Credits

Credits & Sources

RiptOPL is a downstream fork of Open PS2 Loader — a labor of love, not a replacement for upstream. Every feature in this fork began as someone else's code and someone else's ideas. This page names the people and projects it stands on.

Downstream, not canonical

The canonical, actively-maintained project lives at ps2homebrew/Open-PS2-Loader. If you want the reference build, go there. This fork exists only because that upstream work is open for everyone to study, learn from, and build on. Please support the canonical project.

The Foundation: ps2homebrew & PS2SDK

None of this would exist without the ps2homebrew team and their many years of open-source work on Open PS2 Loader and the PS2SDK. The toolchain, the IOP module ecosystem, the network stack, the HDD drivers, the memory-card protocol, the pad-emulation IRX chain — all of it was built, maintained, and kept free and open so that people could study and extend it. Every feature in RiptOPL is built on that foundation.

Original Open PS2 Loader authors: Ifcaro and jimmikaelkael (copyright 2009). Core OPL development has been carried on by Ifcaro, volca, jimmikaelkael, polo35, izdubar, hominem.te.esse, SP193, and many contributors listed in the CREDITS file.

The OPL Family RiptOPL Draws From

RiptOPL is a direct agglomeration of the wider OPL family. The following projects each contributed code, ideas, or directly-ported features:

Project	Author(s)	What came from it	Source
rickgaiser's OPL	rickgaiser	Various enhancements and modernisations used as a base	GitHub
Neutrino	rickgaiser	Launched, not derived from — see Special Thanks. The external EE/IOP game-loader core RiptOPL hands games to per game, and the core behind the UDPBD block-device transport and the UDPFS network transports (a loose-ISO filesystem device plus a UDPFSBD block device), with its own IRX chain. Bundled in the release package.	GitHub
sOPL (Stable OPL)	mystyq	Stability fixes and polish fed into the shared lineage	GitHub
uOPL / wOPL	KrahJohlito	The single biggest influence on this fork: KrahJohlito's uOPL (Unofficial Open PS2 Loader) and its continuation wOPL, where the modern OPL experience was invented. The Neutrino external-core launcher and per-game Neutrino args; the Coverflow cover-art carousel; the Favorites tab and favourites.bin format; the PS2RD cheat-image loader	Historical project; public repository unavailable at the October 2026 audit
uOPL fork	Wolf3s	An independent uOPL fork that kept unique features and unmerged upstream work alive; contributions across the wOPL effort and the wider OPL scene	GitHub
OPL Daily Builds (OPL DB)	Jay-Jay-OPL / community	Build-pipeline patterns and 10th-Anniversary extras	GitHub
POPSLoader	NathanNeurotic & contributors	PS1/POPSTARTER launch chain; VCD listing; cover-art and GameID metadata integration	GitHub
OPL RetroGEM ID	CosmicScale	Visual GameID barcode display	GitHub
nhddl	pcm720	Reference implementation for Neutrino HDD launching and argument conventions	GitHub
Modulo-R1	AdityaKumar7209	Inspiration for folder browsing in the game list (the idea, not the code)	GitHub
PS2-Launcher	Irfanlesnar	UI and feature ideas across the wider OPL fork ecosystem	GitHub
Open PS2 Loader (canonical)	ps2homebrew team	The project this fork is based on; every OPL feature RiptOPL inherits	GitHub

Special Thanks

Beyond the repositories above, these individuals deserve particular recognition for contributions that directly shaped this fork.

KrahJohlito — uOPL / wOPL

The legend, and the single biggest influence on this fork. Creator of uOPL (Unofficial Open PS2 Loader) and its continuation wOPL, where the modern OPL experience was invented. The Neutrino external-core launcher, the Coverflow interface, and the Favorites tab — the features that define RiptOPL — were designed and pioneered by him, and everything this fork does with them is a reimplementation of his work. We learned more reading his code than anywhere else. RiptOPL is, above all, a tribute to it.

Wolf3s — the wider OPL scene

For contributions across the wOPL effort and the wider OPL scene, and for past work on an independent uOPL fork that kept unique features and unmerged work alive.

bbsan2k — MMCE Protocol

Author of the MMCE (Memory Card Mass Storage) protocol that makes SD-card game loading through the PS2's memory-card slot possible. OPL's entire MMCE device path — and everything this fork builds on top of it — traces directly back to that work.

rickgaiser — Neutrino (second PS2 core)

Author of Neutrino, a "Small, Fast and Modular PS2 Device Emulator" — and RiptOPL's second PS2 loader core alongside OPL's own. Every release package bundles the official latest build, re-fetched from upstream at publish time, as a ready-to-use neutrino/ folder.

It is bundled under the AFL-3.0 licence. One honest note on "unmodified": we add exactly one file, config/bsd-udpfsbd.toml — Neutrino ships udpfs_bd.irx without a matching -bsd token, and RiptOPL launches UDPFS as -bsd=udpfsbd. Nothing of rickgaiser's is altered or removed.

Neutrino is deliberately UI-agnostic — it has no interface of its own, and that design choice is precisely what makes front-ends like this one possible. RiptOPL is one of several: LUNA by darkladark (our #1 recommended alternative, for lightweight, customized Neutrino gameplay), NHDDL, XEB+ Plugin, RETROLauncher, OSD-XMB and PSBBN/BBNL drive the same core, and are worth a look if you want a different shape of launcher over it. Please report launching problems to us — building the arguments and handing off are ours — and genuine Neutrino bugs upstream.

Gageformer — Ember (second PS1 core)

Author of Ember, an independent PlayStation 1 emulator written from scratch for the PlayStation 2 — original recompiler, memory model, geometry pipeline and graphics translation. It ships inside the release package as an EMBER/ folder and serves as RiptOPL's second PS1 core alongside POPSTARTER.

It is bundled unmodified under the Ember Public Beta Testing Licence — included in the package as EMBER/LICENSE-BETA.txt, which governs the build it accompanies. Please report Ember problems to us first, not to him: the launching is ours.

Ember's own licence credits DuckStation as a correctness reference for a small number of routines. Ember is not a fork or port of it.

hacan359 (yoba) — RetroAchievements

Author of RetroAchievements support for real PlayStation 2 hardware, and of the PC client it talks to, xeRAbora (MIT). The console works out which game an image is and streams the handful of memory addresses that game's achievements watch, while everything above the wire — rcheevos, the RetroAchievements servers, your login — happens on the PC. That split is why the console side stays small enough to live inside a loader.

RiptOPL implements the published wire protocol and ships as its own RIPTOPL-RetroAchievements-*.zip build with a shortcut to xeRAbora inside. Please report RiptOPL problems to us first, not to him — the loader side is ours.

oMrRexD — RetroAchievements stabilization

Contributor of the real-hardware investigation and stabilization pass that made RiptOPL's RetroAchievements build reliably boot and communicate on the tested USB/MMCE paths. His PRs #702–#705 traced and fixed the ee_core stack squeeze, restored the MMCE DEV9 dependency, made cold telemetry launches bring networking up safely with an unusable-IP fallback, and moved the RA controls back to the Network page where they are actually read and saved.

The work was deliberately kept narrow and isolated from normal builds, and the fixes were backed by testing on a real PlayStation 2. That contribution is part of the reason the RA port moved from "builds" to something that could actually be exercised on hardware.

darkladark — LUNA

Creator of LUNA (Lightweight Unified Neutrino Access), his own visual loader built on NHDDL and Neutrino, with a PS2-inspired glass interface and four switchable library views. LUNA is our #1 recommended alternative to RiptOPL for lightweight, customized Neutrino gameplay: if RiptOPL is more loader than you need, start there.

He also contributes to RiptOPL directly: his #733 contributed LUNA's Collection display. #977 supersedes that PR by adapting the display as the native PSBBN Flow theme, retaining his perspective geometry and animation while preserving the normal R3 Favorite action. Thank you for sharing your work with us.

Okeanos — POPS UDPFS / BDM-UDPFS Assault

BDM-UDPFS Assault by Okeanos — POPSTARTER-specific BDMA drivers with read-only UDPFS fallback for VCDs, based on israpps' BDM Assault. Credits also belong to krHACKen (POPSTARTER), rickgaiser (UDPFS/UDPRDMA), pcm720 (udpfsd), and the PS2SDK contributors. See POPS UDPFS setup and the bundled upstream notices.

saildot4k — BDMA-ATA / exFAT HDD

Contributor of BDMA-ATA (exFAT internal-HDD block-device support via BDMAssault), plus the fixes, feedback, and ongoing oversight that shaped this fork's block-device work. Getting exFAT HDD right — for both PS2 and PS1 titles — would not have happened without that collaboration.

Aerosol — UDPFS and VMC testing

Tested UDPFS across Linux, Windows and direct connections, identified the explicit-bind workaround, and confirmed that CRLF config output could leave a carriage return in a VMC filename. Converting the config to LF restored VMC loading.

Testers — Testing & Feedback

For dedicated testing, bug reports, and real-hardware feedback that has repeatedly caught issues and shaped fixes across this fork. Hands-on QA on real PS2 hardware is what turns a build that compiles into a build that actually works. Credited in the OPL CREDITS file: eliminator1403, lucaslmgv, AndrewBento, AcidReach, bodvenomz, nuno6573, Blade1984, zackcage6, Vapor, V3ditata, and Aislinn🏳️‍⚧️.

AdityaKumar7209 — Modulo-R1 (folder browsing idea)

Whose Modulo-R1 project inspired this fork's folder browsing in the game list.

Irfanlesnar — PS2-Launcher

Creator of PS2-Launcher, whose UI and feature ideas contributed to the wider OPL fork ecosystem and inspired parts of RiptOPL's presentation.

pcm720 — udpfsd / nhddl

For udpfsd and nhddl, key foundations for modern PS2 network streaming and Neutrino HDD-launch conventions.

Berion — Artwork & Theme Design

Responsible for the UI design and artwork that has defined how OPL looks for years. The visual language this fork builds on — icon style, layout sensibility, theme conventions — owes a great deal to that craft. Berion is credited as UI designer in the original OPL CREDITS file.

Ifcaro & jimmikaelkael — OPL Origins

The original Open PS2 Loader authors (copyright 2009). Without their decision to write OPL in the open — and license it under the Academic Free License — none of the downstream work described on this page would have been possible. Everything starts here.

The Name

Akilluminati47 — the name RiptOPL

RiptOPL is named by Akilluminati47. He came up with it before the project existed, and it stuck. Every release, every build and every thread carries a name he thought of first — which is the sort of contribution that is easy to forget precisely because it is on everything.

He also funds this fork's development — a generosity that keeps the rolling builds coming and is deeply appreciated.

Companion Tools

Most of these the release package links to rather than vendoring, so you always get the maintained version; the two cores at the end are the exception and ship inside the package. All but PS2-Servers are third-party projects, independently maintained and not part of RiptOPL — please report issues with those to their own repository, not here.

• PS2-Servers by Ripto — all-in-one PC server launcher for SMBv1, UDPFS and UDPBD. This one is ours, from the same author as RiptOPL, so its issues belong on its own tracker but are the same hands. Shipped as PS2-Servers.url.
• udpfs-server by YouKnow-sys — the same idea from a phone: an Android app that shares folders and disk images to the PS2 over UDPFS. It is found by broadcast, so there is no server address to type in on the console, and it works over a router or a direct cable. Built on udpfsd by pcm720; MIT licensed. Reach for it when the games live on a phone or tablet and there is no PC on the network. Shipped as udpfs-server.url.
• OrbitPS2 Manager by Luden — cross-platform library manager: import games from disc images, fetch cover art and screenshots, compress ISOs to ZSO, edit per-game settings and manage virtual memory cards. It writes the ART folder and per-game configs in exactly the layout RiptOPL expects, which resolves most "looks wrong on my setup" reports. Shipped as OrbitPS2-Manager.url.
• OPL PS1 AIO Converter GUI by shaan — Windows all-in-one PS1 preparation tool: converts BIN/CUE backups to *.VCD and installs them to USB, MX4SIO, MMCE, iLink, exFAT HDD, SMB and the APA internal HDD. Shipped as OPL-PS1-AIO-Converter-GUI.url.
• PS2RD CHT Manager by TheRealNextria — manages the PS2RD .cht cheat files RiptOPL reads from a device's CHT folder. Shipped as PS2RD-CHT-Manager.url.
• Neutrino by rickgaiser — not a shortcut but a bundle: ships inside the package as a ready-to-use neutrino/ folder. Ordinary memory-card placement is supported; for MMCE + GameID card switching, keep the complete folder on mmceN: (or under the MMCE Prefix Path) rather than the switched mcN: view. AFL-3.0. RiptOPL's second PS2 loader core. See above.
• Ember by Gageformer — likewise bundled rather than linked: an EMBER/ folder inside the package, unmodified, under its own licence. RiptOPL's second PS1 core. See above.

Other Credits (from the OPL CREDITS file)

The full OPL CREDITS file records many more contributors. Selected entries relevant to RiptOPL's codebase:

• misfire — NETLOG module and other contributions
• Eugene Plotnikov — SMSUTILS, SMSMAP & SMSTCPIP modules
• Marcus R. Brown — DEV9, ATAD modules and derived code used in cdvdman
• icyson55 — OPL-CL project / network update support
• fjtrujy — CI/CD implementation using Docker and GitHub Actions
• Eric Young — DES algorithm used in the SMB code
• ps2dev team — USB, Network, and PS2HDD modules via PS2SDK
• Quality assurance over OPL's history: RandQalan, yoshi314, EP, LocalH, lee4, El_Patas, ShaolinAssassin, algol, gledson999, jolek, zero35, and many others

For the complete list, see the CREDITS file in the canonical OPL repository.

A Note on PS1 Emulation

RiptOPL plays PS1 titles through two independent cores, and they work in completely different ways.

POPSTARTER uses POPS, Sony's own emulator

The *.VCD path in RiptOPL (and in all OPL forks) runs through POPS — Sony's own PS1 emulator built into PS2 firmware — combined with the open-source POPSTARTER launcher. POPS itself is not distributed here, and its use depends on your console's firmware. For the deep reference on PS1 / POPSTARTER internals — the 32-byte config table, IGR, cheats, multi-disc, and storage — see the sister site: POPStarter docs.

Ember is a real emulator, not a Sony component

The *.cue path runs through Ember, Gageformer's independent PS1 emulator for the PS2. It does not use POPS and does not depend on your console's firmware — but it does need your own PS1 BIOS, which you supply as EMBER/bios.bin. No BIOS and no game data are distributed with Ember or with RiptOPL. See Ember — the second PS1 core.

PSX DVR / DTL TOOL: developers and technical references

The experimental PSX DESR DVR ISO support builds upon pcm720's external DVR-enabled Neutrino backend; DVRP modules from ps2dev / PS2SDK contributors; and DVR initialization precedent in wLaunchELF_R3Z and the LaunchELF family. PR #947 tracks RiptOPL's own integration.

Credit also belongs to the PS2 community members who support Sony's DTL-T10000 development TOOL systems, including maintainers of wOPL and upstream OPL's DTL_T10000 build variants. These are different consoles from Sony's PSX DESR DVR; support for one does not prove compatibility with the other. Early PC CARD CompactFlash work independently credits mihhru / PS2CF on the CompactFlash page.

License

Open PS2 Loader, and this fork, are licensed under the Academic Free License version 3.0. Review the LICENSE file in the repository for the full terms.

Why a fork at all, rather than contributing upstream?

RiptOPL was built primarily as a personal "definitive build" — opinionated defaults, a Coverflow-first UI, and features ported from uOPL/wOPL assembled in one place for testers without strong opinions about which fork to run. The intent was never to compete with or fragment the upstream project. Contributing features back upstream is always welcome; the fork format was simply the fastest path to a working, testable build with all the desired pieces together. The canonical project at ps2homebrew/Open-PS2-Loader is where the community's energy should go for long-term development.

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Source: credits.html @ 00e273e37093. Read on the documentation website.