PS2 Compatibility

If you are looking for the list of PS2 games compatible with non backward-compatible PS3's, see the PS2 Classics Emulator Compatibility List.

PS2-Compatibility

Sony CXD9833GB (PS2 EE/GS) - The original PS2 EE/GS as used in the SCPH-70000

PS2 emulation on PS3, occurs in 3 different ways:

• In consoles with EE + GS + Rambus, emulation has the highest compatibility of all, running PS2 games at the hardware level. In these consoles, the emulation runs directly on the dedicated hardware, reducing the CPU and GPU consumption of the PS3 hardware. It also has the highest PS2 peripheral support.

• In GS-only (No EE and Rambus) consoles, PS2 emulation is shared between the PS3 hardware, since the EE processor is omitted, delivering the entire processing load to the Cell. In these consoles, the EE is rendered via Software, which has a little reduced compatibility, which can lead to graphic artifacts in some games. PS2 peripheral support is also reduced. When titles do play fine on one of these consoles, smoothing of PS2 games seems to be slightly better compared with EE + GS + Rambus consoles.

• In consoles without EE and GS, the emulation of PS2 occurs through the "PS2 Classics" package, where the emulation occurs entirely via software, sharing the processing of EE emulation with the PPE cores and the 7 SPE cores. Software emulation has less compatibility between the 3 modes, as it depends on emulating all the components of a real PS2 in a fully virtualized environment. There is no PS2 peripheral support.

Playing PS2 Classics on a console with PS2 hardware will always override the PS2 hardware emulator, irrespective of whether it is jailbroken or not. Therefore it is not recommended to play PS2 Classics on these consoles as it puts unnecessary load on the Cell and/or RSX, unless the title does not work with the PS2 hardware emulator.

On jailbroken consoles with PS2 hardware, it is possible to override the hardware emulator to use the PS2 Classics emulator instead. This is noteworthy because the PS2 Classics emulator can perform better than PS2 hardware emulation for some titles. For example, the game Battle Stadium D.O.N is unplayable on either PS2 hardware emulator, but is playable via PS2 Classics. Also, on a jailbroken console, the PS2 Classics emulator can be set up to use custom configs, many of which allow more games to be playable.

Supported via Hardware (EE + GS or GS only) consoles allow the execution of PS2 games via physical media (CD / DVD ROM), including PS2 Classics (hardware) emulation. Consoles with no hardware compatibility can not play PS2 games from physical media, however with jailbroken consoles it is possible to read a PS2 game disc to create a playable copy.

Boards

Early PS3 FAT CECHAxx/COK-001 and CECHBxx/COK-001 : Full compatibility with GS+EE and Rambus memory. Later CECHCxx/COK-002 and CECHExx/COK-002W had instead of EE+GS a single GS and lacked the Rambus memory.

Early PS2 FAT with EE-GS on SCPH-15000

• 

  PS2 - GH-010 - labels

• 

  PS3 - COK-001 - labels

Chipnumers @ SKU's

PS3 Model	Mobo Model	Mobo serial	PS2 (EE/)GS	PS2 Rambus	PS2 bridge	Notes
CECHAxx	COK-001	1-871-868-12 1-871-868-22 1-871-868-32	CXD2953AGB	K4R271669F   or K4R271669H	CXD9208GP2
CECHBxx
CECHCxx	COK-002	1-873-513-21 1-873-513-31	CXD2972GB	none	none
CECHDxx	SKU never released
CECHExx	COK-002W		CXD2972GB	none	none
CECHFxx	SKU never released
CECHGxx	SEM-001	1-875-384-21 1-875-384-31	No PS2 Compatibility hardware
CECHHxx	DIA-001	1-875-368-11 1-875-368-31
CECHIxx	SKU never released
CECHJxx	DIA-002	1-876-912-32	No PS2 Compatibility hardware
CECHKxx
CECHLxx	VER-001	1-878-196-31 1-878-196-41
CECHMxx
CECHNxx	SKU never released
CECHOxx	SKU never released
CECHPxx	VER-001	1-878-196-31 1-878-196-41	No PS2 Compatibility hardware
CECHQxx
CECH-20xx	DYN-001	1-880-055-31
CECH-21xx	SUR-001	1-881-945-11
CECH-25xx	JTP-001	1-882-481-21 1-882-481-31
CECH-25xx	JSD-001	1-882-770-11
CECH-30xx	KTE-001	1-884-749-11
CECH-40xx	MSX-001	1-886-928-11
CECH-40xx	MPX-001	1-887-233-11

Software

See: PS2 Emulation

All consoles have hardware information. In GameOS you can call Lv2 Syscall 393 (0x189) sys_sm_get_model
to get your consoles information. In Lv1/Hypervisor its in the repository nodes sc 0x5B lv1_get_repository_node
with Parameters "sys","hw","config" usually noded as "sys.hw.config#0" or something. These information are mostly
technical related and not just apply to the software emulator, but the PS3 system as a whole.

Result examples:

20 00 00 00 FF FF FE FF <--> a backwards compatible console
4E 00 FF FF 0A 03 BC 3C <--> on Hypervisor Page
4E 00 FF FF 01 07 BC BF <--> CECHJ04

In binary formation:

0010 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1110 1111 1111 <--> a backwards compatible console
0100 1110 0000 0000 1111 1111 1111 1111 0000 1010 0000 0011 1011 1100 0011 1100 <--> on Hypervisor Page
0100 1110 0000 0000 1111 1111 1111 1111 0000 0001 0000 0111 1011 1100 1011 1111 <--> CECHJ04
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0100 0000 0000 0000 0000 <--> Mask:Gelic WLAN, new consoles use WLAN via USB
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0100 0000 0000 0000 <--> Mask:Backwards Compatible Flag

XMB checks this flag and if == 0, it will give following message: "This model of the PS3™ system is not compatible with PlayStation®2 format software."