PS2 Playstation 2 soft-Region Faker by SP193 v1.00

[jolek]

Here is Playstation 2 soft-Region Faker made by SP193.

About What does this program actually do?

• This program allows you to fool some games into thinking that your console is a Japanese console,
  hence allowing you to have access to otherwise restricted content.
  
  Such games include the SEGA Gems Collection,
  which has been reported to have more content available to only Japanese gamers.
  
  Simply pop in your game and launch this program.
  The program will adjust the OSD parameters within your kernel and boot your game directly.
  If something goes wrong, it'll boot the Playstation 2 browser.
  
  Please take note that this program is experimented and has only been tested on PCSX2.
  It should work properly on real Playstation 2 consoles.
  
• What does this program actually do?
  
  It changes the language field within the OSD parameters block that gets stored in your Playstation 2's kernel to Japanese.
  Games check that field to determine what language to use and for region-locking purposes.
  
  The parameters are not saved to your console's Non-Volatile memory,
  so everything should be back to normal if you were to reset your console or exit back to the OSD (Since the OSD will reload the OSD parameters from NVRAM).

Note: THIS PROGRAM DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO PLAY IMPORTED GAMES!!!

Source:

• https://assemblergames.com/threads/playstation-2-soft-region-faker-v1-00.40203/.

 

[TnA]

I totally forgot about this one...

IMO that would be a cool feature for FMCB/FHDB (or OPL?). It essentially is a limited version of what XEB+ is advertising itself with (but there you can change it during runtime, before the game or app or etc. is being started).

Thank you for digging it up @jolek! This possibly would have been forgotten by the scene, if you would not have found it!
@sp193 didn't get any reply regarding this (over at assemblergames.com), so hopefully he will get some useful informations and replies from the users here or in other places where it might be shared.

 

[sp193]

That tool I wrote, changes the language setting in the kernel. This setting is normally loaded at boot by the OSDSYS program, and any restrictions on the possible choices are enforced in software. So we are free to set it to anything we want. This is a PS2 setting, which will have no effect on PS titles.

It is not actually a region setting, but some games take the Japanese language option as an indicator that the PS2 (and hence the user) is from Japan, as only the Japanese console can have the Japanese language option selected.

Not all games even check the kernel language option (hence the language selectors). And not all games actually interpret the set language as an indicator of the console's region. In particular, the tool was originally written out of a request to unlock the Japan-only content for the Sonic Gems collection game, which is only normally accessible on the Japanese PS2.

 

[arcadekidflo]

Nothing yet for imported games on FMCB ?

 

[sp193]

Nothing yet for imported games on FMCB ?

I'm not sure what you're hoping for. Most games will not behave differently, even if they're imports. However, FMCB will not allow you to play games that you cannot already play.

Although language is a possible way to determine the region, it is also very inaccurate because most PS2 releases can have the language set to English.

The only people who would need such a feature, would be those who:

• Are hoping to access region-specific content, which is specific to the region. And the game determines region, based on the selected language.
• Require a specific language (which is not selectable by the PS2 model), but somehow own the wrong PS2 model (why was the PS2 imported?).

As of now, I am no longer working on PS2 software as I have begun employment under a new company.

 

[arcadekidflo]

I mean play USA original on PAL console with FMCB .

 

[sp193]

If you're asking how to bypass the PS2 DRM, this tool will not do that. You will need a hardware mod, or to just bypass the DRM altogether by not using CD/DVD, through something else like OPL.

 

[TnA]

...or swapping, although that's not preferable...

 

[jolek]

I've tried this app with PAL version of Sonic Gems Collection (SLES_533.50)...

I've launched launched "RegionFaker.elf", console reboots, OPL, run the game.

Unfortunately list of games was the same:

Sonic the Fighters
Sonic CD
Sonic R
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic Spinball
Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble
Sonic Drift Racing
Tails' Skypatro
Tails Adventures
+ 2 not unlocked games

For now for test I uses PAL version, because mainly developers was only converting NTSC->PAL
by changing res & slow it down.

Maybe when I'll find SLPM_660.74 results will be different...

 

[sp193]

I am not sure if you will get a different game list, but I remember you could get different BGM. However, I never played the game myself.