Slide-Tool and Swap Magic Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is the Slide-Tool?
A. The Slide-Tool / Slide-Card is a new product - Slide-Tool works in conjunction with the Swap Magic disks & allow you to play backups & import games on your PS2 console, Slide-Tool does this without you having to open up your console & therefore invalidate any warranty you may have left.

Q. How does Slide-Tool perform on 80mins CD-R?
A. Some of the other backup solutions on the market has trouble with games bigger than 650mb (80min games). Some of them has no chance playing a 80min cd-r game, but the Slide-Tool solution actually performs pretty good. We have experienced around 2-3 games of a selection of 30 games that did not work. This is a good success rate.

Q. How does Slide-Tool perform on DVD-R?
A. The success rate for DVD-R Backups is extremely good. We haven't heard of of a single game that has not worked yet. So far it has a 100% success on DVD-R media. This includes totally new games like Splinter Cell.

Q. How does Slide-Tool perform on original DVD imports?
A. The success rate for original DVD import games, is about the same as with DVD-R backups. New games in the Dual Layer DVD-9 format might not work because of the extremely big TOC (table of content) size around 7-9 GB. Swap Magic Boot Discs only have a TOC size of around 4.35GB. But a backup of a Dual Layer game applied with a patch might work.

Q. What is the Swap Magic 2.0 Boot Disk?
A. A lot of mod chip solutions needs a boot disk to work. In the beginning DVD Region X and Action Replay from Datel was very popular swap discs. But these products were used in lack of better alternatives at that time. Now Swap Magic has arrived!
Swap Magic boot disks has been designed with one purpose in mind - booting backups. In the Swap Magic 2.0 package, there is two discs. One disc for booting CD-R games, and another for booting DVD-R games. The disks contains all the needed information to boot a backup.
In short the procedure for booting a backup with Swap Magic is like this:
1. Insert a Swap Magic Disc in your PlayStation2 (use CD or DVD version)
2. Wait for the screen to say (insert disc) - that takes a few seconds.
3. Use mod chip or Slide-Tool
4. Insert your CD or DVD backup
5. Use mod chip or Slide-Tool
6. Press X on joy pad and the game starts

Q. What does the Swap Magic Colors mean?
A. When inserting a backup, the Swap Magic software starts to read the disc. The Swap Magic software uses colors to tell you if something is wrong, and if everything is OK.

Blue: The backups is OK, and ready to boot. The game should work - if not, there is simply no way to play that particular game using the Slide-Tool. You will properly need a Magic 3.1 mod chip to play that game.

Red: Swap Magic cannot read the disc, there is no way this disc is ever going to play. The most common problem is the use of bad quality CD-R or DVD-R media. Try a more expensive brand like Verbatim Data-Life. More common is the game not having been backed up properly. You need to use a different method, different software, different CD/DVD writer etc. Look in popular PS2 Forums for help making backups.

Green: The backups is OK, but Swap Magic is having trouble reading/understanding the disc but goes ahead anyway. If the game plays, then ok.. If not, the most common problem is simply the use of bad quality CD-R or DVD-R media. Copy the backup to a better disc, and it should work. This is a general problem with all backup solutions. People are not using good quality media.

Q. My games are in black/white - the screen flickers/scrolls?
A. The Slide-Tool product opens up the possibility to play games from other regions of the world (import games). Same television signal are not used all over the world, therefore some users might experience the games being played in black & white, or maybe on old television sets the screen even scrolls and flickers. This is because the signal is different than the one your TV set is supposed output.

But do not worry, it's simply because the cable that was sold with your PS2 console is not up to the job. You need a RGB Scart Cable, S-Video Cable or Component cable. You will not only get a picture in color, but also a much sharper picture.

Q. Does Swap Magic work with PSX backup and/or import games?
A. Pure and simple NO! The Swap Magic Discs are designed to give the best possible performance for PlayStation2 games only. PSX games has not been considered at all in the development, and will not be in the future! To play PSX backups, you will need another backup solution, and should not choose the Slide-Tool.

Q. Can i use Game Shark or Action Replay instead of Swap Magic?
A. It is possible to use the Game Shark or Action Replay product as boot disk for the Slide-Tool as well. We recommend the use of Swap Magic disks though as the best solution.

Submitted by Robin