This project to document the Playstation started about a year ago. It started with the utter disgust I had for Sony of America after suing Bleem! over the PSX emulation technology. I saw the ugliness of a huge multinational company try to destroy two guys who had a good idea and even tried to share it with them. It made me sick. I wanted to do something to help, but alas, I had no money (I still don't), but I did buy a Bleem! CD to support them.
I decided to start this little project partially to prove to Sony, but mostly to prove to myself, that coming up with the data to create your own emulator was not that hard. I also wanted to show what's behind that gray box that so many people hold dear. It's just a computer with no keyboard that plugs into your TV. It's one thing to think that you were spending $250 on a new PSX, but it's another to realize that the CPU costs $5.99 from LSI.
Kind of puts thing into perspective, doesn't it.
I'm not a programmer. I've never worked for Sony, and I never signed a non-disclosure agreement with them. I just took my PSX apart, found out what made it tick, and put it back together. I also scoured the web looking for material that I could find. I never looked at any of Sony's official documentation and never took anything you would have to have a license to get, such as PSY-Q. I mostly poked at emulators to see how they worked. Bleem! was only 512k at the time and was pretty easy to see how it functioned without even running it through a dissembler. PSEmu had an awesome debugger so I can see how a PSX ran even without caelta.
I want this documentation to be freely available. Anyone can use it. From the seasoned PSX programmer to the lurking programmer ready to make the next big emulator. If there is a discrepancy in my doc, please fix it. Tear out parts that are wrong and correct it so it's better that what I have now. I wanted to shoot for a 75% accuracy rating. I think I got it, but I don't know. Most of the stuff in here is hearsay and logical deductions. Much of it is merely a guess.
Of course there is the standard disclaimer, all trademarks are of the appropriate owners and that this documentation is not endorsed by Sony or Bleem! in any way. You are, once again, free to give this away, trade it, or do what you will. It's not mine anymore. It's everybody's. Do with it what you please. Oh, and if your PSX blows up or melts down due to this documentation, sorry. I can't assure the validity of any info other that I didn't get it from Sony's official documentation. I'm not responsible to what you do to your machine.
In closing, I wish to apologize for the way this introduction was written as it's 2:00 in the morning. I have a wedding to get to at 10:30 and I've been up for the last three days finishing the darn thing. I wish to thank everyone who supported me, Janice for believing in me, and my girlfriend Kim who put it with the long nights in front of the computer writing and the long days in front of the Playstation claiming I was "doing research" while playing FF8. I can't think of anything more to say. Have fun with this.
Joshua Walker
4/29/00
2:34am
84905
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