MC2SIO - Load PS2 games from SD Memory Card!

[godreborn]

MagicGate is fancy words for saying "We're Sony and we force encryption so people have to buy our proprietary devices" more or less. It's a form of DRM basically, and is how Sony tried to keep out third party companies from producing things to be used with Sony's consoles, or music devices (because believe it or not, it started with music).

This is why certain PS1 and PS2 games can't save or load (or corrupt your memory card) if you're not using an official one. That also goes for phones, camcoders, etc. I don't know if things like FreeMCBoot really need the MagicGate to work... Could be something else, maybe people tend to recommend official ones because of the 8MB size itself.

I've read that with larger memory cards the system gets boggled trying to look beyond the 8MB, and that can lead to issues, which is the reason often cited as to why Sony never introduced larger official cards (beyond you know, trying to make people buy several small ones instead of just a large one).

If anything I guess other officially licensed cards also use MagicGate and come in 8MB so they could potentially work. But now that I think about it, if the MX4SIO gets traction we'll probably see many memory cards destroyed to repurpose them...

so an official memory card should be magic gate?

 

[Maeson]

They should, yes, if it's branded as licensed by Sony. I remember seeing Madcatz and Nyko memory cards with the MagicGate logo back in the day, and I don't think those companies would like to risk getting sued by lying with the MagicGate thing, Sony would have easily slap them out of existence.

I remember seeing people using FreeMCBoot with those sort of cards, so I imagine they're good enough?

 

[zfreeman]

They should, yes, if it's branded as licensed by Sony. I remember seeing Madcatz and Nyko memory cards with the MagicGate logo back in the day, and I don't think those companies would like to risk getting sued by lying with the MagicGate thing, Sony would have easily slap them out of existence.

I remember seeing people using FreeMCBoot with those sort of cards, so I imagine they're good enough?

They are. They were licensed to use MagicGate from Sony. Other ones included Kemco and Datel.

 

[playstays_shun]

when they say a magic gate memory card, they mean an official (oem) card, correct? I know sony used magic gate on the psp as well, and I think it's to distinguish official from fake or something.

Pretty sure 3rd party MagicGate branded that actually are the board inside, not just some knockoff, are fine too as mentioned.. to put FMCB on to point to MC2SIO

Helder's stock photo of FMCB pre-loaded MC's, seems to have 3rd party ones and says he ships a mix of OEM + 3rd party but theyre tested

a non-magic gate FMCB memory card will likely not work

 

[godreborn]

you put opl on that magic gate card? sorry, never soft modded a ps2 before. mine is a hard mod, but I think the laser is going out again.

 

[CoolMe]

I think you can install FreeMcboot on a generic (non OEM) PS2 MC iirc, not sure how reliable it'll be or if it'll corrupt itself after while.. but you can install it on one of those.

 

[Shadow#1]

I think you can install FreeMcboot on a generic (non OEM) PS2 MC iirc, not sure how reliable it'll be or if it'll corrupt itself after while.. but you can install it on one of those.

Opl will not work on them

 

[CoolMe]

Opl will not work on them

Not sure.. did you test it yourself? OPL refuses to load?

 

[Shadow#1]

Not sure.. did you test it yourself? OPL refuses to load?

The creator of this device tried many times

 

[Shadow#1]

So I know for a fact it won't

 

[Maeson]

OPL can be loaded from different places. For example I've been doing so from a USB drive through uLaunchElf, where I had a couple games that worked.

But for MX4SIO, from what I've seen, the current version of OPL cannot have both USB and the MX4SIO working at the same time (when USB was recognized, the other wasn't for example) so using the memory card in slot 0 is the way to go.

It is a rather clean setup compared to other ways, without having an hdd or needing to have the system connected to something else to use SMB.

Once you have the main memory card set up, with FreeMCBoot you can boot directly from OPL by holding a button, so it is pretty easy to launch games.

Modchips shouldn't be an issue. The one I have has a Matrix Infinity (quite a surprise when I opened it to clean it when I bought it) and doesn't cause issues.

And yes, the disc reader of the PS2 is infamous for issues. I had to replace the lens on this one when I got it too...

 

[fleamsy]

Hello, I’m trying to sell my mc2sio card and mcboot card with FMC 1.966 w/Opl to someone to someone with a slim PS2. I installed opl on my fat PS2 and was wondering if there would be any more installing or if it would work plug and play

 

[zfreeman]

the memory card in slot 0 is the way to go.

Don't most games use only the 1st slot for saves? Then the most optimum setup would be MX4SIO in the 2nd slot for games, with a regular memory card in the first slot for saves.

 

[playstays_shun]

you can still save games on a FMCB memory card , just less space because has FMCB stuff

and once game boots you can swap MC with a regular one if you need one with more space , or are already using a different one for saves

 

[FloDoc]

you can still save games on a FMCB memory card , just less space because has FMCB stuff

and once game boots you can swap MC with a regular one if you need one with more space , or are already using a different one for saves

What version of OPL are you using for saving? I can't seem to figure it out. I use the 1629 version but my games won't show up in the menu. I use 1.2 the games show and play great, but it won't recognize mc0, even if I swap the cards after boot. Any advice to give?

 

[Maeson]

To see and be able to load save files from memory cards on slot 0, you need the BDM3 beta version, or 1629 as you name it. What you need to do is, once you boot OPL, go to settings. There are like three "groups" of options, the first option of the third group needs to be set as automatic. I can't recall the name, but it has "USB" on it. It acts as if it's the BDM option in OPL 1.2.0.

Then you should be able to see games. I was stumped at that point myself too.

 

[FloDoc]

To see and be able to load save files from memory cards on slot 0, you need the BDM3 beta version, or 1629 as you name it. What you need to do is, once you boot OPL, go to settings. There are like three "groups" of options, the first option of the third group needs to be set as automatic. I can't recall the name, but it has "USB" on it. It acts as if it's the BDM option in OPL 1.2.0.

Then you should be able to see games. I was stumped at that point myself too.

Ya, it's weird, that's exactly how I have it set up, but the games won't appear on either of the BDM versions, but will show and play on almost any other version haha. I wonder if it's because I'm using a PHAT model 30001 series? I realize this project is meant more for slims.

 

[Maeson]

It should work regardless of model.

You could try to delete the config files on the memory card, I myself couldn't even boot BDM3 until I erased them; and be sure you exit the settings by pressing X on exit instead of pressing circle or the changes won't take effect.

 

[FloDoc]

It should work regardless of model.

You could try to delete the config files on the memory card, I myself couldn't even boot BDM3 until I erased them; and be sure you exit the settings by pressing X on exit instead of pressing circle or the changes won't take effect.

This is so embarrassing hahaha! I had a usb stick plugged in, without even thinking about it. Turns out, it was trying to read games from the usb first, which makes sense lol. Unplugged it, all is working perfectly now!

 

[Maeson]

Glad that you got it working! I made the same mistake too, I forgot to mention it, sorry!