PS 2 Modification Question

[Crafty]

Hello All

 

I already have a modded x-box for my 9 year old son 160GB HD etc etc.

 

I am now looking for a modded PS2 for my 7 year old Daughter.. Singstar is all she wants.

 

I have ?? therefore.

 

Can PS2 be modded with HDrives etc etc..

 

Or do they just get chipped to play backups...

How hard it it to make backups....

What price would be reasonable.

 

Thanks

[Mickey Juice]

I've never looked into PS2 mods, but IIRC they're just chipped to play 'back ups'.

Dunno if they ever utilised HDD's (or the Sony drive they released).

 

If she's only playing 1 game why bother chipping it?

[Berty]

you can soft mod it to use the HDD. Only trouble is that copied games will have to be transfered to the unit via ftp as the soft mod does not allow the system to play back copied discs.

 

To get the HDD to work, you need either a slimline with a usb caddy, or the older version with a network adapter. I have got mine soft-modded, its alright but no-where near as good as a soft-modded xbox.

[spot]

i had a ps2slim and usb drive.

i was just WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to slow,

loading times were crap, movies choppy and was only 50% compatable with games (prob less)

 

i bit the bullet and got it chipped.

should have done it in the first pacae.

[XiTaU]

i use a swap magic its a cheap about $50 swap disk which lets you play backed up ps2 games. Can be a bit tedious but works a treat.

[NMD]

Which chip did you put it in it ? I might chip my ps2...

[spot]

i got a local guy (Ballarat) to do mine.

was a h2o chip.

works good, haven't had a game not work yet.

[NMD]

Cool thanks, Im going to look into it. Are games easy to come by and burn ?

[spot]

i'll PM you a good site.

and as long as you burn em on good discs and on 2 or 4x you're all good.

[elvis]

i'll PM you a good site.

and as long as you burn em on good discs and on 2 or 4x you're all good.

Good advice. I found my old "chubby" PS2 hated fast-burned discs. I even go as far as burning everything at 1X on Princo "A-Grade" discs. They aren't the cheapest, but they're the only disc that gives me a 100% success rate.

[sneek]

Ill disagree here... princos are one of the cheapest dvds on the market. They have bad shelf life and crappy die.

 

I always by top grade richos... from they price they are vs the quality you get, ill go with them every time.

[XiTaU]

i always burn mine on sony dvd+r's because they are cheap and have never gave me any problems and i usually burn them on 8x.

[spot]

i've been using sony and now tdk (on special :P) on coasters as yet.

 

yeah elvis i burn all the important games (SF:AE :P) as slow as i can.

games i am more 'testing' i'll burn on 4x.

 

haven't tried faster, but from exp with DC's i try to burn slow.

[Crafty]

I've never looked into PS2 mods, but IIRC they're just chipped to play 'back ups'.

Dunno if they ever utilised HDD's (or the Sony drive they released).

 

If she's only playing 1 game why bother chipping it?

 

Well if I can't get my son off the xbox I will just have to get my daughter off the

PS2. She is only interested in singstar at the moment, but who knows in the future???

 

Thanks for all the feed back so far.

 

If I can summarise so far, basically hard drive is out, chipping is in. That's fine by me.

Any idea of a reasonable price for a chipped PS2 or is it easier to buy new and then add the chip...

JB HiFi have new PS2 out at $187.

 

i'll PM you a good site.

and as long as you burn em on good discs and on 2 or 4x you're all good.

 

Can I get a PM too...:)

[WOKA]

Isn't Singstar a dual layer disc..? Maybe not but anyone had an experience in burning dual layer PS2 games..? Disc copy with Nero perhaps..?

 

 

W.

[spot]

Crafty - PM sent.

 

Isn't Singstar a dual layer disc..? Maybe not but anyone had an experience in burning dual layer PS2 games..? Disc copy with Nero perhaps..?

 

 

W.

 

there are ways of compressing dual layer discs.

i have a GT4 which is single layer - 4.5GB

normally its 7 or 8GB.

 

some rip teams compress and release single layer versions.

for GT4 all movies are removed and 1 sec of black screen is used.

the movies in GT4 were uncompressed and was the whole reason the game was a dual layer disc in the first place.

[elvis]

Isn't Singstar a dual layer disc..? Maybe not but anyone had an experience in burning dual layer PS2 games..? Disc copy with Nero perhaps..?

Alcohol 120%.

 

http://www.alcohol-soft.com/

 

Make the image with the wizard, and where it says "media type" select "Playstation 2 disc". Make the image on your hard disk (there'll be a MDF and MDS file created - one is the data, and one is the headers/lead-in/track contents).

 

Then burn the suckers back to a dual-layer. The blank discs cost a bit tho.

 

Still, I just went to Target and bought all the games for ~$25 a piece. At that price, it's close enough to the cost involved with finding/renting/downloading/copying games anyway. Target have 'em on special this week, and rainchecks if they sell out.

 

Ill disagree here... princos are one of the cheapest dvds on the market. They have bad shelf life and crappy die.

 

I always by top grade richos... from they price they are vs the quality you get, ill go with them every time.

Hrm really? I've never had a drama with them. I've been using Princos for well over 3 years now, and never a drama. Still, most die-related dramas don't kick in until the 10 year mark, so I guess I'll see then what the go is.

 

Anyways... the point I was making was that I've also tried using these 10c no-name brand DVD-Rs, and they suck. Asides from vibrating like a bastard inside the DVD tray (obviously they are made poorly and don't balance properly in the center), my PS2 just spits them out every time.

 

I'll try some Ricohs and TDKs in the coming weeks and see how they go.

[The Pinny Parlour]

Princos are right crap.

Verbatims I use. Beautiful. :)

[skid]

Any idea of a reasonable price for a chipped PS2 or is it easier to buy new and then add the chip...

JB HiFi have new PS2 out at $187.

Last time I looked a chipped PS2 on ebay (refurbished/second hand) goes for around $200+shipping.

 

If you're only after a small number of games, say less than 5... I'd tend towards buying originals. Less trouble all round.

 

New modchips, I think cost from $60-$100. After that you'll probably have to pay someone to install it for you.

 

Soft-modding would mean that you have to buy an old PS2 chunky (around $100+ on ebay), then buy a network adapter ($50), hard drive ($120 or so), and an original PS1 game. After that, you'll have to nicely ask someone to "prepare" a memory card for you which you'll use to boot the PS2 to read from the harddrive.

 

As you can see, I've been looking into getting a PS2 as well :) I'm only after two games, MGS3 and GT4. Currently going to wait until sometime next year to buy it, hoping that the price will go down cos of the release of the PS3 in November.

 

(The prices above are rough)

[Crafty]

Last time I looked a chipped PS2 on ebay (refurbished/second hand) goes for around $200+shipping.

 

If you're only after a small number of games, say less than 5... I'd tend towards buying originals. Less trouble all round.

 

New modchips, I think cost from $60-$100. After that you'll probably have to pay someone to install it for you.

 

Soft-modding would mean that you have to buy an old PS2 chunky (around $100+ on ebay), then buy a network adapter ($50), hard drive ($120 or so), and an original PS1 game. After that, you'll have to nicely ask someone to "prepare" a memory card for you which you'll use to boot the PS2 to read from the harddrive.

 

As you can see, I've been looking into getting a PS2 as well :) I'm only after two games, MGS3 and GT4. Currently going to wait until sometime next year to buy it, hoping that the price will go down cos of the release of the PS3 in November.

 

(The prices above are rough)

 

Sounds like a new or near new PS2 and new games are the best option.

Thanks guys for all the feedback :cool:

[t1ckt0ck]

Crafty - PM sent.

there are ways of compressing dual layer discs.

i have a GT4 which is single layer - 4.5GB

normally its 7 or 8GB.

 

some rip teams compress and release single layer versions.

for GT4 all movies are removed and 1 sec of black screen is used.

the movies in GT4 were uncompressed and was the whole reason the game was a dual layer disc in the first place.

With most Dual Layer games u can keep the videos but degrade the quality of them, delete and relink the dup movies is always a good way to kill some space.

[adn0r]

As long as you have an old chubby ps2 and can get your hands on a network adapter, I'd recommend the soft-mod + harddrive over a modchip. You'll need the fat ps2, a network adapter, memory card, original ps1 game and a way to get saves from a pc to the ps2 memory card (Action Replay MAX, sharkport, friend with modded ps2 etc.)

 

Advantages of the softmod are pretty similar to the xbox you have now I suppose. You don't have to open the ps2 up, so no soldering and no voiding of warranty. Games will load quicker, and there is no futzing around with discs to change games etc. I have a couple of different singstars on my ps2 hdd (which are all single layer btw, there are only a handful of dual layer ps2 games) and they run great.