PSIO Firmware update (February 2020)

Australian team Cybdyn just released a firmware update for their PS1 Parallel I/O port device, the PSIO:  http://bit.ly/sag-psio

Since the latest update back in November 2019, Cybdyn have been hard at work trying to improve the PSIO‘s overall performance and fixing some game-breaking bugs; here’s what they came up with for Menu System 2.6.11/ARM 2.6.7:

• After changing video modes, the ‘System Diagnostics’ GPU counter will no longer be zero.
• When returning from the ‘Screen Adjustment’ option, the music volume is reset to the correct lower value.
• Manually defined EXTDSP files are no longer ignored when using a MULTIDISC.LST file.
• The PS-EXE “BOOT” string in the ‘Details’ page for games no longer displays paths.
• If a very long string was entered for the username, it would overflow the dialog box and Menu System header.
• If you were changing usernames and the SD Card was removed, the Menu System title would stay saying “Enter a new Username”.
• Added a check for LibCrypt games to the ‘Details’ page.
• The boot times have been reduced by ~2 seconds.
• Added a new setting to the ‘Sound Effects’ option which will keep all of them on except for the scrolling effects.
• “007 – Tomorrow Never Dies” fixed.
• “Driver” no longer crashes when restarting a mission.
• “Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2” fixed.
• ‘System Loader’ fixed.
• Full ATV register support added (volume control and fading in games now works).
• Updated the CU2 format to now include pregaps.

The update process is as simple as dragging a single file (menu.sys) to the root of the SD card, then letting the PSIO auto-update itself while booting up.

Just a handful of games remain completely unplayable, using the PSIO, and that’s a giant feat considering the sheer amount of commercially released games on the PS1.