PS2 The chances of having FMCB on my Slim 90004 PS2 now in 2019?

NoNAND

NoNAND

Forum Noob
Hi folks.
Am a new member that registered with this account on the boards not too long ago, seeking help in softmodding his PS2
While indeed i am a total noob to this PS2 hacking thing as I've never dealt with a sony console before (save for the PSP) I've done some research on the internet scouring the forums for an regarding freeMCboot ps2 backups, homebrews, mods and stuff of that manner, and I've gained some insight about them.
Having said that though, some things were a bit misleading. I know that it is a long process of trial and error when it comes to the 90K models with the majority of them not supporting FMCB whilst some lucky ones do depending on the data code and such.
Now to get to the main part. My PS2 is a stock SCPH-90004 PAL machine that has been bought circa 2008 and given to me by a friend of mine recently.
The problem lies that the sticker underneath the console js torn and scraped off so unfortunately i can't provide you on any more information save for this screenshot that I took at the PS2s home menu.
20181020_175308.jpg

I know none of that string of texts will give me a valid answer determining the current bios of my system whether It's on 2.30 or lower.
Another issue that i have to face is that i lack the prerequisite hardware/tools necessary to even get the freeMCB exploit menu to show up. and if it doesn't help even more i have no modchip put in it either.
Have nothing against spending some cash for a pre-flashed memory card with freeMCB, or a swapmagic codebreaker AR and whatnot else but none of them will ship to where i live.. kinds frustrating heh.
I do own a handful of games if these perhaps help in running any exploit by any means.
Here's the list of games that i own.
  • Ratchet Gladiator
  • Rayman Revolution
  • Rayman 3
  • Over The Hedge
  • Mafia
  • Ice Age 2: The meltdown
  • God Of War
  • God Of War 2
  • Shadow The Hedgehog
  • Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 Mission: Las Vegum
  • Lara Croft Tom Raider The Angel of Darkness
  • Arthur and the Minimoys
  • Crash Tag Team Racing
  • XS SPEED Extreme
  • Iron Man The Official Video Game
  • Spartan Total Warrior
  • Spongebob Squarepants The Movie
All of those games are PAL region by the way and work. Is there any exploit that i can take advantage of by ripping an iso off the disks modifying the elf files or something like that trick.

My end goal is to softmod it so i can play some NES/SNES/GBA games on my old CRT Samsung TV. game backups are cool but not what i mainly intend to play on it.
So is there any way of running homebrew apps and uLauchELF without a modchip/swapmagic ar max or code breaker.
?
 
Maybe see if anyone local around you has fmcb already and can make a card for you. eBay won't deliver? You might ask a member here to make one for you with a card you ship with prepaid return label
 
To bad You cannot check just datacode on the back on sticker. As I remember only first quarter of the year have compatible firmware.

You can try swap trick with games which launch another executable just replacing this file by i.e uLE (file manager). Mostly online games have such external apps which can be replaced. But this topic also demand from You knowledge about editing disc images without touching original LBA (because it is often used as security layer), correcting ECC and long never ending story of burning discs (which are very low quality these days). I'm not sure if this is the best approach for You as there are plenty room for an user error without possibility to easily eliminate possible factors.

IMO it is worth a try to just buy memory card with FMCB installed (really, no shop sending to You?). Or buying Swap Magic 3.6 or 3.8 which allow You launch stuff from pendrive and doesn't need any trick to boot them on virgin console.

Emulation on PS2 is bad idea in the first place, especially in 2019 when we have cheap Android devices, x86 "sticks" or even PlayStation Classic which emulating much more than PS2 in much more better quality/accuracy. ;p

So is there any way of running homebrew apps and uLauchELF without a modchip/swapmagic ar max or code breaker.
Click to expand...

Title.db exploit but not for Your model. And of course swap trick but this is the hard way (all stuff mentioned by me earlier + making sensor blocks).
 
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it's simple,if it's later than datecode 8c (and not all 8c can be softmodded) then it can't be done.rather than dismembering that console,just get another one,they're practically free these days and if you can get smb working you don't even need one with working laser.
 
NoNAND said:
Now to get to the main part. My PS2 is a stock SCPH-90004 PAL machine that has been bought circa 2008 and given to me by a friend of mine recently.
The problem lies that the sticker underneath the console js torn and scraped off so unfortunately i can't provide you on any more information save for this screenshot that I took at the PS2s home menu.
View attachment 19485
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, that doesn't help us. You need to get wLE running to check for ROMVER.

I know none of that string of texts will give me a valid answer determining the current bios of my system whether It's on 2.30 or lower.
Another issue that i have to face is that i lack the prerequisite hardware/tools necessary to even get the freeMCB exploit menu to show up. and if it doesn't help even more i have no modchip put in it either.
Have nothing against spending some cash for a pre-flashed memory card with freeMCB, or a swapmagic codebreaker AR and whatnot else but none of them will ship to where i live.. kinds frustrating heh.
I do own a handful of games if these perhaps help in running any exploit by any means.
Here's the list of games that i own.
  • Ratchet Gladiator
  • Rayman Revolution
  • Rayman 3
  • Over The Hedge
  • Mafia
  • Ice Age 2: The meltdown
  • God Of War
  • God Of War 2
  • Shadow The Hedgehog
  • Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 Mission: Las Vegum
  • Lara Croft Tom Raider The Angel of Darkness
  • Arthur and the Minimoys
  • Crash Tag Team Racing
  • XS SPEED Extreme
  • Iron Man The Official Video Game
  • Spartan Total Warrior
  • Spongebob Squarepants The Movie
All of those games are PAL region by the way and work. Is there any exploit that i can take advantage of by ripping an iso off the disks modifying the elf files or something like that trick.
Click to expand...
If none of those games contains a Second-Stage-ELF, you can still try the double-time-swap, which works with 99.9% (or so) of all games.

My end goal is to softmod it so i can play some NES/SNES/GBA games on my old CRT Samsung TV. game backups are cool but not what i mainly intend to play on it.
So is there any way of running homebrew apps and uLauchELF without a modchip/swapmagic ar max or code breaker.
?
Click to expand...
Disc-swap, etc.

PS2 is not the perfect emulation-station, due to some emulators not being well optimized.

Berion said:
To bad You cannot check just datacode on the back on sticker. As I remember only first quarter of the year have compatible firmware.
Click to expand...
Third quarter of 2008 and they (Edit: the incompatible models) appeared in October 2008 (Lego Batman Bundle or shortly thereafter)! ;)

You can try swap trick with games which launch another executable just replacing this file by i.e uLE (file manager). Mostly online games have such external apps which can be replaced. But this topic also demand from You knowledge about editing disc images without touching original LBA (because it is often used as security layer), correcting ECC and long never ending story of burning discs (which are very low quality these days). I'm not sure if this is the best approach for You as there are plenty room for an user error without possibility to easily eliminate possible factors.
Click to expand...
He can also do a double-time-swap with almost every game out there.

Swap Magic 'Coder' (to load ELFs via USB) or similar, would be easier tho'.

I agree on all other stuff.
 
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Apologies for not responding to any of your advice guys, I highly appreciate it anyway.
@TnA mind you j found this guide that revolves around the ratchet gladiator game
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/ps2/comments/53l7xh/swap_trick_with_ratchet_gladiator/
So does the TOC ID matter or is it universal not dependent on specific regions PAL/NTSC
With the swap magic trick do I need to apply some special materials to my ps2 like duck tape or glue?
what's the easiest swap trick guide
(without the swapmagic/code breaker etc)
 
Yes, the TOC has to be rebuild to match the original game!
The ELF you want to start, has to be smaller or exactly equal to the ELF you are gonna replace and the missing space has to be '0-padded' (filled with zeros).

It is not related to the region, but solely to the structure of the disc... If the structure is different, you have to adapt the modding to that specific disc! ;)

Regarding swapping... Well... You have to block the sensors.


Edit:
Btw.! The Video @Tupakaveli posted is @Haldrie 's Video about performing the even more 'complex' double-time-swap, which works with almost every game! The video and explanation is quite unique all over the Internet! That type of swapping is from the infancies/beginning of the PS2, but it is VEEERRY UNKNOWN as well!

This does NOT change a second-stage-ELF, but the main-ELF of the game(!!!), but is VEEERRY timing-dependent! Once you got the timing for a disc right, it is easier to accomplish again.
 
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@TnA well thanks for clarifying. By the by the version of ratchet that I own is one of those ugly platinum edition of PS2 games.
Speaking of swap tricks I found this quick YouTube guide here. not sure if it's relevant or not
if not then I'll simply follow hadries guide then
 
Well, how newer the game, so higher the chances of them performing additional checks!
Platinum-Versions might have been updated to newer libraries and then you have to 'double-time-swap' (triple/quadruple swapping, with 2 swaps being quite timing-dependent) on Second-stage-ELF-games as well!

AUF was one of the very first games and had only one check (disc-verification at the beginning, but not in-game during second-stage-ELF-Loading) + was not much timing-dependent, due to the Second-stage-ELF being at the outer end of the disc.



Back in 2008 - when the people were searching for a way to start the FMCB-Installer on Nomod-PS2s, I brought up that old trick (see 'FreeVast-Continues' - thread on psx-scene.com) and the main-reason why I mentioned '007: Agent Under Fire' for the simpler variation of the trick (Second-stage-ELF-Loading) was, that I tried it with that game a few years (along some other games) earlier and knew it works the way I explained it + I knew it was one of the cheapest games out there.

I explained it to @JNABK via PM and fortunately he made a detailed and proper tutorial out of it, for the FMCB-Tutorials.



The biggest issue was, that AUF got exorbitantly pricey during that time. It went up from 3€ to 25€ and more!

Well... O.k... "Let's tell 'em there are MULTIPLE Second-stage-ELF-games, for example those with a network-configuration."
Since EA-Sports-games often had that feature and were and are available for a few bucks (2€?) almost everywhere and in such masses that EVERYONE WORLDWIDE theoretically had/has a way to get it done easily (FMCB-Installation), getting that bit of info out there, was quite helpful and it's these small pieces which can make a difference of a project becoming a success or a huuughe success!

Said and done... Good! People now knew they only had to have some kind of game with another ELF on it. The problem? Up to this day, most people believe they have to have a game with a second stage ELF.

Since Haldrie is quite an enthusiast, I told him how it works and even tho my explanation was as short and limited as my explanation was to JNABK, Haldrie eventually got it done!

I even mentioned that almost every game can be used, in the game-swap-thread and the FreeVast-Continues-thread (along others) at psx-scene.com and some other places, ~a decade ago and it can still be read/seen there. ;)


If you choose to make the more timing-dependent swap, it would be cool if you could make a video and upload it as well!

Why? Because I hope the knowledge about this trick gets spreaded as well!


Edit: @Versatile Here I see another potential video coming up! :D
"Hack your PS2 via (almost?) every PS2-game [special game-swap-trick]!"
 
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Only way FMCB would work is maybe swapping the bios chip . But since it's soldered and not socket mounted , that would be very difficult . Anyone with such soldering skills would directly install a modchip .
On the software side there's Swap Magic that works great but it's an extinct product and nowhere to be found . The only breakthrough would be mastering a PS2 disc with certain burners ( i heard rumour of a Pioneer drive who can do that )
 
Speaking of which, if your PS2 slim console have a plain generic modchip which is barely used to run bootlegs and even launching uLaunchELF from the disc, you can just simply swap it with modbo or matrix infinity ones.

I have a friend that doing modchip swapping and reported that the FMCB is fully working on his modchip-swapped PS2 slim console.
 
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