VOGONS


Reply 40 of 53, by Kerr Avon

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Jorpho wrote:

Putting aside the fact that one should never buy a console at launch, don't we all already have dozens upon dozens of games we've legally purchased but haven't played yet?

Yep 😀 . I have lots of games for my six consoles and PC that I've yet to try, plus many favourites that I love playing over and over. Plus some of my favourite PC games have mods that I've not yet tried, and often more are coming out all of the time. Yet I know people who, when they buy a new console, always (and I mean always) sell their old system and games, then play the latest games whilst moaning (a) at the lack of games out for it in the early days, and (b) how they miss certain older games and hope those games will be remade for the new machines.

And when they do sell their old systems plus the stack of games, they only get a pittance, as a million other early adopters are also selling their old collection to put towards the new machines...

Reply 41 of 53, by mr_bigmouth_502

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Kerr Avon wrote:
True. If you have an XBox 360 then there's not too much point in buying a PS3, or vice versa, as most games are cross platform n […]
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Jorpho wrote:

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of PS3 exclusives that I'd want to spring for. Infamous 1 & 2, Ni No Kuni, the newer God of War and Final Fantasy games, and I guess The Last of Us and Heavy Rain.

True. If you have an XBox 360 then there's not too much point in buying a PS3, or vice versa, as most games are cross platform now. There are some good exclusives on either machine, of course, but it's not like previous generations where if you didn't have all of the main consoles then you were missing out on lots of great games.

And there are enough differences to make people prefer either one of the 360/PS3 consoles; personally I much prefer the 360's controller, plus the 360's ability to run every game from hard drive, plus I preferred it's exclusives to the PS3's (though not massively so), so I was ahppy with the 360, but some time back I picked up a PS3 for LittleBigPlanet 1 and 2, Infamous 1 and 2, Resistance 1, 2 and 3, etc, plus it's the only Blu-Ray player I've ever had. A great machine, but most of the games I like on it are also on the XBox 360, unlike when I had the original XBox and bought a PS2, as then the PS2 brought a lot of great non-XBox games to me.

I only just got around to getting a PS2; that seems much more worthwhile.

PS2s are *fantastic*! But you should really consider using a hard drive (provided your PS2 is a fat model, I don't think the slim ones can do this), thereby not only speeding up loading immensely and also stopping all loading errors, but also saving wear and tear on your PS2's DVD drive, as once you've installed your game(s) to the hard drive then you never need to use the game disc(s) again, so you can put them away somewhere safe.

This is what I do, and it's *fantastic*. I don't even use a disc in my PS2's DVD drive any more; when I turn on my PS2 it boots up almost instantly, from the memory card in slot 2, then comes up with a menu on screen allowing me to load any game from hard drive, and whilst I'm playing any game, I can press a certain combination of joypad buttons to reset the PS2 (at any time) and go back to the menu to load a new game. It really is fantastic.

The only limitations are:

- you can't play PS1 games like this, PS1 games must be played from the original discs (actually, I think you can play some PS1 games, using a PS2 based program called 'POPS', but I've not looked into it),

- not all games work from hard drive, but every game I've tried does, and the compatibility is being increased all the time as work progresses on the loading software,

- you can't save game-saves to the hard drive, you still need to save to the memory cards, but this is the same even if you run the game from the disc, so either way you're stuck with it.

You can also load games from a USB stick, these are very common and cheap nowadays, but since the PS2 only supports USB standard 1.1, then it's very slow, around the speed of loading from a real PS2 disc. For a real speed increase, you need to use a hard drive which only fat PS2's support. Slim PS2's can only load via the USB port, both USB stick and (so I've heard) USB hard drives, but the speed will only be a fraction of a fat PS2 with an IDE hard drive.

To play games from a hard drive, you need:

+ a fat PS2 (does not need to be modded),

+ a network adapter,

+ an IDE hard drive, most will do, I currently have a 250GB in mine, though only 220GB is seen by the PS2. I think the software can be made to see larger than 220GB on larger drives, but I've not yet looked into it, as 220GB is more than enough for my current games collection. IDE drives are very cheap, though getting harder to find, as SATA drives are becoming more common, and you can't use a SATA drive in the PS2,

+ the software (see below),

+ a USB stick (for transfering the software to the PS2, afterwards you don't need the USB stick, so you can just borrow one if you like),

+ a memory card (game save card) if you wish to boot from a memory card - it uses up just less than half the space on the memory card, and you can use the rest of the memory card (and any card in the other card slot) to save game saves as usual. Otherwise you can boot from DVD as usual, but then you'll need a commercial boot disc, like HDLoader.

I think you can actually boot up from the hard drive now, but my system is working, so I'm not going to change anything, the bootable code on the memory card leaves enough space for game saves, plus I can (and do) use another memory card in slot one, so save game space isn't important. Anyway, you can use virtual memory cards to store the gamesaves from some games, but I've not tried that feature.

To play games from a USB stick, you need:

+ a PS2, either a fat or a slim, either will work as far as I know,

+ a USB stick (for transfering the software to the PS2, and then the same or a different USB stick(s) for loading the games from),

+ a memory card to boot from.

The software you need is all free and legal, but I won't post links here, in case that's against the board rules. Just use to google.com and search for:

free mcboot

and

open ps2 loader

Also, there's a program called Winhiip (again it's free) that allows you to connect your PS2's hard drive to your PC via IDE connector, and then transfer PS2 games from the PS2's hard drive to your PC's hard drive, and vice versa, allowing you to back up your PC games (which I advice, as media doesn't last forever).

Aside from the hard drive and the network card (I bought the latter from ebay) you'll only need to buy a USB stick, although you can probably borrow a USB stick off someone as you only need it to install the software. The software is all free, unless you need a commecial boot disc like HD Loader, but I'd recommend booting from memory card instead, as it's quicker and saves wear and tear on the DVD drive.

For a list of compatible hard drives, google:

ps2 hard drive compatibility

though I bought two off the shelf, without checking as I didn't know that some drives didn't work with it, and they both (a 120GB, and later this 250GB) worked fine.

Anyway, before you do anything, read up on everything, and know what you're getting and what you'll have to do to install everything. It's a bit of trouble if you don't know what you're doing, but once done it's done for good, and believe me, a hard drive really transforms the whole PS2 experience, and I couldn't go back to loading from disc every time I wanted to play a game.

Moderators - please note, everything in this post is legal, and I've not posted any links just to be on the safe side.

So, how do you get the PS2 to boot from a USB stick in the first place?

Reply 42 of 53, by Jorpho

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Fortunately I did end up with a fat PS2. Alas, I've yet to get around to doing anything with it, much less getting a hard drive installed and running. I was trying to find out if a CF-to-IDE adapter would do the job, but it's probably just as easy to use a standard IDE drive.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

So, how do you get the PS2 to boot from a USB stick in the first place?

It's a slightly more involved process, from what I've read. Basically you need one of a short list of PS2 games, which you need to duplicate to DVD after modifying a file that will cause the PS2 to crash when it runs, and then you need to swap out the actual DVD for the copy after the game has booted, and in the end it will write a specific file to the memory card. I'm hazy on the details.

I can't see any particular reason why you would need a network adapter. Anyway, maybe this is a subject for another thread?

Reply 43 of 53, by badmojo

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Sony have done a teardown of the PS4, see below. I have no interest in modern consoles but I must say that looking at this got me a little bit pumped for the PS4. I think I just have a thing for hardware. It's a pretty mean looking machine.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/11/ps4-gallery/
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/11/playsta … -teardown-video

Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Reply 44 of 53, by Kerr Avon

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mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

So, how do you get the PS2 to boot from a USB stick in the first place?

If you mean during the initial install of Open PS2 Loader (and Free McBoot, if you choose to use that too) then that's the only difficult part (well, not 'difficult', but the only part when you need something that's not necessarily easily available). You need a way to make your PS2 run unsigned code (i.e. run code from something other than an official PS2 disc), and there are several ways to do this;

1. Use a commercial disc like HD Loader, which is basically a much older (and more primitive and less compatible) program like Open PS2 Loader, which boots on the PS2 (since it's a commercial disc) and allows you to run third party software,

2. Some games can be used to crash the PS2 into running unsigned code, as Jorpho says (see bootleg.sksapps.com/tutorials/fmcb/swap.php for a list),

Actually, go to

http://bootleg.sksapps.com/tutorials/fmcb/index.php

and see the Installation tab for a list of ways to install McBoot then Open PS2 Loader, as that answers your question much better than I can - I only know what I've read about the process, other than HD Loader (which is what I used on my PS2), and have no experience of using swap magic, cheat devices, etc, on the PS2.

Some people even offer to do it for you, you send them your memory card and they return it with McBoot on it.

However you do it (or have it done for you), it's *well* worth it, as using a hard drive really transforms the PS2.

Jorpho wrote:

I can't see any particular reason why you would need a network adapter. Anyway, maybe this is a subject for another thread?

You don't need a network adapter if you want to run the games from a USB stick, but you do need a network adapter if you want to run the games from a hard drive, as the hard drive connects to the network card. Maybe you can use a USB hard drive, which would connect to the PS2's USB port and so bypass the need for a network adapter, I don't know. But the PS2's USB ports are v1.1, so any USB loading on the PS2 isn't too much faster than loading from the original game disc (though on the plus side, USB loading saves wear and tear on the disc drive, plus you could fill the USB stick (or USB hard drive) with games which is more convenient than having to dig out the game disc when you want to play a certain game).

Reply 45 of 53, by Jorpho

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Kerr Avon wrote:

you do need a network adapter if you want to run the games from a hard drive, as the hard drive connects to the network card.

Fiddlesticks! I was not aware of that requirement. Where can I find one of those at this point? There's one over here, but it's forty bucks.

(Curiously, I see they also have something for the Slim.)

Reply 46 of 53, by sliderider

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badmojo wrote:

Sony have done a teardown of the PS4, see below. I have no interest in modern consoles but I must say that looking at this got me a little bit pumped for the PS4. I think I just have a thing for hardware. It's a pretty mean looking machine.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/11/ps4-gallery/
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/11/playsta … -teardown-video

The hardware specs impressed me, too. The gap in hardware power seems to be larger this time around in favor of PS4. I also like that you aren't forced to buy into the whole Kinect/Eye Toy thing with PS4. MS also made too many missteps leading up to this release and even though they walked back from many of them, the mistrust is still there. I went with 360 and Wii last time because of Sony's screw ups with the early models of PS3 but it looks like the screw ups are coming from MS this time around.

Reply 48 of 53, by Kerr Avon

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Jorpho wrote:
Kerr Avon wrote:

you do need a network adapter if you want to run the games from a hard drive, as the hard drive connects to the network card.

Fiddlesticks! I was not aware of that requirement. Where can I find one of those at this point? There's one over here, but it's forty bucks.

(Curiously, I see they also have something for the Slim.)

Sorry, I don't know where to get them other than ebay (where I bought mine), small adds, internet forums, etc. It is well worth the trouble of tracking one down, though, as a hard drive transforms a system.

Reply 49 of 53, by sliderider

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LoL! I'm glad I wasn't one of those idiots who paid thousands for a PS4 on ebay. Doh! I never understood how desperate someone can possibly be that they would spend $2000 on a $400 game console just to have it on launch day. Is it REALLY that important?

Reply 50 of 53, by mr_bigmouth_502

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Does the PS4 even have any exclusives?

Reply 51 of 53, by sliderider

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mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Does the PS4 even have any exclusives?

I think there's a new Killzone and God of War and a few others that will be released either at launch or shortly after.

Reply 52 of 53, by mr_bigmouth_502

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sliderider wrote:
mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Does the PS4 even have any exclusives?

I think there's a new Killzone and God of War and a few others that will be released either at launch or shortly after.

So in other words, franchises I don't care about. 🤣

Reply 53 of 53, by sliderider

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mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:
sliderider wrote:
mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Does the PS4 even have any exclusives?

I think there's a new Killzone and God of War and a few others that will be released either at launch or shortly after.

So in other words, franchises I don't care about. 🤣

You can Google for a more comprehensive list of all the PS4/XBox One exclusives as every reputable gaming site has them, I was just listing a couple off the top of my head that seem to show up with every new generation of Playstation. There's a lot more than just the usual suspects.