Gamerade - Free McBoot for the Sony PS2 - Adam Koralik

[@Ronin7477]

6 years later, Jan 2020, and this is still valid for retro gamers, Thank You :D

[@markusTegelane]

6 months later (the time this comment was posted) and FreeDVDBoot exploit was released

[@bricethompson1922]

1 year later and the world has gone to shit 😭

[@hhectorlector]

r/retrogaming mods: PS2 IS NOT RETRO!!!!! xD

[@bricethompson1922]

@@hhectorlector yes it is at least in my opinion because it does not support widescreen and HDMI 🤷‍♂️ hate to break it to you that is the consensus

[@alexisaguirrevazquez7900]

@@bricethompson1922 Actually, the PS2 has widescreen. It just wasn't taken advantage of in every game.

[@94Jyraya]

Now imagine this in 2019. Everything is basically perfect 😁 Gamestar third party Sata adapter, a 1TB hard drive hooked up, Virtual Memory Cards for actually saving to the HDD, PopStarter for playing PS1 games, in game reset that takes you back to your games list in OPL with a button combination, third party rechargeable wireless controllers, and so on... If anyone was hesitant about jumping in on this, now is the time guys 😉😁

[@backup_bokoblin7398]

I really do want to get into it, like now. Is there a tutorial that teaches it the "best"? I'm limited to a Slim that I know will work. Is there an optimized usb method that you know of? The extra stuff you mentiond also sounds cool.

[@94Jyraya]

Tynit Atticus Installing FMCB on a slim is a bit more difficult, because you need swapmagic, and burning CDs. I have a fat, so I don't know the exact method, but I'd say the easiest way is getting a memory card, that already has FMCB on it. They're pretty cheap on eBay and other places. And all you have to do is insert it into your slim, and it's done. If you'll be using USB, be aware, that the PS2s USB port is USB 1.0, so there's no point in getting a fast flash drive or HDD. Focus on the capacity instead. Newer ones will work of course, but only in Usb 1.0 mode. And as for tutorials, I recommend you to take a look at the videos from Mr Mario 2011 and Project Phoenix Media. I used their videos to learn about all this, and they pretty much explain everything.

[@burningknuckle26]

Im totally new to this. Dont understand much but i guess ill start with buying a modded ps2 slim and download iso online

[@94Jyraya]

@@burningknuckle26 Just buy a normal PS2 slim, and a memory card that has the FMCB mod on it. You can't boot any ISOs, or even access the external hard drive or flash drive at all, until you insert that.

[@papito2525]

Just found out about this just ordered 2 fmcb and will try my best to try all this definitely looking foward to see if i can find an old hhd and everything else on here to play my games and hopefully all the back ups and isos i already had for the pc emulator that never quite worked for me 😍😍😍

[@carblakaman]

The plastic thing on your HD is called a jumper

[@ThePreciseClimber]

Wasn't there a movie "Jumper"? :P

[@mrcaboosevg6089]

I almost forgot about those things, i'm glad we have come so far in technology

[@DannyWilliamH]

I can't imagine my PS2 without FMCB. I have literally all of my games on HDD and 99% of them work perfectly and load at insane speeds. I found out about it about 3 years ago and it blew my mind. I had to install it the hard way: buy a random James Bond game, rip to iso, change a file on the iso, burn altered iso to DVD, take PS2 apart to expose the DVD drive, play first level of Bond game from retail disc and then swap retail disc for the altered disc before loading the second level where the PS2 would load the altered file (RMCB installer). It was worth it. My PS2 went from collecting dust to having almost as much usage as my PS3 and PS4.

[@indePLASTICmusic]

Hey! That's how I did it. It was a lot a fun to do!

[@DannyWilliamH]

+indePLASTIC It actually was! It was pretty hardcore but east and the entire time I felt this strange sense of "OMG THIS CAN'T BE REAL" haha

[@indePLASTICmusic]

I know, right?! I was so shocked and excited that it actually worked! And then there was fun of figuring out what mods and homebrew games to get off of PSX-Scene! Hah, good times, man!

[@TheSonic497]

DannyWilliamH I tried it differently. I had a ghost case for my slim PS2 with swap coder to play imports with, so I downloaded the the needed Freemcboot files, got an unused USB drive, formatted the drive, put the Freemcboot files into the USB, change the filename to swap magic so when booting up the swap magic disc, it tricks the system into booting up the program from the USB, install files to memory card, and done.

[@DeeLaRoc420]

I just took a fat, ran a img of a HDD of an already softmodded PS2, and then plugged it into my phat PS2. Way easier imo.

[@dillweed8591]

Welp, this vid just filled up my shopping list

[@ErickGoDude]

I remember having the composite cables being ripped by my dogs, so My brother went to the store to buy new ones. He bought the Original sony Component cables. He realised he bought the wrong ones since no tv in our house supported it, at the time wasted money. I remember playing ps2 in black and white for a long time untill a friend broke his ps2 and no longer needed his composite cables. I still have component cables and it was no longer a waste of money anymore.

[@ErickGoDude]

James I mean... ur not wrong. But we were able to still use the cables to play games in black and white for a time. Now That was a Struggle!!

[@shanemoran4145]

@@ErickGoDude I remember on wwe 2006 I couldn't tell what I was pressing in the menus while it was balck and white

[@justsomeguy8385]

Modding PS2s for playing backups from a hard drive is easier than you think. You don't need a hard drive for the PS2 at all, you can use OPL to connect to a shared folder on your PC via ethernet cable(using your router) or directly with a crossover cable. It's a little confusing to setup, but it eliminates the need for buying another HDD and dealing with adapters and whatnot for transferring games to the HDD. It also allows you to make virtual memory cards in the shared folder, so you'll never need to buy another one. As I said, it's a little confusing, but a much cheaper alternative to installing a physical drive, and it works on the slim models as well.

[@televisionandcheese]

***** unless you get a Chinese network adapter or use the SCPH 90000 series ps2, the Ethernet port is only e100 or something which is the same speed as off a disc.

[@crashniels]

Kwyjibo O_o thats what i am doing with my slim. I got a crystal chip but its broken and my drive is starting to fail :/

[@RedPolack]

Kwyjibo O_o that's amazing thanks for the information

[@hodgkinsstuff3766]

can can play burned and import games on your ps2 nativly by using ESR, you can go to the free mcboot config and set the ps2 to boot right to ESR. ESR Will auto boot import/burned games The one that comes preinstalled doesnt auto boot the burned/ imports you have to use a older version sksapps.com/exploit/freevast/ESR/ESR%20beta%20r9b.rar set it to boot to ESR instead of freemcboot and then it should nativly boot import/burned games

[@josephatnip2398]

hard drive port lol i used to keep my weed in there when i was a kid ....lol

[@BigMacsm245]

+Joseph Atnip I still do

[@nationharris]

i will be now

[@Kenthis15]

+Joseph Atnip Yeah I always pop open the expansion bay whenever im looking at a PS2 in stores, sometimes old sacks of weed or some money in there.

[@widebandrecords902]

yea it only went in there when going abroad/boarders, worked everytime, i am not posting this comment from prison either hahaha

[@JoseCoss64]

Joseph Atnip I hide my money there XD

[@WhiteJarrah]

Have you tried installing a mod chip in your console? I have an epic story for you. A few months ago I had left the house and was on my way to university. The cleanup was drawing near so around this time people were leaving their old furniture and junk outside their houses. I was about halfway to the train station, when I noticed someone had thrown out a Huggies nappies box. What caught my attention was that it had plastic bags taped over the top, as if to protect its contents from the rain. I take the plastic bags off, and in it I find a fat model PS2, power and AV cords, and three controllers. Sticky taped to the top of the console was a note explaining how to use the Mod Chip built in. I grabbed the box and went back home. Some time after university I tested it to make sure it worked. I popped in a NTSC copy of Manhunt 2 that I couldn't play on my PAL PS2 console - the game booted up instantly! I was a bit torn as to whether to sell it or keep it. Ultimately I chose the latter. I have no idea who installed the mod chip or how it works or how expensive or difficult it is to install, but I do know it works and now PS2 regions is no longer an issue for me.

[@user-ue6iv2rd1n]

+Jarrah White Yeah your right he should really get it chipped if he just wants an easy plug and play experience. I chipped mine just to play burned games I'm not really into the weeaboo stuff. The mod chips themselves cost next to nothing but I found It quite time consuming to install since I'm not used to doing them. I watched some videos beforehand of people installing them but video really doesn't show just how small the points they are soldering to are.

[@DannyWilliamH]

PS2 was used to fake the Moon landings. Look at the teraflop shadows, dood! La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo Confirmed

[@ElBribri]

I couldnt be happier with my FAT PS2, it has a physical modchip AND the whole HDLoader-Disc Drive method, it runs every game possible from JP to PAL to PS1 backups.

[@ericstech3181]

A+ for MGS reference

[@2tooful]

Jarrah White doesn't that wear the laser faster? Is it true chipped ps2s don't last as long?

[@JohnnySuarez1982]

all the free mcboot cards sold out on eBay shortly after this video. true story

[@AdamKoralik]

I guess I'm glad I helped make some money for some people.

[@Chr0mePisto1a]

buy one for $10 ... easy

[@handheldnintendofan]

You can find plenty now

[@ImTheKingOfHyrule]

You can use Free McBoot to run GS Mode Selector (GSM), which lets you force better video output from PS2 games. I haven't tried it yet, but that's one of my main points of interest for when I install Free McBoot.

[@AdamKoralik]

I've tried, most games never seem to run stable with it. :(

[@ImTheKingOfHyrule]

I got it working on my PS2 today. It apparently works on a game-by-game basis, and in general I've had a lot more success with 480p than any of the higher resolutions. Apparently it has something to do with the way each individual developer chose to utilize the PS2's framebuffer. It's kind of a meta-game to figure out what settings work best for each game (though some games apparently will simply not respond well to any such tinkering).

[@VicariousReality]

Does it actually increase input lag? I recall getting bad results with MGS3: S and Xploder HDTV in that respect.

[@ibapreppie]

My PS2 comes in the mail today. Im now the proud owner of all 5 Playstations. And poor now.

[@ibapreppie]

Fantastic video btw. Kind of video I was looking for to see what I was getting myself into. Keep em coming!

[@wheelman1324]

Got my Ps2 on Christmas of 2002. Ah, the memories.

[@TheZloyak]

OPL, ESDL, ESR works, only your TV must support all modes. They all need some knowledge but they work!

[@ReprovedReaper1]

I have the latest version of the PS2 slim so the method I use is that I first use Swap Magic's boot function to boot a homebrew program called uLaunchELF, from there put a small piece of rolled up paper into the hole where the "dead man's switch" that tells the PS2 that the lid is closed is located. Then I put in a game from my region waits a few seconds for the PS2 to recognize it as a "PS2 DVD" the program will then stop the disc from spinning. Then I switch out the disc for then imported title I want to play and use the file browser to locate the .elf file that will launch the game. The negative about this method is you can't properly close the lid while playing games and you also need to open your PS2 in order to remove a little piece of plastic that prevents the disc from spinning while the lit is open. Also if you have a earlier version of the PS2 slim there might be some other simple modifications that you have make for it to work.

[@FlintG]

I own the silver slim model with free mcboot installed. Its so cool I didn't use swap magic I just used the james bond 007 agent under fire swap trick. You just have to block the sensors for it to work.

[@MMasterDE]

You can rip the games from any region, apply a patch to them, burn them to disc and then play them without any swapping. :) EDIT: In any case, of course the HDD is the way to go! Reminds me I gotta put together my fat PS2. >:o Hopefully I'm not missing any pieces after I moved! 2nd EDIT: The patch will most likely get you around that region lock. 3rd EDIT: IIRC it's called ESR patcher or something.

[@MMasterDE]

***** What you can do is purchase a "disposable" PS2, a cheap one, and then rip your PS2 games, apply patch and then burn them. This way you can allow your PS2 games to rest instead of running the risk of ruining them. The downside to this is the DVD reader in the PS2 will much faster get teared, but if you use the right DVDs brands, DVD types and do decent burnings to these DVDs etc, the PS2 will last longer. In any case, this truly does allow you to just download a game from any region, patch it, burn it to disc and use it to play. :)

[@tonystechchann]

MMDE does that mean you don't need freemcboot and or swap magic

[@vhcmwashere]

Looked through ps2 games and sure enough, I found my 2 disc set of swap magic purchased a few years ago.

[@AdamKoralik]

: High five. :

[@One3673241]

God, I love SwapMagic. Btw: SwapMagic's 3.8 version allows you to run MGS3 Online servers again.

[@unstoppableExodia]

As it so happens I bought a transparent green PS2 with an HDD and free McBoot last year. It was a great deal as it had many games loaded onto it that I had wanted to play including a translated and patched copy of capcom X namco. It was great that it was all set up and ready to go. The seller even threw in the scuffed up silver shell that used to originally house that PS2 which was successfully converted into a custom arcade stick.

[@farmhousemedia3000]

Couple of notes: Not all hard drives will require the jumper to be on the drive in the PS2. The WD drive I have doesn't require the jumper at all.. Which is good because I lost it YEARS ago. ALSO and MORE IMPORTANT, not all drives will easily fit without some modification to the Ethernet expansion port. Maxtor drives USUALLY fit. But other drives will not fit properly because the IDE cable and power cable ports are spaced too far apart on the drive. Removing the metal shield and unscrewing the power port usually is enough to make the drive fit. (My point is, if you're going out to BUY a drive, get a Maxtor. If you plan on using an old drive you already own, prepare to do some doctoring if it doesn't fit right)

[@tristanbush6576]

Not long after this video came out, I started on a journey to do this whole process you described to be able to play the English patched version of Namco X Capcom, being a big fan of the 3DS Spiritual Successor Project X Zone. I managed to get a memory card with Free McBoot pre-installed on eBay as well, but I never went beyond that. Now, almost 7 years later and well into College, I've recently decided to resurrect that plan. I'm betting I'll be able to play it real soon with Free McBoot. Regardless, I still have you to thank for giving me the idea of an avenue to play Namco X Capcom!

[@maboroshi1986]

I only started playing with FMCB in 2018 sound don’t know if this was true when the vid was made but there are a lot of options if you have OPL and a broadband adapter. Even without a hard disk. I know he was talking about just putting the disk in and having it work but what I did before getting a reliable IDE disk was use a shitty old netbook to stream the games over Ethernet. If you have a compatible slim you wouldn’t even need the adapter.

[@Darkwisdom9]

If you're interested, you can use an IDE to SATA adapter and then use an SSD. The load times are even quicker, and there is no noise from the drive as SSDs don't have any moving parts. I've ripped basically every game I have to it, as it's basically a library on the drive now. With some more advanced tweaking, you can install custom themes, box art, descriptions, all sorts.

[@user-ue6iv2rd1n]

+C G0R3Z An SSD would just be held back by the ps2 I don't think they can even make full use of a 5400rpm hdd.+ modern HDDs are near silent. An SSD would be a really good mod for a slim ps2 though, would probably fit inside the case.

[@illitero]

@2:41 That happy face adorns all of my PlayStation accessories. RIP PSM :'(

[@holdenparker8688]

The little white thing on the back of the HDD is a Jumper.

[@Marco-uo9ww]

You can play imports with Free McBoot, you need to burn them, and patch them with ESR. That way you won't need to swap discs, just put your burnt import in the ps2, start it up. This way you don't ruin your original imports, and it works on every console without disc swapping.

[@InputArchive]

A neat way to preserve PS2 games without taking the console modification or emulation route. Good video, but I would have loved a speed comparison between the HDD and DVD, but that's just me being greedy.

[@KevPez-IS]

I managed to pick up a memory card with FreeMcBoot on it, and I plopped in a HDD into my Fat PS2, Thank god. The loading is so much faster.

[@ShogunGin0]

I have, unfortunately, run into a similar problem with my Wii's USB Loader similar to my issues playing PAL games off my PS2 hard drive. A very strange one, I'm just wondering your take on it is, Adam. I got the Homebrew Channel and the USB Loader app, allowing me to play Wii isos off a usb device (It seems to smooth the rough edges a bit compared to playing off the disc, I dare say it looks smoother than playing a Wii disc on the Wii U), however, one game has done something inexplicable to me. I ripped my copy of Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands to the flash drive, like normal, but when I tried to play it, the screen went black, and my TV's display said it was trying to play the game at 576i, which my American HDTV doesn't do. I have no idea why this happens, because when I play the disc normally, it certainly says 480p, and the picture comes through. But there's an interesting point, it's one of the only Wii games I can think of that has a notable amount of scan lines, the other being Skyward Sword, but that game has nowhere near the amount as PoP: FS. And when I look at the iso's info in WBFS (the Wii equivalent of WinHiip) it says RF in place of NTSC in the region section. Keep in mind, it is an American copy, the ESRB rating is on both the box and disc. For being a rather standard size game, 4.37gb, my Wii does seem to be constantly trying to re-read almost everything, sometimes causing slowdown, which doesn't happen even in larger games. I'm almost wondering if its just a PAL game with a NTSC forcer loaded on the disc, or something, because I've never heard of this happening before.

[@HotlineKM1]

I completely ditched consoles to invest only in PC when the 8th gen consoles rolled around. Recently though PC gaming has felt really watered down for me and I've slowly lost interest to the point where I don't play games for a week. But I've been yearning to go back to my childhood days where my cousins and friends all had 6th gen and 5th gen consoles and play all the exclusives I missed out on. Started with OG Xbox and making my way down. Basically I've gotten into collecting. But along with this I have grown an obsession for modding, fixing and making old consoles perform better. The OG Xbox in particular I love to softmod (which is pretty easy) and have considered mod chipping one of them (I have 3). But now I've seen this...time to mod PS2.

[@GriffinKneesock]

And for your sake, it makes it easier to burn rare games on DVD to play without having to spend $100+ to obtain a legit game.

[@MrVitalic85]

Buttery Toast I'm basically doing the same. I recently started collecting for the ps3 , adding to my 360 collection and now I have a renewed interest in the ps2 and og xbox. On the pc side, in recent times Iv only played doom 2016, re7 and prey. Im quite obsessed right now to play silent hill 2 on the ps2 :)

[@xan1242]

And another thing to note is -- it can do more things than you mentioned, as others have commented. Emulators, media players, games, all sorts of goodies. I think you'd like GS Mode Selector. The main forum of FMCB and other app devs is psx-scene, which you should check out now and then for software updates. However, region coding can only be unlocked by directly accessing the BIOS code, which is what modchips do, so nothing for unlocking the regions directly. The closest thing that can be done is ESR, but that requires software patching and burning, so nothing for that either.

[@xan1242]

I'm not recommending them either per se, just noting that they exist. I just use my PC for emulators, or my laptop on TV for that matter. I must say though, Picodrive is MUCH better than PGEN on the PS2. Because PS2SDK has evolved quite a bit, some homebrew devs actually can do more with the PS2 than they used to. I know what you mean, though. I (foolishly) tried to play an h264 video file and it got stuck on loading. I think that h264 could be barely pulled off on the PS2, though it'd need some helluva good coded decoder for the EE. (probably decoding it to something like MPEG2 and passing it to EE's motion decoder should work fine) But seriously, who's going to use a PS2 to watch movies? Most people are either going to watch them on their PCs or laptops/phones connected to a TV through HDMI.

[@PixPMusic]

I'm just going to note, you can install Free McBoot to the hard drive, as well as other stuff, and enable large format drives. You just have to image the drive on your PC.

[@AdamKoralik]

+macmmich You need to enable replies bud. If you do see this, the answer is no. It can't play PS1 games that way, and you need the broadband adapter.

[@norge696]

AdamKoralik You should just install a matrix infinity modchip into your console, that's pretty much the only way you will get "native" support for region unlocking and playing backups.

[@EdgarGonzalez-fx5td]

+norge696 and where can we buy this " infinity chip"

[@supervanish877]

+norge696 Hardmod is always better than freemcboot. If you have voultar/jinn level soldering skills to pull it off nicely.

+Calvin “Vault Dweller” Hall It doesn’t even have to be a an official card. I am using mine off a 64mb card. But I need to get a 128mb card. My 64 is getting full.

[@jasonfrey2189]

Hey Adam. Can I get a copy of your free mcboot?

[@babyred8403]

Jan 2021 and this is still valid for retro gamers

[@nuuukethewhales]

You can transfer games to the HDD via network cables. HDL Game Installer, which you can also use on the PS2 to directly rip your games, comes with a PC client. So you can rip the game on your PC and transfer it that way. Works great, takes me about 15 minutes to transfer a full DVD game, no need to take the HDD out and no need for the USB-IDE adapter. You can set it up as a batch send, so you can rip a stack of games, set it up to transfer and go do something else.

[@Austin-bc1yh]

Question for this older vid. Could you put the games on a usb stick and then transfer it to the ps2 harddrive with a ps2 with freemc? So i dont need the extra pc software/accessories

[@andree1991]

Will Free MC Boot allow me to transfer my memory card into an usb drive so i can transfer it to a pc?

[@computercatgaming02]

***** Yes I copied my saves from Mc to Usb :)

[@AtariBorn]

I recently picked up another fat PS2 with free mcboot and a 60GB drive installed. This new softmod method is so much easier than back in the day. I remember having to have a specific PS1 game in the system at all times and a file on my PS2 memory card with the PS1 game's SLUS in that file. A real pain in the ass to find a PS1 game that worked. Now to find that 500 GB IDE drive I have lying around.

[@misterdude206]

Not all Ps2 fats will work, only the early models will. 39xxx and 35xxx. But you are right it is awesome and load times are quick. But sorry to say, you cant play the imports straight up. Also the CD games will have to be converted to DVD format to be saved onto the HD as well.

[@aeneasfate]

One useful application to check out is GS Mode Selector. It allows you to force the video resolution of a game. Useful if you own one of roughly half of the HDTVs on the market that will not accept a 240p signal over component (PSX games and ICO, etc), Or doing some internal upscaling. Some PS2 games were actually rendering in a higher resolution and then downscaling in the framebuffer or something, so those should look much improved.

[@AdamKoralik]

I tried it a lot, seemed to make every game look worse...it they booted at all. Bad luck maybe?

[@joshdieckmann595]

Another obvious benefit to this is that if you have a fat PS2 with a failing laser, this would allow you to extend its life w/o having to spend a lot of money on a new laser and/or repair. I have a fat PS2 in my basement gathering dust, and this kind of thing would be fantastic for that. I have sevearl IDE HDD's from days of yore, some at least 80GB in size, so I could easily use this to put some of my favorite PS2 titles onto a HDD and play them that way. As quickly as PS2 lasers seem to die (at least in my experience), that becomes an obvious way to preserve the system somewhat, just like modding an original Xbox.

[@jcchaconjr]

PSA - there is a modded version of the broadband adapter, still available through deal extreme I believe, that will allow you to use SATA hard drives. This will easily allow you to use 500 GB drives (for cheaper storage - those old IDE hard drives are getting more expensive to buy) and load plenty of games. Be aware however, that HD loader has a limit of 256 games that can be in the menu. You can even use SATA laptop drives, however, you might fabricate some kind of support ledge for it to sit on.

[@hugo-garcia]

You can actually play PAL games from disc beyond of course swap magic. First you will need a homebrew called "HDTV xploder" ( it can runs ESR patched discs also) . It also allow you to force 480p in any game or just run at 480i NTSC and also 576i (PAL) or even 576P. Pretty cool stuff indeed. About 80% games are compatible with 480p/576p modes

[@mrterrychaos]

I was glad to install this just so that I could play NTSC games (I'm in PAL region). So many NTSC games have progressive scan support due to you guys getting having component as standard before we did. PAL versions often had this option removed bar a few exceptions. There's also the fact that 60Hz gets better framerates than 50Hz, so even your interlaced games are faster.

[@NiGHTSintoDREAMSX]

If you are worried about space on the memory card, you can use a USB flash drive in one of the USB slots and keep the .elf files on there. In the free McBoot settings you can customize the menu to include these apps when the drive is inserted. I do this as I only have a standard memory card.

[@AdamKoralik]

A good idea.

[@AnnedakDragon2017]

Do I see "EDF 2017" in the background?

[@AdamKoralik]

... Maybe? I don't know what that is.

[@Foxhoundcommandable]

Hey Adam there is a way to bypass the region encoding. Its not an app but its something useful. You can install a mod chip on your PS2. However it does require soldering. If you're good at soldering or if you know someone that is a professional at modding. That's the recommended way of doing it.

[@AdamKoralik]

Yeah, I was hoping to avoid that. But everyone says that's impossible.

[@danielpindell1267]

I spent $74 13 years ago for a solderless mod chip which is ultimate rare now because its banned in the USA now. That thing was great and I used it non-stop on my Fat PS2 7th version. It played any legit or burned region PS1 and 2 games. It also ripped games to the hard drive and would load them without no issues. I loved that thing but I gave it to me brother When I got my PS3 in 2007. Still works to this day.

[@greentray1231]

did it plug into the blue area in the fat ps2 ? if so I remember my dad had something very very similar (maybe the same) and you would choose what you wanted to boot up by flipping the switch left or right haha good memories

[@danielpindell1267]

+Blan Blackman No switch was involved. In order to play a game the wasn't modded or a backup you just booted the system. To play a regular game with network capability you held I think the R1 button upon boot up to disable the hard drive. You had to choose if you wanted to boot from the hard drive by a certain button upon boot up also. The hard drive plugged into the back using a network adapter, but you could boot using USB in the front.

[@danielpindell1267]

+PSN Deaofly Sorry meant if you wanted to play a modded game just boot the system. A regular or network game you had to hold the R2 button upon boot up.

[@greentray1231]

Yeah might not have been the same thing then but my dad had a chip you would plug into the front of the ps2 fat and it had a black little switch that could go left or right I'm not sure if he had to do other hdd related stuff for it to work but haha I remember them days of endless burn games.

[@TexasHollowEarth]

@@danielpindell1267 - DMS4 chip running ToxicOS? I have a few of these that I need to install. Has anyone seen the installation diagrams? I could really use them.

[@zes793]

I use FMCB with a PAL PS2 Slim and I have no issues playing burned games from other regions. 99% of my burned games are NTSC-U which I patched before burning and they load right up. ESR Disc Patcher is a simple utility that's quick and easy to run your ISO files through before putting them on DVD. If you wanna play burned games from any region on your ps2 I highly recommend FMCB + ESR Disc Patcher.

[@zes793]

Download zipped ISO > Extract ISO > Open ESR > Navigate to ISO location > Patch > Open in IMGBurn > Burn to DVD > Profit

[@James9937]

I've patched my burned games with ESR Disc Patcher. That allows you to run burned games with Free McBoot just like on an unmodded PS2. In theory, it could let you run games for different regions, but I haven't tried it.

[@mrg466]

Have you tried to run imports yet? If so, did it work?

[@GlossicTUT]

Search up ps2 SMB. You can play games directly from your network. All you have to do is make sure youre connected to the same network as your computer. It works with 97% of ps2 games out there even imports

[@plazma2891]

yea I don't pirate but I need to mod my ps2 marvel vs Capcom2 NEEDS TO STAY SAFE IN THE CASE!!!

[@piercejustin0]

mods on original xbox are alot better but the xbox is pretty much a pc

[@AdamKoralik]

I agree.

[@CPS2]

TheUltimateWeeabooDesu Too bad the Xbox is "alot" shitter. Lol

[@TexasHollowEarth]

@@CPS2 - You must be unfamiliar with the original X-Box's legendary homebrew scene. The PS2 homebrew scene can't compare. MAMEoXtras, Final Burn Legends, & Daphne for starters. I plan on testing RetroArch for PS2 in the near future.

[@CPS2]

@@TexasHollowEarth You must be unfamiliar with the PS2's library. Which is many times larger than that of the Xbox.

[@ytanonymity3585]

@@CPS2 he/she already know how familiar PS2 is lol. He just talking about how easy to modding on Xbox than PS2

[@SageOwl]

I installed FMCB myself with my brother one day after he got inspired by reading about it (I had read about it many months earlier but didn't have the money to go out and get the necessary things to do it). I used the 007 Agent Under Fire exploit to do it (which was hilariously awkward to go into Gamestop and ask for that game specifically) and it worked like a charm. Since then I've made a bunch of burned games and when I upgraded my PC I used my old 80gb hd to install most of the games onto using your exact method, something that everyone who had FMCB should do.

[@Mag1kM1k3]

I believe you can play games in .ISO format from the PC to the PS2 using an ethernet cable. That way you don't have to buy a dedicated hard-drive for loading games.

[@seanryanmetalhead]

Oh wow, old video I'm just discovering! But I'm glad I did! If I happen to find an old PS2, I will try this! Also the piece of plastic you talked about on the IDE hard drive is called a jumper. Inside the plastic is a piece of metal that basically just shorts out two pins on the connector. That's how a PC knows if it's the master or slave. All IDE drives have this. CD and Floppy drives were like this as well. The master is for using as a boot device and slave is as a secondary device on old IDE based PC's. :)

[@tnaplastic2182]

Sean Ryan True, but Floppy-drives did not had that (well, maybe in it's first iteration)... This is something quite exclusive to 'Parallel ATA' a.k.a. (E)IDE.

[@seanryanmetalhead]

Nope, Not just EIDE, IDE in general was this way. Also I had an IDE floppy drive. The first drives were not IDE either, they were SCSI.

[@tnaplastic2182]

Sean Ryan That's why I put the E in brackets, which CLEARLY shows the intention of naming both and not only EIDE... That's obvious, because I excluded the 'E' in brackets, which would make absolutely NO SENSE, if I intended to only say 'EIDE'! I could have used a dash for it as well ('EIDE/IDE')... I also wrote (correctly) 'Parallel ATA' and wrote 'a.k.a.' in front of the '(E)IDE' (just for clarification, what I mean by 'PATA') which is accurate, isn't it? Indeed, I have a SCSI-Floppy too (which obviously doesn't need any jumper)! I have never seen an EIDE/IDE-Version though... If I would have written only 'IDE', would you have complained about it, because I would have missed 'EIDE'? You must be kidding... You must be 'searching for a supposed error'. So my statement, that it is quite exclusive to 'Parallel ATA' is wrong? You might think twice about that...

[@131457c]

Hey Adam, i've been using Free Mcboot for over a year now (i installed it myself on my memory card using Swap Magic and it was tricky, but once you get a hold on it its actually easy to do it) and along with the ESR exploit it has been doing wonders to my Ps2. If you burn a copy of your foreign games and patch the ISO's with ESR, then your Ps2 will read them without having to swap discs or any shit, just pop the burned disc in your Ps2 drive and it runs. I speak for self experience because i have a PAL/European Ps2 and i play NTSC and Japanese games with just Free Mcboot and the ESR exploit. I hope that i helped. Keep up with the great videos!!

[@LadyChaos1992]

please explain the ESR thing, I have a NTSC-J pink PS2 and I want it to be able to play American/USA games natively

[@stevendasiilva]

the swap magic for the fat model was to take out the front part of the DVD and in the slim you had to put a little bit of black tape to cover the sensor when the DVD thing is up.

[@MrRavageC]

Just so you know Adam, you can also transfer games to the HDD inside the PS2 without removing it via an FTP client and uLaunch in the Free MCboot menu

[@AdamKoralik]

I tried that with an FTP client. I got network connectivity but any time I attempted to move a file the console froze.

[@wilfredwayne7139]

Ive just orderd mine looking forward to found my dusty old ps2 looking forward to using it.

[@tnaplastic2182]

Direct Backups and other region disc, can't (yet) be started without a swap, or burning it as ESR-Disc. This is due to the MechanicsController of the PS2 (which also handles MagicGate) handles disc-verification. The PS2 IS NOT YET FULLY HACKED! For example we are missing Firmware-dumps from ALL PS2 "MechaCon"! If we'd have it, we might be able to initialize the PS2 differently, which in turn could allow, what you and some others want. :-) Edit: There's quite a chance, that this 16MB-MaxMemory-MC has a 32MB-Chip included and only a 16MB partition on it. If you have a second FMCB-MC, you can try reflashing your MC to a 32MB-MC with MC Anihilator v2. Just have a video (or similar file) of over 16 MB to test it's reliability. Move the video to MC and copy it back to USB and see if you can still watch it completely. Another thing... You can install FHDB + HDD-OSD (basically Sony's Update, which shows the internal HDD) on your HDD and load your games from the PS2's Menu (simply use HDLGameInstaller on your already installed games to update them, so they will start from Sony's Browser 2.0. Best regards, TnA

[@newmoonsamesun]

Damn I had this issues a few years ago, I got impatient and just bought a Japanese slim ps2, I love it dearly.

[@jouebien]

You could probably use a SADA to IDE converter along with a laptop HDD if you don't have an IDE drive. That is what a some of people with original Xbox's do. Although seeing as the original XBOX has HDD that is locked to the console its a little harder to use a different drive.

[@RaysGamingChannel2003]

I’m glad my PS2 is a Phat model

[@Stjaernljus]

at least for burnt games ESR loader does not care at all about the region but you may need RGB cables as the colors can be effed up especially playing a NTSC game on a PAL tv or viceversa.

[@alfiesgameroom2009]

when i play imports i burn my original japanese game like capcom x namco on my computer and patch whit ESR patcher put on the ps2 slim and play direct on the ESR menu

[@angelinesupetran5789]

Can you tell me how??

[@alfiesgameroom2009]

@@angelinesupetran5789 instal ImgBurn for create the iso of your game and google ESR disc patcher GUI v0.24a.rar for the download and the instructions you can burn it the final image on a cd and played or copy on a usb with all the necessary files so that free mc boot played from there

[@TerminatorTX3]

There was HD Loader that allowed people to copy games to a hard drive but only works with the original PS2 model.

[@FrauWilhelmKlink]

Bruh...this video was mind-blowing for me. Apparently, I'm late to the party when it comes to modding. Thanks!

[@Haldrie]

The owners of Free McBoot have stated in their license agreement that it is a violation to sell FMCB in any form. The person you bought that memory card from was in violation of that agreement. Some people did start a forum thread on psx-scene offering to install it for people for free provided they pay shipping both ways. For more information check out my "DO NOT BUY FMCB" video on my channel where I have provided a link to said thread in the description. Sorry to sound like I'm advertising my channel but with my knowledge of FMCB and the fact that I have had a couple conversations with the developers it really bugs me when people sell or buy a memory card with FMCB preinstalled. Note that the sale of said memory card is also a violation of eBay's rules against selling mod chips.

[@AdamKoralik]

Oh well.

[@hgsupertramp]

Here in Brasil, any hacking method are well known, and this with the FMCB are very popular, all because the new generations games just cost around R$200,00. So gamers here, are serious gamers, and we have to get our way into the fun. At the PS2 era, modchips like the Matrix Infinity and Thunder Pro was very popular, so we went with that for playing burned games that we bought for veeery cheap, and for me that was kind of a reason to not value the games like i used to on the 8/16-bit era, so the PS2 and Xbox games was easier to get. I think that you must modchip your PS2 so you can play the games you mentioned. Some modchips can break the region code. For me the best is the Matrix Infinity, but i think that they aren't selling it anymore, just clones. But give it a search for modchips and it's capabilities. I just love the PS2, after Mega Drive, it is my favorite console. Last month i bought a fat one just to put the HD in it and play games nice with no Ps3 Fat overheating crap, all that with FMCB and HD Loader instaled. With my PS3 Slim, and this PS2 i don't plan to buy a PS4 any time soon, as they probably got the overheating issue. Good luck Adam.

[@xXxLAMBOFGOD12xXx]

Hope you didn't spend too much on that... FMCB is suppose to be free. psx-scene or theisozone are the way to go. TIZ even has the leaked Manhunt 2 PS2 beta :D (so happy to find that).

[@bricksblocksandlotsofmocs5090]

That space in the back was where you stashed your weed from your parents 👌

[@benny21293]

The Little Plastic Think (with metal inside to connect two pins) is called a Jumper. I think there is so much wasted potential with the PS2 Harddrive, it could have been just like on the xbox to support downloaded content, games, updates and stuff especially since you are able to get the PS2 online.

[@AdamKoralik]

Yes! That's the term that escaped me. Agreed.

[@IEBIGCAT]

Free. Memory Card boot, also plays video (digital) in dvix/xvid modes and a very simple mp3 player and can read from either usb or from fat hdd. Doesnt work on latest ps2 slim models ways to know certain, model numbers, shiny black on top or has power cord like saturn, xbox etc. I think it plays emulators with roms however, I dont know how to do this, the xbmc on original xbox is a thousand times more powerful and in my opinion the best soft modification ever, thanx again Adam peace!

[@AdamKoralik]

Thanks for watching!

[@MerolaC]

Ah, this is just what I needed to know. I friend of mine needed a way to boot games from a HD and this looks like the way to go. The best of all is that, a guy from my country that goes by the name of "guxtabo" in the PSX-Scene forum mods or install this thing to any Memory Card. Thanks a lot for the info and video, Adam! :D

[@AdamKoralik]

Happy to help, thanks for watching.

[@SandroSensei]

Hi Adam, love your Channel. Its almost 10 years since this video, and I was wondering, does it still apply to today? I want to play a japanese import game, colosseum road to freedom remix, on my ps2 and I dont how 🙇🏽‍♂️. I have a ps2 slim. How can I play import games on my slim? This video seems to focus on the fat ps2. Thanks Adam 🙏🏼

[@AdamKoralik]

Imports have never played nice, most people STILL do this but with newer toys. I did an updated video a few months ago if you want to see.

[@KevPez-IS]

I'd consider this Free McBoot just for better load times. That is one of my big pet peeves with the PS2.

[@AdamKoralik]

Me too.

[@AdamKoralik]

@john main Yes.

[@liblope]

Hey, why don't you make a video on disc cleaning/scratch removal?

[@colefreddy1]

That piece of plastic on the ide hdd is called a Jumper

[@vincenthubner6975]

Man im just basically smiling from cheek to cheek, when you say jumpers for IDE HDs was a hard information to find. you got a normally pretty obvious diagram on the back but shure you have to know that there was somthing like master and slave. But for me as a hardware-guy pretty much a given.

[@tr1bes]

I did mention to you on the 6th gen last time about putting games on the hard drive in the ps2 since you got most of the components. You can also emulate games like nes/snes/gen games on the ps2 as well. I do have a swap magic but I don't used them anymore since I put games that I want to be the hard drive. You can also have an external hard drive with games but loading time is very slow(last resort) but it also store more games than the internal hard drive. Maximum ide hard drive I seen is 250 gb but its not very common and rare. Benefit of internal hard drive. 1. It protect your original game. 2. Load faster on the system. 3. it also good to keep the dvd lens well. Probably when ps4 started having a huge library. I will do my ps3. it's basically research and education only. I already did the wii, slim ps2, psp, ds lite, dsi, and 3ds.

[@emshomar]

I think I just prefer putting the original discs in the system instead of having all games on a hdd ready to go. I dunno why, it's just, nostalgie.

[@djdjukic]

I prefer to load game images over the network using HDL Dumb (GUI for HDL Dump). That way you don't have to swap the HDD between your PC and console. Of course, for slim owners and if you don't need the really great loading speeds, try just loading the games over a shared folder. Still need to rip them first, but that way you preserve the discs!

[@rxz4140]

He's got to copyright the way he hastily fumbles around the with videogame hardware. There's a certain sound it makes, and he always looks frustrated that he has to fool with it. Love his channel

[@AdamKoralik]

I'll see if I can copyright the routine.

[@MMasterDE]

Once you have a memory card with the required files, you can basically make more memory cards with the required files and run any software you want (that works on the PS2 of course). :>

[@geerenmo]

You can install FMCB on the internal hard drive. It isn't called Free MemoryCard Boot (Free McBoot), it is called Free HardDrive Boot (FHDB). Same program but booted from internal hard drive instead of memory card. Much much faster.

[@That_Handle]

Where can I locate the FreeHardDriveBoot and instructions?

[@allistergraham9448]

There's an app for Free McBoot called GSM, which lets you play games from other regions.

[@AdamKoralik]

Allister Graham Only if they're on the harddrive.

[@shinasura777]

A little extra info for you. The reason imports wont work isnt down to the console but the actual dvd drive being region locked. The drive just refuses to load anything from the wrong region.Hence why the disc swap is required. The console will play anything that can be loaded into it's memory. I would think it is possible to change the firmware of the dvd drive somehow(similar to 360's)

[@tbb033]

+shinasura777 The DVD drive being part of the console, so it is down to the console.

[@nikodem123asdf]

Oh yeah freemcboot is great ! You can install GSM to force progressive resolution(pal60/480p/576p/1080i/720p/1080p and 1080i non interlaced) it works with allot of titles actually. It sometimes screws the aspect ratio, causes weird pixelation, sometimes crashes them and sometimes causes them to run at crazy speed but whenever it works it looks great. It's especially useful for HDPVR users such as myself cause than you can avoid having to deinterlace your game entirely.

[@AdamKoralik]

GSM? Is that just an ELF file I can install?

[@nikodem123asdf]

I however run my games with ESR(to bypass the region lock with a patched burned copy) or the original PAL-regional copies, I don't think it's gonna work with your original NTSC-J's, BUT you can make it work with the HD loader (most of the times without issues) and i know for certain that Nights into Dreams works with it. One thing tho whenever forcing into 480p you should keep your TV at "full mode" since most of the better looking PS2 games run at stretched 512X480(or lower) and using this program seems to ignore the aspect ratio told to it by the game. but when you use the "full mode" they'll display in correct 4x3, during gameplay that is, FMV's and things like start menus are usually at higher rez than everything else ^_^

[@PacMaster]

Hey Adam! So that thing you were talking about wanting to play import games natively well you can do that now using a program called FreeDVDBoot it’s actually really awesome believe it or not. You basically rip a PS2 game to your PC and patch it using FreeDVDBoot ESR Patcher and patch your game then burn the patched iso onto a blank DVD and basically what it does it tricks the PS2 into thinking you’re playing a DVD movie and then there’s another code that allows it to boot into the actual game so it’s a pretty neat concept and I think you should really make a video on it. You don’t need a modchip nor FreeMcBoot either!!! The best part about it is that it doesn’t care about region coding either! I tried the US version of Pac-Man World 2 for the PS2 and the Japanese version of Pac-Man World 2 to for the PS2 and both played absolutely flawlessly. I think it is definitely something that you should consider looking into I think you would actually be really intrigued by it. Keep up the good work man hope you take this into consideration.

[@AdamKoralik]

Thanks, though that's not exactly what I'd be looking for. The goal would be to play the original discs, but yeah that DVD exploit is cool.

[@PacMaster]

@@AdamKoralik Yeah man. It would be cool one day if something comes out where you can put in any region PS2 game in any region PS2 and play it with no problem!

[@modbox9560]

FMCB has to be installed using custom settings during card install to be compatible for regions your MC probably came installed normal options during the installation.

[@GamingBallz]

You could always buy a preloaded memory card from the "Texas hack shack " on Facebook fast shipping with tracking

[@theultimateninja]

I just got this like 2 months ago and it's pretty sweet. I got like a handful of import games in it. The one that surprised me was that it was loaded with the Code Veronica Survivor game.

[@TripperLIVE]

I solved my imports problem long ago when PS2 slim was released. The power supply was external for the first time on a PS2 console. I live in PAL territory but I wanted to play many NTSC games. I bought an import U.S. PS2 slim, left the 110 volts power supply in the box and used my PAL PS2's 220 volts power supply and component cables on my NTSC PS2 slim. Problem solved. I use it even today, to watch NTSC DVDs.

[@tbb033]

+TripperLIVE Won't work with all slims. The 90000 series has an internal power supply just like the big PS2 did. Not that it matters to you since you already have your setup, just saying so in case someone stumbles across your comment, and plans to do the same thing, don't get the 90000 model.

[@TripperLIVE]

Correct, thanks for pointing that out.

[@GeezuzKane]

Thanks for the info Adam. That plastic piece on the hdd pins is call a Jumper. I didn't know that a jumper is a must. The hdd I had in mine didn't have one so I thought it was broken. Now I need to found a jumper piece.

[@AdamKoralik]

Yeah, that jumper thing is a big secret in this puzzle, so I was happy to inform people.

[@orbiquity]

Back in the day, I guess 10 years ago, Sony sold a "linux kit" for $100 that would let you run Black Rhino Linux. It included the software, the harddrive, and a cool PS2-styled full keyboard and mouse. I sure wish I still had all that.

[@Agamemnon2]

Thanks for the video. Yours was one of the more concise and clear ones talking about the benefits of FMCB. I just unexpectedly scored a cheap network adapter today, so I'll probably be using it to play some import games directly off the hard drive (Katamari Damacy at least, which was never released in Europe).

[@AdamKoralik]

Happy to help. Congratulations on the network adapter.

[@Agamemnon2]

Thanks. It was in a bundle with EyeToy Chat, so it came with the now-useless Skype-wannabe and the little USB webcam, all for 5 euros. Can't beat that for value. :D

[@Agamemnon2]

I finally got the thing set up and configured, getting a copy of the game and so on. Worth it! :D

[@hugo-garcia]

Alan check out the new FreeDVDBoot. Is a new exploit for PS2 that allows to play any backup you want. Just put your backup from any region in and play it. Enjoy

[@AdamKoralik]

Alan?

[@hugo-garcia]

@@AdamKoralik Just called you Alan to catch you attention. I comment in a lot of your videos man I know you are Adam lol 😂

[@shenmeowzo]

oh this definitely looks worth doing. the load times perk is a real seller. adding this vid to faves to try and remind myself to sort this out some time soon. great vid, thanks for the info adam.

[@AdamKoralik]

My pleasure, Ben.