Archive for the 'PS2' Category

Poor oft-neglected blog. A fairly quick update on the state of the nerd:

My various and sundry linux machines are running well: No major changes to Scummbox recently, and the desktop machine is running well (with an AMD X2 processor upgrade.)

I’ve all but

So after installing the exploit on two different PS2′s and having it work, and playing with my setup for about a week now, I’ve come to a couple conclusions.

1. Having games on the hard drive totally rocks.
2. It needs some sort of controller-based on-off ability. Getting up to power the unit on and off is a bit shizen. See: any X-box modchip.
3. Some sort of network transferablity would be nice. It would totally own to hook the PS2 into the home network and send the information from my PC to the unit.
4. I need a bigger hard drive.

And Kyle; there will be no teledildonics on any of MY controllers

So last Sunday (March 6, 2005) my roommate and I went to The Bay to pick up a refurbished PS2 ($129, it’s the older chunkier model). Having heard from a friend about the PS2 memory card exploit to load the HDLoader program, I picked up the PS2 Network adapter. Having already secured a 80 gb hard drive on Saturday, I was set!

Now, for this exploit to work, you need access to a PS2 that will play burned CDs (either through a modchip or SwapMagic). You get the files for the exploit (wich are easily googleable) and a old PS1 game (I used Bushido Blade). [NOTE: Make sure you download an archive containing hdloader.elf and put it into the FILES directory on the CD, or you will have to burn the CD again]. After generating the CD via the instructions, you take the CD and the memory card to be used to the modded PS2, and plug em both in. This will create a savegame exploit on the memory card.

Small geek aside. The exploit is based on a bug that Sony left in the PS2 concerning PS1 games. When a PS1 game loads, it checks the memory card for a previous savegame before loading itself into the systems memory. This action, when a hacked savegame is provided, will trigger the boot program that is now on your memory card. This in turn loads the HDLoader program, which allows you to access the hard drive with the backed up games on it.

End aside. Once the memory card has the exploit on it, take it over to your unmodded PS2. Plug it in, and insert the PS1 game. Turn the system on. There should be a flash of white as the bootloader takes over from the PS1 game, and it will then go to a load menu. You have to add the HDLoader mapping to the X button, but that is covered in most walkthroughs. Once you get into the HDLoader, it will spin up your UNPARTITIONED and UNFORMATTED hard drive and ask if you want to format it to the Sony format. Agree, and let it do it’s thing. After the hard drive is formatted, I opted to turn off the PS2, take out the HD and hook it up to my computer. I used PS2 HD Handiness to copy my PS2 games to the hard drive (this is faster than the method that HDLoader uses to copy in the PS2).

Now put the PS2 back together, turn it on, and start playing