Gaming Backups. How do you treat / design them?

[Foxi4]

@[member='C-Kronos']

So-far I found two games that had issues with SMB - Fatal Frame, which I'm not sure if I have a proper dump of or not, and Star Wars Racer: Revenge which works from USB. The convenience of having all your games on one list is entirely worth it in this case, SMB's compatibility is great.

 

[Hielkenator]

Do people still burn backups of disks?

Not for playing the games, but to back them up and store them.
HDD do not last forever, neither to DVD writeable media but when stored the right way with the best type of DVD-r, it will outlast any HDD.
HDD crash happend 2 times now, never again....

 

[C-Kronos]

@[member='C-Kronos']

So-far I found two games that had issues with SMB - Fatal Frame, which I'm not sure if I have a proper dump of or not, and Star Wars Racer: Revenge which works from USB. The convenience of having all your games on one list is entirely worth it in this case, SMB's compatibility is great.

Yeah, but great is not perfect, and I won't settle for anything less than perfect, it's an OCD of mine. Anyways, USB loading for the PS2 isn't that great, the loading speeds in my opinion is crap. Also, it may seem convenient for you, but it'll also be taking up quite a bit of HDD space, and considering I install a lot of PC games, it wouldn't be convenient for long. There isn't any point in making another reply to try to persuade me that it's better or more convenient than what I do now, because like I said before, if I wanted to load PS2 games from an HDD or something, I'd get a fat PS2, install an HDD, solder up a DMS4 Pro chip, replace the case, and pretty much completely refurbish the console.

 

[Foxi4]

Yeah, but great is not perfect, and I won't settle for anything less than perfect, it's an OCD of mine. Anyways, USB loading for the PS2 isn't that great, the loading speeds in my opinion is crap. Also, it may seem convenient for you, but it'll also be taking up quite a bit of HDD space, and considering I install a lot of PC games, it wouldn't be convenient for long. There isn't any point in making another reply to try to persuade me that it's better or more convenient than what I do now, because like I said before, if I wanted to load PS2 games from an HDD or something, I'd get a fat PS2, install an HDD, solder up a DMS4 Pro chip, replace the case, and pretty much completely refurbish the console.

I wasn't referring to USB loading, really - I was referring to SMB loading over the RJ45 Ethernet port, which is much faster than the USB, but fair enough - I'm not going to try and convince you to change your habbits.

I can see what you mean by expecting perfection and no less - like I said earlier in this thread, I didn't go for Dreamcast's SD loading exactly because of compatibility issues. In the case of the PS2 though, the compatibility of loading over SMB is pretty much 99% - like I said, I found one game that refused to boot (and that particular game wasn't a full dump) and one that had issues, and I was willing to sacrifice those to gain faster loading times (the Ethernet port works at 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps, compared to the 2x DVD drive which works at aprox. 2,4 Mbps) and Virtual Memory Card support. As a console collector, I think of the future and I'd rather not grind the DVD laser if I get the option to.

The space-wasting argument stands though - my PS2 backups alone currently "weigh" 179GB - that's a whole lot of space eaten away from the computer's storage. I chose SMB merely to avoid busy work, but a well-catalogued DVD collection works just as fine.

I personally can't wait till I fix my "Classic" PS2, attach a Network Adapter and jam an HDD into it to finally switch from the Slim - that'll give me 100% compatibility without having to stand up and switch discs whenever I want to play a different game - a convenience I hold dear.

 

[Cyan]

if anyone is burning dvds i would recommend to get jewel cases and labeling the cases cause i had problems with marker prints on my discs i think it eats the disc.

I don't write anything on my discs after a bad experience 10 years ago.
I'm now using either a jewel case (but it take a lot of space) or paper case, and I write the content on a paper, not on the disc itself.
Of course, you need to always put it back right after using it if you don't want to mix the discs


As for console games, I put them on USB (when possible) right after buying them, I find it easier to play from a loader.
They are used only once then stored on shelf for collection.

 

[C-Kronos]

Yeah, but great is not perfect, and I won't settle for anything less than perfect, it's an OCD of mine. Anyways, USB loading for the PS2 isn't that great, the loading speeds in my opinion is crap. Also, it may seem convenient for you, but it'll also be taking up quite a bit of HDD space, and considering I install a lot of PC games, it wouldn't be convenient for long. There isn't any point in making another reply to try to persuade me that it's better or more convenient than what I do now, because like I said before, if I wanted to load PS2 games from an HDD or something, I'd get a fat PS2, install an HDD, solder up a DMS4 Pro chip, replace the case, and pretty much completely refurbish the console.

I wasn't referring to USB loading, really - I was referring to SMB loading over the RJ45 Ethernet port, which is much faster than the USB, but fair enough - I'm not going to try and convince you to change your habbits.

I can see what you mean by expecting perfection and no less - like I said earlier in this thread, I didn't go for Dreamcast's SD loading exactly because of compatibility issues. In the case of the PS2 though, the compatibility of loading over SMB is pretty much 99% - like I said, I found one game that refused to boot (and that particular game wasn't a full dump) and one that had issues, and I was willing to sacrifice those to gain faster loading times (the Ethernet port works at 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps, compared to the 2x DVD drive which works at aprox. 2,4 Mbps) and Virtual Memory Card support. As a console collector, I think of the future and I'd rather not grind the DVD laser if I get the option to.

The space-wasting argument stands though - my PS2 backups alone currently "weigh" 179GB - that's a whole lot of space eaten away from the computer's storage. I chose SMB merely to avoid busy work, but a well-catalogued DVD collection works just as fine.

I personally can't wait till I fix my "Classic" PS2, attach a Network Adapter and jam an HDD into it to finally switch from the Slim - that'll give me 100% compatibility without having to stand up and switch discs whenever I want to play a different game - a convenience I hold dear.

Yeah, for HDD loading, you can't go wrong with a specific revision of the fat PS2, a DMS4 Pro modchip ( the best chip for the PS2 in my honest opinion, but my matrix infinity works just fine ), and using something like ToxicOS.

 

[Foxi4]

Yeah, for HDD loading, you can't go wrong with a specific revision of the fat PS2, a DMS4 Pro modchip ( the best chip for the PS2 in my honest opinion, but my matrix infinity works just fine ), and using something like ToxicOS.

Myeh. The advent of Free McBoot made PS2 modchips completely obsolete on the classic - you might as well use OPL for HDD Loading and spare yourself the trouble of soldering the chip onto the board.

 

[C-Kronos]

Yeah, for HDD loading, you can't go wrong with a specific revision of the fat PS2, a DMS4 Pro modchip ( the best chip for the PS2 in my honest opinion, but my matrix infinity works just fine ), and using something like ToxicOS.

Myeh. The advent of Free McBoot made PS2 modchips completely obsolete on the classic - you might as well use OPL for HDD Loading and spare yourself the trouble of soldering the chip onto the board.

It may have made them obsolete to some, but not everyone, lol.. You can't really say they're completely obsolete, besides, I do prefer to have the ability to use Gameshark or Action Reply for playing around on some games after I have beaten them without any cheats, is freemcboot and OPL even compatible with using Gameshark on backups? Last I checked, it wasn't, lol. Therefore, it's not "completely" obsolete.. Who said it was any trouble to solder a modchip up? Maybe for some one who lacks experience with soldering, but I'm fairly proficient at it, so it's not much trouble at all.

I think you should accept that we have completely different preferences when it comes to the PS2, so I'd appreciate it if you'd stop replying with information that relies on someone's specific preferences, because I'm happy with my current setup, lol. To me, modchips are superior to every other method of loading backups on the PS2, and a lot of other people feel that way as well. While you've only ran into a few incompatibilities, doesn't mean that the rest of the romset loads perfectly, because I highly doubt you've tried every single game with your setup.

Also, how does your method of loading backups on the PS2 fair with PS1 titles? With a modchip, I can play PS1 backups as well without issue, so that's a nice feature to have. Free Mcboot and OPL pretty much made modchips obsolete to those who wants a free method of loading backups, and for people who are incapable of soldering up a modchip without damaging the console.

Besides, we're derailing the topic, if you feel it's necessary to provide even more information that conflicts with my personal preferences, please do so via PM.

 

[Foxi4]

I thought we were merely having a conversation here, I didn't expect you to take it as offence.

As for PSX backups, I'm pretty sure the only feasable way to load them with a Free McBoot-only setup is probably PS2PSXe, so the compatibility is probably not great... I play my PSX games on the PSP or on... well, my PSX, so I was never bothered by it.

 

[LightyKD]

Some awesome disc art I found. Talk about neat Let's Tap is fairly pretty.