Hello world!
Welcome!
You and I are here because of our mutual shared interest in the PS2 Scene, and more specifically the last best 3rd gen modchips.
What makes a third gen modchip? Boot from something other than CD/DVD: - Memory Card - Hard Drive - USB - MMCE (yay for Crystal Chips BootManager being extensible!)
I was heavily involved in Xbox modding. But that was easy. I could have one done in ~30 minutes ready to go for a customer. But PS2? That was much more difficult. Things were rapidly changing. 16+ versions of potential motherboard variations. I had installed only a few hundred PS2 modchips back then, and that started with the last gen: Matrix Infinity, DMS4, and Crystal Chip. Crystal Chips kicked ass. They were so much better. More features, easier to use (if user had pre-built scripts per app like the BM Megapack) and didn't randomly die when installing like DMS4. Matrix was fine...but yawn. Oh so booring. And you had to remember boot controller key combos. LAME. Crystal Chip could use just about any key command you wanted so long as it wasn't x, select, joysticks or D-PAD. But I never really learned to script the dashboard as was allowed. Seemed gibberish.
As far as 2002-2007: Needing to burn discs, no organization for where to put files. Info was hard to get or non-existant. Teams advertising features that were not documented. Some teams (like Ghost) never delivering features that were promised the moment the website went up.
So here I am. Almost 20 years later. I only kept one system. A V15 PSTwo Slim. In 2024 I saw Macho Nachos Video: I Made A PS2 So ADVANCED, It’s Basically A PS3 | The PS2 Pro
I was jealous. I had a better modchip. I had THE Crystal Chip 2.0 Pro SLE. I could have THE ACTUAL Pro PS2! So off to ModzvilleUSA! It was surreal. Kick ass if you will.
And then I started searching for more. Modz sold me a CC 1.0, and my retro shop sold me another 1.0. Both NOS! (new old stock) And then more. More and more. I had to re-experience the thrill of the other greats. I had to help document, as FMCB is just utterly booring and non-extensible EXCEPT for USBD.IRX and USBHDFSD.IRX. So you can only load 2 IRX? I can load them all! I can update! I can change! I can add!! So from October 2024 till now end of Feburary 2025 I ended up with this sweet collection, not all are in the picture mind you. Some are installed. Some came after:
- 104 Crytsal Chip 1.0 Lite
- 1 Crystal Chip 1.2 Lite (may turn into a 2.0)
- 2 Crystal Chip 2.0 Pro SLE wtih 4MB Dataflash AT45DB321-MWU
- 1 More Crystal Chip 1.2+ on the way...
- 4 Ghost 2 v2
- 2 DMS4 SE Lite
- 1 DMS4 SE Pro
- 6 Matrix Infinity Original
So here begins my journey to update the Crystal Chip and document it along with the other 3 "best of the best."
I hope you enjoy and follow along my journey to helping others enjoy these sweet sweet pieces of history should you ever find one.
R3Z3N's Collection:
