PSP TOCA allows for custom soundtrack within legal bounds

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 August, 2005

Dev says photos could be next.

Codemasters has found an ingenious method of allowing players to supply their own soundtrack in TOCA Race Driver 2 on PSP, and the company has hinted that its experiments in this area could pave the way for things like custom in-game photos.

TOCA 2 will use an Exact Audio Copy utility to rip music from a legitimate music CD in the player's PC CD drive, and copy it via USB cable (not supplied, of course, but then neither's the PC or music CD ya scrounger) to the PSP's Memory Stick. Obviously it'll help if your Memory Stick is larger than the totally inadequate 32MB version supplied with the PSP's so-called Value Pack.

Codemasters presumably went for this approach because it allows it to safeguard against music piracy to some extent. Although it doesn't sound like there's much to stop you creating your own music CDs with a writer and then ripping them instead. Just saying.

The Exact Audio Copy utility will be released through the "Upgrades" section of Codemasters' website. Once you've got that and plonked some music on the Memory Stick, you can then listen to it while playing TOCA 2.

Meanwhile, a comment in a recent issue of EDGE from the development manager of TOCA 2 and Colin McRae's PSP versions suggests that research in this area could lead to more than just custom soundtracks

In an article about PSP homebrew, David Brickley said, "We're managing to implement custom soundtracks in TOCA: Race Driver 2, so we know that even with the latest libraries we can still stream some media files from a Memory Stick and use them within a game. That opens up some nice potential for future products, like uploading your pictures and using them in game, maybe."

Interesting stuff. And perhaps a good way of linking people up for WiFi battles in public areas - we like the idea of playing Gran Turismo or something with people whose faces we can then pick out of a crowd and shout at. But then we're like that.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • gamingdave #1 7 years ago

    You can already use a photo from the memory stick to place your face in Tony Hawks.

  • speedjack #2 7 years ago

    Err... Tony Hawk on the PSP lets you add your photo as a player skin.

    SNAP !
    Edited by 1 at 26/08/05 @ 11:00

  • sephy #3 7 years ago

    Trust Tony Hawk games to lead the example. Not only was THUG the first console game to let you use your own face in the game, but THPS3 was the first online enbled ps2 game worldwide iirc

  • Roarer #4 7 years ago

    And the Gameboy Camera! It even came with a printer. Grey-tastic!

  • sephy #5 7 years ago

    I dont recall any of those games letting you paste your face on playable characters. If you can provide names rather then vagueness that would be great :)

  • linkster #6 7 years ago

    "I dont recall any of those games letting you paste your face on playable characters. If you can provide names rather then vagueness that would be great :)"

    Well Perfect Dark led the way, even if the feature was cut from the final game.

    "Trust Tony Hawk games to lead the example"

    So they have soundtracks too, do they? ;)

  • posh_geordie #7 7 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:45:04 02-01-2012

  • sephy #8 7 years ago

    yeah but if the feature was cut in PD, then it wasnt the first game to let you do it was it?

  • Kon #9 7 years ago

    Camera games for the DC? The closest thing i recall was uploadind some custom photos as grafitti in JSR. Not really a "camera" game.

    Anyway, why not just let players use whatever songs they have in their MS? It's not like coddies have any outstanding interest in the music business now is it?

  • Ceatlan #10 7 years ago

    posh_geordie,

    Why do I have to rip music I already have again ?

    I have plenty of music files on my memory stick, why are you going to make me rip them again to use in you game ?

    Sounds completely bonkers to me.
    Edited by 1 at 26/08/05 @ 13:42

  • posh_geordie #11 7 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:45:04 02-01-2012

  • Kon #12 7 years ago

    Will Colin McRae 2005 + have the option to rip tracks also? To play in the menus and the like i mean.

  • Kon #13 7 years ago

    BTW Posh, do you work over at coddies? Do you know if by chance anyone over there is considering making a collection of past titles (like micro machines and super skidmarks) ? I woke up one morning thinking that would be ace, and i haven't got it out of my system yet.

  • posh_geordie #14 7 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:45:04 02-01-2012

  • Kon #15 7 years ago

    I'll have to take a look at Funsta then.

    Here's hopping that someday there will indeed be a compilation of sorts.

    Thanks very much for your time.

  • Furbs #16 7 years ago

    posh_geordie, no doubt they are both excellent games which we should all buy both of, but have you seen TOCA and CMR? Which do you think would be the one to get if say the law said we could only by one of them? :p

  • posh_geordie #17 7 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:45:04 02-01-2012

  • Ceatlan #18 7 years ago

    posh_geordie,

    Thanks for the reply. I kind of guessed it would be Sony messing everybody about. Seems very strange that they think there are security reasons for not allowing me to play music in game, that I 'can' happily play outside it.

    I'll probably wait for the next TOCA game to come out on PSP, as I've already played Race Driver 2 to death on the XBox.

  • Scimarad #19 7 years ago

    Okay this is the first time I've decided to jump on the "Sony are twats!" bandwagon...

    Why on earth are they going out of their way to cripple a potentially fantastic machine?

  • dadrester #20 7 years ago

    Why on earth are they going out of their way to cripple a potentially fantastic machine?

    remember the dreamcast?

  • posh_geordie #21 7 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:45:04 02-01-2012