TREADLAYERS.COM: HTPC FALL 2008 UPDATE

PLAYSTATION 2 MODS

Gaming, let alone console gaming, is one of those things that are days gone by. At this age, we're less gamers, more producers. If we were to game, we'd do it on our supermodified PCs, where components, modifications, and accessories are diverse, easy to swap, and sell used. But why are we talking about the PS2?

There are a couple reasons. Is it the games? Well, yes, some games are just plain fun. Like Gran Turismo for instance. But some can argue that emulators for the PC such as Bleem let you enjoy those games in Windows. That is absolutely true, but Bleem is not perfect, and has ceased its development nearly a decade ago. Another important reason is the relative portability of the console itself. Being the size of a Los Angeles phone book, the PS2 can be transported between rooms, homes, or even used in a vehicle with relative ease. However, the most enticing aspect of PS2 modding is the available upgrades and PC-like connectivity it offers. With the ability to load a HDD in it, ethernet, USB ports, native DVD player, component and TOSLINK audio outputs, the PS2 is a hybridization of low-end computing and consumer video electronics. Lastly, PS2 games are easy to come by, used ones are available at nearly any corner store, and can be rented nearly endlessly through online services.

Ever since the PS2 first hit the market, mod chips, eject tools, swap discs, and other trickery have been developed to allow users to play copied game discs, as well as many other shady activities. That route, we will not take. Mod chips are expensive, not easy to source, and extremely challenging to solder on. Besides, why do all of this if more elegant solutions are available? Yes, you can mod your PS2 without any swap discs, no mod chips, no eject tools, or other hardware surgery.

So first, let's outline the hardware needed:

Stock PS2, non-slim version. The slim version will not let you add the HDD. Mod-chips or other modifications not needed.
PS2 network adapter. This allows you to not only network with Ethernet and/or modem, but also provides the ATA HDD interface.
Original, retail (pressed, not burned) HDAdvance or HDLoader CD. These apps let you play games off the HDD. If the HDD you will be installing is greater than 128GB, you should use HDAdvance 2.0 or later, or just make sure that the version you are using supports 48-bit LBA (so that the PS2 will make use of the entire HDD capacity).
Original, retail (pressed, not burned) PS1 game or demo CD. This is necessary to properly "boot" the PS2. Non-retail/non-pressed CDs simply won't boot.
Empty PS2 memory card. This will essentially become your boot device
USB flash drive. This is used to transfer files from your PC to the PS2.
PC with Windows 2K, XP or Vista, with available USB port, and ATA IDE interface. If you have a USB 2.0 or 1394 to IDE adapter, that is the best scenario here so you can connect and disconnect the PS2 HDD without having to shut down your PC or mess with the internal PATA ports.
ATA EIDE HDD. Nearly any make will work. We've tested and confirmed that the largest one ever made, the Seagate 750GB, fits and works perfectly.

Okay, so here goes. We will attempt to describe the purpose of each step so as to educate ourselves and the readers as well.

A: Installing uLaunchElf. uLaunchElf is like Windows Explorer - it gives you access to all the storage devices in the PS2, and lets you run applications, which are known as ELFs (as opposed to EXEs on PCs).

Install the HDD into your PS2 using the network adapter.

Using the HDAdvance or HDLoader disc, boot your PS2 and format the HDD.

While the HDD is formatting, download the following files on to your PC:

ExploitCD_v1.0.4 - This is the app which installs the program called "uLaunchElf". uLaunchElf is like Windows Explorer - it gives you access to all the storage devices in the PS2, and lets you run applications, which are known as ELFs (as opposed to EXEs on PCs). This file is an ISO.

WinHiip 1.7.6 - This is a Windows app which can read and write to a PS2-formatted HDD, although just for the purposes of installing game ISOs. Although HDLoader and HDAdvance do the same thing one the PS2, which is copy the contents of a PS2 game disc on to the HDD, WinHiip lets you do it much faster on your PC. You can rip your PS2 disc to an ISO file using your superfast PC and DVD-ROM, then use WinHiip to copy it over to the PS2 HDD. Now let's say you OWN a certain game, but either are too lazy or do not have the inclination/ability/hardware to rip the said game on your PC, you can always Torrent that ISO, then copy it to your PS2 HDD using WinHiip.

When the format is completed, shut down the PS2 and remove the HDD. Connect the HDD to your PC.

Run WinHiip. Extract the ISO from the ExploitCD.zip file, and use WinHiip to install it. Leave all settings at their defaults. At this point, you can also have WinHiip install any other PS2 game ISOs you may have on your PC.

Disconnect the PS2 HDD from your PC and install it back into your PS2. Make sure that the HDAdvance or HDLoader is in the PS2 drive. Power on the PS2, and HDLoader/HDAdvance should start normally.

Select and run/play exploit_installer. You will see the following screens:

Remove the HDLoader / HDAdvance CD, and insert the PS1 game. Press (X) on the PS2 controller.

Navigate to "Read ID" then press (X) on the PS2 controller.

The ideal scenario is to use a completely empty memory card. Insert the memory card in Slot 1 (the left side slot).
Unless you need to configure your PS2 manually for network use, navigate to "Skip" then press (X) on the PS2 controller.

Confirming that your memory card has enough space, navigate to "Install" then press (X) on the PS2 controller.
If successful, the uLaunchElf program will be installed in your memory card, and you will see a "Success" message screen next. Now, you may shut down your PS2.

B. Installing Free McBoot, with HDloader and uLaunchElf. Free McBoot will let you boot your PS2 without any disc in the drive, mod chips, or other device. As we have done above, we needed the HDLoader/HDAdvance CD to boot the PS2. But with Free McBoot, all you will need is the memory card.

Ensure the memory card with the uLaunchElf is properly inserted in slot 1, power up the PS2, then insert the PS1 game into the PS2. Reset if it does not boot into the uLaunchElf screen:

As you can see, the file system is pretty self-explanatory. mc0 and mc1 are the memory cards, hdd0 is the internal hard drive, cdfs is the optical drive, and mass is the inserted USB flash drive. Seeing this screen is confirmation that the part A above was performed correctly. Pressing R1 on the controller opens up the submenu for Copy/Paste operations.

Go back to your PC and download the following files, or Google their newer versions:

Free_McBootv1.8.rar This is the mandatory boot application. It will use the PS2 browser to list installed apps:

uLE v4.30.zip This installed app is needed to copy, delete, and move files around, perform HDD tasks, and launch ELF programs. As important as Windows explorer.

HDLoader 8C - ELF This is the same HDLoader/HDAdvance app which will let you run PS2 games off your HDD. But because it will be installed in the memory card, you will no longer need the CD.

While it's downloading, get your USB flash drive, and copy any important files in it to your PC because it will be reformatted. Once empty, format the flash drive using FAT or FAT32, not NTFS:

Extract the contents of the Free McBoot RAR file to the USB flash drive. The TXT and MHT files actually aren't needed, so those can be deleted to save space. Ensure that the ELF extensions are ALL CAPS.

Extract uLaunchElf, and rename it BOOT.ELF. With HDLoader, extract and rename it HDLOADER.ELF. Place these two files in the \INSTALL directory. Basically, any ELFs in the Install directory will be part of the Free McBoot menu, provided the configuration file FREEMCB.CNF is written properly. More on that here. So for now, we just want to install uLaunchElf and HDLoader with Free McBoot.

The directory structure in the flash drive should then be:

Root Directory

\INSTALL Sub-directory

Now remove the flash drive from your PC and insert it into your PS2's USB port. uLaunchElf should still be on-screen (that's where we left off the PS2 in step 1 above). using the controller's D-pad, navigate to mass, then to FREE_MCBOOT.ELF. Press (X) on the controller to execute this file and begin installation of Free McBoot:

The installation screens of Free McBoot are as follows:

Main Screen

Navigate using the D-pad to "format mc", then press (X). Make sure your memory card is in slot 1 and you've moved any important saves to another memory card.

Navigate back to the left to "normal install", then press (X) to begin installation.

These messages will appear, describing installation progress.

If you see this screen, Free McBoot was installed successfully. You can remove the USB flash stick from the PS2 and any discs in the DVD drive. Reboot the PS2 and the Free McBoot screen should appear, instead of the standard PS2:

This is the browser screen which follows. Here you can select which App to execute. In this screen shot, other apps were installed, such as ESR and Simple Media System (which were not part of our example in the steps above, for simplicity). In the end, any apps installed with the Free McBoot installer will appear in this menu.

At this point, you're good to go. You can use WinHiip to copy ISOs over to your PS2 HDD, or use HDLoader in the PS2 itself to rip the game to the HDD. You can start playing your PS2 games from the HDD, from the disc itself, watch DVDs, and run other PS2 ELF programs using uLaunchElf.

But there's so much more fun available! Now that uLaunchElf is installed on your memory card, you can run any ELF app from any storage device accessible to the PS2. Here are some examples:

Simple Media System - DiVX and MP3 playback including network streaming

SNES-Station - SNES Emulator. Works well, but many ROMs don't work at all.

PGen - Sega Genesis Emulator. Very well made and high rate of success on playing back ROMs.

and a bunch of other emulators

Any of these apps, and ROMs if necessary, can be copied to a massive USB flash stick, then its ELF can be executed using uLaunchElf. But the ideal scenario is to get everything running off the HDD as a matter of convenience...

C. Running SNES-Station off the PS2 Memory Card and HDD. The latest version of SNES-Station can be found here. Installing it on the Memory Card is done using the same procedure in step 3 above, however the FREEMCB.CNF file must correspondingly be updated to link the SNES-Station ELF file.

SNES-Station works well when accessing ROMs from a flash drive, but through HDD, it's a bit tricky. Navigating through hundreds, even just dozens of ROMs can be tedious. So the solution is to create multiple partitions, each for a subset of ROMs.

First, boot up the PS2 and run uLaunchElf. Select MISC, then HDDManager.

Press R1 then "Create" to create a new partition. Name the partition something like "A-C". Minimum partition size is 128MB.

Here, you will store all your ROMs beginning with the letters A, B, or C. Repeat this process for all your other ROMs. Don't forget to create a partition for "0-9".

Next, all you have to do is copy your ROMs from your USB flash drive to the desired partition. Or if you have a LOT of ROMs, you can either burn it to a DVD then copy off it, or setup an FTP server on the PS2 and FTP it from your PC. With the USB ports being 1.1, the flash drive may be the slowest, but is the most convenient.

Be sure to test each ROM first. Delete non-working or flaky ROMs so as not to spoil gameplay for any prospective user, especially kids.

PGen can be setup on the memory card and its ROMs on the HDD in the same way as above.