Getting back to my PS2 after PS3 YLOD.

[balthur]

Hi guys it probably was four or so years since I visited this forum :P
as stated in the topic yday my PAL launch 60GB PS3 died on my hands sometimes God is cruel and takes the young so fast... she was nearly 3yrs old... I miss her... but enough of the drama.

My Aqua V10 (AFAIR) PS2 is ready to give me her best while her younger sisters gets the reballing treatment.
So I have the MC independence exploit (AFAIR that how it was named) with a PS1 demo disc, launcherelf, and an old ass v0.8c hdloader.

What should I upgrade to match todays standards in terms of game compability (HDD playback) and maybe some utilities for my PS2 .

Oh I have it connected to my 1080p Bravia, I remember there were some freeware apps that tried to upscale games but it didn't work 4 yrs ago.

All the input greatly appriciated
[*] PS3 R.I.P.

[MagicMaster]

Sorry to hear about your PS3, dude ..... damn that YSOD

[TehJawknee]

Search FMCB, ESR, OPL, GSM and uh... I think that may be about it.

[balthur]

Search FMCB, ESR, OPL, GSM and uh... I think that may be about it.

Thanks a lot, from what I've discovered now:
FMCB = Independence exploit without the ps1 disc, does it have any more advantages ?
ESR = Freeware swap-magic
OPL = freeware HDL, has it better compability ?
GSM = upscaling finally...

[dlanor]

Hi guys it probably was four or so years since I visited this forum :P
as stated in the topic yday my PAL launch 60GB PS3 died on my hands sometimes God is cruel and takes the young so fast... she was nearly 3yrs old... I miss her... but enough of the drama.

My Aqua V10 (AFAIR) PS2 is ready to give me her best while her younger sisters gets the reballing treatment.
So I have the MC independence exploit (AFAIR that how it was named) with a PS1 demo disc, launcherelf, and an old ass v0.8c hdloader.

What should I upgrade to match todays standards in terms of game compability (HDD playback) and maybe some utilities for my PS2 .

The first and foremost upgrade is to replace the old PS1 exploit with FMCB (Free MC Boot) to make it independent of any physical disc use. This way one can continue to use a softmodded console even after its laser dies, with no real change in the usage even. (As many of us have more or less completely abandoned physical disc use.) But FMCB normally comes with ESR, which is a driver for use of burned backups with unmodded consoles, without requiring any of the obsolete 'disc swapping' or 'sensor modding' used by older methods. It does require patching the ISOs slightly before burning though, so ISOs intended for 'swap' methods do not work as-is with ESR.

The second most important upgrade is best done as part of the FMCB install, as a normal such install usually contains uLaunchELF (aka: uLE) as its main console maintenance tool. This is used for all kinds of file launching and copying including MC gamesave backup/restore operations with backup storage on other media (including networked PC). And you can also use special tools it contains such as TextEditor and HddManager and others. Since uLE is in constant development it is best to always get the newest (I released v4.42 yesterday), and that is probably not included in the FMCB install packages you find for download.

The third most important upgrade is to install "Open PS2 Loader" as replacement for all older game loading programs (USBAdvance, HDLoader, etc). But for IDE HDD it may be a good idea to also hold on to HDLoader a little longer, as OPL does not yet contain a game installer that can transfer a game from the CDVD drive to the HDD. With OPL you can run games from three different media types, internal IDE HDD, external USB HDD, or remote HDD on PC or NAS unit accessed by SMB filesharing (the native filesharing protocol of Windows). The latter is my favorite method, with some 180+ games installed that way on one of the PCs in my LAN.

Naturally there are other important applications too, but I can't mention all of them here, except to add that one more very important application normally included with FMCB install packages is the SMS media player, used for MPG, and XviD/DivX AVI playback.

This is the most advanced media player ever developed for the PS2, and it can bring the console to the limits of its capabilities. I've used it as my main method of viewing both movies and TV shows for years now, using its SMB implementation to stream those AVIs from my PC LAN. I also particularly appreciate how well it supports my new HDTV. The only restrictions in its capabilities are those set by the PS2 itself, as there are some limits it simply can't go beyond. (Partly due to speed issues and partly due to the small RAM available.)


If you've been away from the scene for a long time you sure have a lot of catching up to do, but the above should be a good start. Just make sure you read some tutorials thoroughly before you do the FMCB install, as there are some pitfalls available. The most embarrasing one is probably when people start following some complex tutorial only to find out later that they could have used a much simpler method instead.

In your own case, for example, already having the ability to boot by a PS1 exploit should eliminate nearly all of the complexity of an FMCB install.

You still have to prepare the install package well, usually on a FAT32 formatted USB drive, but then you just use your old exploit to boot some homebrew, start uLaunchELF, and use it to start up the FMCB installer program. And doing that is like 90% of the complexity of most FMCB tutorials. So anyone with an old working exploit can do it much easier.

Even so, I advise you to do your first FMCB install on another MC than the one used for exploit booting, just to be on the safe side...

Best regards: dlanor

[balthur]

FMCB installation was quick and harmless, now having homebrew in my ps2 browser feels awesome
Thanks for all the input.

LONG LIVE PS2

edit: yeah I have the indp. exploit on mc2 and FMCB on mc1, I'll keep both just to be safe ;]]]

edit2: only thing I';; have to buy is a cable extension for the pads, it's so inconvinient to play with cables

[dlanor]

yeah I have the indp. exploit on mc2 and FMCB on mc1, I'll keep both just to be safe ;]]]

You can have both PS1 exploit and FMCB on the same MC if you like, as they 'live' in different folders. But it is only FMCB that can boot regardless of the tray content. The PS1 exploit can only activate after starting to boot the PS1 disc it was made for.

BxEXEC-SYSTEM is the folder holding the FMCB core files
BxDATA-SYSTEM is the folder holding the PS1 exploit

In both those path strings the 'x' represents a region dependent letter, with 'E' for PAL regions, 'A' for NTSC/U regions, and 'I' for NTSC/J regions (ie: Japan).

only thing I';; have to buy is a cable extension for the pads, it's so inconvinient to play with cables

You could go for a wireless gamepad too (uses a receiver dongle plugged into the gamepad port). I have one of those myself (falsely branded gameStop, but obviously made by others), and it is OK to use except for three things.

1: The handgrips are a bit small for adult hands

2: The DPad is too rigid and too sensitive, so it is hard to get a clean left-right or up-down motion. The slightest error in pressure direction (less than 5 degrees or so) instead gives a 45 degree movement. Nearly all gamepads I ever tried have some variant of this problem, except the Sony originals.

3: The 'Select' and 'Start' buttons are recessed, flush with the gamepad cover. This is an advantage in games where accidental pressure could halt the game unpleasantly, but it is a great disadvantage when either of those buttons is needed to open in-game menus (for RPG equips etc). Because that requires each time twisting your thumbs to an unnatural angle, or shifting your grip on the gamepad.

Since these wireless units are battery powered, they also skip the energy-wasting vibration effects. But to me that is all advantage, as I hate such effects anyway...

Best regards: dlanor