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PS2 Exploit Allows Running of Unsigned Code 331

Posted by michael from the game-on dept.
A reader writes "This man has figured out a way to make the PS2 run unsigned code without a modchip. "To make a long story short, the exploit allows anyone with a memory card and a valid, legal PS1 disc to hijack the boot process and run any piece of code.""
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PS2 Exploit Allows Running of Unsigned Code More

PS2 Exploit Allows Running of Unsigned Code

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  • What kind of hardware is needed... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by The Raven ( 30575 ) * on Saturday August 16, 2003 @03:47PM (#6713774) Homepage
    ... to get arbitrary files on a memory card? I don't know about you, but *I* don't have anything like that. Will a small industry be created selling pre-altered memory cards?
  • Man, I know what I do first thing when I get home tonight!

    I wonder what Sony will do, besides send their SonyTroopers to his house...
    • They'll release a modified Playstation 2. It'll break some games and Sony'll deny everything.

      At least that's what happened when people used a similar trick to play import games on the original PS1.

  • Great news! (Score:5, Funny)

    by levik ( 52444 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @03:48PM (#6713784) Homepage
    Now all we need is someone to write a legal playstation emulator for the X-Box, and we can run linux on it with no additional money going to microsoft for buying/renting a particular x-box game!

    • Re:Great news! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by tprime ( 673835 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @03:59PM (#6713860)
      I don't think that the people who just buy xboxes to "hurt" microsoft really understand what they are doing. In the short term, YES, you are costing Microsoft money on their per console loss. In the long term, you are helping them.

      For instance, 1,000,000 MS haters buy xboxes with the hopes of making a serious dent in the $60 billion (yes with nine zeros) cash reserve that Microsoft holds. In the mean time, Microsoft is able to report to the software vendors that they have those 1,000,000 extra xboxes out there. Vendors see the large numbers and make more games to support the xbox. In turn, the xbox software library grows and so does its legit customer base. I know the 1,000,000 xboxes for the MS haters is an exaggeration, but hopefully you will get my point.

      • Re:Great news! (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Cylix ( 55374 ) * on Saturday August 16, 2003 @04:40PM (#6714023) Homepage Journal
        That is a rather simplistic view I'm afraid.

        If I were a game producer...

        I would compare characteristics from my potential product to that of similar products in the market. Then I would compare sales figures. ie, compare age demos of various genres or which types of titles sell the best. Hell, I would even glance as to which company is selling the most titles and try to understand their secret to success.

        You would only need to look at pure console sales as a point of interest for producing on that platform. Its already a bit of a known fact that the large console markets are PS2 and XBOX.

        It doesn't do alot of good to know there are X Billion people in North America, if you don't know how many people would be potentially interested in buying your product.

        Buy and Burn all the xbox's you want.

        • That's funny. (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Inoshiro ( 71693 )
          "Its already a bit of a known fact that the large console markets are PS2 and XBOX."

          The PS2 has shipped 50,000,000 units. The Xbox and GameCube have both shipped 10,000,000 units.

          I don't understand how one 10,000,000 is smaller than another 10,000,000 enough to be considered equal to 50,000,000.

          Here's a well known fact: "well known facts" are often made up on the spot to support another argument, and make it look that much more believable.

      • Re:Great news! (Score:3, Insightful)

        by shivianzealot ( 621339 )

        For instance, 1,000,000 MS haters buy xboxes with the hopes of making a serious dent in the $60 billion (yes with nine zeros) cash reserve that Microsoft holds. In the mean time, Microsoft is able to report to the software vendors that they have those 1,000,000 extra xboxes out there. Vendors see the large numbers and make more games to support the xbox. In turn, the xbox software library grows and so does its legit customer base. I know the 1,000,000 xboxes for the MS haters is an exaggeration, but hopef

      • Re:Great news! (Score:5, Funny)

        by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @08:46PM (#6714878) Homepage Journal
        Ah yes! But if I buy 10,000 X boxes and use them to sculpt a giant penis (Well... it WAS going to be a gopher and I gave up on that and changed to a big Tux the Penguin but I'm not that artistic so it really looks a lot more like a penis) and have that erected (Heh, so to speak) in Redmond, WA, it would get enough publicity that the software developers would know that Microsoft's claims were inflated by that many units! They can't run X-Box games if they're being used as part of a giant gopher-penis-tux-the-penguin sculpture, can they? It's genius! Genius, I tell you! And just to add insult to injury, one could apply for a federal arts-grant to get the money for the units! How cool is that?

  • Unsigned code... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 16, 2003 @03:48PM (#6713785)
    Like LINUX!?

    In related news, Sony pays $499 per each PS2 sold to SCO. The rest of the compensation is the release of a smash-hit game "Superdaryl and the Invasion of the IBM Drones", in which Daryl saves America from IBM-aided terrorists.

  • So what? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EvilTwinSkippy ( 112490 ) <yoda@NosPAM.etoyoc.com> on Saturday August 16, 2003 @03:49PM (#6713789) Homepage Journal
    That would have been really useful BEFORE Sony went off and released a Linux kit for the PS/2. No, really.

    Am I the last guy on earth who actually goes out an pays for things?

    • 2 points:
      1. To officially run linux on your PS2, you have to pay Sony $200.
      2. Running it that way disables access to some parts of the hardware (reading and cds except the signed ones IIRC), presumably so you can't use it to run copied game cds.

      Using this bug let you get around both those problems.
  • It seems that it would be ueber-leet to be able to run linux to its full potential. Instead of just having the Sandbox environment we will have direct access to the hardware. I'd also be able to play tuxracer on the PS2. But then again I'm still waiting for a gamecube port of linux because thats what I have.
  • I have a thing for the PC that lets me read/write my PS1 memory cards... Does that mean I can do this?

    It was made by the same people that made gameshark

  • ..yeah (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 16, 2003 @03:51PM (#6713802)
    Oh, if you or your company are looking for a low-level PS2 or GC hacker, I am available for immediate contract work or other offers. My e-mail is the best way to contact me.

    We'll get right on that.
    After Sony's attorneys finish with you, "immediate contract work" is exactly what you'll need.

  • FINALLY! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'll be able to apply the "adult patch" to Equestriad 2001 [dealtime.co.uk] and have the race mares rise their tails and wink at you after winning the race!

  • Comparable to Xbox hack (Score:4, Informative)

    by remahl ( 698283 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @03:55PM (#6713834)

    This provides to PS2 what has existed for the X-box for a while now. It was mentioned on slashdot and allows the X-box to run unsigned code [netsys.com] after some preparation.

    It replaces some font files (which are not checksummed) with ones that use an exploit in X-box firmware.

  • Why? (Score:2)

    by Jim Hall ( 2985 )

    Am I the only one having problems understanding why you'd want to do this? I mean sure .. there's hack value and everything. But is the goal to run Linux on the PS2 [playstation2-linux.com] or something? Maybe it will enable you to run import games, like Zettai Zetsumei Toshi [penny-arcade.com] without having to install a modchip.

    Someone please explain why this is so important? (And yes, I did RTFA.)

    -jh

    • Zettai Zetsumei Toshi came out as "Disaster Report" in the US, so there would be no need to import it in the first place.

      The game is absolutely fantastic, btw.

    • Re:Why? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ralico ( 446325 )
      Why do we do anything challenging and not particularly useful?

      Why do we climb the mountain, why do we run webservers on 6502 processors?
      Because its there, man, because its there.

  • Useful? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by duffhuff ( 688339 )
    I was reading about this before seeing this article. One of the points brought up is that it's not really a useful hack because it's quite tricky to utilize.

    It looks like you need a memory card reader ($$), and then have to edit a file and add the Title ID for each game you want to play. This requires a bit of work to figure out, and a *nix system to run his software, I think.

    It doesn't work with all games all the time, only the ones you specify. Also, there may be a limit to how many table entries you ca

    • Re:Useful? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by clf8 ( 93379 )
      You didn't have to add a Title ID for each game you wanted to play. You had to add the Title ID for whatever particular PS1 disc you wanted to use to exploit the hack. Presumably, at this point you would switch discs and (somehow) put in a backup or foreign game that would boot even though it isn't "signed."

      As for Linux on Playstation2, it's already there, supported by Sony.
  • Does anyone know if there's a memory card reader out there that is in any way compatible with a Mac? For obvious reasons.

    And actually, I honestly do want to play legal imports on my PS2. If there's a game I want to play, I usually think it's worth supporting the people who make it.

    Dan Aris
  • The guy only tested one one machine (far as I can tell), but still I know its is a very cool hack but I mean really does it make a difference ? These machines are purchased as gaming platforms, not as the first step to world domination. Nice to know but is it more fun for the majority to play games or run 'unsigned code'

  • Sony's ps2 linux kit (Score:5, Informative)

    by jtilak ( 596402 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @04:00PM (#6713870) Journal
    sony's ps2 linux kit is crippled. read THE PLAYSTATION LINUX FAQ [playstation2-linux.com] for more info. i'm assuming with this, someone can run a regular linux distro on the ps2.
    • What is crippled about it? They have a distro, development tools, drivers for all the hardware. Hell, just port Gentoo to the sucker and store any large files over NFS on a PC.

      • Re:Sony's ps2 linux kit (Score:4, Informative)

        by Space cowboy ( 13680 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @05:19PM (#6714192) Journal
        It's not crippled as regards linux. It's crippled as regards the PS2.

        The PS2 is a dataflow architecture, which relies heavily on programmed DMA between chips. The DMA controller is more powerful than most, allowing chained DMA commands to be set up. You can "program" it on the fly.

        The linux kit emulates the DMA controller, providing little of the flexibility of the real PS2, and hence a lower standard of operation.

        Simon.

  • So what? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 16, 2003 @04:11PM (#6713923)
    So what? I've been running custom code on my unmodded PS2 using Sony's Linux kit for awhile now, even crunching Distributed.net with it. If you want to run custom code, buy the Linux kit. Show Sony people do want a Linux kit, that way they might release one for PS3 or even PSP. I'd rather use an official kit instead of a hack.
  • I tried compiling his titleman utility, since I don't have any of the games already in the title.lst file, but it seems like some stuff is missing...do you need to have a PS2 devkit of some sort to do this? His makefile seems to suggest it.....

    Dan Aris

  • Unsigned Code? (Score:4, Funny)

    by EvilTwinSkippy ( 112490 ) <yoda@NosPAM.etoyoc.com> on Saturday August 16, 2003 @04:15PM (#6713934) Homepage Journal
    Oh boy, we can count to 4294967295 billion now!

  • In case of slashdotting (Score:3, Interesting)

    by hhg ( 200613 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @04:23PM (#6713960)
    Quoted from the page:

    PS1DRV parses a file called mc0:/BXDATA-SYSTEM/TITLE.DB (the X represents the
    PS2's region code) to load graphic parameters for the PS1 game that was loaded
    from the disc drive. There is a catastrophic buffer overflow in the parsing
    routine that allows one to overflow the stack and execute arbitrary code by
    rewriting the $RA register. If we load up our own TITLE.DB, with an entry for
    every PS1 disc that we want to trigger the exploit, then we can take over the
    PS2 boot process as soon as the disc is recognized and PS1DRV is executed.
  • A mini distro on CD that starts the Linux kernel and then immediately chroots to a USB or firewire hard drive. Add in a USB based ethernet adaptor and you can run linux without limitations. Sounds fun to me. I would have said Knoppix for playstation, but it wouldn't have enough memory to start the gui.

  • So this hack allows what? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dancingmad ( 128588 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @04:33PM (#6713996)
    So this hack would allow Backed up and Import games to run on an unmodded system? Basically all one needs is a USB/Mem card interface to put the files on a PS1 memcard and then use a legit PS1 game to boot the machine?

    I've got a stack of games from SE Asia that I would love to play on my PS2 and this hack seems like the most non-invasive way to do it.

  • Any uses besides software piracy? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kunta Kinte ( 323399 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @04:55PM (#6714078) Journal
    Are there any valid uses for this hack?

    You can already run Linux on the playstation by paying for the PS2 Linux kit at http://playstation2-linux.com/ [playstation2-linux.com]

    That kit allows you to run any code that you want to anyway. Plus getting one allows companies to see that there is a paying group of individuals that would like configurable/extensible electronic products.

    It's funny that many people criticize the software and media industry for promoting DRM and DMCA type laws, but then the same people turn around and promote/utilize cracks like this.

    What do you expect the companies to do? Sit there and watch this happen?

    • Repeat after me: LEGAL IMPORTS (Score:5, Insightful)

      by danaris ( 525051 ) <danaris@mac . c om> on Saturday August 16, 2003 @05:10PM (#6714152) Homepage
      As I've mentioned a couple of times before in this thread, I want to use this (and was planning to get a modchip) to play games I have legally imported from Japan. I know that many people won't believe me, and that, unfortunately, that won't be the primary use of this exploit, but I know of no law that prohibits running region-locked games out of their region. I realize that it's possible the DMCA covers this, but if so, it really shouldn't. I paid for the PS2, I paid for the game, so why the heck shouldn't I be able to run it?

      If this can really work (I haven't gotten the guy's code to compile, see one of my posts, above), it would be really great. I could use a $30 memory card reader/writer to let me play imported games, rather than a $100 modchip kit, which I would have to solder onto the PS2's motherboard. And those things look extremely fiddly.

      So, yes, there is at least one legitimate use. And the point of our opposition to the DMCA is not (at least not for anyone who would have any chance against it) "so I can keep pirating stuff." My argument against it is that it probably will allow Sony to sue anyone who uses this hack, whatever purpose they put it to. It stops you from using certain devices or processes because they could be used for piracy or copyright infringement, even if you would truly, honestly, never use them for that purpose.

      Dan Aris
      • if you're shelling out for "legal imports" of games, then you should shell out for a "legal imported" console to go with those games.

        there is NOTHING stopping you from using a Japanese PS2 in North America. Power, nope (it's all converted to DC at any Hertz and 120 to 100 is no much of a difference.) TV signals, it's all NTSC... accessories, all the same...

        so, there is nothing stopping you from having the imported PS2 console... if you can get the games "imported"... then you can get the console too.
        • I hacked my DVD player's firmware to play discs from any region. Please explain how that is not a legitimate use. It's my DVD player, and I'm not using it to play pirated discs or anything. Region controls are an artificial limitation imposed by manufacturers, and I have a perfect right to get around those limitations if I wish, and can.
        • How about having to pay an extra $200-300 and have an extra box to worry about? I've already got a PS2, and it would have no problem running the code in a Japanese PS2 game, if the stupid region locking didn't prevent it from even realizing it's a PS2 game in the first place. I consider the region locking to be draconian, unnecessary, and certainly not a legal or moral hurdle, merely a technological one. It's only there to get the company more money.

          Dan Aris
    • Is it *my* fault that Sony sells PS2's at a loss?! If I own the hardware, why can't I run whatever the hell I want to on it?!?!?
    • Backups. You know those things I'm supposed to be allowed to make in case my kids scratch their games (or mine for that matter) and my audio CDs as well. Those things we pay a tax on CDRs for that we're not allowed to make according to the industry.

      I have 2 small kids and a PlayStation (4 and 5 yeards old). We have (so far) lost 3 Games (Bob the Builder, Blue's Big Musical, and Zoomafoo) for the kids, one of my games that they play (GT3 when GT4 wasn't about to be released) and one DVD (an Elmo) they

  • getting this working (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    you do not need linux or unix like some others have posted. you need ee-gcc - you can google it or if you're using win32 a direct link is here: http://www.thethirdcreation.net/tools/ps2DevEnviro nment.exe - just install that it sets up the dev environment for you. you'll need it to compile his tool.
  • This is just the beginning. Now that people know about this weakness it will be the focus of a lot of hacking to create a title.db that will run off of any game, thus meaning all you have to do is replace the file on a memory card (Is this a PS1 or PS2 memory card we're talking about?) and voila. Maybe even give us a nice "Insert unsigned disk now" prompt. Hopefully people will run with this, and it will turn out to be a lot less of a dirty hack in the end. The guy just rushed this out so it's understan

    • Now that people know about this weakness it will be the focus of a lot of hacking to create a title.db that will run off of any game, thus meaning all you have to do is replace the file on a memory card (Is this a PS1 or PS2 memory card we're talking about?) and voila. Maybe even give us a nice "Insert unsigned disk now" prompt.

      I got the the impression that the Playstation 2 internal ROM loads a specific config from title.db based on the ID of the PS1 disc in the drive. So the overflow code in title.db doe

  • DMCA, anyone? (Score:4, Funny)

    by dark-br ( 473115 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @05:25PM (#6714205) Homepage
    Yesterday,
    Algorithms programmed in any way
    Now it looks as though there's liabilit-ay
    And, it's 'cause of the D-M-C-A

    Suddenly,
    I'm not allowed to speak in C
    There's a shadow hanging over me
    Oh how D-M-C-A makes silence be

    How some bits do flow, you can't know,
    We couldn't say
    I said something wrong
    now I'm among, law D-M-C-A-ay-ay-ay

    Yesterday,
    "code" was such an easy game to play
    Now I need a place to hide away
    And, it's 'cause of the D-M-C-A

  • Am I the only one thinking "great, now i can run and program my own games for the PS2" ?

    Seriously, what software do you need to produce a PS2 game CD/DVD ? Is it available or do you need some special/secret software from Sony ?

    Does anyone has experience from the PS2 API ? What's it like working with ?

    And no, I am not looking for answers like "run linux and use gcc". I can do that just fine on my PC and it takes the challenge away...
    ---
    If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up space in the middle
    • Shortly before NaN folded they managed to get Blender (www.blender.org) to be certified as an official PS2 developement tool. Now that Blender is GPLd you might want to check there for a cheap start. Note that 2.25 is the last version with a game engine in it IIRC. The new engine will be merged back in in upcoming releases.
  • It might interest a few of you that there is a program available to use a USB-cable to screw around with the PS/2. It's available at naplink.napalm-x.com [napalm-x.com]. Go wild :)

  • How do I do this? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by r4lv3k ( 638084 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @07:08PM (#6714553)
    I have PS2 linux, but the PS2 linux memory card drivers are crippleware, dunno how I'd write to the raw memory card from that environment. Do I need special hardware to program a PS1 memory card? Perhaps now a real PS2 linux distribution will be developed, that will unlock the full capability of the hardware. For example, under Sony's crippleware linux drivers, there is no support for ieee1394 or the hardware MPEG-2 codec. r4lv3k

    • please stop blaming sony and ps2linux (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 16, 2003 @08:28PM (#6714814)
      Okay.. let's post anonymously for obvious NDA reasons.. I'm not from sony, but i am both an official PS2 developper, and a ps2linux owner. And am terribly pissed-off by some comments.
      • PS2Linux distro, by itself, is a bit crappy, but anyway it is not designed to make the ps2 you webserver/x workstation/whatever. There are other distros (black rhino, debian based) if you want it (but anyway it is a bad idea with the cache-less 300 mhz mips core, and the pcmcia disk interface!). The distro has nothing to do with being able to launch RTE bootloader with or without a legally bought DVD!
      • PS2Linux is not something for everybody.. It's not to show your friends you're cool because you've recompiled your browser so it runs un your PS2. You can do it, but it's not its goal. It's something for hobbyist programmers.
      • I would have preferred not to have linux, because of the highly bloated nature of linux, or any high-level os, which is obviously not the best thing to work low level, as it is required for this console. This is not an anti-linux troll, i would have said that about any os. But they did port linux to the ps2 and it is a good thing, since this is the only official/legal development system for hobbyists on any available console, almost since the VCS ! And with some patches, for instance that allows you decent dma-able physical memory allocation, it starts being almost usable to do serious low-level stuff..
      • Can I remind you that ps2linux is totally open source. I can guarantee that the hardware manuals you get with the ps2linux kit are exactly the ones we get as professional developers (excluding minor typos / corrections in the updated ones). We don't have magic data from sony. That means, if there is a functionnality you want, like mpeg2 using IPU, CODE IT! You can, really...

      To summarize, stop blaming sony! They did a great thing by releasing ps2linux, and all the related info. That's impressive. You know, a few years ago, the hardware manuals where so secret that there was my company name printed across each page..

      PS2linux is far from perfect, but it is up to you to enhance it, because of its open source nature.

      And if you don't want to use linux, because of its bloat, there are even bootloader projects hosted on sony's own website(playstation2-linux.com) that allows you get raw low-level access.

      According to me, sony's biggest mistake was to target linux zealots, instead of focusing on console programming enthusiasts, as they did with yaroze. So they got a lot of disapointed customers... But if you want to do console programming, ps2linux is still a great thing, with lots of things to create (and that's the interesting part!).

  • You can't use it to run out-of-region/copied games (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Aero Leviathan ( 698882 ) on Saturday August 16, 2003 @09:23PM (#6714972) Journal
    Calm down! First of all, if I understand correctly, this exploit takes a valid PSX game, stops it from booting, then loads 'any piece of code' _right off the memory card_. It does not provide for any sort of disc swap. This means you can not use it to load any game which the PS2 would not normally load; you can only load an .elf (I think) file which is _on the memory card_.

    Meaning this is only useful for _small_ homebrew apps.

    Second of all, it is unlikely this will ever be expanded to allow loading out-of-region/copied games. Sony uses a special copy-protection trick... as far as I know it involves a tiny sector in the beginning of a disc which has a checksum of zero. Inside this sector there is the data containing region information (should be impossible to contain any data if the checksum is zero, but it does). CD burners 'correct' this sector by writing the actual checksum, and hence PSX/PS2 games cannot be copied correctly. When you insert any disc into a PSX or PS2, the unmodified hardware checks that sector to see if the checksum is zero and if the region code is correct, and refuses to read any further data, _no matter what_, if that sector isn't just right. A mod chip works by injecting the correct data into the CPU at the right time.

    This means, even though you could use the exploit to read abritrary data off something other than the disc the console was going to read from, you can't read it from another disc: if you eject that valid disc and put in another, the PS2 is going to check that special sector. Unless I misunderstand something, this exploit _does not_ address that, and so you can only load code off a memory card. Maybe someone will come out with a way to load stuff off a hard drive with it, but it's unlikely you'll ever be able to load stuff off a different (invalid) disc.

    I should also point out that the terms 'signed' and 'unsigned' are possibly incorrect for this sort of thing, as the copy protection isn't really in the form of an encrypted key, per se... just a crazy sector containing simple data, with a checksum of zero.

    This is how it has been explained to me over the years by a variety of people and is AFAIK the generally accepted understanding of the Sony copy protection method. I have never worked for Sony so I cannot verify it. If you have any corrections here, feel free to speak up :)
    • As far as I can read you seem to be mostly correct with one exception. This will eventually get ironed out into being able to load a small executable from a memory card and executing it which will read drivers for an external dvdrom, cdrom, hard disk, or even network card and allow you to read your backup or out of region games from a different media. As far as I know the copy protection is on the side of the disc reading, but I could be wrong.

      Jamon

  • Clarifications (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mrossbrown ( 70015 ) on Sunday August 17, 2003 @12:45AM (#6715503) Homepage

    I don't typically read or post on /. these days, but since you folks were so kind as to saturate my cable connection :P, I read through the comments and wanted to clarify a few things:

    • The hack does not enable or facilitate mass, rampant, or Carribean piracy of PS2 or PS1 software. The design of the PS2 thwarts software from patching the system so that the hardware copy/region protection fails.
    • I am aware that Sony will be furious over this release. I myself know that legally, I have not broken the law. I used clean room reversing techniques to find the exploit, and Open Source software to develop it. Also, the exploit does not circumvent any security measures in the PS2, this should be obvious since you need a legal PS1 disc to perform the hack in the first place.
    • Yeah, I interviewed for Sony and didn't get the job (it was for a position on SCEA's R&D team). Me getting turned down was not my motivation for releasing ps2id. The Sony folks that I've dealt with are very cool, they've always treated me with respect (their office in Foster City, CA is amazing too :P). I hope that SCE* continues to produce consoles as fun to hack as the PS2.
    • My primary motivation was in getting this in people's hands was so that the barriers that prevent all PS2 owners from experiencing what I experience (when I develop homebrew PS2 software, or use it) would be removed. My ulterior motive (heh, there is always one, isn't there?) was to try and land other console hacking jobs professionally.
    • Yeah, the initial release was very rushed, but some wily hacker came up with the mantra Release Early, Release Often :P. A couple of people have already submitted tutorials and save files for other memcard adapters, and a ton of people have offered to mirror the site. Testament to the power of Open Source, blah, blah, blah... :P. I will be updating the site within the next few days with all of this, and working on the next ps2id release.
    • Overall, I'd like to see all kind of fun apps come from this that average, gaming PS2 owners can use, not just hackers.

    Oh, about all the Linux posts: I've been developing a way to get ps2linux to boot without Sony's kit, and it will all tie into this. No ETA on that yet.

    Cheers to all who've stepped up with the positive posts.

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