Getting Started

Getting Started

From nothing to your first game running — pick a storage device, place your files, enable the device, and launch. The whole process takes about ten minutes.

ℹ Already installed RiptOPL?

If RIPTOPL.ELF is already on your PS2 and booting, skip ahead to Pick a device. If you still need to get the ELF onto your console, start with Install & First Boot first.

What you need

• A PlayStation 2 (any model) or a backward-compatible PlayStation 3.
• A way to launch homebrew ELFs — Free McBoot (FMCB), Free HD Boot (FHDB), a modchip, or equivalent.
• At least one storage option: USB drive, MMCE / MX4SIO SD card, iLink storage, SMB network share, or an internal HDD.
• A RiptOPL build — download RIPTOPL.ELF from the Releases page. Choose the preserved current-fan-favorite development snapshot or rolling for the newest development build.
• At least one PS2 game image in ISO or ZSO format.

Which release should I download?

The rolling channel is rebuilt from rebuild/main on every push during the rebuild and is intentionally published as GitHub's full, non-pre-release Latest release. It may occasionally be unstable. The Current Fan Favorite Build is a preserved development snapshot selected after positive feedback; compatibility still varies by setup. Either way, the full installable package zip (RIPTOPL-<version>.zip) normally contains four labelled loader folders (the notes identify any omitted best-effort flavour), one canonical POPS/ folder (including every loose BDMA pair and the iLink .ilink pair), EMBER/, and normally an extracted neutrino/ folder (check release notes for download/extraction omissions). No duplicate release-root POPSTARTER/ folder or embedded BDMA pair is used. The language pack is a separate optional RIPTOPL-LANGS-*.zip release asset. See Releases for details.

Pick a device

RiptOPL supports eight storage backends. Choose whichever matches your hardware:

Device	What it needs	Where to go next
USB	USB drive formatted FAT32 or exFAT, plugged into the PS2's USB port	USB / MX4SIO / iLink
MX4SIO	MX4SIO adapter + SD card in the memory-card slot (FAT32 or exFAT)	USB / MX4SIO / iLink
MMCE	SD2PSX, MemCard PRO2, or compatible MMCE device in the memory-card slot	MMCE
iLink	IEEE 1394 (FireWire) SBP2 storage device	USB / MX4SIO / iLink
SMB	A network share on a PC or NAS (SMBv1 or SMB2 — pick it with the SMB Version setting in Game Sources; SMBv1 is the default); PS2 needs a network adapter	SMB
Internal HDD (APA)	Internal ATA HDD formatted with APA/PFS — classic PS2 HDD setup	Internal HDD
Internal HDD (exFAT)	Internal ATA HDD formatted exFAT — BDM path, same folder layout as USB	Internal HDD
Network boot (UDPBD / UDPFS)	PS2 network adapter + a PC running the server; requires Neutrino	Network Boot

ℹ Simplest first-time choice

A USB drive is the fastest path to a first working game. Format it FAT32 (or exFAT for drives over 32 GB), plug it in, and follow the steps below.

The OPL folder structure

All folder-based devices — USB, MX4SIO, MMCE, iLink, SMB, and an exFAT HDD — share the same directory layout, at the root of the device (or inside a subfolder, if you set a prefix). RiptOPL creates these folders automatically the first time it boots and you enable a device — you do not need to create them by hand.

DVD/        PS2 DVD games (ISO, ZSO, or USBExtreme ul.* split files)
CD/         PS2 CD games (ISO, ZSO — blue-bottom discs)
ART/        Cover art images (game-id_COV.png, game-id_ICO.png, etc.)
CFG/        Per-game configuration files (saved by OPL automatically)
VMC/        Virtual Memory Card images (8 MB – 64 MB .bin files)
THM/        Theme folders
LNG/        Translation files
CHT/        PS2RD cheat files (.cht)
IMG/         PS2RD prebuilt cheat image files (game-id.img)
APPS/       Homebrew ELF applications

ℹ APA/PFS HDD is different

An APA-formatted internal HDD stores games as HDLoader partitions, not as files in DVD/ or CD/. The CFG/, ART/, VMC/, THM/, CHT/, LNG/, and APPS/ folders still apply, but they live in the OPL data partition: at the root of +OPL, or in OPL/ on __common. See Internal HDD for how the partition is chosen.

Supported game image formats

• ISO — standard disc image. Works on all devices. Games over 4 GB require exFAT (FAT32 has a 4 GB file size limit).
• ZSO — compressed ISO. Saves space; transparent to OPL at launch. See ZSO Format.
• USBExtreme / ul.* — split multi-file format used to store games larger than 4 GB on FAT32 drives. Handled automatically by OPL; no special steps at launch time.
• HDLoader partitions — APA/PFS HDD only; installed with hdl-dump or OPL's NBD server.

Walk-through: USB to first launch

These steps use USB as the example — the pattern is identical for every folder-based device.

1. Prepare the drive

Format your USB drive as FAT32 (single files below 4 GiB; larger games need splitting) or exFAT (large single ISO files). Use the default allocation unit size when formatting exFAT. Create a DVD folder at the root of the drive (or let RiptOPL create it when you turn USB on in step 3), then copy your game ISO into it:

USB root
└── DVD/
    └── My Game Title.iso

For games larger than 4 GB on a FAT32 drive, use USBExtreme / USBUtil to split them into ul.* files in DVD/ instead. On exFAT you can use a plain ISO regardless of size.

2. Plug in and boot RiptOPL

Connect the USB drive to the PS2's USB port, then launch RIPTOPL.ELF from your homebrew launcher (FMCB, FHDB, or equivalent). On a fresh install, RiptOPL boots to the main start menu (all storage backends ship off by default until enabled). The first boot also creates any missing OPL folders on the drive automatically.

3. Enable USB in Game Sources

On a fresh install, enable your storage options under Game Sources:

1. Press Start, choose Settings, then open Game Sources.
2. Turn USB on, and set BDM Devices Start Mode to Auto (or Manual).
3. Press OK to return to the Settings Index, then choose Save Changes (on Japanese consoles, Circle confirms — the confirm button follows the console's regional convention).

The game list refreshes and your title should now appear in the Coverflow carousel.

4. Launch a test game

Scroll to your game in the Coverflow list (left / right on the D-pad or left stick), then press Cross to launch it. OPL loads the game using its built-in OPL core by default. If the game boots successfully, you are done.

If the game freezes or does not boot, open Game Settings for that title (highlight it, press Triangle) and try enabling compatibility modes one at a time. See Per-game Settings for a full explanation of the compatibility flags.

5. Save your settings

After a successful launch, go back to the main menu (press Start) and choose Save Changes. This writes settings_riptopl.cfg to your storage device so RiptOPL remembers your configuration on every subsequent boot.

ℹ Where the config file lives

RiptOPL's master settings use settings_riptopl.cfg (with migration from conf_riptopl.cfg). That filename is separate from stock OPL's master config, but conf_network.cfg, app lists, per-game configuration and support files can still be shared. Favorites import from uOPL/wOPL is one-way: the next write saves RiptOPL's own OFAV format to favourites.bin, which those loaders cannot read back. Keep an original copy if you use them too. The settings home follows boot-directory discovery or Custom Settings Path; do not assume it is always mc0:/OPL/.

Where to go next

You have a working game. Here are the most common things to set up next:

• 🔌 USB / MX4SIO / iLink Filesystem tips, fragmentation, large drives

• 🧩 MMCE SD2PSX and MemCard PRO2 setup

• 🌐 SMB Stream games from a PC share

• 💽 Internal HDD APA/PFS and exFAT HDD setup

• 📡 Network Boot UDPBD and UDPFS over LAN

• 🎴 Coverflow Tune the default cover-art theme

• 🎚️ Per-game Settings Compat modes, Neutrino, VMC, cheats

• 💿 PS1 Games POPSTARTER VCD setup

Can I use RiptOPL alongside stock OPL or wOPL on the same memory card?

RiptOPL's master settings use settings_riptopl.cfg (with migration from conf_riptopl.cfg). That filename is separate from stock OPL's master config, but conf_network.cfg, app lists, per-game configuration and support files can still be shared. Favorites import from uOPL/wOPL is one-way: the next write saves RiptOPL's own OFAV format to favourites.bin, which those loaders cannot read back. Keep an original copy if you use them too. The settings home follows boot-directory discovery or Custom Settings Path; do not assume it is always mc0:/OPL/.

Do I need Neutrino to play games?

No. RiptOPL ships with OPL's built-in core, which handles the vast majority of PS2 games without any extra setup. Neutrino is an optional external core you can assign per game for titles that benefit from it — for example, those that need its compatibility modes or network-boot features (UDPBD / UDPFS). See Neutrino Core for details. Neutrino normally comes in the installable package; if download/extraction failed for that release, its notes identify the omission and you need a complete Neutrino install separately.

My game list is empty after enabling a device. What do I check?

First confirm the game files are in the correct folder on the device: DVD/ for DVD images, CD/ for CD images. OPL is case-sensitive — dvd is not the same as DVD. Also check that the image extension is .iso or .zso, and that the drive is plugged in before RiptOPL boots. For FAT32 drives, games over 4 GB must be in USBExtreme format. See Troubleshooting for further diagnostic steps.

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Source: getting-started.html @ fc2e13154e51. Read on the documentation website.