PS1/2 best method of playing backups on a slim PS2?

[YOUCANTSTOPME]

With FMCB, I see little reason to use SwapMagic. SwapMagic was great in its day but is not needed now.

 

[Sakitoshi]

very best is internal hdd, I have a fat ps2 and the compatibility is almost flawless. no idea about how reliable are those hdd kits for slim consoles.
best primary method for slim ps2's is opl with eth (lan/network loading).
usb is a good alternative, but be warned that all ps2's have usb 1.1, thus having a slow transfer speed and videos lag.
discs aren't bad but there are many troubling factors (mainly disc brands, fragility of the media and laser life) to be a reliable method but is the most compatible, so you can run any game that have trouble running through eth or usb. I haven't ever used esr though as all the ps2's I have seen are always chipped.

you don't need a pc to setup eth, just a small mini router like this one

Spoiler

I have that exact mini router, you can get one (or 2, those are really cheap) from ebay or aliexpress, it does the job perfectly. I can help you with that if you want to go for that method.

 

[kuletko]

can you teach me how? cheap solution compared to ps2netbox

 

[bras]

10 to 50 (ripoff) depending on the seller, note that a good chip has more features and it's more convenient, and some disassembly is still needed the first time to block the disc cover sensors

As all original discs, Swap Magic is also region locked (not what you then run with it), luckily for you the Americsn version is usually cheaper

so there's still some stuff I'd need to do to the console itself with a Swap Magic, but nothing near as difficult or risky as soldering, I'm assuming?
if you happen to know a trustworthy place to buy the American version, I'd love to know for future reference! but in the meantime, I'll probably just stick with FMCB with ESR patching.

I've honestly never thought about hardmodding my system. I've been running FreeMcBoot ever since I got my PS2 Slim (got one to hack it, haha) and pretty much exclusively used DVD-R (not +R, unfortunately) burnt discs for a few years. Eventually I had some spare HDDs laying around and decided to start using OPL for USB backups for the reasons I mentioned above. To be honest though, the more I look at that PS2NetBox the more I kind of want to eventually splurge one on. Maybe after I get the new EZFlash Omega. It's really wild that things like the PS2 and GBA are still getting new mods in 2018.

I remember doing pretty extensive research on the best methods available to me that were cost effective and determined FCMB was good enough for me. I know having to patch game files with ESR before writing them is probably not the most convenient ever, and from what I remember it doesn't work for every single game out there, but I'd still recommend it over a modchip. Especially since ESR backups can be NTSC-J, which is nice. PAL games won't work though, which is a bit of a bummer if you're looking to play some European exclusives.

yeah, the PS2 is definitely one of my favorite consoles, so I was really happy to learn that I could now actually do stuff like play out-of-region backups on it. there's so many great PS2 games that are super difficult to get a physical copy of nowadays, unless you happen to have hundreds of dollars (maybe exaggerating, but that's what it feels like) to spend on a single game. it's great that the PS2 is still getting attention to this day, it really does deserve it in my opinion. I know the easiest/best thing to do in the long run would be to just buy a fat PS2 for running backups, but I've had this slim around since I was little so I'm pretty attached to it, hah.

shame that ESR doesn't work with PAL games, but I'm not aware of many European PS2 games I'd be interested in playing, aside from maybe the EUR version of Ico that has all the extra stuff...
other than that, I'm not really sure of how many EUR exclusive games the PS2 has that I'd be interested in, ha ha.

 

[Sakitoshi]

can you teach me how? cheap solution compared to ps2netbox

I'm not near my ps2 or mini router right now to send detailed instructions, but the simplified explanation is that you plug an usb stick or portable harddrive (powered if possible, but you can get away with a Y-cable and plugging the power only end of it to one of the ps2 usb ports) and configure a smb share, then plug the mini router to the ps2 usb (power) and ethernet (communication) ports and configure opl accordingly.

 

[Ryccardo]

unless you happen to have hundreds of dollars (maybe exaggerating, but that's what it feels like) to spend on a single game.

https://it.webuy.com/product-detail?id=8023171009544
(Was actually in-store when they bought it, needless to say it's still there)

no idea about how reliable are those hdd kits for slim consoles.

HD Connect, the one I mentioned for 700xx, is "perfect" (as 700xxes have a full regular network adapter, just onboard), although you'll need to improvise for a place for where to actually put the disk

HD Combo is a variant of HD Connect where the cables come out of the side instead of the back, and it comes with a bottom case replacement so the disk actually fits in the console without removing the optical drive... but the whole world ran out of them 4-5 years ago

HD Pro works on EVERY console, and requires a compatible chip (modbo 4, iirc) since the disk connects through it; frankly it combines the main weakness of PS2NetBox (requires software to be written for it) with the weakness of USB (not that slow, but nowhere as fast as... every other alternative)... and they're getting hard to find too

...and MaxDiyPower, the best/only source for HD Connect, has apparently been unreliable in the past couple of months......

 

[Wuigi]

If you have a PS2 slim compatible with FMCB, using a Raspberry Pi via LAN for OPL with smb is pretty neat.
It powers itself from the PS2 USB port, with a big microSD it also doesn't need an external HDD and it is fast enough to run most games without any problems.
It's more or less a DIY variant of the the PS2NetBox but it's much cheaper and works with the latest OPL and not some modded version that ships with the PS2NetBox.
If you use static IP addresses, you can plug the LAN cable directly into the PS2 from the pi.
The only additional thing to the pi, LAN cable, microSD and USB cable is a switch of some sort as shutting the PS2 down without powering the pi down first leads to a longer boot time of the pi.

I wouldn't use burnt games as the laser is bad and reading burnt discs shortens the lifespan of the laser significantly.

 

[playstays_shun]

very best is internal hdd, I have a fat ps2 and the compatibility is almost flawless. no idea about how reliable are those hdd kits for slim consoles.
best primary method for slim ps2's is opl with eth (lan/network loading).
usb is a good alternative, but be warned that all ps2's have usb 1.1, thus having a slow transfer speed and videos lag.
discs aren't bad but there are many troubling factors (mainly disc brands, fragility of the media and laser life) to be a reliable method but is the most compatible, so you can run any game that have trouble running through eth or usb. I haven't ever used esr though as all the ps2's I have seen are always chipped.

you don't need a pc to setup eth, just a small mini router like this one

I have that exact mini router, you can get one (or 2, those are really cheap) from ebay or aliexpress, it does the job perfectly. I can help you with that if you want to go for that method.

can you speak a little more to how something like this would work with this mini router, that has USB on one end, ethernet on the other?


...been exploring options on a 90001 slim that has a build date prior to the revised BIOS so should be good to work with FMCB, but I have to get one of those memory cards too..

But seems like my options are

a) finding a mini router that I flash OpenWRT too (Nexx something), which I cant seem to find anywhere,
b) PS2netbox which looks cool but pricey ,

c) or this one...

 

[Spider_Man]

best bet is FMBC and ESR Patch your isos.

USB is a shit idea because ps2 usb speeds are crap, load via a PS2 Network Adapter with a HDD inside is a bit better.

or swap magic for games you cant ESR patch

 

[playstays_shun]

best bet is FMBC and ESR Patch your isos.

USB is a shit idea because ps2 usb speeds are crap, load via a PS2 Network Adapter with a HDD inside is a bit better.

or swap magic for games you cant ESR patch

i'd like to steer away from burnt discs / using the disc laser... these are all games i own as well so that sorta defeats the purpose. Hard drive form of playing is what seems most intriguing to me

and i have a fat ps2 but really want to use the slim instead,

 

[Sakitoshi]

can you speak a little more to how something like this would work with this mini router, that has USB on one end, ethernet on the other?


...been exploring options on a 90001 slim that has a build date prior to the revised BIOS so should be good to work with FMCB, but I have to get one of those memory cards too..

But seems like my options are

a) finding a mini router that I flash OpenWRT too (Nexx something), which I cant seem to find anywhere,
b) PS2netbox which looks cool but pricey ,

c) or this one...

don't even try to flash openwrt the mini routers I pictured, the flash memory they have is tiny, you can barely fit the packages needed to enable samba shares. and the stock firmware does the job out of the box.

long story short is you plug the mini router on your pc to set up a couple parameters (enable usb sharing and optionally connect it to your wifi as ap client), then plug a usb drive with the opl folders and games and configure opl on your ps2 accordingly.

for more technical details I helped someone get the mini router set up in this other thread:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ps2-scph-70003-v12-hacks-in-2018.522588/#post-8450536

best bet is FMBC and ESR Patch your isos.

USB is a shit idea because ps2 usb speeds are crap, load via a PS2 Network Adapter with a HDD inside is a bit better.

or swap magic for games you cant ESR patch

I've never used ESR (I have a modchip too), but burning discs in general is a waste when you can do the same and better with eth and a flash drive or hdd.
I wouldn't say is useless though, just a last resort, since there are some games that give problems with eth or internal hdd and the only way to play them is via discs.

 

[playstays_shun]

don't even try to flash openwrt the mini routers I pictured, the flash memory they have is tiny, you can barely fit the packages needed to enable samba shares. and the stock firmware does the job out of the box.

long story short is you plug the mini router on your pc to set up a couple parameters (enable usb sharing and optionally connect it to your wifi as ap client), then plug a usb drive with the opl folders and games and configure opl on your ps2 accordingly.

thanks

what is needed 'configure opl' wise?

Im assuming hardware wise, I need a y-cable for an external hard drive that doesnt pull power from an ac outlet, and plug the power source part of it into an unused ps2 slim usb port?

And it works well performance wise? Just ethernet from ps2 to this mini router to external hard drive? so much so that ps2netbox is a waste of cash?

 

[Sakitoshi]

thanks

what is needed 'configure opl' wise?

Im assuming hardware wise, I need a y-cable for an external hard drive that doesnt pull power from an ac outlet, and plug the power source part of it into an unused ps2 slim usb port?

And it works well performance wise? Just ethernet from ps2 to this mini router to external hard drive? so much so that ps2netbox is a waste of cash?

y-cable connected to the 2nd ps2 usb port might work or not, it depends on how power hungry your external drive is, I have a drive that works fine doing that and other that works some times. so do your first tests with a flash drive before jumping in with an external hdd.

performance is good as long as you format the drive in fat32, ntfs works but as those machines run linux ntfs performance isn't as good, the ntfs driver hammers the poor cpu of small devices. I've tried exfat and other windows friendly file systems but none seem to work outside of those two, don't know about ext2, ext3 or other linux file systems.
so in order to play games bigger than 4gb you need to use usbutil to split the isos, opl will detect split games no problem even through ethernet.

I've never used a ps2netbox, but for what I can see is basically the same as we are doing but in a convenient form factor, I wouldn't call it exactly a waste of money since the convenience factor of having everything ready to use is high.

EDIT: forgot about the configuring opl part.
for the opl part you just need to set the network configuration to whichever ip the device has (usually 192.168.100.1 or 192.168.169.1) and all the typical stuff. if you don't know about that I can explain it to you when you get a hold of one of those mini routers if you decide to go for it, it's just a bunch of numbers that need to be written really.

 

[uyjulian]

Be aware that ps2netbox is no longer supported by its creator

 

[smf]

I've never used a ps2netbox, but for what I can see is basically the same as we are doing but in a convenient form factor,

I think there are some performance advantages to it because it's using proprietary network transport rather than SMB.

AFAIK it's closed source, although it is abandoned now so maybe he'll open source it.

 

[playstays_shun]

y-cable connected to the 2nd ps2 usb port might work or not, it depends on how power hungry your external drive is, I have a drive that works fine doing that and other that works some times. so do your first tests with a flash drive before jumping in with an external hdd.

performance is good as long as you format the drive in fat32, ntfs works but as those machines run linux ntfs performance isn't as good, the ntfs driver hammers the poor cpu of small devices. I've tried exfat and other windows friendly file systems but none seem to work outside of those two, don't know about ext2, ext3 or other linux file systems.
so in order to play games bigger than 4gb you need to use usbutil to split the isos, opl will detect split games no problem even through ethernet.

I've never used a ps2netbox, but for what I can see is basically the same as we are doing but in a convenient form factor, I wouldn't call it exactly a waste of money since the convenience factor of having everything ready to use is high.

EDIT: forgot about the configuring opl part.
for the opl part you just need to set the network configuration to whichever ip the device has (usually 192.168.100.1 or 192.168.169.1) and all the typical stuff. if you don't know about that I can explain it to you when you get a hold of one of those mini routers if you decide to go for it, it's just a bunch of numbers that need to be written really.

Thanks. How do ya mean by test a usb thumb
Drive first ? How would That ensure the y cable
Powering will work?

Or did ya just mean to make sure config works?

And any eBay listings that have the same picture of these Ethernet -> usb mini router will suffice ?

You don’t have any performance issues ?

 

[RMZK]

The best and cheapest solution for a PS2 slim is a couple meters of network cable, a pc with enough space and basic knowledge of Samba. Heck you could buy a cheap raspberry pi to act as a server and hide it behind the ps2. the buttery smooth cinematics and audio stream that only ethernet can provide.

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[Sakitoshi]

Thanks. How do ya mean by test a usb thumb
Drive first ? How would That ensure the y cable
Powering will work?

Or did ya just mean to make sure config works?

yes. first make sure everything is up and running and then try the y-cable, that way you'll know that if it fails is the hdd not receiving enough power and not the mini router not doing its job.

And any eBay listings that have the same picture of these Ethernet -> usb mini router will suffice ?

yup, I've bought multiple times and every time I just go for the cheaper option.
out of 10 that I've bought in total only 1 has failed by itself, some have died because of me experimenting with custom firmware and the rest is still working as intended.

You don’t have any performance issues ?

as long as I use fat32, no. fmv's play as intended and loading times are fast.
with ntfs on the other hand, yes. fmv's can stutter depending the game but loading times are still quite fast however.

 

[playstays_shun]

The best and cheapest solution for a PS2 slim is a couple meters of network cable, a pc with enough space and basic knowledge of Samba. Heck you could buy a cheap raspberry pi to act as a server and hide it behind the ps2. the buttery smooth cinematics and audio stream that only ethernet can provide.

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Not an option with a dog haha

The idea of owning a raspberry pi is intriguing but i would love for this project to be performant but also cheap. I’ve blown my
Budget already on other retro hardware

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yes. first make sure everything is up and running and then try the y-cable, that way you'll know that if it fails is the hdd not receiving enough power and not the mini router not doing its job.


yup, I've bought multiple times and every time I just go for the cheaper option.
out of 10 that I've bought in total only 1 has failed by itself, some have died because of me experimenting with custom firmware and the rest is still working as intended.


as long as I use fat32, no. fmv's play as intended and loading times are fast.
with ntfs on the other hand, yes. fmv's can stutter depending the game but loading times are still quite fast however.

I probably should buy a fmcb memory card first before going further down the rabbit hole haha. But my
90001 has a build date of 8b so I should be good according to the fmcb FAQ

You are awesome ! I appreciate the insight. I’m leaning towards this vs buying a ps2netbox

 

[playstays_shun]

yes. first make sure everything is up and running and then try the y-cable, that way you'll know that if it fails is the hdd not receiving enough power and not the mini router not doing its job.


yup, I've bought multiple times and every time I just go for the cheaper option.
out of 10 that I've bought in total only 1 has failed by itself, some have died because of me experimenting with custom firmware and the rest is still working as intended.


as long as I use fat32, no. fmv's play as intended and loading times are fast.
with ntfs on the other hand, yes. fmv's can stutter depending the game but loading times are still quite fast however.

For the games I have to split, do I throw them in sub folders named by the game, with all the files or does that have to be in root directory too

Can OPL read the blue disc based games bin/cue ?