Quick Links

The PlayStation 2 is a nostalgic console to many people, but emulating it can be difficult. If you don't mod your console and dump the BIOS, you won't be able to emulate games through the likes of AetherSX2. Now, it turns out that it's possible to download and extract a BIOS from the official PS3 firmware with just a little bit of work.

These steps are written for Windows, but they are quite similar on Linux, too. This is important because dumping a BIOS from a PS2 requires something like FreeMcBoot, but dumping games can be done with most conventional disc readers on a PC.

What you need

  • An internet connection: You'll need the internet to download the PS3 emulator and the PS3 firmware file unless you want to rip it from a PS3 disc.
  • RPCS3: RPCS3 is an open-source PlayStation 3 emulator that will allow you to pull the PS2 BIOS files from the firmware.
  • A PS3 firmware PUP file: You can download this from Sony.
  • Firmware BIOS claim: You can download this from Internet Archive.

Step 1: Install RPCS3 and download the PS3 firmware

RPCS3

You'll need to download RPCS3 and install it to put in the PlayStation 3 firmware, which contains the BIOS files necessary to execute PS1 and PS2 games. The emulator will allow us to interact with that firmware and pull those files out.

  1. Install RPCS3 and download your PS3 firmware.
  2. Click File at the top left and select Install firmware.
  3. Navigate to the PS3UPDAT.PUP file.
    BIOSClaim1

Step 2: Run firmware BIOS claim

This part will extract the actual BIOS files from your PS3 firmware.

  1. Close RPCS3 and extract the firmware BIOS claim zip file.
  2. Copy firmware_bios_claim.bat and firmware_bios_claim.ps1 to your RPCS3 folder.
  3. Run firmware_bios_claim.bat and then click run anyway.
  4. On Linux, copy the firmware_bios_claim.sh file instead and execute that in the folder.
  5. If it works, you should see the following.
    BIOSClaim2

Step 3: Copy your BIOS files to your device of choice

Your BIOS files should be available now in your RPCS3 folder.

BIOSClaim3

You can use the PS1 BIOS for DuckStation, and the PS2 emu BIOS for an emulator like AetherSX2. You may need to enable fast boot for games to launch, but this is a quick and easy way to get a working BIOS for the PlayStation 1 or PlayStation 2 for emulation.


Source: EZOnTheEyes