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. Use a tagged v* release for stability, or the rolling pre-release for the latest features.
At least one PS2 game image in ISO or ZSO format.

Which release should I download?

The rolling pre-release is rebuilt from master on every push and always includes the bundled Neutrino core. It may occasionally be unstable. Tagged v* releases are manually cut, known-good snapshots. Either way, the full installable package zip (RIPTOPL-<sdk>-<rel>-<sha>.zip) contains the ELF, the bundled Neutrino archive, and a language pack — download the zip rather than a bare ELF if you intend to use Neutrino or per-game language overrides. 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); 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 under a root OPL/ folder (or at the root of the device, depending on your setup). 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 under hdd0:__common/OPL/. See Internal HDD for the full workflow.

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 (for drives up to 32 GB) or exFAT (larger drives or games over 4 GB). Use the default allocation unit size when formatting exFAT. Create a DVD folder at the root of the drive (or let OPL create it on first boot), 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). RiptOPL boots directly into the Coverflow game list. The first boot also creates any missing OPL folders on the drive automatically.

3. Enable USB in Device Settings

RiptOPL ships with USB enabled by default. If your game list is empty, confirm USB is on:

Press Start to open the main menu.
Navigate to Device Settings.
Ensure USB Games is set to On.
Press Cross to confirm and return (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 saves its master config as settings_riptopl.cfg — distinct from upstream OPL's conf_opl.cfg. Both builds can share the same memory card or storage device without overwriting each other's settings. Art, themes, VMCs, per-game configs, and favourites in the shared OPL/ folders are visible to all OPL builds.

Where to go next

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

🔌USB / MX4SIO / iLinkFilesystem tips, fragmentation, large drives 🧩MMCESD2PSX and MemCard PRO2 setup 🌐SMBStream games from a PC share 💽Internal HDDAPA/PFS and exFAT HDD setup 📡Network BootUDPBD and UDPFS over LAN 🎴CoverflowTune the default cover-art theme 🎚️Per-game SettingsCompat modes, Neutrino, VMC, cheats 💿PS1 GamesPOPSTARTER VCD setup

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

Yes. RiptOPL saves its master config as settings_riptopl.cfg — not conf_opl.cfg — so the two builds never overwrite each other's settings. Everything else in the shared OPL/ folder (artwork, themes, VMCs, per-game configs in CFG/, and favourites.bin) is shared between all OPL-family builds. RiptOPL will also auto-import an existing uOPL / wOPL favourites.bin on first run.

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 is bundled inside the release zip and does not need to be downloaded 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.