A new innovation in the retro gaming community now allows you to run your entire PS2 library directly from a $50 memory card, thanks to the Multi-Purpose Memory Card Emulation (MMCE) protocol.
That’s cool and all, but you can probably run your entire PS2 library from stuff you already own.
I have my ps2 games on my Nas and set up a share that Open Ps2 Loader could access, except the games that don’t work like that which i have on an internal ssd, this sounds like a much easier solution I could have done instead of needing to get an oem network adapter, a hard drive, a sata adapter board, a d all the configuration and freemcboot… sounds like this would replace all that… if I wasn’t already set up I would have gone this route.
Woah woah slow down, this sounds like more fun. What is your setup?
what do you mean my setup? I have a fat PS2 with an OG network adapter that I removed the IDE board from and replaced with a SATA board and attached a SSD to it. Network cable runs from the network adapter to the wall, I have lots of magic behind the wall, and then it comes out at the NAS where I have a share where all the games are digitally backed up while the discs store dust in a box in my closet. Only game I currently run off the SSD since it won’t work over the NAS is FF10-2, and really the only reason I even ripped it was because that’s how I felt when the game came out…
I mean that. I thought open loader 2 was some streaming platform or something.
Nope homebrew ps2 app to load games from hdd, usb, or ethernet
Some people like to play on original hardware but I guess this still being emulation makes that a little cloudy. I certainly couldn’t justify it. I own a computer and wireless controller, so as you said.
Probably cheaper/better to use a 2.5" hard drive. Though I guess this works with Slims as well
I think the best thing is to load your games over the network. The usb ports are only 1.0. And I’m pretty sure the network adapter hard drive connector either only accepts up to 40gb drives or it only uses a pata connection.
There are newer adapters for the network port. I use a 500GB SATA drive just fine, it’s just a pain in the butt to transfer games
Why is it a paid in the butt
Probably because it’s pretty slow, and the custom drive format used by the PS2 isn’t very flexible; game images have to be in one continuous block, and blocks can’t be moved. You can overwrite one game with another, but only if it’s the same size or smaller. So if you delete games off in the reverse of the order you put them on you’re fine, but otherwise you’re going to leave empty “holes” of wasted space.
I just added a SATA drive to my ps2 yesterday, and it plays ps2 games fine but I really want to play psx games. Is there a solution for this yet?
What ShinkanTrain said. The last a read about it, the PS2 only switches into PS1 mode on a trigger from the optical drive subsystem, and then most of the memory and other hardware used to run homebrew is deactivated. AFAIK no-one’s yet found a way to trigger the change in software and keep the connection to wherever you’re loading your game from.
I believe that on certain revisions of the console, MechaPwn can overcome the protection, but you still need a “Playstation 1” CD in the drive to actually run something, as ShinkanTrain wrote.
times like these I wish I didn’t live paycheck to paycheck
If it makes you feel any better compatibility is probably pretty mixed. Last I checked the PS2 memcard slot doesn’t have enough bandwidth to load all games reliably.
Makes me wonder if it’s faster than the USB 1.1 ports on the PS2. I used to load PS2 games from a USB drive but 1.1 speeds meant that some games had stuttering FMVs and some with texture/geometry streaming were more susceptible to pop-in.
I can’t imagine it’d be much better via memory card though, considering it was only ever intended for small savegames and for loading firmware updates (which is also what this memory card or rather FreeMcBoot exploits).
