Slashdot Mirror
PS2 Exploit Allows Running of Unsigned Code
DrEldarion writes "This man has figured out a way to make the PS2 run unsigned code without a modchip. "To make a long story short, the exploit allows anyone with a memory card and
a valid, legal PS1 disc to hijack the boot process and run any piece of code.""
If I can get my American PS2 to run Japanese PS2 games without having to pay $100 and do a lot of fiddly soldering, that's worth it. I don't know how much it would actually cost to get a memory card reader, since I don't have one, but I doubt one would have to pay $200.
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
I don't think that the people who just buy xboxes to "hurt" microsoft really understand what they are doing. In the short term, YES, you are costing Microsoft money on their per console loss. In the long term, you are helping them.
For instance, 1,000,000 MS haters buy xboxes with the hopes of making a serious dent in the $60 billion (yes with nine zeros) cash reserve that Microsoft holds. In the mean time, Microsoft is able to report to the software vendors that they have those 1,000,000 extra xboxes out there. Vendors see the large numbers and make more games to support the xbox. In turn, the xbox software library grows and so does its legit customer base. I know the 1,000,000 xboxes for the MS haters is an exaggeration, but hopefully you will get my point.
http://www.tomandemily.com
Border, n: in C64, area of screen where no graphics can be displayed. Therefore it's the favourite place for all Commodore demoscene coders to display various graphics, causing engineers who designed it rip their hair from their heads and jump out through the windows, yelling "THIS CAN'T BE WORKING".
Understand now?
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
"An agreement of law", Are you drunk?
One of the biggest problems with consoles and DVDs these days is that companies put region coding in them. If you live in a certain area of the world you get to play the games and watch the movies that they want you to, and no others.
This is a hideous practice and we must all publicly flaunt our disobedience of it at every opportunity. Otherwise they'll sneak it beneath the radar of the masses and make it part of the international copyright agreements.
Currently, region coding has no legal weight, though dishonest laws like the DMCA might have make bypassing it illegal in some jurisdictions.
If you believe you have the right to use your possessions however and whereever you wish, fight dishonest companies who do this!
You can already run Linux on the playstation by paying for the PS2 Linux kit at http://playstation2-linux.com/
That kit allows you to run any code that you want to anyway. Plus getting one allows companies to see that there is a paying group of individuals that would like configurable/extensible electronic products.
It's funny that many people criticize the software and media industry for promoting DRM and DMCA type laws, but then the same people turn around and promote/utilize cracks like this.
What do you expect the companies to do? Sit there and watch this happen?
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
As I've mentioned a couple of times before in this thread, I want to use this (and was planning to get a modchip) to play games I have legally imported from Japan. I know that many people won't believe me, and that, unfortunately, that won't be the primary use of this exploit, but I know of no law that prohibits running region-locked games out of their region. I realize that it's possible the DMCA covers this, but if so, it really shouldn't. I paid for the PS2, I paid for the game, so why the heck shouldn't I be able to run it?
If this can really work (I haven't gotten the guy's code to compile, see one of my posts, above), it would be really great. I could use a $30 memory card reader/writer to let me play imported games, rather than a $100 modchip kit, which I would have to solder onto the PS2's motherboard. And those things look extremely fiddly.
So, yes, there is at least one legitimate use. And the point of our opposition to the DMCA is not (at least not for anyone who would have any chance against it) "so I can keep pirating stuff." My argument against it is that it probably will allow Sony to sue anyone who uses this hack, whatever purpose they put it to. It stops you from using certain devices or processes because they could be used for piracy or copyright infringement, even if you would truly, honestly, never use them for that purpose.
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
Border, n: in C64, area of screen where no graphics can be displayed. Therefore it's the favourite place for all Commodore demoscene coders to display various graphics, causing engineers who designed it rip their hair from their heads and jump out through the windows, yelling "THIS CAN'T BE WORKING".
The C64 wasn't restrictive. It allowed hackers (as in coders) to do whatever they could think of with the hardware. There were crazy optimizations where two instructions executed at once, 27 sprites could be displayed at once (the hardware is limited to 8), 240 colors could be displayed (the hardware was limited to 16), and not once did the commodore engineers come and say, "Stop doing that! It wasn't designed for that!"
Fast forward 20 years, and take a look at major console manufacturers bitching if we exploit the hardware or software to install something they didn't intend.
Heck, even being a developer, you can't do to modern consoles that you could do to the C64... To get an XDK, or PDK, you have to adhere to all sorts of restrictions about what you can and cannot do in your code (no fancy ASM hacking to do cool stuff)... what's the point? No wonder all we have is cookie-cutter games... Developers aren't allowed to innovate, unless it meets with Sony or Microsoft's predetermined vision... bah, gimme a modern day C64 dammit!
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.