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One of the developers behind a forked version of the PS2 emulator PCSX2 has revealed that it will soon be possible to play SoulCalibur II's arcade-only 'Conquest Mode' at home.
The first public alpha build of PCSX2x6 will allow you to experience this mode for the first time outside of the arcade, says Matías Israelson.
According to the Soul Calibur II Wiki, Conquest Mode "allows the player to select one army among four. The player then fights against enemies in a series of eight 1-round battles, win or lose. After each round, the player earns EXP and can be promoted, and the game also rates the player in four categories: Soul, Power, Wisdom and Skill. The game also keeps track of which moves the player knows and uses most often. After the eight battles, territory control is updated and the player has the option to fight a bonus round against their character played by the AI."
All of this was facilitated by a retail PS2 memory card, formatted specifically for this mode (the Namco System 246 that the game runs on is based on the PS2).
"Precise details on how to prepare digital images of the conquest memory card will be shared the day of the release," adds Israelson. He also explains that this fork of PCSX2 won't be combined with the original emulator for two reasons.
"Arcade PS2 has a repurposed DEV9 interface, they won't like that change, and it's technically hard (or not worth the hassle) to have that coexist with retail DEV9. They (PCSX2 devs) hate me, and I don't want anything to do with some of them."