Everyone seems to be into pirating games, lets face it. We dont do it, and we certainly cant condone it, we rent games on occasion and would like them longer but we dont have the hardware needed to copy games. You can buy them on the net though, but to play them you only seem to be limited to a few options. That was until recently, then the Slide tool came into play, and something external seemed to work around that ˘G75 'chipping' solution.

Now to cover what happens on the games in brief and in lamens terms. When the games inserted it gives a signal to the system to boot it. Kind of like the safedisc/securom system on PC games. When you put a 'backup' version in, it doesn't have this signal telling the system to boot it, hence it wont start the game, offers read errors and a host of other nasties stopping you playing it. The chipping method puts the signal in for you, and with certain startup button methods you can boot any game backup or indeed some imports etc. Now that's all fine and dandy, but not everyone wants to invalidate warranties by fitting one, and the cost of them can be well into the ˘G75 barrier and you have a fitting charge on top unless you want to risk the playstation. Call it an even ˘G125 fitted and delivered to your PS2, not exactly cheap considering really is it !

So this is what you get in the kit, the slide tool itself and two boot disks, some rather broken English instructions and some pics to guide you through it all. Essentially, what you do is take the DVD drive cover off your PS2 by taking off the screw, ease the sides of the clip out taking the tray front off, insert the screw again and your all done ready to play the backups.

To run the system you insert either the DVD or CD version depending on what your intending on playing, then you wait until it informs you to insert your backup disk. This is when the slide tool comes into play, you ease it on the underside of the tray where the hook catches on a 'nipple', then you simply pull the tray out, remove the CD, put the backup in, then slide the tray back in. Then you press 'X', you MUST press this for the game to begin. Thats it, all there is to it, the disk you put in does the hard work for you and your playing in a minute or two. It does take a little practice to get the knack of it all but you'll be old hand at it in no time at all.

If you dont want to use this method any more, undo the screw once again, reclip on the DVD cover, screw into place and off you go again. Its that easy to put it all back. I would however make one suggestion, take care unclipping the drive cover, you could break the small clips if you are a bit over excited and careless, so take your time and keep watching what your doing and make sure the room has plenty of light. It does work, and its not difficult to do but I would only make one suggestion and its an important one. You do not invalidate your warranty with this method, but if you damage the tray in any way and have to return your unit, the damage may be obvious. Make sure if you have a new system, its all tested and working fine for a while BEFORE you go taking parts off of it. Just to be on the safe side. Also remember software piracy is illegal, we cant condone this. If you bought the game and it got damaged, then you should be entitled to play a backup of it I feel, this would help you do that. :o)

Where to buy:
Recommended Shop: Linker4U.com - One of the largest sellers of GBA and PS2 Utilities and Tools

How to use:
You can go to http://www.swapmagic3.com to read the using guide of Slide Tool