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PS2: Mod-free import method?

bjork

Member
Possibly old news, but it's news to me.

At my work, we sell those fliptop PS2 mod kits that come with the boot discs and whatnot. Coworker took a fliptop home last night to try it out, and came across something pretty interesting.

You put the boot disc in, then turn the system off. You then turn the system back on, but hold down the power button on the front of the system until the boot disc reaches the "insert game disc" screen. Then you let go of the button, and the tray will open. You swap the disc out, and hit X as the tray is closing, and it apparently boots games fine.

I don't know if it works with all models or whatever, but he hooked his domestic (unmodded) PS2 up to the work TV, put in a burn of the Street Fighter Anniversary import and used this trick, and he's playing it as I type this.

Is this a standard method that I just haven't come across? It seems odd that you could play burns and imports on a standard domestic PS2 with just a simple boot disc and a button press.
 

Defensor

Mistaken iRobbery!
Hrmm, interesting. I'll try this when I get home from work today. What model PS2 did he test this on? I would assume holding down the power button while turning it on will also turn it back off?
 

border

Member
I'm all for simple "no mod" solutions like with the Dreamcast or the GameCube's Freeloader....but when it's gotten to the point where you're going through some ridiculous boot swapping, buying special boot discs, and replacing the shell of your system.......don't you think it's time just get it over with and learn how to solder shit?
 

bjork

Member
border said:
I'm all for simple "no mod" solutions like with the Dreamcast or the GameCube's Freeloader....but when it's gotten to the point where you're going through some ridiculous boot swapping, buying special boot discs, and replacing the shell of your system.......don't you think it's time just get it over with and learn how to solder shit?

What's the difference between buying a modchip and installing it, or buying bootdiscs and holding a button?

Aside from the bootdisc method being considerably cheaper.
 
bjork said:
What's the difference between buying a modchip and installing it, or buying bootdiscs and holding a button?

Aside from the bootdisc method being considerably cheaper.
if you're gonna open your shell, why waste time with a fliptop? just get it modded...
 

bjork

Member
Let me clarify, since I guess I didn't in the very first post:

Our flip top comes with the two boot discs, one for DVD games and one for CD games.

But, this is using just the boot discs, not the flip top at all. It's like you took a domestic PS2 out of the box and used only the boot discs to play the imports.

My coworker makes an art out of laziness, so he looked for a way to trick the system into thinking it's open, before he went to the trouble of swapping the lids out. So we're talking boot disc only, original hardware, no modifications at all.

I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it myself, but tonight I'm going to take home a set of the boot discs to see if it works on my Online Bundle PS2. But if it works across the board, it eliminates the need for slide card, flip tops, mod chips, or whatever. You just need the discs and like five seconds of patience to hold a button down.
 

bjork

Member
neptunes said:
but the boot discs are actual ps2 dvd's right?

no need for a mod-chip to play them right?

No need for anything other than a PS2 and a boot disc. But again, let me verify it on my system tonight first (I'll hook my launch one up and try it on it as well), before anyone goes and buys the discs.

It just seems really odd that such a simple method hasn't been found yet, or that nobody has mentioned it yet.
 

Defensor

Mistaken iRobbery!
Still, I remember trying to hold down the reset button after tapping it to turn on and it went back to reset mode after like 2 secs. Anyway bjork, I'm gonna try this with the swap magic discs in a couple of hours on my PS2s.
 

Defensor

Mistaken iRobbery!
neptunes said:
how are these boot discs mastered? :(
The magic swap discs like the HDloader disc are pressed in a HK factory. That way they can be booted like a normal PS2 disc.
 

Ghost

Chili Con Carnage!
Is the PS2 supposed to reboot when you press the eject button like Xbox? Mine has never done that.

If not then whats the point of holding the power button down?
 

bjork

Member
You hold the power button down, and I guess the system thinks it's open or something. I don't know the exact advantage of holding it down, but it seems to work well enough.

He's been swapping between a burn of SFAE and a burn of Guilty Gear X2 with no sort of screwups at all.
 

Belfast

Member
Hmmm....sounds interesting. I have a flip-top, but it could be a good thing to use at friends' houses when I don't want to tote my PS2 around.
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
I wish there was an easy way to play imports :(
I got a chance to play Katamari Dymacy and I wanna import it!!
 

neptunes

Member
The HDloader allows you to back up (store) the games you have on DVD onto an HDD that is compatible with you ps2, and you can play them off the HDD.
 

bjork

Member
I don't know about multidisc games... I'll try vib-ribbon, though. That should be the same principle, no?
 

Pimpbaa

Member
This technique didn't work on my ps2. My version is whatever the hell the version is before those new ones came out (ones with the built in remote sensor).
 

Defensor

Mistaken iRobbery!
Didn't work for me(on the 50001 model). My PS2 kept going back to standby mode every single time I held the power button on the front after I tapped it to turn on.
 

bjork

Member
Defensor said:
Didn't work for me(on the 50001 model). My PS2 kept going back to standby mode every single time I held the power button on the front after I tapped it to turn on.

You don't tap it to turn it on, you hold it down and let it power up that way... we'll see if I can get it to work. If not, I'll just have to get my coworker to write it down. But it looked pretty simple.
 

Defensor

Mistaken iRobbery!
Opps, I meant to say, while the swap disc was in the ps2(50001) in standby mode, I held down the reset button to turn the PS2 on and it just turned itself back off. Now, I did the same thing with my launch model(30001), and my cousin's 30001 R model and the PS2 didn't turn off but the tray didn't eject by itself while at the insert disc screen.
 

bjork

Member
Hm. Got home and tried it on both units, and I'm stuck at the "tray will open" part. Sent him an email, so hopefully he gets back to me tonight. If not, I'll find out tomorrow. Must've just missed a step or something.
 

mahttew

Member
I'm wondering if your friend's PS2 has one of those solderless mods that has it automatically eject...
I'm kinda wondering the same thing. I tried it on a v3 and a v9 with no joy. The v3 made it to the "insert disc" screen but the door didn't open and the v9 just shut down again right away.
 

bjork

Member
Could be, but he said he hasn't done anything to it. The reason he took the fliptop initially was to mod his system, so I don't think he'd already have a modchip and work on it further.

We'll see when he write back, because now it's got me really curious.
 

bjork

Member
Yeah, that's what I thought too, which is why I asked if anyone had heard of it in the first post. He must be getting drunk tonight or something. -_-
 
The sky's the limit, ladies and gents. AND, (i'm excited) A N D . . . I can finally play my copy of Bile Baku that came out in late 2001 or early 2002. I've not even taken the plastic off of it, and it's my only PS2 import due to the limiting factor of having no mod and no buddies who are into modding to kinda help me through the process.



I'm taking this thread is a sign that God loves me. Really. In fact, I might be so ambitious as to write a simple page detailing the process and my experience of getting everything up and running. Marconnely and company, I'll for sure have some questions for you in the next few weeks when I get this off the ground, but I want to do this before my little niece comes into the world. My brother in law's going to need some PS2 stress relief from missing lots of sleep, and my sis is for sure going to be tired. Oh, man, what awesome news, fellas. And to think...the possibility of homebrew without a dev kit. Awesome. Any more rambling and I'll start to mention how it's palindrome time, 4:44am. I can hardly wait.
 

Laurent

Member
Interesting, although I doubt this will work on later systems (probably a flaw from the first consoles, kind of like the famous multi-region code on the first batch of japanese PS2).
 

bjork

Member
Talked to my coworker today, and I think there's just something to it he's not mentioning. He said it wouldn't work on an online bundle PS2, but it worked on an earlier unit. So I said that it wouldn't work on my launch unit, and he didn't really know how to explain it.

I'm not very familiar with model numbers, but that eliminates the newest PS2s and the originals from the mix. How many others are there?
 
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