Support NeoGAF

[stranno]

CTurt scener has finally achieved a Playstation 2 DVD-VIDEO exploit (using an IFO buffer overflow). Which means that a simple burned DVD can be loaded in a completely unmodified Playstation 2 unit.

Unfortunately it only works on Playstation 2 Slim 3.10 (E/U/J) DVD player version, one of the ~50 player versions of all Playstation 2 models. He wants to expand the DVD player support but he must find each buffer overflow in each version, so it will take time. I have tested a 3.11E player and, indeed, it doesn't launch the primary boot.

He has published a pre-compiled DVD on GitHub with uLaunchELF as a primary boot, so you can burn it and execute any kind of executable (elf) file, including the Free McBoot installer. That would make unnecessary any other method to install FMB.

Disclaimer: This is not a piracy thread and the project is completely open/legal.

FreeDVDBoot - Hacking the PlayStation 2 through its DVD player

Update: It has been ported to 3.11 E/U/J. It works fine on my 3.11E

 

[Optimistic Gamer]

Finally we'll be able to play all of our favorite homebrews!
What's your guys' favorite PS2 homebrew games?

 

[PSlayer]

Amazing! i'm thinking about buying a used playstation 2 for a while. So many good memories...

 

[Naked Lunch]

Really cool. It was only a matter of time.

I love the PS2 but there is just no good way to hook it up to an HDTV.
I tried everything. From standard component to the OSSC.
480i is just nasty, flickering crap.

 

[stranno]

Really cool. It was only a matter of time.

I love the PS2 but there is just no good way to hook it up to an HDTV.
I tried everything. From standard component to the OSSC.
480i is just nasty, flickering crap.

I have no problems with XRGB-Mini.

First Playstation 2 batch of games is known for severe interlacing sync problems tho, so they look pretty bad.

 

[S77]

Really cool. It was only a matter of time.

I love the PS2 but there is just no good way to hook it up to an HDTV.
I tried everything. From standard component to the OSSC.
480i is just nasty, flickering crap.

I'm connecting mine to my monitor through the OSSC and there's no flicker at all in games, I'm using 4x mode for 480i games and 2x for 480p ones, with 50% scanlines. There's a setting on the monitor that greately reduced the flicker, but I assume there's no such thing on a TV.

 

[Naked Lunch]

I'm connecting mine to my monitor through the OSSC and there's no flicker at all in games, I'm using 4x mode for 480i games and 2x for 480p ones, with 50% scanlines. There's a setting on the monitor that greately reduced the flicker, but I assume there's no such thing on a TV.

All TVs handle the deinterlace differently from what I understand. The flicker is there on my setup but I can tone it down with certain settings. I guess people have a different tollerance to it but it definately hurts my eyes after a bit.

 

[DaleinCalgary]

This is going to effect sales of new units.

 

[GreatnessRD]

Still got my fliptop slim!

But this is cool nonetheless!

 

[RAIDEN1]

The breakthrough has arrived...

 

[SegaShack]

Really cool. It was only a matter of time.

I love the PS2 but there is just no good way to hook it up to an HDTV.
I tried everything. From standard component to the OSSC.
480i is just nasty, flickering crap.

Me too, have an OSSC and ended up going back to using the CRT for everything.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Time to pick up another PS2

...but how would I be able to tell if it's a compatible version? Ask seller for the BIOS, maybe?

 

[stranno]

...but how would I be able to tell if it's a compatible version? Ask seller for the BIOS, maybe?

No need! Just boot the console without any disc, press triangle and you'll see the drive version.

Of course it has to be a Playstation 2 Slim. 3.10 was almost the last version of the drive.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Very cool but tbh the supreme convenience of a fmb HDD equipped Phat PS2 means I would never get any use out of this.

 

[Ceallach]

Time to pick up another PS2

...but how would I be able to tell if it's a compatible version? Ask seller for the BIOS, maybe?

Honestly, at this point, it's easier to just use Free McBoot, the memory card exploit.

A Fat PS2 with an HDD and Free mcBoot saves the disc drive as well.

 

[Shantae]

Is this more reliable than using Free McBoot and ESR? I've burned and played some games on my PS2 using that method, but I've occasionally have noticed glitches.

 

[SScorpio]

Very cool but tbh the supreme convenience of a fmb HDD equipped Phat PS2 means I would never get any use out of this.

The way I'm reading this is that it would allow people to easily create their own FMB card by downloading, burning, and then booting an ISO.

 

[teezzy]

Top 5 console for me here. So glad I have the games still in my collection which I do.

Certain gems like Klonoa 2, MvC 2, the later .Hack games, or Haunting Ground have skyrocketed in price. I don't know if I'll ever repurchase those - this is a nice alternative.

Ultimately emulators exist for a reason, but I very much appreciate this. Also yes, as Shantae mentioned. Free McBoot seems to be a bit of a blessing also. Why wear out the laser if you don't have to.

 

[stranno]

Is this more reliable than using Free McBoot and ESR? I've burned and played some games on my PS2 using that method, but I've occasionally have noticed glitches.

No. It doesn't matter if you launch it through uLaunchELF or FMCB menu.

Very cool but tbh the supreme convenience of a fmb HDD equipped Phat PS2 means I would never get any use out of this.

You still need an entrypoint to install FMCB into the MC, since Playstation 2 cannot run unsigned elf files (the FMCB installer). Thats where this exploit comes handy.

If you have the console already modded you don't need this. But if you want to install FMCB you need this or you need to pay for an Action Replay, Yabasic disc, Swapmagic, modchip, HDD, etc.

This also could come handy for repros.

 

[MMaRsu]

Forwhich specific slim models is this?

 

[Thaedolus]

Kewl. I don’t know which Slim model I have but I’ll be sure to look into it

 

[stranno]

Forwhich specific slim models is this?

You have to check the DVD drive version.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

No need! Just boot the console without any disc, press triangle and you'll see the drive version.

Of course it has to be a Playstation 2 Slim. 3.10 was almost the last version of the drive.

How easy would it be to tell if I'm shopping for one now, though? I see sellers who list things like the following:

Play Station PS2 Slim Console SCPH-70001 Controller + 8mb Memory - Bundle

But not anything like 3.10.

Honestly, at this point, it's easier to just use Free McBoot, the memory card exploit.

A Fat PS2 with an HDD and Free mcBoot saves the disc drive as well.

This looks like a pretty good option too. Thanks for the heads up, I'll check into this.

 

[stranno]

How easy would it be to tell if I'm shopping for one now, though? I see sellers who list things like the following:

Unfortunately you need to boot the console to check it. There's no way to know the drive version by the bundle (its not hardware, its a driver version, like on Windows).

Of course you can hack the Playstation 2 without this. The easiest way is to buy a pre-hacked MC from Aliexpress or Ebay. They're really cheap (not really reliable on a long term but you just need to fire it once, you can clone it to other legit MC after that).

 

[Boss Mog]

You could play burnt discs on unmodded PS2 via swap magic discs. But actually the most impressive thing back in the day was a memory card exploit tied to a PS1 disc on fat PS2s with hard drives. Just by having the memory card with the exploit on it inserted into the memory card slot and the corresponding PS1 game in the disc drive you could boot to the hard drive where you could then use your existing ps2 discs and install them to the harddrive and play them from there like a modern day console. That to me was way more impressive than this.

 

[stranno]

You could play burnt discs on unmodded PS2 via swap magic discs. But actually the most impressive thing back in the day was a memory card exploit tied to a PS1 disc on fat PS2s with hard drives. Just by having the memory card with the exploit on it inserted into the memory card slot and the corresponding PS1 game in the disc drive you could boot to the hard drive where you could then use your existing ps2 discs and install them to the harddrive and play them from there like a modern day console. That to me was way more impressive than this.

You can play burnt discs on unmodded PS2 without Swapmagic discs, thats the deal.

On top of that, you can make repros without any extra stuff.

 

[Captain Hero]

I’m happy with this one ..

 

[Boss Mog]

You can play burnt discs on unmodded PS2 without Swapmagic discs, thats the deal.

On top of that, you can make repros without any extra stuff.

I understood that. And I guess to some that's impressive, but like I said to me being able to have a bunch of PS2 games installed on the harddrive and playing them directly from there without having to do anything but turn on the system was far more impressive.

 

[Fox Mulder]

I’ve loved my fat Ps2 with fmcb and a big sata hdd for years now.

 

[Slayer-33]

Brb checking dvd drive version.

CTurt scener has finally achieved a Playstation 2 DVD-VIDEO exploit (using an IFO buffer overflow). Which means that a simple burned DVD can be loaded in a completely unmodified Playstation 2 unit.

Unfortunately it only works on Playstation 2 Slim 3.10 (E/U/J) DVD player version, one of the ~50 player versions of all Playstation 2 models. He wants to expand the DVD player support but he must find each buffer overflow in each version, so it will take time. I have tested a 3.11E player and, indeed, it doesn't launch the primary boot.

He has published a pre-compiled DVD on GitHub with uLaunchELF as a primary boot, so you can burn it and execute any kind of executable (elf) file, including the Free McBoot installer. That would make unnecessary any other method to install FMB.

Disclaimer: This is not a piracy thread and the project is completely open/legal.

FreeDVDBoot - Hacking the PlayStation 2 through its DVD player

 

[emmerrei]

I recently (like 1 year ago) bought a ps2 slim with a shitty modchip installed, it works, but it has the small problem that he's hardwired in rgb mode, and i can't use the component cable, resulting in i never used that thing because it looked like trash. If this thing will develop more, i can see to remove the chip from the board directly.

 

[Javthusiast]

I have been playing burned ps2 games on an unmodded ps2 over a decade ago with a thing called swap magic.

You put the swap magic dvd in, wait till the drive stops, use a tool to slide open the drive, swap to a burned game and it boots up no problem.

 

[hemo memo]

It only took 20 years? Record time.

 

[Shakka43]

It is always cool to see new exploits for retro consoles coming out, but honestly for those wanting to get into PlayStation 2 homebrew from scratch their best bet is getting a fat PS2 with network adapter and HDD, you can install FHDB directly from a computer and no need to do any disc tricks or anything on the PS2. The next best thing is buying a Memory Card preinstalled with FMCB on eBay which sell pretty cheaply these days.

For those with slim PS2's that don't support fmcb there is also another exploit called Fortuna which will launch homebrews from the memory Card.

 

[stranno]

It only took 20 years? Record time.

Yes. It's quite surprising that nobody has attacked this entrypoint until now.

 

[angelic]

Really cool. It was only a matter of time.

I love the PS2 but there is just no good way to hook it up to an HDTV.
I tried everything. From standard component to the OSSC.
480i is just nasty, flickering crap.

looks good on a plasma. Well, better.

 

[Miles708]

Does this work for use with other region original DVDs?

In other words, this exploit unlocks the PS2's region lock?

 

[DragoonWalker]

Cool and all, but already super easy to get free mcboot preinstalled mem card off ebay for cheap. If gonna get into PS2 hacking scene you'd already made jump by now. It's like 10 bucks. Will run anything.

 

[fersnake]

the goat lives!!!

 

[Bullet Club]

FreeDVDExploit is a new hack for the Sony PlayStation 2 that has been discovered by Security Researcher CTurt - it allows the user to boot homebrew games on an unmodded PS2 console via DVD Player exploits. In this episode we take a closer look at how it works and what I think I means for the future of homebrew on the PS2.

 

[MadchesterManc]

I’m happy with this one ..

I also have that exact same HDMI adapter Works surprisingly well for the few bob I paid on Ebay.

 

[stranno]

It has been ported to 3.11 E/U/J. It works fine on my 3.11E

 

[Romulus]

This is cool, but ps2 original hardware image quality is just awful on 90% of the games. I'm glad emulators are improving for it.

 

[nush]

Stability update any day now.

 

[stranno]

Stability update any day now.

Fun fact: Free McBoot works because there is a feature on Playstation 2 that allows to update the "dashboard" with patches and stuff, from a disc to the Memory Card.

Of course it barely makes any sense for retail purposes so Sony just dropped it, leaving a gigantic vulnerability.

 

[Dontero]

?? Shitload of my friends used exact same thing to break PS2 when PS2 was still "current" gen. They would just pop disc let it spin and then use other disc.

 

[stranno]

?? Shitload of my friends used exact same thing to break PS2 when PS2 was still "current" gen. They would just pop disc let it spin and then use other disc.

It's not nearly the same thing.

Cog-Swap actually exploits retail Playstation 2 features. Swap discs are legit "press" discs with wrong sectors, Playstation 2 reads those sectors a few times and after that it stops the DVD drive. Thats when you open the DVD bay (blocking the sensors) and change the disc. Then the Swap disc use another retail feature that tells the console that the disc has been changed.

FreeDVDBoot is just a regular buffer overflow exploit that allows to boot unsigned executables (ELF), allowing the user to do whatever he wants.

It's like comparing a Cobra ODE with a regular CFW on Playstation 3..

 

[EverydayBeast]

PS2's DVD player was a game changer.