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New Slimline PS2 Compatibility Issues

Posted by Zonk on from the doomed-to-forget-the-past dept.

Gamasutra reports that a new iteration of the PS2 hardware experiences issues with certain games, both from this and the last generation. From the article: "The listed games will only be affected on new models of the system, starting with the Satin Silver slimline PS2, so far announced only for Japan. Whether the SCPH-75000 model will eventually be the standard for all production PS2s is unknown, but Sony advises those wanting a thinner system which can play the aforementioned games to get a 70000 or above."

57 comments

  1. FP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    first po.. oh wait, nobody cares.

  2. Sooooo..... by Hexxon · · Score: -1

    Only poor people that can't afford good games are affected?

  3. People say Microsoft is bad... by KDR_11k · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... but Sony can't even change the paint on their hardware without breaking compatibility?

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    1. Re:People say Microsoft is bad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      So, some pathetic little shill for a company that has the most retarded backwards compatibility ever for a console in the Dreamcast 360 thinks he can talk shit?

      WTG dipshit.

    2. Re:People say Microsoft is bad... by ZakuSage · · Score: 1, Redundant

      It would seem odd that just "changing the paint" on the system would make it do this, which is exactly why it must be an internal change. There's likely upgraded parts, to be cheaper or less power hungry, that's causing this.

    3. Re:People say Microsoft is bad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you really dumb enough to take that comment seriously?

    4. Re:People say Microsoft is bad... by Random832 · · Score: 1

      wtf? criticizing one company automatically makes one a shill for another company? that must be the reason for the attacks he mentions in his sig. I guess this makes you a Nintendo shill - arbitrarily because i said so. dipshit.

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    5. Re:People say Microsoft is bad... by dedioste · · Score: 1

      They might have merged the Emotion Engine chip with the Graphic Syntethizer. It was a step previously anticipated, supposed to go on production on the first size reduction but it didn't.
      Objective: cost-cutting. Remember that PS2 will still be selling when PS3 launches. PSone sold a LOT of units (30/40 millions, equivalent to 50% of the installed base) after the last price cut, coincident with the PS2 launch.

  4. I want to know how simply shrinking the size by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    can screw up a game not working. after all it should be the same archateture just smaller.

    1. Re:I want to know how simply shrinking the size by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's not even smaller, the 7000x (slim) models aren't affected, only the new 7500x (silver slim) are.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    2. Re:I want to know how simply shrinking the size by Keeper · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They're not just shrinking the size. They're cost reducing. They're redesigining/combining chips in order to make production and manufacturing less expensive.

    3. Re:I want to know how simply shrinking the size by necronom426 · · Score: 1

      A Ha! I think I've solved Sony's problem. It's the silver paint! Paint them black and they will start working again.

  5. Evil Sony by PresidentEnder · · Score: -1, Troll
    None of the listed errors are fatal, except for the Tekken 5 freeze (doesn't every system hang from time to time?); while they are annoying, this is certainly livable.

    Oh, wait, this is Sony? Those bastards! Selling broken products is wrong! We should sue them!

    --
    I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel
    1. Re:Evil Sony by Txiasaeia · · Score: 4, Insightful
      "(doesn't every system hang from time to time?)"

      Let's see: Gameboy? Nope. GBC? Nope. GBA? Nope. NES? Nope. SNES? Nope. Gamecube? Nope.

      I've never had a console freeze on me; that doesn't necessarily mean that none of the above platforms are immune to it, but I've never had hardware/software incompatibilities except on a PC. Go figure.

      --
      Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
    2. Re:Evil Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Start up your SNES, then give it a good wack. You can probably get it to crash that way. :)

      Actually, I remember that on Final Fantasy III for the SNES (yes, we know, FF6, shut up), using one character's special ability would crash the system. (Especially fun since one fight you HAD to use it.) So I always say Relm's special ability is "Crash" since it would always crash my SNES.

      But beyond that, the only problems with crashing games I can think about involve either hitting the console and causing the cart to lose contact, or Sony products. Sony: When it absolutely, postively, doesn't need to be reliable beyond 10% of the time.

    3. Re:Evil Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've never had a console freeze on me

      I've had Gran Turismo 3 single-player crash and lose my progress on Playstation 2.

      And multiplayer networked games via firewire are also notoriously unreliable. When it doesn't crash the machine, you have to frequently reset it when the menus stop behaving correctly.

      but I've never had hardware/software incompatibilities except on a PC.

      That's a silly statement - consoles are generally immune to hardware or software incompatibilies by their very nature. As a consumer, there's no way of connecting hardware to your Xbox when it was not explicitly designed to be used with an Xbox.

    4. Re:Evil Sony by fujiman · · Score: 3, Interesting

      To be fair, there was a lockup issue with Metroid Prime on the GC ... basically, the "other" parts of a level were loaded while they showed an elevator cinematic. If the cinematic ended before the data was loaded... lockup. AND TO BE EVEN MORE FAIR... I will say Nintendo has very tight QC. NEVER had any problems with a Nintendo handheld over the course of 15 years. Sony certainly can't make that claim with the PSP. The current PS2 woes seem to be from redesigning the hardware for the second time this cycle. The beauty of Nintendo is that they design hardware to be cost-efficient from the get-go. I think most companies could learn alot from moneybags Nintendo.

    5. Re:Evil Sony by Txiasaeia · · Score: 1
      "That's a silly statement - consoles are generally immune to hardware or software incompatibilies by their very nature. As a consumer, there's no way of connecting hardware to your Xbox when it was not explicitly designed to be used with an Xbox."

      Um, the entire point of TFA was the fact that there *are* incompatibilities between console hardware and software - or did you miss that bit?

      --
      Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
    6. Re:Evil Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had FIFA 2004 freeze on me on the Gamecube. Not once, but several times. Was mildly annoying, to say the least.

      Yes, it's an anecdote, but it goes to show that the vaunted stability of a console isn't a guaranteed thing. Better than a PC? Definitely. Perfect? Hell no.

    7. Re:Evil Sony by Incoherent07 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sketch was incredibly buggy, I'll agree, but it didn't crash my system at least. I just ended up with 1000 dirks, and enough gem boxes and economizers to get 1 MP Ultimas for the rest of the game.

      I have, however, frozen my N64 a few times, and Gamecube once (Worms 3D, a terribly buggy but terribly fun game).

      --
      This is my sig. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.
    8. Re:Evil Sony by AlexMax2742 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Xbox?: Nope

      At least it hasn't for me, or any sizeable portion of the installed userbase since the stupid first wave. You may think Xbox is evil, but knowingly and arbitrarily breaking compatability is another. It's one thing to say "All Game Boy games will not be able to be played on the Game Boy Micro", but it's pretty stupid when you have to make a list of PSOne and PS2 games that specificly don't work on the new system. I thought that the whole point of consoles was to get rid of silly things like compatability problems.

      --
      I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
    9. Re:Evil Sony by wheany · · Score: 1

      I had Castlevania: Dawn of sorrow freeze on me once. And countless original steam-Gameboy games have frozen.

    10. Re:Evil Sony by geminidomino · · Score: 2, Funny

      Now there's a slogan.

      "Sony: Six nines of reliablility. Just ignore the decimal point at the beginning."

    11. Re:Evil Sony by Megane · · Score: 1
      That very tight QC is why the GC version of Gauntlet Dark Legacy freezes on text popups later in the game?

      And I hear the new PS2 unit is also incompatible with FFXI. :-)

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    12. Re:Evil Sony by WaterBreath · · Score: 1

      I'd say you've been very lucky. Virtually every console I've owned has frozen up or crashed on me at some point. It was by far most common with my NES, but I've had the problem with GB, SNES, PS, PS2, and GC as well. Never owned an XBox, so I can't comment on that one.

    13. Re:Evil Sony by PresidentEnder · · Score: 1

      Why is parent flamebait? For that matter, why is it troll?

      --
      I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel
    14. Re:Evil Sony by snuf23 · · Score: 1

      I had my Xbox crash several times. Of course I was running the homebrew Xbox version of MAME with a bad romset at the time...

      --
      Sometimes my arms bend back.
    15. Re:Evil Sony by Psx29 · · Score: 1

      For metroid prime, opening and closing the disc cover seemed to work if it locked up

    16. Re:Evil Sony by Doomstalk · · Score: 1

      I love my GC dearly, but I've seen it crash- the Metroid Prime US 1.0 freeze glitch. If you skipped the monsters put in your way to buy the game time to load, the system crashed. It would crash occasionally with elevators.

    17. Re:Evil Sony by jclast · · Score: 1

      You've never had your GameCube freeze?

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      e2 | LJ
    18. Re:Evil Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gamecube: Metroid Prime Freezing: http://www.classicgaming.com/mdb/mp/glitches.htm#f reezing

    19. Re:Evil Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mod redundant. Did you not read the post directly above yours?

    20. Re:Evil Sony by Txiasaeia · · Score: 1

      I played the Player's Choice version of MP, so maybe that's why I never had any problems with it.

      --
      Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
    21. Re:Evil Sony by AlexMax2742 · · Score: 1
      Of course I was running the homebrew Xbox version of MAME with a bad romset at the time...

      Well there you go.

      --
      I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
    22. Re:Evil Sony by WWWWolf · · Score: 1

      Well, Nintendo isn't flaw-free, but still least buggy of all things I've tried. At worst, I've had startup flaws due to crap in the connectors (But then again, really no system is immune to crap in the game media - ahem, no dual meaning intended). The weirdest surprise was when one GBA game was identified as a DS game accessory pak. I was, like, "oh, DS games can be extended, what a wonderful platform this is" =)

      I've only witnessed a Nintendo game crash once, when using quake power in Star Fox Adventures. And that happened only once.

  6. Sony's math is a bit off... by Gothic_Walrus · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Whether the SCPH-75000 model will eventually be the standard for all production PS2s is unknown, but Sony advises those wanting a thinner system which can play the aforementioned games to get a 70000 or above."

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't 75000 above 70000?

    --
    Goo goo g'joob.
    1. Re:Sony's math is a bit off... by Cheapy · · Score: 1

      You must remember, everything from Japan is different from the United States.

      --
      Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
    2. Re:Sony's math is a bit off... by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      The last digit changes pretty often so a 70000 would be hard to get. I bought mine a few weeks after the 70000 line launched and got a 70004.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    3. Re:Sony's math is a bit off... by Gothic_Walrus · · Score: 1
      But how would you know?

      You haven't left yet. :)

      --
      Goo goo g'joob.
  7. To exclude homebrew and piracy by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There's likely upgraded parts, to be cheaper or less power hungry

    Probably not. The upgrade was likely to exclude the loopholes and modifications that homebrewers use because those are the same loopholes and modifications that pirates use.

    1. Re:To exclude homebrew and piracy by Dark_Lord_Prime · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ah-ha! So it's those damned home-brewers making life difficult for innocent pirates again, is it??

      10-to-1, somebody takes this post seriously and starts bitching at me for "supporting piracy"... :P

      --
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    2. Re:To exclude homebrew and piracy by Megane · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Right, because the best time to stop the modders is a year before you release a whole new console? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  8. Right... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If you've never had a NES hang on you, you've never had a NES.

  9. Re:Gamecube most definitely freezes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Metroid Prime was one of the most widely publicized games that froze. I would say that 1 out of every 100 times I play a Gamecube game, the console freezes. I don't know if it was speculation or an official acknowledgment, but the word that went around shortly after Metroid Prime was released, was that the freezing was the result of the game using every last bit of memory in the system.

  10. What about PAL slimline silver models? by Fred+Or+Alive · · Score: 1

    In the UK we have silver slimline PS2s as well - Anyone know if they're 70000 or 75000 series? Not that I'd get one, I think plastic silver is really tacky as a finish, but I'm just interested.

    (And do they still have the wonderful (not) matching black controller ports and power buttons etc. that the silver and aqua blue tray loading PS2s had?)

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    10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
    20 GOTO 10
    1. Re:What about PAL slimline silver models? by superpulpsicle · · Score: 1

      I got the 1st shipment of the slimed PS2, when my original PS2 fried. Immediately I rendered 2 accessories obsolete. My Multitap did not fit in the slim model. Then my ActionReplay memory card can't be read with the new slim PS2, so I had to give that away too.

  11. Blame Sonny Bono by tepples · · Score: 1

    Right, because the best time to stop the modders is a year before you release a whole new console?

    Sony has been changing the PS2 around more often than you think, and this is just one more step, albeit one that resulted in unintended consequences. Steps against modding are necessary even now because if you're five years into a console's life cycle, that means you still have 90 years to defend the copyrights in the launch titles. Blame Sonny Bono.

  12. Buggy games? by oliverthered · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's quite possible that the game is buggy, but the bug didn't appear on the old architecture. There are quite a few games with bugs in then that don't appear on Windows but do appear in Wine, even though Wines API matches Windows API.

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    thank God the internet isn't a human right.
    1. Re:Buggy games? by Magnakai · · Score: 1

      If it's written for Windows and it works perfectly on Windows, but suddenly has problems when run under WINE... surely it's due to the fact that it was never meant to be run under WINE. Thus, they aren't bugs, it's just reacting in an unexpected way to an enviroment that it was never designed to be run under.

    2. Re:Buggy games? by oliverthered · · Score: 1

      I'd call a buffer overrun a bug.

      --
      thank God the internet isn't a human right.
  13. Gamasutra and 1UP by caitsith01 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Anyone else get the feeling it might be quicker to cut out the middle man (Zonk) and just bookmark 1UP and Gamasutra directly? Although then we would miss out on the oddly-worded summaries...

    --
    Read Pynchon.
  14. Because if you read the article by MMaestro · · Score: 1
    The list of affected PSone games, however, is quite a bit longer, though still includes a relatively small number of games to be concerned about. Chief among these is the Dual Shock or 5th Anniversary Package version of Resident Evil 2, where the sound playback during movies is incorrect, and Chrono Cross, which also has problems during its ending movie.

    Resident Evil 2? Chrono Cross? Upsetting SquareEnix and Capcom, two of the biggest supporters of the PS1 AND PS2, is not a good way to start the next generation of console wars. What next? The first wave of PS3s can't play FFVII? The Blu-Ray drives are defective? The systems don't work 'right out of the box'? Sony has really hurt its own reputation in hardware reliability these past few years.

    1. Re:Because if you read the article by PresidentEnder · · Score: 1

      These are non-fatal. The wrong music plays? The movie has a problem? "Fatal" causes death.

      --
      I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel
  15. Wallet compatibility issues by OSS_ilation · · Score: 2, Insightful

    With the PS3 now rumored to be 600 or more (again, it's a rumor), I'm thinking that next-gen gamers will be having a compatibility issue of their own with Sony products. That being, of course, their current wallets will not be big enough to play Sony's new system.

  16. Sony hardware is usually pretty awful in compariso by marcybots · · Score: 1

    As someone who has owned an ps1, psp, ps2, gamecube, sega satrun, genesis, nes, snes, atari, xbox and other systems, the PS1 is the ONLY system that I had to buy three times...the first TWO ps1 systems failed. I also had to buy another PS2 because it had issues. I also own a PSP and the controls on it suck really bad. Sony really has got to fire the people who make their hardware, their hardware not only fails the easiest of all the manufacturers, it also is the easiest to break if you drop it. Gamecubes are virtually indestructible as are Sega Saturns and Dreamcasts...and those systems are all failures...
              I guess it doesnt pay to build a good system its all about marketing.

  17. Re:Sony hardware is usually pretty awful in compar by MrJack5304 · · Score: 1

    "Gamecubes are virtually indestructible as are Sega Saturns and Dreamcasts...and those systems are all failures..."

    Sorry to be off topic but I hate when people claim the Gamecube as a failure. Nintendo has profited MORE than Sony and Microsoft COMBINED with the Gamecube in this generation. Though it may have sold the least that DOES NOT make it a failure.

  18. heat issues? by kisrael · · Score: 1

    Does the slimline have heating issues? Guy at the local indy game shop said overheats after 2 hours, but I hadn't heard much about it.

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