The Playstation 2 Console – More Potential Than You Realize

Revisions:
10-6-10: Initial Release.

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The almighty PS2 console system was released in 2000, and even though it has been a decade, the gaming system is still going strong. I am not going to bore you with the details, as you probably knew (or didn’t knew) that the PS2 was in fact the console system that killed the VHS and brought in a new era of digital entertainment: DVDs.

Rather than tell you why the PS2 is such a great system (you can read more about it here), I am going to tell you about the potential you probably didn’t know about through the art of modding.

Do you have a FAT PS2 sitting around gathering dust? Maybe you have a slim PS2 that hasn’t seen much love recently because you have been gaming on newer consoles like the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3? Maybe you know a friend that has a PS2 system that is laying around doing nothing, or maybe you are looking at a way to have fun with video gaming without breaking a budget.

Well, I ask you consider the PS2 as it truly is a “versatile” system. Yes, it can play PS1, PS2 games, and DVD movies, but the real potential lays behind its modding potential.

Did you know with the PS2 (fat or slim), you can do the following tasks below with the proper hard or softmod:

• Play AVI movies (DivX, XviD)
• Play roms through emulators (Atari 2600, Atari 5200, BBC, Coleco, Comm 64, Gameboy, Genesis, Geotron, Mame, Master System, Msx2, NeoCD, NeoGeo, NES, PC TG16, SNES, WonderSwan))
• Play PS2 games that are stored on an external hard drive through the USB ports
• Play PS2 games that are stored on the PC hard drive through the PS2 slim (or FAT PS2) network port over SMB
• Play backed up PS1 and PS2 games (on CD-R or DVD-R/DVD+R)
• Run homebrew programs from the memory card using Free McBoot (FMCB)
• Download PS1 and PS2 save game files from the Internet and transfer them to the memory card or backup your PS2 save game files to USB/PC
• Run Linux

To see more what type of homebrew programs are available for the PS2 console, you can visit SKS Apps here.

So you might be asking yourself, how do I get started?  Well, it’s simple. If you have a PS2 slim made before March of 2008 or before the SCPH-9XXXX model series, then you can use FMCB.  However, to install FMCB, you need a third party tool like Swap magic or a mod chip to install the memory card exploit.

If you don’t want to do the memory card exploit, you can purchase a mod chip or get Swap Magic which is a boot disc to help you play backed up games or launch Ulauchelf CD to load your other homebrew programs.

If you want to purchase a PS2 memory device that is a mod already, you can look into Memor32.  Read more about it here.

If you search this blog under “playstation 2”, you will find a lot of existing tutorials that show you how to play games off of USB, SMB, or play PS1 games on the PS2 using the appropriate mod.

If there is a PS2 modding topic that I missed, let me know so I can add it to the list!