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Well, I did a very big test where I tested a good amount of Homebrew PS2 software by running them from the HDD using PS2MENU. I ran the programs from the HDD & I mentioned if they run/failed. I tested over 20+ PS2 programs & I posted the list at http://www.ps2newz.net/forums/showthrea ... adid=21980 (Look for the posts near the bottom from EugeneWE3RD which is me).

This site requires a login to view forum posts. Why not just post it here?

mrbrown wrote:This site requires a login to view forum posts. Why not just post it here?

Oops. I didn't know that PS2NEWZ required a login to view the posts & I will post it here then.

Ok here is the list of the programs which I have test under PS2MENU & the list is going to be kind of long:

PS2 Invaders 1.6. Tries to load up but fails when trying to load the amigamod.irx file. I haven't tried the old versions of PS2 Space Invaders but I will try to see if the old versions load up.

Turnip Game. Loads up & runs.

Bunny Tetris. Tries to load up but fails. I guess this is because the game is PAL while I have an NTSC PS2. I even patched the .elf file earlier today using a freeware PS2 PAL to NSTC program avaliable at http://www.geocities.com/jayteemaster2003/. After I patched the .elf file, I tested the patched file under PS2MENU & PS2MENU said that it's not a valid .elf file.

These 3 games are at http://www.pdroms.de/roms.php?syste...p=Games&first=0

ColemPS2 ( http://www.geocities.com/james7780/ ) .Tries to load up but fails. The program does load up the PS2NEWZ logo then it goes to a screen with text on it but fails to load after this.

PGEN ( http://gamebase.ca/pgen/ ). Loads up & runs. Roms can be loaded up from the HDD since PGEN supports the HDD.

PS2MAME. Tries to load up but fails. I believe that I might have used the HOST version but I'm not sure.

PSMS. ( http://gamebase.ca/psms/ ). Tries to load up but fails.

SNES-Station.( http://gamebase.ca/snes-station ) Loads up & runs but roms can't be loaded from HDD (I believe this program doesn't have HDD support). When I select the menu selection, it only reads the directories on the CD (i run PS2MENU using the PS2 Indpedence Exploit. This might be the reason why SNES-Station does this).

PS2DREAMSPEC ( http://classicgaming.dcemulation.com/downloads.htm ). Tries to load up but fails at the loading of the sound module. Warning, this download comes with commerical games included. Well, I removed the commerical games & replaced them with freeware Spectrum games & I changed the TXT file which the emulator loads up & this might be why the program didn't load.

dms-hdd-dump-1_0 ( http://www.dms3.com/cgi-bin/dms3/dl...hips/DMS3_Tools ). Loads up & runs.

DMS-HDD-DUMP-1_0 ( http://www.dms3.com/cgi-bin/dms3/dl...hips/DMS3_Tools ). Loads up & runs.

PS2LINK. Loads up & runs.

Naplink. ( http://naplink.napalm-x.com/ ). Loads up & runs but I can't test this since I don't own the required cable.

Pintor. Loads up & runs. Pintor is a freeware PS2 game which is a remake of a Sinclair Spectrum game. This game is included in the MCLOADER 1.25 file which is avaliable at http://www.ps2reality.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37137 . After download MCLOADER 1.25 unzip & look for Pintor.rar. Pintor.rar contains the Pintor game.

MCLOADER 1.30. ( http://www.ps2reality.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38089 ). Loads up & runs

PS2 Invaders version 1.5. Loads up but fails. It gives the error message can't load up Host: testmod.mod.

PS2 Invaders (unfinished). Loads up & runs perfectly. This is the original release of this program.

Both of these programs are at http://www.pdroms.de/roms.php?syste...p=Games&first=0

The PS2 demos at http://www.thethirdcreation.net/ are a hit & miss situation. Some load up while others fail. I tried 2 demos which are Slave Of The Vu & Goodbye. Slave Of The VU loaded up & ran while Goodbye loaded up & went to a black screen but failed after that.

I retryed PSMS. The PSMS Memory card version ( http://gamebase.ca/psms/psms_mc.zip ) loads up but says that FILES.TXT not found even though it is in the same directory on the HDD as PSMS. The PSMS 1.2 version ( http://gamebase.ca/psms/psms12.zip ) is the one which tries to load up but fails.

Bananoid ( http://wire.napalm-x.com/html/downloads.htm ). Tries to load up but fails. Look for the filename of bananoid_src.zip (the .elf & .irx files are included in the zip file along with the source code).

PS2Reality Media Player 1.50 ( http://www.ps2reality.net/showdocument.php?t=25722 ) loads up & runs. Well, this program has the same problem as SNES-Station. When I load up the PS2Reality Media Player browser, it only browses the CD).

MP3 Library ( http://inpulse.planet-d.net/prodz.php ) tries to load up but fails. PS2DEV.ORG has an older version of MP3 Library. I just tried the old version & it fails as well. Both versions goto the PS2MENU loading screen & PS2MENU mentions that the loading of sjpcm.irx failed & the MP3 Library is unable to load up.

XMPLAY (avaliable from PS2DEV.ORG). This is an XM music player. Tries to load up but fails. Goes to the PS2MENU loading screen & but it fails at the loading screen (the loading screen just stays put but the program doesn't load).

Modplayer v1 (avaliable from PS2DEV.ORG). Tries to load up but fails. There is also a Modplayer V2 from PS2DEV.ORG but Modplayer V2 is source code only so you will have to build Modplayer V2 yourself

Send0R (CD Version. http://send0r.com/install_cd.jsp ). Goes to the PS2MENU loading screen but stays on the loading screen.

Send0R ( Host version. http://send0r.com/install_loader.jsp ). Loads up & runs. I was not able to connect to the Send0R server because I am connected to the Internet thru dial-up. Send0R requires that your PS2 be connected to the Internet thru Ethernet. But at least we know that the program runs.

ps2dc64 ( http://classicgaming.dcemulation.com/downloads.htm ) . Ps2dc64 is a Commodore C64 Emulator for PS2. Loads up but stops at the "SCIAF" screen.

Beebem ( http://ps2homebrew.netfirms.com/beebem.shtml ). Beebem is a BBC Micro Emulator for PS2. You will have to download from the above site because the author's homepage is now dead. Tries to load up but goes a black screen but fails after that.

Jum52 version 0.7 for Playstation 2( http://www.geocities.com/james7780/...rs/emu5200.html ). This is an Atari 5200 Emulator for PS2. Loads up but fails on the loading of sjpcm.irx. It says loading cdrom0:\sjpcm.irx;1. Well, this emulator was programmed to run from CDROM so this one doesn't work when loaded from HDD using PS2MENU.

Jum52 version 0.6 ( http://www.pdroms.de/roms.php?syste...ulators&first=0 ). Goes to PS2MENU loader screen & says at the bottom loading fakehost.irx 3289 bytes by stops on this screen. Jum52 version 0.6 is the old version of Jum52 which loads from HOST.

2600 Demo ( http://www.geocities.com/james7780/PS2/ps2prog.html ). Loads up & runs.

There is a new emulator for PS2. It is a Commodore VIC-20 Emulator & it is at http://ps2vic.sourceforge.net/ . This loads up & gets to the module load screen & then fails after that. This emulator was released just a couple of days ago so the problem is probably because this emulator is very new.

VU Harness (avaliable from http://www.thethirdcreation.net/ ). This is a program which allows you to load the programs from the PS2 Linux VU Demo Coding Contest which is at http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/vudemocontest . Well, VU Harness tries to load but goes to a black screen. Looks like this program needs to be loaded from HOST.

BTW: All of these programs were transfered to memory card & copied to the PS2 HDD by PS2MENU. PS2MENU is running off of my memory card by way of the PS2 Independence Exploit.

mrbrown, I like to thank you for the PS2 Independence Exploit. If it wasn't for this exploit, I would not get to enjoy the great homebrew programs which are written for the PS2.

EugeneE3RD wrote: I retryed PSMS. The PSMS Memory card version ( http://gamebase.ca/psms/psms_mc.zip ) loads up but says that FILES.TXT not found even though it is in the same directory on the HDD as PSMS. The PSMS 1.2 version ( http://gamebase.ca/psms/psms12.zip ) is the one which tries to load up but fails.

The different versions of PSMS are hardcoded to look for things in a certain spot. For the MC version, it looks for the FILES.TXT in mc0:/BRDATA-SYSTEM/ no matter where it's launched from, not the dir it was launched from, this is why it couldn't find the file.
The other version you tried, which I assume was the PSMS-NAPLINK.ELF version (the correct one to tryfor this...) is most likely crashing because it can't find SJPCM.IRX.

Drakonite wrote:

EugeneE3RD wrote: I retryed PSMS. The PSMS Memory card version ( http://gamebase.ca/psms/psms_mc.zip ) loads up but says that FILES.TXT not found even though it is in the same directory on the HDD as PSMS. The PSMS 1.2 version ( http://gamebase.ca/psms/psms12.zip ) is the one which tries to load up but fails.

The different versions of PSMS are hardcoded to look for things in a certain spot. For the MC version, it looks for the FILES.TXT in mc0:/BRDATA-SYSTEM/ no matter where it's launched from, not the dir it was launched from, this is why it couldn't find the file.
The other version you tried, which I assume was the PSMS-NAPLINK.ELF version (the correct one to tryfor this...) is most likely crashing because it can't find SJPCM.IRX.

Well, I looked recently at the source code of PSMS & I noticed that it is programmed to look for sjpcm.irx from CDROM0: & Host. Well, I am thinking of trying to change the source code to be able to run PSMS from the HDD using PS2MENU.

Hi EugeneE3RD,

Well done on all the testing. I can help with some of these, but some I need to look into and others are more problematic.

PS2 Invaders 1.6. This works, make sure the filename is AMIGAMOD.IRX, not amigamod.irx as supplied in the zip. The testmod.mod remains the same. host: is not always case sensitive, on a PC for instance, but the PS2 hdd is.

Bunny Tetris. I'm not sure, it fails to read the file from the hdd for me. I'll look into this more. Only thing I did notice, is that it loads its data files from 'host:/' and this is not good. Although, it failed to get even that far for me.

ColemPS2. This also works, make sure the filename is SJPCM.IRX, not sjpcm.irx as is supplied in the zip. I didn't have any roms to test it with, but they should load fine also.

PS2MAME always defaults to loading from CD. Short of patching the code, there isn't much else I can suggest at the moment. I tried the supposed HOST version in the past, but it was the same CD version.

PSMS. I loaded the ps2ms-naplink.elf fine, just needs a FILES.TXT in the same folder along with the roms. I didn't have a rom to test it with. btw the PSMS MC version is not suitable, it looks for FILES.TXT in mc0:/BxDATA-SYSTEM/.

SNES-Station. Only for running from CD afaik.

PS2DREAMSPEC. Only for running from CD.

PS2 Invaders version 1.5 & PS2 Invaders (unfinished) see above.

Some of the PS2 demos at ttc do not have all of the files included. sjpcm.irx, libsd.irx for example. Others may have case issues, I'm not sure. Didn't have time to try them all myself yet :P

Bananoid. I couldn't find the site you linked to. I'll look around for it.

MP3, XMPLAY, Modplayer. I'll look into these. iirc MP3 library was compiled for PAL by default and needs a tagless file test.mp3. It looks in 'host:/' which may cause problems.

Send0r CD version. Clearly written to load from CD.

ps2dc64. Only for running from CD.

Beebem. Only for running from CD.

Jum52. I didn't try v0.7 yet, but v0.6 is missing the sjpcm.irx, which I copied from PS2MS (I think) and it loaded fine. No roms to test with it though.

VIC-20 emulator. I didn't get a chance to try this really. The README involved creating a number of files. As far as I could tell neither NPM-USBD.IRX or USBD.IRX are included. Also, I didn't immediately see files such as BASIC.ROM, ROMS.RB, KERNEL.ROM, CHARGEN.ROM. I'll take time to read the instructions when I have time.

VU Harness. Did you put the BIN files in a folder below the harness? iirc it expected the VU programs in a folder but I don't remember the name right now.

Right, enuff for now. Need to sleep.
Thanks again. Tommy

I did some more investigating, which led me to make some changes to the loader.elf code.

Bunny Tetris, for whatever reason, was failing the latter part of my elf testing/loading code. It was loading the file fine, but where my loader expected to find the program start address (in elf header->entry) it was finding 0, and failing because (afaik) this is not a valid start address.
My elf testing/loading code is legacy code really, and should have been removed when 'fakehost' was implemented. I have now done this and the loader uses standard library code to load any elf, using (fake)host:filename.elf; fakehost is only used when loading from hdd though, any other device will load using its relevant location and fakehost will not be loaded.

So, after these changes, Bunny Tetris loads fine. However, I also have a NTSC console, and although the game is playable, it is not perfect; even after applying the PAL->NTSC fix you mentioned. The sound is out of sync (PAL and NTSC have different settings for the sound), the display has some corruption/misplacement and is chopped at the bottom of the screen.

I've also been playing with PS2VIC, and I'm not sure what the problem is yet. The main part of the program loads and its menu is available via the start button. As do the USB and sound modules. However, even though the files chargen.rom, kernel.rom and basic.rom appear to be opened through fakehost. They do not seem to be loaded, which means only a blank screen is shown. The same set of files, loaded from PC using ps2link, work properly; with the exception of the menu.txt file I made for testing. I do, at least, see the BASIC ROM screen and can input with my PS2 keyboard.
Clearly, further investigation is needed into what fakehost is doing in this case. I understand a similar problem may be affecting the use of files.txt/menu.txt in various emulators. Not having roms to test with, other than a rom for PGEN (which doesn't count as it uses its own HDD drivers) (Sonic the Hedgehog is the only Genesis game I still legally own on cartridge!), does not give me much to test with.

The updated loader.elf will be going into my new menu system (still in development) which I hope to have a preview release of very soon. It'd be nice to solve these issues first though. On the most part, fakehost works very well, and is essentially transparent to a loaded program, so I don't yet understand why these programs are an exception.

Thank you for bringing these to our attention.
Regards,
Tommy.

t0mb0la wrote:
Thank you for bringing these to our attention.
Regards,
Tommy.

Your Welcome. And I really like the PS2MENU program & I think that it is an excellent program. PS2MENU & the PS2 Independence Exploit have opened the door to my enjoyment of PS2 Homebrew software since my PS2 doesn't have a mod chip & I can now enjoy the homebrew PS2 software.

Since you mentioned that you didn't have any roms to test out the emulators, I would suggest that you goto http://www.pdroms.de/index.php which is the premiere site for homebrew software for console systems.

Well, I am going to go to either Circuit City or Best Buy tommorrow to purchase an ethernet connection for my computer & an ethernet cable so that I can connect my PC to PS2 & so that I can use the HOST: function of PS2MENU to transfer files to my PS2's HDD instead of having to copy them to my memory card by use of X-Port. Well, I really want to try to play the freeware PS2 game called Beats Of Rage ( http://www.segaforums.com/senileteam/be ... _game.html ). Beats Of Rage is a freeware Streets Of Rage clone for PC, PS2, Dreamcast, XBOX, et al . I downloaded this about 1-2 months ago & this is a 62.6 MB download & this can't be transfered to memory card.

EugeneE3RD wrote: Well, I am going to go to either Circuit City or Best Buy tommorrow to purchase an ethernet connection for my computer & an ethernet cable so that I can connect my PC to PS2 & so that I can use the HOST: function of PS2MENU to transfer files to my PS2's HDD instead of having to copy them to my memory card by use of X-Port.

You should check the chipset in the xport cable.. Some are a cypress chipset, but if you are lucky you might have one that uses the prolific chipset that naplink uses.

Drakonite wrote:

EugeneE3RD wrote: Well, I am going to go to either Circuit City or Best Buy tommorrow to purchase an ethernet connection for my computer & an ethernet cable so that I can connect my PC to PS2 & so that I can use the HOST: function of PS2MENU to transfer files to my PS2's HDD instead of having to copy them to my memory card by use of X-Port.

You should check the chipset in the xport cable.. Some are a cypress chipset, but if you are lucky you might have one that uses the prolific chipset that naplink uses.

Unfortunetly, the usb cable which came with my X-Port 2 is the cable which is incompatiable with Naplink.

Well, I tried another test last night & here are the results:

Thompson t07/70 Emulator ( http://ps2homebrew.netfirms.com/tops2.shtml ). Must be downloaded from the above link since the authors homepage has been dead since last yr. Loads ups & makes it to the title screen & then you hear the cd drive start to spin so this emulator seems to be only programmed to load from CD.

I haven't done to many tests using PS2MENU but I did do one recently with PS2 ScummVM.

PS2 ScummVM ( http://www.volny.cz/molej/ps2/ ). Loads up & runs. I didn't get it to load up any Lucasarts games but I will try again sometime soon.

Thanks EugeneE3RD for your testing.

You might want to try Jum52 V0.8 for PS2, as it's built to run from the memory card, and has all the required IRX modules "built-in".

It will still only look in mc00:/JUM52 for roms. It will create mc00:/JUM52 directory and the required .sys and icon files if they do not exist (ie: it creates a JUM52 "save" on the mc.

Happily, you can use PS2MENU to copy roms from CD or HDD to mc00:/JUM52 .

I don't have an HDD in my PS2, so I haven't tested it.

- Jum