Wednesday, 6 May 2015

6th Generation - PlayStation 2


No other console was more eagerly awaited than the PlayStation 2. The original PlayStation dominated the gaming industry in 1995 selling over 100 million units, but this one, this one is special. The PlayStation 2 came out in 2000 in japan at a selling price of $299 just as the previous console.The console itself could output video resolution on an SDTV and an HDTV ranging from 480i to 480p. Some other games like Gran Turismo 4 could support a 1080i resolution using an RGB cable. It had a 120Bit emotion engine CPU which 295MHz and a graphics synthesizer GPU which ran 147MHz.


Initially the console had a few selection of games with some that are definitely memorable such as SSX and Smuggler's run but the thing that made this console huge selling point was it's 2 key features, these were the backward compatibility to read PS1 games and the ability to play DVD movies. Sony's marketing strategy was smart, they released the Playstation 2 right at the time when DVD player costed a couple of hundred dollars and so when people saw that they could get one for ''free'' when buying a console, they went nuts. It obliviously wasn't a high quality DVD player because it's main intent was to play 3D games but nevertheless it did it's job. 

The console came in various color variation and along the years different designs, some to make it slimmer and some cooler. 


The PlayStation 2 Aqua edition.
The PlayStation 2 Silver edition.
The PlayStation 2 Red edition.






The console quickly gained it's traditional, massive game library with amazing titles such as Final fantasy, Ico, Metal Gear Solid and Shadow of the Colossus. Even though 2 more consoles with more advanced graphics capabilities came out trying to compete with the PlayStation 2, the Xbox and the Nintendo Game Cube, they were no match to the huge successful game library.


The console's initial design was sleek black design which can be placed both vertical which resembles a skyscraper, using a stand, or placed flat horizontally. On the front you have the standard Standby\Off button, a reset button and an open\close button for the CD tray. At the back there was a power button but it was rarely used due to standby mode button in the front. 


The front part also offers two controller ports and two USB ports to connect some PS2 accessories such as the famous Eye Toy camera. 

A multiplayer adapter could be bought so you can expand for up to 4 players. 


The PS2 memory could hold a substantial amount of data ,the standard 8MB, compared to their predecessor but some of the games, especially the sports games are known for taking allot of space.

The controller looks almost identical to their predecessors and the only noticeable change would be the analog sticks and the color.The buttons where also equipped with analog sensitivity making the analog stick practically useless, even so the games weren't designed to be used with analog stick.

This console sold well over 155 Million units making it the most successful console ever to exist with 3,900 games released and since it's launch selling more than 1.5 Billion copies.

Biblioraphy:
Wikipedia, (2015). PlayStation 2. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2 [Accessed 6 May 2015].

Videogamecritic.com, (2015). The Video Game Critic's Playstation 2 Console Review. [online] Available at: http://videogamecritic.com/ps2info.htm [Accessed 6 May 2015].

Gladstone, D. (2001). Sony PS2 review - CNET. [online] CNET. Available at: http://www.cnet.com/products/sony-ps2/ [Accessed 6 May 2015].

No comments:

Post a Comment