Chipped PS2 Help

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,925
I have a chipped PS2 that I bought in the mid-2000's, so I'm assuming it has an outdated modchip in it. It seems to work because I can still load CD games from any region. I don't know how to make burned discs work on it, although I remember successfully running Beats of Rage from a CDR way back in the day. I just replaced the lens a couple of months ago, but already it's stopped reading DVD's again, but that's not the main point of this post.

I'm trying to capture footage of Silpheed the Lost Planet, and I'd like it to be 480p so I don't look like a complete noob. I've the Japanese version of the game, and it doesn't seem to have any way to force 480p built-in. I tried pressing X or start rapidly at boot, but of course it's not working. The claim from this page seems dubious, and may not work on the Japanese release of the game:

Now I'm trying to boot GS Mode Selector (GSM) from a CD. I tried making an ISO of GSM using cdgen, but I must have done something wrong because the system just says it's not a valid PS2 disc.

I promised footage of this game within a day or so. What's the fastest way to grab 480p footage of the game?
 

Burning Fight!!

NIS America fan & Rent Free tenant
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
Posts
4,336
By having a working PS2... or just running it off PCSX2. GSM is pretty solid and has great compatibility rates with games when forcing 480p (now 720p/1080i... not so much).

You could softmod your console with FreeMCBoot/FreeHDBoot through the PS2 Network Adapter or a preconfigured memory card, then run the game via Open PS2 Loader (which has GSM built-in) or just use it to run the GSM *.elf directly for playing with the actual game disc.
 

SpamYouToDeath

I asked for a, Custom Rank and, Learned My Lesson.
15 Year Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2005
Posts
6,059
Seems like plenty of sites host prebuilt uLaunchELF ISO images, for CDs and DVDs. Do any of those work for you? If so, you can use uLaunchELF to boot any executable you want from a USB stick.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,925
I knew this forum was awesome. Thanks for the help, guys!

I was able to use an ISO of uLaunchELF to run GSM. However, the JP Silpheed disc won't boot in 480p.

This page supposedly had instructions for how to run the game in 480p, but the link to the file doesn't work anymore. I managed to find the instructions on the Wayback Machine. Looks like I'll need to download the USA version from Wrecking Designs.

 
Last edited:

Burning Fight!!

NIS America fan & Rent Free tenant
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
Posts
4,336
HDxploder is some old shit. Might be outdated info.

Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure if I can run 480p in my scaler but I'll try it out in the weekend to see if I can help you figure this out.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,925
Thank you. This is making me re-evaluate my life priorities.
 

HeavyMachineGoob

My poontang misses Lenn Yang's wang
10 Year Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2011
Posts
5,816
There exists now the Mechapwn exploit for select models of PS2, it patches the MECHACON chip in the PS2 and accomplishes the same end goal as a modchip. Maybe your PS2 is compatible?
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,925
There exists now the Mechapwn exploit for select models of PS2, it patches the MECHACON chip in the PS2 and accomplishes the same end goal as a modchip. Maybe your PS2 is compatible?
My PS2 is chipped already. I seem to have it booting CDR's okay now.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,925
Well, I managed to get my issue resolved. I got Xploder HDTV, and it works great with the original Japanese Silpheed disc. It looks glorious! Apparently there's no substitute for for Xploder HDTV for certain games.

To address more of my long-term PS2 needs, I bought one of the fat PS2's RAZO is selling. It will be nice to have a fat PS2 again, especially with a hard drive.

Thanks for your help, everyone who jumped in!
 
Last edited:

Burning Fight!!

NIS America fan & Rent Free tenant
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
Posts
4,336
Good to know! Slimline PS2s are great (especially the late models where sony figured out how to not scratch people's discs lol) but it feels like a gimped experience compared to a fully featured fatty. Plus the design of the console rules.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,925
As a footnote, Silpheed only let me play the first stage in 480p. It gets stuck on the load screen after that. I figured this out soon after my last post, and I spent some time looking for a workaround on either the Japanse or US disc, but have found none.

Maybe it will work on the fat PS2.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,925
Yeah, you have to patch them or they won't boot. I solved my problems from the first post long ago. If nothing else, I've learned everything about PS2 hacking (so I can forget everything in a few years).

The problem seems to be that the only way to play this game in 480p is with Xploder HDTV. And when you boot with that, the game gets stuck on loading screens for some reason. The game needs a 480p hack.

Anyway, out of time. The video my brother was working on that I was capturing footage for is done.
 

Burning Fight!!

NIS America fan & Rent Free tenant
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
Posts
4,336
Well if the game only outputs 240p what's the big deal in showing 240p footage? That I don't really get.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,925
It's 480i, not 240p. And because the game renders in 480p, it looks way better in 480p on modern displays. The game needs a 480p patch.

You're right, it's not a big deal. I ended up using 480i deinterlaced by the Retrotink 5x for everything after the first stage. And the video my brother is working on only shows the game for a few seconds anyway. It just looks way better in progressive scan, so I wish we could just play the whole thing that way.
 

SpamYouToDeath

I asked for a, Custom Rank and, Learned My Lesson.
15 Year Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2005
Posts
6,059
PS2 games have fairly direct control over the video output. There's no universal way to force them into a different video mode.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,925
PS2 games have fairly direct control over the video output. There's no universal way to force them into a different video mode.
Yep. It's unfortunate because Dreamcast, GameCube and Xbox are all generally better about having games compatible with progressive scan mode. On PS2 it seems like it really wasn't considered, especially with earlier games like Silpheed. Which is a shame because the game looks great when output in 480p.

Instead we're stuck consulting lists online for game compatibility. In Silpheed's case, Xploder HDTV seems to be the only known way. And on my slim PS2 at least, it won't play past stage 2.

Progressive scan on PS2 is a crap shoot.
 

skate323k137

Professional College Dropout
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Posts
4,186
Yeah, lack of widespread 480P support on PS2 is a fucking shame. I've run the progressive scan games in RGsB (VGA) on a quality PC CRT and it's god damned gorgeous. Unfortunately the list of games I play that natively support it is very short, and you need a way to navigate booting up in SD so you can use the game menu to switch over to progressive scan. Also, sync switches to the green line when 480p is enabled.

On multiscan displays I just use a component to VGA transcoder. That way I can switch resolution without sync changing around, and it takes care of the sync on green problem too if your monitor doesn't support it.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,925
Did you try holding x and triangle as the game starts? There's also a shoddy forum post saying just mash X or start. http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30389&start=10
I understand that you've already taken care of the footage but I thought I'd add this
The X and start mashing thing is what I mentioned in the original post. The post you mentioned is actually about playing the game with Xploder HDTV.

Silpheed isn't one of the games where you can hold X and triangle at boot.

Anyway, here's the video the footage was for. You don't even get to see it very long (toward the end), so I definitely wasted my time trying to get this outputting in progressive scan, lol. At least the Retrotink 5X does a pretty good job deinterlacting it. I'm glad I got up to date on PS2 hardware though.

 
Last edited:
Top