Getting started with PlayStation 2 modding usually involves running homebrew software to greatly increase your console's capabilities, allowing you to use community made software like utilities, games, emulators and game loaders for playing backups of your original games. This can be achieved with modchips or more commonly with software exploits. This page will go over what options are available.
Some exploits only work on specific BIOS or DVD player versions. You can see these versions by powering up your PS2 and pressing 
.
This page is split into 2 main parts: Homebrew Entryways and Installable Exploits. Your end goal will likely be to install something from the latter section, allowing you to easily launch homebrew from a more permanent solution. The former section goes over methods to launch an installer for the installable exploits.
Homebrew Entryways
To install one of the exploits listed later on this page, you need an entry way to launch the installer for one of them. They are sorted from easiest/most practical to obscure, but any one of them can still be used. See which one of these sounds best to you.
Asking a Friend
While this seems obvious, it is actually a great way to get started. If you know someone who already has a way of running homebrew on a PS2, you can ask them to lend you their memory card or install something for you using LaunchELF.
Buying a Memory Card
Here, you basically have 2 options:
MMCE
Getting a Multipurpose Memory Card Emulator card can be a good idea in general. Not only do you have a near infinte amount of storage for save files, you can also load games from them with Neutrino and use it to load homebrew on any system. While they are a more expensive than some of the other options on this page, they also offer a lot of value.
Preformatted FMCB Memory Card
On a lot of online stores (eBay, Amazon, etc.) you can also buy a standard PS2 Memory Card with FMCB preinstalled. This might be the cheapest and easiest option for a lot of people. Keep in mind however that FMCB does not work on every PS2 model.
PFS-Batchkit-Manger (HDD only)
The PFS-BatchKit-Manger is a useful tool for managing PS2 formatted hard drives. If you have a Fat PS2, plan on using a hard drive anyway and have a Windows PC, this is a solid entryway. The software allows you to install an exploit on your hard drive so you can boot into LaunchELF directly and install something from there.
Using a Disc-based Exploit
If the disc drive on your console is functional, you have a few more options to try.
FreeDVDBoot
FreeDVDBoot is a DVD player exploit that works with a specially crafted ISO burned to a DVD. It works on stock PS2 consoles. Once up and running, you'll be greeted with LaunchELF and can start any homebrew from there, like an installer. All you need are some blank DVDs and a console that can still read them.
Compatibility
FreeDVDBoot works on all Slim models. Support for Fat consoles is more limited, depending on the DVD player version and region.
Installing
All you need is a blank DVD, a DVD burner drive for your computer and a PS2 console with a functional DVD drive. There are pre-made ISO files available depending on which console you have.
YADE (Yet Another DVD Exploit)
YADE works similarly to FreeDVDBoot, but supports different DVD player versions. If your console is not compatible with FDVDB, take a look at it.
MAX Media Player (AR MAX Evo)
Datel released the MAX Media Player software, either sold separately or bundled with the AR Max disc as 'Evo Edition', which can be used to play audio and video files, as well as launch homebrew ELF programs from a USB drive. Note that USB drives that rely on USB 2.0 or above interface can conflict with the software, such as not recognizing the inserted drive or when launching programs results in a black screen; therefore, this method is deprecated for those reasons alone.
The way of launching homebrew programs from a USB are as follows:
- Place one or more ELF files onto the root directory of the USB drive.
- Insert the USB drive into one of the freely available USB ports on your PS2.
- Boot from the AR MAX Evo disc, then pick the 'MAX Media Player' option, or boot from the MAX Media Player disc.
- Navigate to the ELF file you wish to launch (i.e., LaunchELF), and select the 'Play' button.
- Install an exploit from there.
Modified Swap Trick
Another usable, but mostly deprecated, homebrew entrypoint is based on certain disc titles being split into multiple executables.
As the console only verifies the initial program, it may or may not be viable, depending on the exact title, to:
- Create a backup of such a game.
- Use an ISO editor, capable of replacing files in place without changing the disc's layout (i.e., Apache), to swap a program with wLaunchELF.
- Burn this modified copy.
- Start the original game, hotswap to the modified one.
- Proceed as required for LaunchELF to be loaded.
- Install an exploit from there.
Memory Card Adapter + Windows/Linux PC
This method uses the PS3MCA, an official adapter for PS1/PS2 memory cards that plugs into a standard USB port. It was originally designed for use on the PlayStation 3, but can easily be used on any Windows or Linux PC.
Windows
- Extract the .rar file found on the download page into your user directory.
- Install both "installer_x86" and "installer_x64" from the ps3mca-windrv folder.
- Insert the PS3MCA into your PC, and wait for all drivers to load.
- Run "mc_format.bat" to format the installed memory card (this will erase all data).
- Run either "full-install.bat" (installs FMCB + essential homebrew) or "lite-install.bat" (only installs FMCB and LaunchELF). Since the software on the full install will likely not be up to date, you can also use the latter and add more homebrew manually.
- Insert the patched memory card into your PS2 and press the power button. If the usual "Tower" boot screen is replaced with the FreeMCBoot logo, the mod is successful.
https://www.ps2-home.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=297
A Modchip
While it is usually not practical to install a modchip in your console just to launch homebrew, a lot of consoles from back in the day still have them installed.
If you have such a console, you can use this to your advantage. Some modchips can launch homebrew directly from a USB drive. Others do not support this. In that case, you need to burn a version of LaunchELF to a disc.
Independence Exploit
The Independence Exploit by Marcus Brown was the first secondary exploit for the PS2 (Fat models only).
Like the PS3, the PS1 virtualizer supports applying a selection of compatibility hacks to specific games, and the built-in list can be supplemented via memory card. A buffer overflow in the code loading this list allows user-specified titles to be replaced with another homebrew also sourced from the memory card.
While still perfectly usable, if you have equipment suitable to load arbitrary files to a memory card you usually have other ways of running homebrew!
Installable Exploits
These exploits can be installed onto a MMCE device, regular memory card or hard drive on Fat systems. Once you have one of these running, you can run practically any homebrew you want.
FMCB
FMCB / FreeMCBoot / Free Memory Card Boot is probably the most well known PS2 exploit. FMCB is a piece of software that gets installed on an official memory card as a system update. It's booted on console startup and loads a modified version of OSDSYS, the PS2's user interface. It allows the user to launch other installed software directly from the memory card or from a USB drive.
FMCB is one of the easiest ways to run homebrew on the PS2 as the memory card just needs to be plugged in once configured.
Compatibility
The exploit FMCB uses works on almost all PS2 models, including all Fat systems, the PSX and most Slim systems. The exploit was fixed by Sony with BIOS version 2.30 which was used on most SCPH-900xx Slim consoles and the PS2TV. If you have a console with this BIOS version, you need to use another exploit like OpenTuna.
FHDB
Another variation of FMCB is Free Hard Drive Boot, also known as FHDB. Like the name suggests, it gets installed on the internal HDD only on PS2 Fat consoles. Note that you also need a network adapter to use an internal HDD.
Once installed, it has similar functionality to FMCB, with the advantages being that you have both memory card slots available and more space for extra applications without needing to have an extra drive connected.
FHDB only works on APA formatted drives, not exFAT. This means that you need a special piece of software to modify your drive's contents. It is possible however to use APA Jail to have both an APA and an exFAT partition on the same drive, but it's a more complicated setup.
Compatibility
FHDB only works on Fat systems due to requiring a hard drive. You also need a network adapter.
Fortuna/OpenTuna
Fortuna and its open-source version OpenTuna use a newer exploit that was found in 2019. Similar to FMCB, it also gets installed on a memory card.
OpenTuna does not have a user interface and instead just launches an ELF file on the memory card. This can be anything you want like PS2BBL for extended functionality or a menu like OSDmenu directly. The exploit has to be executed again every time, but it only takes a few seconds.
Compatibility
OpenTuna is well supported and works on all PS2 models except the Protokernel models (early Japanese consoles with model numbers SCPH-10000 and SCPH-15000) and the PSX.
PS2BBL
PS2BBL (PlayStation 2 Basic BootLoader) is a boot loader which can initialize the system, load discs and executables. It can be installed as a system update similar to FMCB and FHDB or can be booted via OpenTuna. It has the best compatibility but does not come with a hacked OSDSYS. Instead, it loads an ELF file. This can either be a program you want to start directly on startup or another menu like OSDmenu (which is a hacked OSDSYS) or OSD-XMB.
Compatibility
- PS2BBL can be booted directly on all systems,
- Can be installed as a system update on all systems with BIOS versions below 2.30,
- Can be installed with OpenTuna on all PS2 models except the Protokernel models (SCPH-10000 and SCPH-15000) and the PSX.
In other words, it's possible to use it on all systems one way or another.