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Some Back Compat Problems For PS3
Via Opposable Thumbs at Ars Technica, the news at IGN that there are some annoying backwards compatibility issues with the PS3 and the PS2. Specifically, there are about 196 games that are experiencing issues. From the article: "In response to these issues, Sony's PR department pointed out that it, from the start, expected backwards compatibility to be less than 100%. It was also good enough to point out that some people can put up with playing games that lack sound. Regardless of this somewhat arrogant response, an official statement issued at the PlayStation.com site states that Sony will fix the problems with a future system update, and may even resort to individual patches for certain titles. When this will happen has yet to be specified." Qj.net has a list of some of the problem games, with their specific issues. It sounds bad, but to put this in perspective I believe there are still far more PS2 games playable on the PS3 than there are Xbox games playable on the 360.
Who needs sound for guitar hero or DDR, seriously?
Really, what Zonk meant to say was:
It sounds bad, but to put this in perspective I believe there are still far more PS2 games playable on the PS3 than there are Xbox games.
All kidding aside, though... That list makes it look like the problems are minor... Basically HDD games aren't supported (They aren't supported on the actual PS2 anymore either) and some cut scenes have audio problems. Oh well.
Since 99.99% of the people buying a PS3 will want to play PS3 games on their PS3, this really isn't an earth shattering issue. For the small remaining crew, they have a PS2 they could hook up until the firmware updates roll out to correct it.
While I agree with you that it's not earth-shattering, I'll also point out that there will be people who are trading in their PS2 to lower the price of their PS3, so it might not be a feasible option for everyone.
Sony needs to hire those guys from Bleem! to finish their emulation software! It's perfect for them!
(This post has been modded -1: Way Too Dated A Reference)
Wrong.
If you look at the pictures there are 4 chips. Cell (the main CPU), RSX (the GPU), EE/GS (the PS2), and an unmarked I/O chip.
They plan on doing software emulation at some point in the future, and when they do they'll drop the PS2 chip and RAMs from the board. Untill then there's a full hardware PS2 in every PS3.
Actually they did state this. In fact they specifically stated that any game that didn't follow Sony's TRC (technical requirement chcklist) in creating PS2 games would NOT work on the PS3. They also said any game that needed a new peripheral, such as Guitar Hero, would NOT work. They didn't need to state specifically "We did not expect 100%" because the above infers this to be true. Source: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/41353
--- Bah, who needs a sig?
I have about 20 PS2 titles, and only one is on that list (Devil May Cry, attract mode sometimes freezes) - IGN has a better version of the list listing the games most people would care about, and also with more generic issues (like some USB device support in PS2 games being flaky, like microphones).
As least you don't have older versions of popular games not being supported in order to push newer titles (Ridge Racer was not on that list).
Also noted is that the PS3 does not support the multitap - but it does support multiple controllers directly in PS2 games (since the PS3 can support up to seven wireless controllers at a time).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If it was simple then they wouldn't be having all these problems.
The hard answer is it depends.
1. Did the program use some strange feature or bug that you are not emulating? This can cause problems even for hardware. You do a new rev of some chip and a program that uses some strange workaround fails. This was a major problem for Apple when they created the Apple IIc. It used the 65c02 which fixed a lot of bugs in the 6502 that some software depended on. It was also a problem for some Amiga users when they upgraded to the 68010 or higher.
2. timing. This can be a real pain since on a modern CPUs you can not cycle count. On a modern CPU the amount of time an instruction takes is not fixed. Again did the software you are tying to emulate do something really odd with timing? Sound issues are often caused by this.
3. Bugs. No program is perfect. Emulators tend to multiply bugs. One bug my effect a dozen games.
4. Lack of documentation. Even if you have perfect documentation for the hardware specs that isn't enough. Some developer somewhere will go outside the specs and try something strange just to see if it will work. When it does they will leave it in. Unless you have the source for every program you intend to run on your emulator the odds are pretty good you will miss something. Even if you do it is unlikely you will go through every line of code.
What developers like about consoles is that you can program right down on the hardware to get the maximum performance. You know that each and every console will have exactly the same hardware.
What emulator writers hate about consoles is that console developers program right down on the hardware. If you make the smallest mistake it will come back and get you.
Just a short list of reasons.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
yeah, I'm sure people are really spending $600 to play upscaled PS1 games...