PS2 Appreciation Thread | The Greatest Sequel Ever Made

[spladam]

God said “let there be a another one”, and then he saw that it was good.

Sony Computer Entertainment’s 6th generation console and successor to the PlayStation was released on March 4, 2000 in Japan, October 26, 2000 in North America, November 24, 2000 in Europe, and November 17, 2000 in Australia.

The Playstation 2 went on to become the best-selling video game console of all time, selling over 155 million units. It had an expansive library with more than 3,874 game titles released for the PS2 since launch, and more than 1.5 billion copies sold.

Playstation 2 hardware specifications:

• CPU: Custom designed Toshiba “Emotion Engine” RISC processor operating at 294 MHz (299 MHz in later consoles), with a floating point performance of 6.2 GFLOPS.

• GPU: The custom-designed Graphics Synthesizer GPU, clocked at 147MHz, with 4MB video memory and a fillrate of 2.4 gigapixels/second, capable of rendering up to 75 million polygons per second.

• Media: The PlayStation 2 software is distributed on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. In addition, the console can play audio CDs and DVD movies, and is backwards compatible with original PlayStation games. This is accomplished through the inclusion of the original PlayStation’s CPU which also serves as the PS2’s I/O processor.

• Controller: The Sony DualShock 2 controller is an upgraded version of the PlayStation’s DualShock with analog face, shoulder and D-pad buttons replacing the digital buttons of the original. Like its predecessor, the DualShock 2 controller features force feedback technology.
  Considered to be one of the best controller designs in console history, the Dualshock and Dualshock 2 have massively influenced standard game pad design since it’s conception.

Playstation 2 Main Board

The Playstation 2 is a console that many of us hold near and dear to our hearts. With an amazing library, a state of the art controller, and top notch design by Sony Computer Entertainment, many of us have hours of memorable experiences attached to this machine.

Please join Retro Game Boards in celebrating the 6th generation marvel that was the Playstation 2.

Here are some useful resources provided by RGB member Dwayne:
List of 60 Hz support in PAL PlayStation 2 games

List of widescreen patches for Playstation 2

The Youtube creators My Life In Gaming made an incredible video addressing the technical issues and what to do and not to do with regards to displaying your PS2 console on all TV formats under all resolution formats. Increadibly informative, see video for your answers:

Notable exclusive Playstation 2 games:

Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec

Gran Turismo 4

Okami

Kingdom Hearts

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Shadow of the Colossus

Ico

Final Fantasy X

God of War 2

Katamari Damacy

Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Jak 3

[Chacranajxy]

Nice.

The PS2 fucks.

[spladam]

Is that good? Hahaha.

[tron]

Well done! PS2 is such a great system. Everyone’s first DVD player.

[apathetic]

So what is the best version of the Fat to get? My launch one kicked it years ago and I’ve been using my launch PS3 for my ps2 games since, but don’t really like that as a permanent solution. Want to get a fat and hard drive it up. I also want to get one of those glorious blue boxes they came in since mine was tossed sometime along the way.

[speedlolita]

I would grab a SCPH-39001 myself. Final 30000 revision, solid unit.

I have an NTSC-U debugging station, DTL-H30101 E. The E denoting that it has a 230V factory installed power supply. For me, perfection.

[spladam]

Are some versions more capable at backwards compatibility. I read a thread with this years ago and remember someone saying something to that effect.

[apathetic]

Are there any other, or rather does anyone know of any other, “dev stations” or stuff like the black ps1 that I could go out of my way for that are a better option for getting the best one I could get?

Thanks for the info regardless.

Speaking of “best” versions of thing, this may not be the right place to ask this but does anyone know the “best” version of GTA: San Andreas to play now? I love replaying it on the PS2 since I still have my original copy as well as the limited edition that came out with the prelude movie that actually makes the start of the game make sense but I’m sure there is a better way. Is it still unpatched PC version with fan patches?

[spladam]

No, as someone who played in on three platforms, I found the PC version to be the worst.
I definitely find the PS2 to be the best way to play it. It was also the best selling game on the PS2, don’t know if I should have put that in the OP

[apathetic]

@spladam

I found the PC version to be the worst.

Interesting. Why is that? I know there were some graphical differences, but thought the community had made their own patches for them. Also know the official patches are shit and even remove features, and that’s why you need to stay on 1.0 or something.

Also, a very relevant picture:

[spladam]

I was not aware of the community patches.

I had an incredibly hard time mapping my controller to the game, and even when I finally got it worked out by editing game files, it did not feel right at all. I could not stand using K/M on that game. To be honest, even with the settings maxed out, I did not find it to look as good as the PS2 version. I don’t know if community patches fixed this, but I was happy to just play it on my PS2.

Wish I still had a working one, it’s something I’ve been meaning to acquire for a while, I still have some of my games.

But I’m getting a swtich first. Too many hobbies, not enough time and money.

[Peridot]

Has anyone played online with the PS2 recently? Apparently there are some people still playing Twisted Metal Black, Star Wars Battlefront, Call of Duty, Resident Evil Outbreak and some others. Some are through their own private servers and others through XLink Kai.

I’d love to play some Timesplitters online again.

Edit: Oh damn, OutRun 2006 is supported too.

[Socksfelloff]

@spladam you knocked it out of the park with the OT!

I played some battlefront II online a year ago or so. It was alot of fun!

[NeoZeedeater]

I love the PS2 but my launch era system ended up scratching the fuck out of discs. I had a few games and DVDs ruined. The slim model I have owned since then has been great, though.

[TigerKite]

I have my PS2 hooked up to a TV through an S-Video cable. I’m really loving it, I still have a backlog of PS2 games that I need to play.

[Timu321]

I typically use component cables for my PS2!

[Dwayne]

PS2 is by far my favourite system. So many quality Japanese games, great collections, and tons of weird garbage games that are a lot of fun too. I’ve been travelling for a bit lately and managed to fill in some holes in my collection, here’s what I got:

Had an awesome trip to Japan and found almost every game on my wantlist for a reasonable price! Certainly wasn’t without a lot of hunting, I probably hit 25+ stores selling games to find all of these at acceptable prices.

Was really surprised to find the game shops in Paris are essentially PAL versions of stores you might see in Akihabara. Filled to the brim with games and some good prices to be found if you shop around. My only regret is not picking up Rule of Rose - I found it just as the store was closing and couldn’t decide if the price was right so I quickly searched the net, only to run out of data right then and there. Left it behind and regret it a bit now because the price was fair - about what it sells for on eBay. Hoping to see a copy in the states towards the end of the year.
Finally I picked these up in the last week:

Something fun about being in a different region is seeing games you don’t recognise. I feel like I have a pretty strong grip on all the PS2 games that were made available in New Zealand, but here in Geneva I look at a shelf and end up finding lots I’ve never heard of. Robot Warlords is one of those, a PAL exclusive localisation of the Japanese mech game “Velvet File”. Looks fun! Only shame is I don’t have a PS2 here to play on

[Dwayne]

A couple of useful links that are maybe op-worthy:
List of 60 Hz support in PAL PlayStation 2 games
Useful for PAL gamers for sure. I’ll often pick to get the US version of a game if the PAL version is 50hz only. There’s also the option to patch 50hz games to 60hz, though that’s not covered here.

List of widescreen patches for Playstation 2
Doesn’t have every game and I’m not really sure how system support is compared to emulator, but playing in 16:9 is pretty sweet all-round.

[Addicted]

I second this. I have three fat PS2s and one Test Unit. The 39001s still have working lasers.

This is my DTL-5001 or DTL-5000 (I need to look it up again)

US power supply and outputs PAL video. As is the case with the 5000 series it’s missing the Firewire connection in front but still has the USB ports.

[cornerstone]

I have a slim PS2 with a sync-on-green vga cable, I believe it’s called. I haven’t used it in a while but I can get it up and running on my Sega Blast City monitor when I have time.

It was pretty clean from what I remember, but I’m not a real graphics enthusiast.