PS2 boot and FFX11online

[axisevo]

I suppose I should state that I do not believe in pirating games. I am a game artist and believe very much in people buying games so I can pay my bills

However, I love to the idea of making old consoles do interesting new things. It is in this spirit that I ask the following question:
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The game FFX1Online does something that seems remarkable, in that it does something that alot of people really would like their pS2 be able to do, but that has never been officially possible.

FFxonline can be played on the PS2, from the HDD, without a special boot disk (meaning, nothing has to be loaded from the dvd drive), and obviously without any sort of mod chip.

How does that happen? I have never seen any discussion about it.

I have seen apps like HDloader that allow you to save and play your ps2games from the HDD, but it requires the use of a special cd to hijack the boot process. FFX1online doesn't need one.

Doesn't that mean that there is a software route to making apps run on PS2 that goes around all the famous hardware "protection" issuses (the little spring thingy on the disk drive door and the need for special disks with numbers printed on them, etc.), plus seems to allow the ps2 to boot normally, just like any other game?

[jbit]

FFXII boots by placing a magicgate signed executable on the HDD/MC.
The PS2 will only boot signed executables from HDD/MC...

Discussions about magicgate arn't allowed here since, assuming it's even possible to sign something without being Sony, it'd only open the door wider for warez. Most ps2 developers are perfectly happy with current boot methods and realise that easier methods would make warez easier.