MechaPwn by MechaResearch

PS2 MechaPwn by MechaResearch 2.00

Hi, used MechaPwn 2.00 on a slim pal 9004, which is not compatible with freemcboot. used freedvdboot -which IS compatible luckily with my slim 9004- to change to dex region 9004 europe. afterwards, ps2 could only read original PAL games and nothing else, also not freedvdboot. I thought I 'bricked' my ps2 homebrewwise, being forever stuck on the DTL version. Luckily I have another fat ps2 with freemcboot which can't run mechapwn. I installed OpenTuna through my fat ps2 on a memory card and that way I could access ulaunchelf and reinstall mechapwn on my slim ps2 (phew). This time, I chose dex region 900x (1 or 2 can't remember?) USA and this time it booted everything, including backups. Only thing that was off was the PAL logo for PAL ps2 games, which looked corrupted. ntsc-u and -j logos were fine.


Just to make it easier for you, if you are going to use DEX on a PAL Deckard console, go to the USA DTL-H90001 region and you will not have problems with FreeDVDBoot or anything.
If you had read my previous comments you would have avoided so many problems you would know that you can damage the Fortuna, Funtuna, Open Tuna, etc. And if you don't have an entry point to ULE especially on a 90k without a chip or with another PS2 to be able to copy Fortuna. Well you were just screwed
Hopefully the Developer will consider our feedback and can give us a solution, it would be great to make DEX its native region.
 
I have been doing a little testing with MechaPWN on my SCPH-70001 and my SCPH-50001, I notice that if I keep my Memory Card with FMCB 1.966 Multi-Install(Since that is the only version of FMCB 1.966 Multi-Install I tested with) and boot my PS2s up with a Master Disc in it as soon as the FMCB splash screen vanishes the Master Disc boots and a gray block with the playstation 2 logo appears and the game starts, without the memory card plugged in it doesn't boot the Master Disc at all. It was really cool to see the card and debug stuff working in tandem like that.

It is not necessary to have a Multi installation of FMCB 1.966, with ULE / WLE you can start the copies even without patching the Master Disk, but that only if you force the unlock
 
It is not necessary to have a Multi installation of FMCB 1.966, with ULE / WLE you can start the copies even without patching the Master Disk, but that only if you force the unlock
I am aware, I prefer the Multi-Install and since that is what I tested with I decided it was worth mentioning. I don't really need the force unlock option I prefer my current setup.
 
Just to make it easier for you, if you are going to use DEX on a PAL Deckard console, go to the USA DTL-H90001 region and you will not have problems with FreeDVDBoot or anything.

Already figured out, but thanks. As for reading your comment before, I had no idea this thread existed but just followed the readme. Can't really blame me for it I guess? Anyway, I agree I hope it results in some fixes or a rewrite of the readme.
 
I may have locked myself out of a Homebrew Entry Point

I have a Slim 90001(USA), last time I tried running backups was in the old Swap magic days, I dont have Swap Magic anymore though.

1. Used FreeDVDBoot to get to uLaunchElf and Launched latest Mechapwn.elf from official github as of this writing
2. Successfuly changed SCPH 90001 to DTL-H90001 without Force Unlock, FreeDVDBoot still works
3. I thought Force Unlock sounded pretty cool, so I reran mechapwn and selected DTL-H90001 with Force Unlock ( Was I supposed to restore my nvm.bin first?)
4. Now FreeDVDBoot wont boot, I get the Red Screen insert Original ps2 disc screen, I tried making a uLaunchELF master Disc from some bootable ISOs but none work with DiscPatcher3 I get the same Red screen insert original
5. I said oh, well, atleast lets try out PS2 Backups, NTSC and EU with and without master disc patch none work. I wasted like 15 Verbatim DVD-Rs at this point lol.

So I might have to order a PS2 Memory Card with Fortuna installed? Unfortunately I dont know anyone with a PS2. Does Fortuna work on DTL-H90001 PS2s?
 
If you had read my previous comments you would have avoided so many problems you would know that you can damage the Fortuna, Funtuna, Open Tuna, etc. And if you don't have an entry point to ULE especially on a 90k without a chip or with another PS2 to be able to copy Fortuna. Well you were just screwed

Not completely screwed, he could use the swap trick ;)

It is not necessary to have a Multi installation of FMCB 1.966, with ULE / WLE you can start the copies even without patching the Master Disk, but that only if you force the unlock

Multi-installation (better "cross-region" installation) is needed if you want FMCB to keep working when you change region. If you don't change your Ps2 region, there's no need of it.
 
I may have locked myself out of a Homebrew Entry Point

I have a Slim 90001(USA), last time I tried running backups was in the old Swap magic days, I dont have Swap Magic anymore though.

1. Used FreeDVDBoot to get to uLaunchElf and Launched latest Mechapwn.elf from official github as of this writing
2. Successfuly changed SCPH 90001 to DTL-H90001 without Force Unlock, FreeDVDBoot still works
3. I thought Force Unlock sounded pretty cool, so I reran mechapwn and selected DTL-H90001 with Force Unlock ( Was I supposed to restore my nvm.bin first?)
4. Now FreeDVDBoot wont boot, I get the Red Screen insert Original ps2 disc screen, I tried making a uLaunchELF master Disc from some bootable ISOs but none work with DiscPatcher3 I get the same Red screen insert original
5. I said oh, well, atleast lets try out PS2 Backups, NTSC and EU with and without master disc patch none work. I wasted like 15 Verbatim DVD-Rs at this point lol.

So I might have to order a PS2 Memory Card with Fortuna installed? Unfortunately I dont know anyone with a PS2. Does Fortuna work on DTL-H90001 PS2s?

You're never screwed as long as the optical drive works, no need of swap magic, you can do the swap trick with any game (either CD or DVD).

Regarding your question: No, no need to restore the nvm, that's only for restore back the Ps2 as it was by default (to its original region and ID).

Force unlock (as writed in the readme), make all discs to be seen as Ps2 games (so Ps1 games, DVD Video and thus FDVDBoot patched games won't work).

Masterdiscs should work though. So either, you're not burning/patching games correctly, or there's is some huge bug (unlikely, otherwise there should be more reports about it).
 
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You're never screwed as long as the optical drive works, no need of swap magic, you can do the swap trick with any game (either CD or DVD).

Regarding your question: No, no need to restore the nvm, that's only for restore back the Ps2 as it was by default (to its original region and ID).

Force unlock (as writed in the readme), make all discs to be seen as Ps2 games (so Ps1 games, DVD Video and thus FDVDBoot patched games won't work).

Masterdiscs should work though. So either, you're not burning/patching games correctly, or there's is some huge bug (unlikely, otherwise there should be more reports about it).[/QUOTE

Well I patched every iso with disc patcher 3 with the master disc box checked. I even compared the modified timestamps in windows file explorer to make sure if the program even did anything. Im supposed to leave the "exe filename" field blank right? I used imgburn and used the slowest burn settings too.

I ordered a preinstalled fortuna memory card since I need 2nd memory card anyway. So its gonna be about week.
 
Well I patched every iso with disc patcher 3 with the master disc box checked. I even compared the modified timestamps in windows file explorer to make sure if the program even did anything. Im supposed to leave the "exe filename" field blank right? I used imgburn and used the slowest burn settings too.

I ordered a preinstalled fortuna memory card since I need 2nd memory card anyway. So its gonna be about week.

Yes, leave the exe filename blank, you only have to check the "masterdisc" option.

Possibly it was an ISO already patched with FDVDBoot, not clean?

EDIT: I realized now you are trying to launch games from OSDSSYS/Ps2Browser.
With force unlock you should be able to launch even clean backups without masterdisc patch, but always through homebrew (FMCB fastboot, Launch Disc or Ule Ps2Disc).

So you have some possibilities for solving, but since you already ordered the MC with fortuna there's no need to waste another CD.
 
It seems Disc patcher 3.0 has problems with some games. I wanted to patch Phantasy Star Universe SLUS_211.94 as a masterdisc but couldn't do anything (DS fails to locate the EXE and also if you try to patch it fails. If you manually write the EXE's name and try to patch, the program will freeze).
 
I may be stating the obvious, but it wasn't obvious for me and I didn't see it mentioned anywhere so hey-ho.
Even though you can't bypass region lock on older PAL systems by the means of mechapwn, today I tried something that had occurred to me, and got NTSC-U game working on my PAL 50004 console.
First, I converted the mechacon to a devkit model console. As described in the readme, this by itself didn't defeat the region lockout as it requires 7xxxx or newer PS2. However, what did the trick was ESR. After getting black screen on mechapwn console and getting kicked back to browser, I launched ESR, got blinking screen, and presto, the game started right up. I've tested this approach with God of War, FF X and Dragon Quest VIII and everything seems to be working as it should.

Bottom line is, tag team of exploits beats what neither of them could accomplish by themselves on my vanilla console. :D
 
I may be stating the obvious, but it wasn't obvious for me and I didn't see it mentioned anywhere so hey-ho.
Even though you can't bypass region lock on older PAL systems by the means of mechapwn, today I tried something that had occurred to me, and got NTSC-U game working on my PAL 50004 console.
First, I converted the mechacon to a devkit model console. As described in the readme, this by itself didn't defeat the region lockout as it requires 7xxxx or newer PS2. However, what did the trick was ESR. After getting black screen on mechapwn console and getting kicked back to browser, I launched ESR, got blinking screen, and presto, the game started right up. I've tested this approach with God of War, FF X and Dragon Quest VIII and everything seems to be working as it should.

Bottom line is, tag team of exploits beats what neither of them could accomplish by themselves on my vanilla console. :D

To what devkit you changed exactly, you remained on PAL region?
 
I have one question :is there any compatibility issues with Final Fantasy 9 disc 2 with mechapwn?
I've used mechapwn to set my console from scph-77004 to DTL-H77001 and I have multi-install version of FMCB.
Is there any reason why it doesn't work?
The first disc runs smoothly but the second one doesn't boot up...
 
I have one question :is there any compatibility issues with Final Fantasy 9 disc 2 with mechapwn?
I've used mechapwn to set my console from scph-77004 to DTL-H77001 and I have multi-install version of FMCB.
Is there any reason why it doesn't work?
The first disc runs smoothly but the second one doesn't boot up...

No compatibility issue. Make sure you correctly burned the backup.

Also if your Ps2 has a modchip you have to patch the protection (maybe you forgot to patch it on disc 2?).
If you're just using mechapwn on a un-modded Ps2, you shouldn't need to patch it.

Also if you're using PAL FF9. I suggest you to patch the ISO with zapper 2000. Set patch to PAL 2 NTSC (it isn't readed by the Ps2, the important thing is the Y-.fix on 0 - 0 for preventing the Ps2 to cut part of the picture).
 
so i just found out master patched backups autoboot if you have a fmcb memory card connected on startup (even with fastboot disabled). also without force unlock option
 
so i just found out master patched backups autoboot if you have a fmcb memory card connected on startup (even with fastboot disabled). also without force unlock option

It also depends on how quick your Ps2 lens is. If it's a little slower (so it loads up the OSDSYS just a little before reading the disc) you'll get the red screen error.
 

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