PS1/2 Wow, after over 20 years, the PS2 is still the less import friendly console to play on!

[Waifu4Life]

We had systems before and after that were easier to region bypass and after over 20 years, the PS2 is still the worst console to do this on. So I'm importing a bunch of stuff from Yahoo Auction Japan and I saw a Fat Silver PS2 with a memory card and 2 silver controllers for the equivalent of $40 USD, so I bought it. I then started to google to see which method would be easier now and days to play PS1, PS2 and DVD movies from outside of Japan.

To my surprise, in 2021, these are my options:

-Swap Magic for PS1 and PS2 and DVD boot discs for movies (can't believe these still exist)
-A modchip with a million wires to solder
-A recent DVD exploid that requires you to re-burn your games
-FreeMcBoot which requires you to dump your PS2 games to an internal HDD and you need to jump through hoops to dump PS1 games

It's really ironic that the best selling console of all time still has some archaic and/or complicated methods of bypassing region locking.

 

[Zaphod77]

For a phat ps2, the ideal method is a network adapter, a 2 tb ide hard drive that fits it, and use of free dvd boot to install free hd boot. you can network install your ps2 games to hard drive and run them with open ps2 loader. Or run them directly across the network.

Sadly, such things are hard to get nowadays.

You can get chinese clones of the network adapter that have sata hookups, but they don't have the network port, and then you will have to remove the hard drive to install games.

You can also use free dvd boot to install free mc boot.

 

[tech3475]

Apparently, the Mechacon has recently been dumped which may allow for it to be modified:

After many years, the ROM of the MechaCon has been dumped. (via https://twitter.com/balika011/status/1365719735254609920 )

It gives out a bit more keys than the ones embedded in the PS3 PS2 emulator (most notably, the arcade System 2x6 machines).

According to the documentation recently written on the PS2 Dev Wiki, the Mechacon has a method to load patches from EEPROM. (https://playstationdev.wiki/ps2devwiki/index.php?title=MechaCon)


What are the possibilities for this?

• Primarily, it can override the disc checks (CD/DVD check, PS2 check, PS1 check, region check, master disc check, wobble check)… No more modchips.

https://www.psx-place.com/threads/possibilities-with-mechacon-code-execution.33113/
via:
https://gbatemp.net/goto/post?id=9391583#post-9391583

 

[Soulsilve2010]

You can also use the 007 Agent Under Fire disk swap method, just involves popping open your ps2 and getting it to think the disk cover is still closed while it's open.Did it with my slim.

 

[N7Kopper]

Nary two weeks later, Deckard PS2s are so region free that the DRM doesn't work any more. Gotta love it.

 

[Devoidv3]

Yeah, this has pretty much been solved now by some awesome work from people way smarter than me...

 

[driverdis]

Well, this aged like milk, at least for SCPH-5000X and up console owners