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The PlayStation 2 released in year 2000 can read CDs, DVDs, and PlayStation 1&2 games. These games are formatted as PlayStation format, but are ultimately CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs respectively.

I know that much, I know that the console has BIOS capable of interpreting the games, but how does it distinguish them? Is there a software built in to do so, or is the optical drive built to read discs including the game ROMs?

I ask this question because it seems that through hacking your PlayStation 4 or 5, you can install emulators that play PS1 and PS2 games. These consoles read DVDs, so could you develop software necessary for the PS4/5 to then read ROMs and your PlayStation 2 games? A computer with a DVD drive will play a PlayStation 2 game provided you own an emulator with the console BIOS to read it.

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    While this question appears to be specifically about the PlayStation (and therefore on topic), to me it looks more like you're asking how a computer differentiates between CDs and DVDs, as well as between Audio CDs and Application CDs, and Video DVDs and Application DVDs, which is not gaming-specific and therefore would be off topic here.
    – Nolonar
    Commented Jun 4 at 18:09
  • Why did you tag this with [ps4] when your question is only about the PS2? What about the PS4 would you like to know? Please edit your question accordingly.
    – galacticninja
    Commented Jun 5 at 0:17
  • I believe you are looking at the very end statement and not the whole reading. Simply put, I’m talking about a mod for the ps4 that would allow it to read PlayStation 1 and 2 discs. The console reads CDs and DVDs, but just doesn’t have support to run them without say, a software. The connection to PCs is just in how those are able to play PS1/2 game discs with an emulator, but overall it’s about the PS2. You’re failing to see that it’s not the PC I’m asking about, it’s the PS2 I’m asking about. How does the PLAYSTATION 2 read its own games?
    – LeroyJenkinslonglostcousin
    Commented Jun 5 at 3:23
  • @LeroyJenkinslonglostcousin Please edit your question as per your comment.
    – galacticninja
    Commented Jun 5 at 3:59

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From PSDevWiki (note that it's the currently maintained version of the article, was previously for PS3; doesn't seem to be a PS2 version, but same gist):

The Identification & Serialization Data from a PlayStation 4 Game Title contains several Information, which you can find not only on any Game Disc pressed for the PlayStation 4, but also similar for any PlayStation 3 and/or any other Console-based Game Disc, and other Media pressed on CD, DVD and Blu-ray.

So, magic values are stored on the disc and are used to identify the type of media, i.e. game, CD, DVD, Blu-Ray. Similar to how executable files generally start with or have a "header" including magic value(s) to tell the OS about themselves (32-bit vs 64-bit, etc).

Further down it notes Productcode [unofficial name], which can be used to identify specific games "similar to the ISBN of a book". And then it goes on into great detail about how the discs themselves are made, and even more information that's stored including an identifier for the manufacturing plant itself.

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    Thank you. This gives good insight into how the discs present themselves, so it seems almost elementary on paper to make disc emulation software for the PlayStation 4, but will obviously be very difficult in practice
    – LeroyJenkinslonglostcousin
    Commented Jun 5 at 13:21
  • Yeah, from what I saw on another page that popped up in results it looks like it would be very difficult as there's not easily-available documentation.
    – l3l_aze
    Commented Jun 5 at 16:33

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