PS2 Network Adapter and N64 Perfect Dark

I did not check mail until Saturday but, when I did I found my PS2 network adapter and Perfect Dark in the mail. I had other plans for the day so I set them aside and it was about 8 hours before I came back to play with them.

When I came back I started with getting Perfect Dark out and into my N64.

I soon realized I did not get the memory expansion pak with my N64 and I only had a jumper pak. So most of Perfect Dark is not playable and the graphics are very bad. I will get a expansion on order soon. I think the next step will be to overclock the CPU for better game performance. Instructions for overclocking a N64 are here http://www.gamesx.com/misctech/n64oc.htm

Here is the beginning of and N64 collection.

I moved on to the PS2 and my new network adapter :).

I had been using OPL and PS2ESDL to load ps2 games from USB HDDs. I used a Sandisk USB drive like the one below to test with as well as an OCZ Desiel 16GB drive I have. Both worked well with my PS2. Not all thumb drives will work

With the network adapter for the PS2, which also serves as the internal HDD connector, I can try using OPLs network capability. I have a file server setup on my network already so I thought it would be a good idea to try it. I used a little help to make sure I got it right. I followed the help here http://openps2loader.info/8/config_net.html and made sure I had the games install properly after reading here http://openps2loader.info/8/net_install.html

After some rebooting I had games playing over the network share. I have Tourist Trophy loading from my SMB share. I have the flip top open to show no disc inside.

I have not had time to actually play the games on the system but Tourist Trophy does a have a CGI intro movie and that can be used to tell how well/fast the data transfer is over the network. So far it is much better that OPL via USB or PS2ESDL via USB for playing the intro CGI to Tourist Trophy.

New console in the mail!! PS2/Xbox ongoing

(11/16/11) I arrived home I had a small package waiting for me. I started to tear into it as fast as i could. It was my recently ordered N64. It came with 2 terrible games, and two none standard controllers. I ran it to the TV and fired it up. It was a good feeling turning on my N64 for the first time. I never owned an N64 before.

Next I will have to get an everdrive for my system.
http://www.krikzz.com/

Possibly get a backup adaptor for my games. I am thinking the next
http://www.retrode.org/

I'm toying with GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, and GoldenEye X in emulators on my PC as well as some testing on my modded Xbox.

The PS2 has been further tested with games playing over a USB connection. As you can find on many websites both OPL and PS2ESDL stutter during playback of CGI movies playing over the USB connection. I tested using ISO format and using the native game installer for each program. I hope that playing over the LAN/SMB has a better result. If not I'll give firewire a try but, SMB seems to be the best choice.

Xbox is being test for playback capability

PS2: My Favorite Softmod

I have dusted the old PS2 off and I am hungry to play my old games on it. I softmodded/fliptop modded the console years ago and before I put it to rest I had games playing from an external HDD via USB. Bad part is its so long ago I could not remember how I did all the modding and I don't have all the hardware I used to.

What started with :
SwapMagic 3.3
fat PS2 with controller
2 memory cards. 1 I know was used to load the games from usb drive I remembered.

What I know I used to have that I can't find now.
Gameshark usb adapter to edit/backup memory card files. Luckily there is  more than one way to skin a cat.

The first thing I did was start googleing like crazy trying to find what the latest PS2 softmods were and which setup looked the best for me. After a little searching I found that I no longer needed to use my swapmagic to play backups or load ELF files from the memory which it turns out is what I was doing before. Boot PS2>Load SwapMagic>Load USBadvance>Load Game. That was the process to getting a game up via USB. It required the Swapmagic disc to be working and the PS2 laser to be able to read the disc. These 2 items are wear items. The disc will get scratched and the lasers fail.

After a lot of reading I settled on having this as a final process after installation:
Boot to MC(memory card)>launch USB or Firewire app>launch game
I choose a few different software packages to test.

• Free Mcboot http://freemcboot.info/ This is the Softmod that boots from the memory card after you have it installed. The website has several install guides that are great.
• UlaunchELF http://psx-scene.com/forums/official-ulaunchelf-forums/ File browser and ELF file launcher for PS2. The free Mcboot guides have you install this :) 
• PS2ESDL http://ichiba.geocities.jp/ysai187/projects.htm This is an app that has a plugin support for firewire as well as USB as a standard. The additional speed that firewire has over the PS2s USB 1.1 seems like a plus to me.
• Open PS2 Loader http://openps2loader.info/8/usb_install.html This is an open source version of USBadvance. Has support for loading games from USB, SMB(samba share on network) and Internal HDD

...to be continued

Update 11/11/11

I started out by with the swapmagic guide to installation @ http://freemcboot.info/swapmagic.html. After 2 failed attempts I noticed what my problem was. This method requires SwapMagic 3.6+/3.8. So my Swapmagic 3.3 disc will not work. I got lucky at this point because I found out I had installed 3.6+ as an elf file to my memory card years ago. So I was able to boot SM 3.3 disc>load SM 3.6+ from MC>load USB drive to install the files I want.  If you have SM 3.3 you most likely will have to either get SM3.6+ disc or get on of the USB adapters like the Sharkport.

I did some testing with the external HDDs that I have now to see how the two game loader programs worked over USB. I started with just using a 16GB flash drive I have made by OCZ called a DIESEL. That worked well so I moved to testing with the other external HDDs I have. I was thinking that it would be great if I could use a 2.5" external HDD that operated from USB power only. I had a 2.5" external 250GB Seagate Freeagent Go that I used to test with.

The first thing I found was that Windows 7 will not format a drive larger than 32GB to FAT32. So I had to find a program that would do the job for me. I searched for a bit and found SwissKnife this can format larger discs to FAT32. I believe the max size that can be used with a PS2 is 2TB but, I am not 100% sure about that.

Right now I am not sure how to get PS2ESDL and OPL to read from the same files installed to the HDD. They each have there own game to HDD installers that might be cross compatible with some work but I'm still working on that. They both can play from ISO files when the file name is setup in a specific fashion. See the instructions here http://openps2loader.info/8/usb_install.html. There is a good tool for auto naming the files for you on that page. The draw back is that FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit so any game over 4GB can not use this method and I have read that the native game install formats may work in some case when an ISO file does not play right.

That aside the 2.5" USB powered HDD worked great for the game I tested. I am at the point that I have to decide whether to get a 2.5" external HDD for the PS2 or use a network SMB share to play the game. OPL  is the only one of the two I am testing that has SMB support. Going the SMB route limits me there but I have a Linux server that hosts all my files to the whole house so I am torn. PS2ESDL has the possibility of using Firewire so that would be a speed advantage. There is a catch though. The PS2 has a 4 wire firewire port which means its not powered. A hacked/spliced cable that got power only from the PS2s USB ports and data transfer from FW might be a workaround so you do not have to use a wall powered FW HDD.

Network adapters are the less expensive solution for me since I already have a file server. I just have to ad more storage if the performance is good enough over my network.

...more later

Console Modding

I've been thinking of nostalgic video gaming lately and have decided to resurrect some of my old consoles and buy some that I no longer have.

I now have in progress:

• Softmod update to Xbox- using XBMC4XBOX. Needs updating because the old mod I have is not compatible with windows 7 file shares.
• PS2 softmod - upgrading from a required swapmagic setup to Free McBoot + ULE
• Also looking at custom made sega/nes/snes/n64 cartridges that play the game from SD card. Meaning you only need this one cartridge and you can load all your games on the SD card and play them without having to get the original game cartridge out

Between a fresh play through of borderlands with a LAN group and the new MW3 I am pretty busy.

-nOmEc

Borderlands LAN Game Issues and Fixes

For me, I just had to change the network type to home network to get the proper network discovery for Borderlands. Just make sure the network type is home network on all the LAN computers. That assumes you are on Win7. Many fixes follow.

There are a lot of post on the net about issues with getting Borderlands to work properly for multiplayer LAN games. I am going to make a little compilation of the fixes that I have found all in one place. It will at least help me next time I'm playing Borderlands on a fresh OS install/new network.

If you are playing on a LAN no port forwarding is required but you should be in the same IP range. So check the IP addresses of the computers you are trying to get to play together first. If the host has an IP like this 192.168.1.xxx all the clients should have an IP with the same format 192.168.1.xxx the xxx is a number your router assigns. I have multiple switches and routers on my network so this is one of the first places I looked.

If you are going to play over the net with friends make sure you all fully update the game/ all the people you are trying to connect together have the same version of the game. port forwarding was supposed to be patched. That is not a guarantee. You might need to forward ports still. I do know for a fact that if have the a different version can cause no hosts to be found and no error is given. It is possible to get an error that will tell you if this is the problem or not, that is by using the direct connect method. instructions for that are here http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/PC_Connection_Issues

• Problem from vista x64 user
  
  My friend and I wanted to play borderlands on LAN and I wanted to host the game because I am further behind than he is, the only problem is it won't let me host. He will find the game but he can't join, we tried having him host the game and it worked fine, any suggestions?

Solution:OK I'm going by memory here, as I run Win7, but it should be something like this. Go to control panel, and look for the networking area (network and sharing center or something like this). Click on that, then, look for a link or menu that says 'change adapter settings' or 'manage network adapters' or something along those lines. Click it, and you should see an icon, one for each network adapter you have. Right click on any you want to disable, and click disable. Be advised you'll lose internet if you disable whatever you're using to connect to the internet. To turn them back on, just right click the adapter and hit enable. Let me know if this is not specific enough and I'll try and describe it better.

The reasoning behind this approach is that many games, when run on a system with multiple network adapters, improperly default to trying to join/host lan games using the non-LAN network adapter.

Source: http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=80649 

Comment:This is one way to go about the issue but you disabling all but the network adapter that you are using for the game. If you are using more than one of your network adapters this isn't a solution for you

•  Problem from win7 user but options to change this setting can be found in XP as well
  
  Can not see LAN games on network.
  
  Solution:Go to Control panel. Under "Network and internet" click the "view network status and tasks" now on the left side panel under "Control Panel Home" click "Change adapter settings". You should see Hamachi in this folder. press alt to bring up file menu and under "advanced" click "advanced settings". there u go ... now select hamachi and use the arrow on the right to bring it to the top of the list.
  
  Source:http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/4208-hamachi-network-priorities.html
  
  Comment: Hamachi is the connection they are changing in this case but I have read where just changing the right (one being use for borderlands) network device to the top of the list. Source is just a place I found it while making this post. Their are multiple forums I have found this in.
  
  Update: has instructions for XP and win7 and its non hamanchi/tunngle/gameranger
  http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=81527
•  Special pfsense rule. If you do not know what pfsense is you do not need to worry about this one
  
  [solved] Borderlands, multiplayer, and pfSense
  PFSense users, you need to add an outbound rule.
  go Firewall > NAT > Outbound (tab)
  choose "Manual Outbound NAT rule generation" and add a rule
  check "Static-port" and hit ok.
  might cause issues for multiple gamers on the same network, but in the case of steam (or at least OTHER steam games?), my friend who found this says you can tell steam to use diff ports, client side.
  (this is in addition to standard port forwarding rules)
  thanks to my friend who prefers anonymity after lots of (nat) firewall log viewing, wireshark use, etc a fair bit above my head
  
  Source:http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=107990
• Port forward guide/help
  
  http://myshockwave.net/news/multiplayer/borderlands-online-multiplayer-problems-fix-guide-pc-version/#.Tr7Di0PqPMg
• Whole list of things to try.
  
  http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/PC_Connection_Issues
  
  I suggest trying the direct connect method. If you can get the direct connect method to work then you know its a network discovery setting not right on one of the PCs. You can either keep digging into the issue and try to getting it working the normal way or just use direct connect.
• Make sure you have the firewall exception for Borderlands in your firewall.
• Another port forward solution for non LAN
  
  Playing co-op online
  
  1. Play co-op online without forwarding ports: Use GameRanger
  2. Co-op from directly within the game:
  Open these ports
  7777 (TCP/UDP)
  28900 (TCP)
  27900 (UDP)
  28910 (TCP)
  6500 (TCP... NOT UDP)
  9989 (UDP)
  THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO DO THIS
  1) Create private game
  2) Invite friend, let him time out completely
  3) Exit private lobby (to main menu), remake, invite, play!
  OR
  1) Create public game
  2) Wait for someone to join (don't know if necessary)
  3) Exit, create private lobby, invite, play!
  
  Source:http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=55636
  
  Comment: This one has a really good section on editing you player ini file to skip videos and change some player/audio/video settings.

If non of these help you to get the game working keep googling. When you have all your setting right the game will find hosts and you can play. If everybody does not have the settings right it will not work.

A side note about the game is installation. win7 user have reported a lot of different errors during installation. You simply fail to install and can't really do anything about it and when you find a fix for one error a different one comes up the next time. If you are trying to use Borderlands.Proper-Razor1911 just stop because it has several issues being installed on win7. Either buy the game or use a different release and apply updates.

MAC OSX Leopard on HP NW8440

With two recent events I got interested in trying out Mac OSX. One was The Making of South Park - 6 Days to Air and the other was the passing of the late Steve Jobs. I really like South Park and in the documentary it showed that they use Macs for just about everything. I got to thinking that it would be fun to try but I have no intention of buying a Mac just to test it out. I just want to test the software and have no interest in the hardware.

If you want to try out OSX I recommend starting with VMware permitting that your hardware is compatible with running OSX in VMware. 

I did very little research before jumping in. I jumped on some different Hackintosh websites/forums and looked around for about a hour and then just started trying to install Kalyway 10.5.2 onto an HP NW8440.

This turned into a little bit of a trick because the computer would sometimes not recognized the DVD I made of Kalyway 10.5.2 as bootable and other times it would start to load the DVD and then suddenly power off in an instant. With several boot attempts the NW8440 finally booted the DVD completely and I was able format my HDD with the built in disc utility and then install Mac OSX 10.5.2 Kalyway onto the machine without selecting any customization options during the installation.

This gets you a working Mac for doing very little since it is not up to date.

The resolution is not that high because there is no proper graphics driver installed. The resolution is 1024x768 which is usable.

iTunes and almost all apps are not up to date and a lot of features are not usable because of this. I proceeded to attempt to resolve the issues. I started by disabling Software Update because I do not want official Apple updates coming in and messing up my installation unless I give it the okay to use updates from Apple.

To update to the latest Leopard version of OSX I used iDeneb combo upgrade 10.5.8. I only did the upgrade and did not use the other files that came with the iDeneb update. After that I used software update manually to update all the apps on the computer.

The audio was not working at all so I did this:

Installed appleazaliaaudioadi1981_installer.v2.zip that I found here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...76288&st=40 . I did not delete any files as is suggested in the topic. This got the built in speaker/mute/volume working only. No headphone jacks work.

After that here are the results:

What is known to not work/has issues at this point:

1. Screen only has 1024x768 resolution.

2. Audio out jack. Headphones do not have sound when plugged in and built in speakers continue to play sound.

3. Built in mic and mic input jack are not recognized.

4. minor boot issue. requires multi attempts to boot. Failure to boot occurs at many different places. Each boot attempt is different. Most common failure is just after the Darwin press any key to enter options screen the computer suddenly powers down

5. Scrolling with touchpad

6. Sleep mode/screen sleep is not quite right.

Untested:

1. VGA output. I assume it has problems from my reading.

2. NIC ethernet port. I assume this does not function as well from my reading but have not tested.

Possible nic fix. I have not tested because I do not want to screw up where I am o far and I have wireless working so I am content for the moment.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=47078

3. Card Reader

4. Expansion card slot

5. Firewire

All in all it was a fun little project and I will only continue to test and hopefully get the head phone jacks working.

  

The First Post

I hope to use this as a log of tech projects that I randomly get into. Also might include some mechanical projects as well down the road.

Currently in progress:
Mac OSX 10.5.8 + running on HP NW8440
Home networking system/Converting the installed phone wiring to Ethernet
Borderlands LAN game hosting joining issues and fixes

Planned in future:
Linux file server and automated usenet download machine
RSS TV feed generator for Sabnzbd+