/vr/ - Retro Games

>>7725597
There's a number of alternatives like HDL Dump, WinHIIP and HDLGameInstaller. Take a look in the ps2-home forums to get a better idea of more alternatives, they have a subforum dedicated entirely to PS2 HDD game installation programs and support for them.
I personally use WinHIIP, though afaik it only allows transferring from PC to HDD directly, pretty sure it's older than the alternatives too. HDL Dump is a bit more modern and there's GUIs that you can get for it that make it easy to use.
If you already have a network solution something like HDLGameInstaller might be good since it allows installation via network, and since you already have that set-up I would imagine installing via network to the HDD would be a breeze. You can also install directly from the disc drive if you own physical copies of the games.
Again, I only used WinHIIP personally which is alright if you have a way to hook up your HDD to your PC (via USB is simplest), but that's mostly out of habit and I'm pretty sure the other two alternatives might be better if you're getting started, especially if you've got the network part already figured out.

>>7725597
Some people claim that there are a handful of games for PS2 that cannot be played on the slim; only the Fat models will do. Is this really true?

>>7725698
I think that's only true for some models of the slim.

>>7725597
I do it via ethernet with HDLGManClient.

>>7725597
Just get a PS3 and put your isos on there.

>>7725698
Yes because I think some games only work through HDD. That said generally speaking if it's working over HDD it will also work over SMB

>>7725597
Sata to USB connector which has a power outage.

>>7725597
read the readme or pay the $100/h consulting-fee

>>7725730
I've tried that but couldn't get it to work on the PC end. Every time I enter the IP address and hit connect it gives me an error message. Any idea what could be going wrong? I am able to play games off ethernet with OPL fine, I just can't install them on the hard drive currently.

Not OP btw

HDLGameInstaller

>>7726106
>Sata
almost certain it's an IDE drive.

>>7726320
Nevermind, I found out the problem was that I had the PS2 assigned to an IP that was already in use.

>>7726478
I made my PS2 a reserved IP (although LaunchELF doesn’t support DHCP anyway for some reason).

Does modbo change the compatibility too?
I have read online that there are quite a few games incompatible with SCPH-7500x models, yet the Initial D game I burned recently works just fine.

i bought an external 500gb 2.5 inch drive, ripped that off its case and kept the sata to usb board it was attached to. put some bubblewrap underneath the drive so it's on level with the slot. if i wanna transfer stuff to it i remove the hdd from ps2 and plug it to pc via usb. i use winHIIP and the ps2 network adaptor is a gamestar chink clone. 0 issues so far.

>>7725597
Using google is hard inst it

>>7725698
Original releases of Jak and Daxter and Star Ocean 3 don't work on any PS2 that dosent have physical PSX harder on the motherboard.

>>7726034
>SMB
I don't know what you mean by that.

>>7725597
1. Insert your HDD into the PS2, and have FreeMcBoot format it
2. If it didn't create and OPL partition, boot OPL
3. Go back to uLaunchElf and got the formatting tool, and this time increase the partition size of OPL to something like 2 GB. This will make installing more art, VMCs possible.
4. Turn off your PS2 completely, remove it from the console and hook it up to an HDD dock on your PC.
5. Download this and follow the instructions: https://gbatemp.net/threads/ps2-hdd-batchkit-2tb-support.544600/

Done. Put your shit back into the PS2 and play.

>>7726903
>>7726034
>SMB
>I don't know what you mean by that.
Super Mario Bros.
Nah, I'm kidding. It's a file share protocol. Server Message Block.
I had to learn a little about it to access a usb drive that's plugged in to my router

>>7726904
This assumes you're okay installing every single PS2 game you would ever want to play all at once. Otherwise you're constantly going to be unscrewing the adapter to pull it out and reload it with new games whenever something strikes your fancy.

>>7726626
Jesus fucking christ, why are you so against answering questions?

>>7727212
Because I want you to learn it yourself
Typing in "freehdboot tutorial" into google and following the steps isnt hard

>>7727219
I'm already booting to the HDD, I just want to know the best method for moving games to the system. OPL makes loading network games easy but there isn't a clear method for doing so on a local store.

Buttface.

>>7727219
You're a fucking faggot, you know that?

>>7727219
It actually is very unintuitive and the documentation is trash. PS2 tools were all written for like Windows XP and the community is full of gatekeeping little bitches such as yourself.

>>7725597
My computer case is the cooler master haf xb evo, so I can just plug the hard drive into one of the hot swap bays and transfer games using winhiip. Then I just slap it back into the PS2 when I'm done.

>>7725597
the HDD was for a handful of online games and such that PS2 supported, like FFXI.

>>7727212
$100/h + tip

>>7728083
Well now you can play games directly off it so that's outdated thinking.

>>7725597
https://youtu.be/MX1onmPGwqM

>>7728589
>>7725597
https://youtu.be/vsiqBJvhZ88

>>7725597
I don't. Using a HDD is retarded and moving games is super retarded.

>>7729883
Janny this post right now.

>>7727209
Or just every so often.
Or yeah, download a bunch of ISOs and go to town, why not? You're getting games for free, a small amount of effort here and there to play doesn't seem like a bad trade off.

>>7727209
Or just get one of the official adaptors, network your PS2 and do it remotely in the background every so often without having to move anything and paying the dreadful price of not being able to use your PS2 for a couple minutes.

>>7730103
>mommies this post right now

>>7725597
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO5DmaXKZ0c

Does anyone know how to run Super Dragon Ball Z on OPL through a HDD? I've read that it needs Mode 3 (and 1?) to work, but for me, even with those modes activated, it never loads beyond a black screen.

So I'm in the mood for linking up two ps2s to play some Armored Core and Time Crisis.

Has anyone tested to see if two PS2s can access the same game from the same SMB server? And if the ethernet is being used for loading game files, does that stop you from being able to play games over the network?

>>7731265
Loading should work fine. I do have two PS2s on the same network so I can test it if you work fine.
I would not want to use VMCs though.
And it also disables other network functionality, I'm quite sure.

>>7731280
*test it if you want

>>7731280
I would appreciate it if you would test it out for me.

At least ILink games like Time Crisis and the earlier Armored Core games would still work for multiplayer.

>>7731296
Yep, both consoles were happily running Ratchet & Clank at the same time.
It even detected that the VMC was in use by the other console and refused to use it. Nifty.

>>7729883
Yeah dude! using a usb hard drive is so mu-
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Loading reply

>>7726612
Sounds good

>>7725597
Seagate or WD?

>>7725597
i couldn't get anything other than HDLGameInstaller to work.

>>7731314
>Yeah dude! im literally retarded and underage

>>7732879
>Yeah dude! im literally retarded and underage
Where's your argument?
>Using a HDD is retarded
Objectively it has the highest compatibility with the fastest load times, and no stuttering cutscene issues that you get with usb
>moving games is super retarded.
Imagine being this fucking retarded. It's literally easier to hook a sata drive up to a pc and transfer than it is to fuck around with getting SMB to work because its a dogshit protocol and windows' implementation of it is awful. I don't see what any of this has to do with me being underage as I've been fucking around with ps2 softmodding since 2010.

I just wish the PS2 internal HDD solutions weren't so temperamental. It usually all works in the end and there's plenty of community resources on a per-game basis but once you've gotten used to the FTP drag-and-drop simplicity of games off an Xbox HDD it's real hard to go back to loaders and compatibility modes and VMC fragmentation and everything else.
Still take it over burning a stack of DVDs and waiting for my PS2's optical drive to die though.

>>7730302
This

>>7732916
I don't argue with tards I only laugh at them. Using a HDD is retarded. Maybe in 2010 when your daddy set it up for you it made sense but not today. There are better options that don't cost much more. Maybe if you weren't using daddy's old HDD you wouldn't have to move shit. You could leave a copy on the HDD on your computer so that when the HDD in your PS2 dies you don't have to spend hours filling out surveys to download your games again. Every time you post you prove what a dumb underage you are.

>>7733626
>Anon falls for survey farms in 2021
>Doesn't provide a reason why HDD is worse today, just says so
Cool, fag.

>>7733626
Why is this extreme faggotry so common on /vr/? It’s not even gatekeeping, it’s just being an unproductive asshole.

>>7733670
ever since August 2020

>>7725597
Seagate, Sandisk, or WD for the HDD?

>>7733673
Is this some retarded payback for allowing gen 6 content? Because you need to kill yourself.

>>7733673
>June 2018(? second year?)
ftfy

>>7733692
WD. I originally a 250GB but I got a 1TB returned from warranty and decided to use that instead to localize my collection over network booting.

>>7733692
I'm using a Western Digital Blue 1TB Drive. It works great.

>>7733649
>Anon uses HDDs in 2021
>Does provide a reason why, retarded underage poorfag using old garbage
Cool, fag.

>>7733670
>It’s not even gatekeeping,
Yup. It's just laughing at tards. And I'm glad it pains your anus that I'm making fun of an underage tard who can only afford one old HDD.

>>7734360
>HDD is bad because it's cheap. you should pay more for a worse experience
what even is your argument??

>>7727296
>>7727313
>>7727332
google it or pay the hourly consulting fee you dumb nigger. This isn't a tech support board.

>>7733626
You're fucking retarded, and you should also pay the consulting fee if you want to know why.

Stop replying to the fucking retard shitting up the thread.

>>7734431
Fine, post your bank account please.

>>7725597
I would use HDLbatch, especially if you are installing a lot of games.

>>7725689
WinHIIP is garbage, it has a 255 game limit and also fails to install dual-layer (DVD9) games every time.

>>7734393
>reading comprehension is bad because i can't do it
Again. No argument. Just laughing at a poor stupid child having a tantrum on the internet.

>>7734452
Good. Good. Let the butthurt flow through you.

>>7735910
You're genuinely fucking stupid.
Don't reply.

>>7734660
i installed xenosaga ep 1 which is dvd9 without a hitch using winHIIP. all these complaints stem from improperly formated drives.

>>7733692
I’ve been using a 160GB Seagate IDE for two years with no problems. Granted, you can get SATA drives with much bigger storage capacity but you need an unofficial adapter for those to work and none that I know of keep the ethernet port, thereby locking you out of using network features.

>>7734660
I'm convinced WinHIIP corrupted my main drive so I had to reformat
is there any other way to format my PS2 HDD?

Do those $25 china-clone network adapters damage drives or the PS2? How about the premade Free McBoot cards?

>>7734360
Wait, so if I literally have a half dozen old HDDs I could use, I shouldn't, and I should go use something else that is no better, because?

>>7736013
>How about the premade Free McBoot cards?
These are just normal memory cards that have run the FMCB installer. No more or less dodgy than any other third party memory card.

>>7736013
I've not personally heard of the chink adaptors causing issues. Though of course they don't have the ability to get you a network connection.

>>7736175
>>7736204
Thanks for these responses. I'm wary about connecting modern chinesium to my PS2 for obvious reasons.
Don't care about the network shit, just wanna pirate single player stuff because fuck paying modern prices and fuck wrecking the console's chips with bootlegs and modchips.

>>7736228
I find the network convenient for installing games. But I guess SATA drives are easily connected directly to your PC as well.

>>7736246
Hotswappin bitches ain't but a thing.

>>7736228
Networking isn't for playing online, it's for installing games over the network.

>>7736278
I'd rather use a PC. Faster, more control.

Why would you ditch OPL?

>>7735993
ULaunchELF can do it straight from your ps2 assuming you have a recent version of freeemcboot available

>>7735969
Then you’ll have to explain why winhiip failed to install 12/12 dvd 9 games that HDLbatch installed correctly and faster on the same drive. It has nothing to do with formatting.

>>7736776
It was really slow for a 1TB drive. I'd hate to try to format double that size. I could probably go out for lunch before it was done.

>>7736781
Looks like you’ll never have a formatted drive then. Can you not carve out time to wait for it to finish?

>>7736780
i dont see any other reason for dvd9 install to fail other than having restricted partition size. and i dont have to explain anything because the software works on my machine.

>>7736792
Thanks for telling me that I can disregard your opinion. Take it easy today bro, it’s supposed to be a beautiful day.

>>7736796
and i hope you will make your future posts in the format of "winhiip doesnt work on my end for whatever reason. not that the software itself is faulty"

>>7736786
I don't care, I already formatted a 1TB in it. I just was mentioning the process took a lot longer than I thought it would just to zero out the entire drive.

>>7736806
And I’m just saying that those are the two most popular ways to format HDD’s for use in ps2, maybe there is no way around a long formatting time for 2TB drives. I’ve only ever used 500gb drives.

>>7736803
It’s well known that it’s outdated and the problems are not just on my end, posts going back years mention what I have. If it works for you, that’s actually great and I would keep using it, but don’t pretend the software doesn’t have it’s downsides.

Kind of a dumb question but I'll ask it here as it's specific.

Does ulaunchELF work with drives larger than 2tb? I've got a spare WD 3tb lying around and I can't find anything saying theres an upper size limit, just that there's no more 1tb limit. According to ulaunchELF im on the latest version and right now it's taking 40 years to format. I tried this before with an old 1tb Seagate (which also took forever and a day if memory serves) and got to expanding the OPL partition before the drive died (it was old and failing anyway).

>>7737240
>According to ulaunchELF im on the latest version
Are you 100% sure?

>>7737240
MBR fucks up once you exceed 2TB. The PS2 doesn't use the same sort of MBR as PCs do, but it could be confused in a similar kind of way.

>>7737249
i worded that poorly. according to what I've googled 4.43a is the latest version, however further googling led me to this
https://www.psx-place.com/resources/wlaunchelf.713/
which is apparently a fork of ulaunchELF being actively maintained. doesn't help my issue though.

>>7737252
>MBR fucks up once you exceed 2TB
well goddammit

fuck it, guess I'm buying another spare 2tb drive. I'm assuming any old drive will work as long as its 2tb and under? there's only so many games worth throwing on there.

>>7737276
I have a 2TB in mine. I cherry picked a bunch of stuff, even games I know I'll never play, but figured, what the Hell, and I only just got to 2 TB.

You generally don't need that much room.

>>7737345
Once I put 100 games on a 500gb HDD, I was honestly struggling to find anything else that I would want to ever play, personally.

>>7728083
Without custom shit some games natively could install on a HDD for faster loading like Street Fighter Alpha Anthology

>>7735974
>you need an unofficial adapter for those to work and none that I know of keep the ethernet port
Just swap the IDE out for SATA
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H7R3XDY/

>>7727219
asshole

>>7737952
I actually just bought this, waiting for it to come in still. I’ve read that the standoffs need sanding or else it won’t fit properly? Do you know if this is true or have any other tips for installation, by any chance? Thanks.

>>7738024
Using a 2.5" drive in mine all I did was tape the hole to stop it from touching the plate

>>7738051
That pic looks upside down.

>>7738024
I didn't sand anything in my case (using a 3.5" SATA Drive), but getting everything to fit properly was a pain in the ass. The cables being awkward and cumbersome to fit in, as well as the washers/standoffs sliding about as I was trying to put the metal plate back on made reassembly take like 10-20 mins. It works perfectly fine after the fact, though.

>>7737276
>according to what I've googled 4.43a is the latest version
been at "4.43a" for several years now

use the boot.elf from the latest fmcb-installer-archive

>>7725698
My slim cannot play big mother truckers 1 or 2 or initial d and a few other games, you can look up a full list easily it's a well documented thing on certain model slims

>>7738452
From an HDD or period?

>>7738024
It's a bit of a pain to install. I managed to end up with some internal revision of the network adaptor that absolutely nobody online seemed to have bothered taking a photo of so I was flying blind, but even that dumpster fire all fitted together eventually and works like a charm.

>>7738454
I have tried a genuine copy of big mother truckers and a burned copy of initial d I have no idea about HDD

>>7738712
I do remember having trouble with Sonic Unleashed, even with a real disc. So it might be something about the slim consoles.

>format IDE hard drive using PS2
>connect it to computer via USB
>load games
>put it back in my ps2
>happily play games for months
>pulls HD back out and plugs it back in to USB adapter to add more games
>windows doesn't detect it

what the fuck do i do now? i tried the FTP server but i couldn't connect to it at all. fucked with the settings for like half an hour trying to get that to work

would reformatting the hard drive in the ps2 make windows more likely to recognize it? idk why it would

>>7739170
OPL manager?

>>7739178
i'll give it a go, i've been using WinHIIP. thanks anon. i dont think it will solve my "not coming up in windows" dilemna but it's something to try

>>7736013
>Do those $25 china-clone network adapters damage drives or the PS2? How about the premade Free McBoot cards?
If they run at 3v they will cause your console to explode
>Wait, so I literally think an old 80GB HDD that's about to die is no better than a new 1TB SSD?
Apparently

>>7739195
can you see it in disk management?

>>7739208
i dont think it did last time, but just pulled it out and plugged it in again and now i get this prompt when i open disc management. i'll check if OPL manager can figure out what to do with it.

thanks anon, i had lost motivation to troubleshoot this and assumed no one would help me :)

>>7739245
>just pulled it out and plugged it in again
pulled it back out of my PS2 and plugged it back into my PC, i mean. i didnt just powercycle
(polite sage for dumbass correction)

>>7739170
personally im fucking done with IDE drives and jumper bullshit.

>>7739245
hmmm, are you running WinHIIP as admin?

>>7739178
>>7739208
and OPL manager works! thanks guys.
my main fear was that the IDE adapter had broken or something (it has poor build quality and visible hot glue in a few places) but looks like everything is working fine.
i was expecting it to show up as a regular HD in windows but i guess it doesn't need to for OPL launcher to know what to do with it.
thanks again.

tonight i will be playing SEGA AGES puyo puyo tsuu, ive heard it has some nice features added over the arcade edition.

>>7739207
>Wait, so I literally think an old 80GB HDD that's about to die is no better than a new 1TB SSD?
I have several 1TB HDDs that have greenlit SMART status. If on dies I could easily toss it and use another.

>>7726031
Don't listen to this guy. PS2 classics GUI compatibility is dogshit. Buy a cheap PS2, chip it, and burn some CDs/DVDs. You could also use SwapMagic or something similar, but swapping disc is a pain.

>>7739546
You can use mechapwn on most consoles instead of a chip or swapmagic.

>>7739546
>Burning cd/dvds
>in 2021
It’s literally easier to use an ssd or HDD instead. Plus, I haven’t put a disc drive in my PC’s for the past 5 years.

>>7737952
Too bad these things take like a month to ship. Still, the ABT adapters seem better than the purple bitfunx ones.

>>7739245
I had the same issue when I plugged my newly bought 3.5" 1TB Hard Drive into my laptop via a SATA to USB connector after formatting on the PS2.
What I had to do was plug the adapter into the wall or whatever, then plug the adapter into the hard drive, and then plug the USB port into the computer (which should be already on). It only ever worked for me when doing it in that specific order for whatever reason. Even at this point, I think because it was formatted for the PS2, it doesn't show up on Windows Explorer, but there will still be the standard "plug in" sound if done correctly, and WinHIIP (if run as an Admin) or HDL Dump Helper will detect it properly. Hope this helps.

>>7740160
What issues do Bitfunx adapters have? I have one, and it seems to work properly (for the week or so I've had it).

>>7740626
Oh, they work fine, for the most part. They’re just a cheaper Chinese clone of another design. The only problems are with quality control. Bad units are common iirc, but if yours works, I wouldn’t worry about it.

>>7733626
Hard drives are fine, even cheap WD green SSD's are cheap enough to have enough storage for all of the worthwhile ps2 games.
>filling out surveys
Dude, you literally download the right torrents from archive.org or other private trackers. It takes a few clicks without registering for anything. Imagine being this aggressively ignorant.

>>7741865
What compulsion are you satisfying by feeling you need to respond to such an enormous fart-sniffing cunt?

loool
Some chink/slav sloot brought crack/meth with her on a "date" with Hunter, knowing about his deviant ways from texts their countries intercepted, to break Hunter into pieces and mold him in their image.

Good play, China. Good play indeed.

>>7742057
wat

>>7742064
Posted in wrong thread, sorry. Happens when you got several tabs open.

>>7727209
It's not like that's hard. I don't even screw it in unless I'm moving the console.

>>7731151
Have you tried disabling IGR and VMC? If those don't fix it I'd guess it's either a regression or you have a bad dump of the game.

>>7734393
He unironically thinks SSDs make HDDs obsolete for any use case because he's a tech-illiterate child that falls for marketing and doesn't know what data hoarding is like.

>>7742948
I was meant to say Mode 2 instead of Mode 3 in my OP, but Mode 6 is Disable IGR and it’s on, and I don’t have any VMC’s configured or set or anything. I’ve also tried downloading the iso from 2 different sites (CDRomance and Vimm’s Lair) and installing through both WinHIIP and HDL Dump Helper (as I know WinHIIP sometimes has issues). Nothing has made the game work.

>>7742963
I personally wouldn’t use an ssd in a ps2 either unless you were concerned with noise (and really, do the Noctua mod instead). The PS2 is limited by its IDE bus so going from a 7200rpm SATA drive to a SATA ssd would be pointless. Anyone who suggests using an ssd in ps2 for any reason other than already having the drive is an idiot.

>>7742948
Any idea where I can go to find needed configs for a lost of games? I think I have everything I need together to start loading games from HDD using OPL but the compatibility modes seem daunting to me.

>>7743546
I saw this recently:
docs google com/spreadsheets/d/1MLEw7TIKvn9MCwd5Ptbqh2lkUj3lX6YQ2wPgLEx8Koo/view
Otherwise search forums or experiment yourself. A lot of games work with default settings, if they don't try modes 1 and 2 first.
If a game is noted as needing fast CDVD disabled to work in PCSX2, mode 1 probably fixes it in OPL.

>>7743559
Thank you very much