Tonyhax (And Updates)

We’ve got a totally gnarly hack on our hands, dudes! Tonyhax has dropped in on a halfpipe, grinded on a rail, and nollied over some trash to help us softmod our PS1. I hope you’ve got your trucks tightened and your helmet on, because we’re really going to go all-in on this article!

What is Tonyhax and why (now)?

People everywhere either have a modchip already installed or have the means to emulate PS1 games, so what would be the point? And especially in 2021 instead of back in the day? Well, if you’re someone who likes to play on original hardware and wouldn’t have the know-how to install a modchip yourself, that’s a good reason. Modchips are harder to come by now, but even if you do, you’re not likely to find too many people or businesses that have knowledge or experience with it. There are other ways like the PSIO, disc swap, or an Action Replay method. The PSIO is expensive, doesn’t work entirely as advertised, and you still have to install hardware inside. Disc swapping will, without zero question, eventually ruin your laser. Action Replay is viable…IF YOU CAN FIND ONE IN THIS DAY AND AGE (FOR CHEAP). The rest of us need a solution like this.

And one more attribute from the creator themself, “On top of that, and unlike Action Replay or swap discs, this does allow CD-DA games and multi-disc games to work flawlessly.”

Changelog:

V1.1

• New supported games as entry points.
• Restore kernel RAM contents. Fixes booting of Mad Panic Coaster (NTSC-JP) (SLPS-00880) and Formula 1 Championship Edition (NTSC-US) (SLUS-00546)
• First stage will now display a red screen if it can’t find the SPL, instead of crashing.

v1.1.1

• The SPL file has been renamed from “TONYHAX-SPL” to “BESLEM99999-TONYHAX” so it follows the standard naming conventions.
• Added MCS save files for easier usage on visual, desktop memory card editors.

The reason behind this small release is that an user on Reddit was having issues importing the SPL file on Dexdrive because of the non-standard name. Thus this release changes the name to stick to the standard format every other PS1 game used for game saves.

v1.1.2

• Fixed Brunswick Pro Circuit 2 (NTSC-U) (SLUS-00571) entry point, which was causing the SPL to fail loading.
• Loading steps in the entry points are now color coded for easier debugging:
  • Purple (Brunswick only) indicates the memory cards are being reinitialized.
  • Blue indicates the SPL is being read from the memory card into memory.
  • Green indicates that the SPL is about to launch. This shouldn flash very very briefly.
  • Red indicates the SPL couldn’t be found or loaded.

  The console should spend no more than a couple seconds with each color. If it spends more time, it’s probably crashed. Please report it.

• Added an integrity. Shall the SPL load in a corrupted state into the main memory (for instance, if the memory card is damaged, the file is corrupted, or some other process caused the load process to fail), it’ll now report so during the boot on the screen.
• The SPL will now report your system BIOS. If you are experiencing any issue, please remember to tell me the BIOS version.

v1.2

• Add new games as entry points:
  • Castrol Honda Superbike Racing (NTSC-U) (SLUS-00882)
  • Castrol Honda Superbike Racing (PAL-E) (SLES-01182)
  • Castrol Honda VTR (PAL-E) (SLES-02942)
  • Cool Boarders 4 (NTSC-U) (SCUS-94559)
  • Cool Boarders 4 (PAL-E) (SCES-02283)
  • Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (NTSC-U) (SCUS-94154)
  • Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (PAL-E) (SCES-00967)
  • Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (NTSC-U) (SCUS-94244)
  • Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (PAL-E) (SCES-01420)
  • Sports Superbike (PAL-E) (SLES-03057)
  • Sports Superbike 2 (PAL-E) (SLES-03827)
  • XS Moto (NTSC-U) (SLUS-01506)
  • XS Moto (PAL-E) (SLES-04095)
• Added support for European NetYaroze consoles.

v1.2.1

• Support games lacking a SYSTEM.CNF file. Fixes Gunners Heaven (NTSC-J) (SCPS-10006) not booting.
• Support games with a SYSTEM.CNF lacking certain configuration entries. Fixes Tekken 3 (NTSC-U) (SLUS-00402) not booting.
• Clear some registers for bugged games. Fixes Pepsiman (NTSC-J) (SLPS-01762) not booting.

Supported Games (as of now):

Demo Video:

Instructions:

We will upload an instructions page soon enough. There are a few different ways to go about it, so don’t fear if you think the initial setup will be a pain!

Extra:

Want to read about how this is possible and the other intricacies? Click here to go to the official Tonyhax page.