PS1/2 [Tutorial]Load from USB On PS2

banzai200

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Let's talk of this console that has been forgotten on time
Well, after trying to show a way to do this for a friend on his ps2, i stumbled in a lot of misleading tutorials for the Usb game loading on Ps2, seeing even some people who still thinks that those usb connectors are useless
So, seeing that, and using this since Ps3 and Xbox 360 wasn't even a thing yet, i decided to write a tutorial on how to take that ps2 and play your games without even needing a dvd (mostly)

This needs a mod-chip, and will be Matrix mod-chip only, since i don't own any Ps2 that has another mod-chip

Not true anymore, there's a dvd exploit i haven't tested, since my ps2 doesn't have a dvd drive.
Also, i didn't mention, but it works in unmodded ps2 consoles too, but since this tutorial requires a burned dvd, use the dvd hax or search Google for freemcboot, i personally never used it


  • Starters:

First, you'll need to launch homebrew (UlaunchELF and OpenPs2Loader) on the ps2
I've made a ISO with UlaunchELF and OPL already packed and ready to load on a ps2
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5...drivesdk&resourcekey=0-bAJQ17nsXKecPP-WxscUnQ
Burn the iso on a cd with speed 4x on any program (i recommend Ultraiso) and load in the ps2
XOzrsgR.jpg

This screen will appear, so here, you'll press circle to enter the file browser
n0ZWvEs.jpg

Here, you'll go to cdfs:/
W04lExM.jpg

This screen will appear (ignore the path, my ps2 doesn't have a DVD reader)
If you go into apps, there will be a ELF file
1eUdNod.jpg

From here, you can already open OPL, and play your games from usb (explained better as the tutorial goes on) if you wanna to have the CD ready when playing, but i'll teach how to copy the programs to the memory card, and have it as a second boot alternative

  • Boot from Memory Card:
On cdfs:/ you'll need to press R1 on the BOOT.ELF file, and select copy
mVTV1qJ.jpg

When you press circle to select copy, a little green square will appear on the upper right corner signaling that you copied the ELF
pW458NN.jpg

Press triangle to go back to the file manager hub, and select Mc0:/
cZxCfeh.jpg

Here, you have your memory card, all those folders represent a game save
Now press R1 and select New dir
eDn91nU.jpg

Here, as seen on the image, name the folder BOOT, on capitals, and select ok
Go into the folder, press R1 again, and paste the BOOT.ELF file
mOvz4IT.jpg

And it's done, from now on, when you turn the ps2 on holding the R1 button, uLE will launch

I Highly recommend to copy OPL elf as well, since that will make the CD totally unnecessary
  • Loading games from USB
Now, what everyone was expecting, loading games from USB on Ps2!

First, you'll need your Ps2 ISO(s) (Google is your friend), you can put more than one, as much that your Drive can handle, for the tutorial, I'll be using Megaman X Collection
mVRo3Xv.png

Create a DVD folder on your Usb drive(formatted in FAT32) and paste your ISO(s) into the folder
ymEkIQe.png

(My Pc is in Portuguese, if that is a problem, I'm really sorry)
Name the ISO(s) whatever you like and place here (As the FAT32 won't support games bigger than 4gb, later in the tutorial, I'll explain how to solve this problem with bigger games)
And, while still on the PC, defragment your usb drive, as OPL won't read a fragmented game
With that out of the way, insert your Usb drive on the ps2 and open OPL
On the first loading of OPL, some things have to be configured, so this screens will appear:
fttP22B.jpg


DLhg90S.jpg

Press Cross to select Settings, And go to Usb device start mode, and change it to Auto
b72IfzB.jpg

And, on Default menu, change it to USB Games and select OK and on the menu, Select Save Changes
tOD0jv5.jpg

And, with that out of the way, press Circle twice and your game(s) should appear
RJrleuB.jpg

Select your game and Have Fun! (Some colors will flash, but that's completely normal, and can be deactivated in Disable Debug Colors in the Settings menu)
wAhiuDu.jpg


  • Games bigger than 4 GB
Fat32 has a restriction on it's file system that doesn't allow files bigger than 4 GB to be copied, and, as some bigger games (Gta San Andreas for a Example) pass the 4 GB mark, those games have to be cut in parts to work using USB, so i'll show how to do it

First, Download USB Util from here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5YjFHrEIseIeEt4OUNXVUV6RzA

Extract all files and Open Usb Util
9Q4tB8G.png


When open, go into file menu and click on Create Game from ISO (you can do it by copying a DVD too, just click the other option)
Select the directory of the game in the left box, and the destination on the right one (recommended the usb drive), choose the iso on the inferior left box, and rename it to your heart's content on the text box

bp8wCp3.png


Done that, click in create and wait for it to load

exuJTX1.png


When completed, (if you didn't pointed the conversion directly to the USB Drive) Just copy the "ul." files to the ROOT of the USB Drive and the game should appear on the game menu on the ps2 when you plug the USB Drive

  • OPL Features
OPL has a lot of neat features other than loading games from usb, and i shall explain some of it now

Starting with IGR (In-game Reset), this feature allows you to just exit OPL without even pressing a button on the console

Pressing L1 + R1 + L2 + R2 + Start + Select in-game will exit to the PS2 Browser (The screen that appears when you turn on PS2 without a DVD), It can be changed by going into "Settings > IGR Path" and typing the path to OPL or uLE or any other elf anyway (to make it easier, you can plug a keyboard to the other USB port on the PS2)

Pressing L1 + R1 + L2 + R2 + L3 + R3 (the analog buttons) in-game will turn off the console

Another cool feature included on OPL is the Video Mode Selector, which let's you choose the video mode on your games (Example, PAL games in NTSC and vice versa)
To activate it, just go in Display settings on the main menu, and choose your video mode on the video mode option
(DO NOT TRY THE HDTV OPTIONS WITHOUT A COMPONENT CABLE, OR OPL TURNS INTO A BLACK SCREEN AND YOU WOULD HAVE TO RESET ALL THE SETTINGS)

pmWzP2s.jpg


  • Cover Arts
Well, now let's begin making the Game List more beautiful and organized shall we?
First, Let's put covers on our games
And to do that, we'll have to pick the cover for our game.
I recommend to keep it small, around 140 x 200, because bigger images cause this effect:
FcyASRl.jpg


You can make your own covers too, just be creative!

With your image at hand, rename it to Codeofthegame_COV (You can find the Code of the game with a Google Search, Opening the game's ISO and looking at the SLUS/SLES file on it or looking at the inferior right corner on OPL), The image can be either .Png or .Jpg

Example: Megaman X Collection's code is SLUS_213.70, so i renamed my image to SLUS_213.70.PNG

With that done, put the image on the folder ART on your USB Drive
srCxiB1.png


Plug your Drive on the PS2, open OPL, and voilá

vFTeJ3I.jpg

(way better, isn't it?)

To add backgrounds, it's mostly the same drill, pick a image on 640 x 480, rename it to Codeofthegame_BG and put it on the ART folder on the USB Drive

rRjnIlj.jpg


  • Themes
Still with me after all this? Good! Let's continue

So, now let's make the OPL look nicer, I've packed some themes on here, so download it and just copy the THM folder on the USB Drive
And on OPL, just go on the display settings and select your theme on the menu and select OK.
Done. (Please note that not all themes are compatible with backgrounds)

ujqDuiq.jpg


yuv9m5p.jpg



  • The Return of the lazy OP...

Wow, one year and something to update this, that's some laziness... however, i had waaaay more time in my hands last year, and now that i should be studying for the college finals, i'll finish this so there's no loose ends

OKAY, LET'S DO THIS

  • SMB Loading
Ever looked at the Ethernet plug at the back of your ps2 slim anytime after 2006 and thought: "That's a useless thing"?

Think again, here's OPL with it's helpful features to make it usable again

It's been already said in this thread, but this tutorial is way more useful for the Slim variations of the ps2, since you could just insert a hdd on ps2 phat and do the same with faster loading and reading

With that said, this is the best method (other than dvd) to play games in the ps2 slim with fmvs or atrocious loading and the advantage of no fat32 iso size restriction, you can put any game with any size, but enough rambling and lets go to the tutorial

So, reading the tutorial until here, it's the same things you needed to do for the usb

upload_2017-11-21_13-24-55.png


This is my shared folder for Smb on the moment, with my DVD folder looking like this:

upload_2017-11-21_13-25-51.png


And my OPL on the ps2 looking like this:

upload_2017-11-21_13-46-27.png


Now, to Setup that, first we need to make a Shared Folder

With the prepared OPL folder with the games inside, Right Click on your folder and open Properties:

upload_2017-11-21_13-51-30.png


(again, Portuguese language pc, but stick with me here...)

Go to Sharing Tab and Click Share:

upload_2017-11-21_13-53-5.png


upload_2017-11-21_13-53-15.png


In this Window, you would want to check "Everyone" to Read/Write and Click Share

Disclaimer: DO NOT DO THIS IN PUBLIC NETWORKS, IT'S UNSAFE, DO IT ONLY ON YOUR HOME OR TRUSTED ROUTERS

Sidenote: My Share name is different than my Folder name because i did the advance sharing tweaking to my settings, if you want a simpler name for your share, Rename the Folder.

Now, with that done, let's setup the ps2

Connect an Ethernet Cable on your router and ps2 and open OPL

Press Start to Enter Settings and go to Network Config:

upload_2017-11-21_14-0-34.png


On that Screen, a lot of information appears, but skip to the "SMB Server" part

upload_2017-11-21_14-1-58.png


If you understand this, it's pretty straightforward, put your pc ip there, name of the share(the folder in the Pc), user and password (of your pc) and click ok, save settings on the previous screen and go to the "start mode" part

Now, if you don't know your pc ip address, go on the pc and press the windows button + R, type cmd in the text box and press enter
upload_2017-11-21_14-6-36.png


on this screen, type: ipconfig

upload_2017-11-21_14-7-20.png


Now, in the wall of text that appears, look for the connection you use, either ethernet or wireless

My case being Wireless

upload_2017-11-21_14-9-3.png


Now, Write down the IPv4, Subnet Mask and Default Gateway fields on the ps2 settings, put the share name (the folder's name) and user/password on your computer and select ok

With all of that done, go to Settings this time
upload_2017-11-21_14-12-14.png


Set ETH device start mode to "Auto":
upload_2017-11-21_14-12-57.png


Click OK, Save settings and Press Circle

upload_2017-11-21_14-16-15.png


Voilá, now you can play games directly on your Shared Network

The advantages of this method over the Usb one is the faster loading times, and you are enable to play fmv cutcene games with less stuttering overall (just don't expect to stop entirely on some games, Kingdom Hearts 1 for example, it's intro and ending movie played smoothly, but experienced some stuttering, but the rest of the game and it's cutscenes played like a charm)

And that wraps up this tutorial, and i'm truly sorry for the delay on updating it, college burns me out like a candle and i didn't had too much time to update this, but i'm ending it here

For the OPL features, i truly recommend that you experiment with it for yourselfs, it's an awesome tool and a great console reviver
I also recommend the PS2-HOME foruns, they have been keeping OPL alive and updating it's features like crazy the last few years, i even heard that they made a way for the opl to run ps1 games in usb/smb, so go there and say hi

and that's it, good gaming people, have fun
 
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D

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wait.. so all those tutorials are misleading, YOU ONLY NEED A BLANK DVD?????
 

cvskid

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Nice tutorial. Mainly good for ps2 slim owners though since fat ps2 owners can just use a ide harddrive for this. Also heard that the usb ports on ps2 are 1.1 and not 2.0 so it might be slow running games through usb.
 

banzai200

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wait.. so all those tutorials are misleading, YOU ONLY NEED A BLANK DVD?????
I still use my PS2, but I was unaware that you could load straight from a Flash Drive now. Last I checked you needed a Blank DVD or an actual Hard Drive
Yep, just a blank dvd and some programs, nothing more, I'll still complete the tutorial for how to straight up make the DVD drive on the ps2 useless, so stay tuned!
Nice tutorial. Mainly good for ps2 slim owners though since fat ps2 owners can just use a ide harddrive for this. Also heard that the usb ports on ps2 are 1.1 and not 2.0 so it might be slow running games through usb.
Yes, it's a blessing for us, little slim mortals and yes, they are 1.1 but it don't affect gameplay in anyway, nor loading times, which on God Of War, when i played, was kinda faster than DVD
 

geishroy

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wait.. so all those tutorials are misleading, YOU ONLY NEED A BLANK DVD?????

This is done with a Chipped console.

I still use my PS2, but I was unaware that you could load straight from a Flash Drive now. Last I checked you needed a Blank DVD or an actual Hard Drive

You can load from USB for years, it's slow and is much better just to burn the ISOs or get a fat PS2 with an IDE HD.
 

banzai200

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it's slow and is much better just to burn the ISOs or get a fat PS2 with an IDE HD.
I disagree , OPL has gotten the loading times much better over the years, and yet, i shall say of other methods, that are a lot better than even USB
This is done with a Chipped console.
And i said this on the beginning of the tutorial
 
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geishroy

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I disagree , OPL has gotten the loading times much better over the years, and yet, i shall say of other methods, that are a lot better than even USB

And i said this on the beginning of the tutorial
Yes but i think the others missed that portion.

OPL may be coded better but USB 1.1 will always hinder it.
 
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what is a "chipped" console tho didnt't think it was important like a model or something
 

banzai200

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Yes but i think the others missed that portion.

OPL may be coded better but USB 1.1 will always hinder it.
I've never had problems myself, as i already said, there were times when the games loaded faster on the USB then the DVD itself

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

what is a "chipped" console tho didnt't think it was important like a model or something
Modchips, Like matrix for example
 
D

Deleted-379826

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I've never had problems myself, as i already said, there were times when the games loaded faster on the USB then the DVD itself

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Modchips, Like matrix for example
So you have to buy them? Rip
EDIT: You do and they look expensive, I'll probably be better off with a free mcboot memory card off amazon
 
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Deleted-379826

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Basically, yes, but it's very cheap actually, and even pirated chips work with this tutorial
How cheap (CAD) and how do these work, do i have to open up my ps2 orrrr?
and also I'm OK with pirating, in this case would you have to buy something?
 

xfxmrl

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Nice tutorial, thanx, can you also add tutorial about Graphics Synthesizer Mode Selector? (If you know about it/maybe using it)
 

banzai200

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How is this different with the Mcboot method? Thanks for the tutorial.
It's kinda not, Mcboot method uses the same core idea, but it has a little nicey menu (and all the games MUST be converted using usb util, which i don't find practical at all)

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Nice tutorial, thanx, can you also add tutorial about Graphics Synthesizer Mode Selector? (If you know about it/maybe using it)
Eventually, I will put the other OPL builds (Childproof, VMC, GSM) and show a little about them, this tutorial is kinda on it's middle actually lol

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

How cheap (CAD) and how do these work, do i have to open up my ps2 orrrr?
and also I'm OK with pirating, in this case would you have to buy something?
https://www.mod-chip.com/en/playstation/ps2/183/matrix-infinity-1.99-modchip-compatible-with-ps2
I'm not familiar with the canadian currency, but i know that is roughly 30 USD
and yes, would have to open the ps2 and install the mod-chip
 

cvskid

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How cheap (CAD) and how do these work, do i have to open up my ps2 orrrr?
and also I'm OK with pirating, in this case would you have to buy something?
Main difference i know of between freemcboot and modchips is that you do not need to swap disc to play burned ps1 games. They just boot right up. Might depend on the modchip though.
 
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banzai200

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Main difference i know of between freemcboot and modchips is that you do not need to swap disc to play burned ps1 games. They just boot right up. Might depend on the modchip though.
Freemcboot needs a modchip as well, and yea, matrix can make burned ps1 games run without swapping, there's a emulator to run from usb as well, but i'll not cover it here
 
Last edited by banzai200, , Reason: Actually it doesn't , i was misinformed
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