PS2 Development... Help

NoodlePowa · Post by **NoodlePowa** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:38 am

I have searched and searched and searched everywhere for just one simple, straightforward tutorial on how to develop on the PS2. So far, I have turned up results of multiple software names and multiple methods and the whole thing is just a big unorganized mess!

Can someone just please tell me straightforward steps?

It would mean a lot to me. If not, I'm done with this.

jimparis · Post by **jimparis** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:37 pm

Part of development is being able to figure out what method is right for you, and it depends quite a bit on how you plan on running code on the PS2 (exploit, modchip, swap, etc), what sort of development system you're working on (windows, linux), what language/toolkits you want to use (lua, c, gskit, etc). As you've noticed, there's lots of information out there. It's up to you to learn it, I don't think it's fair to expect that someone will hold your hand.

J.F. · Post by **J.F.** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:47 pm

I hate to sound like a dick, but if you need someone to give you "straightforward steps", you probably don't have what it takes to program the PS2. It's a complex machine, not a simple PC. If you NEED help just in setting up the tools, you'll never figure out how to make programs beyond "Hello World". Sorry.

NoodlePowa · Post by **NoodlePowa** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 7:20 pm

Actually, I sounded like a dick. Sorry if I sounded rude... :(

I've learned my lesson.

Sorry for the ridiculous question and the pointless thread.

I'll keep trying.

cosmito · Post by **cosmito** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 2:58 am

I see NoodlePowa point of view. Specially at first when one wants to start right away, one sees a lot of scattered information. So it's never an immediate start... It's needed time and patience.

I've started to write a blog about how to start from scratch (http://ps2homebrewing.blogspot.com/) but due to lack of time I don't think it will be updated as often I would like... Currently i'm on vacations and although having free time, I'm too lazy to write :)

Anyway, keep an eye there and look here at the forums. There are very good tutorials for setting up the tools (cygwin and MinGW variants). Currently Cygwin is not an option unless you have a old version of it, since the toolchain building fails in the process (some GCC issue at recent Cygwin). MinGw works but some claim it's not very stable.

I tried linux (xubuntu) and building the toolchain there worked like a charm. If you're interested in using Windows and cygwin, there is a old cygwin installation package available in emule P2P networks. Tell me if you want the link (i'm too lazy to find myself now)

J.F. wrote:I hate to sound like a dick, but if you need someone to give you "straightforward steps", you probably don't have what it takes to program the PS2. It's a complex machine, not a simple PC. If you NEED help just in setting up the tools, you'll never figure out how to make programs beyond "Hello World". Sorry.

I disagree with you : both PS2 and PC are complex machines. Just need different approaches when programed. The PS2 have small caches and great bus bandwidht compared to the PCs of the time it was created so this makes it difficult to archieve the best performance.

Also, the free development tools for the PS2 are close to an one button programming system like VStudio2005 for the PC and some of the time low level programming is needed ... Personally, I prefer to spend my time developing and bug hunting instead of fiddling with messy makefiles and compiler switches... Life is too short. (This is looking like a General Discussion, so is better for me to shut up :) )

NoodlePowa · Post by **NoodlePowa** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:07 am

Thanks, ptek, for the enlightenment.

I believe I have an old version of Cygwin lying around in my PC...