One of the hot topics that surrounds the Playstation 2 these days are mod chips. As we have reported before, they are already available on the markets and some are already selling them online. We wanted to know more though, especially after Sony announced to start producing a modified PS2 model SCPH-15000 that will slightly differ internally from the first SCPH-10000 model. So, we got more info today after a brief talk with an insider at ModChip.com, one of the biggest, if not the biggest mod chip retailer on the web today. I threw lots of questions at him, whatever he knew, he spilled it. Read on to find on what information we were able to get from Fred at ModChip.com.

      Fred told me that they are getting PS2 mod chips very soon and those will be on sale at ModChip.com. These mod chips will come with eight wires and based on their tests, those chips work perfectly well with the Japanese PS2. The current mod chips work with a swap trick that is very easy to use. For those of you who don't know the standard procedure to play backups on the moded PS2, this is how it works. You place a demo disk or any original PS2 disk into the tray, close the tray and let the system boot up. When the necessary data is loaded into the memory, the mod chip will open up the tray and you'll have 3 seconds to put in a copied (aka "backup") CD-Rom before the tray closes to start the game, as Fred states "its so easy, a child can do that".

      Ok, maybe putting in the disk within 3 seconds is the easy part, but the hard part is probably installing the chip itself. Since we don't have the chip yet to test anything ourselves, I asked him if it is easier or harder to install compared to the installation procedure for the Playstation. He said that it is about the same, but the original Playstation requires you to remove the main piece that mounts the laser and the motor and that was not necessary in the PS2. We'll let you know more as we get a chance to install the chip in the office very soon.

      What about the internal modifications that Sony announced for the PS2? Fred said that it is probably not going to do anything to protect from the mod chips. Then you might wonder why would they change the system to model SCPH-15000 in July. The answer could be simpler than you think, its money! Sony never said that they are doing the modifications to secure the system against piracy, us and many others in the press assumed they did because there was a lot of talk of mod chips. Over the last four months, the developers probably found a way to save some money to produce the very expensive to build PS2. Whenever there is a slight change to electronics, it requires a new model number even though nothing seems different to a regular gamer, and same goes for the PS2.

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