Peabo said:
Many thanx PS2 King! I'm getting the idea now but you fatally assumed a level of prior knowledge in a couple of bits of your reply that I just don't have. Please be gentle with me....
Sorry bout that.
Peabo said:
Re (1): is there any other way to format a DVD to make it behave like a DVD-ROM without using a modchip? Do any of the DVD authoring applications allow you to do that for instance?
Fornuately there is no of formatting a DVD in doing so, but on the market you do get CD/DVD's called Slide cards. You can use those, but it very harmful to ur ps2. If you want to get those then you may want to rethink that. Rather then getting those you may as well get a 10lb sledge hammer and pound ur CD tray to bits. The slide card method involves you to put in the slide card CD and then load it and
FORCE hold ur CD tray after it's done loading. That's pretty dangerous for a $300(CAD) machine. A modchip doesn't ruin ur ps2 and is very safe. I have a messiah 2 Pro and there are soooooo many things I can do with it. DivX movies, mp3 playback capabilities, mpeg movies, and much much more. I got these from patches.
Peabo said:
re (2) how much danger of ruining your PS2 is there from installing a fliptop? Is it a bit of a blackart art or a simple installation procedure or...?
It's pretty delicate but ofcourse it can be done. Instead of installing flip top and spending $$ for GS and swapdiscs you may as well get a modchip installed!!! It's very easy and safe. IF you have soldering experience then you can do it ur self. Yes, that's right you can do it yourself! or you can get som1 who has installed chips to do it for u.
Peabo said:
re (5), is DVD Decryptor a complete alternative to the fliptop +swap magic disks approach? Ie. if it gets around copy protection will it just work like a normal PS2 game will? From your comments in (1) it sounds like that still won't get around the problem that it's a DVD-R and not a DVD-ROM. Clearly if it did work then why would people use fliptops at all?
DVD decryptor is a software that you use when you backup ur games. Basically you need a DVD or CD burner (CD burner for CD games and DVD burner for DVD games) and then u run DVD decryptor to get thru the copy protection. You have to make an image of the game and you do so on ur hard drive b4 u write the disc. DVD decryptor is a tool, it's not a formatted disc. (I think i made a mistake in my other post. a modchip reads the game, and a GS or Swap discs format it.) yup that's the correct one. I think i said the exact opposite of that in my other post. Sorry bout dat.
Only cheap modchips require GS or Swap discs. If you like ur ps2 then get a Magic 3.1,
Messiah,
DMS, or apple pro. So far the best chips on the market would probably be the DMS. It stands for Devolution Memory System. It can be uploaded online or with CD's. These modchips I named don't need a GS to play. Simple browser booting. Just put the game in and it loads. the Messiah and the DMS read the backup like an orignal. VERY EFFICIENT!!! Magic just gets what it needs to get done, it does what a modchip is suppose to do.
I got my Messiah installed from a guy for $150 CAD, I know a guy that installs a magic for $100 CAD. And installation + modchip for a DMS is $175. ALl of these prices are CAD. and all of these include modchip + installation. You may be able to get it cheaper depending on where you live.
Hope this helps.