Buying a used PS2 any advice (fat, slim, black, silver..)

[AtticGamer]

Good buy, but don't play PS1 games on the PS2 since it forces the laser and wears it faster.

[Shannon]

FreeMcBoot allows you to access homebrew without having a "trigger" disc.

 

From the homebrew you can either run...

 

esr - autoboot an ESR formatted PS2 game. Yes I know it is a pain to patch and reburn a disc. But it is worth it and you could always do it one game at a time (in other words as you play them).

 

Thanks for the kind responses ... not to be think but I'm not up on my terminology. Let me try and get this straight -- if I install Free McBoot on my PS2 via a USB stick and my copy of Swap Magic will I then be able to boot the backups I allready have (and have been running via SwapMagic) directly...in other words without using the SwapMagic disc....OR will I have to patch the games I allready have copies of? What does ESR formatted mean and how can I tell if my backups are ESR formatted?

 

Thanks for the information -- this is really great / interesting stuff!

 

EDIT: Also wondering, will installing Free McBoot wipe the files on my memory card? If so, I'd like to know, as I'll pick up a second card.

FreeMcboot won't change anything in regards to using Swap Magic to play a backup.

 

ESR is the name of the homebrew that "fools" the PS2 into allowing to play games that are flagged as DVD movies. Hence the original game image needs to be modified so that when it is placed in the PS2 the DVD drive "verifies" it as a useable disc (DVD movie) and leaves the drive unlocked. The ESR then does it's magic and boots the game.

 

FreeMcboot sets things up so that when you place an ESR formatted disk in it will automatically start playing it. The boot process is a few seconds longer, but well worth it if you wanna keep your originals stored away.

 

Although I never tried it, in theory FreeMcBoot can install without formatting the memory card. I would try that first and if it doesn't work go out and get one. The other nice thing about FreeMcBoot is the memory card does not have to be in slot 1 for it to work.

[rorysl]

Great! Thanks for the clarification guys!

[J.Max]

I'd get a slim. Small, reliable, quiet and they can be modded for imports with three little bits of plastic (Magickey), no opening the case, no invalidating any warranty. Nice.

 

 

Agreed. The slim is the way to go for EXACTLY that reason.