The undisputed, free way to burn PSX games.
As you may have noticed from the title, this is a tutorial on how to burn completely working PSX games(or at least as close to working as you'll ever get). This tutorial will only be covering image to burner.(Note: I'm sure any programs that are trials have cracks/serials somewhere, however I cannot name a site to these as I'm pretty sure it would be illegal for me to say where these are. I'm just being extra careful. If you really want a crack or serial, you can go google them or something.) I also hope this tutorial will be very informative to people who are in the dark about burning psx games properly.
Step 1: Get the game.
Of course, you're going to need the game to burn onto a CD. You can use the emuparadise bittorrent tracker(http://70.85.9.138:6969/) which requires a bittorrent client(Basic BitTorrent Client or Azureus Java Client[more options]). You could also use DC++(DC++ Client Download) or more recommended: (BCDC++) which requires no tutorial, at least from me. However, I will give a couple good hubs: dc.emuparadise.org:6000 if you missed it on the front page and ourdreamland.no-ip.com:4111(requires 10GB of shared files, and at least 500 MB of roms shared, or 3 PSX games and/or PS2 games shared.)
The games will most likely be compressed files. I recommend 7-Zip for unzipping. This program can tackle just about every compressed file type there is out there, from .zip to the new(and infinitely better) .7z compression type.
Step 2: Getting the programs to actually burn the game.
The programs which you will most definitely need are CloneCD and Daemon's Tools. However -- depending on your situation, you might need extra programs. I will mention extra programs if they might be needed during the rest of the tutorial.
Step 3: Getting the game ready to burn the game.
Once you're done installing the programs, open Daemon Tools. You'll notice no window pops up, but an icon on the taskbar does. Right click the Daemon Tools icon. You'll see the option "Virtual CD/DVD ROM". Go into that, and you will notice "Device 0: [letter:] No media" where letter is replaced by the new virtual dvd drive's letter label(i.e.: Usually the main hard drive is C:. This new virtual DVD drive will be the lowest unoccupied letter.) Now, if you go into that option, you will see the magical option "Mount image".
Note that Daemon Tools can only mount .bin(with .cue) images, so if your game isn't a .bin, I suggest you get this program and install it. Open it(not the CD/DVD burning portion of the program) up, skip the registration part and go to the Tools menu, and you should see "Any format to BIN ..." Click it, point it to your .IMG or whatever it is, and convert. However, if you have a .BIN image, but you have no .CUE to go with it, click on this and run the program inside to make one for it.
Select "Mount image" and point it to the .CUE file your .BIN is paired with. It will function as if the game itself were in the virtual DVD drive.
Step 4: Actually burning the game.
This is where CloneCD comes in handy. Open the CloneCD program, and skip the registration thing yet again. You'll notice the simple interface of CloneCD. The function we want to use is CopyCD, so click on the "one disc slightly overlapping the other" button. You should see any real CD drives you have installed into your computer, plus the virtual drive which you mounted your psx game onto. Double click on the virtual drive. You'll then see 5 options: Audio CD, Data CD, Game CD, Multimedia Audio CD, and Protected PC Game. You're going to be burning a playstation game, so Game CD is the one to choose. Double click it.
The next screen is where the temporary image will be created from the mounted game. Since the virtual CD/DVD drive thinks it's a CD, it will have to create another image, but there's nothing wrong with that, so long as you have enough space on your computer(make sure to have at least 10% of your hard drive free at all times, anyways.) Make sure "Delete after a successful Write" is checked. Then click Next.
After this, you should see a list of all your burning CD drives. Double click the burner with the lowest possible burning rate. 1x is the most recommended, but if you don't have it, it can't be helped.
Now at the final part of the burning process. Make sure Game CD is highlighted, then set Write Speed to the lowest available speed(for maximum data transfer efficiency) then click OK. First it will make an image off the virtual hard drive's mounted game. At this point the registration thing will pop up again, skip it. It will now burn the game. Do not do anything on the computer for the duration of the burning process until the CD has auto-ejected from the drive.
And voila, you're done. You should now have the most workable, burnt PSX game you can get. Have fun.
