I'm more of a PS2 than a PS person. But have you tried the NTSC game? On the PS2, NTSC or PAL backups play in either machine type; some gme play colours OK on the other system, others in B&W or they jump around a bit. If they jump around then they either need patching or you can place a NTSC to PAL convertor between the AV output and the TV (which is what I do).

As to your copy problem, you need software called CDRWin. You need to download the tutorial from http://www.psxcopyworld.co.uk and copy the CD to hard disk with VDRWin. This will produce a BIN and a CUE file. Use PPF-O-MATIC (which you can download too) to patch the BIN file and burn back to CD-R with CDRWin using the CUE file as the pointer.