forums.ps2dev.org

Here's a bunch of information:

[censored by mean moderator. No offense, but as you were not sure yourself, it seemed to me it was something too detailed and breaking of NDA to be posted]

Symbols in Wipeout? Would have been nice, but there aren't any in the North American version at least.

It wouldn't surprise me if this so called dev workes for Namco and just wants to sell more copies of Ridge Racer.

Hahahhaa :)

I don't exactly know what "TRC" means for that guy (I could only imagine of "Truth and Reconciliation Commission", "Technical Review Comittee", "Total Relevant Cost", "Tycho Reference Catalogue", "Translate Rules to C", or "This Red Cock") but I guess this is somewhat a reference to "a bug that may lead to unsollicited usage by other people". Now, a TRC then would maybe mean "leaving symbols in a binary", but as well a "bug in some protocol", such as that "little problem" inside Phantasy Star Online on gamecube. If the PSO bug is called a "TRC", then he may mean that ridge racer contains such a bug which could be exploited by us.

TRC = Test Rule Check or Test Rule Criteria or something like that
some rules from SCEI to comply with

Dev: also, the ridge racers UMD has a massive TRC violation on it. that UMD will be the most useful for homebrew dev

Thats a nice hint to start digging around RR then. Perhaps the New Rally X mini game that starts up, when the game loads up the emulator and such, it also loads a rom of New Rally X or something? Or maybe a savegame exploit similar to wipeouts (although that isn't really a exploit). I don't see any files in the RR UMD file list that shows anything about the mini game though. Something tells me to look around the mini game anyway :P

TRC = Technical Requirements Checklist.

It's used by every console manufacturer. It's a huge checklist (iirc it's over 40 pages) that makes sure the game complies with the quality standards of the console manufacturer.

I used to do QA at Ubisoft, so I remember those tests, even though I did not ever perform any of them; most publishers have dedicated TRC teams that do nothing but TRC tests. It's a very complicated process..

What I wonder however is why Sony was so lax on the TRC process. Probably to get software at launch, but usually if the TRC isn't followed very strictly the game doesn't get out, with a hefty fine to the publisher..

rr 'loading' loads in at 0x0800 4000 afaik

source has been confirmed to be legit.

histo: can you give us some more infos?

Hmm, I just thought now why RR might of violated the TRC.
I have two other games, wipeout and THUG2, and those two always ask you to manually load up a save game when loading the game up. RR does not. It also autosaves savegames, where as the other two don't. You can set the auto save feature off in RR though. By default its on. I have a feeling I'm wrong though.

This is the only info that was discussed if I receive anymore information i'll post it here as well.

MSDave, autosave features *probably* are irrelevant here; Lumines features the same autosave/autoload functions.

One side note however; when you turn on Lumines (and it autoloads a save file), then put the PSP in sleep mode, turn it back on and get a high score (or anything to cause the game to try and autosave), it will ask you if you want to load a save file. If you choose Yes, you will lose the high score you just got, and you will load the save file on the MS duo, if you chose No, it will ask you if you want to overwrite your save file on the MS duo.

What that means (my hypothesis): When a save file is loaded, the current status in the game is saved to memory. When you put the PSP in sleep mode and then wake it up, the current status in the game is still present; however, the game has now forgotten which MS duo save file had been loaded.

I don't know if you could exploit that, but it's interesting how the software and memory relationship works.

Hrm, i wonder if this above mentioned TRC violation in RR is related to the disc swapping exploit for 2+ players with one disc, since Wipeout has blatant guards for this.

Although nothing unique to RR tho.

Just a thought.

The first posting in this thread contained conversation provided by a licensed developer that is surely under NDA. I believe thats inappropriate for posting in these forums.