PSP Popstation Memory Cards - DAT to MCR/MEM/MCD/GMI Converter Utility?

[ScaryBugThing]

After trying for about two hours last night to get past the NORG battle on Disc 2 of Final Fantasy 8, and having it always freeze when he tries to cast spells, I think I've hit a roadblock. I think it is impossible to play past this point on FF8 on the PSP alone, given the current Popstation emulator. Since I've put almost 30 hours into the game so far, I'd really really like to not have to quit my game.

After going over the options, it seems like the option most likely to work would be to somehow convert the memory card from the .DAT Popstation format to .MCR or something that ePSXe could use. If I could do that, I could at least keep playing on my PC--and if I could convert it back to .DAT format, I could then keep playing the otherwise pretty-well emulated game on my PSP past the NORG battle.

Does anyone have any idea if a .DAT to .MCR conversion utility exists? Does any programmer out there have an interest in making one?

The memory card size for .DAT files is 129 KB, and the .MCR files are 128 KB. I can't imagine they are structured too differently, but I don't know what steps Sony may have done to stop people from converting them or how hard they would be to reverse engineer. (Then again, Sony's emulator accepts processed stock ISOs right out of the box, so I am guessing they haven't made it any harder to access/convert the memory cards.)

Another option I thought may work was to use CWCheats (http://cwcheat.zioale.it/?act=download&id=1). Though I'm too new to know, it looks like there might be some .MCR memory card options for Popstation, though I can't really understand the readme or site's explanation:

"cwcheatpops (NO GAME version) features a way to import/export MCR memory cards (ePSXe and PSX) and continue your favourite games in PSX, PS2, PSP with the same savegame!"

Trying to test the PRX plugin according to the readme instructions just seemed to disable my gamepad in the PS1 emulator though.

Thanks for reading--let me know if you also think this is a good idea, or if you can help!

[blaz3d]

CWcheat for pops takes either MCR or MCD (i cant remember) and any ps1 memory card tool for the pc will work, i used psxmemtool

if your using 3.10 oe make sure you get cwcheat for 3.10!

hopethis helps

[ScaryBugThing]

CWcheat for pops takes either MCR or MCD (i cant remember) and any ps1 memory card tool for the pc will work, i used psxmemtool

if your using 3.10 oe make sure you get cwcheat for 3.10!

hopethis helps

Thanks for the reply!

CWCheat works both ways? That is, I can convert popstation DAT files to MCR with it? Is there a tutorial or FAQ that will tell how to do this?

I think I understand that, somehow, you can convert MCR files from your computer to CWCheat-compatible, Popstation-compatible files. So that's half the equation. But before I get to that point, I need to get the DAT file from Popstation into an ePSXe-readable format. Tell me if I'm misunderstanding.

Also, yep, I did in fact download CWCheat for 3.10. I think one of the problems in it not working properly is that it uses a "pops.txt" file, which I already have to have for a different plugin (Dark_Alex's Popstation Version Chooser thing...) in the seplugins directory. I don't know if there's a way around that...

Anyways, yeah, tell me what you think--I'm excited that there may be a way to get my save game into a PC emulator!

[ScaryBugThing]

CWcheat for pops takes either MCR or MCD (i cant remember) and any ps1 memory card tool for the pc will work, i used psxmemtool

if your using 3.10 oe make sure you get cwcheat for 3.10!

hopethis helps

Holy shit! It works!!

I tried installing CWCheat on a different memory card, booted up my FF8 eBoot, and dumped the memory card from the CWCheat menu.

I copied the .mcr file to my PC, and loaded up my emulator, and there was my save game!

Thanks, this will work great whenever I have a spot I can't get past without a freeze!!