PlayStation Vita Physical Software Dumping Guide

From No-Intro ~ Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

New page: https://dumping.guide/carts/sony/vita

(Note to editors: do not delete this page, keep it for the edit history and for any details that are not yet transferred to the new page)

PSVgameSD + PSVStrip Method

This dumping method is based on Motoharu's tool, created in 2017. The PSVgameSD application acts as a dumper tool as well as a virtual drive for the dumps it makes. It allow us to create a 1:1 dump from the game cartridge, that can be virtually mounted on Ps Vita, emulating the exact same behaviour as we inserted the original game cartridgeon the Ps Vita. This leads to a perfect dump for preservation archival purpose.

However, this method was allowed in No Intro in 2019, once user "iCEQB" provided a solution for the "unique license file" problem (as the license file generated inside each game cartridge is different, two dumps from different game cartridge of the same game will never match). This solutions is called PSVStrip.

PSVStrip, developed in colaboration with user "KippyKid", is a tool that allow us to strip all data introduced by "PSVgameSD" and null all unique bytes within a PlayStation Vita dump. This makes sure that No-Intro only preserves all common bytes across multiple cartridges of the same game, while at the same time staying as close as possible to the original media as it can get.

This modified version is useful for preservation according to No Intro standards, but will leave the dump unplayable in Vita. An option in PSVStrip was developed in order to reconstruct the dump quickly and make it playable.

PSVgameSD is a tool that still needs some further modification and fixes. Motoharu has given his blessing for anyone to fork it and improve it.

Please, mind that, as the rom file generated by PSVgameSD has a ".psv" extension, this method and its results are totally unrelated to "BlackFin" project. For more information, see [1]

NOTE: Compatibility with game cards that have grw0: partition

There are some game cards that have a writeable partition called "grw0". Its been confirmed that this partition allows to write save data and updates files into the game card .

Currently, such kind of Game Card can be dumped, but the "grw0" partition won't get dumped on it. Due to the partition's nature, the game cartridge dump mounted with PSVgameSD app, acts like real game cartridge inserted, and so, bad behaviour is expected to happen when using them, at least when trying to save or updating the game. Further research on this is needed.

As we havent confirmed in "grw0" situation can be adressed without the need of dumping it or not, dumps coming from these game cartridge will be accepted but marked as "Bad Dump" in order to identify them. In the same way, we advice dumping these with NoNpDRM Method too, as these dumps do not need "grw0" to work properly.

Games confirmed to have "grw0" partition: 

Epic Mickey 2
Persona 4 Golden (Japanese version, at least)
Muramasa Rebirth

[PCSB-00050] Army Corps of Hell [EU]
[PCSB-00135] LEGO Batman 2 - DC Super Heroes [EU]
[PCSB-00304] LEGO Legends of Chima - Laval's Journey [EU]
[PCSE-00237] LEGO Legends of Chima - Laval's Journey [US]
[PCSB-00103] LEGO Harry Potter - Years 5-7 [EU]
[PCSB-00071] Michael Jackson - The Experience HD [EU]
[PCSE-00119] Ragnarok Ace [USA]
[VCAS-32024] Ragnarok Ace [Asia]
[PCSE-00015] Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen [USA]
[PCSB-00166] Spy Hunter [EU]
[PCSE-00012] Supremacy MMA [USA]
[PCSB-00065] Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splits [EU]
[PCSE-00017] Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splits [USA]
[PCSF-00247] The Jak and Daxter Trilogy [EU]
[PCSB-00047] Touch My Katamari [EU]
[PCSB-00031] Virtua Tennis 4 [EU]

To confirm a game cartridge has "grw0" partition, just look for it on VitaShell. Once the game cartridge is inserted, you should see "Gro0" partition (this rute belongs to the game cartridge). If "Grw0" exists, it should be just next to it.

Please, even if are not interested in dumping, helping us identifying these kind of game cartridge would be really useful.

Tools

  • A PS Vita (1000 original model or 2000 revision model)
  • At least, a 4GB Vita Memory Card
  • Henkaku software installed (able to load homebrew).
  • VitaShell homebrew installed (able to navigate through the Vita's file system, as well as enabling access to it by USB on PC)
  • PSVgameSD plugin and app installed (See Installation point) [2]


Dumping

1. Once correctly installed, go to LiveArea menu and search for the Virtual GC bubble. Launch it.  

2. Upon launching user app you will be presented with console UI. Press "Left" or "Right" on d-pad to switch between different modes of the driver. The one we want is Physical MMC mode.

3. Once selected, press "Up" or "Down" to navigate through dump files and select the Game Cart.

4. Press "Cross" to start dumping the came card (this option is only available if real game card is correctly inserted) 

5. Process should start automatically, displaying the "Dump progress" numbers, indicating the sectors left to be dumped. The process takes long to finish (30-45 minutes), so just leave it aside. 

6. If the dump was succesful, .psv dump file will be stored at "ux0:iso" folder.

7. In order to extract it to the PC, enter VitaShell and then connect your PS Vita to the PC with the USB. Open VitaShell settings menu by pressing the START button of your PS Vita. Once opened, go to the "USB device" option and select "Memory Card". Press START once again to close the settings menu.  Then, press the "SELECT" button of your PS Vita and it will enable USB connection. Your PC should detect automatically the Memory Card and give you access to the it.

8. Search for the "Iso" folder and copy the ".psv" file to your desktop.


PSVStrip treatment

1.


Submitting Info to No-Intro

In case you want to submitt the data to our forums, follow these steps. Otherwise, you can always contact us in private and we will make sure your dump makes its way to the database. 

- Write the game's name and its Serial ID (PCSG-XXXXX, PCSB-XXXXX, PCSE-XXXXX....)

- Make a picture of your cart, showing proof the dump came from it

- Use any Hash tool to obtain hashes from the ".psv" file generated by PSVStrip. Needed hashes are MD5, SHA-1, CRC and Size.

- (OPTIONAL) Provide Barcode, Serial ID writen on the game cover, mould codes writen in the game cart (front and back).

- (OPTIONAL) Provide scans for the artwork cover and the game cart (front and back)

If you have datter rights you can submit the dumpinfo using the "Submit" form in DAT-o-MATIC.

Otherwise post the info in the New Dumps & Redumps section of the forum.

NoNpDrm Method

With this method, what we are actually going to do is just to extract the encrypted game files from the Game Card as they are and generate a fake license in order to make them usable. These will not be perfect dumps from the game cartridges, but still all the original game related files inside the game cartridge will be kept without being modified or patched, and it will let us preserve the "Grw0 partition" games till the problem around these cartridges is fixed.

Tools

  • A PS Vita (1000 original model or 2000 revision model)
  • At least, a 4GB Vita Memory Card (optional, this method can be used with "psvsd" mod, that uses the 3G module on 1000 3G Vita models as a MicroSd port)
  • Henkaku software installed (able to load homebrew). [3]
  • VitaShell homebrew installed (able to navigate through the Vita's file system, as well as enabling access to it by USB on PC) [4]
  • NoNpDrm plugin installed [5]

For the tools installation, follow the instructions inside their Github profiles. The following steps are exactly basedin the same ones you can find on "NoNpDrm" Github page made by TheFlow, so all gratitute to him. We advice to read it, including the "Troubleshooting" point in case you want to test your dump and something goes wrong.

Dumping

1. Having the game cart inserted in the Vita, use VitaShell to navigate through the Vita's file system and look for "gro0" path. This path corresponds to the Game Cart.  

2. The game files are stored on "gro0:app/TITLE_ID" where TITLE_ID corresponds to the game Serial ID. Example: Uncharted - Golden Abyss (Europe) is "PCSF-00001", so "TITLE_ID" folder should be called "PCSF00001"  

3. You now have to options:  

3.1 Fast PC transfer: You can mount the Game Card over USB. To do so, open VitaShell settings menu by pressing the START button of your PS Vita. Once opened, go to the "USB device" option and select "Game Card". Press START once again to close the settings menu. Connect the PS Vita to your PC by USB. Then, press the "SELECT" button of your PS Vita and it will enable USB connection. Your PC should detect automatically the unit and give you access to the it. Just enter the "app" folder in the unit, and copy "TITLE_ID" to your desktop.  

3.2 Copying files to the Memory Card and then, transfering these to PC: The first method sometimes doesnt work (Windows can throw an error when connecting "Game cart" unit, not recognizing it correctly). In this case, just use VitaShell to copy "gro0:app/TITLE_ID" folder and to "ux0". Then, select "Memory Card" on "USB device". Press "START" to close the menu and press "SELECT" afterwards, to active the USB connection from your Vita to the PC (make sure you connected both with the USB). The Memory Card unit should be correctly detected, allowing you to copy the "TITLE_ID" folder to the desktop.

Applying Fake License

To finish our dump, we must generate a fake license file for it. For this, you just need to launch the game in your Vita as you were going to play it, with the NoNpDrm plugin enabled. As soon as you start it, just get out and enter VitaShell.

The fake license will be a ".rif" file with a really long name, that should be stored at "ux0:nonpdrm/license/app/TITLE_ID/6488b73b912a753a492e2714e9b38bc7.rif".

This file must be copied from your Vita to the PC. Rename it as "work.bin" and copy the file to "TITLE_ID/sce_sys/package/", so you have "TITLE_ID/sce_sys/package/work.bin". With this step, the "NoNpDrm" dump is now completed.

Submitting Info to No-Intro

In case you want to submitt the data to our forums, follow these steps. Otherwise, you can always contact us in private and we will make sure your dump makes its way to the database. 

- Write the game's name and its Serial ID (PCSG-XXXXX, PCSB-XXXXX, PCSE-XXXXX....)

- Make a picture of your cart, showing proof the dump came from it

- Download "GameHeader v0.4.2.0": [6]. Open GameHeader.exe and select "File", "Open Directory... (Recursive)". Search and select the "TITLE_ID" folder. This will analyze and hash all the files inside the folder. Once is over, just use "Save... To File" and save it as an .txt. Example "Uncharted - Golden Abyss (PCSF-00001).txt"

- (OPTIONAL) Provide Barcode, Serial ID writen on the game cover, mould codes writen in the game cart (front and back).

- (OPTIONAL) Provide scans for the artwork cover and the game cart (front and back)

If you have datter rights you can submit the dumpinfo using the "Submit" form in DAT-o-MATIC.

Otherwise post the info in the New Dumps & Redumps section of the forum.

Retrieved from "https://wiki.no-intro.org/index.php?title=PlayStation_Vita_Physical_Software_Dumping_Guide&oldid=9803"