The other good reason for a chip is to run out-of-region PS2 games direct from disk, which is also covered by MechaPwn at least for US/Asia systems.
Whenever I read “easy home-brew solution” and then go look up said solution, I find that it’s not so easy unless you’re someone who does those sorts of “easy” solutions often.
This is why I bought original hardware again and got ANOTHER bum JPN PS2 from a US seller. *sigh*
There was a loose white gear rattling around in the expansion bay when I undid all the bubble wrap. The system clearly wasn’t tested for playing games before being sent to me. Super frustrating.
So… I finally just ordered from Japan (from another seller who accepts returns… which by the gods I hope to not have to use) but this one also has the broadband adapter in it, which isn’t too big a deal to me, but also didn’t cost any more than the one I’m now returning that was broken on arrival.
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Whenever I read “easy home-brew solution” and then go look up said solution, I find that it’s not so easy unless you’re someone who does those sorts of “easy” solutions often.
I mean they’re “easy” in the sense they don’t involve soldering 11 wires to tiny points on the PS2 mainboard. But I take your point.
I ran into my own issues with my 70002 as PAL/ASIA models have additional BIOS checks that can’t be defeated by the hack. I’ve put the console away in the hopes that a ODE solution is created.
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Yeah. Wasn’t trying to be a jerk. I just often find that the retro gaming and/or hacking community idea of “easy” isn’t anywhere close to my own. Popping in a cart and having your Sega Saturn run nearly all JPN games? That’s easy. Snagging a Gameshark for Dreamcast to play imports? Also easy.
I’m still not quite sure how you go through all the steps for this PS2 hack and it looks like you need to be a pre-hacked memory card to get to where you can even start to attempt it.
Hopefully I finally receive a working console soon.
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the Mechapwn exploit is definitely not easy, but it’s a lot easier than the alternatives
a similarly easy hack for the PS2 is the FreeMcBoot card and loading games from OPL. the cards are sold preloaded even. the only work on your part is getting the games set up
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Last time I tried to install a PS2 modchip it was more like 20 wires. Not my photo:
I’ll take running an ELF (similar to a windows .exe file), selecting the right thing in a menu, and done over that nonsense. It just has a pre-requisite of being able to run an ELF file on a PS2, which is the “easier” method you would use as an alternative.
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It’s not quite Wii / 3DS easy if you want to do the exploit entirely from scratch yeah but with the prebuilt memory cards it’s closer to that end of things I would say. Most systems 6th gen systems require you buy something to get them to read an SD card or USB stick and run an exploit so getting a preset FreeMcBoot memory card isn’t that different in that regard. Putting a hard drive in is way easier than Xbox since you don’t have to open the thing up so I’d say that counts for something lol. It is easier to learn if you are used to doing that sort of thing but every homebrewed system has it’s own “ecosystem” lol but most things you could ever need are packed in between UlaunchElf and Open PS2 Loader
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I think I’ve had the card for 2 years now and I’ve never really ventured beyond OPL and uLaunchElf.
Speaking of a proper PS2 ODE, do we know if anyone is actively working on one at the moment? I have a slim 75001 with a defective drive that I’d love to rehab at some point…
My SCPH-90004 seems to be scratching discs too now, rings about one cm from the outer edge of the disc. Was hoping using it vertically would help but still getting the same scratches. Pissed off as I bought it new in maybe 2012 and had someone install a mod chip to it. Is there any solution to keeping the laser ribbon low enough?
That totally sucks and I know how you feel. Those scratches you describe are just like the ones I was experiencing and they can definitely affect game function. It’s a whole pile of ass.
As you could see from my response to the issue up above, I didn’t tinker and just bought another one, but if you want to start digging, this is the search term I used in Google…
ps2 slim laser ribbon cable scratching discs
It does pop up a couple videos and talk in Reddit among other things. People have come up with some ways to hopefully solve it. I might try again sometime because I still have the other one, but I was happy to switch to the Fat system again instead.
Really hope you can solve it.
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Thanks a lot, will have a look at some point. I must have close to 10 PS2’s but this is THE PS2 with mod chip and the knowledge that it doesn’t have that many miles on it yet.
Yep. Totally understand. Lots of people with ideas about what causes it and some make it seem as easy as kind of pushing it back down in there again!
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I creased the ribbon cable for my drive sled and taped part of it down to ensure it doesn’t reach up and scratch discs. The design is really dumb that I even need to do that.
I never managed to fix the SCPH-70000 series PS2 Slim that a friend gave to me which was leaving the radial rings. I think I made it worse trying to fix it actually…
My 90000 series is still fine, hope it doesn’t play up. Is keeping it in horizontal position still the best way to go about preserving it?
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I’m planning on playing through Klonoa 2 soon, been told it’s rather fantastic and I can’t imagine the Unity engine port being better!
One PS2 game that recently shocked me is Sonic Riders - it’s very clear the PS2 version of the game was the lead format this time round and the game runs at a butter smooth 60fps while looking very good. According to The Cutting Room Floor, the Xbox and PC versions have some weird presentational bugs and oversights as well.
Someone told me the GameCube version is also good - I’ve got it ordered on import - apparently the character model quality is higher. But still, this is impressive stuff for PS2. Was also surprised to find the NTSC-J version of Sonic Riders on PS2 is dual audio and multi-language.
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Now that I have the Japanese PS2 and can access both the PS2 and PSX libraries in Japan, I’m finding that we’re at that point where US PlayStation anything has escalated in price significantly and shows no sign of slowing down, which means a lot of import versions of US games are way more palatable pricewise. One of those, that I never played other than in demo form, is Parappa the Rapper. It’s like ten bucks as an import but far more than that if you want it complete here.
It might be a really good time to figure out what games have light Japanese reading requirements so you can do what I did with Super Famicom about five years ago now and fill in all the holes of popular but way overpriced games you want to fill with imports instead?
That said, is Parappa the same in Japan as it is in English for the most part?
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Shoutout to one of the more unsung publishers, NIS America, for putting out several cool RPGs for the system:
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It’s kinda all over the place and some games I’ve noticed prices going down but yeah JP games are much cheaper.
If you’re up for some suggestions, Puyo Puyo Tsuu, SUN, and ~n are all good. Strider Hiryu 1 & 2 is easy to play in Japanese and much cheaper, plus has cooler boxart. Symphony of the Night and the Rockman games are easy to recommend too.
That’s some eerie timing. I bought a copy of Mana Khemia on PS2 yesterday along with a new (old) SCPH-90004 PS2 Slim.
While I can play something like Atelier Totori mostly fine in Japanese, I don’t think I’d be able to deal with Mana Khemia yet so thought I’d play the PAL version, which apparently supports dual language and 60hz.
Agree that NISA don’t get enough credit for the RPGs and games they did bring overseas. Their success in building audiences for these series (Gust’s Atelier, Mana Khemia and Ar Tonelico games, Spike Chunsoft’s Danganronpa series, VanillaWare games etc.) was seemingly validated by them losing control of the western licenses. Gust got bought out by Koei Tecmo who decided it was worth continuing to release those games in the west. Spike Chunsoft saw the money and opened their own offices outside of Japan. Atlus/Sega didn’t license 13 Sentinels out.
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