The PlayStation 2 (PS2) library, with titles averaging 1–4 GB, presents a significant storage challenge for emulation on mobile devices or low-capacity flash drives. A niche online demand exists for "highly compressed" PS2 games under 200MB. This paper investigates the technical methodologies used to achieve such extreme compression (e.g., .CSO, repacking, dummy file removal), evaluates the feasibility of preserving gameplay integrity at this size, and provides an updated status (2023–2024) on where these releases exist and their practical performance.
| Method | Space Saved | Downside | |--------|-------------|----------| | CSO (CISO) compression | 30–50% | Longer load times | | Removing dubbing/languages | 20–80MB | Subs only | | Stripping FMVs | 50–400MB | No cutscenes | | Downscaling textures | 100–800MB | Blurry UI/text | | Replacing audio with MIDI | 50–300MB | Sounds awful | highly compressed ps2 games under 200mb upd