Entry 338

"Saves from PCSX2: a PS2 card image reader, the import, and Infection slots of 0x8d84"

2026-10-01saveformattooling

Filescrates/piney-data/src/ps2card.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/card.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/savesys.rscrates/piney-game/src/main.rsdocs/formats/save.mdREADME.md

Players asked to bring their PCSX2 saves over. The port's card is a directory laid out as the PS2 card is: <dir>/icon.sys, the icons, the index <dir>/<dir> and dhdata01-12 (the save page). So a save only has to be taken off PCSX2's card and its files copied across.

PCSX2's cards

PCSX2 keeps a card as one of two things:

• a folder card: a directory per save, with PCSX2's own _pcsx2_index (a YAML-like list of each file's order and times) beside the game's files;
• a card image (Mcd001.ps2): the PS2 memory card's file system, 8 MB of 528-byte pages (512 bytes of data and 16 of ECC).

The folder form needs copying only. The image needs a reader. piney_data::ps2card (new) reads it:

• the superblock: magic "Sony PS2 Memory Card Format ", page size, pages a cluster, alloc_offset, the root's cluster, ifc_list;
• the FAT through its indirect clusters;
• the 512-byte directory entries (the root's own "." gives its count);
• a file through its FAT chain.

ECC is assumed when the image is a power-of-two count of 528-byte pages. a_save_directory_reads_back builds a card with and without ECC (a file over two clusters, an empty one) and reads the directory back. No real .ps2 image was at hand. The reader follows the format as published, and an image from a real card is still to be tried.

The import

piney_desktop::card::import(src, card) finds the four volumes' save directories (own_dir_name of each, from mcDirName) in any of three sources:

• a .ps2 image;
• a folder card;
• one exported save directory.

It copies each found directory whole, leaving out _pcsx2_*. A directory it replaces is moved to a fresh backup-<secs> beside the card. It is reached through piney-game --import-card PATH, which imports and exits, and through the console's import_card PATH. a_pcsx2_save_imports checks a folder card, the backup, a lone save directory and a source with no save. The user's export (work/savecards, not in the repository) imports its 17 files.

Infection slots of 0x8d84

The user's export holds Infection's directory (BASLUS-20267DOTHACK, the icon10/11/12.ico icons), but its twelve slot files are 0x8d84 (36,228) bytes. That is the later volumes' size; Infection's own MakeDir makes them 0x8530 (li 0x8530, INF SLUS_202.67:0x001660d4). Slots 1 and 12 hold a cleared game (level 34, clearFlag 1). The index record's sum covers the whole 0x8d84 bytes (slot 1: 0x599, against 0xc31b over the first 0x8530). The first 0x8530 bytes are the same ccSaveData.

Infection's own load (and the port's) summed 0x8530 bytes and would refuse the slot. At the user's request the port now takes either size. The card's read_slot hands over the whole file, and the load accepts the sum over the volume's size or, for a longer Infection file, over 0x8d84. It copies the 0x8530-byte record as before. an_infection_slot_loads_at_either_size covers both sizes, a wrong sum, and (when work/savecards is present) the user's slot 1.