Interesting...

[Frozener]

So I just bought a PS1 second-hand from a thrift store because of my fondness for PS1 RPG's. I was curious to see if I could play a backed-up or even a Japanese game on my newly acquired system. I read about all the various methods of playing backups (swap trick, gameshark, etc.) but after burning one of my backed up games, I just decided to pop it in and give it a try. To my amazement the game actually booted and was working without a hitch. This has worked for multiple games including a Japanese title. I was just wondering if anyone had any insight into whats going on, because it was my understanding that unmodded PS1's cannot play backups. Obviously, since I haven't taken apart the system I can't tell if a modchip has been installed or not. But it's pretty unlikely that somebody would've given it away if they cared enough to install a chip. Any thoughts...

[Robert]

open it and have a look.

[Agozer]

Yes, an unmodded PS1 can't play backups (nor retail discs from other regions), so it's a fairly safe bet to say that your console is modded.