2010s - NOTES
 DW FACTSby Dark Watcher |
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Rumors of the successor to the Sony PlayStation had been surfacing since 1997. By 1999, Sony began announcing a new console called the
PlayStation 2 (PS2). This next generation system would use the immense storage capacity of the DVD, the raw processing power of a chip called the
"Emotion Engine" and be able to play DVD Movies, audio CDs right out of the box. Coupled with the fact that the device would be
backwards compatible with the original PlayStation software, Sony definitely had a winning recipe for success. Backed up by a lot of hype, the PlayStation 2 was released in Japan on March 4, 2000. The console broke records by selling well over a million units in a matter of days. Sony struggled to keep up with the demand and initially shipped units with glitched memory cards. The Japanese PS2 used these memory cards with "Gate Way" technology, where it stored the drivers needed to run DVD movies. Later on Sony again had to deal with another bug in initial PS2 units, one which would allowed users to override the region coding system and play DVD movies regardless of region. When the PS2 was finally released in North America on October 26, Sony did away with the DVD playback issues by hard coding the drivers into the PS2 unit. Europe saw a release a month later. Although the initial launch of the PlayStation 2 was a complete success, the console itself had its early share of problems. There are no doubts that the PS2 "Emotion Chip" was state of the art, but its design made things difficult for software developers who had grown spoiled by the simple development environment of the Sega Dreamcast. Rather then suffer the fate of the Sega Saturn, Sony opened up developer assistance forums, documentation, phone assistance and websites to provide the technical assistance needed for developers to create premium titles. However the initial batch of PS2 games where indeed a rushed effort. As with most new consoles, it takes time for developers to truly take advantage of a console's capabilities. Early developers complained about the lack of video ram and centered all programming to the main CPU instead of taking advantage of the two other co-processors of the "Emotion Chip". Another drastic complaint was the jaggiest and flickering in most of the launch games. One of the reasons behind this was the games lacked Full Screen Anti Aliasing. The PlayStation 2 hardware did not seem capable of producing this effect which could be seen in Nintendo 64 and the Dreamcast. Sony would later reveal methods of producing FSAA through the software code. One method that was unique to the PS2 and differs from traditional methods is a field bending technique that works well with televisions. The PS2 also offered two modes that even improved the original PlayStation's large library of games. One option took full advantage of the systems drive to speed up loading time in some games. The other is a Texture Interpolation option that can clean up jagged edges and other problems with textures in some games making for much needed graphic improvement. These modes were either not compatible or cause glitches in some games, but was truly a novel idea by Sony. Various other ports such as USB allow for numerous device connectivity. Sony truly meant to give gamers a multimedia experience. Soon afterwards Sony would take a page from Sega's online gaming efforts and produce an adapter that would allow for 56K / broadband gaming. Word of a hard drive, zip drives, voice chat devices and more bring the PlayStation 2 console closer to Sony's multimedia conception. Even with the introduction of newer consoles by rival Nintendo and newcomer Microsoft, the Sony PlayStation 2 remained the most popular console even to the end of year 2004. With so many consoles sold, developers saw it wise to cash in. As a result the console has one of the largest software libraries available. Add the backward compatibility with the original PlayStation library and you have another successful Sony system that is still going strong. |
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In November 2004, Sony released a reduced sized version of the PlayStation 2. This new model (SCPH-7000 CB) is 75 percent smaller
and sports a built in Network Adaptor, but lacked the expansion bay required for the external hard drive. See our Specs &
Manuals tab for more information on these variations. FACT: Just as was done for the PlayStation (Yaroze), Sony catered to the dreams of would be developers. In April of 2002, Sony released a specialized kit which turned the PlayStation 2 console into a full-fledged computer. The PlayStation 2 Linux kit (pictured above) came with a Linux distribution DVD that runs on the PS2 hardware, additional software, a 40GB hard drive, an Ethernet adapter, a USB mouse, a USB keyboard, a computer monitor cable and a wealth of documentation containing the same information that Sony provides its licensed game developers. It could only be purchased from Sony's official PlayStation webpage and retailed at $199 USD. |
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