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BIOS Guide

The document discusses PlayStation 1 BIOS versions and regions. There are four main PS1 regions - Japan, Asia, Europe, and North America. BIOS numbers follow a numbering scheme based on region, such as SCPH-1000 for Japan and SCPH-1001 for North America. The recommended BIOS to use depends on the region of the game being played, to ensure compatibility and proper frame rates.

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204 views2 pages

BIOS Guide

The document discusses PlayStation 1 BIOS versions and regions. There are four main PS1 regions - Japan, Asia, Europe, and North America. BIOS numbers follow a numbering scheme based on region, such as SCPH-1000 for Japan and SCPH-1001 for North America. The recommended BIOS to use depends on the region of the game being played, to ensure compatibility and proper frame rates.

Uploaded by

biionicle43
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PlayStation 1 BIOS Guide

Written by Derek "Turtle" Roe

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the PlayStation 1 BIOS's and its
revisions. Let me try to clear up any questions or misconceptions.

Let me start off by saying there are four main regions for the PS1:

Japan
Asia
Europe
North America

BIOS numbers follow a numbering system, as follows:

Japan is any XX00 BIOS


Asia is any XX03 BIOS
Europe is any XX02 BIOS
North America is any XX01 BIOS

By the way, all North American and Japanese games run at 60Hz (59.94Hz). European
and Asian games run at 50Hz. So if you run a game with the "incorrect" BIOS, it
will either give you a region error, or it will run at a different frame
rate/refresh rate. This causes issues with many games that use frame rate/refresh
rate for input, physics or AI calculations, or animation sync. Most games don't do
this, however.

No matter what BIOS you use, in theory every officially licensed PlayStation 1 game
for that BIOS' region should work.

The reason people recommend one BIOS over another is based on the features of the
actual hardware the BIOS ran on. So, in the case of which North American BIOS to
use, most people choose to use the SCPH-1001 BIOS because it had the most hardware
features. They also choose this because there were no attempts at defeating piracy-
enabling modchips in this BIOS (those didn't come until later). It also had
parallel and serial ports which could be used for homebrew, dumps, etc. It can run
nearly any homebrew, utilize the serial and parallel ports, etc.

There is also the fact that the SCPH-1001 is probably the most common PS1 console.
Thus, by using that you are ensuring that it is a well-tested machine you are
playing on.

The general consensus is that the most recommended BIOS is always the first launch
console BIOS for the region that is the same as the game you are playing. So, if I
want to play Metal Gear Solid, and I have the North American version, then you want
to use the SCPH-1001 BIOS. If you want to play the Japanese version, then you would
use the SCPH-1000 BIOS. And so on and so forth.

The BIOS files for some of the development editions of the console have been
dumped. You can check here for more information.

Some of the CD-ROM firmware files have been dumped as well. You can check [here]
(http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=573) for that information.

TL;DR Use the SCPH-1000 BIOS for Japanese games, SCPH-1001 BIOS for North American
games, SCPH-1002 BIOS for European games, and the SCPH-5003 BIOS for "Asian" games.
If you have any homebrew, SDK demos or test software, or Net Yaroze games, then try
the Net Yaroze or PlayStation 1 development kit BIOS files.
For homebrew, SDK demos, or Net Yaroze games, usually you can use any BIOS. I
believe the Net Yaroze BIOS is needed to make some Net Yaroze games work. Be aware
of that.

We are aware of the pyramid head game not working, but that doesn't work on any
emulator at the moment. I believe it actually modifies the BIOS in real-time, and
it does so in a very buggy and inefficient way.

If you are wondering what the BIOS41A.bin file is that is floating around, I have
no idea what it is. I haven't tested it. I will get to that, but until then I would
recommend not using it, just because it will probably just not work.

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