cartreader VS MechaPwn

This particular copy—which was $38 shipped; I probably could've done better, but it was convenient!—appears to have been owned by a Shin Sakuma (佐久間伸 Sakuma, Shin) who put more than a few hours into it judging from the saves. (Which I backed up using my Open Source Cartridge Reader, in the interest of preservation. 😌)

I use my Open Source Cartridge Reader to read/write N64 controller paks. (And read/write save data from cartridges.)

In the long run, another solution might be to buy/build an Open Source Cartridge Reader and use it in combination with one of the more readily available modern flash cartridges.

I'm not from Germany (I'm from France) but I did modify my Nintendo 3DS with something called Gomode9 to dump my DS and 3DS games, I did bought an external Blu-Ray reader BP50NB40 which can be used to dump PS3 games with a tool called ps3-disc-dumper and I built a Sanni Cart Reader (https://github.com/sanni/cartreader) to dump other kind of cartridge for older consoles.

if your into soldering and have other retro games you want to look into the sanni cart reader https://github.com/sanni/cartreader

If you can solder, sanni cartreader is probably the best way to go. Otherwise, you can pay to have one built.

As per the MechaPwn GitHub page, you can use it on:

MechaPwn can make your PS2 region-free via softmodding. More people should know about it. It doesn't work on the launch model PS2 though.

Mechapwn does exactly that but without needing a modchip.

These days it's best not to use a mod chip as there are better methods available, one such method is mechapwn which patches disc protections in software, it has a few limitations that mod chips don't have such as requiring the discs to be Master patched (if not using Force unlock) or if you enable force unlock you won't be able to use CDs or PS1 games.

You can but there's a missing step. Certain model PS2s can make use of something called MechaPwn. However, in order to run MechaPwn (which is homebrew), you would need a way to run homebrew -- which is what Free MC Boot or Free DVD Boot is for.

And also remember that on your model, you can also apply mechapwn if you want to run psx games. More info in https://github.com/MechaResearch/MechaPwn

If you're looking to play PAL games on an NTSC PS2 and don't mind soft modding your console, check mechapwn to see if your console is eligible: https://github.com/MechaResearch/MechaPwn

The Japanese PS2 has both English and Japanese options available in the OSD by default. On versions later than Deckard slims you can change the OSD Region with Mechapwn and unlock other region specific languages.