Two decades after the PlayStation 2 console was released, a working exploit targeting the DVD player functionality is demonstrated.
In its life on the market, the PS2 has been hacked in many ways. The most obvious and complete method of hacking a PS2 is through the use of a modchip, most of which have to be soldered to the mainboard of the unit. Outside of modifying the board, there were ... [ read the full article ]
Please read the original article before posting your comments.
You state "The holy grail for booting unsigned / unauthorized code on a PS2 would be a method that required no modification at the hardware level"
This has already been achieved many many years ago via Free MC Boot which is a soft mod which requires no hardware modification.
An indeed Free MC Boot would be considered to be the holy grail as it does not rely on old failing PS2 disc lasers as the above method does. Free MC Boot can run code from memory devices such as a HDD or SSD.
Originally posted by MikeMoy: You state "The holy grail for booting unsigned / unauthorized code on a PS2 would be a method that required no modification at the hardware level"
This has already been achieved many many years ago via Free MC Boot which is a soft mod which requires no hardware modification.
An indeed Free MC Boot would be considered to be the holy grail as it does not rely on old failing PS2 disc lasers as the above method does. Free MC Boot can run code from memory devices such as a HDD or SSD.
Thanks for the reply MikeMoy.
As stated in the same paragraph I said the holy grail would be a method that required no modification at the hardware level, "just insert the disc and watch it boot."
I am aware of FreeMCBoot but afaik you require a memory card or HDD for that to work? With the new method exploiting the parsing of DVD-Video files you could create a disc that can load homebrew code or a backup without the memory card mod or the need for a HDD or anything.
I probably could have been clearer. Also, perhaps FreeMCBoot has changed over the years. It has been many years since I have touched my PS2, it is gathering dust somewhere (modded with IIRC DMS4 Pro).
Been about 8 years since I used FreeMCBoot myself. Yes you require a PS2 memory card for FreeMCBoot to work, note people playing PS2 games have PS2 memory cards. FreeMCBoot requires no hardware modification it is all done at software level i.e. if you remove the memory card from the PS2 the FreeMCBoot functionality will be completely removed from the PS2 and it will just run as a regular PS2. The PS2 memory card can still be used to store PS2 games saves as the FreeMCBoot data on the memory card only takes up a small amount of space.
The HDD is optional, you can run copied games from CD-R or DVD-R or you could put those same games on a HDD an run them from that and take advantage of faster loading times and avoid the hassle that comes with using 20 year old failing PS2 disc lasers.
In my opinion if you gave people the option in the present time of being able to play copied Playstation 4 games from burned discs or copied Playstation 4 games from HDD they would choose HDD for the convenience and performance benefits it provides.
Cool to see that there are still people working on modding the PS2 with this new hack.
