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Machine: Sony Playstation 2 or PS2
Manufacturer: Sony
Era: 32 bit (128 bit? perhaps 32 bit part two?)
Format: DVD-ROM/CD-ROM
Outputs: (front) Two controller ports, two memory card slots, 2 USB ports and a IEEE 1394 Firewire port (rear) Single AV connector, Optical Audio Out, and Expansion bay for hard drive and network adapter.
Australian model source: UK/European PAL model. Reprinted console and cartridge boxes in most cases (removing all the non-english langauges).
Region Variance: Known as the Sony Playstation 2 throughout all territories. There are no physical differences between models in Japan, the US and PAL markets.
Region Compatibility: The Sony Playstation 2 uses a form of region locking where genuine games are given codes on the inside of the disc, where normal CD/DVD writers do not reach. The disk is checked at boot-up for the correct code, and if either the wrong one, or none at all are found then the disc will not boot. The most popular way of getting around this form of region coding/copy protection is to so-called mod-chip the console. This became a very popular method of running either pirate games or games from another region. The mod-chip simply by-passes the region checking completely. Since the PS2 is also a DVD player, it also uses the region-code locking system used by those disks. Certain mod-chips can circumvent this as well.
Hardware Versions: Overall the PS2 has remained unchanged throughout it's life, although a number of hardware revisions were released. For example the early Japanese machines used part of the memory card to store the DVD movie playback software, but this was built into later models. A number of special edition PS2s were also released - generally in a different colour to the original black console.
Launch History: The highly anticipated follow-up to the Sony Playstation, this machine was almost a sure-fire hit for Sony before it was even released. Fighting off a challenge from the underfunded Sega Dreamcast in 1999 almost on hype alone, the PS2 was launched in 2000 to nearly universal acclaim. The machine sold out its initial production run, and demand for them remained very high throughout the first few months of it's release. The Sony hype machine revved up to full power at launch, and incredible claims were made about the graphics abilities of the PS2. Unfortunately games that actually used these capabilities were very scarce at first. Luckily the machine is backward compatible with Playstation software. This fact, coupled with the fact that a PS2 can also play video DVDs, helped tide the machine over till a steady stream of quality titles came out.
Hardware Design: In keeping with Sony's philosophy of catering more to the older, more mature gamer image, the PS2 was designed to look quite different to other consoles. The console looks very high-tech and futuristic, with blue lights and a black exterior. The console could also be placed in either vertical or horizontal positions, although the disk drive is said to wear out much faster in the vertical position. One interesting inclusion is that of industry standard USB and IEEE 1394 (iLink/Firewire) ports. The USB slots serve as a way to plug non-standard peripherals in, like a keyboard, or a steering wheel. This means that many of these peripherals can be shared with a PC. The IEEE 1934 port was intended to be used as a game link cable, although it did not prove to be too popular, since later revisions of the machine dropped this port.
Since the machine is capable of playing video DVDs, Sony also released a remote control for it. The receiver for the remote plugs into one of the controller ports. All PS2s also ship with a "upgrade port" to allow future upgrades. This allows the installation of a hard drive and the network adapter which are needed for some games like Final Fantasy XI or many EA sports games, which are played online, or have an online component. The controllers for the PS2 are nearly identical to those for the original Playstation, except for analogue buttons which can detect the amount of pressure applied to them. Very few games use these however, and I have had no problems using original Dual Shocks for most PS2 games.
PS2 memory cards look similar to the original Playstation's cards, except that they are usually black, and hold far more data. The official PS2 memory card holds 8 Megabytes, which is more than enough for most games, although certain sports games can fill the card. One important thing to remember is that although the PS2 can play original Playstation games, in order to save in these games you will need an original Playstation memory card, since the PS2 does not allow you to use the PS2 memory card directly. You can however transfer your original Playstation saves between a PS2 memory card and the older cards. The PS2 also offers some slight improvements to graphics and disk-speed when playing original Playstation games, although these are not 100% compatible with all games. A very small number of original Playstation games are slightly incompatible with the PS2, although many of those will still work to some degree.
One interesting peripheral that Sony has recently released is the Eye-Toy. This is a USB camera with bundled mini-games that use collision detection to use your own image on the TV screen to interact with the game. No fully fledged games have been released that use the Eye-Toy yet, but the peripheral has proven to be quite popular with consumers.
Games: It took a little while for many developers to come to terms with the strange architecture of the PS2, and so games released later in the consoles life tend to look and sound at lot better than earlier ones. Early titles often consisted of ports from other systems (notably the Dreamcast), and semi-sequels/rehashes like Tekken Tag Tournament. It wasn't very long, however, before some really big budget and high quality games began rolling out at regular intervals. Most titles that had been big hits on the original Playstation, got sequels on the PS2, which is not entirely a bad thing. One exception was the Resident Evil games, which became Gamecube exclusive.
Games come either on blue-tinted CDs, or silver DVD disks, with some games even using the DVD dual-layer technology to fit almost 8 Gigabytes of data onto one disk. As a result of this most PS2 games come on only one disk, although certain games also ship with a video DVD packed in containing background info and trailers for other games.
Some of the biggest titles for the PS2 are: Metal Gear Solid 2, Final Fantasy X, SSX Tricky, Grand Theft Auto 3 (and Vice City), Gran Turismo 3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank and many others. The PS2 has a huge library of games, with more continually being released. These days the PS2 is still the most popular console, mainly because of its huge installed-base, and thus the widest range of games available. However, the competing consoles from Nintendo and Microsoft are beginning to eat into that share, since they both have better graphics and sound capabilities. Sony is predicting that their next console (supposedly the PS3) will be released in 2005, so the PS2 will most likely continue to be a force to be reckoned with untill at least that time.
Collecting: The PS2 was just as much of a success as the original Playstation (if not more), and thus games are very easily obtained. Popular games were often re-issued as part of Sony's cut-price Platinum range, and not-so popular titles are still reasonably easy to get hold of. Since the PS2 uses DVDs for most of its games, the disks are even more sensitive to scratching than CDs, so care must be taken to protect PS2 games from damage. Sony adopted the standard DVD case for its games in all regions, which means that the games are well protected and easy to store.
Importing: Like many other consoles the PS2 also has a number of games that were not brought to all regions, or were delayed for one reason or another. It can therefore be useful to import games from other regions from time-to-time. Another issue is that many games got only a limited release, and so can be quite difficult to get hold of locally. Sony and its partners are beginning to see the value in bringing many previously US or Japan-only titles into all regions, but they are still far from perfect in this regard. Many of the Japan-only releases tend to be the ones heavy with Japanese text, and so are of limited use to a gamer who cannot read Japanese. Interestingly some of the sequels to big games are being released in areas where the original games were not available - like for example Dark Cloud 2 - which became Dark Chronicle in PAL regions.
Article by: Stuart Kinnear
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