Fact Fiend - Every PS1 Game Came With a Free Hidden CD

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---
Original Article - www.factfiend.com/every-early-...
List of PS1 games this works with - en.everybodywiki.com/List_of_...
Background music -
Two Finger Johnny Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

[@MrNateSPF]

I remember when my dad bought a $1,000 Bluray player just to spite me, like I was going to sneak into his house to play video games. Then whenever he complained about it I would point out he payed $300 extra for that [lack of a] feature.

[@re4nimate]

Fun Fact, Karl! - The original Xbox also not only played CDs, but could *save* the audio tracks on the console (in an era when memory cards were still the norm), and would even allow you to use your saved songs in some games (e.g. Fusion Frenzy, Phantom Dust). Tbh, I thought the direction you were going was to put the Wu-Tang Clan game in an original Xbox, save the songs, and apply them to be played during an Xbox game -- which may still be possible, since hardware of older eras tended to be less finicky about playing media with/without copyright data...

[@cerberus144]

Some of the Wrestling Games on the Xbox could use the music saved on your hard drive as a file to pull from to make custom entrance music for your created wrestlers.

[@re4nimate]

@@cerberus144 That's really cool! I remember loading Rammstein's "Reise, Reise" album on mine and using it for Phantom Dust, which allowed you to assign a song to each of the 7 arenas/maps.

[@rodsk8dude731]

PS3 could do that. Not just from CDs, it even allowed transferring mp3s from a USB stick. But not many games supported custom soundtracks. Gran Turismo did in-game, some games would allow you to play it over the game through the XMB, like on the 360, but many wouldn't.

[@professorloaf8933]

Omg fusion frenzy is a relic I nearly forgot about, it’s such chaos

[@NotDingse]

Must have made it a living hell to license music for games because of it

[@casanovafunkenstein5090]

That clip of Lara saying she's going to strip off, followed by unsettling sound effects feels like it might have been an intentional gag. Either way it's hilarious and I'd love to see someone animate it for a shitpost.

[@guillermopena8412]

That last bit about having a game on and putting another CD is the basis of the main gimmick of the Monster Rancher series. Where you could put in any CD including games and music, the PS1 would read it and the game would generate a monster from that CD. The entire gimmick was to get kids to buy as many CDs as possible just to see what randomly generated monster they would get as I believe the game only would make one monster per CD.

[@MasterHigure]

It's also how you would get around the most basic copy protection on PS1 games. Any CD player can wobble the read head a bit to account for things like an off-center hole. PS1 games had the innermost tracks off-center on purpose and read the wobble to see if the game was genuine. This is pretty tricky to duplicate when burning a CD. But you could have it read those tracks on a genuine game, then swap it out with the copied game once it has passed the copy protection test but before it actually loaded anything.

[@ashleysmith38]

That game had an amazing concept I don't remember them dojng it justice but I my memory is fuzzy I remember I put a spice girls cd in and got a tiger print cube

[@DefaultName-du3kr]

@@MasterHigure That's how I modded GH3. I would put the game in, let the PS2 read it then swap it with my modded version.

[@Naedlus]

As well, the game Vib-Ribbon, which was a musical, beat based game, where the entire game fit into system memory, and it encouraged you to put your own music CDs in the system to play the levels generated by your choice of music

[@randomcatname7792]

It was effectively one per disk, but it got overwritten at 50 or so CD so you could use old ones again

[@notaducc]

Vib Ribbon is a game is a game similar to Ridge Racer in that regard. Since it’s a rhythm game, you can actually remove the game disc, put in an audio CD, and it’ll generate stages based on whatever you put in. It’s wild

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

Dude ridge racer is a throwback title for me, albeit not on playstation, I at the time wasn't aware it was offered for playstation as well.

[@asmariamoon]

PS1 discs also worked in CD-ROM drives, and some would have specific content for CD-ROMs. For instance, the second disc of Thousand Arms had the entire soundtrack in MP3 format, plus a selection of wallpapers for your computer. It blew my mind the first time I figured that out.

[@darkhart1234]

The ultimate hidden CD data on a PS1 disc wasn't even playable on a CD player. One of the tiger woods games had the Jesus vs Santa short in the files if you put it into a PC. Until this was found and the copies were recalled, of course.

[@jollybodger]

One accidental "feature" I discovered on the PS1, while loading Ridge Racer after selecting a specific car (I can't remember which), if you swapped the disc at the right time with the Destruction Derby disc it loaded the Ridge Racer track but the Destruction Derby car model. I assume it was entirely coincidental that the specific RR car model data was stored at the same spot on the disc as the DD car model. Little 12 year old me was king of the playground for a few days when I showed my friends.

[@shotgunmasterQL]

I recall that worked because the two games used basically the same game engine, so even if the car wasn't exactly in the same sector of the disc but /in/the/same/car/folder with the same naming scheme, then it's easy to see why it would have worked.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

​@@shotgunmasterQL so basically the file structure was similar enough that they'd load from other games, basically? Is that what I understand from that? That's neat!

[@shotgunmasterQL]

@@goosenotmaverick1156 Basically, yeah. Still, the core idea with that is obviously that the game engines both games used were pretty much the same with little to no changes, and the folder structures and file formats were basically interchangeable. It also helps that games and game engines from that time were still pretty "basic", especially since game engines more or less came into existence with the 3D era since older NES and SNES games didn't exactly have game "engines". Meaning things were just right back then for something like this to work, not an insane amount of variables and moving parts. You can still try to do this sort of disc swapping with many PS2 games too for example, and the game will try to load with the wrong disc (as long as it's not programmed to check the disc first or pause the gameplay until the correct disc is read), but nothing can happen because there are just way too many variables for that to work. I tried that with Ratchet and Clank 3 and Jak 3 at some point, as someone claimed they were able to get some interesting glitchy graphics that way. I played R&C3 for about 3 levels (swapping the original disc back when the game just couldn't progress without new loading) and nothing interesting happened. Jak 3 on the other hand would remain paused until the correct disc was inserted (I think?). And those two games should share some engine code since Insomniac and Naughty Dog did exchange some software technology between themselves, but yeah, didn't work.

[@Kenneth-cn8dx]

Prove it

[@DrewAk49]

Loved that game!

[@Sterkleton_]

I was a TV and Hifi technician and installer from 2005 - 2013 and I 100% agree with majority of the statements here. Especially in regards to Blu-Ray players. It was always a smart choice to get a PS3 back when Blu-Ray was a new form of physical media. Good value compared to standalone players, also another bonus was you could have the PS3 hidden in a cabinet (with ventilation) and still control it with the controller. So if you had a wall mounted TV and a hidden PS3, the setup looked super clean with nothing visible. But now with smart TV's thats is kind of redundant, but back in 2008 it looked awesome.

[@brandonbaker7361]

I remember discovering all this stuff as a kid with my brothers and feeling like we'd stumbled upon some secret black magic or something. 😂

[@donkfail1]

My favorite Play Station CD memory is of the game Wipeout. If you didn't like the soundtracks in the game, you could pop in any other CD when a course was loaded. The game didn't need to load anything unless you changed the course you wanted to race on. So now you could race to the music of AC/DC, Kraftwerk, Brahms, Abba or whatever got you in the right mood. And my first PS2 was worn out from playing DVDs. Had to buy another one.

[@ryurc3033]

I killed 2 PS2 in my life. Took one to a repair dude. He asked how much I had used it..... practically every day for 10 years. Music, gaming, or movies....he could not believe how much was still good to go after all that time. I'd still buy another one today.

[@joemieszczur9735]

Ridge Racer did it too. there was a few games you could do that for, mostly racing games lol.

[@mmceorange]

​@@joemieszczur9735Vigilante 8 as well

[@That_Handle]

Same. IIRC, either Ridge Racer (Type 4?) and/or Wipeout(s) I found will apply environmental psychoacoustics to the music... When you're driving or flying through a tunnel, I recall hearing my Metallica selection of _Master of Puppets_ given a tunnel-like reverb. I'd have to go through all the titles in the respective series to land which titles did that.

[@BeastGuyver]

on the subject of switching discs while the machine is on, one game made it a core mechanic "Monster Rancher" the whole series every time you wanted a new monster you'd switch discs and the monster you got would be determined by the disc, it could be anything music, games, even movies (it wouldn't read the whole movie just key points) then you could combine the monsters to get new ones with combined traits and abilities. The handheld version used words you'd type in.

[@DefendYoungstown]

It was a _mostly_ unadvertised feature. A particular example of a game that touted it (via marketing) was the Wipeout series, as one of the selling points of those games were the soundtracks. As a side note: the example from Symphony of the Night where Alucard tells you not to play track 1 "but you probably won't listen"... I of course had to listen. What I got was a earsplittinglyloud and punishing series of audio pops and screeches. I don't know if that was because of my CD player in particular, or that's just what happens with gamedata trying to be translated into "music"... but I'm saying to anyone curious to just follow the half-vampire's instructions. Your ears will be glad you did.

[@stephenburkett9193]

It’s what happens with any data that isn’t music being read as music. All data is of course just a series of bits, but the way they’re intended to be decoded is what makes the difference, and that’s where file formats and headers come in. An audio CD player is expecting all tracks on a CD to be in the standard CD audio format and will proceed to read it as such, but obviously the result will not be musical if it isn’t in that format. The aidiot editor Audacity allows you to import any file and have it interpret it as audio. It’ll ask you for the specifications of various parameters on how to decode it and then it’ll produce the audio resulting audio. You can even import actual audio but tell it wrong parameters on how to read it and it’ll get mangled up pretty bad.

[@montyyy08]

I genuinely discovered this by accident back in like 2001, when I put my Air Combat PS1 game into my new portable CD player and it blew my mind. I then tried all my PS1 games and most them had something to play. I’m so glad I discovered this! 👍

[@Nomad_786]

This is what I come to Factfiend for, facts I wouldn't believe at all on face value. Well done Karl, you are the best at what you do.

[@heclec4420]

If I recall correctly, Dreamcast games had a warning on them to NOT play them in the CD Player. Some would give you an error like the PS1 Castlevania: SotN disc to not proceed (and some would not) and then play a series of binary screeches similar to an old modem racket.

[@ZacabebOTG]

What's interesting is that they had to put a CDDA/CD-ROM section on the disc for that to work in addition to the GD-ROM section which in turn a CD player couldn't even read. There was enough space left in the CD-ROM section that some games put bonus content in there such as desktop backgrounds.

[@ZachEngle]

In Final Fantasy VII when a cinematic is loading you can open the PS1 and put in Disc 1, 2, or 3 and you will get a cinematic from that disc instead. ie: When Sephiroth is walking in the fire in Nibelheim (Disc 1) you could put in Disc 3 and possibly get the Northern Crater exploding.

[@olefredrikskjegstad5972]

"Rugged and well-built" is the word. My old PS3 from 2008 is easily the longest-lived electronic device I possess. It has survived maybe four phones and three laptops

[@jollybodger]

Yep my PS1 still works, it's the original 1995 release with composite video/audio on the back, the one Karl has is the later updated model with composite audio/video removed and symbols for the power and open buttons, mine just says power and open on them.

[@ALunarLight]

As a mild video game Horder they all do pretty well if you don't destroy them. My Atari needs new controller. My nes is turning colors of afraid of the console breaking. Sega is fine My 64 is mint. My PS1 has a latch issue my fat PS2 thanks it's a PS1. (Laser issue) My baby PS2 is good and my PS3 has a port issue with HDMI. It's a wiggle but it probably just needs a good maintenance and clean.

[@behindthehideaway2740]

I always thought it was just playstation then the PS1 was the mini version

[@AimeeRose1997]

I remember being fascinated as a kid when I inserted my Rayman PS1 disc into my PS2 on the browser menu and discovered I could listen to the game's entire soundtrack, and then feeling beyond disappointed when I tested this with the Rayman 2 disc and discovered it only let you listen to one track

[@thicpuddin1327]

I was the first of my friends that discovered this back in the day. I loved the music in Twisted metal 2 and I just was curious and just was like I wonder.... it was at the time one of my favorite albums lol. Also my little sister had a Mary Kate and Ashley game and it tells you when your doing the fashion show you can change out the music by inserting a new CD... I was like wtf, seriously?!?!? And we would then have a Mary Kate and Ashley fashion show while Eminem was playing in the back round.

[@maniac086]

My favorite game to do this with was Disc 1 of the original Street Fighter Collection, the one with Super and Super Turbo. There were a number of tracks that were just silent, presumably other data the CD player was just picking up. But the entire soundtrack, from stage themes (including the 'critical' sped-up versions), to opening/menu and ending themes, to the full array of character voices and sound effects, was formatted as standard CD tracks. Cammy's, Ken's, and Guile's themes all got a lot of play on road trips while I would draw in the back seat. Unfortunately the Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold disc from the same collection utilized proprietary music files in-game, so no free soundtrack for that one…!

[@fox0205]

I'm gunna guess that Music 2000 was one of the only games to fully embrace this feature because it could auto-generate music videos for CDs you put into the console. It had a mode for this with instructions and full CD controls (forward, back, pause, etc.)

[@known1443]

If I recall correctly, games like Crash Bandicoot didn't due to how they streamed audio and level data in chunks as you moved through the level. I think Spyro was similar.

[@shotgunmasterQL]

Yeah, most games didn't work as bog standard (redbook) audio CDs, although a good chunk did. Why it wasn't done universally, it had something to do with loading and how the game handled that. Earlier games and probably many later racing games would only load as much data as was needed for each level, but as games needed to improve in complexity and scope, that sort of "load the entire level in" mindset would have limited the games pretty noticeably. One of the ressons sound effects and dialogue was often paired with the music was that when you were playing a level and the console was streaming the music track from the disc, if you spoke to some NPC,, it would take the laser less time to seek out voice lines when they were physically close to each other on the disc. Seek times were a significant enough reason that it was still a consideration on last gen consoles that still had HDDs, where the data would still have to be read from disc like platters by a "reader head" in the HDD, so developers had to be mindful of how they organized their data, and even duplicated a lot of assets so they could be close to any other relevant data (so you wouldn't just have like one instance of a chair on a very different part of the disc while the other data relevant to a level would be entirely elsewhere, so the reader wouldn't have to spend time seeking each time the chair was needed but not in RAM). Now that SSDs are the standard, this isn't really a thing anymore as SSDs don't really need time to seek data. Yeah, Spyro and Crash games were optimized in such manner, and additionally Spyro 2 and 3 actually had to save space by making their soundtracks mono, while Spyro 1 was stereo.

[@RickyT15]

@@shotgunmasterQL pretty sure it was crash was the first to bring that around properly in full and became common place after.

[@FatDave2112]

Redbook audio also has a hard limit of about 70 minutes (you can push it to 73 or so, though player compatibility becomes an issue), so any game with a large soundtrack (the later THPS games for instance) or a lot of recorded dialogue (Metal Gear Solid anyone?) had their audio stored as compressed data. Think of a commercial music CD length vs. a CD full of mp3's. Because the scale of games increased so drastically over time, and the way actively streaming game data (as mentioned) became the norm, pretty much only the oldest PS1 games used Redbook audio. I'm sure there are some late generation examples, but for the most part game discs were all pure data a year or two after launch.

[@andyroberts310]

I used to use my ps1 as a cd player when I had friends over for boardgames and loved the weird animations it did for the music.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

Those animations were why I used my PS instead of my stereo as a CD player. I'd hook the TV to the stereo and listen that way 😂 those weird animations were great!

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

Also some of those were like an acid trip for sure 😂😂

[@alexgreenwood404]

I remember putting a copy if Command and Conquer Red Alert in my dad's cd player back in the day, just to see what would happen. My brother heard the soundtrack and got confused as he thought I had moved the PC into the living room. Blew our minds at the time

[@MoZeZ92]

The console you hold in your hands is SCPH-900X model. The audiophile version is SCPH-1000 which has dedicated RCA output in the back.

[@adampoole948]

as i kid i loved using the mk trilogy game cd to play the soundtrack.. and for some games you can kind of trick the game into playing the music from a different game by starting up a game as intended, switching to a different game disc you wanted the music from and after after it starts playing put the main game disc back in.. it didn't work for every game and sometimes it would freeze the game but it was fun to do

[@holleywood234]

To this dat trilogy is still the greatest game to me

[@mariomatty]

Fun fact. The PlayStation shown in the video is just called the PlayStation or PSX. The PSone is the smaller revision released later. The whole range is collective called PS1 by everyone! Calling it PS1 is much easier, similar to calling the New Nintendo 3DS XL a DS. Ain't nobody got time for that.

[@yunume]

I like to imagine that, if a bunch of parents had caught onto playing Doom as audio CD, their outrage would have a Streisand Effect that transformed the industry for the better.

[@Poldovico]

That Ridge Racer thing isn't necessarily something the devs would have done on purpose, nor something that would be limited to Ridge Racer. RAM on PS1s being what it was, it was fairly common for soundtracks to be streamed directly from the CD rather than loaded into memory. This was even a thing with certain PC games, Half Life being a notable one among them.

[@stephenburkett9193]

I’m pretty sure they did what they did with Ridge Racer simply because they could. The game was originally made to be stored on a ROM chip, so all the programming and graphics and stuff only took up a fraction of the disc’s capacity, so they used the rest of the disc to include a higher quality recording of the soundtrack. The music originally fit within that ROM chip too and used music sequence data matched with compressed instrument samples, but they had no such limitation with the PlayStation as long as they used CDDA and had the space for the data.

[@51USO]

The PS3 being a Blu-Ray player was the selling point for my family. For me, it was anything with Hideo Kojima's name on it. GG Sony

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

This is also why I keep around an older Xbox for this purpose. I still have a PS3 as well, just don't use it for that as it's less functional when it comes to streaming as well.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

Also the PS3 was definitely my first Blu-ray playing device. Best part? I traded "useless to me" car parts for it, no cash out of pocket 😂

[@mikeumm]

I sat on the fence when blue-ray came out. I kept thinking about the fate of laser discs. Lol hindsight being 20/20 oops

[@bearnaff9387]

For those who aren't already aware, Wu-Tang: Taste the Pain runs on the Thrill Kill engine. Thrill Kill was a four-player fighting game that was cancelled for being entirely too weird and dark. The amazing thin was that the cancellation came after the game was basically finished. Leaked versions of the game are entirely playable. Google the game name, it's a trip.

[@divzero_again]

Dreamcast games do this too. The inner ring of a game is a standard CD. Track 2 is always a "put this in a Dreamcast please" message, sometimes voiced by the game's voice actors. Track 1 is standard CD-ROM data, and some games have easter eggs like wallpapers if you put them in a PC.

[@SkaMateria]

Dead or Alive 2 on Dreamcast had images of the characters in swimsuits.

[@sintanan469]

@@SkaMateria younger me can vouch for this... I had DoA2, and I didn't have internet for a time. You learn to make do.

[@SkaMateria]

@@sintanan469 we may have had similar childhoods......

[@keithhill7098]

One that blew my mins as a kid was Test Drive Offroad, the in game soundtrack is instrumental only versions of Gravity Kills songs, but if you play it as a cd it has not only the instrumental only versions. but normal full song versions as well. I also remember a few games that would just make loud screeching sounds and other weird noises that weren't sound files of the game, but seemed more like just weird noises to deter you from wanting to try and listen to it lol.

[@reichstein011]

One weird example of this was one of the Rollcage games (not sure if it was 1 or 2). The game disc will play the in game music when put in a CD player, but there was also a separate soundtrack released for the game and it was a 2 CD set despite the game being only one disc. I never understood why the soundtrack album was 2 discs when the game was only 1 and all the music was already in CD format. I suppose they must have just included a bunch of music that wasn't in the game.

[@shotgunmasterQL]

The CD playback quality of PS1 is way blown out of proportions. What's true is that it was a fairly good player back in the day and that even to this day it doesn't sound too bad, but you can easily select from an arrangement of different CD players and get better results than with a PS1. My Sony DVD DVR from 2005 sounds way better, and I didn't even get that for CD playback at all (VHS digitization). As far as I know, the whole "PS1 is audiophile's wet dream" legend more recently originated from late 2000s or early 2010s, when some audiophile forum users discussed how surprisingly decent one user's PS1 sounded on their system, that it sounded basically better than another player close to 100 bucks, when around that time used PS1s were like 10 bucks. But since then the narrative has gotten a bit out of hand. The truth is that the few original PS1 models (that had separate RCA outputs) had a pretty decent audio quality, but when they revised the hardware and chips inside the system for the revised models, the audio quality took a hit and doesn't present the sound completely accurately (there's some coloring in the sound and the DAC ,while not that bad, does not match even a fairly mid range one today). You will easily get better audio quality today by plugging any cheap DVD player or even a PS2 to any mainstream AVR with a TOSLINK cable. That's it. The AVR DAC will mop the floor with whatever PS1 had built in, and we aren't even talking about some snakeoil audiophile several thousand dollar systems with all separate components and such. Any decently modern AVR should have a pretty adequate DAC. Like the whole "better than several thousand dollar player" thing is just such nonesense. I'm not some audio snob, I can tell a modest difference between bad and good DACs, and I don't think PS1 sounds "bad", but man, I ripped some PS1 soundtracks from few of my games somewhat recently, and the audio quality is noticeably cleaner when played from a digital file on my TV from the headphone jack (DAC) to my fully analog speaker amp (because my newer one broke down, had to go back to old stuff). I still sometimes bring my PS1 to different group or club activities for some CD playback funsies, since the visualizer thingy is pretty cool. It's more than enough for stuff like that (although it doesn't seem to be able to buffer/stabilize the disc during reading, so if someone bumps the table, you will get some stutter or skipping).

[@yikes6969]

suuuurrrreee

[@jamescrawford1534]

Also, the PS 'one' was an updated new body version of the PSX, the PSX had the parallel and serial port in the back, it was removed afterwards.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

You mean the little fellas? Didn't they have accessories to add a screen to play portably? (As portable as it got back then when it came to gaming, beyond maybe a Gameboy, which was obviously not in the same wheelhouse)

[@jamescrawford1534]

@Goose Not maverick it was more than that, you could use the ports to connect to other machines via null link modems, or if you had the equipment you could copy games directly, this is one of the reasons why they were removed in the mkII and also the one of the reasons the mk1 price jumped to well over £400 (at the time they sold for £199-250 retail) there was a TON of stuff you could do with those ports.

[@sienile]

TIE Fighter on PC ('95 version) did the same thing as Ridge Racer. It would play any CD that had audio tracks, but it would skip the first track (the data track on its own disc).

[@Veklim]

PSX is the 'official designation' of the original consoles, the PS1 was the contoured mini version which came out a little later.

[@Axel_Kori]

Swapping the game disc for a CD also worked in Vigilante 8 games, and i believe the Tony Hawk games among many others The reason for the XBO not playing the disc could be because, like stated in the Castlevania SotN track you played, Track 1 often contained data, and the XBO might be recognizing that and force closing to avoid potential malicious code execution More fun stuff about opening disc trays (though for PS2): Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2: pause the game after loading in a fight, open the disc tray, unpause and play for a little while, notice that many sounds don't play, close the tray, then listen to the game freak out as it plays all the sounds it couldn't get to before (almost) Any PS2 DDR game: get to the song select screen, swap out the game with a different PS2 DDR game, start changing your song selection, songs from the 2nd disc will load (not always the preview either), choose a song, try playing a chaotic selection from a song on the 2nd disc until the game crashes

[@karl-erlendmikalsen5159]

Some PC games did the same, audiowise, which I used in two ways. Mech Warrior 2 was one of my favourite things to have in the background when I did homework. Just great. But, what you could also do was to swap the disk in th PC with something else to get new back ground tracks. So while playing Diablo the game would load in everything but the music which it would play from the disk. So I swapped the disk out with Metallica after loading to get a new feel from the game.

[@MetalHeadReacts]

The PS1 was referred to as the PSX before the PSOne mini version came out. It being called the PSX was a throwback/Homage to the Sony MSX home computer from 1983, which was, ironically, conceived of by Microsoft and made by Sony. Not EVERY PS1 came could be played as a CD whether it be music or sound effects... Early games, such as Tomb Raider etc... could, but games produced later had the music integrated into the code of the game and could not be played, it would only have the track 1 game data track, this is purely because when the PS1 came out, they weren't able to compress the audio well enough to stil sound good. However as technology improved, this changed.

[@safetinspector2]

I happily played the WipEouT soundtrack straight off the disk over and over and over. Bless you ColdStorage

[@darkne55inside]

I figured this out too with Twisted Metal 2, but the real reason is the different file systems, and the fact that most games weren't that big. Cd players read an uncompressed audio format cda. And a standard disk could store 700mb or up to 70 min of audio. So if you had 35 minutes of audio you only had 350 mb left for the game. For fun, put you ps1 disk in you computer and see how big the files are that are not cda, compared to the audio time that is also on the disk. Sont could have done like Nintendo and stuck with solid state storage, but for the price, cd's were cheaper, and allowed for uncompressed audio, giving the sound quality everyone loved from a lot of ps1 games.

[@xxPenjoxx]

The first cd I ever bought was the Shrek soundtrack. It's an absolute banger, and years later, I treated myself to the special edition vinyl... can confirm it is indeed green!

[@wrexhammusic]

I found this out when I put my ridge racer disk into my stereo to see what would happen. As it turns out, it played the music from the game.

[@patriograysmark6328]

Had a very short scroll through, so apologies if this has been said already; The trick basically was what's known as mixed mode CD. A "PC" or data CD has of course a file system and all the gubbins you'd expect from a normally burned disk of your favorite flash games of the time. an audio CD, as you would pick up from any store, has the audio encoded in an uncompressed format ( ++ quality, at the expense of limited space, the original home CD-R's could hold 74mins of music up to 99 tracks, while they got updated to ones do 80minutes [ 650mb vs 700mb] ) This compression malarkey is why a PC data CD with mp3's can have about 8hours of music but an older car with a factory made CD stereo could not play it, wrong format. ( This is also where CD-Ripper software could take the music disk and bring it down to the computer as an audio file ( the OG xbox used windows media player tech to store songs on it's hard drive as a type of .WMA file ) Add to this, generally speaking track 1 is the data section of these disks. If you're lucky, a CD player will either ignore it or mute the playback. If you aren't lucky, the player will attempt to play the binary as if it's a regular music disk which.... put lightly, is very unpleasant. Somewhat like being stuffed into a blender with broken glass. Before audio compression codecs gained traction, it was easier to store the music as CD audio tracks on-disk rather than PC data formatted .WAV or .AU files, PC games also did this ( GTA1, Total Annihilation Campaign, Quake 2 spring to mind as personal examples ) so the whole playback thing was more of a happy accident.

[@batman8589]

First CD I owned was Prince Purple Rain. Also saw him in concert in Lexington KY in I think 1984. I was 13 & it was the first concert I wanted to see vs going with my parents to see their favorites. I had to sleep in the bathtub because the family members partied all night.

[@themightymash1]

20:10 This was also the case with some CDROM games for PCs in the late 90s, Quake, the Wipeout 2097 Port and Command & Conquer spring to mind.

[@russkidj19zeta7]

i remember my sega saturn was like that, too. you could leave the door open when you turned it on to get to the sounds through the system menu.

[@giftedunderachiever5919]

PlayStation X was the original name for the PlayStation, after Sony ended their partnership with Nintendo. All the advertising up to a certain point, and especially the games journalism anticipating its release referred to the “PSX,” until just before the North American release. The “PSOne” was a smaller version that came later, and there was another PSX that was an upgraded PS2, but it only saw release in Japan.

[@smbarbour]

The TurboGrafx-CD games also had the music on the disc (and some have data between tracks). Track 1 was always a warning not to listen to it in a CD player though (some of them such, as Cosmic Fantasy 2, have a hilarious warning instead of the standard one)

[@jons9239]

I'm glad you tested with the Wu-Tang game because I was going to say that was like getting a mini Wu-Tang album.

[@godsvoid]

This is called RedBook Audio, it was a CD audio standard that allowed for a DATA track and Audio and on compatible players it skipped the DATA part (on crap players it played the DATA part with hilarious speaker destroying results).

[@joecutting4776]

i love how Karl always spills shit when showing off lol love this channel

[@mrpitman5496]

No2, a game made by crystal method, and the CD side game was a greatest hits of their music.

[@theinfoarcade]

Oh no, now I gotta collect PS1 games as well as my already overflowing CD collection

[@DonalvonGriffyn]

Hate being the 'actually' guy, but... facts. PSX was the model code for the original. The sleeker redesigned machine that had all the same functionality needed a whole new circuit board arrangement and that model was designated PS1. Hope someone finds that info useful, I never have.

[@pikerino]

Hi, Karl! Just wanted to say thank you for introducing me to the baked beans on bread! It's a real lifesaver!

[@skincarver462]

I used to play a ps1 game called backstreet billiards that would allow you to take the cd out and play another while you shoot pool.

[@corbingarrett1206]

My grandma gave me a PS2 for Christmas one year, I didn't know or want it for the DVD playing capability, but once I found out it could play DVDs, I was ecstatic. From that point, I would beg my parents to take me down to our local movie rental place so I could watch movies.

[@m2pt5]

I'm not sure, but I thought a significant number of PS1 games just used the redbook audio for some of the game music, voices, or sound effects, due to the higher quality.

[@mirrankei]

I was not expecting my childhood love of S-Club 7 to be validated today

[@mrshinebox1803]

I was able to convince my tightarse parents to buy me a PS2 for xmas one year because it also doubled as a cheap DVD player for the family... I didn't tell them that the console was going to live in my bedroom where noone else could use it.

[@quickkev]

Don't know if it's been mentioned yet but there's something like the ridge racer feature in vibbribbon that will generate new levels based on any cd you put into the ps one

[@colafix]

I was subscribed to PlayStation Magazine and they sent you a demo disc every month with a magazine. One of the demos when thrown in my little blue CD player it had about 6 tracks, 2 or 3 were awesome instrumentals one was a weird introduction 'He writes the songs, he writes the songs muahaha'. Wish I could find that game again, if anyone else remembers this disc throw some info down below.

[@randomcatname7792]

The he writes the songs line from Twisted Metal? Was there a demo with it?

[@randomcatname7792]

Probably demo #50.. It says it contains 3 audio files, and has a game the "he writes the songs" line is in

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

​@@randomcatname7792 the internet is a crazy thing. Person comes with memory and leaves with possible answers haha

[@godoftwinkies574]

So they sold playstations like printers, cheap but make money with ink cartridges.

[@alexfranz817]

The PSX was a revision of the playstation one. It was a smaller form factor machine that was closer in size to the original walkman

[@VincentViolence]

You could play them on the PS1 as well by opening the disk tray and closing it upon loading. It had it's own music player and visualizer.

[@gartsur84]

This has been really entertaining.

[@DKQuagmire]

that last bit about playing other soundtracks in your games. i remember playing Wipeout HD on PS3, while listening to the soundtrack to F-Zero GX... a Nintendo Gamecube game!!

[@evilshiloh]

CDs can be written as mixed media with a data track and audio tracks. Games from the PS1 era used the audio tracks to play audio in games using the CD hardware as it didn't use the CPU to process the audio and the game could utilize the CPU for graphics and simpler audio instead. The only processing power was to tell the CD hardware which track or part of a track to play and when to stop. Audio loops can be created to create persistent background audio. This way you got CD quality audio in game instead of audio from MIDI chips that came with every game system that used less memory to control. This is usually why most of the extra audio tracks exist in PS1 games although developers may have added extra tracks if there was room.

[@Pile033]

The way I learn about the ps1 games able play as a CD was from a ps1 beyblade game that had 4 extra tracks from the anime as a feature that was on the back of the case stating to play in cd player to listen. I tried it was with other games finding different results.

[@chronoice9]

I put my copy of Street Sk8er into the family computer when I was messing with emulators as a kid, pleasant surprise getting the soundtrack played back

[@Karloss00]

To clarify on the PSOne/PSX; The original console is called the PlayStation, The small version was the PSOne (essentially the first "Slim" console), and the PSX is a PlayStation 2 with a built-in DVR.

[@KingThump3r]

I remember using my PS1 to play the soundtrack from games by opening the cd player mode first then putting in a game disc

[@camcatable]

GTA 1 & Ridge Racer have banging music tracks. :)

[@BoingotheClown]

I did have a PS1, but I did have the PC version of Tomb Raider. For Hallowe'en, I played all the ambient background tracks as spooky effects in the front hall for when kids came to the door.

[@sidedish3976]

i indeed use my ps4 as a blu ray player haha

[@jarnesss2546]

I’ve had Xbox since the 360 was released but had a ps3 given to us by a family member and that just became the household dvd player

[@talos935]

The Ridge Racer disc swap also worked in Ridge Racer Revolution and it allowed for single disc link play. The console only used the disc to verify before booting, but once loaded it didn't care

[@nickolaswilcox425]

ive got a fully working ps1 ntsc launch model, shell is wrecked and i had to replace a psu capacitor but its still kicking, also worth noting that ps1, psone and psx are actually the official names of three different systems but most people just use them interchangeably for the ps1, the psone was a budget cutdown system, the small oval white one, the psx only released in japan and is actually a ps2 combined with a dvr

[@sulaymanceesay1168]

That secret sauce flew soo far over my head

[@AGwolf2097]

"PSX" was the catch-all by most gaming magazines when "SAT," "3DO," "NGO," and "N64" were the other relevant 3-character labels at the time :P

[@basstedson]

I used to sell people ps3s when they came in to buy a Blu-ray player. The hardest part was convincing them you weren't lying that a games console that cost less than the dedicated Blu-ray players could do the same job.

[@nathans6486]

on the ps1 if you are listening to an audio disc you can push select and you can get one of the best visualizers next to win amp, you can also play an audio disk while playing the game vigilante 8

[@righty-o3585]

I met S Club 7 on the beach out here in Los Angeles. They were filming a scene and between takes I walked up and borrowed Hannah's lighter to light my cigarette. Lol good times. 🤘

[@AGhastlyGengar]

I found so many bands I love today from Tony Hawk Pro Skater. It's the reason I love ska, and Goldfinger in particular so much.

[@ScandalUK]

Grand Theft Auto advertised the fact you could use any music CD once the game loaded for the radio.

[@megaton_a]

I figured out the disc swapping feature of the PS1 on my own back in the day. I used to play Wipeout and after the track loaded, I would put in Tool or White Zombie to listen to while I raced.

[@BawhawhawYT]

It is as the pop up said the audiophile version of the ps1 that outputs great sound. You can tell if you have one as it has way more outputs on the back.

[@k9turrent]

Fun fact, there's another earlier version of the PS1 that had a rca plugs directly on the console that had even more sought after audio quality.

[@grinreaperoftrolls7528]

Yo all of this is so freakin cool!

[@reichstein011]

The Ridge Racer thing may not even be deliberate. Since the music in Ridge Racer (and many other PS1 games) is recorded as normal CD audio all the game does to play music is attempt to play a particular track number. The system does not care what CD that audio comes from as long as that track has CD audio. This works in many other games that use CD audio, you just need to make sure that the game disc is in if the game tries to load data. Ridge racer works particularly well since the entire game (minus the music) fits in the PS1's memory.

[@Trustyfilms]

When the PS2 came out I lived in the Czech Republic where, for some reason, Sony made an exception and upped the price to over £700 for the PS2's initial release. I always assumed this was because of the price of DVD players at the time being considerably higher than in the UK due to import taxes at the time.

[@johnokland1652]

I remember when i found that out i pulled a few of my favorite games to keep in my CD case next to my walkman in my bag like twisted metal 2

[@lezlienewlands1337]

I randomly dropped into the CD player with the little know gem of "Overboard!" loaded. I lost my sh!t when I realised I could play any music track from the soundtrack I wanted.

[@hafbrydhellsing]

I noticed this when I tossed my Spyro into the PlayStation with a thumb print. Got the soundtrack instead of the game lol

[@integralhighspeedusb]

OK can confirm. Happened to have a PS1 right behind me and a car parked outside with a CD player. Both getting pretty rare now..

[@GulfCoastNihilist]

20:38 I remember doing that with Gran Turismo. Take the disc out put in Nascar 98 and play Laguna Seca with Nascar commentary.