3 ms·

The video references the fact that the game was originally intended to be a multi disc release and this was a tech demo / test of the disc swap feature.

wildzzz 3y ago
The code to do the disc swap was intentionally obfuscated. If it was really meant for a tech demo, why keep it in the retail build? If it was accidentally left in, why hide it? I feel like the most obvious answer is that a developer wanted a personal backdoor for playing pirated games. Another possible answer is that having the backdoor would allow the developer to get around paying for debug consoles ($5k at the time) that can play test builds off CD-Rs. You could buy like 16 retail consoles for the price of a single debug unit.
- Crosseye_Jack 3y ago
  > I feel like the most obvious answer is that a developer wanted a personal backdoor for playing pirated games. My bet would be that it was left in to be more of a “private party trick” than a real means of piracy. Alien Resurrection came pretty late in the PS1 life cycle, by which time it was much cheaper to get a mod chip fitted to the console then it would be to purchase the game at retail (Even the stealth chips with much better mimicked the correct expected behavior which bypassed in game copy protection checks), and would boot the pirated game much quicker then using this method. But I guess it could have been a "Well if everything else fails, I'll still have this one weird trick up my sleeve", a method of last resort if Sony managed to pull a rabbit out of their hat in the later revisions of the console, but one that was never needed.
- rkachowski 3y ago
  That's what was reportedly said by the developer in the video. I mean, if you did want to sneak in your own piracy backdoor I doubt you would publicly confess to it after any amount of time. That being said - going through an entire Sony Playstation certification, mastering and physical product distribution cycle in the year 2000 is a pretty intense (expensive, slow + outrageous consequences for everyone involved) way of getting around copy protection.

wildzzz 3y ago

The code to do the disc swap was intentionally obfuscated. If it was really meant for a tech demo, why keep it in the retail build? If it was accidentally left in, why hide it? I feel like the most obvious answer is that a developer wanted a personal backdoor for playing pirated games. Another possible answer is that having the backdoor would allow the developer to get around paying for debug consoles ($5k at the time) that can play test builds off CD-Rs. You could buy like 16 retail consoles for the price of a single debug unit.

Crosseye_Jack 3y ago
> I feel like the most obvious answer is that a developer wanted a personal backdoor for playing pirated games. My bet would be that it was left in to be more of a “private party trick” than a real means of piracy. Alien Resurrection came pretty late in the PS1 life cycle, by which time it was much cheaper to get a mod chip fitted to the console then it would be to purchase the game at retail (Even the stealth chips with much better mimicked the correct expected behavior which bypassed in game copy protection checks), and would boot the pirated game much quicker then using this method. But I guess it could have been a "Well if everything else fails, I'll still have this one weird trick up my sleeve", a method of last resort if Sony managed to pull a rabbit out of their hat in the later revisions of the console, but one that was never needed.
rkachowski 3y ago
That's what was reportedly said by the developer in the video. I mean, if you did want to sneak in your own piracy backdoor I doubt you would publicly confess to it after any amount of time. That being said - going through an entire Sony Playstation certification, mastering and physical product distribution cycle in the year 2000 is a pretty intense (expensive, slow + outrageous consequences for everyone involved) way of getting around copy protection.