How can i play japanese games on my american ps2 without a modchip?

Jay

Jay

CAG Ultra Noob
If i were to buy a ps2,how can i play import games without voiding the warranty or installing a modchip?
 
If you have a slim, you can install a fliptop lid without voiding your warranty. If you have a fatty, there pretty much no way around breaking/removing that sticker and voiding the warranty.

Although I doubt any fatty ps2's are still covered under warranty anyway.
 
[quote name='Puffa469']If you have a slim, you can install a fliptop lid without voiding your warranty. If you have a fatty, there pretty much no way around breaking/removing that sticker and voiding the warranty.

Although I doubt any fatty ps2's are still covered under warranty anyway.[/QUOTE]


there are other methods.... but swapmagic, fliptop lids, or a chip are definatly the way to go...
 
swap magic is a little tricky to come by these days. Apparently there was a crackdown or something since the last time I bought SM discs.
 
FYI, there is a new option coming out. It's a memory card with a USB port on it. It's (alleged) intended purpose is just to backup/trade/load/save games, but some hackers have written some code for it that lets you use it as a kind of external modchip, for one thing allowing you to play import games as well as homebrew, and without disc swappin. So far the cards aren't available yet, but there is a pre-release version of the hack software (for PAL only at the moment.) Presuming we hear that this actually works (and they showed a video that sure makes it appear to work), and they get the NTSC verison out, then I'll probably be getting one, both for homebrew and so I can run Japanese DDR games. The card is called a Memor32 (it's also a 32 MB memory card). Search for the name. It's a bit pricey at 49.99 euros list, but you don't even have to crack open your PS2, and obviously the mod is easily removed. Hopefully the US resellers won't gouge further for it.
 
Uh... wasn't that nothing but a hoax? I mean, they came out with the OMG NEWS!!1111 two or three months ago. And nothing's come out yet.

Edit: Whoops, wrong post, ahahaha.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']FYI, there is a new option coming out. It's a memory card with a USB port on it. It's (alleged) intended purpose is just to backup/trade/load/save games, but some hackers have written some code for it that lets you use it as a kind of external modchip, for one thing allowing you to play import games as well as homebrew, and without disc swappin. So far the cards aren't available yet, but there is a pre-release version of the hack software (for PAL only at the moment.) Presuming we hear that this actually works (and they showed a video that sure makes it appear to work), and they get the NTSC verison out, then I'll probably be getting one, both for homebrew and so I can run Japanese DDR games. The card is called a Memor32 (it's also a 32 MB memory card). Search for the name. It's a bit pricey at 49.99 euros list, but you don't even have to crack open your PS2, and obviously the mod is easily removed. Hopefully the US resellers won't gouge further for it.[/QUOTE]

If this is true should i just wait because installing a fliptop lids sounds difficult.
 
[quote name='Mugen']If this is true should i just wait because installing a fliptop lids sounds difficult.[/quote]

It was a pita on the old fatty PS2. On the slim its easy peasy. I did it, without even looking at instructions, took me less than 10 minutes. It doesnt even void your warranty.
 
[quote name='Apossum']swap magic is a little tricky to come by these days. Apparently there was a crackdown or something since the last time I bought SM discs.[/QUOTE]

I noticed that too.

The place I got my flip-top/swap magic discs from (thegiantstore.com) seems to have stopped carrying the discs but continues to carry the flip-tops.
 
[quote name='asianxcore']I noticed that too.

The place I got my flip-top/swap magic discs from (thegiantstore.com) seems to have stopped carrying the discs but continues to carry the flip-tops.[/QUOTE]

So does that mean the swap magic disk are invalid with the new pstwo's?
 
[quote name='Mugen']So does that mean the swap magic disk are invalid with the new pstwo's?[/QUOTE]

Naw. There are flip-tops for both the Slim PS2's as well as the Fat model.

They probably stopped carrying the Swap Discs because they didn't want to get in trouble. Carrying that kind of software can't bring only good attention your way.
 
Yeah, the place I used to get them at sold them for $25 shipped, but it seems like most places sell them for $35 now...

This memory card thing looks hot though. I want one...
 
[quote name='DreamSymphony']HD Loader, network adapter, and harddrive works well for me...[/quote]

This is what I use as well. Works great, but not all the games are compatible.
 
Can you provide a pointer to information on the HD Loader and "network adapter" stuff? Will that work with a slim ps2 (which has network support built in)? And will it work with Japanese DDR games? That's what I'd most be interested in. I may be interested in other Japanese games too, I just don't know what's out there that's different yet.

Edit: oh, and would that work with the US version of In The Groove? I'd like to play In The Groove, but the loading times are really horrible. Presumably that issue is gone if loading from a hard drive?
 
HD Loader will not work with a slim ps2 because it needs a hard drive. The slim has no HDD support, not even an external one thru USB. For HD loader you would need a 'fatty' ps2.

And yes, loading games onto, and playing them off of a hardrive substantially reduces loading times.
 
After doing some research on playing imports there is a memory card hack in the works that will only you to play japanese games without having to install a fliptop or modchip,i think i'll probably wait for that.
 
[quote name='Mugen']After doing some research on playing imports there is a memory card hack in the works that will only you to play japanese games without having to install a fliptop or modchip,i think i'll probably wait for that.[/quote]

Do you have a link on that? I'd love to get to play the new Berserk game!
 
[quote name='Mugen']After doing some research on playing imports there is a memory card hack in the works that will only you to play japanese games without having to install a fliptop or modchip,i think i'll probably wait for that.[/QUOTE]
Keep us updated on that.
 
I have the memory card now (Memor32) which I had to buy from England, though it should start showing up from online US dealers. I'm waiting, however, for the NTSC version of the "Memento" hack that allows this thing to act like a kind of mod chip, thus allowing for playing import game. They are promising it any day now, but it's not out yet. There is a PAL only beta version available. The Memento hack is unofficial. The Memor32's official purpose is to copy and save game saves from the card to your PC.

The Memor32 card itself is, officially, a pretty expensive 32 MB (byte, not bit) memory card sporting a mini-USB port. It came in a small plastic ziplock bag with no software and not even a label on the memory card, which just screams "really a mod chip" to me, but who knows what the developers are thinking. You have to download the official software which allows you to backup and restore game saves from/to the card. It works fine in this limited task, though it doesn't yet support other formats of game saves such as Action Replay format, though the developers are apparently working on it, and the software is Windows only. I was able to run it in VMWare Fusion on my MacBook. It worked without problems in XP, but in Win2K I had to manually download a DLL file before it would work (it gave an error at startup complaing about the missing DLL.)

As soon as I can get hold of the NTSC verison of the Memento hack I'll report how well it works. Well, first I have to pick up some Japanese games to try with it. I don't currently have anything. I really want to get a copy of a Japanese DDR game, but will probably start with something inexpensive just to see if the card really works.
 
I can offer an update. I downloaded and installed the allegedly not (though probably) related Memento firmware from an allegedly russian hacker group. You can then use the Memor32 as a kind of mod chip. You can backup your games and play your backups, play homebrew run from the memory card or a flash drive, and it will also let you play import games on your US PS2. To play an import you have to make a backup of your game to an iso file (I use ImgBurn), patch the backup iso file with a patching program (it takes less than a second to do the patch), burn it to a disc and play the backup. I can vouch that it does in fact work for playing Japanese games, and works quite well. I haven't been able to test to see if it does anything about PAL games. I think you may have to patch such games to NTSC format with some other software, but I'm not sure as I don't have any PAL format games.

Currently the Memento firmware only supports DVD-format games, but they are promising support for CD format PS2 games as well as PS1 games in future updates. What it does so far it does very well and I'm very happy with it. It works and doesn't even require you to open your PS2, let alone solder anything. Just load the firmware via your computer and then plug the card into your PS2. FYI, the current firmware does have one problem - on my slim PS2, if I plug the Memor32 into slot 2 I just get a black screen at power up. It works perfectly from slot 1, though. They know of the problem and are working on it, though aren't sure yet if they can fix that. In any case I'm looking forward to the PS1 support, so I can play Japanese PS1 DDR games.

EDIT: the next update to the Memento firmware is suppose to support hard drives, including USB hard drives, but note that the USB ports on the PS2 and Slim PS2 are USB 1.1, so I imagine this won't be the answer for me with regard to reducing loading times. I plan to try it anyway, though - maybe the lower seek time of a hard drive will still mean an overall gain in performance. I'll find out.
 
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