Quote:Original post by claesson92
I've been searching a bit but i havn't found what i want. :P Is it possible to mdevelop games for PlayStation 2? I've heard about YaBasic. But last time i checked, the site was dead. I also heared that you need a special version of the PS2. Are there any way to develop for an "ordinary" PlayStation 2?

For the ordinary PS2 you need a devkit (Expensive and generally only avaliable for the big studios).

The other commonly used methods (For the PS2) are:

1: a Linux dev kit. (Sony sells(or atleast used to sell) a PS2 GNU/Linux kit that includes a harddrive, Yellow Dog Linux, and some other stuff you need to run GNU/Linux on the PS2), i don't know if you get full hardware access that way though. (The GNU/Linux kit for the PS3 doesn't get access to HW accelerated 3D(Thus 3D games have to use software rendering)). (Software / Games written using this will only run other other Linux PS2 systems, not the ordinary consoles)

2: Use a modchip and unofficial dev tools. (Atleast i belive you need a modchip, newer consoles generally refuse to run unsigned code otherwise)

Option 2 is unsupported and might even be illegal in some countries (It is legal in Sweden but i wouldn't be suprised if it is illegal in the US for example).

Quote:Original post by SimonForsman
The other commonly used methods (For the PS2) are:

3) Standard PS2 with Memory Card exploit and the freely available (and legal) PS2 devkit. No modchip or swap device needed.

Memory card exploit details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS2_Independence_Exploit

Freely available devkit:
http://www.devkitpro.org/

To use the memory card exploit, you will need:

1) Supported PS1 game (Many games are supported, if you own any PS1 games you probably have what you need.)

2) Cheat disk such as Code Breaker or Action Replay Max. Wal-mart or Gamestop usually has one of these. (Maybe not in Sweden, but some local store should have them).

3) USB Flash drive.

If you're willing to spend the time reading through a few tutorials, this is an easy to use solution. It's not difficult, but it helps to understand what your doing. You will need to have ps2link on a memory card to easily run programs on the PS2.

Quote:Original post by jpetrie
Is there a particular reason you want to? I've never found it to be that compelling. Especially since sharing your games with friends and peers is a pain.

If you're really set on console development, you could consider XNA. Otherwise there are some resources in the forum FAQ.

A lot of the appeal, for me at least, of developing for console systems is the secrecy they are initially shrouded in. This was more relevant in the 8/16 bit era. Today's system are almost the same as a standard PC, from a programming perspective. The PS2 represents the last console that was different enough from PCs to require a different development approach.

And, if you spend a lot of your day writing high level code, it's a nice change of pace to write some low level code in your spare time. And, it probably helps expand your programming skills.