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Sony PlayStation 2

Periphera

Controller Convertors

Doo-dads for using not-PS2 controllers on the PS2.

Brook Super Convertor

I have a brook ps2 super convertor that I use to make the USB fightstick I have (Mayflash F300 Elite) work. The Brook supports PS4 and PS3 controllers, but the stick seems to only work if I set it to PS4. Normally the stick needs a PS4 controller plugged into it in PS4 mode, but it works here without one.

Keyboard and Mouse

You can use USB keyboards and mice with the PS2. It's mostly only supported for games with online chat and some FPS. In addition:

  • RPG Maker 2 and 3 support the keyboard.
  • Armored Core games support the mouse for emblem editing.

There are also some doodads that let you use a mouse in place of the right analogue stick, so again mostly just useful for FPS.

See Also

Multitap

Games

I can't find a complete list of PS2 multitap games, so here are some interesting ones.

See Also

Racing Wheels

Wanted to get a wheel for OutRun 2 SP, here're my notes on the Logitech wheels, roughly in order of price/quality. Skipped wheels that aren't at least gear driven / have proper force feedback.

  • Driving Force EX: Only 200° rotation, but probably fine for arcadey games. The wheels as old at this are a bit slow, which is not ideal for Initial D and stuff like that?
  • Driving Force Pro: Similar to the EX, but spins the full 900°. Can switch between 900° and 200° with a key combo. These're both under $100. I seem to do best in OutRun with this one (compared to the GT), for some reason, even though (or because??) it's the stiffest/slowest.
  • Driving Force GT: This one has decent PC support, and sounds like a decent step-up over the Pro and EX in regards to quality and responsiveness. Doesn't let you switch between 900° and 200° without using a setup program, so if the game doesn't handle it would be a pain. Most importantly OutRun 2 SP handles it fine :) Seems to cost between $120-150.
  • G*: The G* wheels are the more serious ones. Larger wheel size, leather grip, clutch peddle and proper gear sticks. The G27 seems to be the most available, but is round the $200 mark. Not sure if the G29 even works on the PS2.

See Also

Modding

At this point it's pretty simple to run games on the PS2 without needing discs, or any hardware modification.

The first step is to get free mcboot. The easiest way to is to buy a memory card with it already setup on there. Otherwise you will have to put the required stuff on the card yourself (though recent discoveries have made this easier). Buy a decent one, any card with the 'MagicGate' branding should be reliable. Sony, Hori, and Fujiwork are ones I'm aware of

Next you need to decide how to load ISOs. You can do this via USB (slow, the PS2 only supports 1.1, and lots of USB devices don't work), from a hard disk (IDE or SATA), or over a SAMBA network. The last two option require the HDD/network adapter that plugs into the back of a 'fat' model PS2. I don't have a 'slim' model, but IIRC they have an ethernet port built-in, and I dunno how they do HDD. The advantage of using a hard disk is that you can rip your own discs straight to it, the advantage of using a network connection is that you can store a bunch of games on a NAS and not worry about having to fuck with your PS2 to get games on there.

Your memory card will come with Open PS2 Loader (OPL), which is what you use for running games. It may have POPStarter, which is an emulator for playing PSX games, and you can also have other emulators and stuff on there. Once you have Free McBoot you can install whatever you want via USB or network.

Note: My PS2 has a mod chip, but I can't run NTSC-region discs unless I take the Free McBoot card out.

Saves

A Free McBoot memory card should have some version of LaunchELF on it. This is a file manager for PS2s, most usefully letting you explore memory cards. This means you can transfer saves to and from a correctly formatted USB drive (FAT32), and use other tools to use them with and emulator like PCSX2, or use your emulator save son your PS2.

PS2 Saves to USB

  1. From LaunchELF select 'FileBrowser'
  2. Select 'mc0:/' or 'mc1:/', depending on if your saves are on the card in slot 1 or 2.
  3. Use 🅧 to mark dir you want, or 🟘 to mark all (inverse of what is selected) of them. The directory names correspond to the games' series numbers, so use somewhere like PlayStation DataCentre to look them up.
  4. Press R1 to open the commands menu, and select 'copy'
  5. Go back to opening FileBrowser page and select 'mass:/', which is the USB drive
  6. Press R1 to open the commands menu again, and paste the files where you wish paste them where you wish

PS2 Saves and PCSX2

Once you have your saves on a USB you can use MyMC to open an existing PCSX2 virtual memory card and insert your saves. Also works with saves you might download online, in other formats.

You can also use MyMC to export saves in .psu format, which can then be put on a your USB drive and transferred back to the memory card. The process is similar to how you put them o nthere in the first place, but when you are pasting the files onto the memory card you have to use the 'psupaste' command instead other regular 'paste' one.

Ripping Discs

Pretty straight-forward. Programs seem to handle it without any configuration? I remember having to fuss with this a bit for PSX games?

If you're running games off a network then the ISO format works for CDs and DVDs.

If you're using a HDD then you can rip games straight to it from the PS2!

☞ Source: [HowTo] Rip Playstation 2 Games on Linux

CLI

The main Linux tool for disk/c stuff is dd (which I would like to have a better handle on): 

$ dd if=/dev/sr0 of=[title].iso

if is 'input file', and of is 'output file'. If you have more than one disc drive /dev/sr0 might be something else.

If there are errors you can try ddrescue: 

$ ddrescue /dev/sr0 [title].iso

GUI

Seems like most software works fine. With K3b:

  1. Tools > Copy Medium…
  2. In the 'Settings' section of the 'Options' panel, select 'Only create image'
  3. In the 'Image' panel add the path you want to save the ISO.
  4. That's about it!

Ripping Graphics

I didn't have any luck trying to get graphics from Earth Defence Force Tactics, but:

  • If you do a savestate in PCSX2 you're supposed to able to find stuff in the 'eeMemory.bin' file that's in there.
  • I tried opening this with TiledGGD, but I couldn't find anything recognisable after futzing with it for a while.
    • To get it to work in Linux, apart from having several versions of dotnet installed in Wine, had to winetricks dotnet20 to ditch this error message: 'This application could not be started. You must enable the .NET Framework from Windows Features dialog box (from Control Panel, choose Programs, Turn Windows features on or off).'

Software

Non-game software

Linux for PlayStation 2

PlayStation Basic

PlayStation Basic is a version of Yet Another Basic (Yabasic) which was distributed on a demo CD in Europe as part of a failed effort by Sony to have the PS2 considered a 'home computer' rather than a videogame console, which would've saved them some taxes.

Yabasic exists on other platforms too!

Video

I'm not that fussy about this kinda thing, but it'd be nice to be able to plug it into my computer monitor (DVI, VGA). Seems a bit of a faff though.

See Also

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sony_playstation_2.txt · Last modified: 2023/12/20 21:43 by rjt