PS2 Chipping questions

I was considering getting a PS2 modchip, but I have a question, all these games that are out there on Kazaa, if I downloaded them, burnt them and played then on a PAL playstation will it work because I'm sure there must be a lot of American and Japanese rips out there i.e. NTSC format etc.

But then I also have very little if any knowledge of electronics and it seems that almost all of the chips that I looked at on "modchip.com" require soldering and pulling apart my playstation which I am a little uneasy about as I don't want to wreck it.

Is it possible to download these games and then just play them on an emulator or are the games that work on emulators different from those that work being burnt and put to a modified PS2?

I also don't know how to burn PS2 games or even DVDs (I haven't really tried) but I think I could pick that up pretty easy.

Can anyone out there confirm that it's easy for someone without any experience in electronics to install a chip? And do they come with instruction manuals? lol.

Thanks

don use kazaa........


use bittorrent.......and people release pal versions of the game online....

but then I have seen on some of the chips advertised that they play games that are imported like a US game in Australia and it will work using this chip but then will the chips work for copies of these foreign import games as well as foreign rips providing the chip says "NTSC and PAL" or whatever.

And what is bittorrent, please excuse the noobie question.

This is what I reccomend doing. First, a non-solder mod chip (like swap magic, etc.) has pros and cons.

NonSolder
---------------

Swap Magic - You buy it. And put the swap magic disk in ps2. then wait for it to load. then you put in the backup and hope it will boot.

BAD - Wear and tear on ps2. life of ps2 will go down since you have to go through a special procedure (you can google it to find exact procedure)

And it's long and annoying

Good - No soldering. I belive it doesn't void your warranty (could be wrong..)

Solder
--------------

there are many kinds - dms3/4, messiah2, magic 2, o2, etc.

what you choose is based on how much you're willing to spend

Bad - if you can't solder, you should get it professionally done (i used chipinstalls.com). it costs about 75$ when i did it. plus cost of modchip

Good- based on chip it can autoboot, play homebrew (emulators for snes, genesis, etc.) and have screen positioning(new generation chips)

GAMES
---------
where you get your games is up to you. blockbuster is the easiest and most trustworthy (as long as they arn't scratched)

Backup of PS2 games
-----------------------

very easy. Get a program called Alcohol 120%. And tell it to make an image out of the dvd. Then tell it to burn that image to a new Dvd-r

Swap Magic doesnt do any more wear and tear then any normal ps2 game. The media you use will be the only reason as to a bad lens in the future.

If you want to play burned games either get a pre-mod, send in your ps2 to get modded, or get Swap Magic with either slide card or with fliptop.

go here

and

here

And dont download games from kazaa. Use Bittorrent.

Go here to understand.

can the games only be burnt to DVD-R because mine is DVD+R?

Edit: So is bitorrent like kazaa because I read that intoduction to bittorrent and it sounds like its if you are purchasing downloads or am I missing the point.

Newer ps2's, I know v9 and 10, will play dvd+r maybe some earlier models too. You really just have to test it.

mm... I don't really know what version my PS2 is, I was looking at it the other day trying to work it out but I didn't get around to it, I bought it about 18 months ago so I hope it's a later version but if its an earlier one I dont think I would bother getting a chip.

Its prob a v7 or 8. I think v7 was the earliest models that could read dvd+r decently. To get the version look at the back for where it says SCPH.

gee it would seem that you are right its a SCPH 39002 (AUS) and I just matched that up on a version chart thingy that I found via google and its a version 7. I'm still not that sure of what to do because with the swap disc one wouldn't you need to buy a bunch of swaps for your PS2 backup game copy? And it just seems that the soldering ones are so appealing but I have no experience in soldering so I would likely have to send my PS2 into that chipinstall.com but then I figure that would be a liability... so do you think it's worth it, I can't seem to get onto this chipinstall.com anyway

All you need with Swap Magic is the swap discs (one cd and one dvd), slide card or flip top, and blank dvds for the games.

If you have had no expirience soldering, dont do it yourself. If you want a chip just have a local shop do it. I know ps2-scene has people that do local modding.

ah ok, so you only need 2 swap discs.... I understand now I thought that you needed a swap disc for each game you burn. Sounds alright in that case, I think i'd end up going with that option.

May have already been answered but I just need reassuranc, it plays both PAL and NTSC, and PAL and NTSC copies?

If you're on an NTSC it might have problems reading a PAL and the other way around. But that is a video problem, you can just get a video converter.

A video problem?

I'll just say all I wanna be able to do... Be able to go down to my local video shop an rent PS2 games to copy. Be able to download the .iso occasionally and burn them to DVD in order to play them. Be able to play games bought over Ebay from like overseas (cos I bought a MOH Frontline from the states stupidly and it didn't work). Is this all achieveable with the swap magic and video converter?