Slashdot Mirror
The PS2 Five Years Later
1up.com is running a feature on the now on-the-way-out PlayStation 2, exploring the hardware, the regional launches, and the hype. From the article: "Gamers were given a chance to see the machine in action for themselves almost exactly a year after its unveiling. Tens of thousands of Japanese gamers lined up across the country the evening of March 3, 2000, hoping for a chance to get their hands on the system. In just 48 hours, nearly 1 million PS2s were sold to giddy consumers, making it 10 times as successful as its predecessor. Its initial price was ¥39,800, roughly $360-slightly expensive, but actually a little cheaper than the price the original PlayStation launched at."
This whole article seems like a puff piece to me. The author is so busy praising the PS2 (whose shoddy engineering is holding the entire generation back in my opinion) that he can't even get his facts straight. Take his claim that it has a "PC-level graphics chip" for example. That's a load. But even when it launched the PS2 didn't have anything near PC-level graphics capability. There are some pretty games for the PS2, but nothing that looks as good as RtcW- which ran at 1024x768 on a machine I owned before the PS2 came out.