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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."
Goodness, has it been that long? I guess if one pays that much up front, if it can still sustain new titles after five years, then the overall price is fairly negligble. Consider $360 over five years is only 72 dollars, about six dollars a month for entertainment. As much as I like my PC, that's not a bad deal for gaming. I spent around 800 to build my own and that will last me four of five years at best.
in only 5 years time. We were in the midst of a CPU war between AMD and Intel, and we thought the latest 3D cards by Nvidia and ATI would keep the PC competitive with consoles. And to think there were those who doubted when Sony said the Emotion Engine would become the CPU of choice for high-end workstations, PCs, and even super-computers! Take note and learn from history, simple-minded fools: when Sony "hypes" up an upcoming technology, it's only a matter of time before it becomes reality.
I bought a US PS2 on day one. I had it reserved. I actually had two reserved by accident and told the store "never mind" on the second one. I am still kicking myself on that as I could have bad $300 EASY on eBay with that one.
Any way, my PS2 plays DVDs, and PS1 games. It has no problems at all. I pre-ordered it (as I said above). I don't know WHAT you are talking about with PS1 games.
What's that, you mean Japanese PS2s? Wrong again. They played PS1 games (I rented one from a local company that imports stuff just after the Japanese launch). It could play PS1 games (I tried it!). It could play DVDs, but the DVD player software had to be stored on a memory card (they gave you the software with the system). This software was built-in to the BIOS by the time the PS2 came to the US.
I'm sorry, but I don't know what you are talking about.
Side notes about the PS2:
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
If he's too stupid to return a defective piece of hardware that he paid almost $400 for a working unit PLEASE do not encourage him to come here to post. We have WAY more of those than we can already find a use for...
=tkk
PS If the plural of anecdote is not evidence then the singular REALLY isn't...
Bill Gates - Creationist?!?
Yes, but than come in games: 20-60 dollars a game, with mabye 15-50 hours of fun per game. That is about a dollar an hour, it costs less than many arcades, but still, it adds up.
That's a lot less than any arcade I've ever been to, assuming you actually go there to play and not watch. It's also a lot less than the cinema, or buying dvds. Renting films is close, but then you can rent games, and get even more value.
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.