursive)". Search and select the "TITLE_ID" folder. This will analyze and hash all the files inside the folder. Once is over, just use "Save... To File" and save it as an .txt. Example "Uncharted - Golden Abyss (PCSF-00001).txt"
- - (OPTIONAL) Provide Barcode, Serial ID writen on the game cover, mould codes writen in the game cart (front and back).
- - (OPTIONAL) Provide scans for the artwork cover and the game cart (front and back)
-</code>
-If you have datter rights you can submit the dumpinfo using the "Submit" form in [http://datomatic.no-intro.org/ DAT-o-MATIC].
-Otherwise post the info in the New Dumps & Redumps section of the [http://forum.no-intro.org forum].
-===== Verification =====
-Description of how to verify that is a dump is correct.
-===== Gathering Dump Info =====
-<code ->
-Dumping tool:
-Dumper:
-Affiliation:
-Dump creation date:
-Dump release date:
-Title:
-Region:
-Edition:
-Languages:
-Language Select:
-WikiData ID:
-Size:
-CRC32:
-MD5:
-SHA-1:
-SHA-256:
-</code>
-  * General Note: If you are submitting this info to a person/group in order for them to add it to a database, you can skip the transcription of some things, and leave it to them. But it can make the process smoother if you do the transcription yourself.
+See [[submission:vita-carts|Gathering and Submitting Dump Info for PlayStation Vita carts]]
-===== Submitting Dump Info =====
-Point to external submission information for No-Intro/Redump.