How the Sony Playstation 2 Security Was Defeated | MVG

The Sony PlayStation 2 is still the highest selling console in video game history but like its predecessor, the PlayStation, it was a machine that was easily exploited with security flaws. In this episode we find out the methods hackers used to open up the machine.
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#PS2 #Hacking #Sony

[@matheusvhs]

I think it's impossible to find a Playstation 2 in Brazil that does not have the Matrix modchip bootlogo.

[@Dash120z]

or in any country in South America lol

[@michaelmcneil4168]

@@Dash120z It all sounds like a sensible way to deal with bullies.

[@Javy_Chand]

But I have one though... That hasn't been modded... (I'm Chilean)

[@Abyss-Will]

same in Argentina, the crazy thing is that every ps2 was sold with, even if you bought from wallmart or some place like that

[@bitelaserkhalif]

I do have one, but when i took it apart i found unnamed modchip. Maybe messiah modchip? It was bought circa 2006

[@TheDeelunatic]

The thing people leave out on PS2 success has to do with how it was a reasonably priced DVD player as well as a game player.

[@TheDeelunatic]

@Brandon Kick You just disagreed to agree with me... The wording doesn't matter.

[@Rockymann27]

@Brandon Kick I wouldve figured they would use the attachable HDD some of the things as well. Guess i was wrong.

[@Dek_Quiet]

Dee Luna he was correcting you lol

[@sonicwingnut]

Despite it's expensive launch price the PS3 was a pretty good bluray player too. At the time it didn't seem great value as blurays weren't even the dominant format yet, but in retrospective they did pretty good with that. I remember a lot of AV enthusiasts actually recommending it. I still use my PS4 as my bluray player in the living room.

[@advanceddarkness3]

@@sonicwingnut I didnt think people still watched Bluray movies....

[@MasterHKS]

Yeah, here in Argentina every single PS2 has the ModChip "Matrix". It is almost impossible to find an original PS2 XD

[@khairulmufid497]

Lol same. In indonesia, if you turn on the ps2, it will showing a "MATRIX" sign first.

[@MasterHKS]

@@khairulmufid497 I know right? It's a global chip XD

[@khairulmufid497]

@@MasterHKS Matrix everywhere

[@lazyskt661]

Lmao same in Brazil

[@zerod7340]

Same in Brazil

[@TheGamingEntity]

Before Free McBoot, there was something called the 'Independence Exploit', which used a modified title.db file on the memory card to trigger a buffer overflow when a PS1 disc was loaded. It worked on all fat models, and some early slims, I think.

[@BulletproofKuloodporny]

Give me more details

[@RaysGamingChannel2003]

I Heard of that exploit but never seen it in action tho But I have FREEMCBOOT

[@puertorricanboy1]

1:35 fastest disc swapper in the west.

[@prateekpanwar646]

Turn table origins

[@asdrhhaha4317]

Grew up with Sega Saturn model 2. That would probably be the minimum smoothness for the swap trick to work on it. Many disks were sent flying across the room mastering the art of swap.

[@TheMarshmallowNinja]

You could just hear the whip cracks

[@Markhoss]

I haven't laughed so much my stomach hurt in a long time bro you made my day!

[@MrMario2011]

I see those legendary PS1 disc swapping skills, MVG. 👀

[@Mbarez94]

Every time you comment a MVG's video it's like being in a crossover episode.

[@YakAlmighty]

lol literally 2 days ago i used your video to soft mod my ps2

[@leocalinawan8429]

Hahaha..the skills of the swapping disc jockey...

[@TooFurious4]

I did this.

[@blatantcan]

I heard you'll eventually break your laser by putting the extra stress on it by doing the disc swap without a proper mod. That being said I use the disc swap cuz I don't often get into my ps1

[@rustyshackleford5166]

This video inspired me to start buying malfunctioning ps2s and repair them so people can enjoy the ps2 with all the compatibility. Ps2 deserves to live on

[@WoundedSnake]

I am looking for ps2 to buy, plz contact me if you have any

[@rustyshackleford5166]

@@WoundedSnake I have about 10 but only a few are ready for use. I don't have them listed anywhere bc I just havnt had time. A working one has fully functional optical drive, mem slots and control ports. Comes with 1 controller, power supply, AV cables and Free mcboot mem card. I only have slims, so the network was tested too. I honestly have no idea what a good asking price is. Lol

[@WoundedSnake]

@@rustyshackleford5166 I actually have my ps3 cracked playing both ps1 and ps2 games But for pure nostalgia reasons I want to play with ps2 console/ps2 controller As for where to list them, or how much the price is up to you, which ever is more convenient for you, may I ask where are you from? Just do a lil search for the current prices and list them with a median one, that's what I would do anyway

[@rustyshackleford5166]

@@WoundedSnake I'm in America, specifically Pennsylvania. I have never sent mail in my life. Lol Are you looking to use free mcboot with network SMB? or do you need a functional unit? If it's the former I can sell you one with a functional brain for what it was sold to me for plus the mem with FMCB. Lol they already sell on eBay with broken optical drives for around $30 and FMCB is like 10. CDromance is one of the last places to get rips of games at reasonable speeds. If it's the latter, then it's gonna be pricier. I test all my units and video all of it.

[@vincentlagrua]

@@rustyshackleford5166 I bought a Fat today for $40 🤣 had to open it up and clean the laser bc the disc would take forever to load.

[@Needy234]

It is so cool, so fascinating that we STILL dont know how Daytel pulled this off. Seems like the Bleem case, where turns out the team creating them was more talented than anyone could have expected.

[@user-pi5xz5je4y]

I liked the part where he said Sony learned from the mistakes of the PS1.

[@solonepeon5805]

😂

[@LiEnby]

Still disc swapping smh only now it can only be used to mod games. Acturally. With incredibly precise timing you can acturally get it to load a different .elf executable :-:

[@yeatstan]

S o n y l e a r n e d f r o m t h e m i s t a k e s o f t h e P S 1 .

[@dylansheaves4743]

I mean, he said they learned, he never said they learned the right lesson though

[@zachpetersen9425]

Y

[@AtariBorn]

I remember reading on AfterDawn, I believe, that Datel had purchased an ass load of cheap, second hand PS2 games and literally cut the watermark section out of them and fused their Action Replay discs to the cannibalized watermark. If I recall, this was discovered when someone put an Action Repay disc into a PC and found a Tony Hawk or Ninja SCUS. Something to that effect.

[@AROAH]

I’d certainly believe it, considering how jank Swap Magic disks are.

[@circuit10]

Isn't that illegal?

[@AROAH]

Heath Mitchell Probably.

[@buzianyadatutube]

Tbh swapmagic was the best thing that ever happened to me in life.

[@uzaiyaro]

@@circuit10 I'm not sure it is. Because the original authentication, lead-in code, and boot sectors aren't actually touched in any way. If they're just spliced onto another disc, I don't believe that constitutes tampering with the code. I guess it's kind of like an emulator in some way. They're legal because they don't use original firmware or bootloader code, they use their own. The copyrighted media you insert into that emulator hasn't changed or been tampered with in any way, kinda like how you'd run a PS2 game on a PS3. It's like the Wii running GameCube games. The GameCube game runs inside a virtual machine, and AFAIK has no API calls to hardware at all - it all passes through the hypervisor, which provides no access to Wii firmware code. I hope this helps in some way. I am definitely not a coder, or lawyer, but coding is something I want to learn, particularly reverse engineering.

[@sasukeuzumaki3608]

The jump from PS1 to PS2 was unreal back in the day, playing Jak and Daxter was so epic

[@robsison205]

The PS2 was the shit back then!

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

it still is

[@Alex-pj8nz]

I remember my mom got me the PS2 because the games were so cheap. Later I found out the games were boot legs since they only cost $10 for 3 disks Because of a mod chip.

[@jamiesplinter8758]

​@@robsison205tenchu gta 3 vice city god of war 1 and 2 to name a few made the ps2 the best console a must have

[@pixelflow]

Free McBoot is just a beautiful exploit. Same with the Wii mail bomb.

[@kuraiwolf4047]

I love how it is so easy because you don't have to open up your system or know how to solder shit. That is the only real reason why my old Xbox 360 from like 2007 or so never got modded. Too much of a pain in the arse and too expensive to buy the special chip to flash the dvd drive.

[@luke12689]

The Wii bomb is actually more difficult. Now you change your DNS and go to update system. To easy

[@8bitwiz_]

Is it really an exploit if it was intentional? Anyhow it seems like when they put it in, they thought they would be completely in control of writing things to the memory card with MagicGate protection set. My CodeBreaker 8.0 disc (and others) said otherwise back when the exploit was first announced. Also apparently their PS3 memory card reader, which with the right crypto key (apparently why the Github repo got quickly nuked), could also write arbitrary files with MagicGate set. But you know what surprised me about this video? I wanted to see what came between the 20-pin chips and FMcB, and it really was nothing. The recent DVD player exploit was far more clever.

[@at-cj2iy]

@@kuraiwolf4047 i know right ps2 with fcmb is fuckin amazing i also sold xbox360 slim wtf lol i dont give a shit about ps5 either

[@ChaseMC215]

Somehow, Playstation and Wii systems are easier to softmod than the Xbox 360. Sure the original Xbox is easy to softmod, but you needed the original copy of Splinter Cell, and a Xbox USB adapter, so it's must simpler to just HardMod your OG Xbox, lol.

[@qwerty6789x]

All hail FreeMcBoot.. still playing PS2 at 2019

[@doz3r943]

Ii caption

[@FeeLtheHertZ]

FreeHDBoot here - god what an experience. Best console ever.

[@qwerty6789x]

@@FeeLtheHertZ still got my original HDD from FFXI bundle

[@FeeLtheHertZ]

@Jenny Rok Yep, I used to actually perform soft mods through HDD upgrades filled with emulators, home-brew and ROMs done via an old DOS box etc. in 2010. In 2004 I was the envy of the whole block with my 250GB mod-chipped all out OG Xbox. Quite the memories.

[@Sonyboj]

Hell yea

[@AscendedWarriors]

Upcoming video: How the PS5 security was defeated

[@Balls4339]

😳

[@IndellableHatesHandles]

That'll probably be far in the future.

[@morganrussman]

@@IndellableHatesHandles yeah, probably.

[@ionutvas6514]

Why should be "far in the future" if we already have the best people specialized in hacking and homebrews? Let's do it now!!!

[@tftwphoenix6670]

@@ionutvas6514 yessir lets do it!

[@TheShouldoos]

As a software engineer I absolutely LOVE hearing the technical aspects in your videos. It makes me want to jump in and try stuff, but I don't think I'm smart enough lol.

[@Pat315]

most arent

[@KayvK]

Well, you dont lose much from jumping in, just dont get discouraged if it becomes a bit of a project.

[@yungapexdrilla7120]

Try

[@n-o-i-d]

Software engineer here as well. Looking back in the past 8 years, the stuff that I'm most proud of was done because I wasn't thinking about the complexity of the project I wanted to start beforehand. Just one step at a time, and before you know it, you'd be surprised at the stuff you can accomplish just by sticking to what you started and going for incremental progress. Give it a try.

[@chillinoutmaxin4630]

Think of what you know already, how you learnt it, and apply it to future things you want to understand.

[@lrdalucardart]

WE: DAD gimme a Ps2! DAD: Why would I? WE: It also reads DVD Films! And's cheaper than a DVD Player! DAD: Here is your money, go get it son!

[@eness379]

yes but dvd players can play the high resolution of the disc but ps2 cant

[@theenzoferrari458]

Yes I didnt know DVDs could be "read". Normally it's called played.

[@nathanurie4686]

@@eness379 actually DVDs are only 480p anyway so it works out perfectly

[@eness379]

@@nathanurie4686 oof

[@LjusHuvud85]

@@theenzoferrari458 normally your unit has to read the disc in order to be played.... so what is your point dude? #notsosmartafterall

[@jtdtemplar]

'Mistakes were made'. Yeah, that is basically my life

[@Lightning2011]

Same here. Hate my life...

[@missingno2401]

mistakes were made 9 months before i was born

[@thepickles8833]

Mistakes into Miracles

[@enzowilhelen9302]

I know that feeling.

[@user-ek2xg3ps5s]

*HAPPY LITTLE ACCIDENTS*

[@Laenthor]

That red screen of death probably freaked out enough kids to never even try playing backup games anyway.

[@AutizmChan2005]

I get the read screen at least once when I load up crash bandicoot, I don’t play it much as it takes forever to read. Don’t know if anyone else has this issue

[@yrmm4232]

Mission Accomplished!

[@Isafell2001]

@@AutizmChan2005 do you mean crash bandicoot for the ps1?

[@AutizmChan2005]

@@Isafell2001 Well, The Wrath of Cortex yes..

[@Isafell2001]

@@AutizmChan2005 oh, that’s ps2. but it’s a cd based game so some models of the ps2 struggle to read them after a while, do you have a fat ps2?

[@saltservice4024]

0:08 - Ahh the PS2.. While we are at this timestamp here let me just point out something... That little P logo on the console there on the disk drive could be turned clockwise so it matched the vertical position and vice versa for the horizontal position. That was probably the coolest part about the ps2 for me when I was a kid, because none of my friends knew about it lol.

[@AxeAR]

I just thought it was broken

[@CancunMimosa]

Additionally, the Sony text was presented so when it stood vertically it would emulate one of the Sony headquarters buildings that has the Sony logo in the same place.

[@disco7379]

I thought it was is obvious and everyone knew it, I saw some stupid tic tock mentioned it recently.

[@kingsoloman42]

@@disco7379 Biscuits 🍪

[@olliemaltby6202]

The song from 2:06 - 5:44 is My Eyes - Nero just in case anyone wants to know, it was bothering me for ages

[@Ndrew556]

Thanks 👍

[@tvorholzer]

Great Song😍

[@WillThat]

PS2 was my childhood. My stepdad's brother gifted me a swap disk/card and a binder full of backups.

[@extradipboneless]

Lol. My cousin had a fuckton of backups. Hundreds of burned copies. I remember one time we were playing GOW all night. Many afternoons were spent with Battlefield 2:MC, Soul Calibur 3, SOCOM 2.

[@astufi]

damn thats awesome

[@kimim.7711]

„Backups“ :D

[@abysmal]

Sean Price I’m assuming you bought your ps2, so you didn’t rob Sony, you robbed the game developers. Lol

[@bur2000]

@@abysmal not really, the PS2 (and 3 and 4) were sold much too cheap. Sony makes money by licensing to game developers. So you rob them, but who cares. :D

[@DeadlyHellhound]

That is THE cleanest PS2 in someone’s home I’ve ever seen

[@fernandiwxbc13]

I remember my mom screaming why TF I'm playing with the PS2 lit open 😂 Swap Magic 3 with uLaunchELF burned on a CD was my first contact with any homebrew scene.

[@randomlyentertaining8287]

5:04 I think I like that Italian court. "console owners have the right to modify their hardware once they have bought it." 10:26 Ahh, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One and Call of Duty 3. Those were the days. I always felt so upset when Vic and Brooklyn died.

[@s.g.3042]

@oH well,lord! Actually Italia was right, that's what's Italy is called in italian.

[@CalculatedRiskAK]

I think some time later, the USA courts ruled something similar. The hardware belongs to the purchaser. Any software, however, they only have a license to use.

[@Jayfeather298]

was expecting a mention of the 007 agent under fire swap exploit for installing freemcboot to an ordinary memcard

[@rafaelfrequiao]

Or the PS1 Game Exploit

[@drd5455]

The 007 hack is what I used lol

[@V1VISECT6]

@@rafaelfrequiao The Independence Exploit was cool but required Action Replay or Codebreaker. The 007 elf trick was eaiser and works with other games. I used SOCOM 2.

[@hankster1128]

That same game and that same hack is also used for installing a custom dashboard on the Xbox.

[@Th3Raz96]

Y'know that's the exact method I tried and no matter what I did it would not work. I think it had something to do with the boot disc that I burned, as that was the only variable I could see, everything else seemed to be in order. But after several attempts and not being able to find any exact answers on the forums, I gave up.

[@Ziimbiian]

Bought a FAT PS2 on December 2018, added the HDD mere weeks ago and i cannot stop playing it. My PS3/4 are eating dust.

[@danylk2206]

Gang gang im happy im not alone

[@RealShadowfiend180x]

You can jailbreak your ps3 to play all ps1/2 games too

[@britf1859]

@@RealShadowfiend180x how?

[@alucard-zh7nd]

@@britf1859 Hack ps3 its easy

[@britf1859]

@@alucard-zh7nd But how do i do that? I have a ps3 old fat one that have a disc line that games go into.

[@nwrkbiz]

I remember struggeling to finish the first level of my swapped and modified 007 Agent Under Fire version to trigger the FMCB install exploit :D I was so bad at this game I needed 5 attempts :'D

[@chanku18]

Oof. At least you don't need to do that again (or even anymore, provided you have a DVD Writer/Burner)

[@Saki630]

10min of google make me think that that DATEL: 1) had a glass master to stamp the wobble. OR 2) reversed engineered the glass master. OR 3) had in house capability to read and then burn this wobble once they got the oscillations measured. OR 4) spliced wobbles from PS2 games into their device so that they did not need to have fancy equipment. OR 5) They could have used a PS2 disc and microscope to view the wobble, take measurements and create a function to generate this path. Then used this to create their own burner that will have this oscillation built in.

[@ruhl_funtime5933]

Datel aka Thin Ice Media has their own cd pressing plant so with that you already have the physical capability of pressing on the whole disk surface including the wobble area. Oh how awesome it would be if they would accept jobs for small runs of indie games

[@greenaum]

@@ruhl_funtime5933 I think Datel are on thin enough ice (and they apparently know it!) with getting sued as it is. Their products all enable piracy as a more-or-less main function. Used to be in the past that the crime of piracy was committed by the user every time they did it, now laws have changed and being involved in the supply of piracy tools is also generally illegal. Like with Nintendo 3DS SD-card pirate carts being banned in some places. Circumventing eg Sony's security to allow unlicensed indies to publish would be asking for more trouble, for little reward, they just don't need that. Besides which you can just burn an indie game yourself and run it with your Datel Pirate-O-Matic.

[@LiEnby]

Datel has the defense that there products are intended for allowing you to cheat in games not for piracy xD Also pressing indie games would be like one of the legal uses for such a thing since you own the fucking rights to the software on there.

[@planarian1772]

Those days, every 2nd Saturdays of the months my parents would bring us to the mall, and we would buy 4 games (2 for me, 2 for my brother). By the time we come back to our house, it's already night time and we'd go to sleep. The next day, we would WAKE UP EARLY to play the games we just bought. We'd normally play for 2 hours each then play a co-op game. Now, we play games online. My brother from his dorm room and me from my house, can't wait for this spring break for him to come home and we can spend time together again. As i just bought a second switch.

[@LuluTheCorgi]

Dang you must live in a rich family lol That's like 500$ a month for gamesn

[@tuyup7279]

Damn rich boi

[@jasonnn2284]

2 games every other Saturday? lol fuckin' rich bitch

[@akpokemon]

It's kinda mindblowing to me how you're able to speak so succinctly and deliberately using accessible and easily understood verbiage while having a ton of significant and fully legitimate actual programming/homebrew scene expertise under your belt.

[@LiuBei666]

Glad I watched this. I'd love to know more about my modded PS2. I think we took my original PS2 to a computer fair, left it with a guy for a couple of hours and then collected it. It still works to this day and plays copies and all region games. Don't think I've ever had an issue with it in 19 years. I have no idea what the guy installed but its clearly a mod chip and is pretty quirky. From memory, it boots backups fine but in order to boot games from other regions and PS1 games (oddly), you have to reset the system and hold the power button down until the PlayStation logo appears. Other than me knowing its modded it shows no other signs.

[@smorg12]

There used to be another method, you used to have an original PS2, and you would need to buy the network card which would also allow you to plug in an IDE hard drive, you then needed a certain game, I believe one of them was 007 but you could then boot games from the hard drive.

[@Elite7178]

Keep up the videos MVG! Your videos are very good an informative, always watching the new content :)

[@mitsostechtips9047]

8 almost hours and this comment has more than 130 likes

[@petwisk2012]

I was expecting you to talk about Matrix Infinity that was the most famous modchip in Brazil, nearly every PS2 in my country has this modchip and i kinda wanna know How It works

[@tdomingues89]

One of the best chips in the market, since alot of chip broke in 2 years the laser.

[@milhouse777]

Exactly, matrix infinity it was unbeatable

[@tdomingues89]

@@milhouse777 but its was expensive, the best part is that you could lauch elf files from memory i belive

[@beneaththemask5054]

The matrix was also very popular here in morroco

[@camirock17]

@@damianqqqqify I second this, every ps2 in argentina, every single one had/has this chip. But mostly are clones (you couldn't play ps1 games, except on the original chip).

[@akuma2124]

Back in 2003, I ended up getting a program that could run on unmodded original consoles, called "HD loader". All it needed was the original network adapter (which was super cheap as they were not popular here) to then plug in an IDE hard drive which sat in the allocated bay inside the PS2. The program also made use of the network adapter by allowing you to hook up to a PC to transfer games over to the HDD this way. It also allowed you to insert discs into the PS2 tray to then copy direct to the HDD. This was revolutionary for me at that time, for some games like DBZ budokai; as I remember the disc load would literally take a minute or longer to go from player select to battle, down to about 5 seconds running on HDD. I've still got my console. Havent used it in a while. HD loader came with 2 discs of the same thing, one was CD rom, the other DVD. It also came with specific guidance around games on "DVD9" such as Gran Turismo 4, saying that it needed to be ripped to PC first to combine the layers.

[@kr0nic666]

I remember on my original PS2 i had a boot disk that i would start up the PS2 with, it also came with a plastic tool that was designed to slide underneath where you inserted the DVD, you then used the tool to pull the DVD drive open with and swap in your burned DVD. Super cool videos, i remember taking my PS1 into a local 'computer fair' to have a mod chip installed in the very early 00's.

[@pauldenney6968]

Excellent video. PS2 was a HUGE chunk of my early teenage years. I've dabbled with emulators, but we all know the performance just isn't consistent enough. Really considering picking a slim up from eBay and jumping back in to the authentic PS2 experience.

[@Lobothemainman23]

Can you talk about the HDloader? It was the first way to playback ups off a PS2 hard drive that I'm aware of, and it came on a regular PS2 disk. I feel like that was an important part of the history of this.

[@lcrazy8l]

Which later was also known as HD extreme and USB eXtreme! Id say those fit under his bit about Datel disc's having a copied lead in disc track. Those predated the free mcboot existing as stamped boot disc's you did not swap but allowed HDD booting way back in 2004/2005.

[@TheRestartPoint]

And HD Loader doesn't even need a Free MCBoot memory card

[@Nelwyn]

Still got my HD Loader and disc swap tool. :)

[@wickedfuctup]

HDLoader had competitor, HD Advance, which allowed larger hard drive and ps1 backups. Have then both and still use them on my fat ps2's. Only thing is you need the ethernet adapter to connect the hdd. HD extreme was more finicky with ps2 slim using usb and imho, didn't work as well

[@Rockymann27]

Not really noteworthy.

[@juanjpnv]

Here in Brazil even some big retails sold unlock ps2.

[@allennemo4354]

Haha, land of Odebrecht. Fight the power 🤘

[@RaimarLunardi]

I believe the law requiring things to not be locked meant they found the easiest way was t put a chip... lol

[@KitsGravity]

Same here in India

[@xamergt]

What do yoy mean uncklock?

[@rodrigowirsch351]

​@@xamergt Unlocked for backup game disks btw, few years ago I did bought one with the Matrix modchip from a retail.

[@Nabeelco]

In north america, we got that DVD update as well. I had the IR remote with the DVD update patch. I think a few months later they stopped the sale and updated the PS2 to have an IR sensor built in, and at that point if your ps2 was too old, you couldn't use the remote.

[@FacchiniBRTV]

Amazing information! Here in brazil the console still being sold everywhere, and we have some other options for modding it like a purple bootdisc that works like the dreamcast (IIRC it is a hacked SwapMagic, It only boots CDRs and because of this CDR-RIPS were rampant. We even had GTA3 and Vice City burned on CDRs haha), but after the release of the Thunder 2 Modchip and a flood of Matrix Clones I had never saw this disc for sale at the flea market anymore. Thanks again MVG!

[@xe4]

I absolutely LOVE these style of videos that you have been doing lately. Awesome man. Please do more. Much love.

[@TurnTheStoveOnBlaze]

I was using the credit card tool. I don't even remember how I did the shit lol. 10+ years ago!

[@KoushiroIzumi85]

You were using what was called the "Slide Tool". It was used for running the Swap Magic software (as well as the Breaker Pro) on the earlier, fatter PS2 models. I used the same method.

[@smtlego]

Yeah, this was what you had to do to swap discs on the fat consoles. You had to take the front face of the drive off, and cut an old credit card into a specific shape that would hook onto the drive's internal locking components. Using this, while the console was on and reading a disc, you could "slide" the tool in the console's tray, pull the entire mechanism to the left unlocking the tray and separating the disc from the laser assembly, and then pull the tool out to force the tray to come out without the console doing anything - At which point you could swap in a different disc without the console knowing. The tool lets you slide all the components back into place aswell, so regular operation can begin again with the swapped disc without interacting with the console. This is how I managed to install FreeMcBoot on my memory card from scratch, with a copy of 007 Agent Under Fire, and a modified backup of the same game that replaced the driving level with an ELF launcher, letting me run the FMCB installer software off a USB thumbdrive.

[@csanchez84]

I'm surprised this method isn't covered in this video. The steps were something like this Play a PS One game Create a Save Game Save the ID of the game on a ISO that would patch the save file Cog swap the PS One game with the ISO and patch the save file, saving some .elf in the memory card The .elf loaded a homebrew version of swap magic and when booting the PSOne game Remove PS ONE Disc with cog swap Insert PS2 Disc and read its TOC Remove PS2 Disc with cog swap Insert Backup PS2 game Once the memory card had the .elf you only did the swapping, saving lots of money on modding (and games) lol

[@ViaticumCanada]

I had one of the early PS2 slims when they came out in Japan, specifically a Japanese one! I can't remember what brand the "mod" was, but, it was very similar to this in that I had to glue 3 pieces to disable the hardware sensors and use a boot disc to play region 1 games on a Japanese PS2 slim. I believe we ordered it from England, and it was a beautiful thing! Ah, the good ol' days.

[@ViaticumCanada]

I was living in Tokyo at the time, FYI.

[@lovelesstv]

Drove me nuts until I could remember! Music is Nero - My Eyes for anyone that is interested.

[@GTArajgaming]

My favourite way of installing FMB was to use a trigger disc. years ago I had a program that took the ID of an inserted PS1 game and injected it into a PS2 save file along with ulaunchELF So what would happen is: each time that particular PS1 game was inserted into the PS2 and ran, it would boot into ulaunchELF and from there on I installed FMB

[@Thordrune]

Ah yes, the good old Independence Exploit :). I used it on my system up until recently, before switching to FreeHDBoot. I believe I kept all of my exploit-related files, for nostalgia purposes, hehe.

[@tompopolo8801]

Yooo, I remember years ago, I downloaded Free McBoot onto a 1 gb USB, then I had to do a glitch with a “State of Emergency” save file I believe. It ended up installing it on the memory card. I remember having to do a swap trick somewhere in there too.

[@Loenne555]

Thanks for the update... :) Never heard of FMCB and OPL, simply didn't follow the PS2 development the last 10 years... But it got me excited, so I woke up my good old fat PS2 (SCPH-30004) and took it out of its warm, dry storage. I modchipped the console over a decade ago, so everything else now was a breeze: Burnt a uLaunchELF boot DVD, threw it in, and installed FMCB and OPL onto an old memory card. My PS2 reloaded... Almost forgot what an awesome system it was and still is... Greatness never left!

[@EvilCoffeeInc]

OPL with ethernet is pretty amazing. You can use it to play Japanese games you've ripped and patched for English at full speed with very few issues. Shadow Tower Abyss is what I tested with and it works super well.

[@RobertusWE]

How?

[@BulletFever1]

@@RobertusWE SMB or samba. you can store games on a computer in the local network and play them that way Some games have English patches, you take the patch data and a rip of a game and use a tool to smash them together.

[@reecerox2]

Really been enjoying your content lately mate. Doing Aussie content creators proud.

[@df5826]

When I was younger and this was brand new, we always referred to the "watermark" as a bad sector. All we knew was the legit discs started with a sector that couldn't be recreated on our Plextor burners. The good old days, when you needed to install a SCSI card just to run a CD burner. How long did people argue about whether you could get away with using IDE rather than SCSI? You were badass if you owned an Ultra 2wide SCSI card and a Plextor 8x burner. I still look at progress bars and wait for the 0 to become 1% so I know the drive isn't going to kick the disc out. It's like a mild form of PTSD. Thanks Goldenhawk! ;)

[@justinw.7407]

You have a great way of explaining things and keeping your audience interested. Thank you for these videos!

[@ThunderTHR]

I still have a PS2 with the Messiah 2 modchip and it still runs PS2 backups like a champ.

[@DarkSwordsman]

There is nothing quite like playing PS2 games today. Despite the limited hardware, a lot of games still hold up to this day and are still really fun. One of my favorites is Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Zero. You also made me want to revist GT3 and GT4

[@t3hSurge]

I used swap magic with my slim to play the beatmania IIDX series. I didn't have an aftermarket lid, I just jammed the tip of toothpicks in both lid sensor switches so the lid always appeared closed. The middle "sensor" you highlight is actually just a braking mechanism for the disc.

[@WillWinder]

I remember modding the PS2 in 2003. Before the mod chip there was a popular swap method with the action replay where you pop off the dvd tray bezel and slowly open the tray by turning a gear with a small flat head screwdriver. I didn’t realize there were cd/dvd limitations with that method, but I definitely remember heavily transcoded (or removed) cutscenes to get games to fit on a cd-rom!

[@heavymetalelf]

This is the method I used until Free McBoot

[@mosilew207]

About the Swap Magic: If I recall corretly - they just cut the security ring from a Crazy Taxi discs and somehow pressed/glued it together with their own.

[@nitrax8629]

Ooh, really interesting! Also envy the apparent Japanese launch unit at 3:34 - Does that still work fully? I've heard these really early units have a lot of laser and overheating problems.

[@TylerFurrison]

I recognize a certain Nitrax owo

[@Marlboro_enjoyer]

These Japanese units are much tougher made than the later American and European units. These JP units are much, much heavier and don't have a Expansion bay, but a PC Card Slot.

[@emmettturner9452]

The original memory card update was for playing DVD movies since the earliest consoles did not have a built-in DVD player. That’s also the reason Sony stopped releasing updates on memory card: DVD playback was built in before the international launch. Pretty sure this is also why ESR only works with FMCB and only works with DVD titles: The ESR patcher changes the media type from DVD-ROM to DVD-Video, making the PS2 look to the memory card for an updated DVD player. That’s where it finds ESR, which it boots in PS2 mode with full access to the PS2 hardware. Since it isn’t actually DVD playback software, it just bootstraps the game on the disc instead. ;)

[@kristianutomotobing9719]

You're a lifesaver! I am currently waiting to renew my driving license and queueing takes long. This might be the solution for the boredom

[@ShinGoukiSan]

I had a Swap Magic that let me use the stock Slim DVD Door. Just moded the switches and sensors that told the system it was open.

[@Bakamoichigei]

Hah... Just the other day, I was going through a box and I found the Swap Magic tray tool I'd made for my PS2 fat, cut from an old gift card. I eventually got a flip-top mod case, but man did seeing that stupid piece of plastic really take me back! 😂

[@Stella-ri5ex]

All of your videos always look very entertaining yet informative. Thanks

[@joels188]

awesome vid again mate. Such high quality content, love it

[@FEO]

Thanks for all these MVG, they're always ultra interesting! 👌

[@daddykong6388]

Your channel is pure GOLD! So glad I came across it's all I could expect from a HQ-content gaming channel as I see it. Keep up the good work =)

[@grproteus]

Awesome video! Nero music playing on the background was equally awesome (and somewhat distracting :P)

[@kasuraga]

I must have used a much older softmod method. It required patching a file inside the memorycard so when you put a specific PS1 game it would boot an elf loader. From there I could launch a disc swap program, or hdloader. I also had an action replay elf file, but what I did was had it modified so instead of launching a game at the end, it would launch HDLoader so I could boot games off my hard drive.

[@marcianzero_yt]

Just fighting today with an SDXC install on a PS2 Slim V12. ;) In the end using Modbo, FMCB and OPL with a MicroSD card on an IDE to SD Adapter. I got a bucket load of Original copies, but playing from HD is so much more convenient.

[@mrsinewave1230]

Love your CBM 1702/1701 screen, looks amazing.

[@boredstudent]

I bought the SwapMagic 3 DVD with the DVD drive because I have a NTSC-J game for the PS2 and obviously an NTSC-U PS2 is region locked so that helped. One thing I learned about SwapMagic 3 is that it can also open ULaunchELF using a flash drive. I was able to use this method to dump my PS2 bios to my flash drive (using BIOS dumper) and use the bios on PCSX2. This was before I even heard of the FreeMCBoot softmod

[@17Delirious]

Aw I was hoping you'd show footage of a FAT PS2 and load some games off the HDD. USB 1.1 is a bit of a bummer for loading games since it can be slow and compatibility isn't as great as HDD loading. HDD loading isn't perfect either but my go to for playing games with faster loading. Keep up the great work!!

[@RockerGaming]

Good stuff MVG. I always enjoy these look backs! I still have a messiah in my ps2 😁

[@gzusburrito]

Your content is amazing, you should be really proud of what you are doing for the gaming community. Carry on, sir!

[@ChrisRoxby]

I finally did it. I dusted off my PS2 and got FreeMcBoot installed! MVG, you'll love this: My SwapMagic disc supports USB, but none of the drives that I have worked. So I dusted off my PSP and used that as my USB drive! It was an adventure, but after getting OPL setup on the network, I may never need my swap disc again!

[@onizuka]

I owned HDLoader, with the little plastic thing to eject the HDLoader disk and install ISO's onto a drive. Loved it

[@_baller]

The graphics look great....who needs a PS4

[@texasgun2731]

people who wanna play online

[@drd5455]

@@texasgun2731 you can play ps2 online lol

[@cssnderporngle5838]

I'm with you. If I still had mine, i'd be playing it nowadays, with demos and games. Good times.

[@seagawk1254]

@@drd5455 servers are dead

[@drd5455]

@@seagawk1254 xlink kai, xbslink host ps2 there some others as well but I can't recall the names

[@jon-paulgrainger1303]

Use to use swapmagic for ps2 slim for my borrowed games, cost 40£. Good little mod. Awesome vod MVG as always!

[@Sylkis89]

I had a chip called ripper3 (ver 1.4 if I remember right). That was supposed to be the best trying at the time. Worked for many years. Then I bought a network adapter and put a HDD on it. Then I had just a bootloader on a dvd to launch ISOs from the HDD, which was also making games run MUCH smoother, reducing loading times insanely, and making the unit quieter

[@TombstoneChris]

I'm going out today to buy a PS2 and all the old Tiger Woods games since his major comeback. Great video. My favorite console ever.

[@Clusters3rdStrikeArc]

Get them for the og Xbox if you can would be much advice, PS2 controller and tiger Woods games do go together to well.

[@Eterna1Zack]

Great vid btw, I would like to see a psvita security breakdown from you, thanks beforehand

[@PIERCED6966]

I remember in the 80's before Datel was big going to their offices in Stoke-on-Trent and getting a action replay for the commodore 64. In them days stores were so naive, i used to go into WHSmith who at the time sold BBC mico, spectrum and commodores. Id plug in the action replay and do a straight copy of the game in memory onto a 5 1/4 inch disk. Good times lol.

[@AmirZaimMohdZaini]

The latest one in PS2 modding scene where there is an another exploit which is Fortuna Exploit that could allow PS2 slim 90k models which FMCB can't used finally allowed to run the homebrew. The exploit requires user to access the memcard menu first and then going back before launching its homebrew ELF file under BOOT.ELF name.

[@matt4193]

Shadow of the Colossus does run better when loading via OPL SMB since the texture streaming depends a lot of the access times.

[@lordeilluminati]

Bully is one of that benefits from improved access of SMB too. It has a horrendous initial loading originally and on SMB it is near instant to start

[@Aragubas]

here in brasil every PlayStation 2 that i ever saw has the Matrix Modchip, its a very popular modchip here

[@TheAdamGore]

When you have a *very* large number of people with the same goal, the masses can become EXTREMELY crafty. These DRM topics are always so interesting. Great video MVG ! ps: The emulators are getting really good now...

[@Zerbey]

I remember buying the SwapMagic kit for my PS2-Slim, it wasn't 100% reliable but far less work than having to mess with all that soldering. Didn't need to change the lid it had pieces that disabled the eject sensors instead. Some clever engineering.

[@xmine08]

I really like these videos, though I'd love if you could incorporate some more technical details. Cheers mate!

[@Jamasen]

My personal favorite: PHAT PS2 with FreeHDDBoot on a SATA converted network adapter using an SSD.

[@JustAnyone]

SSD is a bit too much i think, ide isnt that fast to handle its potential

[@user-mb3mk6on2z]

I'm thinking about a ssd in mine just for silence and reliability not keen on the sound of hdds

[@JustAnyone]

I would take hdd because most current gen hdd's are silent too

[@tzuyd]

Yup, the network adaptor was the best investment. Having all of my games (especially the legit copies) on my hard drive was great. No more disc swapping, no more fucking Sony dead lens problems.

[@johnrickard8512]

My PS2 already had a bigger and faster hard drive than my Xbox 360 XD

[@davidheer6107]

I see that OSSC in the background! Good stuff.

[@mahiru20ten]

I hope there are more videos about the modchips. I bought my PS2 with modchips already included on the console, I think it was around 2003-2004, it ran pretty well.

[@darth3pio]

I always find your videos fascinating.

[@airforce4422]

For anyone that went down the rabbit hole its David Ball not David Bell that lost the court case versus Sony

[@piotrgabriel8137]

The middle "sensor" in green ring is not a sensor but a break to stop the disc from spinning when lid is open. And ESR patched disc will also work on modchip.

[@LazyBunnyKiera]

One of the PS2 Slims, has the IDE pins on the motherboard. So i personally want to get get one of those PS2 Slims and solder in an IDE SSD. I think that would be pretty cool.

[@markusTegelane]

The interesting thing is that Sony removed the third sensor (inside the console) with the latest models (the SCPH-9000x models), probably due to the internal sensor being really unreliable.

[@williamreid6255]

Kind of a dumb question (I’m no big PS fan) but what does SPCH stand for? Or is it just the “random letter” sort of method for model numbers?

[@markusTegelane]

@@williamreid6255 don't know what it stands for, but usually that prefix means it's retail hardware (i. e. they can be bought by any person from a retail store)

[@untitledjunk03]

0:33 is slightly different than I remember, it said “Please insert a PlayStation or PlayStation 2 *format* disc.”

[@LiEnby]

It's a region thing probably

[@3Storms]

I used the disc-swap method relentlessly for import games. Don't forget that back then it took months to a year or more for a game to come out in the US after its initial Japanese release, and often times that time was spent making changes so we didn't get the same game but translated. I remember the US release of Final Fantasy X was so late after the Japanese release that a second version (Final Fantasy X International) came out in Japan and worldwide outside of the US before we finally got the initial game. We did eventually get the International version with the PS3 HD remaster.

[@SoftBank47]

Did you have the slim PS2 case mod, or did you use the slide tool? I used both. Played a lot of Melty Blood and Beatmania. 😁

[@WALLE1D1W]

Funny story that this video reminded me of. I have an unmodified PS2, and I still play games on it. I had a game that I wanted to play, but the disk was damaged enough that, while it would boot up, it never got to the main menu. To fix this, I got a used, but genuine, copy that was in much better condition than my old one. But it wasn't in perfect condition, and the game froze up during a cutscene transition near the end of the game. Just as a test, I did a disk swap using my old, damaged disk, and surprising, the cutscene was undamaged on that one, so that worked good enough to get past the broken part and get back to normal game play. Obviously in this case, the disk swapping was successful due to me just swapping out two legitimate copies of the same game, so no copy protection was violated. It's just I remembered it though it interesting to share.

[@chemergency]

Ironic that despite Sony's efforts the PS2 is easier to run homebrew and backups on because it can be softmodded, unlike the PS1. UPDATE: Thanks to the recent efforts of TonyHax and FreePSXBoot, the PS1 can also be softmodded now. Sure you could do swaptrick on PS1 but you risk damaging the disc motor and/or laser over time with that.

[@davidmcguire6043]

It was only easier because the PS2 was more like a computer than the PS1. after that consoles began to become more specialized and less like P.C.S

[@greenaum]

@@davidmcguire6043 Dude the PS4 and whatever latest Xbox are both literally PCs! Almost entirely standard PC hardware with a couple of tweaks. It's the only thing that makes economic sense, Intel and AMD have spent billions on developing the most powerful chips, while MIPS and the rest fell behind. It's now such an expensive business even Microsoft and Sony don't want to be involved, they could afford to but it'd be billions or hundreds of millions for no great advantage, they wouldn't be able to come up with anything significantly better. Of course there's hundreds of millions of PCs in the world, you can't beat the economics of mass production.

[@sundhaug92]

@@greenaum Minor correction: The PS4 and Xbox One is x86-64, but lacks the PC-compatibility stuff

[@greenaum]

@@sundhaug92 Sure, they don't run Windows. Thought Wiindows could probably be ported pretty easily, if you could get past the software protection on consoles. Which has happened to every other console so far. It's x86, and the graphics hardware is also the same as PC stuff. I would imagine the interfaces are the same PCI-express, since that's what's built into the CPUs and graphics chips. Would be pointless and expensive to develop another interface. Very expensive and you wouldn't get a faster result so why botherr? They're PCs with a bit of protection to limit who can develop for them, that's all. You could probably even port PS4 games to Xbox and back, if you got past that. Put a recompiling emulator, that searches for hardware accesses that differ, or use a trap or hypervisor mode to do it. Point is, the economics mean that if you want super cutting-edge, it's cheapest to go with PC hardware, who've spent so much on developing it. Sony did a good job of developing super-fast parallel CPUs for previous consoles but the very high tech for the fastest chips is now so expensive it's worth paying whatever Intel and AMD charge. It's also nice they prop AMD up. Intel is much bigger. If there wasn't competition, they'd have a monopoly. There used to be more competition, particularly Cyrix, way back when. They fell by the wayside (and to be honest their chips were inferior). It's not ideal to only have 2 competitors, one much bigger, but much preferable to only 1.

[@grn1]

@@greenaum I went with AMD for my Desktop since they are cheaper, have similar power, and haven't been plagued tons of security issues (seriously I just read the other day about yet another Intel security flaw and this one can't be patched). Also nice that AMD doesn't change their socket every couple years so I could conceivably upgrade my CPU without having to replace my Motherboard (considering how expensive some of these components are I really don't want to have to build a whole new PC every time I want to upgrade).