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Sony PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a sixth-generation console released by
Sony Computer Entertainment on October 26, 2000 and it was
retailed for $299.99. It has the Emotion Engine CPU at 300 MHz
with 32MB of RDRAM system memory and 4MB of eDRAM (VRAM).
Its GPU is a custom Graphics Synthesizer, which runs at 150 MHz.

The PS2 became the highest selling console of all time with over
160 million units sold.

This system scrapes metadata for the “ps2” group and loads the
ps2 set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Quick reference

Accepted ROM formats: .iso, .mdf, .nrg, .bin, .img, .dump, .gz, .cso, .chd

Emulators
PCSX2
libretro: PCSX2
libretro: play
play

BIOS

Batocera 39 and later

We simplified the BIOS requirements with Batocera 39. From now on, you need to put your BIOS files
in /userdata/bios/ps2/ (they used to be in /userdata/bios/ in previous Batocera versions).

We strongly recommend using the latest (REDUMP) BIOS for better emulation and depending on your
region:

USA: ps2-0230a-20080220.bin
EUR: ps2-0230e-20080220.bin or ps2-0250e-20100415.bin
JAP: ps2-0230j-20080220.bin

Regarding PS2 emulation:

The USA BIOS can play NTSC and PAL games (European games will have a glitch on the
PlayStation logo)
The EUR BIOS can only play PAL games
The JAP BIOS can only play NTSC games

You can also use a “region-free” EMU-BIOS PS2 ps3_ps2_emu_bios.bin available in the PS3
firmware, but warning: Fast Boot mode (or skip bios logo) must be enabled.
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As the USA-region BIOS can run every game, only this one will be checked by Batocera 39:

MD5 checksum Share file path Description

PS2 firmware
21038400dc633070a78ad53090c53017 bios/ps2/ps2-0230a-20080220.bin
binary

Batocera 38 and older

For older versions of Batocera (38 and older), the following BIOS files are checked:

MD5 checksum Share file path Description

28922c703cc7d2cf856f177f2985b3a9 bios/SCPH30004R.bin PS2 firmware binary
PS2 common and regional
3faf7c064a4984f53e2ef5e80ed543bc bios/SCPH30004R.MEC settings (optional, can be
created by PCSX2)
d5ce2c7d119f563ce04bc04dbc3a323e bios/scph39001.bin PS2 firmware binary
PS2 common and regional
3faf7c064a4984f53e2ef5e80ed543bc bios/scph39001.MEC settings (optional, can be
created by PCSX2)
9a9e8ed7668e6adfc8f7766c08ab9cd0 bios/EROM.BIN EROM firmware binary
ROM1 is an additional part of
the BIOS that contains some
44552702b05697a14ccbe2ca22ee7139 bios/rom1.bin
extra stuff like ID's for DVD
Player version etc.
Extra information only required
b406d05922dac2eaf3c2e68157b1b468 bios/ROM2.BIN
for certain Chinese PS2's

The 7#### series of PlayStation 2 BIOes are known to have issues with running certain
games. This is true on the console itself.

PCSX2 will automatically try to use them if they are present. Simply do not include them
in your bios folder to avoid this. Only use the BIOSes listed above.

ROMs

Place your Sony PlayStation 2 ROMs in /userdata/roms/ps2.

The recommended format to save space maintaining full compatiblity (starting Batocera
v31) is CHD.

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PS2 video modes

The PlayStation 2 was in the middle of an awkward phase of TV standards. Not only were displays
transforming from the 4:3 aspect ratio to the 16:9 aspect ratio, but they were also going from
interlaced to progressive. And this was also before video signals became standardized, like with HDMI.
Thus, various PS2 games have varying degrees for supported video modes.

Fortunately, since we are using a high-level emulator, we don't need to worry about whether a game
supports progressive scan or not. By virtue of emulation, all games are rendered as progressive scan
anyway. If a game offers the option to use it though, there's no harm in activating it.

In addition to this, the PS2's BIOS itself supports setting the aspect ratio to 4:3 or 16:9, and games
can read this setting to determine what aspect ratio to display. However, the majority of games
actually ignore this setting and offer the option in the game itself, if at all. But for the games that do
support asking the BIOS for the aspect ratio, the only way to switch their aspect ratios to 16:9 is via
the following:

1. With a controller plugged in, launch and close any PS2 game. This will configure the controller
so that we can navigate the BIOS without issues later.
2. While in the PS2 game list, press [Select] and go to ADVANCED SYSTEM SETTINGS. Set
GAME ASPECT RATIO to “16:9”.

This can also be set on a per-game basis by holding down while hovering over
the game and going to ADVANCED GAME OPTIONS.

3. Back out to the system list, then press [F1] on the keyboard to access the file manager.
4. Navigate to Applications on the left sidebar, then open pcsx2-config.
5. In the menu at the top of the screen, click CDVD and select “No disc”.

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6. Then click System and select “Boot BIOS”.

7. Using the controller, go to System Configuration.

8. Press D-pad down to go to Screen Size.

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9. Press and then set the screen size to the aspect ratio of your display (most of the time, this
will be 16:9).

10. Back out with to ensure it saves, and exit the emulator with [Ctrl] + [Q], [Alt] + [Tab]
and [Alt] + [F4].

Certain games only offer the ability to set the screen's aspect ratio in their in-game options. A
comprehensive list can be found at the everybodywiki's list of PS2 games with alternative video
modes page. This includes notes about special conditions about their activation. Do not worry about
progressive scan, 480p, 1080i or 240p mode.

For the remaining games that do not support 16:9 aspect ratio (or their offering is inferior as they use
the “crop” method, zooming in the image), setting WIDESCREEN PATCHES in the ADVANCED
SYSTEM SETTINGS can force the game to render in widescreen. This is known to cause graphical
glitches, notably stretched 2D elements like FMVs and geometry popping in.

For games which support both 50 Hz and 60 Hz, they will either ask to set the appropriate mode on
boot or have it available in its options menu. Most modern displays will be running at 60 Hz, so choose
that whenever offered. NTSC games will run in 60 Hz by default.

Emulators

PCSX2

PCSX2 is a free and open-source PlayStation 2 emulator for Windows, Linux, and macOS that supports
a wide range of PlayStation 2 video games with a high level of compatibility and functionality.

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Although PCSX2 can closely mirror the original gameplay experience on the PlayStation 2, PCSX2
supports a number of improvements over gameplay on a traditional PlayStation 2, such as the ability
to use custom resolutions up to 8192×8192, anti-aliasing, and texture filtering.

Batocera is shipping the latest PCSX2 Linux standalone binary. Check out the up-to-date official
compatibility list for more information.

PCSX2 configuration

Standardized features available to all cores of this emulator: ps2.videomode, ps2.ratio

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value

Settings that apply to all cores of this emulator
Choose your graphics rendering
GRAPHICS BACKEND ps2.gfxbackend
⇒ OpenGL 12, Software 13.
Show BIOS animation when starting content. Off
allows more games to boot successfully and
without issues, however some games (such as
SHOW BIOS BOOTLOGO ps2.fullboot
those that don't feature language selection
screens) require this animation to play out.
⇒ Off 0, On 1.
Enhancement. Increase the rendering resolution.
Makes 3D objects clearer. Lower this setting for
VIDEO RESOLUTION GPU intensive games.
ps2.internal_resolution ⇒ 1x 640×480 1, 2x 720p 2, 3x 1080p 3, 4x
1440p 2K 4, 5x 1620p 3K 5, 6x 2160p 4K 6, 7x
2880p 5K 7.
Enhance the quality of distant perspective
ANISOTROPIC FILTERING
textures.
ps2.anisotropic_filtering
⇒ Off 0, 2x 2, 4x 4, 8x 8, 16x 16.
Skips drawing some surfaces altogether, based
on how likely they are to cause issues. Specify
how many surfaces should get skipped after the
first problematic one is found. Try lower values
first like 1-3 then use higher ones (the highest
SKIPDRAW HACK ps2.skipdraw the number the higher the chance of
broken/missing graphics and effects). This hack
may cause random speedups as well! This option
may help with removing ghost images or other
post-processing effect rendered incorrectly.
⇒ Off 0, 1 1, 2 2, 3 3, 4 4, 5 5.
Fix for removing vertical black lines in several
ALIGN SPRITE (HACK) ps2.align_sprite games such as Tekken or Soul Calibur.
⇒ Off 0, On 1.
Fix the heavy screen tearing in games (CPU
VSYNC ps2.vsync heavy)
⇒ Off 0, On 1.

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ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value

Good speedup and high compatibility;
recommended but may cause issues
⇒ mVU Flag Hack: May cause bad graphics
[Recommended] vuFlagHack, MTVU: May cause
MICRO VU SPEED HACKS ps2.micro_vu hanging [Recommended on 3+ cores]
vuThread, Instant VU1: May cause some
graphical errors vu1Instant, mVU Flag Hack +
MTVU vuFlagHack,vuThread, mVU Flag Hack
+ Instant VU1 vuFlagHack,vu1Instant.
For cheating in games with Action Replay
GAMES CHEATS ps2.EmuCore_EnableCheats
⇒ Off disabled, On enabled.
WIDESCREEN PATCHES You must use a 16/9 RATIO and disable BEZEL
ps2.EmuCore_EnableWideScreenPatches ⇒ Off disabled, On enabled.
AUTOMATIC GAMEFIXES Selectively use specific tested fixes for games.
ps2.EmuCore_EnablePatches ⇒ Off disabled, On enabled.
These can cause compatibility or performance
issues
⇒ Off disabled, VU Add hack - Fixes Tri-Ace
games boot crash VuAddSubHack, FPU Compare
hack - For Digimon Rumble Arena 2
FpuCompareHack, FPU Multiply hack - For Tales
of Destiny FpuMulHack, FPU Negative Div hack -
For Gundam Games FpuNegDivHack, VU XGkick
hack - For Eremental Gerad XgKickHack, FFX
videos fix - Fixes bad graphics overlay
IPUWaitHack, EE timing hack - Try if all else
fails EETimingHack, Skip MPEG hack - Skips
MANUAL GAMEFIXES videos/FMVs that freezes SkipMPEGHack, OPH
ps2.EmuCore_ManualPatches Flag hack - Try if game freeze on same frame
OPHFlagHack, Handle DMAC writes when it busy
DMABusyHack, Simulate VIF1 FIFO read - Fix
slow loading VIFFIFOHack, Delay VIF1 Stalls -
For SOCOM2 n Spy Hunter VIF1StallHack,
Enable the GIF FIFO - Wallace and Gromit, Dj
Hero GIFFIFOHack, Preload TLB hack to avoid
tlb miss on Goemon GoemonTlbHack, VU I bit
hack - Scarface The World is Yours
ScarfaceIbit, VU I bit hack - Crash Tag Team
Racing CrashTagTeamRacingIbit, VU0
Kickstart to avoid sync problems with VU1
VU0KickstartHack.
Allows 5 or 8 maximum player support in games
MULTITAP ps2.multitap ⇒ Off disabled, Port1 port1, Port2 port2,
Port1+2 port12.

To configure other settings for PCSX2, open its standalone configuration application pcsx2-config
from the Applications menu (press [F1] on the system list).

RetroArch

RetroArch (formerly SSNES), is a ubiquitous frontend that can run multiple “cores”, which are
essentially the emulators themselves. The most common cores use the libretro API, so that's why

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cores run in RetroArch in Batocera are referred to as “libretro: (core name)”. RetroArch aims to unify
the feature set of all libretro cores and offer a universal, familiar interface independent of platform.

RetroArch configuration

RetroArch offers a Quick Menu accessed by pressing [HOTKEY] + which can be used to alter
various things like RetroArch and core options, and controller mapping. Most RetroArch related
settings can be altered from Batocera's EmulationStation.

Standardized features available to all libretro cores: ps2.videomode, ps2.ratio, ps2.smooth,

ps2.shaders, ps2.pixel_perfect, ps2.decoration, ps2.game_translation

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value

Settings that apply to all cores of this emulator
Choose your graphics rendering
GRAPHICS BACKEND ps2.gfxbackend
⇒ OpenGL opengl, Vulkan vulkan.
Audio latency in milliseconds, turn it up if you hear
AUDIO LATENCY ps2.audio_latency crackles
⇒ 256 256, 192 192, 128 128, 64 64, 32 32, 16 16, 8 8.
Improves performance at the cost of latency and more
video stuttering. Use only if full speed cannot be
THREADED VIDEO ps2.video_threaded
obtained otherwise.
⇒ On true, Off false.

libretro: PCSX2

libretro: PCSX2 configuration

libretro: play

libretro: play configuration

play

play configuration

Standardized features available to all cores of this emulator: ps2.videomode

Texture packs

Texture packs replace the textures in a game with other (usually higher resolution) textures. (

which emulators available support this? Just PCSX2?)

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Texture packs go into the PCSX2 config folder appropriate to the game:
system/configs/PCSX2/textures/<GameCode>. For example if replacing the texture in the
game God of War, they would go into the system/configs/PCSX2/textures/SCUS-97399 folder.

( how do we find out the GameCode?)

( aren't there options that need to be enabled?)

Controls

Here are the default Sony PlayStation 2's controls shown on a Batocera Retropad:

Troubleshooting

A lot of the special configuration for troubleshooting is done via pcsx2-config which
you can reach via the Batocera applications menu.

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Performance

PS2 emulation with PCSX2 requires a relatively decent CPU with a good GPU for hardware
acceleration. It will only work on x86/x86_64 machines. Even if your Batocera system does emulate
Wii U or even PS3 games fine it may struggle with PCSX2 emulation in terms of graphic improvements
or resolution upscaling. You can find some PC performance measurements and recommendations on
this page.

If you still have trouble try to keep the original resolution and default emulation settings. Some games
need high-end, possibly overclocked CPUs or powerful GPUs, whereas some games run even on weak
processors.

The PCSX2 Wiki offers tons of well documented guides and optimizations for specific
games - just use the search function on that wiki to find your desired game guide.

With that said, what if you're experiencing unusually low performance on hardware that should
otherwise be running it at full speed? Sometimes the configuration file gets corrupted and resets to
using “all defaults” according to PCSX2, which is to say not good. You can reset your configuration by
doing the following:

1. Open up the file manager by pressing [F1] on the system list.

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2. Click Applications in the top of the sidebar on the left.

3. Double-click pcsx2-config to open up the PCSX2 configuration tool.

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4. Navigate to Config → General Settings

On older versions, this is Emulator settings…

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5. Slide the preset at the bottom of the window to the right until it says “3 - Balanced”. On older,
single/dual-core machines you may want to slide this back to the default of “2 - Safe”.

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6. Press Apply. Quit PCSX2 with [Ctrl]+[Q] or by using the File menu.

7. Test out your game.

Intermittent warped audio

Due to how the synchronizing function of the audio plugin works, even when running games on a
computer that is capable of going way above 100% speed in a stable fashion, random bits of time-
stretched audio can be heard occasionally or even frequently.

A good workaround is to set the audio syncing method to Async Mix via pcsx2-config. This can
cause A/V sync issues with certain games and is not recommended with rhythm games. Do not
set it to None as it basically does the same thing as Async Mix but has more issues.

Specific game does not boot/graphical issues

Be aware that some games relies on BIOS to get start-up parameters and thus may not work correctly
with disabling the BIOS start animation. Therefore you should enable the boot animation in the first
step for problematic games with SHOW BIOS BOOTLOGO ps2.fullboot=1.

Also ensure that automatic gamefixes are enabled in Batocera. If you still have problems take a look
at the official PCSX2 Wiki and use the search function on that wiki to find information for the affected

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game.

Further troubleshooting

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

From:
https://wiki.batocera.org/ - Batocera.linux - Wiki

Permanent link:
https://wiki.batocera.org/systems:ps2

Last update: 2024/02/16 01:56

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