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PS1 Games via POPSTARTER (the "VCD" view)

RiptOPL can list and launch your PlayStation 1 games (*.VCD images) right alongside your PS2 library, on the same device. PS1 titles boot through POPSTARTER — never OPL's built-in core and never Neutrino — so this is a self-contained path with its own settings.

The in-app UI deliberately calls this a VCD view rather than "PS1" or "POPS", so it reads cleanly next to your disc games.

1. The VCD view (press L3)

Every device that can hold games — USB, MMCE, MX4SIO, iLink, SMB, and the internal HDD — has two lists:

  • its disc games (PS2 ISO / ZSO / UL), and
  • its VCD games (PS1 *.VCD).

Press L3 on a device page to switch that page between the two. It is a view, not a separate tab — the same page, the same covers, favourites and per-game settings, just a different list. An on-screen hint shows whether you're looking at discs or VCDs.

2. Lock a page with "Default game view"

If you don't want to press L3 every time, open Interface and set Default game view:

Value Behaviour
Both (default) every page starts on its disc list; L3 toggles to the VCD list
ISO every page is locked to its disc list (L3 does nothing)
VCD every page is locked to its VCD list (L3 does nothing)

Favourites follow the active view: while a page shows VCDs, its favourited VCD titles appear; while it shows discs, its favourited discs appear. Nothing is lost — favourites that don't match the current view simply aren't shown until you switch back.

Favourite your PS1 games

Press R3 on a PS1 title (while a page is in its VCD view) to favourite it, exactly as you would a disc game. The Favourites tab has its own L3 toggle, just like every device page: press L3 there to swap between your disc favourites and your PS1 favourites. A VCD favourite launches through POPSTARTER straight from the Favourites tab — even when the source device page is currently showing its disc list — and carries its PS1 cover art and disc badge with it.

This works on every device with a VCD view — USB, MX4SIO, the internal exFAT HDD, SMB, MMCE, and the APA-formatted internal HDD. (On the APA HDD the PS1 games are spread across multiple APA partitions, so opening one of its VCD favourites re-scans those partitions to find the game — the first launch may take a moment.)

3. How PS1 games launch (POPSTARTER only)

VCD titles always boot through POPSTARTER.ELF. They never use OPL's built-in core or Neutrino, so on a VCD game the per-game Loader Core selector is locked to an inert label — choosing a core there has no effect on a PS1 game.

For ordinary VCD files, POPSTARTER needs the VCD's name; RiptOPL hands it the selected title and POPSTARTER finds the matching *.VCD. An APA one-game install instead launches with its literal, case-sensitive PP.<name> / __.<name> partition label so POPSTARTER can mount that partition and boot its fixed IMAGE0.VCD.

Where POPSTARTER.ELF is loaded from is set by POPStarter → POPSTARTER.ELF Device — a driver-accurate picker (matching the Neutrino Device picker):

Choice Loads POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF from
Default the boot device (where OPL launched, i.e. cwd), then the VCD's own device
Memory Card mc0: / mc1:
USB the mounted USB drive
MX4SIO the mounted MX4SIO SD card
MMCE mmce0: / mmce1: (SD2PSX / MemCard PRO2)
HDD (exFAT) the mounted exFAT internal HDD
HDD (APA) see the note below — APA POPSTARTER only applies to HDD-page launches
Custom reveals a free-text path field — your own absolute POPSTARTER.ELF path
Game's Device the VCD's own device only (<device>:/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF) — no boot/cwd fallback and no Default fallthrough; a miss aborts with the usual Missing POPSTARTER.ELF warning

The picker covers USB / MMCE / MX4SIO / iLink / SMB VCD launches. PS1 VCDs on the internal APA HDD always load POPSTARTER.ELF from the HDD (the __common then +OPL POPS folder, as below) regardless of this setting — and that is also why HDD (APA) is inert for launches from other device pages: those launches unmount pfs0: during their own teardown before the ELF is read, so a pfs0: POPSTARTER can never survive them (OPL falls through to Default instead of freezing on a dead path). Keep your APA copy for HDD-page launches; give the other pages a copy on the boot device or the VCD's own device. For the Custom option the on-screen editor caps at 31 characters; for a longer path set popstarter_path in settings_riptopl.cfg directly.

4. Where to put your VCD files

Device Location
USB / MMCE / MX4SIO / iLink / SMB a POPS folder at the device root, holding POPSTARTER.ELF + your *.VCD files
Internal HDD (APA/PFS) two layouts, both listed: an exact __.POPS, __.POPS0 … __.POPS9 store partition (many *.VCD on its root, named per file), and/or PP.<name> (visible) / __.<name> (hidden-label) one-game partitions. A one-game candidate is listed only when its root contains the exact file IMAGE0.VCD, which prevents similarly named HDD apps from appearing as games; it is shown as <name>. POPSTARTER.ELF is loaded from a POPS folder on the __common partition (then +OPL as a fallback).

The HDD's XX.* (BDMA/exFAT) and SB.* (SMBv1) launcher partitions point at VCDs that live on an exFAT device or an SMB share — those games appear under the USB/MX4SIO/MMCE or SMB VCD views, not the internal-HDD one.

VCD per-game config and art use the VCD filename without .VCD as their identity. They otherwise follow the same layout and suffix rules as PS2 games on that device:

  • POPS/SCUS_123.45.Example.VCD
  • CFG/SCUS_123.45.Example.cfg
  • ART/SCUS_123.45.Example_COV.png

When the filename begins with a valid PS1 disc ID, RiptOPL also accepts that ID as a fallback after the filename lookup misses. For the example above, the fallback names are CFG/SCUS_123.45.cfg and ART/SCUS_123.45_COV.png. This is a same-folder compatibility fallback; POPS/ART/ and a suffixless POPS/<name>.png remain POPSLoader-only layouts.

APA PP.<name> and __.<name> one-game installs are the naming exception: every partition contains the same physical IMAGE0.VCD filename, so config and art use the displayed <name> from the label.

Internal HDD covers and config: VCD entries use the same OPL data prefix as PS2 HDD games. On a +OPL data partition that means its root ART/ and CFG/ folders; when OPL data lives under the legacy __common/OPL/ layout, use OPL/ART/ and OPL/CFG/.

5. exFAT PS1 support — the BDMA equip

POPSTARTER's stock driver reads FAT32. To boot PS1 games from an exFAT drive, POPSTARTER needs extra block-device modules (the BDMAssault / "BDMA" drivers). RiptOPL equips them for you from POPStarter → BDMA Settings — RiptOPL copies the right pair onto your memory card; your own module files win when present, and a gzipped built-in pair fills the gap when they aren't:

RiptOPL prefers an existing mc0:/POPSTARTER or mc1:/POPSTARTER folder. On first setup it creates the folder on the first present card (slot 1, then slot 2). Both replacement modules are staged before the live pair is changed, so a failed copy leaves the previous pair available.

  • VCD BDMA Apply on Launch (default On) — POPSTARTER does its own IOP reset and reloads its block-device driver from the memory card, so the right exFAT variant must already be on the card or the game drops to OSDSYS. When On, RiptOPL equips the variant matching the PS1 game you're launching (read from that game's own device) automatically, right before boot — so an MX4SIO / HDD exFAT game just works with no manual step. Turn it Off to manage the driver yourself; that reveals the BDMA Source / BDMA Mode pickers below.
  • USB launches always ask — the PS2 cannot detect whether a USB stick is fat32 or exFAT formatted, so every USB .VCD launch first shows a "fat32 or exFAT USB Mode?" dialog (fat32 is recommended for non-exFAT USB users). Picking fat32 de-equips to POPSTARTER's built-in USB stack (preserving any complete, unmarked manually-managed module pair); picking exFAT equips the BDMAssault usbexfat pair. The pick applies even when Apply-on-Launch is Off, and backing out of the dialog cancels the launch.
  • BDMA MODE (manual; shown when Apply-on-Launch is Off) — which driver variant POPSTARTER should use: USB (FAT32) (none — removes the exFAT modules so POPSTARTER falls back to its built-in FAT32 driver), USB (exFAT), MX4SIO (exFAT), MMCE (exFAT), or HDD (exFAT) (the internal ATA HDD via BDMAssault).
  • BDMA SOURCE — which device holds the module files in its POPS folder: USB, MX4SIO, MMCE, or Internal HDD. OPL identifies each device by its block-device driver (usb / mx4sio / ata / mmce) and reads from that specific device, so pick the one your module files actually sit on. For the internal exFAT HDD choose Internal HDD — OPL reads the files from the same massN:/POPS/ folder it lists that drive's PS1 games from (it never mounts an ata0: filesystem; ata0: is only an internal block-device identity, not a readable path). It is the same physical volume wLaunchELF shows, so place POPS/usbd.irx.ata + POPS/usbhdfsd.irx.ata there.

Module file names matter. The two driver files in that POPS/ folder must be named for the BDMA MODE you pick: usbd.irx.<mode> and usbhdfsd.irx.<mode>. For HDD (exFAT) that is usbd.irx.ata + usbhdfsd.irx.ata (other modes use .usbexfat, .mx4sio, .mmce). Plain usbd.irx / usbhdfsd.irx with no suffix are ignored — OPL then falls back to its built-in embedded pair. The "BDMA module files not found" message now appears only when that embedded fallback also fails to install.

When you change either setting, RiptOPL copies the chosen variant's modules from the SOURCE device's POPS folder onto mc?:/POPSTARTER/ and records the equipped state in a marker file there (compatible with POPSLoader). RiptOPL also ships a gzipped copy of each BDMAssault variant pair inside the ELF as a final fallback, so an MC-only boot with no POPS/ folder anywhere still equips. Your own usbd.irx.<mode> / usbhdfsd.irx.<mode> files always win when found — the embedded pair only fills the gap when no seek-path device carries them. SMB is network-only, so the BDMA equip does not apply to it.

The internal exFAT HDD (enable BDM HDD in Game Sources) mounts as a normal BDM block device, so its PS1 games in massN:/POPS/ list and launch through the same VCD view (press L3) as USB/MX4SIO — there's no separate page. Equip the HDD (exFAT) BDMA mode so POPSTARTER itself can read them off the exFAT volume.

6. PS1 over SMB — network config mirror

PS1 games on an SMB share need POPSTARTER's own network config (IPCONFIG.DAT + SMBCONFIG.DAT) on the memory card, plus its SMB modules. RiptOPL can write those config files for you: enable Settings → Network Settings → Write POPSTARTER Network Config (on by default). On save it mirrors the same IP / share values OPL already uses into mc?:/POPSTARTER/. The SMB modules themselves ship in the release's POPSTARTER/ folder (copy them to mc?:/POPSTARTER/); if they're missing, an SMB VCD launch warns rather than hanging.

7. Troubleshooting — "my VCDs don't show up"

Work down this ladder; each step isolates a different stage (from the #154 forensics):

  1. Does the device page appear at all? If not, it's the device enables, not VCD: USB/MX4SIO/ iLink need their toggles on; the internal exFAT page needs BDM devices + BDM HDD ON and the APA HDD start mode OFF — the two internal-HDD backends are mutually exclusive, and a hand-edited/cross-version config that enables both gets auto-reconciled at boot (you now get a toast when that happens; check Game Sources).
  2. Do PS2 ISOs list from the device? If yes, the filesystem/mount layer is proven working and the problem is downstream of listing — skip to the VCD-specific steps below.
  3. Press L3. The VCD view is per device and only reachable when Default game view is "Both" (or the page is locked to VCD). No L3 response = check that setting.
  4. VCDs are scanned from <device-root>:/POPS/*.VCD — the game-folder prefix (usb_prefix etc.) is deliberately not applied, because POPSTARTER itself only reads /POPS at the root. A POPS folder inside your games subfolder will never be found.
  5. Name rules: basenames longer than 160 characters and the reserved name POPSTARTER.VCD are skipped at scan (the debug log says so) — previously they listed but could never launch (a dead ✕ button). Rename the file.
  6. Fails only after selecting a game? Then listing/scan is fine and the handoff is the suspect: POPSTARTER.ELF present in /POPS (or __common/POPS on APA)? On exFAT, the BDMA equip (§5) is best-effort — a failed equip toasts but the launch still proceeds and may land on OSDSYS.

8. Notes & limitations

  • VCD support reuses the normal device pipeline, so covers, favourites and the theme all work exactly as they do for disc games.
  • POPSTARTER and the patch file are supplied by you (or bundled in the release POPS/ folder) — RiptOPL embeds neither. The BDMA module variants are embedded (gzipped) as a last-resort fallback; your own copies still take priority.
  • The Loader Core, GSM, Cheats, PADEMU and similar per-game options do not apply to PS1 games (POPSTARTER ignores them).

See also NEUTRINO.md for the separate PS2 external-core loader, and ../ROLLING_RELEASE.md for what the builds contain.