Okay, forgive me for being nieve, but I just got a copy of Gameday 2001 for The playstation and one of my friends suggested i make a backup of it, is this legal?
Also, i believe that Gameday has a protect on it against burning, is there a way to over-ride that?
Standard disclaimer: IANAL, and I don’t even own a Playstation.
As far as I’m aware, making backup copies of data you own is always legal. In the case of Playstation games, they make it hard, so it requires some special software and some semi-special hardware. A good place to start your research is http://www.gamecopyworld.com. I’m pretty sure everything there is legal. Last time I looked, they had plenty of instructions for doing this. For burning software, Nero is the usual choice, because it’s capable of faithfully reproducing “bad” sectors of data that the Playstation looks for during its copy protection.
To use a burned copy in the PS, you’ll need what’s called a mod chip. I’m much fuzzier on the legality of this little piece of equipment, so I leave that to others.
Beware the mod chip. Some games (the originals,not the copies) will not play when the Playstation has been modified. Also, once modified you need to keep adjusting the laser to get it to play anything at all on certain models.
However, I’ve never had to use any special software to burn the games that do work with the mod chip. If the original works then the copy works for me.
As a matter of fact, making a copy of a playstation game (or any other console game for that matter, especially Dreamcast) disc is illegal, but no one will sue you for doing so, as long as you’re not making copies and distributing/selling them…
As for the mod chip thing, there’s a nifty little gadget that plugs in the back of the playstation that can be used to play copies and japanese imports. It can be removed very easily. It’s called the “game killer”, and I think the Pro Action Replay does that, too(plus giving the ability to cheat games…).
I bought FF8 psx at BB for $17.00 Went to Bleem.com,. got their free demo Bleem download [no sound but I dont need it] & play FF8 on the PC, no psx needed. Bleem plays copied disks too. Shucks, Bleemcast for the Dreamcast, coming out soon, also plays them cause Sony’s copy protection is copyrighted so Bleem can’t use it 
Programs you need to copy psx, depends on the game, but generally, psxcopy 2000, nero, etc can do them.
Nero does a good job on 80%+ of PSX games and was the program I found most reliable. Your options for getting said backups to play are either the mod chip (which voids your warranty), the Pro Action Replay, or if you have an older model PSX, you can do what’s known as the “swap” trick- this does put a lot of wear on your CD motor though.
Making backups of your games is a good idea, especially if you have a rambunctious dog. My friend now has two $40 coasters thanks to his pet.
If you have a newer (series 900x and up) PSX, there is no port to put anything in like a game enhancer. Also many new games can detect mod chips, so while you can play copied games you can’t play certain others.