Guitar Hero 2 hacking thread (ps2)

[kevets]

Sorry to make yet another GH2 thread but it seemed worthy.

First, see this: http://www.destructoid.com/totally-m...gs-29339.phtml

Then, see this: http://www.scorehero.com/forum/viewt...6ce38e96cfa03d
(quoted cause the site is getting slooooooow)

Song List:
AC/DC - Back In Black - Falango
AC/DC - Hells Bells - ImaCarrot1
AC/DC - Highway to Hell - Sephiroth87
Acro-Brats, The - Megaman - ImaCarrot1
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal - Hotoke
Arch Enemy - Dead Eyes See No Future - Meteodragoon
Arch Enemy - Enemy Within - Sargoth
Atreyu - Bleeding Mascara - Freekshow
Avenged Sevenfold - Bat Country - keyboardsamurai
Beatcivilian - Hold Up - Falango
Billy Talent - Perfect World - Falango
Blind Guardian - Mirror Mirror - keyboardsamurai
Blink 182 - What's My Age Again - keyboardsamurai
Bloodhound Gang - Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo - zzzzzz
Bruce Dickinson - Trumpets of Jericho - Sargoth
Bullet For My Valentine - Hand of Blood - ruippeixotog
Bullet For My Valentine - Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow - Freekshow
Bullet For My Valentine - Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow - Meteodragoon
Castlevania - Wicked Child - Meteodragoon
Chavie - Johnny B Good - ImaCarrot1
Children of Bodom - Downfall - Sargoth
Crimson Bile - Break This Chain - CrAkD
Journey - Any Way You Want It - ChrisVance
Dragonforce - Fury of the Storm - Galiath25
Dragonforce - Fury of the Storm - Sargoth
Dragonforce - Operation Ground and Pound - ruippeixotog
Dragonforce - Through Fire And Flames - Galiath25
Dragonforce - Through Fire And Flames - keyboardsamurai
Dragonforce - Through Fire And Flames - Sargoth
Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons - Sargoth
Dream Theater - Erotomania - Sargoth
Dream Theater - Hell's Kitchen - ruippeixotog
Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 1 The Miracle and the Sleeper - Meteodragoon
Dream Theater - Overture 1928 - Sargoth
Dream Theater - Overture 1928 - whiskeyface
Dream Theater - Take the Time - Meteodragoon
Dream Theater - Ytse Jam - Meteodragoon
Evil Horde - Hangarmageddon - Raldios
Fear Factory - Replica - trippy20877
Final Fantasy VII - One Wing Angel - keyboardsamurai
Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle - keyboardsamurai
Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle - Sephiroth87
Iron Maiden - Aces High - keyboardsamurai
Iron Maiden - Hallowed Be Thy Name - ImaCarrot1
Iron Maiden - The Trooper - rage2
JerryC - Canon Rock - kaigami
Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watch Tower - keyboardsamurai
Jimi Hendrix - National Anthem - keyboardsamurai
John "Cougar" Mellencamp - Jack and Diane - ChrisVance
John Petrucci - Glasgow Kiss - ruippeixotog
Journey - Don't Stop Believing - ChrisVance
Kalmah - To The Gallows - Freekshow
Killswitch Engage - This Fire Burns - afanofmyself
Kiss - Detroit Rock City - Sargoth
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven - keyboardsamurai
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama - Falango
Mega Driver - Hedgehog Metal - KyPuppy
Metallica - Master of Puppets - keyboardsamurai
Metallica - Master of Puppets - Sargoth
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters - Falango
Metallica - One - Sargoth
Minibosses - Mike Tyson's Punchout - keyboardsamurai
Muse - Plug In Baby - ruippeixotog
Muse - Showbiz - Sargoth
Nevermore - The RiverDragon Has Come - Sargoth
Nevermore - We Disintegrate - Sargoth
Nightwish - Slaying the Dreamer - Meteodragoon
Ninja Gaiden - keyboardsamurai
Ok Go - Here It Goes Again - Sephiroth87
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven - trippy20877
Pantera - Walk - hsatakeit
Pearl Jam - Alive - ruippeixotog
Porcupine Tree - Orchidia - whiskeyface
Power Rangers Mighty Morphin' Theme - Galiath25
Power Rangers Mighty Morphin' Theme (Full Version) - Galiath25
Rammstein - Te Quierdo Puta! - Meteodragoon
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication - zzzzzz
Rhapsody - Emerald Sword - Sephiroth87
Rufio - Above Me - ollenot
Silent Hill 2 - Theme of Laura - Sargoth
Sonata Arctica - Wolf and Raven - Meteodragoon
Star One - Set Your Controls - Sargoth
Street Fighter - Guile - keyboardsamurai
Street Fighter - Ken - keyboardsamurai
Street Fighter - Ryu - keyboardsamurai
Symphony X - Inferno - Galiath25
System of a Down - BYOB - Sargoth
System of a Down - Chop Suey - Sephiroth87
System of a Down - Holy Mountains - Sephiroth87
System of a Down - Hypnotize - Sephiroth87
System of a Down - Lonely Day - Sephiroth87
Tenacious D - Lee - de4dmeta1
Tenacious D - Master Exploder - Galiath25
Three Inches of Blood - Deadly Sinners - TheBanStick
Tool - Stinkfist - Meteodragoon
Warmen - Salieri Strikes Back - Galiath25
Yngwie Malmsteen - Demon Driver - Meteodragoon
Zelda Rock - keyboardsamurai

That's a song list I THINK people have hacked Guitar Hero 2 for the PS2 to be able to play. Here is the howto thread (again quoted to spare that forum a bit) (link:

It should be idiot proof, because i can do it

I decided to do this because there is some incredible work going on and peoples creations deserve to be played, so i thought a simple one stop guide would encourage more people to try it out.

I'm going to attempt to write this guide so that the level of prior knowledge required is zero. So forgive me if you read this and think a lot of stuff is obvious.

Firstly let me state this guide will only help you with getting other peoples created songs into your Guitar Hero 2 game
It Contains no information on creating custom notecharts.

Tools Needed (All programs are freeware) Use "paddy" without the quotes if the .rar asks for a password.

Guitar Hero Explorer: http://scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2549
GHero Utils: http://scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2132
Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
MFAudio: http://www.zophar.net/utilities/ps2util.html
Anvil Studio: http://www.anvilstudio.com/
CD-DVD Generator: http://utilities.psxforum.com/cddvdgen.zip
Apache: http://www.ps3news.com/forums/downlo...p?do=file&id=9
DVD Decrypter/Nero/Alcohol/Any other ISO burning software.
Swap Magic/Mod Chip/Method of booting burns on your PS2 (If you don't have one, don't ask, you wont be getting any help)
A DVD Burner
Good quality media to burn to. This is REALLY REALLY REALLY important. If your eventual burn does not work, this is the number one reason why. I recommend Taiyo Yuden, Sony and Verbatim or Check: http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm for a full list

The Actual Process

Step 1. Download the provided .mid file

Step 2. Check to see if the .mid is for GH2 and not GH1, if this is not made clear by the person who posted it, check the video link if there's one provided, or ask them

Step 3. If the .mid is for GH1, or you are unsure, open Anvil Studio, load up your .mid. Look at the yellow box near the top, if it says "PART GUITAR" leave it, if not, right click it and make it so. Now go to View --> Event List, select "Events" from the drop down menu and scroll down to the bottom. Look for the entry with "Comments: [end]". If there are brackets around the word end you're good to go, if there aren't, double click the entry and put them in.

Step 4. Get an .mp3 of the song in question. If one is freely available, it may have been provided by the song creator, if not you will need to rip it from the CD or buy it from Itunes.

Step 5. Insert your GH2 disc into your DVD drive, copy the contents of the disc to a folder on your hard drive.

Step 6. Open Guitar Hero Explorer (Ghex), Go to file ---> add archive and locate your MAIN_0.ARK file which is in the "GEN" folder you copied from the GH2 disc

Step 7. In Ghex expand "Songs" and then the song you wish to replace, right click on the .mid file for that song and hit replace, now locate the .mid of your custom song and hit replace.

Step 8. Right click the .vgs file of the same song and click import, now right click the new box and select Add. Find your mp3 from step 4 and just fill in the bottom with the default settings. After it has finished you can preview your vgs by hitting play to check it's worked.

Step 9. Click on the folder for the song you replaced, you should see a preview of your note chart, click play, slow the playback down to 50% and check your audio file does not start too late or too early, if it does, go back to step 8 but after adding your mp3, right click it and select properties. Now fiddle around with the offset (+ if the song starts too early, - if it starts too late) and import it again. Repeat until you get it right.

Alternatively, if you have problems with GHEX (as the VGS feature is still in its early life) you can use the original method

Code:
Open your .mp3 with audacity and go to File ---> Export as WAV

Open MFAudio, select your new WAV as the input file and select .vag as your output format. Now hit process

Unzip the contents of the GhUtils archive to a folder called "GHUtils" in your Program Files folder. Open command prompt (Start Menu ---> Run ---> cmd) locate the folder to which you unzipped GHutils (type cd \Program Files\GHUtils) and type java FileExpandGuitarHero

This will launch the vgs converter. Find your .vag from step 6 and hit New Audio. When it's done it will ask you to enter a hex value, just ignore it and hit cancel. You now have everything you need to play your song, now to get them in the game



Step 10. That's all the file swapping done, now to rebuild the game. Open CD/DVD Generator, select new project and then New DVD Master disc, drag and drop the folders and files from the GH2 game disc into the main window in the following order.

GEN
IOP
VIDEOS
SLUS_214.47 (If you are not using the US version of the game this file will be different)
System

Now click on the "Volume" tab and enter SLUS 21447 (or whatever your file said if it was different) into the "Disc Name" field. Put PLAYSTATION in the "Producer Name" field and change the license area to the appropriate region. Ignore the rest. Now click on File ---> Export .iml file

Step 11: Open Apache, Go to File ---> Create ---> ISO from IML file, select the IML you made in the previous step and let it do it's thing.

Step 12: Open up DVD Decrypter/Nero/Alcohol/Your burning program of choice and burn your ISO at 4x to GOOD QUALITY MEDIA (see above)

That's it, you're done. That may look like a long process, but once you have the procedure down it doesn't take much longer than 10-15 minutes including wait times to get the ISO.

I just want to open discussion on this and see where it goes. I personally am gonna see if I can get this to work as I've got an old unmodded PS2 and think it might just work.

[teh scud]

i wanna see a hacked homebrew iso i can burn and run with swap magic and play all the custom songs.

[WorldRunner]

I posted it in the other thread but I'm not sure everyone saw it. Hopefully there will be some participation in this thread. I haven't tried it but I'm going to mess around with it this weekend.

The first step is actually having a modded ps2

Whether it's softmodded or not you need to be able to play backups.

[kevets]

Yeah I just hope I can find out how to mod my older PS2. Haven't thought about the ps2 modding scene in years haha.

[kevets]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WWUgDkfcTs
\m/

[UID=growler]

gah, my ps2 isn't modded....

It says in that guide that it tells you how to get songs into your game, not how to make your own note charts... I'm assuming these songs already have note charts? O/w that guide is useless if you can just play the song and stare at it

[Burg]

I know what I'm doing tonight.

[Codesage]

yeah...if an ISO slipped out, i'd be all over this...i don't have the patience to try and do all that

[Static Vision]

Sooooo glad I modded my PS2, time for a little STAIRWAY.

[kevets]

Originally Posted by Codesage

yeah...if an ISO slipped out, i'd be all over this...i don't have the patience to try and do all that

Yeah I want to see a torrent up cause who knows how long it'd take to get all the songs/notes set up if that is the case.

[WorldRunner]

Originally Posted by kevets

Yeah I just hope I can find out how to mod my older PS2. Haven't thought about the ps2 modding scene in years haha.

Read the ps2 softmodding thread at SA.

[Restrik]

I don't see Thunderhorse on that list....thread is now irrelavent

[coitus]

Originally Posted by Restrik

I don't see Thunderhorse on that list....thread is now irrelavent

its already in Guitar Hero 2 why would you want to add a song you can already play to another version

[UID=growler]

Originally Posted by WorldRunner

Read the ps2 softmodding thread at SA.

link, I don't like browsing web pages

edit: what happens when your mp3 is a millisecond different form the authors... your notes are screwed up then

[beefskies]

Originally Posted by WorldRunner

Read the ps2 softmodding thread at SA.

i would too be interested in this link