Hardware: Sony PlayStation Technical FAQ Game System: Sony Playstation Cheat Category: FAQ Game Company: Unknown Game Category: Unknown Hint, Cheat, Walkthrough:   Sony PlayStation Technical FAQ From: Solomon Paul Sammy Version 0.5 Apologies to the delay in updating this FAQ. I had some problems with my ISP, that took some time in sorting out. The FAQ is undergoing some fairly hefty changes. Look at the old one , if this breaks. The change list has been moved to the bottom of this document. Disclaimer This Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) is provided as is without any express or implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this article, the maintainer and contributors assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. Hardware Questions 1.1 What versions of the PlayStation are there? 1.1.1 What's a Grey PlayStation? 1.1.2 What's a Black PlayStation? 1.1.3 What's a White PlayStation? 1.1.4 What's a Blue PlayStation? 1.2 Why can't I play imported games on my PlayStation? 1.3 Could someone explain NTSC and PAL to me? 1.3.1 What's the difference between NTSC and PAL? 1.3.2 Can I get NTSC on my TV? 1.3.3 Why do I get a black and white picture when playing imported games? 1.3.4 Why do I get a shifted picture when viewing games? 1.3.5 How do I get an S Video picture from a PAL PlayStation? 1.3.6 When I play imports through the TV's Scart I get colour. However when I use the scart input on the video (outputting to TV) I get it in B&W, anyone have any ideas? 1.4 Can I connect my PlayStation to a monitor? 1.4.1 Why connect my Playstation to a monitor? 1.4.2 Can I connect my PlayStation to my PC monitor? 1.4.3 How do I connect my Playstation to a 15KHz monitor (RGB and composite connecions)? 1.5 What hardware is available? 1.5.1 What is a NegCon? 1.5.2 What happened to the "rumble" feature of the Sony Analogue Controller? 1.6 How do I connect my Playstation to my hi-fi? 1.7 What are the grey cylinders on the controller cables for? Software Questions 2.1 What hardware is compatible with what software? 2.1.1 What games are compatible with the link cable? 2.1.2 What games are compatible with the Negcon? 2.1.3 What games are compatible with the steering wheels? 2.1.4 What games are compatible with the Sony analogue controller? 2.1.5 What games are compatible with the guns? 2.1.6 What games are compatible with the multitap? 2.2 What games are multiplayer? 2.2.1 What games are compatible with the link cable? 2.2.2 What games are compatible with the multitap? 2.2.2 What games are split screen? Problems 3.1 My PlayStation plays FMV badly. What gives? 3.2 Will I damage my hi-fi if I play a PlayStation disk in my audio CD player? 3.3 My PlayStation shows stepped shading gradients, whilst my friend's produces smooth ones. Why? 3.3.1 What games are effected? 3.3.2 How many units were sold? 3.3.3 Can it be fixed? 3.4 Should I remove my memory card before or after I switch off my PlayStation? Misc 4.1 Why are Playstation disks black? 4.2 What advantages do I get from registering with Sony? 4.3 Should I buy a Playstation now or wait until Playstation 2 is released? 4.4 Should I write PlayStation, Playstation or PSX? 4.5 What's PSX stand for? 4.6 What's the history of the PlayStation? 4.7 Why do some games not get released in Europe? Changes 21 December 1997 Added Disclaimer. Updated all sections. 13 December 1997 Added Lots. 29 September 1997 Added information on connecting PlayStation to HiFi and SVideo output, both from Pasene R. Faifua. 29 August 1997 Incorporated Sony TV help from Robert Mellish. Changed "Gray" to "Grey" (sheesh!) :-) 28 August 1997 Incorporated comments from Robert Mellish 26 August 1997 Incorporated Julie Brandon. 25 August 1997 First public draft. Sony PlayStation Technical FAQ - Hardware Section 1.1 What versions of the PlayStation are there? 1.1.1 What's a Grey PlayStation? 1.1.2 What's a Black PlayStation? 1.1.3 What's a White PlayStation? 1.1.4 What's a Blue PlayStation? 1.2 Why can't I play imported games on my PlayStation? 1.3 Could someone explain NTSC and PAL to me? 1.3.1 What's the difference between NTSC and PAL? 1.3.2 Can I get NTSC on my TV? 1.3.3 Why do I get a black and white picture when playing imported games? 1.3.4 Why do I get a shifted picture when viewing games? 1.3.5 How do I get an S Video picture from a PAL PlayStation? 1.3.6 When I play imports through the TV's Scart I get colour. However when I use the scart input on the video (outputting to TV) I get it in B&W, anyone have any ideas? 1.4 Can I connect my PlayStation to a monitor? 1.4.1 Why connect my Playstation to a monitor? 1.4.2 Can I connect my PlayStation to my PC monitor? 1.4.3 How do I connect my Playstation to a 15KHz monitor (RGB and composite connecions)? 1.5 What hardware is available? 1.5.1 What is a NegCon? 1.5.2 What happened to the "rumble" feature of the Sony Analogue Controller? 1.6 How do I connect my Playstation to my hi-fi? 1.7 What are the grey cylinders on the controller cables for? 1.1 What versions of the PlayStation are there? The four main global variants of the PlayStation are coloured differently. 1.1.1 What's a Grey PlayStation? The Grey PlayStation is the standard PlayStation bought and played in the UK. To date there have been 4 known revisions of it. After the first few hundred (?) PlayStations were sold in the country, Sony produced a version which could render colour graduations better. Around January 1997 Sony started to manufacture machines with chrome optical CD drives (as opposed to plastic). Recently Sony has started to sell PlayStations without the composite output sockets. This cost-cutting measure means that user will either need to use the naff RF output to connect to their monitor, or purchase a AV lead from Sony. Further information (serial numbers?) would be welcome on this topic. 1.1.2 What's a Black PlayStation? The Black PlayStation is Sony's home developer version of a PlayStation, formally known as the Net Yaroze. The Net Yaroze is a hobbyist's development kit that allows anyone to write game programs to run on the special Net Yaroze PlayStation. The Net Yaroze kit works by using PC software which allows you to write programs on a PC which are then compiled and downloaded via a serial cable to your Net Yaroze PlayStation. A special CD and memory card must be in place before the code can be run. However, the Yaroze has no territorial lock out, and is thus the only official method of playing imported games in the UK. You can find out more by emailing The Net Yaroze Team. or reading the Sony Net Yaroze FAQ . 1.1.3 What's a White PlayStation? The White PlayStation is a version of the PlayStation released in the asia territory with the capability to play MPEG movies. Sony decided that this market was too small anywhere other than asia. The White PlayStation also has extra security chips to try and stem the piracy problem rife in Asia. 1.1.4 What's a Blue PlayStation? The Blue PlayStations are simply able to boot gold disks for developers to test their titles. (They are essentially a modded PSX). Normal grey PlayStations are designed not to do this as a piracy control measure. The actual development cards which companies use to program games cost tens of thousands. The blue PSX costs about UKP 600. The development kit comes on 2 ISA or 1 PCI card that slots into the PC. To obtain a development kit you must first convince Sony that you are a viable company capable of producing decent games. Typically this involves a track record and a well-thought out business plan. 1.2 Why can't I play imported games on my PlayStation? Simply because Sony's marketing people like to choose which games are sold in which countries at which price! To this effect, by default a Playstation has circuitry to detect imported CDs and it will refuse to play them. Having said this, you can buy and/or have fitted "MOD" chips, that will counteract the unfriendly circuits in the console, and allow it to work. This is sometimes called "chipping" your Playstation. Fitting one requires opening up your games machine and using a soldering iron, and will invalidate your warranty. The legalities of importing Playstation games appears to be uncertain. The only "official" way to play imported games on a PlayStation is to buy a Net Yaroze (current UK price about UKP 550). If you do want to use imported games you'll probably need to read the sections in this FAQ dedicated to the two most common television standards; PAL and NTSC. 1.3 Could someone explain NTSC and PAL to me? 1.3.1 What's the difference between NTSC and PAL? NTSC and PAL are television display standards used to encode TV pictures. America and Japan use the NTSC ( N ational T elevision S ystem C ommittee) standard which has 525 horizonal (or scan) lines per complete picture; displaying approximately 15,000 horizontal lines per second (15KHz), and displaying a complete television picture (refresh rate) every 30 times a second (30Hz). Whilst in the UK and parts of Europe we use the PAL ( P hase A lternation L ine) system, which has 625 lines and runs at 25Hz. There are actually different variations of NTSC and PAL used in different countries, but this is beyond the scope of this text and is not really of relevance to this FAQ. Further information can be found from: http://www.alkenmrs.com/standards.shtml http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/WorldTV/compare.shtml http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/WorldTV/why.shtml http://www.mindlogic.com/tapesped.shtml (thanks to Mark Rison) Without using "interlacing" (another term beyond the scope of this FAQ) the NTSC television display resolution is actually 262.5 lines with a refresh rate 60Hz, and PAL is actually 312.5 lines at 50Hz. So the upshot of all this is that you see more pictures per second with the NTSC standard (which is also the older of the two standards) giving you a less flickery display, whereas PAL gives you a higher display resolution leading to a less blocky display. On games originally designed for Japan or the US that were badly converted for the UK, you may find that your display has black borders above and below the main display, and possibly that the game runs slower than it's Japanese/US counterpart. This is not a fault with the Playstation or the PAL standard, but purely due to couldn't-care-less attitudes at software-companies who can't be bothered to do a PAL conversion properly. Sony have not been very pleased with this attitude in the past, and now require that all new software should be full screen on PAL - which means such games will effectively have a higher vertical resolution than the NTSC versions (lucky us!) So when people complain about "ugly black borders" you can remind them that this is due to lazy programmers, not the PAL display system! 1.3.2 Can I get NTSC on my TV? Probably, sort of! Fortunately most modern TVs are capable of handling both PAL and NTSC "type" picture signals. Although you couldn't use your TV to watch US or Japanese broadcasts (even if you could receive the signal) as video game consoles are usually used with a simpler type of signal ("Composite Video" or "RGB") you can normally get away with either PAL or NTSC game pictures. You will almost certainly need a television capable of taking "RGB" signals via a Peritel/Scart connector. You should be able to find out if yours does from your television manual (yep - time to find that manual). Also, you can't use imported games unless you have your playstation "chipped" with a "mod" chip (see above.) Scart connections are the wierd thick long block style of connector that you will usually find sockets for on the back of European and UK televisions and videos. Scart connectors have 21-pins; the idea is that a single standard Scart lead connector can handle all sorts of different audio and video connection standards at the same time automatically, making life easier when hooking up any one video-oriented gagdet to another. RGB is a video signal type. It means (R)ed (G)reen (B)lue. Colour television displays are made up of tiny primary colour pixels; also red, green and blue. With an RGB cable, each primary colour for the display is given it's own wire in your Scart cable, rather than being mixed together onto a signal line, so that the picture produced from the Playstation can go directly from the chips inside your console straight into the display part of the television without being messed around with - so unsurprisingly you get a *much* clearer picture! It's a very similar kind of way to how a PC and a PC Monitor work. If your television *does* have a Scart connector and *can* handle RGB, then you are in luck. You'll need to purchase a Playstation RGB Scart lead, and make sure it's a says "RGB Scart" and not just "Scart", as some Scart leads out there are composite video only. Then just plug the cable into the back of your Playstation and television and go. Sometimes there are rumours that the cheaper non-Sony RGB scart leads are not as good as the Sony ones. Contributors to this FAQ have tried both, and there seems to be absolutely no difference between them. 1.3.3 Why do I get a black and white picture when playing imported games? If you use any other method to hook your playstation up to your television, the chances are that NTSC games will at best be in black and white, if they work properly at all. This is due to the way the colour signals are encoded in NTSC/PAL and is out of scope for this FAQ. 1.3.4 Why do I get a shifted picture when viewing games? This is a problem people sometimes get in RGB mode (basically, the screen is shifted to the left by There are two known fixes: you can adjust the TV or use a "proper" Sony lead. Experience suggests that replacing your lead with an official one does not always help. Some games allow you to move the position of the playing field (e.g. Tomb Raider's 1 & 2 allow this). Adjusting newish Sony TVs is fairly easy: >From Robert Mellish, r.mellish@ic.ac.uk Assuming you have a fairly recent Sony TV, you can adjust this in `Service mode'. These instructions work for the newish Sony 14" portables with remote control. *WARNING*: I am told that you can permanently break your TV doing this. It worked for me, but I take no responsibility if you mess things up by twiddling. If in doubt, *Don't do it!* First turn the TV into standby mode by turning it off with the remote control. Then press the `Question Mark' button (it's the one which displays up the channel number normally, and has a '?' next to it), then the '5' button, then the 'Volume Up' button. Finally press the 'Picture On' button (this is a squarish button with a picture of a blank TV next to it. It's just above the numeric keypad on my remote, one row below the Mute and green Off buttons.) The TV should now turn on as normal, except that it shows 'TT--' on the screen. (This shows it is in service mode.) You can now press the Menu button and change the options you see there using the Up/Down/Left/Right buttons on the remote. [*Warning!* Before changing any number, write down what it was set to originally. Then you can go back if something goes wrong.] The control for Horizontal position is labelled something fairly obvious such as 'H POS'. Make sure you adjust the control with the PSX plugged in and the TV in SCART mode. This seems not to affect the Horiz. position when in normal TV-viewing mode. There are a lot of other controls, but most of them shouldn't be messed with. When you have finished, press Menu again to leave the menu screen and then press '0' twice to store the settings and go out of service mode. If you don't want to store the settings, turn the TV off. This is all actually fairly easy, and as I said it worked OK for me. However, if you are unwilling to do this, you may be able to get Sony to do it for you. Anyone who is the slightest bit worried, DO NOT TRY IT! 1.3.5 How do I get an S Video picture from a PAL PlayStation? >From Pasene R. Faifua, emi-prf@ihug.co.nz I am pleased to report that having helped a friend find and buy a PlayStation S Video cable, that the PAL PlayStation does support S Video out. Comparisons between the S Video and Composite Video output also show that we are indeed seeing improved S Video quality, not Composite Video quality through an S Video connection. The PlayStation S Video cable uses the PlayStation AV Multi Out connector to S Video din plug and, Stereo Left and Right RCA connect. This is good news for PlayStation Users here in New Zealand and Australia where televisions with SCART's are not readily available, whereas televisions with S Video inputs are readily available. While S Video is not as sharp as RGB SCART, it is considerably sharper, more vibrant in color, and an improvement over both Composite Video, and RF Video. S Video output is superior to the Composite Video A/V output of PlayStation. To take advantage of the higher quality S Video though, you need the apporpriate S Video PlayStation cable, and your television must have an S Video input/connector. The reason S Video is superior to Composite Video is because an S Video signal is made of two signals, Y and C. Y=Luminance/Brightness and C=Chromanance/Colour. Separating these two gives a higher quality signal whereas with Composite Video, there is no separation and the signals interfere with each other. PlayStation does offer RGB output which is superior to S Video, it splits the signal into its three primary parts, R=Red, G=Green, B=Blue. This is the highest quality output for PlayStation, but can only be used if your television has a SCART input/connector. So to wrap this, S Video is superior to Composite Video A/V and as long as your television has an S Video input, then purchase a PlayStation S Video cable, and enjoy a higher quality picture from both your PlayStation and television. 1.3.6 When I play imports through the TV's Scart I get colour. However when I use the scart input on the video (outputting to TV) I get it in B&W, anyone have any ideas? Your video ( like most ) only accepts composite input through its SCART socket and disregards the RGB info. It then transmits the composite info on to the TV. As you don't get the correct colour info from the composite signals for NTSC games your TV just displays in B&W. You need to connect the SCART back to the TV ( which does accept RGB input). 1.4 Can I connect my PlayStation to a monitor? Perhaps, if your monitor can handle a 15KHz refresh mode (most modern PC monitors do not). See the sections below. 1.4.1 Why connect my Playstation to a monitor? Because you'll probably get a very clear picture indeed. 1.4.2 Can I connect my Playstation to my PC monitor? Almost certainly not, unfortunately. Bar a very tiny few, PC monitors will not go "slow" enough to be able to handle a Playstation picture. Televisions and games consoles use a horizontal scan frequency (the frequency at which the electron beam on the screen moves left and right) of 15KHz. PC monitors will normally only go down to 31.5KHz. You will be able to find this information out in your PC monitor manual. 1.4.3 How do I connect my Playstation to a 15KHz monitor (RGB and composite connections)? Some PC monitors will go down to 15KHz. Also, any monitors designed to work with Commodore Amigas will almost as well (as the default Amiga video signal is also 15KHz). The complicated bit will be the cabling! See http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/1289/Com1084.shtml for more details on connecting to a Commodore monitor. (NEED INFO ON NEWER PLAYSTATIONS; LEADS THEY COME WITH AND CONNECTORS AVAILABLE ON THE BACK). If your monitor takes a composite video signal, and you have an older Playstation with all the extra connectors on the back, you can just connect the "Video Out" connector on the Playstation to the "Video In" connector on your monitor. To do this you will need a "Phono Video" lead, available from electronics outlets like Tandy and MPS/Maplin. This is not quite the same as an "Audio Phono" lead, which uses lower quality cable. Phono video leads are usually quite thick (like a TV aerial lead) and should be marked with "50 ohm" somewhere on the cable or on the box the cable came in. Note that you can also link your TV up this way, if you don't have a Scart connector on your television, but do have a "video in" phono socket on your TV (sometimes on the front - designed for use for camcorders.) This signal does not carry audio, so if you want to have audio on your monitor and your monitor can handle it, you'll have to use a stereo audio phono lead from the "Audio Out" connectors on the Playstation to "AudioIn" on the monitor. If your monitor takes an RGB signal or takes Composite Video via a wierd connector, then you can almost certainly do it, but you'll probably need a soldering iron! Your best bet first is to buy an RGB Scart lead (see above). If you have a Scart input on your monitor (you lucky creature) you can just plug it straight in. If you have another kind of connector and you've a little electronics experience, then you can hack-apart the Scart end of the Scart lead to fit an appropriate connector yourself. For your reference, here are the relevant signals and their Scart pin numbers- 20 - Composite Video 17 - Composite Video Ground 15 - Red Video 13 - Red Video Ground 11 - Green Video 9 - Green Video Ground 7 - Blue Video 5 - Blue Video Ground 6 - Audio Left 2 - Audio Right 4 - Audio Ground 8/16 - Composite Sync (Function switching and Blanking respectively on the Scart standard, but I believe this signal actually comes from the composite sync connector on the playstation connector.) 1.5 What hardware is available? The following is a list of hardware known to the FAQ maintainer. Analogue Controllers Namco NegCon Sony's Analogue Pad (UK versions have NO rumble feature) 4-Axis (two stick) joystick (who by?) Logic 3 2-Axis joystick Guns Predator. There has been complaints about its accuracy. Konami Hyperblaster Fazor Erazer Lightgun. Has a recoil system. Namco G-Con. Bundled with Time Crisis. Multi-tap Linkup-cable Steering Wheels Verve X-Cellerator Top Gear Steering Wheel Mad Katz Fire? Mouse Disk Drive Memory Card Game Pads Sony's ASCII pad 1.5.1 What is a NegCon? The Namco NegCon is an analogue controller. Some games support it. However, it is expected that Sony's Analogue Controller will become the standard analogue device supported world-wide. 1.5.2 What happened to the "rumble" feature of the Sony Analogue Controller? Good question! Best guess is that including such a device outside Japan would infringe someone's copyright or patent. Rumours abound that Sony will later introduce a rumble feature. 1.6 How do I connect my Playstation to my hi-fi? (NEED INFO ON NEWER PLAYSTATIONS; LEADS THEY COME WITH AND CONNECTORS AVAILABLE ON THE BACK). >From Pasene R. Faifua, emi-prf@ihug.co.nz To connect your PlayStation to both your television and your HiFi, depending on your televisions inputs I'd recommend you: A / Stereo TV with RGB SCART input: Plug your PlayStation into your HiFi using the PlayStation's Left and Right audio RCA outputs. For your television, you'll need to buy a PlayStation RGB SCART lead which will use the PlayStation's AV Multi Out output. Connect this lead from your PlayStation's AV Multi Out plug to your television's RGB SCART input. This setup will give you stereo sound from your PlayStation when you use either your HiFi or television, as well as the best picture possible from your PlayStation on your television set with pin sharp and vibrant RGB video via the RGB SCART cable. B / Monaural TV with RGB SCART input: Same as above except that the audio from your television will be Mono. Stereo sound is only available from your PlayStation when you use your HiFi. C / Stereo TV with only S Video and Composite Video inputs: Same as option 'A' except instead of buying the RGB SCART lead, you'll need to buy a PlayStation S Video cable. The S Video cable uses the AV Multi Out plug, and comes with Stereo output via two RCA connectors. So this setup will give Stereo sound from your PlayStation using either your HiFi or television. As well as S Video PlayStation picture quality, not quite RGB but superior to Composite and RF. D / Mono TV with only S Video and Composite inputs: Same as Option 'C' except that the audio from your television will be Mono. E / Stereo TV with only Composite Video inputs: Sony now sell an AV Multi Out lead to three RCA's which when connected to your set will give PlayStation Composite Video, with Stereo sound. And your HiFi connection remains the same as above, with the same Stereo results. This gives Compoite Video picture quality, superior to RF. F / Mono TV with only Composite Video inputs: Use the same AV Multi Out to three RCA's PlayStation lead, but connect only the Left Audio RCA to your television's AV Audio input. This means that the audio from your television will be Mono. And your HiFI connection remains the same with Stereo audio. G / Mono TV with no AV inputs: Sony now sell a new design RF adaptor using the AV Multi Out, for the new RCA-less generation PlayStation. You'll need to buy this new RF lead and connect using RF to your television, meaning that audio from your television will be mono. But your HiFi connection remains the same as above, and you'll get Stereo from it. My setup at home is Option 'A', which I recommend and is superior to the others in Picture Quality, and gives the best PlayStation experience. Especially when you have a Dolby Surround HiFI Stereo setup. 1.7 What are the grey cylinders on the controller cables for? These are called "ferrite rings". They are there to try and reduce any electrical interference from your controller and any other outside R.F.I. (radio frequency interference) that your controller lead might pick up and potentially crash your playstation, or even corrupt your memory card. From sps@argonet.co.uk Mon Dec 22 03:57:33 1997 Newsgroups: uk.games.video.playstation Subject: Draft Tech FAQ 3/6 From: Solomon Paul Sammy Date: Mon, 22 Dec 1997 02:57:33 GMT Sony PlayStation Technical FAQ - Software Section 2.1 What hardware is compatible with what software? 2.1.1 What games are compatible with the link cable? 2.1.2 What games are compatible with the Negcon? 2.1.3 What games are compatible with the steering wheels? 2.1.4 What games are compatible with the Sony analogue controller? 2.1.5 What games are compatible with the guns? 2.1.6 What games are compatible with the multitap? 2.2 What games are multiplayer? 2.2.1 What games are compatible with the link cable? 2.2.2 What games are compatible with the multitap? 2.2.2 What games are split screen? 2.1 What hardware is compatible with what software? A number of games have been reviewed with with support for hardware that is subsequently removed in the commercial release. Always check the with the retail shop version before purchasing hardware for a particular game. Generally the best idea is to look at the back of the box... Below is a NON-COMPREHENSIVE list. 2.1.1 What games are compatible with the link cable? Destruction Derby (but not Destruction Derby 2) Wipeout Wipeout 2097 Doom Assult Rigs Ridge Racer Revolution Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2.1.2 What games are compatible with the Negcon? 2.1.3 What games are compatible with the steering wheels? 2.1.4 What games are compatible with the analogue controllers? 2.1.5 What games are compatible with the guns? 2.1.6 What games are compatible with the multitap? Sony PlayStation Technical FAQ - Problems Section 3.1 My PlayStation plays FMV badly. What gives? 3.2 Will I damage my hi-fi if I play a PlayStation disk in my audio CD player? 3.3 My PlayStation shows stepped shading gradients, whilst my friend's produces smooth ones. Why? 3.3.1 What games are effected? 3.3.2 How many units were sold? 3.3.3 Can it be fixed? 3.4 Should I remove my memory card before or after I switch off my PlayStation? 3.1 My My PlayStation plays FMV badly. What gives? Found on Net. Sorry, attribution lost: I bought my playstation as soon as they came out in this country, I had no FMV skipping problems until a couple of months ago. I put up with it for a bit, then I got sick of it as it was skipping really badly on Ace Combat 2 and the recent OPSM demo disk. I couldn't be arsed messing about turning my playstation upside down etc and I remembered seeing on a web page somwhere how it can be cured by adjusting 4 potentiometers on the playstations main board. I won't go into how to do it as loads of web pages have the details on them, and they're dead easy to find. My old values were: U.K Playstation POT1 POT2 POT3 POT4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- OLD 4.02K 10.58K 18.7K 0K NEW 3.75K 12.15K 17.65K 0K Since then I've had no FMV skipping problems (so far). So the cure seems to have worked. So, if you can use a multimeter and a screwdriver and your playstation isn't under warranty. Why not have a go. Note: just because it worked for me, doesn't guarantee it'll work for you & please don't complain to me if you screw up your playstation. 3.2 Will I damage my hi-fi if I play a PlayStation disk in my audio CD player? 3.3 My PlayStation shows stepped shading gradients, whilst my friend's produces smooth ones. Why? >From Robert Mellish, r.mellish@ic.ac.uk OK, I have personal experience of this one. This seems to be due to a bug present in the hardware or firmware of some PSX's. (I'm told that Sony say that none of these defective units ever made it out to the customers, but I've seen it on three machines!) The bug only shows up in some games, and is not very noticable unless you've seen a PSX that does not suffer from the problem. The game it is most visible in is Tomb Raider, though it also shows up in Micro Machines 3 and Twisted Metal 2. To check, start playing Tomb Raider from the very beginning. At the start of the first level, turn left 90 degrees, and you see a door (in deep shadow) on your left, and snow (bright white) on your right. If your PSX is working correctly, the transition between the two should be a smooth, continuous change in tone. However, if you have a bugged machine, then 8-10 abrupt 'steps' in tone are visible between the two areas. The same effect is visible in TR when pulling or pushing blocks: 'Rings' of shading on the block are clearly visible. 3.3.1 What games are effected? It would appear to be every game. It can be seen in Tomb Raider (see 3.3. 3.3.2 How many units were sold? Sony hasn't said. PlayStations bought in 1997 and later should be ok. 3.3.3 Can it be fixed? If you have a PSX with this defect, and it's less than 1 year old, Sony will replace it free of charge. For PSXs outside the warranty period, Sony will replace or repair it for a flat fee of UKP 42 (at the time of writing). The address to contact for more information is: Sony Computer Entertainment UK PO Box 2047 London W1A 3DN Sony PlayStation Technical FAQ - Misc Section 4.1 Why are Playstation disks black? 4.2 What advantages do I get from registering with Sony? 4.3 Should I buy a Playstation now or wait until Playstation 2 is released? 4.4 Should I write PlayStation, Playstation or PSX? 4.5 What's PSX stand for? 4.6 What's the history of the PlayStation? 4.7 Why do some games not get released in Europe? 4.1 Why are Playstation disks black? The simple answer is - why not? There is no technical reason for the unusual colouring. Perhaps it is Because Sony feel it looks good? It also has the advantage that official Playstation games are easy to identify from audio CDs, CDs for other systems, pirated copies, and so on. 4.2 What advantages do I get from registering with Sony? An anonymous source in Sony: Free demo disks couple of times a year and other "promotional information" (junk mail) from us. Also, we keep hold of the serial # if PS is ever nicked and recovered / sent back for repair. 4.3 Should I buy a Playstation now or wait until Playstation 2 is released? No, of course not :-). Seriously though the PS2 is not due for release currently until the year 2000 / 2001. If people were to wait until the next generation hardware was available then no one would buy any hardware at all! There is ALWAYS something better just around the corner. 4.4 Should I write PlayStation, Playstation or PSX? Most regular reader of the playstation newsgroups will understand you if you use any of these terms. However, on the PlayStation box it appears as "PlayStation". 4.5 What does PSX stand for? 4.6 What's the history of the PlayStation? 4.7 Why do some games not get released in Europe? Mainly because Europe isn't the most significant portion of the games market. Perhaps they don't think a game will sell well in Europe, or perhaps the software company can't be bothered to do a PAL conversion. An anonymous source in Sony said: Because a large amount of Japanese games are low budget poor quality titles. These games include virtual girlfriend / very old arcade emulators and other low cost titles. These games would not sell enough to make any money in Europe and also really lower the perception of quality that Sony Europe try to achieve. Other reasons include a lack of publisher interest in Europe, any publisher would need to take into account the changes that would need to happen to the game as regards speech / framerate / packaging etc .. These are known as localization issues and need to be weighed up against revenue expected back from the title before a publisher decides to pick up a title for release in Europe. Sony is also a publishing company and publishes certain games, for example no publisher wanted Final Fantasy VII so Sony stepped in and released it world wide. Sony PlayStation Technical FAQ - OnLine Resources Section 5.1 What web sites can I visit? 5.1.1 Where can I find general PlayStation information? 5.1.2 Where can I find cheats for games? 5.1.3 What's Sony's web page? 5.1.4 What companies are on the net? 5.2 Where can I discuss the PlayStation and related topics? 5.3 Where can I get a list of games to be released in the UK? 5.1 What web sites can I visit? Lots! :-) For an uptodate list stick "Playstation" into a search engine like Yahoo or Altavista . 5.1.1 Where can I find general PlayStation information? PlayStation Release Schedule ABSOLUTE PLAYSTATION Icemans Gamer Monthly Lou's Sony PlayStation Page N.Y Times Pete Lambie`s PSX Homepage PlayStation Gamer PSX Station Ray`s Sony Playstation Homepage Sony Playstation USENET Page Sports Code Stadium 5.1.2 Where can I find cheats for games? Stargames Universe 5.1.3 What's Sony's web page? Sony Computer Entertainment Europe: http://www.scee.sony.co.uk/ 5.1.4 What companies are on the net? Again, try one of the search engines. (Especially Electronic Yellow Pages). Datel 5.2 Where can I discuss the PlayStation and related topics? The following newsgroups are available: fj.rec.games.video.home.playstation uk.games.video.playstation rec.games.video.sony rec.games.video.marketplace rec.games.video.misc uk.games.video.playstation Some service providers may not carry all of these newsgroups. 5.3 Where can I get a list of games to be released in the UK? Paul Delaney, ( paul@delaney.demon.co.uk ) has kindly agreed to post a weekly schedule of Playstation releases, with hot news as he gets it. Obviously, though, if you hear anything about a forthcoming release, post it to the group, people want to know. Paul's schedule is also available on his web site: http://www.delaney.demon.co.uk/psx.shtml From: Solomon Paul Sammy PlayStation Technical FAQ http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/sps/psxfaq/ Euro-Canadian Shotokan Dojo List http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/sps/Karate/