Playstation 2 "Free McBoot"

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I bought a Playstation 2 soft mod (well, no soldering mod) from this seller on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/chinelotrading ... pg=&_from=

What he is selling is a memory card that you put into your PS2 and he gives you a USB stick with some games on it. His eBay store said he was on vacation for a week but he sent me this anyway AND it arrived early. He is the only guy on my side this week.

It actually worked right from the start. Now, don't get me wrong, the PS2 - HDMI adapter that was working the last time I turned my PS2 on somehow doesn't work anymore, but that thing is a piece of shit. There's some "trick" to getting it work and Christ, I don't care anymore. HDMI and my PS2 is simply not meant to be. Within 30 seconds of going to a TV with RCA plugs, this thing was up and working. I started up Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on it. (Did you know that if you do nothing and just let the game run, it starts on its own? I think we can put it in the "Wants to be Played" category with Doom 2016 and what Ben said about Enceladus.)

Anyway, this is great - it only works on the larger PS2, which is what I have. And I guess now I need to figure out what PS2 games I want on it.

(The one "negative" I read about this particular setup was that the games took a long time to load from the USB disk. Two weeks ago, before the Tuesday Boozeday event, I had Commodore 64 games taking 4 minutes to load. Game loading time is not a .... ah ... concern of mine.)

[Flack]

Well, that's fun. The PS2 was one of my favorite consoles. It has a huge library, but I think the more important thing is I had one before I had kids, so there was a lot more time in the day available for gaming back then. Did I ever tell you that I actually camped outside Walmart to get a PS2 on launch day? That was a fun time.

I have a modded PS3 that also plays PS1 and PS2 ISOs. Pretty amazing technology.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

So, I left GTA:SA up and saw the day and night cycle go as I was doing other things this morning. I left it on and went upstairs to have coffee with my wife. I came back down and CJ is in front of the hospital.

Now I'm wondering - if left completely alone, as in we don't touch the controller, is it guaranteed that someone in GTA:SA will come by on their own and attack him?

I can say now that watching him outside the hospital, all manner of people are coming up to him and insulting him. He shouldn't have to take that.

[Flack]

Is it possible the game did not load and you are just looking out the window?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I live in a nicer town now!!

So, thinking about PS2 games, I guess I should put games I actually might play on this thing. But not games I own. So some candidates in addition to GTA:SA are:

Burnout 3: Takedown (the other day I read the Caltrops thread about Ben's review, which I put over there against his will and holy shit were the people on Caltrop absolute little cunts towards Ben at the time. What a bunch of pissy little losers.)
Gran Turismo 4?
NFL Street?
Probably MVP Baseball 2005.
Okami?

I own Ico, Katamari, Parappa, Shadow of the Colossus, some Raiden game and some others. And the thing already has loaded on it Bully and Resident Evil 4.

[The Happiness Engine]

GOD. HAND.

That an Katamari 1 are the only reason I fight with my PS2 emulator.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Never played it.

[Flack]

One of my favorite games on the PS2 was State of Emergency, which involves running around inside a mall and causing as much damage to the property while killing as many people as possible. Sure, you're only supposed to kill the SWAT team members and gang members and leave the regular civilians alone, but other than a polite scolding (this game's version of "Elf shot the food"), there's nothing stopping you from setting old ladies on fire with a flamethrower.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

So, I came back to this to do some setting up of things this weekend. There is something I don't get.

The documentation says that Free McBoot works with exFat formatted USB drives. I have not been able to get one to work.

It does work with exFat.

There is a 4GB limit to an individual file size for exFat.

All of the PS2 .isos that I can find are just a bit larger than 4GB.

I do not understand how anyone is playing anything with Free McBoot under these circumstances. I downloaded the smallest PS2 game I could find easily, Pac-Man World Rally or something, and it was a 375MB zip file that expanded to 4GB. So clearly that just means that there is padding but still. I have a 2GB .iso of "X-Men Legends" which works but that is it really.

I wonder if people are burning DVDs?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

This has confused and confounded me. I also don't have file format limits memorized.

... Ok, wait, I figured it out. More soon!

[Flack]

Hey, double check that. FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB, but I think exFAT doesn't have that same limit.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I think I remember what I did.

Rez is around 275MB, so it fits on everything. I had a .bin version and a .md5 (I think) version. I found a program that converted the .bin to an .iso. Free McBoot's PS2 launcher found the .iso in the DVD directory.

I played it! The ah. Ah. Okay.

Rez for the PS2 has a vibrating trance USB device. It does not control the game. It just literally vibrates, plugged into the second controller spot.

This whole thing got internet famous because a gal wrote an article about this setup and how it, ah, pleased her. Which is fair. But I don't know any other purpose for it. This isn't like baking an apple pie and then figuring out it can also be used as something to stick your penis in, Flack. I don't see any other purpose for the Rez vibrating trance device. Which. I now own.

I want anyone to be able to play any game in my home. And I don't have them all: Paperboy, Battlezone, Tron, Steel Battalion, P.T. There's gaps.

I have closed one with Rez. But at what cost?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

The next thing to try is to watch a video that shows how to get an iso larger than 4GB onto either a FAT or expat PS2 USB stick. I have the video loaded downstairs.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I have a modded PS3 that also plays PS1 and PS2 ISOs. Pretty amazing technology.

You have INTRIGUED me with this. Futzing around with file sizes and Free McBoot isn't great. I think I am going to start trawling eBay for modded PS3s that allow this. I never had a PS3.

[Flack]

For a long time I was on top of mods and modchips and I kind of peaked with the Wii, but the PS3 stuff that's out there now is fantastic. I don't know if it's all softmods or what. I can't remember what I paid for my modded PS3 on eBay but it wasn't all that much. I have a multi-terabyte HD plugged in to a USB port full of PS1, PS2, and PS3 ISOs. The only remotely complicated part is that it came with a bunch of pre-installed apps and I don't know what 9/10ths of them do and none of them seem necessary. It's also slightly annoying that (I think) you use different apps to launch PS1, PS2, and PS3 games. The problem is I don't play with it enough so each time I turn it on I have to figure it all out again. I should really write it all down next time.