PS2 - HDLoader or HDAdvance which is better?

[severdhed]

hey guys, i'm trying to talk my wife into letting me build another cabinet..i picked up a 27" SONY crt TV with component video from a friend the other day, so i'm thinking of building a light gun cabinet powered by a PS2.  I already have the ps2, a pair of guncon 2 guns, and a few light gun games.  I can't help but think it would awesome if i could load the games to the hard drive and just launch the ones i want.  I was looking at HD loader last night, and i discovered that there was another program called HDAdvance...which apparently has better support for dual layer discs. 

so, have any of you used either one of these programs?  if so, are they as awesome as they claim to be?   from what i have read online about compatibility, i seem to find conflicting data.   as of right now, i'm planning on just light gun games, but i do have an xarcade and ps2 adapter, so i could add joysticks and buttons for other games as well.   i'm looking to run the following games;

Time Crisis 2
Time Crisis 3
Time Crisis: Crisis Zone
Vampire Night

a few of the sites i found say that crisis zone doesn't work with HDLoader, but i couldn't find anything that confirmed that it does or does not work with hdadvance.

so if any of you could shed some light on this, it would be much appreciated. 

[DJ_Izumi]

Uhh, I use HDLoader and my undstanding is both have similar support lists but HDAdvanced's supported list is shorter.  I believe the rule is 'If HDLoader won't run it, HDAdvance won't run it' but vice versa doesn't apply.

That said, I can tell you that Crisis Zone does NOT run on HDLoader, I tried.  I believe the rest do, I'm certian TC3 does.  I have them all on my PS2 HDD but the PS2 isn't hooked up to anything right now.

[crashwg]

Don't forget Gunvari Collection + Time Crisis!

If you're looking into HDLoader you should check out FreeMCBoot.  It's a softmod that is installed to a memory card.  You can install HDLoader to the memory card (or a flash drive if you prefer) and you won't need any disc in the drive.  It's pretty sweet and especially useful if you've got a PS2 with a bad optical drive.

[severdhed]

Don't forget Gunvari Collection + Time Crisis!

If you're looking into HDLoader you should check out FreeMCBoot.  It's a softmod that is installed to a memory card.  You can install HDLoader to the memory card (or a flash drive if you prefer) and you won't need any disc in the drive.  It's pretty sweet and especially useful if you've got a PS2 with a bad optical drive.

i'll have to look into the gunvari collection...that was only released in japan, right? Does the pS2 play imports without a modchip?  i'm not really looking to mod my ps2...although that  softmod may be a good choice

[DJ_Izumi]

Machines running HDLoader will be able to run imports so long as they work on your TV.  Obviously if you're in North America, PAL games won't be doable but NTSC-J games from Japan will be no issue.  I have all Point Blank games and Time Crisis 1 for PS1 though and I sorta prefer having the games in, ya know, English.

[severdhed]

awesome...although i just looked at the price to import those games...i may do without them.  as for the Pal or NTSC, my projector can handle either format just fine, unless of course the ps2 wont do it. i've played pal games on my modded xbox before and they displayed properly.

[DJ_Izumi]

In the case of the PS2 it's different, but I believe a modded PS2 outputs PAL signals.  The game is 'built' as PAL.

On the Xbox1, PAL or NTSC are just flags on the software which tell the machine how to output.  A modded NTSC Xbox1 ignores the flag on the PAL game and outputs an NTSC signal.  This is because the Xbox1's chipset is built more like a PC's TV out card.