tonyhax

Software backup loader exploit thing for the Sony PlayStation 1.

For more information, look at its section at orca.pet.

For using tonyhax you have three options:

Method	Game exploit	FreePSXBoot	Boot CD
Needs an original game?	Yes	No	No
Needs an chipped console?	No	No	Yes
Needs a memory card?	Yes	Yes	No
Can the memory card store other saves?	Yes	No	N/A
Time from off to playing a backup	~1m30s	~1m	~1m

Regarding compatibility:

Method	Game exploit	FreePSXBoot	Boot CD
Compatible with European PS1?	Yes	Yes	Yes
Compatible with American PS1?	Yes	Yes	Yes
Compatible with Japanese PS1?	No	No	No
Compatible with European PS2?	≤ SCPH-39000 only	No	≤ SCPH-39000 only
Compatible with American PS2?	≤ SCPH-39000 only	No	≤ SCPH-39000 only
Compatible with Japanese PS2?	No	No	No

Both behave identically the same feature-wise, so use whichever suits you more.

Launch using a game exploit

The original, well-tested method, which leverages an exploit in supported games to launch tonyhax.

Thid method requires copying to the memory card:

• The common loader program, available inside the loader/ folder.
• One or more game-specific saves, available inside the entrypoints/ folder.

These files behave like regular game save files:

• You can keep the memory card plugged after launching the exploit.
• You can keep using the same memory card for other games just fine.
• You can have more than one exploit save per memory card.
• tonyhax can be easily copied to other memory cards by just copying the save files.
• tonyhax can be uninstalled easily by removing the save files.

When installing:

• If you are using any sort of visual memory card editor (such as OrionSoft's PS1 Memory Card Manager, Dexdrive, etc...), consider using the MCS file.
• If you are copying it using a PS2 console and uLaunchELF, you'll need to use the raw file. The name is important - do not rename them.

These have been tested to work on real hardware:

Game	Region	Code	MCS file	Raw file
tonyhax SPL required	-	-	tonyhax.mcs	BESLEM-99999TONYHAX
Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling	NTSC-U	SLUS-00571	brunswick1-us.mcs	BASLUS-00571
Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling	PAL-E	SLES-01376	brunswick1-eu.mcs	BESLES-01376
Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling 2	NTSC-U	SLUS-00856	brunswick2-us.mcs	BASLUS-00856
Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling 2	PAL-E	SLES-02618	brunswick2-eu.mcs	BESLES-02618
Castlevania Chronicles	NTSC-U	SLUS-01384	cc-us.mcs	BASLUS-01384DRACULA
Castrol Honda Superbike Racing	NTSC-U	SLUS-00882	castrolsb-us.mcs	BASLUS-00882CHSv1
Castrol Honda Superbike Racing	PAL-E	SLES-01182	castrolsb-eu.mcs	BESLES_01182CHSv1
Castrol Honda VTR	PAL-E	SLES-02942	castrolvtr-eu.mcs	BESLES-02942CHSVTRv1
Cool Boarders 4	NTSC-U	SCUS-94559	coolbrd4-us.mcs	BASCUS-9455916
Cool Boarders 4	PAL-E	SCES-02283	coolbrd4-eu.mcs	BESCES-0228316
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back	NTSC-U	SCUS-94154	crash2-us.mcs	BASCUS-9415400047975
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back	PAL-E	SCES-00967	crash2-eu.mcs	BESCES-0096700765150
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped	NTSC-U	SCUS-94244	crash3-us.mcs	BASCUS-9424400000000
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped	PAL-E	SCES-01420	crash3-eu.mcs	BESCES-0142000000000
Sports Superbike	PAL-E	SLES-03057	superbike1-eu.mcs	BESLES-03057SSBv1
Sports Superbike 2	PAL-E	SLES-03827	superbike2-eu.mcs	BESLES-03827SSII
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2	NTSC-U	SLUS-01066	thps2-us.mcs	BASLUS-01066TNHXG01
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2	PAL-DE	SLES-02910	thps2-de.mcs	BESLES-02910TNHXG01
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2	PAL-E	SLES-02908	thps2-eu.mcs	BESLES-02908TNHXG01
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2	PAL-FR	SLES-02909	thps2-fr.mcs	BESLES-02909TNHXG01
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3	NTSC-U	SLUS-01419	thps3-us.mcs	BASLUS-01419TNHXG01
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3	PAL-DE	SLES-03647	thps3-de.mcs	BESLES-03647TNHXG01
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3	PAL-E	SLES-03645	thps3-eu.mcs	BESLES-03645TNHXG01
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3	PAL-FR	SLES-03646	thps3-fr.mcs	BESLES-03646TNHXG01
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4	NTSC-U	SLUS-01485	thps4-us.mcs	BASLUS-01485TNHXG01
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4	PAL-DE	SLES-03955	thps4-de.mcs	BESLES-03955TNHXG01
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4	PAL-E	SLES-03954	thps4-eu.mcs	BESLES-03954TNHXG01
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4	PAL-FR	SLES-03956	thps4-fr.mcs	BESLES-03956TNHXG01
XS Moto	NTSC-U	SLUS-01506	xsmoto-us.mcs	BASLUS-01506XSMOTOv1
XS Moto	PAL-E	SLES-04095	xsmoto-eu.mcs	BESLES-04095XSMOTO

Launch using FreePSXBoot

tonyhax supports being launched on compatible consoles using the FreePSXBoot exploit developed by brad-lin.

This method requires an entire memory card for itself, and thus:

• The memory card must be removed after launching the exploit, or games will crash.
• The memory card cannot be used to save any game's progress.
• The memory card depends on a specific version of the BIOS. If plugged on another console, chances are the exploit will get nuked and you'll have to reprogram the memory card.
• The exploit cannot be copied to another memory card using the console - you'll need a PC with DexDrive or a PS2.
• The exploit cannot be uninstalled using the console alone either.

If you want to go this route, you'll need to flash the memory card using one of the images available at freepsxboot/, depending on your console's model and BIOS version.

Launch using the boot CD

Just burn the BIN/CUE inside the boot-cd/ folder on a CD-R, insert it on your modded console, and turn it on. Easy peasy!

Development

This repository uses git submodules for building certain parts, so after cloning, make sure you run:

git submodule init
git submodule update --recursive

For compiling tonyhax, you will need a standard MIPS compiler, a bash interpreter and Make, all of which can be installed on Debian/Ubuntu using:

sudo apt-get install build-essential gcc-10-mips-linux-gnu

After installing all dependencies, you can compile and package it by running make on the root of the project, which (hopefully) will result in a .zip file with all the required files created at the root.