How to copy the PS2 saves to the PC

pcsx2ps2

I'm considering crating up my PlayStation 2 in order to free up inputs on my TV. I don't play it very often any more, and it looks like emulation is currently good enough for the games I still play on occasion. However, I definitely don't want to start over in all of them!

As the PS2 has USB ports, it seems likely there's some way to copy games from a memory card to a USB drive (using a custom disk, presumably). However, Googling for it gives me a lot of contradictory (and fairly old) information about what software is available and how well it works (or for that matter, whether it's even necessary).

Can someone who's done it offer advice on transferring my existing saves from their memory cards onto my Windows 7 PC? If at all possible, I need a software-only solution — my PS2 is unmodded and I'd prefer to leave it that way. I envision downloading a legal(!) ISO which will allow me to perform the memory-card-to-USB transfer on the PS2 and which produces save files which can be used with PCSX2.

Best Answer

This can be done with the uLaunchELF browser. uLaunchELF is homebrew software, so must be run on a modded PS2 or via other methods for running unsigned software (the same techniques can be used to run pirated games, so I won't go into detail).

Once in the browser, copy your saves from mc0:/ or mc1:/ (the first and second memory card slots) and "psuPaste" them to mass:/. This will produce files which can be used with mymc to produce PCSX2-compatible memory card images.