Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Author: Viljami

How to Rip Your PS1 Games

Posted on by Viljami

In this blog post we are going to go through about how to rip your PS1, PlayStation 1, games to rom files so that you can play with an emulator or a piece of hardware like Raspberry Pi 4/5. This way of copying your games for your personal use is completely legal. What is currently illegal is copying rom files of games that you don’t own and/or if you share some games that you have ripped to someone who doesn’t own that particular game. We are dealing with a sensitive legal issue right here and things can change, for better or worse, in the future. I don’t want to encourage you to break law in any way.

So you have your PlayStation 1 game. What else do you need? Here’s a list:

  • External DVD drive
  • A PC running, preferably, Windows 10 (this guide has been written using this OS)
  • Magic ISO Maker (the software that actually rips the disc and converts it to the rom file)

External DVD drives today cost something from 40 euros to maybe 60 euros. You don’t need a special DVD drive. You just need something that works. The DVD drive should be connected to your PC through USB. Many PCs today don’t have a DVD drive so you might need an external one. If you have internal DVD drive or something like that you can also use that.

The discs that PS1 uses are colored in black on the side that gets read in the DVD drive. That doesn’t stop the disc from being read. Note, also, that you can rip your PS2 games in this similar way if you are into emulating PS2 also.

You do need a special software. I am using currently Magic ISO Maker (trial version). However there are also some other alternatives. You might want to check them out also. Ripping the disc is pretty straightforward. You select “Tools” from the upper main menu. Then you select “Make ISO from CDRom”. There is a new window that pops up. Select your DVD drive that has the disc in it and make sure that you have connected the USB cable of the DVD drive to your PC.

Then you select your DVD drive from the drop-down menu. Now click the folder icon on the right side of the part that says “Output File” and choose the destination where you want to save the rom files and also give these files names. This doesn’t have to necessarily be the name of the game that is being ripped but that could make things somewhat easier. Then change the file format (“File Format”) to “BIN image file”. That way your game will be in a form of two files that are .bin and .cue. You need to copy both of them to your game library or the location that you are running your emulated games from.

Now make sure that there is Make CD Image selected from the radio buttons that is titled “Option”. Then just click “OK” button. Now the disc of your PS1 game gets ripped to a BIN-file and a CUE-file. You can rip multiple games and place them in some folder where you can have one game in one folder. That way you will find your games easily.

A Casual Gamer Or A Serious One?

Posted on by Viljami

The last time I wrote a blog post I was in the middle of getting into Black Ops 6. It just so happened that I got stuck in the campaign and somewhat lost my interest to that game. I decided to first pick up Art of Rally that is a rally game for Nintendo Switch. I didn’t finish that. Instead I started playing some Doom. This is the version of Doom that was released in 2016 and ported in 2017 for Switch.

It didn’t stop there however. I did spend some hours with Doom. Yesterday I got stuck again and this time with Doom. So, when I first woke up this Saturday I decided not to play more of Doom. Instead I picked a new game. It was actually still sealed. I had bought it maybe six months ago. It was time for me to play some Aces of Luftewaffe. I played this shooting game for maybe one or two hours.

This idea I think isn’t such an unusual matter. I am talking about how we today consume these games. There are extremely many games available. As you can think there are new games and also old, retro, games that you can pick and play. Newest games we are seeing today as rarer ones. There are many games that we get remakes out of and that we do play. Many games seem to take something old and add nice graphics and some updated features and release them even with the same title. Just “remake” gets added to the games title.

I am not complaining after all. I might not finish every game but is actually every game a great one? Or should it even be like that? I think we need some smaller and maybe indie titles that we don’t take so seriously that can make a difference when it does come to them titles that we do play a lot and that seem to be taking video games to a next level. What I am actually saying is that every game cannot be as popular, good selling and interesting as a game such like for example Skyrim.

This seems to be the case with these ambitious game developers that seem to hope that their own game would achieve the sales and the popularity that only so few of these games can achieve. Am I, or are you, a casual gamer that just plays a game or two in a week and that spends only so little of his or her time in a video game? That is the question that I seem to be trying to think and resolve in my mind.

We can also think about collecting. I seem to be interested in many games. I buy a lot of games. Usually a low price gets me going. That is probably why I do have such a large library of games. Well, there is just so much to write about today. So, maybe we’ll leave it this way this time.

My First Hours With Black Ops 6

Posted on by Viljami

The newest game in Call of Duty series, Black Ops 6, has been released exactly one week ago. I have spent a total of four hours playing this first-person-shooter. I am playing it with Xbox Seiries X. It did take some time for the game to be delivered as I wanted a physical copy of the game. It would have been possible to order it in advance as I know lots of us gamers actrually did. I got this in a very cheap price of 55 euros with shipping included. I could have supported a smaller local game shop but instead I went for the lower price this time. I think I saved 20 euros.

After spending some hours playing I checked as I was curious about what other gamers think about the game what was the score for Black Ops 6 in Metacritic. It didn’t come as much of a surprise that it had an average score of 85 out of 100 at the moment that I checked. I am very glad that the game wasn’t a huge flop. We have seen some games that have not proved their worth in the eyes of a true video game player.

Call of Duty is a video game series that has already a strong legacy. The first Call of Duty was released in 2003. It was actually 2006 when I first played this game. I was in a moment in my life that playing some video games started to become again a reality for me. I played it with my original Xbox. I have always liked very much of the experience that Call of Duty offers. I soon also completed the first Call of Duty as I did spend many hours playing it and also continued to play Call of Duty 2.

The other day I had a short conversation about Call of Duty with a connection or should I say a friend of mine. I had shared a photo of every Call of Duty game that had been released. The pile was huge and consisted of 24, or was there even 25 games because there was also one PS Vita game, titles. My friend actually asked how many of these have I completed. I made some calculations and came to a conclusion that I have played through only six out of 24 CoD games. This gives me some edge to write about the game series while I have to say that I have some more games to play also.

What bad there is to say about Black Ops 6? I don’t have,  at least currently, anything to complain about. I think I am almost half way through the game since it takes, according to my information, about 8 hours to finish the game. I like the feel of my game pad. I couldn’t imagine playing actually any FPS with a mouse and a keyboard but I think that is possible. My experiences of this controlling method seem to be minor but I have to say that I have played at least the first CoD in this way.

The plot might not be the most interesting matter when it comes to this game. Of course like fans have come to know there are these political matters that really deepen the way that a soldier in a battle has to come think about his or her view of the world. I think these themes have become a bit stronger when it comes to Black Ops games in Call of Duty series. So, there is a plot but I don’t think that it would fit a game like this. It is a game where you shoot and move and also where the gameplay is filled with quick responses and constant action. That is everything I like about this game. I am continuing to play the game as soon as possible.