No, there's no typo in the title. It's 2020 and Sony's second home console, the PlayStation 2, got a new exploit; and an interesting one at that! Aptly named FreeDVDBoot, this exploit allows users to run burnt homebrew games on an unmodified PS2. Just slide in a DVD into the console as you would with any other game and boot it without any additional tools.

@CTurt , the software engineer behind FreeDVDBoot and fellow GBAtemp member, explained in length his method that exploits the console's DVD player functionality in a blog post. He also made all of FreeDVDBoot's code available on GitHub, along with a step-by-step guide.

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In case you're wondering about actual PS2 games rather than homebrew titles, yes, FreeDVDBoot also enables you to run backup copy of those. CTurt shared a video using his exploit to run a backup of Shadow of the Colossus:

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It doesn't end there either. CTurt further goes on to speculate that this method could potentially work on every single PlayStation home consoles and that he will investigate this possibility in the future:

There's really no reason this general attack scenario is specific to the PlayStation 2 as all generations support some combination of burned media: from the PlayStation 1's CD support, to the PlayStation 3 and 4's Blu-ray support, with the PlayStation 4 having only removed CD support. Hacking the PS4 through Blu-ray BD-J functionality has long been discussed as an idea for an entry point. This may be something I would be interested in looking into for a long-term future project: imagine being able to burn your own PlayStation games for all generations; 1 down, 3 to go...

SOURCE
FreeDVDBoot code and guide on GitHub

 

[kumikochan]

Ha, nice to see some others with one of these long unhackable PX300's. Technically the Fortuna exploit that was released a couple of months ago was the first to crack the PX300, but it still required you to already have a memory card with the exploit on it, and you can't put it on there without an entry point (or another already hacked PS2). I noticed someone on eBay recently started selling memory cards with Fortuna preinstalled, though.

Unfortunately, apparently the PS2 can't read DVD-RW discs, and I don't have any DVD-R's on hand, so I still can't hack my PS2 TV.

By the way, would you believe me if I told you this is the TV I use for everything? The picture and sound quality are great, the bolted-on PS2 looks hilarious (I added a PocketStation inside one of the memory card slots as a finishing touch), and it has ports for everything! The only thing I sadly can't get to work is DLNA (on the TV itself), it sees my network drives, but it doesn't see any files.

I use it as a game system tv for the bedroom so I'm using it a lot also. Just a shame the smart system doesn't work anymore and you can't get any apps on it anymore. The bedroom is set up with a smart beamer all over the wall in front of the bed for movies and such and the PS2 on a side cabinet to game on before sleeping with some retro systems hooked up 2 that I have double. Yeah, it's a mighty fine thing to have as a collectors piece. Glad to see someone else on here that is enjoying it as much as I do.

 

[smf]

By the way, would you believe me if I told you this is the TV I use for everything?

Well I haven't changed my TV in over 10 years & I would like one (if they didn't command insane prices) but I certainly wouldn't use it for my only TV.

Fortuna exploit looks interesting, I missed it & will have to catch up. I'll probably stick with FMCB though.

 

[Deleted member 514389]

Time to dust off that KH2 FM translation mod.

 

[PikachuPrincess23]

It seems psx-place it's down, where can I find tutorial-the-great-ps2-aio-guide?

 

[BeastMode6]

It seems psx-place it's down, where can I find tutorial-the-great-ps2-aio-guide?

Download the right ISO for your system from here: https://github.com/CTurt/FreeDVDBoot/tree/master/PREBUILT ISOs
Use IMGBurn to burn the ISO to DVD
Put DVD in PS2

 

[uyjulian]

It seems psx-place it's down, where can I find tutorial-the-great-ps2-aio-guide?

Works for me

 

[player594]

I wanted to use this to install fmcboot but it still requires a usb flash drive. Unfortunately my usb ports don't work so I still can't get it installed.

 

[jesterscourt]

There is some irony that I literally just got rid of my PS2 with FreeMcBoot earlier this week.

 

[PikachuPrincess23]

Sadly it dont work for me, I eighter have wrong DVD Player on PS2 or wrong DVD to burn it on.
I have Verbatim DVD+R RW.

 

[Deleted member 323844]

Sadly it dont work for me, I eighter have wrong DVD Player on PS2 or wrong DVD to burn it on.
I have Verbatim DVD+R RW.

Of course it wont work if you have other version. But you must change the language to english if you have one of the three exploited versions.

DVD+RW discs work fine.

 

[Deleted User]

Sadly it dont work for me, I eighter have wrong DVD Player on PS2 or wrong DVD to burn it on.
I have Verbatim DVD+R RW.

+RW is about the worst you can use for game backups in general, even if they are Verbatim.

Get Verbatim DVD-R and you should be fine, sans problem laser in your drive.

And remember, burn at slowest possible speed.

 

[Deleted member 323844]

+RW is about the worst you can use for game backups in general, even if they are Verbatim.

Get Verbatim DVD-R and you should be fine, sans problem laser in your drive.

And remember, burn at slowest possible speed.

https://streamable.com/hxykqw

 

[Deleted User]

https://streamable.com/hxykqw

Ok, you got it to boot off a +rw, congratulations.

That doesnt stop the fact that most people have problems getting RW discs working on a ps2.

Stick with what everyone absolutely knows 100% works, which is -R.

 

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

Ok, you got it to boot off a +rw, congratulations.

That doesnt stop the fact that most people have problems getting RW discs working on a ps2.

Stick with what everyone absolutely knows 100% works, which is -R.

And as you completely correct said - slow as possible - 4x on Verbatim are a very good working Combination by the Way.

But you must change the language to english if you have one of the three exploited versions.

Most important,thank you again for this Reminder.
(I forgot it on the first try....)


Thank you.

 

[FAST6191]

And remember, burn at slowest possible speed.

Is that not a hangover from earlier times?

Back when if the hard drives (especially if fragmented and also running the OS) would go below burn speeds, and burners themselves did not have the greatest buffers, and suspect inks of the day, then yeah the sorts of write quibbles (not really errors but would be by the time the suspect lasers of the consoles looked at them) caused issues.

Today you would really have to work at having your hard drive go low, burners have loads of buffer even then, and inks are pretty sweet. Indeed it might even come back the other way and you find your burner struggles at lower speeds, especially the absolute lowest where it was more of an afterthought from the drive makers. More amusingly if you do plod along at 5 megs a second (4x speed) then in the time you are waiting for the 4 gigs (never mind if something is dual layer) to write might actually see something happen on the OS (probably Windows deciding updates are in) that will slam the hard drive.

 

[Alexander1970]

Is that not a hangover from earlier times?

Not for PlayStation 2 and GameCube.

 

[FAST6191]

Not for PlayStation 2 and GameCube.

I am dubious on this one.

I have seen plenty of iffy burners for low speed stuff, and while I don't have the most time on PS2 and GC stuff I have never the less seen plenty of iffy embedded readers.

Any errors are see are not remedied by low speed burning or affected by high. Most such things are bad drive, bad burner, dust on the disc or "there is a reason you don't buy such things in the pound shop" for the media itself.

 

[Alexander1970]

I am dubious on this one.

I have seen plenty of iffy burners for low speed stuff, and while I don't have the most time on PS2 and GC stuff I have never the less seen plenty of iffy embedded readers.

Any errors are see are not remedies by low speed burning or affected by high. Most such things are bad drive, bad burner, dust on the disc or "there is a reason you don't buy such things in the pound shop" for the media itself.

That is correct,but Lasers are not getting better from that Devices.And 3rd Party Replacement Lasers are even not better....
Also the "Quality" from DVD-Rs are not so good today (some Brands).With Verbatim (and Ritek "branded" ones) you are still on the safe Side for this two Consoles.

This "unwritten Law" with the Burn Speed (for PlayStation and GameCube) has still Validity today.

 

[FAST6191]

That is correct,but Lasers are not getting better from that Devices.And 3rd Party Replacement Lasers are even not better....
Also the "Quality" from DVD-Rs are not so good today (some Brands).With Verbatim (and Ritek "branded" ones) you are still on the safe Side for this two Consoles.

This "unwritten Law" with the Burn Speed (for PlayStation and GameCube) has still Validity today.

Does high speed burning introduce enough of a wobble or poor pit formation maybe that the now ancient lasers are troubled by that as much as reading from burned media over pressed?

 

[RiPPERD]

like the engineer who worked on this said, it could lead to further exploit using the same technique on other Sony consoles (from PS1 to PS4)

it has actually now been tested on ps3 and ps4 with some pretty good results, nothing to get excited about yet but it would seem with a "few" tweaks it could work on future consoles