PS2 Mod 2016-19: USB & HDD Loading, PS1 via POPS, Emus

[Jagosaurus]

I can't remember what PGEN expects and away from home right now.
Should load roms from USB without issue. I'll help tomorrow if I can.

I made a mistake about the PC Engine emulators though. There is no USB rom loading. It's HDD for one or Memory card and disc for the other.
I think the memory card version had analog support while the HDD version was digital pad only.
Still a poor emulator.

Ok! Finally got PGEN working. I had to try 3 different downloads. Third time is a charm. It is recognizing my .md ROM files via USB and actually runs really well!

I was just messing around and booted up the Neo Geo CD emu. Looks like many of the emulators will require burning ROMs to disc. Even the 5200 emu! Need to research which programs will work with no disc burning/via HDD or USB only.

Tried DLing gameboy emu and was a .rar file versus .elf. I'll have to hunt that one down.

Just now about to test the waters on OPL...

[Ziggy]

Tried DLing gameboy emu and was a .rar file versus .elf. I'll have to hunt that one down.

I just woke up so maybe my brain isn't working and I'm missing something...

.rar is the file extension for WinRAR compressed files. Extract it with 7-Zip, since WinRAR sucks.

[Jagosaurus]

Tried DLing gameboy emu and was a .rar file versus .elf. I'll have to hunt that one down.

I just woke up so maybe my brain isn't working and I'm missing something...

.rar is the file extension for WinRAR compressed files. Extract it with 7-Zip, since WinRAR sucks.

Ahhh ok. Tried a few methods on my Winows 8 PC & no luck. Will try again using 7zip. A lot of the zip folders, I can open right up & grab the .elf file.

Tried DLing batman begins last night and it wasn't a .ISO file. Ill have to take a look at the extension name. First (likely of many) PS2 game files that won't run.

As an update!
PS2 fat, network adapter, & 250GB WD HDD... on the way!

Only semi related PS2 controller update as I revamp my PS2 setup:

Also, I dug out a wireless controller I bought previously (in 2013?). Third party brand, Hydra. Only uses 2 AAA vs my Pelican which uses 4. Also, the Hydra is shaped like a dual shock while the Pelican has its own design. Adding some new life to my PS2 gaming in 2016 between this, FMCB, & emus!

[Ziggy]

A lot of the zip folders, I can open right up & grab the .elf file.

I think the ability to open .zip archives is built right into Windows now. I don't know for sure, it's been a long time since I haven't had 7-Zip installed.

7-Zip is free and can extract the big three (.zip, .rar and .7z). It can also extract ISO images and a bunch of other formats I never come across. I find it to be the best all around, which is why I recommend grabbing it over WinZip or WinRAR.

Tried DLing batman begins last night and it wasn't a .ISO file. Ill have to take a look at the extension name. First (likely of many) PS2 game files that won't run.

ISO is standard for DVDs, but there are other formats that people sometimes use. Let me know the file extension and I'll tell you what you have to do.

[Jagosaurus]

A lot of the zip folders, I can open right up & grab the .elf file.

I think the ability to open .zip archives is built right into Windows now. I don't know for sure, it's been a long time since I haven't had 7-Zip installed.

7-Zip is free and can extract the big three (.zip, .rar and .7z). It can also extract ISO images and a bunch of other formats I never come across. I find it to be the best all around, which is why I recommend grabbing it over WinZip or WinRAR.

Tried DLing batman begins last night and it wasn't a .ISO file. Ill have to take a look at the extension name. First (likely of many) PS2 game files that won't run.

ISO is standard for DVDs, but there are other formats that people sometimes use. Let me know the file extension and I'll tell you what you have to do.

Ok awesome, thanks for the program tip, was able to use 7Zip to unzip the GB emu .rar file. Now the file is .exe versus a .elf. Not sure what to do from there. My PC will not run the app.

Looks like PS2 Batman Begins is .7Z file. Will be tinkering with that tonight to see if I can unzip it via 7Zip, grab to .iso, and load via USB in OPL. Will update.

I'm pretty impressed with PGEN. I can't get it to run SMS games. I tried renaming .sms files as .bin but no luck. Saves states are nice.

FCEU seems to better with some games than others. I was testing Little Sampson earlier and it seems near flawless . Next step is to figure out save states in this one. Will just wait until I get my HDD set up as you have to mount specific drives/paths.

[nightrnr]

Seems like you are well on your way.

If you like PGEN, you will love picodrive. It's not quite as user friendly, but it performs way better.
Neither play SMS games.

For Master System games, you will need a different emulator (psms I think). It is almost identical to fceu in design and look. Plays great, I beat Golden Axe Warrior on that one.

Please wait, I will edit this post with a couple more things...
Okay, try "PS2InfoGB rev 6c" by KarasQ for your game boy needs (it will be an elf file, but possibly/likely within zip/rar/7z). It loads games from USB only, but is quite good. Only games I have trouble with are late GBC games (Shantae plays slowly and graphical glitches in some other late releases). Just B&W in standard GB games, but color in GBC games. Do your own search for the emulator, as I think my noscript is blocking the download link for me.

The problem you will run into is downloading outdated emulators. A lot has gone on since the heyday of the PS2 modding scene. Some emulators were abandoned and some got improved by others. Trial and error might be your only way on that end.

When you get to SNES emulation, don't bother with the SNES9X port, as that was abandoned without a real stable release (games I tried ran at a snails pace). SNES Station is your only real option there.

Neo Geo CD emulation was another dead end for me. I think it was iso loading only though, so no music tracks.
Plus PS2 has so many Neo Geo ports, I figured I wasn't losing out too much.

[Jagosaurus]

Seems like you are well on your way.

If you like PGEN, you will love picodrive. It's not quite as user friendly, but it performs way better.
Neither play SMS games.

For Master System games, you will need a different emulator (psms I think). It is almost identical to fceu in design and look. Plays great, I beat Golden Axe Warrior on that one.

Please wait, I will edit this post with a couple more things...
Okay, try "PS2InfoGB rev 6c" by KarasQ for your game boy needs (it will be an elf file, but possibly/likely within zip/rar/7z). It loads games from USB only, but is quite good. Only games I have trouble with are late GBC games (Shantae plays slowly and graphical glitches in some other late releases). Just B&W in standard GB games, but color in GBC games. Do your own search for the emulator, as I think my noscript is blocking the download link for me.

The problem you will run into is downloading outdated emulators. A lot has gone on since the heyday of the PS2 modding scene. Some emulators were abandoned and some got improved by others. Trial and error might be your only way on that end.

When you get to SNES emulation, don't bother with the SNES9X port, as that was abandoned without a real stable release (games I tried ran at a snails pace). SNES Station is your only real option there.

Neo Geo CD emulation was another dead end for me. I think it was iso loading only though, so no music tracks.
Plus PS2 has so many Neo Geo ports, I figured I wasn't losing out too much.

Nice @ picodrive! Will have to boot up some Snatcher and Soul Star :]

PS2InfoGB rev 6c... on it. Thank you good sir.

I'm already running into the fact that I'm WAY late to the party here. The version of PSMS I was attempting to use definitely wasn't as user friendly as FCEU. I had to create a notepad FILES.TXT with all ROMs listed, maxing out at 30 per file. And I still couldn't get ROMS to work. Got a "NO FILES.TXT" error. Definitely need to hunt a newer version. Trial and error!

I tried out SNES9X this morning. Definitely slow and no sound on the version I DLed. Will look up SNES station.

Have you tried any of the more obscure emus like Sinclair or SMX? I have means to acutally play the Genesis, NES, etc... having them on my PS2 is a novelty. I've never experienced any SMX games. Could be cool.

Having fun with the emus. Going to try OPL in a bit...

Fat and HDD setup should be here by Friday. Then the real fun begins....

[Jagosaurus]

Okayyyy, update:

Tonight managed to get save states working on FCEU. Wasn't really on my road map until later, but read a post on what it takes & knocked it out fairly quick. It doesn't seem to like USB so I am saving to mem card, will move to HDD next week. One save stare file takes up almost 1/8 of the 8MB card!

Also had OPL recognize a .iso file after reading up on the file naming scheme. Unfortunately I received a fragmentation error. Tried defrauding the .iso with no luck. Will try another .iso early this week.

Thoughts so far:
This definitely is NOT a "plug & play" type set up like the EverDrives, etc. Get ready to tinker, test, & try again. I gathered this before jumping in, so I was prepared for it. And I haven't even got to HDD vs USB...

Fortunately I enjoy this and find it a fun & rewarding process . It will be nice though to have this all set up how I want it long term!

[nightrnr]

Just remember that if you are playing Sega CD games, it is best to copy them to the HDD, as the usb doesn't run fast enough to stream the video effectively. Also is best to dedicate a partition for Sega CD, and just a warning, I got some corruption on one of my partitions while experimenting with iso loading, but it was an earlier version of picodrive. Oh, and you'll need the Sega CD bios file, can't remember if it has to be named something particular.

I have not tried the more obscure emulators. I plan to some day, but will need proper motivation (like a game or port that I just have to try out). Today is not that day...

And here is one of the Master System emulators. It will also play Game Gear Games.
I believe this was the hard to find one, which fixed the button order. I 2 versions, as some games benefit from the reversed order (if you like the left button for shooting and right button for jumping), but only had this one on hand right now.
Enjoy, and let me know if still you want the other one too:

PS2_psms_Bswitch.zip

PSMS with buttons switched to normal, (I think).

(213.65 KiB) Downloaded 485 times

[Ziggy]

Looks like PS2 Batman Begins is .7Z file. Will be tinkering with that tonight to see if I can unzip it via 7Zip, grab to .iso, and load via USB in OPL. Will update.

I would suggest associating .zip, .rar and .7z files with the 7-Zip File Manager. That way, when you double-click any of those file types it'll open the archive in the file manager. This makes it easy to view what's inside, or extract only the .elf or something. It's step 1 in the burning guide.

Once 7-Zip is installed, you can right-click on files and chose to open them with the 7-Zip File Manager, but it's easier to just double-click them. You wouldn't want to associate, say, ISO files though, since you would probably want them to open with ImgBurn or whatever burning software you use. But it's not like you're ever gonna open a compressed .zip or whatever with anything else.