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gamemaster14

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I was just wondering if anyone knew if Soul Calibur II was the only game that used ps2 memory cards for its save game (conquest mode)?

Also, does anyone know anything about the format of the memory cards? I had put a card that did not seam to contain a save in my ps2 at one point and the ps2 said it was not formatted, so I formatted it with the ps2 and the 246 says it is not formatted right and should be sent back to Namco.

Is it possible that a modded ps2 with ulauchelf could do a copy of one card and format another to work with 246?
 
Yes, it is the only game that uses them-at least as part of any gameplay modes-(there are other games that utilize the second slot for a few other things,mostly backend service upgrades)

The memory cards do not use the PS2 memory card filesystem, and instead seem to have a massive blob of raw data without a filesystem.

I am not aware of ANY way to format the memory cards at this point- I've got dumps of a 3 or 4 of them from my personal collection, but they don't appear cloneable (at least with what we currently know)

I've filed this away for "further digging later" as the card isn't essential to running the game (although conquest IS fun), and there's definitely a possibility that Namco can revive the cards as well still, but I haven't bugged them- I have one dead card that appears to have been wiped the same way as yours.
 
Can you use an existing save card from one version/region of the game on another?
 
Do you think it I put my good card in my modded ps2 with ulaunchelf it would be able to read the contents, or would you advise against that due to the chance of data loss?

What format are your dumps from the cards? Would a ps3 memory card adapter (the one that reads ps2/1 cards) or and EMS PS2 Memory card Reader (hooks to parallel) be able to image a card with these images possibly?

Just wondering because I would find it really cool to play Conquest with different play data in it.
 
Can you use an existing save card from one version/region of the game on another?
Yes, the "save" card is region independent, BUT they are individually numbered it seems.


Do you think it I put my good card in my modded ps2 with ulaunchelf it would be able to read the contents, or would you advise against that due to the chance of data loss?

What format are your dumps from the cards? Would a ps3 memory card adapter (the one that reads ps2/1 cards) or and EMS PS2 Memory card Reader (hooks to parallel) be able to image a card with these images possibly?

Just wondering because I would find it really cool to play Conquest with different play data in it.
uLaunchElf can do no more with it than anything else- if it's a working card, there's no PS2 MC filesystem, so ULE will see an unformatted device.

I thought you had also said that you had already formatted it on a PS2...?

Yes, my images will work with whatever you want as I've dumped them by desoldering the NAND, dumping the data, and putting it back.
The point is that the dumps will not work on any card other than PHYSICALLY THE SAME CARD they came from. It's likely another implementation of the MagicGate signing/binding process, but for now, there's no magic fix.

Play conquest with different play data? what do you mean different?
 
When I purchased my Soul Calibur II game it came with a memory card that contained the data, the one I referred to as my good card.

When I purchased my Soul Calibur III Arcade Edition game it came with a ps2 memory card with the SCII sticker on it as well, but since SCIII does not use the memory card, and SCII found no data to load on it, I tried putting that card in a ps2 and formatted it, now when this card is inserted into a 246 (Soul Calibur II), it just complains about the card not being formatted

So what you are saying is the data itself is locked to the specific card that it came from so even if you could image a different card with the data it probably would not work right?

If you are wondering what I mean when I say, Play Conquest mode with different data, In Soul Calibur II in the arcades, when you create a character in Conquest mode the record is saved to the memory card, so everyone who plays that machine, their character becomes a soldier in one of the four armies, if you were to insert a different memory card from a different arcade into the 246 before it loads, you would get Characters made by different players as your enemies in Conquest mode, Make sense?
 
gotcha on both counts- two of my dongles actually came from upgraded SC3 kits, but they worked fine.. strange stuff that yours was blank.
 
Yeah, either the card had little to no play in scII or was purely blank. I could remember running it in that game and conquest mode just started from scratch with no play data.
 
sorry- i misinterpreted it as blank meaning no format whatsoever or ps2-formatted.
 
sorry- i misinterpreted it as blank meaning no format whatsoever or ps2-formatted.
Soul Calibur 2 did not seam to find any character data on it, so since I did not know anything about the 246 memory cards, I put it in a ps2 and formatted it, now the 246 says it can not do anything with it.

That's alright though, since I still have my main cards which was on location in Texas for a good while and has some nice conquest data on it.
 
Can you use an existing save card from one version/region of the game on another?
Yes, the "save" card is region independent, BUT they are individually numbered it seems.

Do you think it I put my good card in my modded ps2 with ulaunchelf it would be able to read the contents, or would you advise against that due to the chance of data loss?

What format are your dumps from the cards? Would a ps3 memory card adapter (the one that reads ps2/1 cards) or and EMS PS2 Memory card Reader (hooks to parallel) be able to image a card with these images possibly?

Just wondering because I would find it really cool to play Conquest with different play data in it.
uLaunchElf can do no more with it than anything else- if it's a working card, there's no PS2 MC filesystem, so ULE will see an unformatted device.
I thought you had also said that you had already formatted it on a PS2...?

Yes, my images will work with whatever you want as I've dumped them by desoldering the NAND, dumping the data, and putting it back.
The point is that the dumps will not work on any card other than PHYSICALLY THE SAME CARD they came from. It's likely another implementation of the MagicGate signing/binding process, but for now, there's no magic fix.

Play conquest with different play data? what do you mean different?
Welp. Looks like we have some fun ahead @brizzo :'D

(Meanwhile, new dongle works great!)
 
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