How PSO ties itself to the Dreamcast (backup idea).

[Dreamcast ?]

I think we all know that PSO ties itself to a single Dreamcast itself, but my question is how?

If anyone knows, please select the right "scenario" below:

scenario a:
The Dreamcast is given a serial / mac address-like ID at the factory. PSO takes this ID number and verifies it against an encrypted version of that number stored in the VMU data.

scenario b:
PSO generates a random number / value and writes it to both the DC's ROM and the VMU data. When the game loads, it compares these values.

scenario C:
PSO generates a random number / value and writes it to both the DC's ROM and the VMU data. When the game loads, it compares these values in addition to the Dreamcast's internal serial / mac address-like if given one at the factory.

The reason I ask is that most of us know of (or have used) the tool to rewrite the DC's internal EEPROM. What I want to know is if it'd be possible to create a cloning tool that can read that memory and copy the contents to a VMU and then rewrite it to another Dreamcast in the event that your system crashes.

Basically you'd create a character / set the game up, then shut down, pop in the DCRclone disc, backup your flash to another VMU and then play knowing that if anything happens to your DC, you're safe.

[c99koder]

The flash partition that stores the DC's serial number is not writable, and I'm pretty sure that's what PSO used.

-Sam

[mankrip]

I remember seeing something in KOS you can enable to write to the flash memory...

[BlueCrab]

Parts of the flash memory, yes. But there are some parts in the flash memory that are write protected in hardware.