PAL PS2 MechaPWN Question

[bradwiggo]

I'm looking to buy a PS2, and I live in the UK, so it will be a PAL model, and I'm a bit confused about whether I can play NTSC games or not.

So far I think any model of PS2 can play NTSC games at 60hz if you load the games via OPL (SMB share, HDD etc). Is this correct?

What I'm not sure about is 1:
Can you use burned NTSC games using MechaPWN? Looking on the GitHub: https://github.com/MechaResearch/MechaPwn, it says this:

• Deckard1 only: force NTSC-U region and video mode for PS2/PS1 titles

Does this mean only Deckard models will play NTSC games at 60hz when loading from a disc?

I'm also confused about PS1 games. Will they play at 60Hz on any model of PS2, or does that always require a modchip?

 

[AlexeySinitsyn]

On PAL with mechapwn ntsc originals and some dvd-r's can be launched using UlaunchELF. NTSC mechapwn allows any out-of-region originals to be launched directly from OSD.

If ps2 is deckard, region can be changed to ntsc.

 

[metroid maniac]

The answer to this is quite complicated, so I'll try to answer as comprehensively as I can.

The short answer is this - on any mechapwnable PS2, you can play burned discs from any region, if you jump through the correct hoops.

Mechapwn itself doesn't explain the "correct" way to use it, it just gives you a bunch of options without much explanation. The least problematic way to use it is to not use the force-unlock patch, to select the same model number, and to select DEX. This will enable the playing of burned PS1 games. Burned PS2 games will also run if the masterdisc patch is enabled. The hard region lock is disabled and on NTSC-U consoles so is the soft region lock.

If it is non-Deckard, you must select the same region. If it is Deckard, you can select a different region. NTSC-U is usually preferred because this gets rid of the region lock as above.

If the soft region lock still exists, you need to use something like ULaunchELF to play burned PS2 games no matter what. As for PS1 games, you need to use something like PSX/PS2 Disc Patcher to make it match your console's region before burning it.

You can use PS1VModeNeg to force PS1 games to run at 50 or 60Hz.