Software and Cables for PS1 'Yaroze' System?

Huxley_Dunsany asks: "Yesterday, while attending the (super-duper cool and fun) Classic Game Expo here in Las Vegas, I was lucky enough to trade some old game stuff (Intelivision II, ZX-Spectrum, some Neo-Geo Pocket games) for a really neato black Sony Playstation 'Net Yaroze' edition. For those that don't know what I'm talking about, back in '97, Sony came out with a (very) limited edition of the plain old Playstation. Back in the day, the 'Yaroze' PSX ('Yaroze' supposedly means 'Lets do it together') came with some special cables and software for PC/Mac, and, given enough time and effort and programming talent, you too could create your own Playstation games! Unfortunately, the Yaroze I got yesterday came with nothing but the main CPU - no software, and none of the special PSX-to-PC/Mac serial cables. This morning, I hooked it up and hit the power button, and it fired right up with no problems! So, I'm just wondering if any of you have ever used this seemingly rare dev system, and if you could pass along any good ideas or advice. It seems that Sony has long since discontinued this program (and then recently started it again with the PS2 Linux kit), so I'm not sure where to turn for help if I actually wanted to use this thing to make some games, let alone finding/creating the cables and software."

Google!!!

[neilsly]

A quick google search turns up all sorts of stuff:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=U TF -8&q=Yaroze

Re:Google!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes! And funny how NONE of the matches have anything worthwhile to say about CABLES.

Re:Google!!!

[Arkine]

There is a Yaroze baseball team! ()

Try websites from UK, Australia etc...

[$exyNerdie]

If you read this page [news.com.au], you might find some interesting info:
Ms Ewen said Sony hoped to recreate the strong community that sprung up when the company released Net Yaroze six years ago.
Net Yaroze was a specialised version of the original PlayStation that allowed amateur programming.
The Net Yaroze software ran on a standard PC where the programmer would compile the code and a serial cable connected the PC to the Net Yaroze console.
"It was more limited because it did not access all the capabilities of the machine and there were non-disclosure agreements involved," she said.
There were 6000 Net Yaroze consoles sold across the PAL territories, mainly in the UK and Australia." Sony had developed the Linux Kit for PS2 in response to demand in Japan. The company sold 7000 beta copies in Japan last year but the full version was only released there in late April. "

Since most of the Net Yaroze consoles sold across the PAL territories, mainly in the UK and Australia, you might wanna look for websites in these countries...

Also check out the forums on this website [playstation2-linux.com]

-- Sig
REJECTED STORY:
Making real money from virtually nothing on Online games
BBC has an interesting article [bbc.co.uk]about people making a real living buying and selling goods which only exist in the virtual world of an online fantasy game. A player says that he will declare to the US Internal Revenue Service in April 2004 that his main source of income is the sale of imaginary goods.

Re:Try websites from UK, Australia etc...

[GigsVT]

Why do you feel the need to circumvent the sig char limit, and go against the wishes of the people who turn sigs off, just to whine about a rejected story?

You know, the journal system is there for a reason. Bitch there.

Re:Try websites from UK, Australia etc...

[ottothecow]

I think the best part is that after reading the story from you, it gets posted BY SOMEONE ELSE hahaha thats what you get for telling them what to post so they can add a name and a link

Play imports

[frankjr]

Look for schematics on the internet so that you can build your own cable. But if you're not able to find any info, you can play Japanese/American/European games WITHOUT a mod chip on the Net Yaroze, so you can use it for that instead of having it sit around as a collector's item. ;)

I hope you know how to solder

[Micro$will]

I found a schematic here [jypoly.fi]. You'll have to make a PCB and gather a few simple components, then you'll be able to use any standard null modem cable. I just searched google for "playstation serial cable schematic" and it was like the 15th site listed.

I have one of these under the bed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately you'll need more than just the cable to get a Yaroze going the way it was originally designed to be used.

It used special libraries and loader software to actually upload your code and run it. Everything official was DOS based, though I had it going under FreeBSD with the help of some Japanese hackers, and the official cable was RS232 (mine didn't work the last time I tried it and isn't much use to me on my PowerBook :)

The loader disk went in the PS itself, of course, and spoke to the serial

Re:I have one of these under the bed.

[Tiersten]

Yeah. You got a cable, a dongle memory card, boot disc for the PSX, software disc for your PC and a wad of manuals.

The bare minimum you need to buy off somebody would be the dongle and boot disc. The cable you can make with the help of an old PSX link cable and some soldering. For the compiler you could use GCC targeted for R3000 MIPS. I think there were some homebrew libraries about...

The thing is that who would sell the dongle and boot disk? Without those your Net Yaroze is just a very expensive bl

Re:I have one of these under the bed.

[kickinit]

The boot disc, in its original form and also hacked to work without dongle is available quite easily on a lot of psxdev websites. After making the cable, you'll just be missing the manuals, and also don't forget the login to the Yaroze community. As someone said, the Ps2Linux forums would be a good place to hang.

Someone who did some work with it

[henbane]

You could get in touch with this guy [cs.tcd.ie]. Some of the screens look pretty good for a hobbyist's efforts at PS1. Also he's a old school C64 geek so he's gotta be ok.

Pedantry

[CompVisGuy]

Sorry, but "...nothing but the main CPU..." means you only got the processor. I think you meant that you only got the console, or the system unit.

A CPU (reasonable definition [webopedia.com]) in a desktop computer would be the Pentium/SPARC/PowerPC etc. -- CPU does not refer to the whole system box (which along with the CPU usualy has a HD, CD/DVD, power supply, motherboard, memory etc.). Similarly with consoles: the CPU is the processor and the console usually also houses a power supply, memory, I/O circuitry, graphic

Re:Pedantry

[spuke4000]

Fair enough, but what do you refer to the case+CPU+mobo+power supply+drives+??? I don't like the term CPU to refer to that, but usually it's pretty clear form the context, and I can't think of a better term. Does anyone have any suggestions? Desktop doesn't seem to fit, because to me that implies a monitor+keyboard+mouse+???

Any ideas?

Re:Pedantry

[CompVisGuy]

If you are really talking about the computer minus its I/O devices, I tend to call it the "system box".

My girlfriend used to call it the "hard drive", but has since seen the error of her ways :-)

I know that scolding people for using the term CPU is pretty anal, but its just plain wrong -- how can we expect the layperson to gain any level of computer literacy when we can't be bothered to use correct terminology?

Re:Pedantry

[LWATCDR]

I have also heard it called the mainframe and the hard drive. Both are wrong of course. You could call it the computer, or the system box, how about main unit? Or who really cares. I knew what you meant.

How many people put up with there mothers and faters calling atari 2600 cartrages "tapes"?

psxdev

[Anonymous Coward]

The yaroze is annoying as hell to develop on. What you want is a modded psx with AR/Comms link. Check out hitmen-console.org. So much good stuff from the psx demo scene. http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=18&prod u cts_id=234& . I got one sitting in my basement, but you can probably find one elsewhere. You also need some development libs. Sony made ones called PsyQ and yaroze, but you need a license to use them. There are some free libs that aren't too bad. You should really just move on to x

Metrowerks CodeWarrior

[staplin]

Metrowerks CodeWarrior used to support the Yaroze. I can't find any current support for it (but they do support the PS2 [metrowerks.com])

You might be able to find an older version of CodeWarrior for Playstation floating around somewhere like ebay...

I made a few Yaroze games

[sm.arson]

I bugged my parents for one of these back in high school, and I spent just about all my time on it. It was a great way to learn about 3D programming back then, with a standardized graphics library that was actually used to make lots of games.

For my senior calc class, my final project was a demonstration of spherical mapping. I brought the Yaroze, my laptop, and borrowed a TV from the AV room. I was actually kind of a "jock" in high school (captain of the track team), so this bizzare demonstration reall

Done that, but there's a better way...

[Anonymous Coward]

(Anonymous Cow posting AC since I'm too lazy to log in on anybody else's computer and I'm too broke to afford my own connection and I'm a bit embarrased by some of the crap I posted when I was young(er) and stupid(er ;) . )

One of my roommates and I tried this my freshman year at UIUC. We actually took an original PS1, modded it, and made the cable (google for the specs). Since I was a CompE student, we even got the University to mill the PCB for us ;)

But it sucked. Specifically, the devkit sucked ass a

PSX Emulation

[Stonent1]

There used to be a program that converted Yaroze executables into regular PSX executables. But one thing I wondered about is what about emulating a Yaroze system on one of the free Playstation emulators. It certainly wouldn't be hard, you'd need the bios dump and change the code in the emulator to allow for more ram.

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