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The PlayStation 2 (PS2 for short) is a game console released in 2000 as the successor to the original PlayStation. It competed against the Dreamcast in its early months, then against the Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube. It was succeeded by the PlayStation 3 in 2006 and was discontinued in Japan on December 28, 2012 and worldwide on January 4, 2013.
The PlayStation 2 was the third-strongest console of its generation, behind the GameCube, but ahead of the Dreamcast.
Hardware specifications
- CPU: MIPS R5900 Emotion Engine @ 294.912 (fat models) or 299 MHz (slim models)
- Memory: 32 MB of RDRAM (system RAM), 4 MB of eDRAM (video RAM)
- Storage:
- Memory cards: 128 KB (PS1 games only), 8 MB (official), 16, 32, 64, 128, or 256 MB (unlicensed)
- Hard drives (fat models only): 40 GB
- Display: 480i (NTSC), 576i (PAL), 240p, 288p, 480p, or 1080i (the latter two only work with component cables)
- Graphics: 150 MHz Graphics Synthesizer
- Media: DVD, CD
Why It Lives And Plays In Your World
- A whopping 3,847 games were released for it. On top of that, virtually every game from its generation is playable on (if not exclusive to) the console, outside of Nintendo's and Microsoft's first-party titles and PC-exclusives.
- Almost completely backwards compatible with the PlayStation, so when the game library of both consoles is combined, the number of games you could play was over 10,000! Also, you can increase the loading speed of the original PlayStation games. This helped because a lot of games released after the PlayStation 2 came out were for the original PlayStation.
- Remained in production for thirteen years, making it one of the longest-running consoles in gaming history. Even with the release of the PS3, the PS2 remained popular into the seventh and eighth generations. New games were released for it even after it had been discontinued. In fact, the console was so popular that the last game on it was Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, which was released a week before the PlayStation 4's release date! However, this version of the game was only released in Europe. This game also had PS3 and PS4 verisons.
- Unlike the PlayStation memory card which could only hold about 15 slots of data, the PS2 memory card has a total of 8MB worth of storage capacity, allowing for a large amount of saving files on each. There are also some variations of bigger memory cards, such as a 16MB one.
- A hard drive was released for the PlayStation 2 in July 2001 in Japan and in 2004 in North America, technically making it the first released console to have a hard drive before the release of the Xbox in November 2001. The hard drive allows you to store a massive amount of game saves, enhanced certain games, and was used in Final Fantasy XI to allow the game to get updates from the server.
- A huge number of very good games, many of which were exclusives or started on the PS2 such as:
- God of War 1 and 2
- Final Fantasy X, X-2, and XII
- Ratchet & Clank 1, 2, and 3
- Jak and Daxter 1, 2, and 3
- Sly Cooper 1, 2, and 3
- Persona 4
- Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Silent Hill 2, 3, and 4
- Devil May Cry
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- Gran Turismo 3 and 4
- Twisted Metal: Black
- Yakuza
- Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas
- Iconic startup screen.
- It's interesting to note that the blocks on the screen represent any game played on the memory card, and as the player goes through in the game, these blocks become towers. If it fills all the way, the towers will be at the startup instead of the blue galaxy.
- Similar to how Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon were the unofficial mascots for the PS1, Jak, Ratchet, and Sly Cooper were the unofficial mascots of the PS2.
- The first Sony home console to have Sega and their Sonic games. This is notable due to Sega competing with the original PlayStation in the late 1990s with their Sega Saturn and Dreamcast consoles.
- One of the first major consoles capable of playing DVDs, which was a selling point when it was released and it also meant games could be stored in DVD discs, one of the reasons it outsold its competitors is that it was the only console at the time that plays DVDs out of the box, as the original Xbox can only DVDs via an add-on that's sold separately while the Gamecube DVD compatibility is only exclusive to a certain model released only in Japan while the Dreamcast lacked a DVD drive at all.
- A second "slim" model was also released. It takes less shelf space, has its own built-in Ethernet port to negate the requirement for network adapters, and uses a top-loading disc drive to ease up the process of ejecting a disc. It is still backwards compatible with the PlayStation games and still plays DVD movies.
- Some cases for the games have a small slot to store memory cards.
- The DualShock 2 controller is backwards compatible with the PS1, and the earlier DualShock 1 is also forwards compatible with the PS2. Even the original PS1 controller is forwards compatible with PS2 games that don't require the analog sticks.
- Speaking of controllers, the PS2 had so many unique controllers such as the DDR pad, Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw controller and so many more.
- Brazilians could watch Netflix through a special red disc (no longer supported).
- Most PS2s can be modded to play games through USB flash drives or burning, force upscaling to higher resolutions (with component cables), or emulate many games from other consoles like the SNES and Sega Genesis.
- Soft modding a PS2 is fairly easy compared to other consoles and there are various methods of doing so, the easiest being to simply buy a Free McBoot memory card. Hard modding a PS2 however is more difficult than hard modding an original Xbox.
- There is a Sony Bravia TV with a built-in PlayStation 2 released in PAL regions in 2010.
- One of the earliest consoles to support 1080i through component output. The handful of games that supported this mode include Gran Turismo 4, Tourist Trophy, and a Jackass game of all things.
- It was the first console to be able to run a non-proprietary operating system, namely Linux.
- The console's hardware was similar to that of the Wii and the PSP, as a result it was on the market alongside its successor until a few months before the PS4 was released.
Bad Qualities
- Most multi-platform games look and run worse on the PS2 due to the weaker hardware of the system, most notably Sonic Heroes, Psychonauts, and various Grand Theft Auto and Tom Clancy's games. This isn't as big of an issue as it could have been, since most games from its generation were designed with the PS2 in mind and didn't take much advantage of the more powerful competitors, but even then, PS2 games usually run at a lower framerate and resolution. Plus a few developers such as Valve, Bethesda, and Id avoided developing games for the PS2 due to its weaker hardware.
- Most early PS2 consoles tend to break down easily or suffer the infamous Red Screen of Death which says "Please insert a PlayStation or PlayStation 2 format disc." This was fixed on later models.
- RSOD had a creepy sound that scared many younger gamers.
- Official memory cards are only 8 MB, and very few third-party manufacturers (Nyko, Mad Catz, and Hori) were licensed to make them. 16 MB and up cards are neither licensed nor officially supported, and they can break easily, formatting all data and making it useless.
- On top of that, some games won't save on any memory card that isn't 8 MB
- The first DVD remotes don't have a power or eject button, and the early PS2s require a receiver dongle to be put into one of the controller ports and a disc to update the player. Later revisions of the remote added the buttons and the SCPH-5000x and up PS2s have the receiver built into them and don't need the update disc, although the eject button only works on the 5000x PS2s since the slims have a mechanical lid rather than a motorized tray.
- Severe lack of quality control on what games could be published on it, resulting the console into being the shovelware target of its generation, more so during the latter half its lifecycle. It even resulted in bootleg movies being published exclusively for the PS2.
- Official component cables (which, along with RGB SCART, are known for having the best possible analog video quality) are now very expensive and very rare in some countries like Brazil, ranging from $50-$200, the same goes for the PS3's component cables which are backwards compatible.
- The PlayStation 2 is the only console from its generation that required a multitap to allow more than two people playing at once, even the Dreamcast didn't need a multitap. Worse yet, there were two different versions, since the slim models cannot use the original model's multitap or vice versa, since the gap between the controller port and the memory card slot were different. Even the Nintendo 64, which was from the last generation, didn't need a multitap!
- Games continued to be released until 2013, despite the fact in 2009-10, the lifespan was starting to die out. The most infamous examples being Toy Story 3: The Video Game and Despicable Me: The Game, the latter of which was not released on its successor.
- Despite being backward compatible with PlayStation games, you still need PS1 memory cards for saving PS1 games.
- Linux can't be installed on the slim models due to them lacking hard drive support from the fat models.
- The SCPH-7000x and SCPH-7500x models require an external power brick (fortunately the brick isn't in the socket part).
- Most SCPH 9000x models are currently impossible to mod due to improved security measures Sony has built into them.
- The slim models are notorious for damaging or destroying discs due to the laser cable loosening over time and eventually scratching the discs.
- The fat models have terrible physical durability and can get damaged easily when dropped from 5 feet which is worse than most other consoles.
Maintenance
- The ribbon that moves the lens when reading a disc on the slim model can touch the disc while it spins, leaving a big circular scratch on every disc you play. If this happens to you, stop using your PS2 immediately and take it to be repaired.
- PlayStation games played via backward compatibility can't save data into a PlayStation 2 memory card, so make sure you own an older PS1 memory card.
- Some unofficial game discs such as the ones produced by Phoenix Games can damage your console due to those discs' poor quality.
Reception
The PlayStation 2 is currently the best-selling video game system in history, selling over 155 million units as of March 31, 2012. Its ability to play DVDs and PlayStation games as well as good third-party support was a major factor to its massive success.
Videos
Trivia
- The announcement of the PS2 alone was strong enough to cause the Dreamcast to decline in sales quickly and kill it for good.
- The following PS2 games are the only games on the PS2 that can be played in 1080i:
- Tourist Trophy
- Gran Turismo 4
- Jackass: The Game
- Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
- It took nearly a decade for the PS2 to be launched in Brazil, leaving it on the market for only three years in that country.
- A digital video recorder based on the PS2, the PSX (not to be confused with the original PlayStation that also used PSX as its code name), was released in 2003 only in Japan. It became a total flop due to having a really high launch price, and other fatal flaws, causing Sony to cancel their plans on releasing the device outside of Japan.
- It barely gets outsold by the Nintendo DS with only 1 million units, causing it to be the best selling console ever made.
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