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Play Station2
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is Sony's second
video game console, after the PlayStation. Its development
was announced in April 1999, and it was first released
in Japan on March 4th 2000. The US version was released
in the United States on October 26th 2000. Following a
slow first year, the PlayStation 2 has grown to become
the most popular gaming console of the sixth generation
era, with over 89 million units sold.
Games
The PlayStation brand's strength has
lead to strong third-party support for the system. Among
the perceived killer apps on the machine are the Grand
Theft Auto and Final Fantasy series, the latest two Metal
Gear titles, all three Devil May Cry titles, lastest two
Ace Combat titles, and first-party Sony Computer Entertainment
brands such as the Gran Turismo, SOCOM, Ratchet &
Clank and Jak and Daxter series, Ico and God of War.
Hardware Compatibility
The PS2 can read and play both compact
discs and DVDs, making it backwards compatible with older
PlayStation (PS1) games and allowing for playback of DVD
Video and the more technically advanced PS2 games on either
cheaper, smaller CD-ROM format or the larger, more expensive
DVD-ROM format. The ability to play DVD movies allowed
consumers to more easily justify the PS2's relatively
high price tag (in October 2000, the MSRP was $300) as
it removed the need to buy an external DVD player. The
PS2 also supports PS1 memory cards (for PS1 game saves
only) and joypads (the PS2's Dual Shock 2 controller is
essentially a slightly upgraded PS1 Dual Shock).
When it was released, the PS2 had many
advanced features that were not present in other contemporary
video game consoles, including its DVD capabilities and
USB and IEEE 1394 expansion ports. It was not until late
2001 that the Microsoft Xbox became the second console
with (non-standard) USB and DVD support (this is assuming
the Nuon, an advanced DVD player graphics coprocessor,
is not considered a console).
Software Compatibility
Support for original PlayStation games
was also an important selling point for the PS2, letting
owners of an older system upgrade to the PlayStation 2
and keep their old software, and giving new users access
to older games until a larger library was developed for
the new system. As an added bonus, the PS2 had the ability
to enhance PlayStation games by speeding up disc read
time and/or adding texture smoothing to improve graphics.
While the texture smoothing was universally effective
(albeit with odd effects where transparent textures are
used), faster disk reading could cause some games to fail
to load or play correctly.
A handful of PlayStation titles (notably
Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions) fail to run on the
PS2 at all (Special Missions fails to recognise Metal
Gear Solid at the disk swap screen, for example). It is
a common misconception that disk swapping in a game (for
example, for multi-disk games or expansion packs) is not
possible on the PS2. The anomalous failure of the above
title at its disk swap screen may have given birth to
this rumor.
Software for all PlayStation consoles
contains one of three region codes: for Japan, North and
South America, or Europe.
Online Play
With the purchase of a separate unit
called the Network Adaptor (which is built into the newest
system revision), some PS2 games support online multiplayer.
Instead of having a unified, subscription-based online
service like Xbox Live, online multiplayer on the PS2
is free, but split between publishers. All of Sony's games
use a free service called PS2Online (that name is the
common use, as its official name, PS2 Network Gaming,
is a hassle to say), but independent developers/publishers
use their own servers to run their online hosting.
Home Development
Sony released a version of the Linux
operating system for the PS2 in a package that also includes
a keyboard, mouse, Ethernet adapter and hard disk drive.
Currently, Sony's online store states that the Linux kit
is no longer for sale in North America. However as of
November 2004, the European version was still available.
(The kit boots by installing a proprietary interface,
the RTE (run time environment) which is on a region-coded
DVD, so the European and USA kits each only work with
a PS2 from that region).
In Europe and Australia, the PlayStation
2 comes with a free Yabasic interpreter on the bundled
demo disk. This allows simple programs to be created for
the PlayStation 2 by the end-user. This was included in
a failed attempt to circumvent a UK tax by defining the
console as a "computer" if it contained certain
software.
History
For the first year, slow production
and shipping problems limited PS2 sales. Only a few hundred
thousand users had obtained consoles by the end of 2000.
Developers also complained about the system being difficult
to develop for, with little in the way of reference material
from Sony for its exotic architecture. Later Sony gained
steam with new development kits for game developers and
more PlayStations for consumers.
Hardware sales remained strong until
2004 saw the console apparently approaching saturation
point. In September of that year, in time for the launch
of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (the highest selling
game during the 2004 Holiday season), Sony revealed a
new, smaller PS2 (see Hardware revisions).
Sony had stopped making the older PS2
model sometime during the summer of 2004 to let the distribution
channel empty out stock of the units. After an apparent
manufacturing issue caused some initial slowdown in producing
the new unit, Sony reportedly underestimated demand, caused
in part by shortages between the time the old units were
cleared out and the new units were ready. This led to
further shortages, and the issue was compounded in Britain
when a Russian oil tanker became stuck in the Suez Canal,
blocking a ship from China carrying PS2s bound for the
UK. During one week in November, sales in the entire country
of Britain totalled 6,000 units - compared to 70,000 a
few weeks prior. Shortages in the US were also extremely
severe; one retail chain in the US, GameStop, had just
186 PS2 and Xbox units on hand across more than 1700 stores
on the day before Christmas.
Hardware Revisions
The PlayStation 2 has undergone many
revisions, some only of internal construction and others
with substantial external changes. These are colloquially
known amongst PlayStation 2 hardware hackers as V0, V1,
V2, etc., up to V12 (as of November 25, 2004).
V0 was a Japanese model and were never
sold in Europe or the US. These included a PCMCIA slot
instead of the Expansion Bay (DEV9) port of newer models.
V0 did not have a built-in DVD player and instead relied
on an encrypted player that was copied to a memory card
from an included CD-ROM (normally, the PS2 will only execute
encrypted software from its memory card, but see PS2 Independence
Exploit). V3 has a substantially different internal structure
from the subsequent revisions, featuring several interconnected
printed circuit boards. As of V4 everything was unified
into one board, except the power supply. V5 introduces
minor internal changes and the only difference between
V6 (sometimes called V5.1) and V5 is the orientation of
the Power/Reset switch board connector, which was reversed
to prevent the use of no-solder modchips. V7 and V8 are
also similar, and V9 (model number SCPH-50000/SCPH-50001)
added the Infrared port for the optional DVD Remote Control,
removed the widely unused IEEE 1394 port, added the capability
to read DVD-RW discs, and a quieter fan. V10 and V11 have
minor changes.
The current, redesigned model of the PlayStation 2 (V12,
SCPH-70000).
The two versions of the PS2 with an Eye Toy cameraIn September
2004 Sony unveiled the third major hardware revision (V12,
model number SCPH-70000). Available in November 2004,
it is smaller and thinner than the old version and includes
a built-in Ethernet port. In some markets it also integrates
a modem. Due to its thinner profile, it does not contain
the 3.5" expansion bay, and therefore does not support
the internal hard disk drive. This poses a problem for
games such as Final Fantasy XI, which requires the use
of this peripheral, and prevents the use of the official
PS2 Linux kit, although a workaround may be possible.
It is widely believed that Sony has abandoned support
for the hard drive. There are also some disputes on the
numbering for this PS2 version, since there are actually
two sub-versions of the SCPH-70000. One of them includes
the old EE and GS chips, and the other contains the newer
unified EE+GS chip, otherwise being identical. Since the
V12 version had already been established for this model,
there were some disputes regarding these sub-versions.
Two propositions were to name the old model (EE and GS,
separate chips) V11.5 and the newer model V12, and to
name the old model V12 and the newer model V13. Currently,
most people just use V12 for both models, or V12 for the
old model and V13 for the newer one. The new V12 model
was first released in black. A silver edition was recently
anncounced.
Sony has also made a PVR/DVD burning
consumer device that plays PlayStation 2 games called
the PSX. The device was poorly received, with some major
features absent from the first revisions of the hardware,
and has thus far experienced very poor sales in Japan,
in spite of major price drops.The machine's future continues
to be uncertain, with North American and European launches
considered to be distant if at all.
PlayStation3
The successor to the PS2 is currently being developed,
and is known as the PlayStation 3. Sony released some
technical specifications on in the spring of 2005, at
the E3 trade show, and announced that the console would
ship in the spring of 2006. What is known is that PlayStation
3 will be backwards compatible, use Blu Ray Technology,
support HDTV outputs and Ethernet, and its CPU will be
a Cell microprocessor using technology codeveloped by
Sony, Toshiba, and IBM.
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