Thread: Backwards Compatible PlayStation 3 (80GB) and Swap Magic

Hello everyone! I've been downloading PS2 ISOs for a few months now and have burned them to DVD-R discs. I came across these individually packaged Philips DVD-Rs that seem to work great for PS2 games. So far I've downloaded and burned Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, Dark Cloud, Final Fantasy X, R-Type Final, Metal Gear Solid 2, Total Overdose and The Matrix: Path of Neo. To burn my backups, I use IMGBurn and set the write speed to 1x.

I use my 80GB PS3 to play PS2 games (the firmware was updated to 4.0 so custom firmware was out of the question). After doing hours of research, I found that I could play PS2 backups by taking the cover off of the disc drive, loading an original PS2 game (the only one I had was Gran Turismo 4) and swapping it with a backup after it loaded up in the XMB. I was able to play Dark Cloud (the first backup I burned) with no issues whatsoever.

Once I got to playing Final Fantasy X, it worked fine up until the second cutscene where Auron tells Tidus to look (a cutscene would play showing Sin). The game froze at that point and the cutscene wouldn't play at all. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't play, until I did some more research and discovered that you can't play games larger than the original one you used to swap the backup with. I was a noob at this, so I didn't really know much about all of this. I just thought that the PS3 would read the original PS2 disc and I'd be able to play any backup to my heart's content.

I found that the PS3 reads the TOC before it loads into the XMB, so that explains why I couldn't get past the first cutscene on FFX. A few days later, my cousin let me borrow her entire collection of PS2 games due to the fact that she didn't have a PS2 anymore. Out of all of the games she let me borrow, she had Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (which, to my understanding, is filled to the brim with content).

I decided to try swapping San Andreas with the FFX backup and sure enough, the cutscene played with no issues and I was able to progress through the game normally. Right now, I'm at the battle on the top of Mt. Gagazet with Seymour Flux (I haven't gotten around to building up my characters so I can beat him).

Anyway, I've been using the San Andreas disc to swap for playing backups and I haven't had any issues at all until today. I just finished burning a copy of Path of Neo and I get stuck at the loading screen where it shows all the lines of green code rolling down. I've come to the conclusion that Path of Neo is slightly larger in size than San Andreas, meaning I can't play this game now.

I'm now using a new brand of DVD-Rs. It's a spindle of 100 Fujifilm DVD-Rs and to test that they work for PS2 games, I made an ISO of the first disc of Xenosaga III using IMGBurn, then I used IMGBurn to burn the ISO onto a disc. I loaded it up into my PS3 and it worked with no problems or issues (played it for a few hours and all cutscenes played normally and no freezing or errors occurred).

After doing some more research, I've found that there are ISOs online for the Swap Magic discs. I was thinking I could download one of them, burn them onto a DVD and use San Andreas to swap it with, boot the disc and then once I get to the point where I would load my backup, I could load Path of Neo in there and it should work.

Like I said, I'm a total noob when it comes to playing PS2 backups and the whole thing about swapping original discs with backups on my PS3. It hasn't cost me a penny thus far (aside from the cost of my monthly internet bill and the cost of the blank DVDs). The town that I live in doesn't have any stores that sell PS2 games, neither does the pawn shop have any for sale (they do, but the selection is terrible and I never buy games from the pawn shop due to the fact that they cost $20 each and you never know if they're too scratched to even play).

My only other option is to head to the city (who knows when that will be) and buy a copy of Path of Neo at EB Games/Gamestop for a couple of bucks. That way I can play the game and use the disc to swap with future backups that I download.

Can anybody help me out here? Am I even on the right track with the Swap Magic ISO thing and swapping San Andreas with it so I can play Path of Neo? Forgive me if I sound like an idiot with this thread.