PS2 Emulation

It was back in 2019 I first gave PlayStation 2 emulation a try with soft modding my PS2.  While it works (with some games) it’s a bit of a pain adding games to the hard drive.  Well gave emulation another try, but this time on my computer.  Use PCSX2 emulator.  Have know about this program for many years but never gave it a try.  It all ways seem to complicated to setup.  Looked at some how to videos and that made it much easier.  So gave it a try a few nights ago.  Got it working pretty quickly.  Once cool feature is, it can upscale games.  The few I tired looked great running at 1080.  Now going to look thought my old stack of games a pick one to play though.

Softmoding A PlayStation 2 Again

It was back in March 2019 I first stared softmoding my PlayStation 2.  I did get it work but it was a bit of a pain to use.  Some of the games you need to figure out what Mode to use in one of the setting.  Did look online for help.  However there was know real answer.  So I ended up putting that project aide.  Well until a few days ago.  I friend has softmodded his was well.  With a bit of a difference.  There is an update to two of the things you need.  They seems to make it work better.  So I will be giving that a try.

PlayStation 2 HDMI Cable

If you follow this blog you might know that I have soft modded my PlayStation 2.  Have a set of component cables I bought last year for my PS3.  They all so work on the PS2.  This makes it a bit easier to capture gameplay footage.  An even better way would be HDMI.  The thing is PlayStation 2 are old and HD TVs were not a thing when they came out.  However as seen some people on YouTube talk about how to get HDMI to work the a PS2.  There are a few options out there.  One that may have talked about is from Pound Technology.  They makes the cables to work with older consoles to work with HDTV’s.  They have one for the PS2, Original XBox and Dreamcast.  They call them HD Link.  Thinking about getting the PlayStation 2 one > here.  It pretty much plug and play.  They are asking $30.00 US money.  Not sure how much that will be in Canadian money or even if they ship to Canada.  Will have to look into it more.

Third Party PS2 Controller Hands On

Have had the third party PlayStation 2 controller (this one > here) for a while while now.  Have tired out six games with it.  Am very impressed with it.  Sure it’s not the same.  But it is pretty close.  The buttons to have more travel.  The sticks are very nice.  Am very used to they PS4 controller so jumping back to the PS2 the sticks are much closer together.  When I played some FPS games found that my thumbs bump into each other.  That is not the controller fault.  It is the games size a the original PS2 one.   If you are in the market for a PS2 controller and can’t find an original this is a very go option.

Third Party PS2 Controller

Have made a few post talking about soft modding my PlayStation 2.  All so talked about third party memory cards.  Have gotten the PS2 up and running.  The thing is my controller is the original.  The analogue sticks feel very sticky.  Gave it a clean.  Which didn’t help much.  All so the rubber is peeling off the left stick.  So was on the hunt for a new one.  Didn’t want to pay too much.  Looked at third party ones on Amazon.ca.  Found out for a good price, $13.00.  This one > here.  I know it will not be good as an official PlayStation branded one.  But if it works good and I can play the games fine.  Will be happy.  Should have it some time next week.

PS2 Third Party Memory Cards

A few posts back talked about softmoding my PlayStation 2.  Didn’t want to wreck my original PS2 memory cards.  So went on to Amazon.ca looking for “new” official Sony ones.  Didn’t have any luck.  But did find some third party ones.  Looked at two different ones.  A 64MB and a 128MB.  The memory cards that officially came out with the PS2 are 8MB.  Took a change on them and ordered one of each.  When I got them in, opened the 64MB one.  Dug out the PS2 to start trying out the sofmod.  Put the card in and it read it no trouble.  Wanted to try and save a game to it.  But the PS2 wouldn’t read any disc I tried.  Will try it again once I get the rest of the stuff I need.  Will be back with updates.

[Update] The card works great.  Saved my games with no trouble.

USB to SATA/IDE Adapter

A few post back talked about softmodding my PlayStation 2.  One of the things I need was a USB to SATA/IDE adapter.  Ordered one.  I came in the mail the other day.  Have not tried it yet.  Waiting for my day off to give this mod a try.  The adapter I got is this one > here.  Amazon.ca has many different ones to choose from.  Picked this one mostly because of the price.  Will be back with an update when I try it out.

[Update]  Gave it a try with two IDE drives and two SATA drives.  It is very easy to use.  You do have to have a bit of patience’s it take a few minutes for the drives to spin up and then being able to read by the computer.  However once it does it works great.  Had know trouble reading my old files.

Softmoding A PlayStation 2

Came cross a video online showing of a softmoded PlayStation 2.  What softmod is modifying a game console without having to open it up and add something to it.  In softmoding all the modifications are done though software.  In that video there is a link to a tutorial on how to do it.  Watched and it pretty straight forward.  Just need a few things.  A fat PS2, the one with the hard drive bay.  A hard drive.  You can use and older IDE drive or a SATA.  It all depends on if you have the official network adapter. That works on IDE drives.  There are third party adapters.  Which work with newer SATA.  This would be better because you can user bigger hard drives.  Then you need a USB thumb drive and a PS2 memory card.  One last think need is a USB to SATA/IDE Adapter.

I have an original fat PS2 and network adapter as well and an old 60GB IDE drive.  All so have a USB thumb drive.  Ordered the USB drive adapter and some new third party memory cards.  That stuff should be here some time this week.  My next day off am going to give it a try.  If if works out ok.  Might buy the third party network adapter so I can use a bigger hard drive.  Will be making a video about for the I’d Rather Watch Paint Dry YouTube channel.  If are interested in trying it for yourself you can see the tutorial > here.