Playing a Japanese game on North American PS2

[D.D.D.]

*angry*

You might not like the advice but it's still a sound alternative. So what if he's recommended it before and has a link; it's convenient and it has good info.
I used SwapMagic for a while and even though I don't have a fatPS2 w/hdd, like ZenErik offering an alternative, I've been running with a modchip in my PS2 and I really can't stand to go back to using a swap disc method any more.

[noiseredux]

*angry*

You might not like the advice but it's still a sound alternative. So what if he's recommended it before and has a link; it's convenient and it has good info.
I used SwapMagic for a while and even though I don't have a fatPS2 w/hdd, like ZenErik offering an alternative, I've been running with a modchip in my PS2 and I really can't stand to go back to using a swap disc method any more.

though dsh was a bit harsh, it's kind of like if I asked "which fighting game should I buy for PS1?" and somebody said "buy a Dreamcast." Sure it's a suggestion for an alternative, but it's not what I asked. The OP wanted to know how to play imports on the PS2 he already owned, not be told to buy another console.

[brunoafh]

I found your critique of CRT's strange posting habits in that game finds thread not only much more entertaining, but more effective. I seriously laughed out loud at that post, I wonder if I can find it.

[Ziggy]

though dsh was a bit harsh, it's kind of like if I asked "which fighting game should I buy for PS1?" and somebody said "buy a Dreamcast." Sure it's a suggestion for an alternative, but it's not what I asked. The OP wanted to know how to play imports on the PS2 he already owned, not be told to buy another console.

I see what you're getting at, but it's really not the same as that. BoneSnap asked how to play retail imports on his PS2 Slim. Sure, CRT did in fact make a suggestion to get another console, but it's not like it's a totally different console (PS1 versus Dreamcast). Honestly, the PS2 fat with a HDD is a great suggestion, and BoneSnap should seriously consider it. I know it doesn't fix his current problem, how to play the import on the console he owns now, but it's definitely something to consider for the future. The PS2 fat with a HDD and Free MC Boot has a LOT of benefits.

Perhaps if CRT phrased it differently. "You might consider in the future getting a PS2 fat with a network adapter and a hard drive. This will give you many benefits, one of them is being able to boot imports from the hard drive. Check the link in my sig for more info." Would that have been more acceptable?

I see no reason to come down so hard on CRT. He made a solid suggestion for BoneSnap. It's definitely one possible solution. I agree with D.D.D. there. A question was asked, I see no reason to leave out one possible solution.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

So... what are some good PS2 imports? Sort of considering a slim PS2 to play a few if there are some real must haves.

[D.D.D.]

though dsh was a bit harsh, it's kind of like if I asked "which fighting game should I buy for PS1?" and somebody said "buy a Dreamcast." Sure it's a suggestion for an alternative, but it's not what I asked. The OP wanted to know how to play imports on the PS2 he already owned, not be told to buy another console.

I see what you're getting at, but it's really not the same as that. BoneSnap asked how to play retail imports on his PS2 Slim. Sure, CRT did in fact make a suggestion to get another console, but it's not like it's a totally different console (PS1 versus Dreamcast). Honestly, the PS2 fat with a HDD is a great suggestion, and BoneSnap should seriously consider it. I know it doesn't fix his current problem, how to play the import on the console he owns now, but it's definitely something to consider for the future. The PS2 fat with a HDD and Free MC Boot has a LOT of benefits.

Perhaps if CRT phrased it differently. "You might consider in the future getting a PS2 fat with a network adapter and a hard drive. This will give you many benefits, one of them is being able to boot imports from the hard drive. Check the link in my sig for more info." Would that have been more acceptable?

I see no reason to come down so hard on CRT. He made a solid suggestion for BoneSnap. It's definitely one possible solution. I agree with D.D.D. there. A question was asked, I see no reason to leave out one possible solution.

Yeah Noise, I agree with Ziggy. Though he would need to purchase another PS2 to do what CRT suggested, it may be a viable and appealing option to him (fatPS2s are CHEAP and a lotta people have extra HDDs laying around). It's still a fruit from the same tree, not another type of fruit (PS1 vs DC).

Besides, perhaps the lack of true speaking tone and abbreviated typing/speech came off different to dsheinem than how CRT intended. CRT is one of the few people on the board that I've never thought came off in a less than nice way. Anyways~

My 2 cents on some PS2 options: Swap Magic, okay but it is a pain to swap every time. HDD loading, haven't done it but the potential setting tweaking and some incompatibilities have made me wait to try it, and a mod chip, well, for me, has been fantastic. All my games work, JP and US originals & back-ups. But if the HDD loading was sweet & simple like on the Wii or Xbox, I'd try that out ASAP.

[Ziggy]

HDD loading, haven't done it but the potential setting tweaking and some incompatibilities have made me wait to try it, and a mod chip, well, for me, has been fantastic. All my games work, JP and US originals & back-ups. But if the HDD loading was sweet & simple like on the Wii or Xbox, I'd try that out ASAP.

PS2 HDD loading has come a long way since it was first realized. It's newest incarnation is Open PS2 Loader (or OPL for short). As far as I can tell, there are no compatibility modes anymore (you don't have to tweak settings for games). Many more games are supported. Pretty much every game I through at it works. And there's a lot of new features as well (I think you can even add covers to preview for each game, but I haven't tried that yet).

Booting games from a HDD has a few advantages that I think are worth a LOT. One, the PS2 can load faster from the HDD, so most games will have improved loading times. Two, since you're loading from the HDD, you're keeping wear and tear off the optical drive. And the optical drive is probably the weakest link in the PS2 chain. Those are the reasons I use HDD loading, with reason #2 being most of it.

It's worth noting that you can actually boot games from a HDD with a PS2 slim, but the compatibility is poor last time I checked. You can use a USB hard drive, which has poor speeds compared to the PATA connection. I think the compatibility was growing because there was a lot of interest in it (you can even buy a custom case for a PS2 slim that stores a HDD inside). In addition to USB HDD loading, IIRC there was even a way to boot games over a network via the NIC. I think the speeds were a little better than USB, so the compatibility was a little better. Also, you can store game images on a hard drive on your computer. So that might be easier than needing an additional hard drive and figuring out a way to load images onto it. I don't know much about these two methods, mainly because I never used them and don't plan to, but I thought it'd be worth mentioning.

D.D.D., if you have a fat PS2, I would highly suggest giving HDD loading a try. You're gonna want Free MC boot installed on a memory card. But if your PS2 is chipped, I think that should be an easy thing to do yourself.

[D.D.D.]

Nah I sold my fatPS2 for concert tix way back when the PS2s were in really short supply. My chipped PS2 slim was a pre-install.

Off the top of your head, have you ever had a PS2 game not work properly with OPL? Like no music, gfx glitches, etc...

[Ziggy]

There's compatibility lists that you can check, so you never even have to get into a situation where a game is all glitching out.

The only game I personally had a problem with... MGS2. I had the original version and the Substance version. One didn't work with OPL and one did, but I forget which is which. I think Substance didn't work.

This is out of the 12+ games I've tried so far.

It might be worth it to you to get a fat PS2 though. Since you have a chipped slim, you can make a FMCB memory card on it. So you could actually hunt for a PS2 fat with a busted optical drive as a way to get one for really cheap. You don't need the optical drive if all you plan on doing is booting games from the HDD. You can boot from the HDD on the fat and reserve the slim for booting games from the optical drive. Just a thought anyways.

[D.D.D.]

Good to hear. I'll have to check it out as getting a fatPS2 is easy and cheap.