Separate category template for 'product page'?

Is there any way for me to copy all of the category.php and category.tpl files, to 'category2', and use both on a case-by-case basis?

What I'm looking to do is utilise SOME category pages as product pages, laid out similarly to product pages and able to pull through product otptions etc, with the aim of allowing multiple rows of products per 'product page' - and I figure the easiest way to do this, is to use category pages instead, and define them as a 'product page' or 'category page' and therefore allow opencart to choose the right files for that type of category page.

I realise a lot of you will be asking why I dont just use product options for my variants but it's not as simple as that unfortunately.. This really is the only logical way of achieving what I need to achieve..

Hmm.. On reflection, perhaps the best way would be to use a custom variable such as 'IsProductPage', and add in some code to the existing category files to exclude certain things and include more things (such as product options) if IsProductPage == true...

Would still like input though as I'm a bit brain-fried with all this now