Dev/Debug Unit Performance, Observations, and Questions

[DaytonaUSA]

I'm sure some of you guys who are here have dev systems or debug units. I was kinda wondering if some of you guys could post about your experiences with the hardware (like the Dreamcast katana, or Test PS2 ect) and what the advantages are vs. a normal console ect.

 

I've been playing around with my Test PS2 unit and my Debug PSone (having quite the fun time!) and I had a few observations:

 

First, the PSone debug unit has A LOT of ports in the back. There are av in AND av out, another type of port that looks like a slightly smaller (I'll have to read the name of it tomorrow if it's labeled.. it's kinda dark now at night), typical sony av port, ect. I'm kinda wondering what I could use these things for. Does this mean I can put video of games somehow on my computer? Anywho, the PSone is region free, which I can't wait to explore.

 

Now, the Test PS2 is a bit different. It honestly looks very much like a typical ps2, except it has what looks to be a hdd unit on the back. I've never dealt with these hdd units as I had sold my phat for a slim by the time Final Fantasy XI came out, so is there a way to access the hdd on a ps2 without buying something like FFXI? I don't see the drive in my Browser, so I'm a little lost as how to see what's stored on this thing. I've heard that sometimes games, or parts of games can still be stored on these things from previous devs, and I'd like to get in there to see what I find .. and to see a possible clue as to what company owned this unit originally.

 

The Test PS2 also plays imports as well. I've found the master disk patcher after a lot of research, and I'm figuring out how to take ps2 ISO images with this master disk code and program, and make burned copies of disks (no, not illegal use, just to play around with on games I already own just to see how this all works.. I love learning about all this fancy stuff ). This code will only work on Test PS2s, not regular units (from what I hear, not even modded units.. there's a different program ect for that).

 

However, while all these observations are fun, the most curious is that I've found the performance to be much different on the Test PS2 than the regular PS2. The most curious discovery are the load times and, more specifically, what appears to be frame rate. Now, I know the regular ps2 has less memory (32 mbs) and the TEST has 64 mb, but I had seen many people argue on forums whether or not it affected the performance or not. While the reasons people say it shouldn't affect anything make sense.. if there is one game I know like the back of my hand, it's Battlefront II. I have it on every console/handheld because I love the game so much, and I know exactly how the game acts and feels on every system. The load screens when you're saving or loading your profile go so fast that one message goes right after another, literally on top of each other.. it's not even readable. Ironically enough, loading times seem to be on par with the xbox version for loading a level. While not a huge thing to mention, it is important to note especially as the ps2's version of this game had horrible load times compared to the xbox version.

 

The best thing though was the frame rate. Now, I don't know how to describe this.. but here it goes: It feels like I'm playing an arcade cabinet version of the same ps2 game. IE: it's kinda like how when you play Star Wars Arcade, everything feels really smooth.. almost too smooth, and animations almost seem, i donno.. floaty smooth? Does that make any sense? It's almost "idealized" animation that doesn't quite feel natural but at the same time is kinda neat. That's what I'm experiencing. It seems everything from animations to framerate seems more fluid and almost floaty or something. It's honestly sticking out to me like a sore thumb, because the difference in gameplay playing on the Test system vs my Slim is quite noticeable, and actually.. kinda bothered me at first because it felt ...different. For a game I'm so used to playing, it felt a bit alien.

 

 

 

Well, anywho, sorry to bore you all. I'll post some pictures here tomorrow of the ports on the ps1, and hopefully I can get some imput as to what I can do with this. I'll also post when I play with the burned ISO images of ps2 games and let you know if I can tell any performace differences in any other games. Again, please.. I need help with accessing the ps2's hdd! Thanks!

 

Please feel free to post your own experiences on these, or any other dev or debug consoles by any manufacturer. I'm curious to see what each system offers . I love odd ball systems like these, don't you ? Quirky, rare, unique.. isn't that what collectors live for ?

[Trooper]

Well I haven't done much more than boot up my Katana to make sure it worked but the biggest advantages to playing around with it is of course all the I/O ports on it, it's got RGB, S-Video and VGA outputs ready to use and then of course the added bonus of being able to play all games from any region with the flip of a switch.

[DaytonaUSA]

Well I haven't done much more than boot up my Katana to make sure it worked but the biggest advantages to playing around with it is of course all the I/O ports on it, it's got RGB, S-Video and VGA outputs ready to use and then of course the added bonus of being able to play all games from any region with the flip of a switch.

 

I'd love to see what it looks like, and it's ports. I'll post some pictures of mine as well. Where did you find it?

Edited March 4, 2009 by DaytonaUSA

[Trooper]

I'll see if I can dig it out and snap some pictures of it, right now it's somewhere in the far back of the "collectionroom" so it'll probably be some days until I get to it

 

I bought it from a friend of mine, I suspect he bought it from Japan off Yahoo auctions.