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I have an older fat PS2 with a network adapter, a suitable HDD will not be hard to source but which software should i use?
I have many games inc shadow of the colossus, gt4, FF Xii, Killer 7, GOW 2, Ico. I'll need to convert dvd9 games which apparently can cause problems. Does anyone know which software would work the best to do this and extend the life of my PS2? ( HDLoader ?) I'm using a pal PS2 in the UK. Any help would be appreciated. |
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I totally spaced and missed this thread, that is way too long without a response, sorry.
Your options for booting games off of a hard drive are to either pick up a copy of HDAdvance (which is fairly old) and call it a day, or to go through the complicated procedure of softmodding your PS2 so you can use the latest and best version of HDLoader. But, we're gamers! We're nerds! Why settle for an easy solution when we can instead go through a considerably more complicated one to get better results? I'm in the US, so I've only used NTSC methods, but everything should work with PAL systems. All of this is assuming you do not have access to a modded PS2, and don't plan on modding yours. The best option for getting games onto your hard drive without modding your system is to get the cheapest version of PAL HDLoader you can find. This will likely be the original retail HDLoader or HDAdvance (they're essentially the same thing). It doesn't matter which one you get, since you'll only be using it for a little while (to help install the newest version), so snag the cheapest copy you can find. Basically, what we have to do is get an updated version of HDLoader (HDLoader 0.8c) onto your memory card. Updated versions have better compatibility rates than the original retail versions that were released on disc (retail HDloader can't play GT4, SotC, or GoW2 as an example), they support larger hard drives (retail HDLoader only supports up to ~137GB, HDLoader 0.8c supports up to 2TB), and they are able to install dual layer DVD games from the PS2 itself (as opposed to using WinHiip). The only way to run a program from the memory card (in this case, HDLoader) on an unmodded system is to use an exploit. The most popular is the "Independence Memory Card Exploit", which is the one we'll be using. Basically, when the PS2 starts a PS1 game, it looks for a small, hidden file on the PS2 memory card that may have special instructions on how to run certain games in each region. By replacing that file with another, we can cause the PS2 to have a buffer overflow, which in layman's terms will crash the PS2 and then cause it to run the program we need it to run. On top of the PS2, Network Adaptor, and hard drive you already have, you'll need: - A PS2 memory card with around 550k of free space (you'll be creating a save that you will have to leave on your memory card to boot HDLoader) - A PS1 game (You'll use the same PS1 game each time to start HDLoader, so make sure it's in good shape and relatively common in case you have to replace it. Also, regular and Greatest Hits versions of the same game have different IDs, so it will have to be the same release of the game to work) - One of the HDL programs above (I'll just call it HDLoader for simplicity's sake) - A USB thumb drive that has been formatted FAT (not FAT32) with around two megs of free space. Any cheap $10 1GB USB Stick should work if you don't have any lying around the house) - A PC, running Windows, with a free IDE channel (you'll have to put your PS2 hard drive into it at one point) - A program called WinHiip (This program will run on your PC, and allow it to recognise your PS2 hard drive, and to add games to it) - A program called uLaunchElf_v.4.38 (This is the program we will be installing to your PS2 HDD, it is essentially a "loader" program that runs on the PS2 and allows you to run other programs like HDLoader) - An updated version of HDLoader that we will install directly to your memory card And finally, - The Exploit Installer that will make the process considerably easier. First thing, format your USB Stick (or any USB device, I used an old 512MB .mp3 player) to FAT (right click on it in My Computer and select Format. At the menu that pops up select FAT, and leave the allocation size at default. You can give it a label if you want to make it easier to keep track of. Obviously you'll lose all previously existing data on this drive, so back it up if it's important). Once it's done formatting, extract the uLaunchElf and HDLoader .rar files. Copy the BOOT.elf file from the uLaunchElf folder and the HDL_VO.8C.ELF file from the HDLoader folder to the root of the memory stick. Once that is done, turn off your computer. Put the hard drive into your PS2 (make sure the jumpers are set to Master) and fire up HDLoader. The very first time you use it it will have to format the drive, which may take a little while depending on what size it is. Once this is done, you will want to turn off your PS2 and put the hard drive into your computer. Remember to set the jumpers to Slave if you're going to run it as such in your PC and enable it in BIOS if you have to. Your PS2 hard drive will not show up in in My Computer because it is formatted differently. Fire up WinHiip. On the top left (I'm doing most of this from memory, so I might make a mistake here or there) there will be a button that says "Select Drive". Click it, and a list of the hard drives installed in your PC will be shown. Select the one that is labelled "PS2". WinHiip will calculate free space (which shouldn't take long because you don't have any games on it yet). When it is finished, on the bottom right there will be a button that says "Add Image". Click on that. A menu will pop up asking if you are going to add an image from a CD/DVD, or from a disc image. We're going to add from a disc image. Now find the folder where you extracted the Exploit Installer (it will unrar into an .iso file), and select it. It should say exploit_installer. You can rename it if you really want to. There will be a CD/DVD section underneath, click CD and Ok. It should only take a short time to install. Once it is installed, exit WinHiip, turn off your computer, and remove the PS2 hard drive. With the hard drive back in your PS2, start it up with your memory card and HDLoader disc inside. It will take a minute to load because it has to rebuild it's table of contents since we installed an image with WinHiip instead of it. Once that is done, select exploit_installer (or whatever you named it), which will be the only "game" you have installed. It will start. All you have to do next is follow the instructions on the screen (the program should automatically detect that you're on a PAL system and display a signal accordingly). You'll see a black screen with white text tthat says "Exploit Installer", and below "Press X to begin". Press X. THe next screen is where we will create the Title.db file that will be used for the exploit. Open the tray, take out the HDLoader disc, and put in a PS1 game you've chosen. Once your hear the PS1 disc spin up in the system, press X and it will read the ID. Once that is done, you'll be at a network setup screen (for networking your PS2 and your PC, mainly only useful for devs). Hit X to skip. You'll be at a confirmation screen asking you if all of the details are ok, hit X. The next screen will say "Success!", some text about the guy who developed the exploit installer, and the text "Press X to return to the PS2 Browser" at the bottom. The exit code for the installer hasn't been developed yet, so at this screen you'll have to reset your PS2 (keep the PS1 game in the drive and the memory card in the system). Plug your USB stick in one of the system's USB ports and start the PS2 up. Now you'll see the Sony logo, and then the screen will flash white. Then, you'll see a menu with a white screen and black text (this text can be sort of blurry on a small TV screen). This is your new loader, used to launch PS2 programs. You'll have an error message at the top of the screen that says something like "Failed to Launch Launchelf something something", because your PS2 doesn't have a launchelf program set up. So, we'll have to copy one from the USB stick to the hard drive. Programs developed to run on the PS2 are in .elf format (as opposed to .exe like a PC). Press Circle for File Browser. Then, go down to :/MASS. Mass if your USB (Mass storage) stick. Mark BOOT.elf and press R1, then copy. Now go back to the list of locations and go to hdd0 (this is your hard drive), and go to the common folder. Hit R1 again and paste BOOT.elf into this folder. Now you'll go back to the memory stick and copy HDL_V0.8C.ELF in the same way, only this time we're going to paste it into your memory card, which is mc0 (memory card slot 1). Go to the BxDATA-SYSTEM/ folder in your memory card and paste HDL_V0.8C.ELF there. Now, head back to the main menu. At the main menu, highligh Configure and press circle. This is the configuration menu for the loader screen you're looking at. At the top there will be a list of buttons corresponding to the button son the Dual Shock. Pick the one you want to use to load HDLoader and hit circle on it. It will ask you what program to run when you press is, so navigate to hdd0: / __common / HDL_V0.8C.ELF and select it. You can rename it to something like HDLoader if you like. Go down to the bottom and select OK. You should be at the main menu now. Restart your PS2 with the PS1 game and memory card still inside (although you can remove the USB stick if you want). You'll see the Sony logo, and then the same white screen, and then you'll be back at the menu. Hit whatever button you set to launch HDLoader and it should start up. You'll see the same blue HDLoader screen, with the text 0.8c pasted on top. Then you'll be at the HDLoader menu, and you can install and play games from there. Any time you want to boot HDLoader, just put in the memory card with the save (it should show up in the PS2 browser as a 400-500k "System settings" save in the shape of a PS2, as opposed to the 7k it too up before) and the specific PS1 game in the drive, and you'll hit the loader menu, and HDLoader can be launched from there. Additional programs in .elf format (emulators, media players, etc) can be installed in the same way, but you can boot the majority of them from a USB stick (saving memory card space). Just hit select to configure what button you would like to hit to launch them, and then navigate to MASS, and select the .elf like you did with HDLoader. In the configuration menu you can select screen settings to correct a screen offset, or change the colors. I've noticed a black background with white text is slightly easier to read than a white background with white text, but I have a black background with green text ti simulate an oldschool terminal look. Sometimes when you start up the first time after copying the launchelf and HDLoader programs the screen offset will be ridiculous (so much that you can only see half of the screen). If that happens let me know and I'll type out the step by step button commands to work through the menu and change the offset. I would reccomend keeping the exploit_installer program (suitably renamed of course) on the hard drive so you can make exploits for your friends (all they'll have to do is bring over a PS1 game and a memory card). This will allow them to use the exploit without having to use WinHiip and a disc version of HDloader. Of course you could always just copy the save file itself to their memory card if they have the same PS1 game you are using. [You can check game compatibility on various versions of HDLoader here. I just softmodded my system yesterday, and 0.8c has a few options for not disabling the network adaptor like retail does, so I'm not sure how that works with multiplayer. DNAS-enabled online games would be unplayable no matter what, but I will have to check pre-DNAS titles, as well as LAN games.] And that's all there is to it. If you have any questions or run into a problem, let me know and I'll do my best to help you out. |
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