The Dedicated FreeMCboot thread + Installer requests

[Flak Beard]

Here's the other dilemma, though: Free MCBoot vs. Magic Swap. It takes almost nothing for me to mod a slim (I came up with my own lid switch bypass method that just takes a couple minutes and a soldering iron) for Magic Swap use and Magic Swap can run straight ISOs (as far as I know). On the other hand, MCBoot requires everything to be patched. Ideally, I'd like to get something that would let me write straight to the memory card, specifically a PS2->PS3 memory card adapter, but as far as I know, they haven't been hacked to let you interface with a PC yet. I guess the main thing is I could corrupt/erase a memory card but you can't really do that with a Magic Swap disc (which I could use to make a MCBoot card as well). You can't overwrite a pressed disc.

You're making my head spin.

FreeMCBoot is easy and way more efficient than using Swap Magic. Just get someone to put FreeMCBoot on a memory card for you, burn your ESR patched ISOs and that's it. You don't have to change discs to play a backup. Just boot up the PS2 with your FreeMCBoot memory card in the slot and your backup loads right up.

I think you're thinking too much about all this. Just get the damn FreeMCBoot from someone, install it to a backup memory card if you want and play all the PS2 games your heart desires.

[gtmtnbiker]

a valid point. Do you know of good and cheap PS2 memory cards? I'm kinda thinkin of pickin up that 128MB memory card from DealExtreme to back up my saves and then dedicate 2 of my cards to Free MCBoot (one to keep with me, one to archive).

Personally, I don't. I have something like 5-6 memory cards that I've gotten with systems or given to me for free. You don't really need a lot of memory cards if you have a USB memory stick. Just copy the save to the USB memory stick for archival purposes.

Here's the other dilemma, though: Free MCBoot vs. Magic Swap. It takes almost nothing for me to mod a slim (I came up with my own lid switch bypass method that just takes a couple minutes and a soldering iron) for Magic Swap use and Magic Swap can run straight ISOs (as far as I know). On the other hand, MCBoot requires everything to be patched.

You're thinking of ESR. Yes, you need to patch games to use with ESR. Free McBoot is just a memory card exploit that allows you to run arbitrary code. It's utilities like ESR, HD Loader, SMS, hdl_server, etc that are really useful.

I personally haven't used ESR but friends/associates I know have. For them, it's just one other step before you burn your DVD. It's not too onerous for them considering it's free.

I use HD Loader because I like to run my games off the hard disk. At some point, I'll investigate ESR if I come across a game that won't work with HD Loader.

If you have a slim, you can try Open USB Loader project. It's under very active development and they feel that it has the potential of being almost as good as the DVD. USB 1.1 speed (which the PS2 has) is pretty close to the max transfer rate of the DVD drive. With Open USB Loader, you can run games off a USB memory stick or USB hard drive. Very cool.

[17DaysOlderThanNES]

ok, gah, you win, I'll order another memory card off of Amazon to keep as my archive copy. I figure even if I do somehow lose it, I can always install it "the hard way" later on if need be, and by then there will probably be easier methods to do it.

I just have 2 more questions:

#1 can I just have a dedicated Free MCBoot card in the 2nd player slot and load saves from the 1st player slot? Alternatively, could I boot the game and then swap cards?

#2 What if a new version of Free MCBoot comes out that is just too jawsume for words, will I be able to install it via flash drive? This is the main reason I wanted to buy stuff to do it myself since I want to keep the newest/most compatible version available.

(OK, 3 more questions)

#3 I would only need the DVD MagicSwap disc if I did it myself, right? The Play N Trade near me (IIRC) will sell just the DVD or just the CD disc, so I could buy just the DVD disc for like $10-$15. You don't actually need a modded system (as in, flip top) to just install Free MCBoot since you don't take the disc out to do it, right?

Basically, it comes down to this: if I get someone to do it, I HAVE to buy an extra memory card for peace of mind (to archive), whereas if I buy the MagicSwap disc I can just have it on one card and just keep my disc in a safe place.

I know I'm going in circles/asking alot of questions, but I always do this with any mods to find the absolute best way to do it, then I share the information with others. I've already helped several dozen people get started on Dreamcast homebrew/backups as well as PSP Custom Firmware and even a few with XBOX Soft Modding. The PS2 is the last system I haven't modded (that actually needs it) and I really like the fact it's all on the memory card and can be transferred from system to system if, say, I go to a friend's house.

[gtmtnbiker]

ok, gah, you win, I'll order another memory card off of Amazon to keep as my archive copy. I figure even if I do somehow lose it, I can always install it "the hard way" later on if need be, and by then there will probably be easier methods to do it.

Once you have Free McBoot, you'll always have an easy way to do the installation unless all of your copies somehow fail.

#1 can I just have a dedicated Free MCBoot card in the 2nd player slot and load saves from the 1st player slot? Alternatively, could I boot the game and then swap cards?

You definitely can have FreeMcBoot in either slot. I don't see why you can't boot a game and then swap cards although I personally haven't done this. I just leave Free McBoot in slot 2 and have a regular card in slot 1.
[/quote]

#2 What if a new version of Free MCBoot comes out that is just too jawsume for words, will I be able to install it via flash drive? This is the main reason I wanted to buy stuff to do it myself since I want to keep the newest/most compatible version available.

Once you have FreeMcBoot, you can boot any PS2 program you want (HD Loader, SMS, ulaunch, hdl_server, Free McBoot installer version XYZ).

So you would put the new installer on the USB drive. Boot FreeMcBoot and then run the new installer. Put a new card in and install the new version. Then you could boot with the new version and then install again to the old version.

I think it's very unlikely that there will be a new version of Free McBoot. It seems that the development efforts are focused on Open USB Loader. The exploit just works. If they find a new exploit that works on the newest slims, then yeah, it could get updated but I doubt that Sony left any way to run code off a memory card.

The current version that is installed on the memory card has the exploit itself and 3 of the most popular utilities (HD Loader, SMS, and uLaunch). Any other code needs to be run off the USB memory stick because there's no more room to add more stuff.

#3 I would only need the DVD MagicSwap disc if I did it myself, right? The Play N Trade near me (IIRC) will sell just the DVD or just the CD disc, so I could buy just the DVD disc for like $10-$15. You don't actually need a modded system (as in, flip top) to just install Free MCBoot since you don't take the disc out to do it, right?

I believe that is correct according to http://freemcboot.psx-scene.com/swapmagic.php

I know I'm going in circles/asking alot of questions, but I always do this with any mods to find the absolute best way to do it, then I share the information with others.

I totally agree. It's a learning experience. I find myself reading scads of stuff and then I try the mod. Just do it slowly and use common sense. Once you have done it, then you'll see how easy it is. There's a lot of unfamiliar things but once you play around with it, you'll understand it. I find this true for almost all mods.

I think the PSP mod was one of the toughest to understand because there is so much information available and a lot is out-of-date. But once you understand it, it's one of the easiest.

Right now, I think the Wii soft-mod is probably the toughest one (between xbox, ps2, psp, and wii). I've done the Wii several times but I still need to carefully read stuff again.

[Niode]

Right now, I think the Wii soft-mod is probably the toughest one (between xbox, ps2, psp, and wii). I've done the Wii several times but I still need to carefully read stuff again.

Really? It's hands down the quickest/easiest of all the consoles. The only thing you need is an SD card. Compared to PSP which requires some way of booting unsigned code which means an early version PSP1000 or pandora, a PSP2000 with a pandora or chickhen or PSP3000 if you're really really lucky you could probably get an untethered chickhen to load on it. Or the xbox which requires a relatively complex process of getting a hacked save onto the memory card, likewise with PS2. The Wii is the only one you can do without special knowledge, just an SD with a set of files on it.

[gtmtnbiker]

Really? It's hands down the quickest/easiest of all the consoles. The only thing you need is an SD card.

If all you're doing is installing bootmii & the homebrew channel, then yes. But if you're trying to install an IOS/CIOS/wads, it's a bit more complicated and easy to screw up if you don't know what you're doing.

It's been months since I installed PSP CFW. I can just grab the battery or the ChickHEN hack and the magic memory stick and install CFW without really having to look at docs/guides.

[17DaysOlderThanNES]

Right now, I think the Wii soft-mod is probably the toughest one (between xbox, ps2, psp, and wii). I've done the Wii several times but I still need to carefully read stuff again.

Really? It's hands down the quickest/easiest of all the consoles. The only thing you need is an SD card. Compared to PSP which requires some way of booting unsigned code which means an early version PSP1000 or pandora, a PSP2000 with a pandora or chickhen or PSP3000 if you're really really lucky you could probably get an untethered chickhen to load on it. Or the xbox which requires a relatively complex process of getting a hacked save onto the memory card, likewise with PS2. The Wii is the only one you can do without special knowledge, just an SD with a set of files on it.

The problem with the Wii is there's no way to unbrick if you totally screw up your system, which is why I won't do it until it's no longer current-gen and there aren't any new updates.

PSP is cake, all you need is the $6 DealExtreme pandora battery, a 1000 or 2000 PSP, and Rain's 5.00 M-33 MMS Maker Ultralite. Plug in your PSP to a computer with USB cable, let the installer do its thing, pop in the Pandora battery (while holding "L"), click install custom firmware, bam! done.

XBOX isn't too bad, just get an Action Replay and a copy of Splinter Cell, put the saves on it and follow the Krayzie's Ndure Installer guide on se7en sins. It's pretty easy, but like the Wii, I get nervous b/c I can't reformat from scratch.

The PS2 hack doesn't seem too bad, it's just that the installer discs are expensive (because people are buying them up for this purpose) and the guides don't explain what is happening, but rather just says "do this, do this". I think I'll call Play N Trade this afternoon and see if I can buy just the DVD MagicSwap and have a go (if the price is good). If I can't get it to work, I'll cave and just have someone install it for me. Magic Swap discs are something that seem like they'll never stop being desirable to someone, plus it might work when Free MCBoot won't for certain games.

[gtmtnbiker]

The problem with the Wii is there's no way to unbrick if you totally screw up your system, which is why I won't do it until it's no longer current-gen and there aren't any new updates.

You can unbrick if you successfully updated the boot2 partition and have a copy of the NAND dump. Nintendo removed this ability in 2008.

[Hatta]

#1 can I just have a dedicated Free MCBoot card in the 2nd player slot and load saves from the 1st player slot?

Yes this works quite well. The only problem I had with this setup was using hdld_svr.elf. It's hard coded to look for it's network setup information on the first memory card. So I had to swap memory cards every time I wanted to load a new game.

I fixed that by taking a hex editor to it, and changing ms0: to ms1: where appropriate. Now I never have any reason to remove FMCB from slot 2. If you find yourself using hdld_svr.elf and want this hack I can send it to you.

hdld_svr.elf is not required, there are several other ways to load games onto the hard disk, but it's my favorite. YMMV.

[gtmtnbiker]

The PS2 hack doesn't seem too bad, it's just that the installer discs are expensive (because people are buying them up for this purpose) and the guides don't explain what is happening, but rather just says "do this, do this".

You can also check this guide: http://freemcboot.psx-scene.com/swap.php
to see if you have certain games that you can do the swap trick with.