BIOS Dumping Guide for Emulators - 16 Bit Guide - video Dailymotion

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Today I will be showing you how you can get a GBA, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 1, and PlayStation 2 BIOS File for your emulators. From the hardware you might already own. Or Open Source alternative from the community.  ~~Time Codes~~  00:00 Why you need a BIOS File 01:06 Support us from 16 Bit Store 01:39 Intro 01:48 Not all Emulators need BIOS 02:12 Open Source GBA BIOS 03:05 Open Source PS1 BIOS 03:54 PS1 and PS2 BIOS from PS3 Firmware 05:25 The issues with Getting BIOS From Real Hardware 06:19 PS1 BIOS 08:35 PS2 Homebrew 09:50 PS2 BIOS 10:48 GBA BIOS Hardware 12:03 GBA BIOS from 3DS Virtual Console 12:28 DS BIOS and Firmware 13:03 How Far Emulators have come 13:16 Dual Screen DS with iPad 13:30 Wide Screen PS1 13:35 60FPS PS2  ~~References~~  PS1 BIOS Dumper Utility: https://github.com/ShendoXT/biosdumper  GBA BIOS Dumping Guide: https://glazedbelmont.github.io/gbabiosdump/  PS2 FreeHDBoot: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/free-hdboot.26555/  PCSX2 Dumping Guide: https://pcsx2.net/docs/setup/bios  BIOSDrain: https://github.com/F0bes/biosdrain  DS BIOS Dumper: https://github.com/DS-Homebrew/dsbf_dump  Normatt GBA BIOS: https://github.com/Nebuleon/ReGBA/tree/master/bios  PCSX Redux: https://github.com/grumpycoders/pcsx-redux  PS BIOS Claim: https://archive.org/details/firmware_bios_claim_release1  PS3 Firmware Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gah74XQcezc  PS3 Firmware Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6LQhX9Vjyg  PS3 Firmware Written Guide: https://retrogamecorps.com/2023/02/17/ps2-and-ps1-bios-extraction-guide/  PS3 Firmware: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/ps3/system-software/  ~~External Links~~ Web Site                            - http://16bitvirtualstudios.com/ 16 Bit Store                       - http://www.16bitstore.com 16 Bit Games                    - http://16bitvirtualstudios.com/Games Facebook                          - https://www.facebook.com/16bitvirtual/ Twitter                               - https://twitter.com/16bitvirtual Instagram                          - https://www.instagram.com/16bitvirtual/

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome! I like playing games on their original hardware just as much as the

00:06next guy, but it's really hard to ignore the temptations and benefits of emulation.

00:12Not only will you be able to play your games on any device with cross-platform saves and

00:18whatnot, but you'll also be able to continue playing your games even after the hardware

00:23has completely fallen apart. At least until the emulator refuses to even start without

00:30some arbitrary firmware or BIOS files. Well, if, like me, you've already put the effort

00:38in to go and back up your physical games in the first place, then it's not too much of

00:44a stretch to go and obtain your own BIOS files from your own hardware, at least if you have

00:53the right accessories. So today I'll show you how I was able to back up my BIOS files

01:00for my PlayStation 1, 2, my Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance systems. But before I do,

01:08this video is brought to you by us and The 16-Bit Store. If you're looking to spruce

01:13up your collection by displaying your consoles or cleaning up your controllers, then why

01:18not check out what we have on offer at 16-Bit Store. Heck, if you have an e-reader, we even

01:25make fully repairable e-reader cases. If you're interested in anything that I've been stating

01:31or you want to support the channel, why not visit 16BitStore.com today? The links will

01:37be in the description below.

01:40Now not every emulator requires a BIOS file, and if you're familiar with playing Game Boy

01:54Advance games on RetroArch, you'll probably know that most GBA cores don't need a BIOS

02:01to play the games. Well, the reason for that is partly because sometimes the system just

02:09doesn't need the original BIOS to work. But other times, especially with the Game Boy

02:15Advance emulators, they do require one, but the community has developed open source versions

02:22or open source compatible BIOS files that work. For example, GBA temp user Normat created

02:29the open source BIOS for the Game Boy Advance that's used in a lot of modern day emulators.

02:36If you go into any of these libretro cores that use it, you'll find a reference to a

02:43compiled version of Normat's BIOS. If you were to, let's say, download that BIOS file

02:48and just force the emulator to boot from it, you will see that it does work and without

02:56issue. So if you have an older PSP and you're looking for a GBA BIOS, this is an excellent

03:00spot to get your hands on one without getting original hardware. And it's not just the Game

03:05Boy Advance that has its own open source BIOS file. PSX Redux is an open source reverse

03:13engineering project for the PlayStation 1, and this team developed their own open source

03:19BIOS, which actually, apparently, works with original hardware. But in our case, it works

03:24perfectly fine with Duckstation, and all you need to do to get it is to download the PSX

03:29Redux Windows build and just get the open source BIOS and throw it in. From my testing,

03:35both the Game Boy Advance BIOS and the PSX Redux BIOS works perfectly fine with most

03:41of the games, and I've not noticed any significant differences between it and the official BIOS

03:48file set you can still get from the original hardware. I'll go into those later on in the

03:53video. While I will recommend using open source BIOS files when possible, and thank the communities

04:00who are making them, there is a possibility that you can get official BIOS images from

04:06the internet with some work without having to raise the Jolly Roger. At least, that's

04:12the case for PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 files. You see, Sony's been bundling the

04:18PS1 and PS2 files with PS3 firmware updates for years now, and thanks to the YouTube channel

04:25Easy on the Eyes and the Retro Game Corpse channels, there are easy tutorials for how

04:31to get them. But, it is genuinely dead simple and straightforward. All you have to do is

04:38download a PS3 update file, download the RCPS3 emulator, and install the firmware update

04:47to the emulator. Then, all you need to do is download the BIOS claim tool and run it

04:57as the README describes in the main folder, and you'll get your hands on not only a PS1

05:03BIOS, but a PS2 BIOS, which works excellently in DuckStation and PC-XS2. If you want a more

05:12detailed description, I'll link Retro Game Corpse's website, as it has simple links. Also,

05:17link below the archive.org repository for the BIOS claim tool, as it has a good README guide

05:24for how to get everything. But, not every system will have its own open source BIOS files or have

05:31a way to claim a BIOS file from a system update. If you have a Nintendo DS, for example, and want

05:37to play a DS game on your iPad, you will need original hardware and a way to run Homebrew on

05:44it. And that's going to be probably the biggest wall into emulation that you will find. Being

05:50able to get the BIOS is actually quite easy. It's usually just in one system package that's

05:57runnable in Homebrew, and it just dumps it for you. The hard part is actually getting to the

06:02point where that system can run the Homebrew in the first place, either because the hardware

06:07is expensive or the process is convoluted. So, I want to go through how to dump your BIOS files

06:13from a couple of systems, just to show you how to do it and what you'll need to do it. For PlayStation

06:21games, dumping the BIOS requires no special hardware to actually dump the files, since the

06:28PlayStation 1's copy protection is easily bypassable if you're quick enough with the CD swap trick.

06:35This method allows you to run pirated PS1 games or backed-up PS1 games on your PS1 system, or,

06:41in our case, allows you to run the PS1 dumping tool on the hardware. This tool dumps the PS1 BIOS

06:50into five parts to the PS1 memory card. And here is where you're actually going to run into a

06:57problem, because now you have to find a way to dump your PS1 memory card to your computer. Now,

07:03you could buy third-party PS1 memory cards that'll save it to an SD card, and you're good to go

07:10there. But if you don't and only have official hardware, then you're going to either need a USB

07:16to memory card adapter, which are elusive, or you'll need a modified PS2 or a PS2 that can run

07:24Homebrew in order to go into UELF Launcher to copy the raw data from the memory card and mc-paste it

07:33onto a USB flash stick. You have to use mc-paste, or else it will not copy over correctly. I had

07:42this happen twice, and it was not fun. But once you've copied over the raw save files,

07:48then you can use a PSX memory card manager like Memcard Rex to go and insert it into a virtual

07:56memory card format that the BIOS merge tool that comes with your BIOS dumper can recognize.

08:05And once you're done, run the program in a terminal, and you have yourself a complete PS1 BIOS.

08:13Enjoy the classic blong every time the system boots. On that note, you can also use the same

08:21method on a PSP in order to get the PSP's PS1 BIOS. You'll have to convert the PSP's PS1 memory

08:29card saves so that it works, but the process is effectively the same. For PS2 BIOS files,

08:37in order for you to dump it, you're going to need to run Homebrew on the PS2, and to do that,

08:43you're going to need one of these. This is a PS2 memory card with FreeMCBoot installed on it.

08:50You can buy these on eBay for like next to nothing, and it's highly worth to get your

08:56hands on one of them. But if you don't want to spend the money or don't trust these things,

09:00then what you can do is you can buy yourself a PS2 to the SATA adapter,

09:04plug an old hard drive in or get yourself a SATA hard drive of a low capacity,

09:08and copy the FreeHDBoot image file to the drive. I'll have links below for where to get that as

09:16well as some guides to go and install FreeHDBoot. To get the BIOS, all you really need is a FreeMCBoot,

09:22but if you use FreeHDBoot, you'll get access to things like the OpenPS2 Loader that'll let you go

09:27and not just run your PS2 games from the hard drive, but also have virtual memory cards that'll

09:32allow you to have infinite save files, which is a godsend compared to how small these things are.

09:40Plus, with FreeHDBoot installed, you can also create your own FreeMCBoot cards,

09:46so it kind of leads as a good backup utility. Once your PS2 is capable of running homebrew,

09:52then I'll highly advise you to go to the PCxx2 website and go to their Gathering Files page.

10:00It's an excellent wiki guide for how to go and dump your BIOS files, and it'll most likely keep

10:05up to date with which dumper utilities you will want to get. Currently, PCxx2 is recommending a

10:12BIOS utility called BIOSDrain, and all you need to do to run it is to put it onto a USB flash drive,

10:19plug it into your PS2, load ULaunchElf, and go to your USB and run the program. It should dump it

10:28automatically, though if you run into issues where it can't see your flash drive, you may want to

10:33switch with another flash drive, since it does have a little bit of compatibility with maybe

10:39older or some newer drives. I had to go through two before mine would work. And when you're done,

10:44just load the files into your emulator and it'll work perfectly. For the Game Boy Advance BIOS

10:50files, there's actually a couple of ways to get it, and you don't even need a Game Boy Advance

10:54if you have a 3DS with Virtual Console games installed onto it. But if you have a Game Boy

11:00Advance or a Nintendo DS, the easiest way to get the BIOS file is through the EZFlash or an EverDrive

11:08and the BIOSDump ROM. Just put the ROM onto an EZFlash and run it on your system, wait for the

11:17screen to go from red to green, and you're good to go, because the game will generate a save file

11:24that contains your BIOS. Now the save file will be pretty big, so all you need to do is run the

11:29included Python script to trim the save down so that it just contains the BIOS file. If you don't

11:37have Python installed onto your system, it's pretty easy if you go through the terminal and

11:41type in Python. If you're on a Windows system, it will instantly open you to the Windows 10 store,

11:48and it'll let you download and install it so that it will work. Now there is another way to get your

11:54hands on a Game Boy Advance BIOS file if you have Game Boy Color or Game Boy eShop Virtual Console

12:01titles on your 3DS systems. If you watch our How to Extract ROMs video, you'll see a specific file

12:09as you're browsing through the ROMFS folder called agb.bin. Believe it or not, this is the complete

12:17Game Boy Advance BIOS file just sitting there mostly unused from what I can tell. All you have

12:24to do is just dump this and you're good to go. To get your hands on the Nintendo DS BIOS and firmware

12:32files, all you'll need is a simple flash cart like this R4 cart or any of the modern ones that you'll

12:39find on Amazon or eBay. This is something I highly recommend in general, but all you need to do is

12:45download the dsbfdump.nds file and just put it on the root of your SD card, launch your DS or 3DS

12:52systems, and just run the applications. When the process is done, you'll find a folder on the root

12:58of your SD card that contains all the necessary BIOS and firmware files. And the process for getting

13:04your BIOS from other systems that I haven't mentioned usually follows the same format.

13:09And with a BIOS file and emulation, I am shocked with just how far the technology has come. I never

13:17dreamt of a day that I'll be able to take my Apple iPad, plug it into a third-party monitor,

13:24and play proper dual-screen DS with a controller and a functioning touchscreen. Let alone being

13:31able to see the PS1 Harry Potter games in widescreen or seeing PlayStation 2 games run at 60

13:40frames a second. It's absolutely shocking just how far emulation has come in the last few years,

13:47and I really need to explore it in more depth in a future video. But anyways, thank you ever so

13:54much for watching, I hope you have yourself a good day, and, as always, take care.

BIOS Dumping Guide for Emulators - 16 Bit Guide

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