People are still down to play TMBO, usually happens on Saturday nights if there are enough people on (we need at least 6).
I'll pass your skype info down to the right person...

Yup, we still play. USB setup? While it is a stable setup, it is indeed slow, though I admit, ATM it is better than running TMBO from an HDD. :: Looks at Aced14 ::

Kaz. Metal Gear? Metal Gear? Metal Gear? :3 Paaazzz~! ^w^

Aced14 wrote on 09/07/15 at 20:10:56:


RoaDIE has had freezes, but they aren't as common as our crashes.

Big Boss wrote on 09/08/15 at 03:40:52:

Here's how to obtain and set it up :

1. Download a known working version of OPL+PS2RD. I'd recommend R789 from the bottom of the first post in PSX-Scene's OPL "Nightly" Releases thread. After extracting "OPL - 789 (commit d871920 Uncompressed).zip", use the ELF from the "VMC GSM PS2RD" folder. Unfortunately that download doesn't come with a PS2RD-only build of OPL. Certain latter versions have severe HDD and USB compatibility problems with TMBO.
2. Create a "CHT" folder at the root of your USB drive.
3. Create a file called "SCUS_971.96.cht" (NTSC-U) or "SCES_514.80.cht" (PAL) in the "CHT" folder.
4. Copy and paste your desired codes into the aforementioned file. The first line should be the the game's name and ID in quotes. All other lines should contain codes.
5. Start up your PS2 with your USB drive connected and launch OPL.
6. In OPL's main menu, go to "Cheat Settings" and ensure the following settings are set:
   
   • Enable PS2RD Cheat Engine: On
   • PS2RD Cheat Engine Mode: Auto-select cheats
7. Launch TMBO from your USB drive.

Note 1: To use hacks with HDD games in OPL, it's a similar process. Just need to create a "+OPL" HDD partition in uLaunchELF, then create a "CHT" folder in it and place your ".cht" file(s) within.

Note 2: I'm currently using a version of OPL R822 I compiled without any USB problems. But I suspect R823-824 might be super sensitive to USB fragmentation, which could make it harder to run TMBO properly via that interface.


Big Boss wrote on 09/08/15 at 03:40:52:

Both OPL and PCSX2 have built-in options to skip most FMVs, but TMB/O are unusual cases. Both games' main menus use FMVs extensively. Every time you go from one menu screen to another, a short transition FMV plays. Car/Level select screens also use FMVs. Each menu screen's background image is the result of the game freezing the final frame of the last FMV that played. So using the aforementioned options for the purpose of skipping intro FMVs would have unintended consequences. It would turn all your menu backgrounds black.

With all that in mind, creating purpose-built hacks to completely skip playback of all of TMBO's intro FMVs wouldn't be ideal. When the game is started up, the car panning FMV leads into the title screen (close-up of Sweet Tooth's face). So preventing that FMV from playing would turn the title screen black. Luckily, a super fast title menu transition screen is present in the game. If you get any major online errors (e.g. network error, disconnect, etc), the game brings you over to an error screen. Once you press X, a < 1 second FMV plays to bring you back to the title screen. That FMV is a quick "blur" animation that uses the title screen's background as its last frame.

So what I did was prevent the copyright/logo FMVs from playing, prevent an annoying blip sound and replace the car panning FMV with the fast title screen transition. It works perfectly in practice .


Here are the hacks...

Twisted Metal: Black Online (NTSC-U) [SCUS-97196]
"Twisted Metal Black Online /ID SCUS_971.96"
Mastercode
902A38B0 0C0A8DD4
Skip Intros
201CEFB4 00000000 //0C08882E - Skip "MOV/COPYRT.PSS" and "MOV/INCOG.PSS"
101CEFD8 00000000 //24050001 - Prevent an annoying blip sound
101CEFDC 0000F7F8 //2484F7E0 - Play "MOV/TITLE.PSS" (fast transition animation to title screen) instead of "MOV/INTROPIB.PSS"

Twisted Metal: Black Online (PAL-M5) [SCES-51480]
"Twisted Metal Black Online /ID SCES_514.80"
Mastercode
9030CFF0 0C0C33A4
Skip Intros
201CB74C 00000000 //0C08882E - Skip "MOV/COPYRT.PSS" and "MOV/INCOG.PSS"
101CB770 00000000 //24050001 - Prevent an annoying blip sound
101CB774 0000BDE0 //2484BDC8 - Play "MOV/TITLE.PSS" (fast transition animation to title screen) instead of "MOV/INTROPIB.PSS"


Big Boss wrote on 09/08/15 at 03:40:52:

Regarding skipping in-game cutscenes in MGS2/3, it should be possible, but probably isn't worth the effort. Aren't they already super easy to skip by pressing Start? I vaguely recall having been able to do it in MGS2 without any hacks.

Regarding MGS3S' disc 2 intro FMVs, I tried taking a quick look earlier but don't have a good feeling about it. I spotted two ELF files on the disc. The main one looks hollow. It's probably redirecting to executable code stored in a data file somewhere. I've never seen anything like that in any other PS2 games I've hacked. The second ELF file is just a generic utility for managing PS2 network profiles. DNAS may also not play nicely with the hacks. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to help .


Big Boss wrote on 09/08/15 at 03:40:52:

I remember having a similar experience using PS2RD and OPL separately.

I started out with PS2RD GUI (lets you manage exactly which hacks you want to enable). Was kind of annoying to use in conjunction with OPL. Had to launch PS2RD, select cheats (it doesn't remember what you previously enabled), then select OPL's ELF, launch OPL, select a game and then finally play.

At some point I surpassed PS2RD's 100 line code limit in certain games, which lead me to transition to ps2rdmod (500 line limit). Unfortunately it didn't support enabling individual cheats.

When OPL eventually got an integrated version of PS2RD, its line limit was initially set to 100. I ended up sending a pull request to increase it to 250. It doesn't currently support enabling specific cheats, either.

Big Boss wrote on 09/17/15 at 04:57:45:



We plan on playing this Tuesday at 9PM EST. Feel free to join us if you can, we sure as hell are gonna need people.

Big Boss wrote on 09/26/15 at 00:27:39:


Oh no it's fine! We actually ended up playing on Monday instead and I forgot to edit my damn post. With that said, WE should be playing this Saturday night.