A few years ago Sony released a Linux for Playstation2 kit. The kit included a Redhat install tailed for the PS2, USB keyboard and mouse, ethernet adaptor, VGA adaptor, and 40GB hard drive. This was at least a year before the hard drive came with Final Fantasy XI.

I played with Linux on it for a bit, but I didn’t have the time to do any really good programming projects with it. Also, I never ran an ethernet cable near the TV that has the playstation hooked up to it, so it never became the “basement theater term.” Sony pretty much let it die, so the software is so out of date as to be almost painful to use. So, for the most part, I’ve had a hard drive sitting idle in the PS2.

Anyway, a few months ago I stumbled across HDLoader, a tool to load PS2 games onto the hard drive so they load faster. Not a new idea, as the X-Box has been able to do this, but it was nice to see available on the PS2. At the time, I wasn’t playing many games, for some reason. Anyway, its stayed in the back of mind for a long time, especially since that hard drive was seemlingly going to waste.

For Christmas I got The Bard’s Tale from Sarah. I dived right into the game since I enjoyed the original Bard’s Tale games so much on the Commodore 64. I’m really enjoying the game, especially its sense of humor. You also can’t go wrong with Cary Elwes, aka The Dread Pirate Roberts, as the voice of The Bard. The only downside to the game was load time. When exploring villages you go in and out of huts and each entrace and exit causes a load of either the hut map or the village map.

So I looked again at HDLoader. Since it was only $30, I figured I’d give it a try. It is the best $30 I’ve spent on gaming in a long time. Looking at the lists of games that HDLoader works with showed me that most of the games I have with annoying loadtimes work perfectly. Traveling around villages in the Bard’s Tale is now painless. There’s still a load, but nothing like it was. Also, games like Sarah’s Mortal Kombat: Deception, which has a lengthy load before each fight have all but been eleminated. Its like a whole new game console.

With the 40GB hard drive, I’ve been able to fit about 10 games on. I’ve only had 2 games I wanted to put on, that are incompatible with HDLoader. Those two games are from smaller publishing places, which I imagine could be doing less “standard” stuff. However, I’m not sure that’s the connection.

Currently on the hard drive I have:

• Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu
• Buffy: Chaos Bleeds
• Crash Nitro Kart
• Final Fantasy X
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
• Mortal Kombat: Deception
• Spider-man
• SSX Tricky
• Summer Heat Beach Volleyball
• The Bard’s Tale