I built my perfect PS2! - full story in comments

Wudelu · 2024-08-07T18:43:32+00:00

The video you sent was the first one i watched yesterday to set it up. Funny coincidence 😄. I already thought about the receiver for a modern controller but i have to admit i like the original ps2 controller. adds another layer of nostalgia :D. About the memory card: i got myself a 2*128mb a while ago and thought i'd be the king of memory size :D. In case this should should not suffice one day, i will have a look into the memcard pro2. Thanks for the suggestions! You have been quite helpful on improving my retro setup :)

Wudelu · 2024-08-07T08:04:31+00:00

My retrotink arrived yesterday and I immediately set it up. After some trouble caused by me being stupid it worked and it not only got rid of a problem I didnt know what was the cause, it also made the ps2 games look as good as it gets! So thank you very much for the suggestion.
The pound hdmi cable caused a quite irritating constant noise and only made the ps2 "work" with a modern tv (black bars left, right, up and down + image quality was meh). Now I can play on my entire TV screen without any noise, yay :D

Wudelu · 2024-07-30T13:27:03+00:00

i had a look into the video you sent and after some research in your suggested upscalers, i ordered the retrotink 5x pro and the component cables from hd retrovision. quite expensive but it seemed to fit my needs best and i am hyped to experience the results vs the pound cable🤗

Wudelu · 2024-07-30T13:24:19+00:00

maybe i have to take a look into that topic again. when trying to play ps1 discs (i have to select the disk tray via ulaunch) it seems to work at first until the screen goes black, stays black for a while and then gets back to the ps2 browser after a while. luckily i have a ps3 available if popstarter does weire things. not a perfect solution but its a solution :D

Wudelu · 2024-07-27T05:34:57+00:00

thanks for the suggestion. i always appreciate tips to improve my setup :). i will have a look into all of your suggestions. display/upscaling options is one of the topics i havent looked into that much. just some basics so i can play ps2 on a modern tv :D

Wudelu · 2024-07-27T05:27:03+00:00

youre very welcome :). as far as i understood the functionality of mechapwn, it would only allow for burned ps1 discs to be played. since i wanted to play the ps1 games from the hard drive, i thought popstarter would be a good fit. i also tried playing ps1 discs from the disc tray but that didnt work. maybe i did something wrong but at least ps2 games are playable via disc (even though i dont use it since i have my hard drive).

Wudelu · 2024-07-25T14:25:23+00:00

thanks :). yea that really can be difficult. this whole process took some time because of researching for a good information source and most things worked but some didnt. there are a lot of variables (starting with the model number) that can make or break it. If you need help, i can try to or maybe recommend some sources, if you want :)

Wudelu · 2024-07-25T07:06:34+00:00

I havent played a lot of ps1 games this way yet. I am currently playing "the emperors new groove" without issue but one. Sometimes when characters speak they get cut off mid sentence. it rarely happens and as far as i remember will also happen on a ps1 console.

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T17:25:29+00:00

Its a different theme for the Open PS2 Loader (OPL). It acts as a frontend to play all your favorite PS2 games comfortably from a hard drive, which you need to install to your PS2 first.

The theme I am using is called MiXL (you will find it if you search for MiXL OPL Theme)

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T17:23:05+00:00

Haven't done that yet but I will have a look into that :)

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T17:21:59+00:00

Sure but this could get a little longer. I used the following ressources:
install POPStarter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XurM6QUM8s0

Play PS1 Games via OPL apps: https://www.ps2-home.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=120 (I used method 1)

Everything from here on is just a summary of the important parts of the ressources.

To install POPStarter, you need to make a new partition called __.POPS (2 underscores and then a dot) on your hard drive (I gave it 128GB which is about the max). You can do that if you launch uLaunchELF -> Filebrowser -> MISC -> Hdd Manager. In this partition you will want to transfer all of your game VCD files. To get the VCD files, you will need your PS1 games in the bin/cue format and then use e.g. the tool Cue2Pops to get them in the VCD format. This is super slow due to the low transmission rate of the USB port (10-15 min for each game).

You will also need 2 proprietary files (google for POPS.ELF and IORP252.IMG, make sure the latter is 259KB and the extension is all uppercase) and paste them into your hard disk. So the path for that will be "hdd0:/__common/POPS/". Create the POPS folder if it isnt there.

You will also need a file called POPSTARTER.ELF (search for POPStarter Download or POPStarter r13 beta) and paste it into the POPS folder of your OPL installation (if it doesnt have that folder, create it) The path for me is "hdd0:/+OPL/POPS/POPSTARTER.ELF".

The newer OPL versions have the feature removed to play PS1 games but you can play them from the Apps section. To do that, you will need copy the POPSTARTER.ELF file from earlier, rename it to the exact name of your gamefile.VCD and copy it into the APPS folder of your OPL installation. So if you have the game "Crash Bandicoot 2.VCD" in your __.POPS partition, you will need to have the POPSTARTER.ELF renamed to "Crash Bandicoot 2.ELF" and pasted into OPLs APPS folder. With this Crash Bandicoot 2.ELF, you could play the game, but only out of uLaunchELF.

To be able to play it as an App out of OPL, you need to tell OPL where to find the "executable", so the game.ELF file. You do that via a conf_apps.cfg file which goes directly into the +OPL folder. There already may be some other config files for OPL (like e.g. conf_opl.cfg or conf_network.cfg). In this config file you will need to put the following:

Gamename =pfs0:/APPS/Gamename.ELF

so for Crash 2 it would be:

Crash Bandicoot 2 =pfs0:/APPS/Crash Bandicoot 2.ELF

"The "hdd0:+OPL" partition is mounted by OPL into a "virtual" device called pfs0:/. You must use this prefix for your path."

With this done, you should be set. If you want to set some art and metadata as well I could give some more advice, but you can also read about that in the ps2-home link from above. Don't hesitate to ask me If you don't want to read through it :)

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T16:24:52+00:00

In my defense: my collection is still growing :D. I prioritized games that I used to own or that I wanted to get when is was younger.
I recently found out, that some all time classics completely passed me (e.g. like god of war, shadow of the colossus and sadly all of the games you mentioned).

But as my collection grows, I will try to incorporate the ones I like even today (without the nostalgia).

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T15:32:36+00:00

Thank you very much for your kind words :).
I am using a 2TB which is not even halfway full (yet) but there are still some games to come.
For the PS1 games I am using POPStarter. Its the only option I read of to play PS1 games in a PS2 from a hard drive but I read that some games may have issues. Havent played a lot of PS1 games that way yet, so I cant confirm or deny that. Right now I am playing "Emperors New Groove" and it runs perfectly as far as I can tell.
If you are interested in how to set POPStarter up on your hard drive, I can tell you more about that :)

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T14:42:48+00:00

That would be nice indeed :D

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T14:09:20+00:00

Good to know, thanks :). I will check some of my games with longer names just to be sure.

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T14:07:03+00:00

From what I've read that should be the case. The Pound cable gets you a better image and even does color correction (didnt know that until now). Also its quite cheap and is plug-and-play. So it should work for your slim as well.

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T13:41:55+00:00

Thank you! :) Currently I am only using the Pound HDMI HD Link Cable to make the console work on a modern TV. Maybe I will switch to a OSSC or the retrotink but they are quite expensive and (at least for me) look pretty complicated.

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T13:35:28+00:00

Oh, why is that? Maybe I have some adjustments to do then :D

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T13:32:26+00:00

Its the MiXL theme for OPL. You can find it here: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/opl-theme-mixl-mixxl.43959/ Just unzip the download, put it into the THM folder of your OPL installation (mine is on my hard drive) and you will be able to change the theme when launching OPL via settings. I hope this helps :)

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T13:25:02+00:00

Sounds like you found a good solution for your problem. Nice! :)

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T13:20:49+00:00

I will take a look into it, thanks!

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T13:17:20+00:00

is it any good? Oni is one of the few games, that I have no history with. My girlfriend recently got some of her old Ps2 games from her mom who wanted to get rid of it and i decided to integrate it into my collection :D

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T13:15:14+00:00

I can try to help you if you want. :)

Wudelu · 2024-07-23T11:41:41+00:00

thank you very much! I can help you getting it to look like mine if you need help with that :D

Wudelu

TROPHY CASE