Gaming PlayStation 2

[Dwellers]

As the Christmas time comes around, I want to buy a Playstation 2. I got a Playstation and want to trade it for one, but I got some few questions.

Can you use a PS Memory Card and save PS Games on it, like FF7? :confused:
Can you use a PS Gameshark on a PS2? :confused:

[Semjaza]

The PS2 accepts Playstation controllers and memory cards. However, there are limitations. With the controllers, many PS2 games require analog buttons. Playstation controllers just do not have these and thus will not work. Many games will work fine, however.

With the memory cards, you can only save Playstation games to Playstation cards. You can't save your old games to PS2 cards at all. You should keep one around if you want to play your older titles.

The PS Gameshark depends on what model you have. If you have the larger model that hooks on to the back of the Playstation, there's just nowhere to put it on the PS2. If you have the memory card version, it should work just fine as far as I can remember. Perhaps someone has experience with that and can say for sure... I don't use Gamesharks.

[MischiefEclipse]

Hmm, as far as the PS hardware, like gameshark, I'm not sure that works on the PS2. I have tried, one kind didn't fit, but the memory card one really wonked out my freinds system... If i remeber right... Personally, I'd wait the year or so for sony's next game system. (when does that come out?) I'm also disapointed because trading in a playstation or N64 (nobody cares about Nintendo anymore *cry*) at any of the places i know of only fetches like 20 bucks. Its sad. Wow, Who'da thunk that people would wait till now to buy a ps2? No offense to anybody...
Anyway back to the point! Keeping your old games is a good idea, but keep the old hardware.

I also heard a rumor about Xbox 2 not being compatible with the Xbox now's games or anything. (sorry! I know this is a PS2 thread but i had to.)

[eleanor]

[color=darkslateblue] I'm *really* sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I thought it'd be the best place to put this thread. :/

I just bought a PS2 recently, and I've played DDR on it for about three weeks now. I pretty much had a whole bunch of stuff saved on my memory card, but yesterday it said that the 'system data is corrupt' and I couldn't load up any of my saved info. Is this just a memory card malfunction or something wrong with the PS2 itself? Any help would be greatly appreciated.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Yep, this is the right place. I'm just gonna merge this with a previous PS2 thread. ^_^ - [i]Desbreko[/i][/color]

[You Don't Care]

Did you by any chance turn off the sytem while it was saving. If this is not the case, than you should make sure that there is anyone else who could have used your system. If there is, then ask them if they did anything that could have corrupted the data.

There are quite a few reasons to how data can be corrupted and you need to investigate all the options. If the previous are not the reason, than you should remember what you did and the [B]exact[/B] things you did when you played last and post it here. Any suttle action you could have taken could be the problem.

[Kamuro]

yeah, the most common data corruption happens if you turn off your system or remove the memory card while saving. Not only do you not save your new data, but it corrupts the original data on the memory card. Other problems could have occured, but I have a feeling thats what happened.

[eleanor]

[color=darkslateblue] I've never turned the system off/taken out the memory card while it saved...*sigh* But that means the problem is with the memory card, right? [/color]

[Purple Haze]

Do you have the licenced Sony brand memory card or a thrd party one( the yellow NYKO memory card)? i know that my old NYKO memory card used to give me corrupt data sometimes and I would have to start all over. The one I had for my Gamecube once formatted itself and erased everything.
Now thgat I got a sony emeory card it doesn't do that anymore.

[Final Remix]

[color=blue][font=comic sans MS]another question. I've had this problem before. Works the same across PS2 PS1 Dreamcast and Gen1 Gamecubes:

If you save often, (several times in an hour, etc.), the card's memory gets 'hot' and tends to corrupt more frequently. I've this problem most-prominently on the PS2 and Dreamcast. My gen1 Gamecube also had this problem, though not as frequently.

Sometimes, it has to do with the position of the optical-drive, and the port address of the memory card. If they're close, occasionally, they tend to overlap through error, and therefore they corrupt. Obviously, your level of risk increases when you save very often.

I'm not positive as to the other factors with this, but some games make fairly unstable saves. One major problem was PSO on the dreamcast & G1 GCN, and Seaman for the DC. Those both save constantly, and don't necesarily allow the memory card to cool off and hard-code the info.

Imagine your gamesave being molten lead, and the card being a mold. If you let it cool, you get a perfect shape out of the metal. If you keep dumping it in, and flipping it over to make room for another new batch, the molds will/may come out misshapen, and corrupted.[/color][/font]

[Semjaza]

My cards do get hot, but I've honestly never had that problem at all. I played Seaman and PSO on DC extensively and I never had a single problem with my VMUs, official or not.

I have one of those Interact 16 mb cards for my GameCube and despite problems I've read about, it's never once failed on me. One time it came up empty, but I took it out and re-inserted it and all my saves were still there.

I'm sure a lot of it has to do with how well made the card was, as well. Even with official ones, it is possible to get a shoddy unit.

I have a MadCatz PS2 card and it runs perfectly as well. I write and delete off of it quite often, I'd say. My only complaint is that the slim PS2 I have now doesn't seem to read the card unless I have it in there just right lol.

[boxybrown305]

[QUOTE=Purple Haze]Do you have the licenced Sony brand memory card or a thrd party one( the yellow NYKO memory card)? i know that my old NYKO memory card used to give me corrupt data sometimes and I would have to start all over. The one I had for my Gamecube once formatted itself and erased everything.
Now thgat I got a sony emeory card it doesn't do that anymore.[/QUOTE]
[COLOR=DarkRed]The same thing happened to a Gamecube memory card of mine, that was a third party brand. Since that, and some trouble with third party controllers, i only use direct brands for my systems (Sony brand for PS2, Nintendo for GC, and Microsoft for Xbox). Nothing ever goes wrong with the real thing, unless you do something to it.[/COLOR]

[eleanor]

[color=darkslateblue] Well, the only game I play on PS2 is DDR, so I'm practically going to have to save more than 4 times every hour (it saves after every 'game', which lasts approximately 10 minutes each). I have a liscenced Sony brand memory card as well. :/ Have no idea... yesterday I just erased everything and started from scratch. Thanks for all the help, though. :)[/color]

[Dagger]

*throws thread a Phoenix Down*

So I've been playing Xenogears, and I'm about ten hours in. Twice so far, the game has basically broken down at random points--everything turns into huge blocks of color and the music gets stuck. Although I got it used, the disc looks fine to me (maybe a tiny scratch here or there, but I'm sure I've played fine with worse). Is this likely to be a issue with the console? I've had it for about four or five years and haven't used it that heavily.

For now I'll just keep playing and saving often, I guess. I was planning to get a slim PS2 eventually anyway, but this might force my hand, heh.

~Dagger~

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]It sounds like the disc drive might be dusty and needs cleaning. I'm not sure if drive cleaner discs would work in the PS2, but you can always try blowing it out. I've had to do that a couple times with my PS2 since it tends to sit inactive for long stretches and my room is horribly dusty.

If that doesn't fix it, or unless it tends to glitch out in the same spot, I'd say it does sound like a hardware problem though. The graphics going funky like that usually means it's either a problem with the data being read incorrectly (dirty disc drive or scratched disc), the data being corrupted (system memory errors), or the graphics card overheating/screwing up in some other way.[/color]

[BlueMoon]

Actually, I remember this happening to me often in Xenogears, though my other games worked perfectly fine. It might be a Xenogears related glitch.

[Dagger]

Oh, so I'm not the only one! Interesting. Like Des suggested, I tried blowing out the disc drive (if dust can be problematic, it's a pretty likely culprit, with my shelf being in the state it's in). So far it hasn't happened again. *keeps fingers crossed*

~Dagger~

[MadHatter]

It freezes? Hmm... It may not be your console at all since I had the same problem with KH2 and I just bought it the same day...and beat it the same day. I just thought I should say that you should never blow into a PS2 or relatively near it with the disc drive open, you actually end up blowing more dust and other particles in there than you want out.

I suggest instead getting a very thin, soft feather duster to go in and get the dust. If you cannot find one, take a large feather from one (One of the fluffy ones) and gently sweep the drive and inside. When you are sure that it is clean and safe enough, just get a napkin and clean the rest of the disc drive off.

I have had my PS2 ever since it first came out and I still have no problems after what...7, 8 years? (Depending on when it first came out, I do not remember). This method solved my problem and I hope it works for the rest of you. Good luck!