Since this is hte newbe forum, I figure I'll ask a newbe question here. What I'd like to do is augnment the PS2's bios with some rewriting and recompiling. Why on earth would I want to do somthing so crazy? Well, there are those nice USB ports on the front of the PS2, and little use for them outside of homebrew. My goal woyuld be to add some support for basic USB classes, and even see if I can come up with a system where a driver can be put on a mem card or a USB mass storage device and use it to run a USB controller.
IIRC, the bios is a build of irix so I was hoping to use Linux code to rebuild the bios with the support I want. If the flas is too small, soldering a new one in isn't too big a deal, but I don't know the max size the PS2 can address.
bios question, not about dumping
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Guest
This site has all the tools you need to boot custom code on the ps2 and access most of the hardware. You likely can do what you want to do without replacing the bios. You *could* do that if you really want to, just saying it shouldn't be necessary for nearly everything people can think of doing.
As I mentioned, now is a good time to check out the non-forums part of this site, and THEN re-read all of the forums on relevant topics going back over a year.
BTW, the PS2 bios is not a flash, and its nothing to do with Irix or Linux. But then, info is out there on it.
As I mentioned, now is a good time to check out the non-forums part of this site, and THEN re-read all of the forums on relevant topics going back over a year.
BTW, the PS2 bios is not a flash, and its nothing to do with Irix or Linux. But then, info is out there on it.
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splynncryth
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:03 pm
so I'm a shameless newbe (sheepish grin).
I think I found some usefull stuff, at least enough to keep me quiet for a while and even some info I never expected, anough info for me to hopefully add support for dualshock 2 to my USB controller adaptor :)
One thing I haven't been able to get a straitforward answer on is about running exsisting games 'shelled' within a homebrew environment. Maybe I just didn't see it and should be lables illiterate. I wanted to extend the capabilities of the console, particularly how the console handle USB HIDs.
In the meantime, what I found here should keep me busy learning about the PS2's guts for a while.
I think I found some usefull stuff, at least enough to keep me quiet for a while and even some info I never expected, anough info for me to hopefully add support for dualshock 2 to my USB controller adaptor :)
One thing I haven't been able to get a straitforward answer on is about running exsisting games 'shelled' within a homebrew environment. Maybe I just didn't see it and should be lables illiterate. I wanted to extend the capabilities of the console, particularly how the console handle USB HIDs.
In the meantime, what I found here should keep me busy learning about the PS2's guts for a while.
Like gorim said, there's plenty here to go on, USB keyboard, mouse and mass storage drivers are all floating around and should provide some pretty good examples if you'd like to add to the ps2's USB repertoire (GT4 can print direct to epson printers, so i guess anythings possible)
As to running commercial games in a "shell", I take it you wish load up drivers for some usb device(s) then boot a commercial game so it can use these things? Problem is that drivers live on the IOP and most (All?) games reset it and load their own stuff. May I draw your attention to http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=552?
But since you can't change the game's code, you'd have to rely on redirecting calls to PADMAN to your USBSTICKMAN. (for example)
That said, a joystick / flightstick driver for home brew would be pretty cool too, imho.
As to running commercial games in a "shell", I take it you wish load up drivers for some usb device(s) then boot a commercial game so it can use these things? Problem is that drivers live on the IOP and most (All?) games reset it and load their own stuff. May I draw your attention to http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=552?
But since you can't change the game's code, you'd have to rely on redirecting calls to PADMAN to your USBSTICKMAN. (for example)
That said, a joystick / flightstick driver for home brew would be pretty cool too, imho.
Damn, I need a decent signature!
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splynncryth
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:03 pm
I've actually developed somthing along those lines, although so far it only has support for NES and SNES controllers. I want to add support for more game consoles before I do anything like release the plans for it. It's toally software driven, and the platform supports a feature called renumeration. With this, I can come up with an autodetection system that then tells the driver what firmware to send to the microcontroller to load. The problem is that I need to learn to program for windows and windows drivers to take advantage of this on the PC. My C and C++ education was pre-windows and all I have used them for has been stuff like microcontroller programming.
But I digress, I haven't done much coding for a while, I've been persuing an EE degree which has been more schematics and archetecture with a peppering of ASM and C. Now that I've graduated, I'm trying to pick old hobbies back up, the PS2 has been a source of frustration due to a number of its limitations (those nearly useless USB ports drive me crazy thinking what sould have been). Eventually, I'd love to design a console, but for now, I'd settle for fixing my gripes with the PS2, which means trying to add functionality to the console that commercial games can take advantage of. Once I manage to end my current job hut, I'd like to get the hardware I need to sample the software of the homebrew community and maybe try my hand at it myself.
But I digress, I haven't done much coding for a while, I've been persuing an EE degree which has been more schematics and archetecture with a peppering of ASM and C. Now that I've graduated, I'm trying to pick old hobbies back up, the PS2 has been a source of frustration due to a number of its limitations (those nearly useless USB ports drive me crazy thinking what sould have been). Eventually, I'd love to design a console, but for now, I'd settle for fixing my gripes with the PS2, which means trying to add functionality to the console that commercial games can take advantage of. Once I manage to end my current job hut, I'd like to get the hardware I need to sample the software of the homebrew community and maybe try my hand at it myself.
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blackdroid
- Posts: 564
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- Location: Sweden
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splynncryth
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:03 pm
yea, but the idea of abstracting the system and making it work as you mentioned seems like it'd be interesting.
As I said, I'd like to see if I cna fix my pet peeves with somthing like the PS2, I think it might be possible with the homebrew base. I'm a green engineer at this point, but someday (that magical word :) ) try to design a console that has the sort of things I'd like to see as a user. In the meantime, if I could do it with exsisting hardware, that'd be great.
Of course, pet peeve number one is controllers. The problem first occured to me while playing GT3 with a dualshock controller. The analog buttons realistically only gave me about 8 discreet levels of sensitivity and the short throw on them means that they might as well be digital. There simply isn't any precision there. The thubsticks also have too short a throw, and the dead zone seemed inconsistent. Then, extending this line of though to more games, nearly all have some sort of issue as far as I'm concerned like remap issues. But it can't be helped on a console platform, all the drivers are compiled into the game. If a level of astraction could be applied to a game console, either as a microcontroller in the controller, or in the console's bios so it can deal with special controllers and remap features, it would be better for the user by being able to bypass lazy coding.
I've got a lot of other ideas too, but one I let them free.... :)
As I said, I'd like to see if I cna fix my pet peeves with somthing like the PS2, I think it might be possible with the homebrew base. I'm a green engineer at this point, but someday (that magical word :) ) try to design a console that has the sort of things I'd like to see as a user. In the meantime, if I could do it with exsisting hardware, that'd be great.
Of course, pet peeve number one is controllers. The problem first occured to me while playing GT3 with a dualshock controller. The analog buttons realistically only gave me about 8 discreet levels of sensitivity and the short throw on them means that they might as well be digital. There simply isn't any precision there. The thubsticks also have too short a throw, and the dead zone seemed inconsistent. Then, extending this line of though to more games, nearly all have some sort of issue as far as I'm concerned like remap issues. But it can't be helped on a console platform, all the drivers are compiled into the game. If a level of astraction could be applied to a game console, either as a microcontroller in the controller, or in the console's bios so it can deal with special controllers and remap features, it would be better for the user by being able to bypass lazy coding.
I've got a lot of other ideas too, but one I let them free.... :)