Need help and advice on PS2 importing - http://www.mmcafe.com/ Forums

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Cain Highwind

323th Post

Bronze Customer

"Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Fri 6 Feb 12:15:

Well, with SCEA being a total ass and not approving games like SvC Chaos and possible up and coming SNK PS2 titles I'm looking forward to. I think it's time for me to step up and import.

The only thing is...I've never imported games before. Yes I know that's sad.

So I just want to ask if anyone here has any good recommendations for playing import games on a US PS2 and where the best place to buy import games are.

EDIT: I've heard of Swap Magic, but I'm wondering if that's the best and easiest solution. I'e heard different contrasting reports on how well it works. I want to do the least amound of "hardware modification" as possible.

[this message was edited by Cain Highwind on Fri 6 Feb 12:20]

Replies:

NARUTO

2129th Post

Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master

"Re(1):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Fri 6 Feb 12:28

Well here my advice will be short but clear.
IMO I've moded my PS2, the "Mesaiah" chip is really good, in 2 years my PS2 never made any problem in any ways. still it depend on who mod your console...

As for games here is "Neo ayato" a french shop who sell even in USA, you can order there and they make the delivery in you country!!!
here: neoayato.com

Hope it helps...

Pollyanna
200th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(1):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Fri 6 Feb 12:29

Personally, having done 3 different mod jobs myself (or making other people do them)...I think the flip top lid/swap magic is the best solution. Well, it's inexpensive and easy at least. Technically, the BEST solution is to have a professional install a Messiah (or whatever) chip.

Even if you aren't familiar with soldering, you can install the flip top, and the swap magic disks load very quickly and easily. I have had a few combatibility issues with new games on version 2, butt hey have a version 3 out that should solve those problems. I dunno...I just ordered version 3, got a version 2 instead and got a mail reply to my complaint like "well, we do that to EVERYONE, so we're right."

Anyway, I'll go ahead and assume that swap magic version 3 will solve the MINIMAL problems that version 2 has. Anyway, yeah...that's what a recommend for a quick, easy and affordable mod job.

Ammadeau

705th Post

Red Carpet Regular Member

"Re(2):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Fri 6 Feb 13:00

If all you want are SNK titles, it looks like most if not all will be coming to the xbox in the US. Heck, you'll be able to play Choas online. If the rumors of the xbox dropping to $100 are true than that might be the better solution.

Cain Highwind

323th Post

Bronze Customer

"Re(3):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Fri 6 Feb 14:04

quote:
If all you want are SNK titles, it looks like most if not all will be coming to the xbox in the US. Heck, you'll be able to play Choas online. If the rumors of the xbox dropping to $100 are true than that might be the better solution.

Yeah, I was considering that, especially if they drop the price, but I'm really not into buying a system JUST for a few games. And as cool as XBox live sounds, I don't have DSL/Broadband. And plus I don't like the XBox controller and I don't want to pay even more for an adapter.

I just think getting the PS2 version in some way would be better. I'd only have to spend about 100 dollars for the game and Mod compared to maybe 150-200 dollars for an XBox and game (not includiong any kind of controller accessories I might want to get.

And then you have the additional bonus of it being uncensored (blood, bounce, etc), and in the case of SvC it's not like I don't knmow what most of the intros say anyway.

quote:
Even if you aren't familiar with soldering, you can install the flip top, and the swap magic disks load very quickly and easily. I have had a few combatibility issues with new games on version 2, butt hey have a version 3 out that should solve those problems. I dunno...I just ordered version 3, got a version 2 instead and got a mail reply to my complaint like "well, we do that to EVERYONE, so we're right."

Anyway, I'll go ahead and assume that swap magic version 3 will solve the MINIMAL problems that version 2 has. Anyway, yeah...that's what a recommend for a quick, easy and affordable mod job.

I noticed in some "stores" that sold this, one said "We only seel the latest version". Mind telling me which store sold the older version to you?

Plus, I think in my area, somewhere there's a shop for installing mod chips, but any idea on what the cost is. And plus, I was sure I was told they worked, but I want to be sure, can you save Japanese games to a US Memory card?

Pollyanna
202th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(4):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Fri 6 Feb 21:31

Don't order from modchip-sbox.com. The fact that they didn't have the disk yet is fine, but I ORDERED VERSION 3 AND THEY SENT ME VERSION 2 WITH NO NOTICE. Then use "that's what everyone does" as an excuse.

Anyway, from my experience, having chips installed is usually overpriced. If you're going to have a Messiah chip installed, combined with the price of the chip, that may be over $100. I admit that once you have it, it's absolutely the best, no hassle way to do things, but for the price, I have no complaints with the bootdisks.

hikarutilmitt
152th Post

Regular Customer

"Re(1):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Sat 7 Feb 00:21

I've got a flip top and actually prefer to have one rather than a chip. There seems to always be a way to get a game to not work with a chip for various reasons, but I've not had any issues with using a flip top.

I use either the Swap Magic discs, when I know they'll work, or the Cogswap loader program installed to my memory card (basically let's you do an old-school PSX-style swap with a real game disc. It's a necessity for running DVD9 games at the moment). I've yet to run into ANYTHING that Cogswap won't load (providing you have a domestic game with a lage enough ToC. I have to use Xenosaga to load Sakura Taisen).

All I can say is that a flip top is easily the easiest (wordy, blah) and possibly cheapest way to go. I got mine from PS2cover.com

Spoon
104th Post

Regular Customer

"Re(2):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Sat 7 Feb 21:46

quote:
I've got a flip top and actually prefer to have one rather than a chip. There seems to always be a way to get a game to not work with a chip for various reasons, but I've not had any issues with using a flip top.

I use either the Swap Magic discs, when I know they'll work, or the Cogswap loader program installed to my memory card (basically let's you do an old-school PSX-style swap with a real game disc. It's a necessity for running DVD9 games at the moment). I've yet to run into ANYTHING that Cogswap won't load (providing you have a domestic game with a lage enough ToC. I have to use Xenosaga to load Sakura Taisen).

All I can say is that a flip top is easily the easiest (wordy, blah) and possibly cheapest way to go. I got mine from PS2cover.com

noobie> So why exactly is the slide card/flip top necessary? You can't just eject the disc from the drive?

Pollyanna
206th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(3):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Sat 7 Feb 22:06

Actually...I'm sorry, I made a mistake earlier. There IS no Swap Magic V3 DVD...as I discovered after some searching. However, the site I ordered from didn't specify that...so without bothering to do my homework, I got confused. Any way around, they didn't rip me off, just mislead me, which is as much my fault as their's. I thought I'd say this as to make up for my wrongful accusation of a (somewhat) reputable place.

hikarutilmitt
153th Post

Regular Customer

"Re(3):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Sun 8 Feb 18:52

quote:
noobie> So why exactly is the slide card/flip top necessary? You can't just eject the disc from the drive?

Whenever you press the eject button, the drive gets a signal to recheck the disc. What that means is that you can't just open it up as-is and run any disc. What a flip-top or slide card (yuck!) allows you to do is change the disc without hitting the button, essentially letting you bypass the recheck.

The reason the disc works is because it (the PS2) reads the table of contents (ToC) for the disc and the disc stops itself when it loads. You can then open the drive with the lid or card and put in any disc with an equal or lower sized ToC. The obvious problem with that is that if your ToC is too small for the boot disc, it won't work.

What I had to do was install Cogswap Loader to my memory card, use that, put in Xenosaga as my ToC disc and then swap for Sakura Taisen, since ST is a DVD9 game, which has too high a ToC for a regular DVD5 disc like Swap Magic. Swap Magic also apparently has weird things with the way it loads such that certain games can't be used on it even though they're small enough. That's why I use Cogswap for those because it's never had an issue loading anything I threw at it.

Sorry if that's more info than you wanted ^^;

Pollyanna
207th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(4):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Sun 8 Feb 20:32

Cogswap? Huh huh? I'm having problems loading a few games right now, myself...maybe you can help me? Well...uhm...where can I get cogswap? And would it work on games that refresh the TOC, like Onimusha Buraiden? I know the Swap Magic V3 CD has a TOC refresh option and asks you to insert discs with higher TOC or whatever, and then you can possibly even load DVD games, though I haven't gotten this method to work yet.

Oddly enough, the only way I can get Onimusha Buraiden to work is to modify my laser so that it's "off" by a rather large degree. It beats the TOC problem...but it makes the game load VERY slowly. I bought Sakura Taisen myself a while back and was planning on playing it soon, so I'll need your solution soon, myself.

Spoon
109th Post

Regular Customer

"Re(5):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Sun 8 Feb 21:40

quote:
Oddly enough, the only way I can get Onimusha Buraiden to work is to modify my laser so that it's "off" by a rather large degree. It beats the TOC problem...but it makes the game load VERY slowly. I bought Sakura Taisen myself a while back and was planning on playing it soon, so I'll need your solution soon, myself.

Ugh, that doesn't sound fun.
I get the feeling that if I had to do that, the PCB around the pots on my board would be covered with little spikes, one for each special game/media setting...

Cain Highwind

325th Post

Bronze Customer

"Re(2):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Sun 8 Feb 23:26

quote:
I've got a flip top and actually prefer to have one rather than a chip. There seems to always be a way to get a game to not work with a chip for various reasons, but I've not had any issues with using a flip top.

I use either the Swap Magic discs, when I know they'll work, or the Cogswap loader program installed to my memory card (basically let's you do an old-school PSX-style swap with a real game disc. It's a necessity for running DVD9 games at the moment). I've yet to run into ANYTHING that Cogswap won't load (providing you have a domestic game with a lage enough ToC. I have to use Xenosaga to load Sakura Taisen).

All I can say is that a flip top is easily the easiest (wordy, blah) and possibly cheapest way to go. I got mine from PS2cover.com

Thanks for the site link, I think I'll go with that method, especially since you can get a blue cover (my favorite color, without having to get one of those mucho expensive colored PS2s). Now I just have to check if it'll fit on my PS2. Thanks agin.

BTW: Can you make saves from Japanese games on a US Memory card and use it for both games. That's the only other thing I need to know.

Gojira

1278th Post

Red Carpet Executive Member

"Re(1):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Sun 8 Feb 23:45

If all you want is to play original imports, buying a japanese PS2 is the only honestly reliable choice that won't screw up on you in the long run. Modding may sound tempting, and people will tell you that they've "never had problems" but modding can reduce the life of the system. I've had several friends who went to get modded and it worked for... say... 2-3 months, then BAM, no more working PS2. No chance for refund, no chance for any warranty covered replacement, nothing. You take a big risk allowing somthing like that.

Pollyanna
208th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(2):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Mon 9 Feb 11:10

First of all, yes, you acn use American Memory cards...second of all, yes...there are risks with modding your system, butt he flip-top/swap disk method is relatively (I can never say "entirely", because people can always make mistakes) risk free. Also, many of the problems "caused" by more "risky" mod jobs can be solved by equally simple operations on the system itself.

This in no way invalidates the argument that the best method is to buy a Japanese system and Japanese games...of course, that's the case. I think it's better to say "mod carefully" than "don't mod at all". I'm sure people who want to import know that buying a Japanese system is the best solution.

hikarutilmitt
155th Post

Regular Customer

"Re(5):Need help and advice on PS2 importing" , posted Tue 10 Feb 00:06

quote:
Cogswap? Huh huh? I'm having problems loading a few games right now, myself...maybe you can help me? Well...uhm...where can I get cogswap? And would it work on games that refresh the TOC, like Onimusha Buraiden? I know the Swap Magic V3 CD has a TOC refresh option and asks you to insert discs with higher TOC or whatever, and then you can possibly even load DVD games, though I haven't gotten this method to work yet.

It's a program that installs to your memory card and works via the PSX overload exploit that was discovered a while back. Basically you load the PSX game you have set to trigger the exploit, use the tray to load a game to use as a ToC disc and then use the lid to put in the game you want to load. I'm not 100% about if it works for games with multiple check points, as I don't have any, but I'd like ot know if they DO work.

quote:
Oddly enough, the only way I can get Onimusha Buraiden to work is to modify my laser so that it's "off" by a rather large degree. It beats the TOC problem...but it makes the game load VERY slowly. I bought Sakura Taisen myself a while back and was planning on playing it soon, so I'll need your solution soon, myself.

Ouch, I'd rather avoid doing such things since that'll kill your laser and the drive itself. If I can't play it, I try other things. Best place to check about booting games is PS2Owmz, but they usually only concern themselves with running copied games rather than imports, but most of the time the information is still worthwhile for importing.