Many people have requested that an online version of the README included with my Torrent be posted, so I've finally gotten around to doing so. This will probably be updated if/when there is a need to do so. This is the same file from the Torrent, but it's updated with links.
Welcome to the README for Aleron Ives's PSO PC installation pack. First off, thank you for reading this, as by doing so you will help eliminate questions that have been answered many times on various forums. If, after reading this, you still can't install PSO, then post on Schthack's forums at http://schtserv.com. Before you post, PLEASE read the official PSO FAQ by Star-X that is hosted on the current Schtserv forums. This FAQ is located here.
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First, I would like to give a bit of background information. You may be aware that this my second installation for PSO PC, hence the file being named PSO_PC_Ives_ISOs_v2.zip. The reason for making a new installation is that the BitTorrent tracker Torrentbox which used to track my PSO PC Torrent began blocking access to everyone in the United States in late 2007. ISOHunt, which acquired Torrentbox was sued by the MPAA and apparently decided it was easier to just block all Americans from their trackers than to try to battle the MPAA in court. Because of this, the old Torrent for PSO PC lost almost all its seeds and peers and pretty much died after a very successful three year lifespan. To fix this, I have remade the Torrent and it is now tracked by The Pirate Bay which seems much less likely to ever block any country from connecting. It is my hope that this will revive my PSO PC installation so people can get a copy of the game easily once more. On the bright side, this has given me the opportunity to improve my installation pack a bit from the original version.
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STEP #1
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You should have finished downloading PSO_PC_Ives_ISOs.zip. First off, extract all the contents of the zip archive to a new folder. If you can't extract zip files, then go to Info-zip's WiZ page and download WiZ. For a direct link, click here.
Once you have extracted the contents to a new folder, please keep PSO_PC_Ives_ISOs_v2.zip and continue to run your BitTorrent client and seed the file. The more people seeding, the more people who can download and play PSO. Now go to the folder where you extracted the contents of the zip. You should have 7 files, PSO_PC_disc1.iso, PSO_PC_disc2.iso, autorun.exe, pso.exe, online.exe, online_offline.exe, and README.txt. What you are readig now is a modified version of this README.txt file. Now, you'll need to install the game from the two ISO images.
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STEP #2
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There are two ways to do this. If you have a CD burner, two blank CDs, and a CD burning program, you can just open the CD burner program, choose to "Burn an ISO image," select PSO_PC_disc1.iso, burn it, and then do the same for the second. If you need a CD burning program, you can use most programs such as DiscJuggler or Nero to do so. Once you have burnt both discs to CD, insert the first into your CD drive, and continue with step 4. If you don't have some or any of the previous items with which to burn CDs, or you aren't sure of what settings to use when burning the discs, then you should use the following method.
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STEP #3
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If you can't burn a CD, then you can use a "virtual CD drive." This allows you to load the PSO installer ISO images directly as though they were on a real CD. You can use Elby's Virtual CloneDrive to do this. (They also make CloneDVD, a popular DVD copying program.) Go to http://www.elby.ch/products/clone_dvd/index.html and scroll down to the bold text about the Virtual CloneDrive and click the download button. For a direct link to Virtual CloneDrive, click here. When the download completes, proceed through the installation. If you are using Windows XP, it will give you a message saying that the driver is not "digitally signed." Choose to "continue anyway" and finish the installation. The installer may want you to restart your computer, so go ahead and restart your computer, then re-open this guide. Now go to "My Computer" and look at the list of drives. You should now have a new drive called "Virtual CloneDrive." Right click on it, and scroll down to the option saying "Virtual CloneDrive" and choose the "Mount" option. Then navigate to where PSO_PC_disc1.iso is, and click OK. Now you are ready to proceed with step 4.
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STEP #4
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Whether you used real CDs, or you used the Virtual CloneDrive explained in step 3, you should now get a Windows error message saying "Not support language." If you get this, congratulations, you have a working copy of the installer. This message appears because PSO PC is designed for Japanese computers (being a Japanese game) and it doesn't like it if you try to install it on an English computer. Click OK on this message. Now open "My Computer" and choose the CD drive that PSO is located in. (Either a real CD drive, or the Virtual CloneDrive.) Right click on the drive, and choose "Explore." A new window should pop up with multiple files shown in it. Scroll down to setup.exe, and run it. PSO will now ask you to select the language you wish to install in. (I recommend English, lol. =P) Proceed through the installation steps that the PSO installer gives you. I recommend installing into the default directory:
C:\Program Files\SEGA\PhantasyStarOnline
as that is the location I will refer to later on. I also recommend installing all the program features, low and high end sound, as well as the opening movie, if your Hard Drive has enough space. Once you have selected all the features and clicked the final OK dialogue, PSO will start to install. Some time into the installation (if you chose to install most, or all of the features) PSO will ask you to insert disc two. If you are using real CDs, eject the first disc, insert the second, and click OK, and PSO will continue to install. If you are using the Virtual CloneDrive, open a new "My Computer" and right click on the Virtual CloneDrive, and scroll down to the "Virtual CloneDrive" option again, and this time select "Unmount." Then do the same thing again, but choose "Mount" and select PSO_PC_disc2.iso. Then go back to the PSO installer and click OK. Either way you do it, you should get another "Not support language" error. Click OK on that dialogue box again. Now the PSO installer should be finished, so go ahead and click "Finish," and eject the second PSO CD, or choose "Unmount" on the Virtual CloneDrive. Step 4 complete! Now to set up PSO.
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STEP #5
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Navigate to the location you installed PSO. The default is:
C:\Program Files\SEGA\PhantasyStarOnline
You should see quite a few files in this folder. The first thing you should do is create a new folder in here, and name it "pso_exe_backups" or something like that. Then, move (not copy, move) pso.exe, online.exe, and autorun.exe into this folder. You may want to rename them to something like pso_original.exe, online_original.exe, and autorun_original.exe or something like that so you can remember later what they are. Now, go back to that directory where you have the two PSO ISO images and those other files stored. Copy pso.exe, autorun.exe, online_offline.exe, and online.exe into the main PSO folder.Now, run autorun.exe. You should get a window titled "Phantasy Star Online." First, click on "Options." Here, you can change the graphics settings, decide if you want high or low quality audio (if you installed both,) and change the fonts PSO uses. If you don't make any changes, you should make sure you set the connection method to "LAN" not Dial Up. Even if you ARE using Dial Up, you still need to select "LAN" mode. Then click OK at the bottom, and click "Exit" on the "Phantasy Star Online" window. Now, for registration.
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STEP #6
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Note that this step is optional, but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. At this point you can do one of two things, start playing PSO, or register for a serial number/access key. If you don't register, you can't hear lobby music, and you can't save the Guild Cards that people send you. You may have seen various "Guild Card fixer" or "Lobby Music fixer" files on PSO sites. DO NOT USE THESE! They patch your Windows registry with shared serials, meaning that your characters are tied to them forever, and if you ever wanted to register sometime later, you would have to start all your characters over again. (There is a program available to allow you to change the serials your characters are tied to, but it's rather complicated. You can save yourself a lot of hassle by not using any "fixer" registry patches.) Also note that these "fixers" are meant to be used on hacked versions of PSO, not the actual game from the ISOs that you have downloaded. If you use the "Guild Card fixer" files on this PSO, it won't be able to run anymore, so once again please don't use them. Instead, you should register with Schthack's server and get unique serials.
In the original PSO PC Torrent, I provided an e-mail address for people to request serials, and shortly after releasing the Torrent the e-mail changed and I was unable to to fix this README file without remaking the Torrent. Thus for the past 2 and a half years or so, the README file was providing the wrong e-mail to request serials. To prevent this from happening again, I will instead say that if you wish to request serials, please visit the Registration page on this site to see the current method of registration for PSO PC.
Once you have a serial number and access key, you can then set up PSO with them. Run autorun.exe, and choose "Online" mode, and choose "Start Game." It will tell you that you must register when playing for the first time, and give you a box with three fields: Serial Number, Access Key, and E-Mail. Type in the Serial Number and Access Key EXACTLY as they appear in your registration e-mail. They are case sensitive, so 3N42Lx4 is NOT the same as 3n42lX4. (Also, don't try putting those in as your serials, I just made them up lol.) For e-mail, use something like a Yahoo address, it doesn't matter what address you use. Be sure to write down what address you do use, though, as if you decide to uninstall PSO and reinstall it later, you must use the same Serial, Access Key, and e-mail in order to play your old characters again. Once you have the three fields filled in correctly, click OK, and a confirmation box will come up. Verify that they were entered correctly, and click OK again. You should get a screen saying "Thank you for playing on this server." or something similar. Click OK, and the opening movie will play. (If you chose to install it.) Then PSO will start. Once on the title screen, you can go ahead and choose "Exit" to quit the game. Run autorun.exe again, and choose "Options" once more. Look at the bottom of the screen, and your Serial Number and Access Key should be displayed. Once you verify this, close the Options menu and the Phantasy Star Online window one last time. Now you can create a shortcut to online_offline.exe, and use it to play PSO quickly and easily. Simply select whether you want to play online or offline, and PSO will start. Hooray! You now have a complete copy of PSO. Enjoy the game! And thank you for reading all of this, I hope it helped you through the installation. Also, don't forget to visit:
the home page of this installation. ;) (Although for this online README, you may be on the site now, lol.)
I would like to thank deathrabbit for providing the method for modifying autorun.exe so that the shortcut with -s is no longer needed to run the fixed autorun file. (If you used my original PSO PC installation, you should notice that there is no longer an autorun2.exe file and the part of the guide detailing how to make autorun2.exe work is no longer present.)
I would also like to thank Kuroi Kaze for mirroring deathrabbit's fixed autorun.exe file so I could find the proper offsets for the -s fix, and I would also like to thank him for creating a new loader so I don't have to include Broomop's loader in this installation anymore.
Copyright Info
This README may not be reproduced in any way, shape, or form or be hosted on other sites without the permission of Aleron Ives (that's the writer of this, in case you didn't figure it out). I'm tired of trying to decide what I want people to do when they host this on other sites, so it's easier for me to just say: don't host this yourself unless I tell you that you can; point people here instead.
(Yeah, it sounds official, but I probably have to file some dumb bureaucratic documents to make it that way. Bottom line, please don't take my stuff as your own work.)
