PS2 Card transfers?

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AjqNic

Active Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
63
To transfer PS2 save games to the PC, you have a couple of options:


Option 1: Memory card adapter for the PC

Like-sang sell memory card adapters that allow you to connect your PS2 memory card to the PC via a USB cable. There are two different models, either the "USB Memory Adapter" ($60) or the "EMS Memory Adapter" ($23) which requires the "Memory Adapter PC Link Cable" ($6) as well. The "EMS Memory adapter" can also support SmartMedia Flash Cards if you purchase the "Memory Adapter Smart Media AddOn" ($10).


Option 2: USB-to-USB cable (PL-2301 cable)

The GameShark SharkPort (aka InterAct XPort) allows transfers via a USB-to-USB cable (i.e. PC USB to PS2 USB). The cable itself is just a standard PL-2301 cable which you could pick up from LightEdge for about R200. To perform the actual transfer, you boot your PS2 using the GameShark PS2 CD and then connect to it from your PC using the SharkPort PC software. The one advantage of going this route is that GameShark provides saved games for download on their site, since the saves are in a custom format you need to make use of their software. I seem to recall that there was a method to convert the GameShark saved games to nPort format.

nPort is software similar to the GameShark SharkPort but it's freely available and only requires that you have either a USB-to-USB (PL-2301) cable or a PS2 Network Adapter. If using nPort with a USB-to-USB cable, you boot the PS2 using Naplink, you then connect to the PS2 from the Naplink PC client and you can run nPort on the PS2 from there.

Naplink can actually be run on an unhacked PS2 by making use of the memory card exploit but this would require that you have some way of installing it to the memory card in the first place.


Option 3: Network adapter

If you would prefer to transfer your saved games from the PS2 to the PC via network, you can purchase a PS2 Network Adapter.

As mentioned above you are able to use nPort with the Network Adapter, it's still a free solution the only difference is that this time you boot pukklink (or PS2Link) on the PS2 and connect to it using the InLink client on the PC.

The second option you have is to make use of PS2 Linux, this can either be installed on the hard drive or run via a "Live CD", either way you will need a network adapter to be able to transfer the files off the PS2 and onto a networked PC. If you do go this route you'll need to find the modified version of vmlinux. vmlinux is the bootloader that runs on the memory card and hard drive and is used to boot PS2 Linux, the modified version allows you to view the saved game files on the PS2 memory cards.


Which option is best?

Although I've made use of all of the above options I prefer those that can work over a network due to my PS2 and PC being in separate rooms. Although the Linux option is probably the most user-friendly, there are only compiled vmlinux versions available for Linux & Memory Card support or Linux & HD Advance support, and none that support both although there is nothing stopping you from combining the two and getting all three to work together.

The best option for me is to run pukklink on the PS2, connect to it using InLink and then upload and download saved games using nPort :cool:

No matter which route you take, an invaluable resource for backing up PS2 games save is PS2SaveTools.com

Although all of the above is 100% legal and all of the methods can be run on an unhacked PS2, one thing to keep in mind is that in order to install the free tools onto a memory card you will need to either have a chipped PS2 or use a friends chipped PS2 to install the exploits.
 
T

TheFast

New Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2006
Messages
1
I can't get the link for InLink to work. Are there any alternate sites that offer the same download?
 
M

mancombseepgood

Executive Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2004
Messages
9,351
Awesome!

Thats some awesome info AjqNic! Don't suppose there's a homebrew app out there to connect to an SMB share or something such to allow games to be loaded off a network connected IDE drive?
Now that would be useful! Esp since one wouldn't need to butcher a slimline to connect a hard drive!...
 
A

AjqNic

Active Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
63
Onepostwonder said:
Don't suppose there's a homebrew app out there to connect to an SMB share or something such to allow games to be loaded off a network connected IDE drive?
Now that would be useful! Esp since one wouldn't need to butcher a slimline to connect a hard drive!...
Click to expand...
There are two options for playing games off a hard drive on the PS2. If you have the old (non-slimline) PS2 you can use HDadvance, HDadvance requires the PS2 Network Card and a hard drive to be installed. The other option for both slimline & non-slimeline PS2's is USBeXtreme, USBeXtreme allows you to connect a hard drive to the PS2 via USB. Neither of these options requires your PS2 to be hacked but if it's not, you'll require the purchased HDadvance or USBeXtreme DVD.

HDadvance is available for FREE and can be installed on a memory card and run from there using the "memory card exploit". Installing HDadvance onto a memory card requires a hacked PS2 but once it's installed, the memory card and HDadvance can be used in any PS2 ;)
 
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