What's the Best Device for backing up PS2 memory card on PC?

[Royi]

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster here. Longtime fan of the Suikoden Series. Fond memories of purchasing Suikoden 2 from Best Buy while I was in high school actually. (Wish I would have bought a couple others to sell for later )

Just curious, I already have a Dexdrive for my PSONE and was looking to get something similar for my PS2. I figured this would be the best area to ask since you guys seem incredibly knowledgable here.

My PS2 is one of the newer Slim models, it was bought I think in early 2007. I was looking at a Action Replay device on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Datel-Max-Playsta ... roduct_top since it was only 22 bucks.

I'm cool with the cheatcode abilities, but the main purpose of a purchase would be so I could easily backup my PS2 memory card onto my computer. To be able to download some of those fancy Lvl 99 Chris saves on Suikoden 3 (too impatient to do the trick myself) would also be a bonus.

What would you guys recommend?

[Pyriel]

The Action Replay MAX is your best bet. CodeBreaker's compatibility is too spotty to recommend any more, if you intend to use USB features. The GameShark has some minor advantages over the AR MAX, but is, overall, crap. Bad interface, flaky engine, horrible support, and I think MadCatz is out of the business, so "horrible" would be "zero", if that's the case. The only reason to buy anything other than the AR MAX is if you know what you're getting into with the other two. Aside from those, there are some save-feature only devices, mostly out of Europe, and some homebrew solutions. There's no reason to buy a save-only device, and homebrew, again, requires that you know what you're getting into.

I still think the CodeBreaker is the best cheat device for PS2, but it's no longer manufactured and difficult to find. It also has two major problems with its USB features: 1) The newest models of the PS2 (SCPH-75000 and higher) have new USB hardware that the CodeBreaker can't interface with; 2) Even if you have an SCPH-70012 or lower model, the driver could be flaky with larger capacity drives. Good luck finding a 128 MB or less USB drive these days.

If you go with the AR MAX, just be aware that they did have a version that had no USB support early-on (I think). I'm pretty sure it initially came out with 3 or 4 tiers of features with a $5 difference in price between them. One of the tiers could only be updated over an internet connection; the others had full features and you could get them with a USB drive or a Datel memory card. I don't think you'll encounter any of those for sale any more, but I'm often surprised by the ancient products online retailers will occasionally dig up and sell.

[Royi]

The Action Replay MAX is your best bet. CodeBreaker's compatibility is too spotty to recommend any more, if you intend to use USB features. The GameShark has some minor advantages over the AR MAX, but is, overall, crap. Bad interface, flaky engine, horrible support, and I think MadCatz is out of the business, so "horrible" would be "zero", if that's the case. The only reason to buy anything other than the AR MAX is if you know what you're getting into with the other two. Aside from those, there are some save-feature only devices, mostly out of Europe, and some homebrew solutions. There's no reason to buy a save-only device, and homebrew, again, requires that you know what you're getting into.

I still think the CodeBreaker is the best cheat device for PS2, but it's no longer manufactured and difficult to find. It also has two major problems with its USB features: 1) The newest models of the PS2 (SCPH-75000 and higher) have new USB hardware that the CodeBreaker can't interface with; 2) Even if you have an SCPH-70012 or lower model, the driver could be flaky with larger capacity drives. Good luck finding a 128 MB or less USB drive these days.

If you go with the AR MAX, just be aware that they did have a version that had no USB support early-on (I think). I'm pretty sure it initially came out with 3 or 4 tiers of features with a $5 difference in price between them. One of the tiers could only be updated over an internet connection; the others had full features and you could get them with a USB drive or a Datel memory card. I don't think you'll encounter any of those for sale any more, but I'm often surprised by the ancient products online retailers will occasionally dig up and sell.

Thank you for the information, so the PS2 can only handle USB's under 128mb? (i'm guessing my 8gb wouldn't work then ) Amazon has a couple 128 mb flash drives at least

~Yeah I've looked at a few homebrew software options, but it would require some extensive research on my part on how to exactly use them I believe.

Do you know if the AR MAX would be able to play most saves say on:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/929668-suikoden-v/saves

.cbs / .max / .xps etc?

Thanks for your help on this. The main reason is that I lost my Suikoden 5 Cleared game save back some years ago, and now that I'm wanting to replay it, I wanted to experience being able to blow through it somewhat easily

[Pyriel]

No, the PS2 has no size limitation that I know of. You should be able to plug in a 2TB USB harddrive, and use that if you have software that can see it. Although, the USB ports on some models were a little underpowered according to the general USB specification, so you might have to use a hub to get the device going. The limitation I was talking about is strictly for the CodeBreaker because of its flaky I/O module.

That said, all the commercial devices will only read FAT partitions (I believe that's still true of the AR MAX). So a drive over 32 GB will have to be partitioned and formatted properly, and may not be read even then.

The AR MAX can only handle its own save format (.max). However, there's a tool called PS2 Save Builder that can convert saves to and from most formats. It can certainly handle all the file types you mentioned.

[Royi]

No, the PS2 has no size limitation that I know of. You should be able to plug in a 2TB USB harddrive, and use that if you have software that can see it. Although, the USB ports on some models were a little underpowered according to the general USB specification, so you might have to use a hub to get the device going. The limitation I was talking about is strictly for the CodeBreaker because of its flaky I/O module.

That said, all the commercial devices will only read FAT partitions (I believe that's still true of the AR MAX). So a drive over 32 GB will have to be partitioned and formatted properly, and may not be read even then.

The AR MAX can only handle its own save format (.max). However, there's a tool called PS2 Save Builder that can convert saves to and from most formats. It can certainly handle all the file types you mentioned.

Perfect thank you very much

[Royi]

ARMAX recognizes my 8 GB USB drive kind of (says 0/434...... free), but it still says 0 bytes free (Cant transfer saves on there)

I ordered a 128MB usb drive off amazon for 5 bucks, I read somewhere that perhaps since a 8 GB drive wasn't common 8 years ago that perhaps a smaller one would work.

Thanks for the tip about the Save Builder too. I'll check that out for sure. For myself I'm not that much into 'cheating' (having infinite health etc), but I do like giving myself benefits from glitches or grinding, or new game + 's

[Royi]

a cheap fix I found that worked perfectly was the SanDisk 128 MB USB drive:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001F ... 00_s00_i01 (was only $5.00)

Reformatted that USB drive to FAT, popped in and ARMAX recognized it right away. Easy to download saves from Gamefaqs. With the use of PS2 Save Builder as you mentioned, its super easy and quick to get fun saves.

Thank you again for pointing me in the right direction. Maybe a New Game + will make Suikoden 4 a bit more playable, I wont use a New Game + for Suikoden 5 I don't think though. Only problem is that you cant change the Hero's name on a Newgame +.

Would this website ever want game saves for Suik4 and Suik5 (I noticed those games didnt have that link on the site)? I would bet this community has better saves out there than Gamefaqs does.