ILuvJohn

The Playstation 2 has a mod called PS2 Independence. The mod exploits a vulnerability in the software that plays PS1 games. When a PS1 game is stared up, the PS2 looks for a file called title.db on the memory card. PS1 games have a slus/scus file that also has some numbers with it. The PS2 reads this and then looks to the Memory Card for any extra instructions when booting game. From here we can inject special code into title.db on the memory card to stop the game from booting and execute another PS2 executable file. The PS2 has an executable, just like an exe on a Windows PC, with the file extension .ELF. Most of these files are small in size and can even be saved right onto the memory card.

The only trick to getting this mod onto your memory card is in fact physically getting it on your memory card. If you have a Gameshark CD, or other Action Replay CD’s, etc that can save files to or from your memory card and USB stick, then I suggest doing it that way. Typically PS2’s can’t support larger USB sticks. I have 2 USB sticks that work with the PS2, one is 256 MB and the other is 1GB. The PS2 can read the FAT32 file system on the USB sticks, you can use Windows Control Panel > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management to format your USB stick to the FAT32 File system.

All you really need to do is copy files from your USB stick to your memory card in a special folder called BADATA-SYSTEM. You also need the program that is to run once the exploit runs. Most people use a file browser program of sorts. Look around http://www.ps2savetools.com/download.php?op=viewdownload&cid=7 for something that looks like it suits your needs. After you get into the file browser you can save other elf files onto your usb stick, your memory card, or to your PS’2 hard drive if you have one.

As far as I am aware, this exploit will not work on the slim ps2’s.

Other great programs include HDLoader, HDLoader Server, ExecFTP, and CogSwap.