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

• 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/open?id=0B5YjFHrEIseIV2NQR2tJMGZkbnM
Burn the iso on a cd with speed 4x on any program (i recommend Ultraiso) and load in the ps2

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

Here, you'll go to cdfs:/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(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:


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

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

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

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)

• 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


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



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



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)

• 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:


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


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


(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

• 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)

 

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!

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

 

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

 

what is a "chipped" console tho didnt't think it was important like a model or something

 

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

 

How is this different with the Mcboot method? Thanks for the tutorial.

 

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

 

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.