PS2 New (old) PS2 Slim 90006 NTSC-J user advices...

Lambada

Member
Intro
Hello guys, I was into PS2 modding scene about 10 years ago when I had a Fat PS2 30K with Network Adaptor. But some thief stole it from my home when I was in a Xmas trip =(
So I bought a PS3 Slim that Xmas and years later after Sony dropped the ball I got in PS3 Scene with you guys here.

Now I got a great bargain, a cheap PS2 Slim 90006 (Matrix Infinity 1.93 Clone modchip). I'm already ordered a MG2BOX (mx4sio with dual slots - SD and TF) + FMCB Mem Card.

I think I need some advices and tips from you guys.

Lost in time
What is a must have does days? I tried to keep up but PS2 scene evolved fast... It had HdLoader, USBLoader, usbAdvance, uLaunchELF, PGEN and SnesStation.

I heard that the famous homebrew ones now are OPL (and variants), OpenTuna..., etc.
What they do, are they all compatible with my PS2 Slim?


Questions, lots of
- Do I really need FMCB if I have a modchip?
- Can I play PS2 and PS1 ISOS from a SD (iso, bin/cue, chd, multi-tracks, multi-disks, etc)?
- Can I play online games patching DNAs on the fly or do I have to patch myself like in the past? I forgot the name of the tool that could do that.
- Can I use my PS3 controller? Can I use other generic USB controllers? If so, do I need a multitap for 4 player games or can I use 2 control ports plus 2 usb controllers?
- Any new cool stuff that I should now of?
- How about compatibility with my PS2 Slim, I head that there are some games that won't work with it, but I just found a list of 75K incompatible games, not 90K consoles.


Thanks in advance!
 
Q: Do I really need FMCB if I have a modchip?
A: 90000 series is incompatible with FMCB, so FMCB is not what you need, you need OpenTuna. Or you can use the modchip's BOOT MODE to boot any elf file located in a mc0:\BOOT\BOOT.elf

Q: Can I play PS2 and PS1 ISOS from a SD (iso, bin/cue, chd, multi-tracks, multi-disks, etc
A: With Compatible OPL version, PS2 games should work, PS1 however is not going to happen.

Q: - Can I use my PS3 controller? Can I use other generic USB controllers? If so, do I need a multitap for 4 player games or can I use 2 control ports plus 2 usb controllers?
A: With OPL sure you can, if you want bt controller to work reliably on all games (yes some games have issue) you need to buy those brook adapters or those cheap blueretro adapters.
 
@Lambada You need FMCB for convenience (DEV1 from modchip is meh) but You will not able to use it because of modchip. Maybe version 1.8b could work. However in case of SCPH-9xxxx, OSD Update works only on fw 2.20, not 2.30 and only early 9xxxx have ROMVER 0220*. Been on Your place, if You have 2.30 - then keep the modchip, but if 2.20 then get rid of it and sell it to get some money back from unaware users.

Entry point on all Slims today is Free DVD Boot, just burn it on DVD-R and it will boot. This is exploit of DVD-Player. Another step if You would not have modchip, would be installing FMCB or PS2BBL, along to MechaPwn.

POPStarter not supported MX4SIO so You cannot play PSX games from it.

You cannot use any compression for PSX disc images; in case of PS2, only *.zso.

You can use DS3 and DS4 but only in OPL and POPStarter if You provide modules for them.

Cool is XEB+ Dashboard and DKWDRV. ;]

- - -
@remplei
90000 series is incompatible with FMCB
Not true. Those with fw 2.20 can run e.g FMCB normally.
 
Thanks @remlei and @Berion !

- Can ps1 games run from a pendrive then? As I'm using a OSSC the scanlines for 2D games are better than playing them in mine PS3 Slim (that doesn't have scanlines and it's too much trouble to switch tv modes to use OSSC just for PS1).

So if I have a 2.20 dvd drive version I can use a exploit to update it to a hacked firmware and then I can remove the modchip right?
I hope it's easy to get rid of the modchip, just taking all the wires with knife? I'm not a hardcore hardware guy, lol, but I have a welder if needed.

After I reassemble my PS2 (I'm cleaning all the mess, getting all the rust and dust from it) I will check which dvd version is mine.

Thanks again!
 
Yes, but only from FAT32 on MBR.

You cannot have DVD-Player 2.20. The 3.10J or 3.11J probably. PS2 firmware is not the same as one of its components version.

Yes, if You have fw 2.20, You do not need a modchip.

Yes, You can but be sure that Your modchip doesn't demands some paths merged because You must split them in such case. And instead cutting wires, just gently wobbling them until they left. Stalagmites are better than not secured cable ends. ;p
 
@Berion does this give you some information if my PS2 Slim can use FMCB, etc?

Optimized-IMG_20231121_014016.jpg

Optimized-IMG_20231121_023158.jpg

Ohh and I discovered that my Matrix Infinity is a clone and can't save settings :(
 
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Firmware version is not displayed anywhere in OSDSYS or printed anywhere on sticker. ;) You need run FDVDB, which will run automatically uLE, then go to misc menu, and debug info. It will display ROMVER which tell You if this 9xxxx can run FMCB (0220*) or not (0230*).
 
You need to run uLE, no matter the way. Just easier way for Your 9K is through FDVDB if You don't have any exploit or setup DEV1 on MC for this modchip.
 
@Berion My PS2 Slim has a 230 firmware installed, so I won't remove my modchip. Thanks for your tips.

What modules should I copy (and where) to make Popstarter compatible with dualshock3 and 4? I'm loading it from OPL 1.20.
Inside APPS/ELFGAMeFOLDEr, Or /POPS/ Or /POPS/VMCGAMEFOLDER ?

And about Ulaunchelf, I configured my network address and when I tried to load PS2NET module to active the FTP server from the PS2, it freezes with a message " loading blablabla..." . And because of that I think I cant connect from my FTP Client.

EDIT: The problem was the old uLaunchELF that I was using. Now I'm using the latest wLaunchELF_ISR build from Oct 23th 2023, that has lots of cool features and the FTP does work.

And what is DKWDRV? (Edit: I read about in Github. Very cool but it can't play games from USB yet right?).
 
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Modules for SA/DS3 should be in "mass:/POPS/MODULE_*.IRX" (for global replacement of D/A/DS1/2) or in disc image dir (for only this game replacement). But I'm writing this blindly, don't remember really.

MODULE_1.IRX << USB or BT driver
MODULE_2.IRX << DS3 driver

DKWDRV currently cannot play PSX games from USB but on Your model in future, it probably will.
 
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