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Playstation 2 Pix and Rollout
Lekkim writes "Gaming Age Online has posted the first official picture of the upcoming next-gen playstation2 (its the official name...Apparently it has DVD capabilities and it looks pretty cool. Details are here.
" Thanks to Mattrad for the European playstation links as well. It will ship in Japan on March 4, 2000 with an estimated cost of 370$US.
It is, definitly not attractive at all. It's way too square, and the ridges in the front look horrible. The logo is pretty stupid looking too. This thing would definitly not win a beauty contest.
32Mb RAM for the latest-and-greatest?
On a related note, Nintendo recently annonced their manufacturor of their RAM. I don't know much about it, except it's supposed to be incredibly fast. The story is here.
Current owners of PSX's (many millions of people) who remain loyal to the platform will upgrade
You can't always count on that, all of those PSX owners couldn't have bought a Sony before, since there was none to buy, which means they either are new, came from Sega, or came from Nintendo. So Sony could lose some too if the Dolphin proves as good as it should be.
$360 is *NOT* expensive, especially if you put a keyboard/model on this thing for an addition $100, you've got a computer which blows the living hell out of the cheapest comparable PCs you can buy.
Why, are they going to make a word processing, graphics editing, or FTP emulator on this thing? Sure, if you just play games by all means get a PS2 or Dolphin, but this will not take over PC's because it is a limited use function. I don't see any business software on the PS2 lineup.
Yes, you can connect to the internet via Sonic. I don't think you play against each other, but you can d/l stuff (or something like that) and post scores. I'm not totally sure because I don't own one yet, but I'm just basing that off what my friends have said.
What will probably happen to avoid dumping which Sony has done before is release it at $370 in Japan since people will pay that much for it, but when Fall 2000 rolls around, the price will have gradually dropped to what they expect American consumers to "afford", probably $300 at the most, hopefully $250 (it will probably also depend on what Nintendo does, if Dolphin comes out early, expect a great price war), so it will be $250-$300 worldwide. Of course by that time Dreamcast will have been out for awhile and with a full software library and probably $125-$150. Finally, Nintendo will release their 32-bit handheld, which will take some of the press away.
The Atari 2600 was black (well, mostly). While it did have its share of failed games, overall it was a successful console.
It will be an add-on.
$370 US. That's a lot of money for a game system. Can you think of any other game systems for that much that survived?
Well, I believe the Atari 2600 was up there when it came out (at least $300 if I remember). And with inflation added into the picture, it almost certainly was over $370.
What people forget about new consoles is that prices have stayed about the same (or gone down) since the early 80's, and inflation has gone up. This is why that Dreamcast you baught really is a steal at $199, and why that Nintendo you baught in '85 with ROB the robot acctually cost you more than the PS2 will.
Heh, we've got an Odessy somewhere down in our basement. I think it still works. Maybe I'll hafta get it out sometime and see if it still works.
You're wrong : ) Story here tells all about the networking cababilities. Heck, I won't even make you click, just read:
.....In addition to packaged media, and recognizing the potential of broadband networks to offer the consumer a vast selection of content and the convenience of download capability, Sony Computer Entertainment will establish broadband based distribution of digital content, beginning with the PlayStation and PlayStation2 software libraries. With an Ethernet connection to a broadband network such as digital cable, PlayStation2 users will be able to download data-intensive computer entertainment content to hard-disc drives to be provided by Sony Computer Entertainment.
Sony Computer Entertainment will develop an electronic transaction system, including authentication and encryption technology, to support the e-distribution system. The company will also include in 2001 a PlayStation2 expansion module as a network adapter (PC card interface) and establish an e-distribution server.
Um. No. Try rereading what I wrote originally. Driving games don't work too well without analogue brake and acceleration.
The best that the current dual shock controllers can offer is steering on one stick, and an analogue brake/accelerator on the other. But occasionally you want to use the brake and accelerator together, which just isn't possible without analogue buttons (or pedals).
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
Sony's reportedly leaving the dual-focusing laser out of the PSX2 so as to avoid setting it up to compete directly with their home theater components. This means that the PSX2 will not play dual-layered discs. So just don't get too excited to play your new Titanic, The Mummy, The Matrix, Terminator 2, the future Star Wars, or any other DVD that has two layers (aka RSDL).
:)
It won't replace your DVD player, but it will allow game designers to add some interesting storyline components. And Mark Hammill will be able to find work again (Wing Commander IV, anyone
-Dodja
With a rumored price point of around $150, and possibly having a Mario game (what's so bad about Mario anyway?) and a Metroid game, Nintendo will most likely have a good launch.
The proof is that:
A. It's on every single major videogame website
B. It's on Sony of Japan's site
Calm down, anyone would think you're having an orgasm over it...
The main issue: by the time PS2 is released PC Hardware will be at, and above, it. Simple, just look at the current crop of processors and graphics boards to see the future... NV10 is essentially the PS2 graphics chipset.
I'm a die-hard PC fan, and always will be, but I'm not (that) bigoted and have been around long enough to realise that the markets are different. The main point the PS2 has over the PC is price: 370dollars vs. 2500dollars for the PC equilivant. Another main point I see is that certain game genres "work" better on the console than on the PC, show me a decent PC Beat-em-up...
I do have to say that the design is _terrible_, it reminds me of my original Commodore64 Power Transformer... For simple asethetic reasons I wouldn't have that thing on display in my living room.
Just my tuppence worth (to try and set a balance from the original bigot...)
That "disc like" thing will be DVD.
Tekken Tag Tournament does NOT run on the Tekken 3 engine, it runs on the Soul Caliber engine. supabeast!,posting anon because I am at work
I thought N64 was charcoal gray, and as a result had almost failed and was still underselling in most markets worldwide.
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
It only plays single-layered discs, which rules out most of the cool DVDs that are on the market today. So in effect, it's hardly a DVD player at all.
-dodja
Indeed...NeoGeo, 3DO, Genesis [didnt fail but didn't reach a freaction of the success of the SNES], TurboGrafx, Jaguar, Sega Master System, and Atari 7600 to add some more to the list...
What color were the NES, SNES, and PSX? Hmm?
I agree. I like my N64 better simply because it has the games I like to play. I don't like RPG's, so I could care less that FF MXXVIII is coming out for the PS2. (BTW, if it's Final Fantasy, how can they have more than one, wouldn't the first one be "final" :-)). I'll take all those Mario games (Mario 64, Mario Kart, Mario Golf, SSB, etc) anyday. And with Rare as a Nintendo only developer, I'm definitly getting a Dolphin at least.
I have a Next turbo slab on my desk and it looks just like it: black, horizontal grooves around the sides, and the logo is like a little colorfull button on the front.
Dillrod
Yea, it's so fake, someone cracked both Sony of Japan's and Sony of Europe and Sony of America and planted all those pictures and stories.
The links that are in the article arent' the only ones that have news about it you know, try to do some checking before you automatically assume it to be false.
However, the thing does indeed look funny. It could be the possible love-child of a HP 712/60 and a component CD player .
5200 (right after Colecovision)
7800 (after? NES)
Jaguar (after 3DO)
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Do you follow videogames everyday like you might computers? From the tone of your post, probally not. I follow what he said, everything I've read has said that the PS2 will not play DVD out of the box. Of course he hasn't used on, but he's read about the PS2 probally a lot more than you have, and read the reports about it, and knows a lot more than what /. tells you. Don't just base all your facts on a slashdot article and then think you're an expert at it.
I think you'll find that there was a fairly wide selection of game styles for the original Playstation, including (here comes the better term for Zelda-style RPGs) ARPGs like Alundra (which I found far more fun than Zelda64, although I understand that it's heretical to prefer 2D sprites to 3D rendered loveliness).
Genuine old-school game fans who liked the real Mario and Zelda games (before they went all 3D and icky) are pretty much an endangered species now, and not even Nintendo care about them. They live on the fringes of gaming society, lurking around the emulation sites and running screaming from 3D fighters and plumbers.
[sigh]. I knew it was all going to go wrong when I heard they were making a 3D version of Lemmings...
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
$370 is alot for a console--no matter how awesome. Didnt the Sega Genesis have the same problem: it cost too much to be an impulse buy, and is hard to justify when you budget for the month?
The playstation was never known for it's reliability - many of the CD units broke down quite quickly. Having a new unit prolongs the life of your playstation games considerably.
Also, having the new console able to play the old games means that people can try and sell their old console (probably with a couple of the game they're not so fond of) You can bet that a lot of people will figure the price they'd get from selling their console against buying a new one. Of course, with the huge amount of secondhand PSX units that will suddenly flood the market, I don't suppose they'd get much for them...
Another point is that if you have to keep your old console around, that's abother set of power plugs, video cables etc that clutters up your living room floor...
cheers,
Tim
How is an AC who signs his name at the bottom of his messages (but doesn't actually have a slashdot account) any less worthy of attention than somebody such as yourself, who has a slashdot account, but is every bit as anonymous as that AC?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
The controller they're pushing with the system is the exact same one available for the Playstation right now. I love that controller dearly, but there's always room for improvement. It seems like if you going to put out a next generation console system, you should update the controller, too.
Not to mention that it's MSRP is 370 US dollars. Apparently Sony is planning to lose the console wars considering the Dreamcast's price tag is 199 and Nintendo is shooting for 99 dollars on their next generation system.
Hmm... seems to me that with USB, Firewire, and especially a PCMCIA slot, there's no lack of orifices on this device from which to extract a real-world connection. Decently fast PCMCIA modems and ethernet cards are fairly cheap, and you're not limited to one type of media, as is the case with the Dreamcast at the moment. My roomate is getting a Dreamcast today, and the lack of an ethernet interface will make using it over our cable modem near-impossible (save a modem serving PPP on another machine plus a loop simulator).
i sincerely hope you are not serious!
Yeah.
My mistake. That'll teach me to not do my research before I start spewing pseudo-facts.
Sean
You can't just turn those features on and expect the games to look better, or even right. Particularly for perspective-correct texturing... If the developer's saving time and not calculating the perspective because he knows the PSX hardware won't be able to use it, then it's not going to be magically generated by the PSX2. As for filtering, some things SHOULD be filtered, and others SHOULDN'T... Think of text, or video running on a texture. If you turn on filtering across the baord, these things look like crap. You can't decide in hardware what should and shouldn't be changed!
I have bronchitis or something and you made me laugh so hard I had a coughing fit and almost threw up
Last I heard the technoology hadn't been invented yet. Intel said they couldn't make those chips till sometime next year. That would mean that the picture is not a complete console and therefore a fake.
It will be proportionally less here...I think $200-$250 is the anticipated price. $370 is what you'll pay if you go buy it in Japan. (+/- several thousand $$ for the trip)
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
I've made a small list of what seems to be a pretty complete list of the new PS2 info. If I've missed any, feel free to add-on.
Sony of America
Sony of Europe
Sony of Japan
PSX Nation
IGNPSX
Gaming Age
Next-Generation
Gamespot
The Magic Box
And then I'd also recomend you check out the MB's connected with some of those sites because there are some very interesting discussions in there. Also expect the major news organizations (MSNBC, ZDNET, CNN) to pick it up sometime tonight too.
I definately agree.
Remember two things:
1) The $370 is just the yen translation - Sony may sell it for less in North America because of marketing concerns.
2) Time. It's very easy to see that production kinks, chip yields, and other price streamlining effects could bring the price down to an acceptable $250-$299 come fall 2000.
Or at least that's what I would like to believe... ^_^
--
I swear by MacOS X. Although I use to swear *at* MacOS 9...
The Genesis (or Megadrive, as it was called here) was a *massive* success in Europe. They're still being sold new, and 2nd hand game shops/stalls always have hundreds of games, which still fetch about half the cost of a 2nd hand Playstation game.
The SNES was a rarer sight.
--
From whta I have read about the Playstation2, it will be backwards compatible. However, will it be world-wide compatible, or will it be like the original and only play Japanese games?
The specs on the system made me put off buying the Dreamcast, but I won't get the Japanese version if I will have to get an American version as well.
Computers can only simulate determinism. ~Hermetic.
Dolt!
The devkit is not a consumer unit. It is for licenced developers.
--
Hello,
:) In the end, that's what brought the first Playstation to life.
Wow. $370 US. That's a lot of money for a game system. Can you think of any other game systems for that much that survived? I can't. But who knows...
The true draw to any new system isn't how quick the processor is or what next-gen features it has (unless it runs Linux, of course), it's the games. Frankly, I don't expect this one to catch on at least until they make a Final Fantasy game for it.
So, what games are coming out for this puppy?
Joe
Not that it's likely to happen, but I wonder if IBM will give Sony crap about labeling their product with PS2. Remember, they're in cahoots with Nintendo for the Dolphin and the PS2 is their competition...
read the stats for the PS2 at www.playstation.com it states that DVD video is supported on the PS2.
It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes -- Douglas Adam -- Life, The Universe and E
No, that's not what he was saying; he was talking about messages from AC's which didn't have ANY sort of 'persona'. I would say that if someone includes a name at the bottom of his message, he is lending a 'persona' to the message, even though he may choose not to have an account and/or send cookies to Slashdot.
- Mike
Let's not get into an argument here. But I have had some sort of PC since around 1983. Which, by the way, is when I began programming. Most PC users don't remember the days when you had to know how to program to get that big 150 pound box to actually do stuff. I will always be loyal to PC's. But what you failed to understand, is that no matter how nice a video card can render graphics, even as low as 800x600, the OS overhead is so high, and the BUS speed so low, that the computer itself cannot utilize what the graphics card can actually do. I will be the first to admit that a PC has more raw, POTENTIAL power than any console. But why are consoles always better? No OS overhead! Like I said before, I could get into the numbers, if you want. In fact, let me just say this to give you an idea. The DC has 24MB of RAM. The PS2 has 32MB of RAM. Many people think this is not a lot. And in regards to a PC, it isn't. However, Windows 95 (while doing nothing) uses 20MB of RAM automatically. Windows 98 uses 30-36MB, and Windows NT 4.0 WS uses well over 40MB. In fact, right now I am in NT 4.0, I have IE5, Net Watch, and a resting terminal emulator open. My memory usage is over 98MB! You also asked me what kind of PC I'm on...it's actually a PC a put together myself last month. It has an AMD K6-3 400MHz, 256MB RAM, 100MHz Bus, 16MB Number Nine rev 4 video card (1920x1200x16M), plus some other nifty stuff, all hooked up to a T1. It can also boot between NT 4.0 WS, Windows 2000, Win98, Win95, Dos 6.22, and Linux (RH 6.0).
Its called humor. And rather good.
The DualShock's sticks are fine, but the buttonpads just suck for me. I've always found them uncomfortable and unresponsive. I've not yet used a DreamCast's controller, though, but it looks like they took some design lessons from Nintendo (say what you want, the N64 pads work GREAT - for me, anyway). To each their own.
---
"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
Quine "quine?
Last I heard the technoology hadn't been invented yet. Intel said they couldn't make those chips till sometime next year
Huh? What are you talking about? Are you saying Sony is lying to everyone?
The full set of PSX colours (as far as I can remember) is:
Grey - consumer PSX
White - SE Asian "special edition" PSX: this one could play VCDs, which never really took off in the States or Europe but were a huge porn-delivery format in SE Asia
Blue - devsys PSX. This is the one that you test your final gold drops of code on before releasing them to manufacturing (they play normal CD-Rs and don't have any territorial lockouts, thereby saving developers the need to get their PSXs chipped to test their games)
Black - Yaroze. This is (was?) a special bedroom-developer Playstation: you can download 2MB of code and graphics onto it to run against the libraries, which are stored on CD-ROM. Fairly successful in that it got quite a few people jobs (they could go to games studios with their showreel Yaroze game rather than a lump of x86 code)
--
Cheers
Jon
Cheers
Jon
maybe you should do some thinking yourself. intel has a little more knowledge when it comes to chip making than sony does. last i heard sony didn't even have the factories built in march.
>Could this be Sony's first flop?
It wouldn't suprise me. I mean, Sony's only been doing videogames one generation, it's not like it's existence is insured. The NES owned the mid to late 1980's, yet the Sega Genises a generation later cut Nintendo's market share basically in half. The same thing could happen with the PS2.
The technology doesn't exist. Face the fact. If you believe that the pictures are the final version then maybe you also believe in santa claus.
As mentioned b4, the USD370 figure is a direct conversion.
The actual release cost is quoted (from Edge magazine, UK - sorry, no URL) at around USD 200 for the States and UKP 200 for Europe.
Yeah and it's a good thing that the news media doesn't rely on anonymous sources. Oh wait, they do.
Your stance would appear to include dismissing a cancer cure or the Secret of the Universe(TM) if it were posted by an AC. Even if they're right.
It would be a much better idea to read the post and decide based solely on the merits of the content whether or not it should be moderated. One's ability to sign their name does not indicate that they're stupid. Lord knows we've got lots of stupid users around here.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
I've written up a news story about the announcement on my site, The Next Level, so go take a look at it.
Jacob Rens
Daily Videogame News and Info: http://www.the-nextlevel.com
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
That still doesn't mean that it will play DVD movies. In order to play VCD's on current consoles you need a Video CD Decoder. From what the gaming pages are saying that's probably what will be needed for the PSX2. Nowhere does Sony say that it will play DVD movies. Those 2 things are not the same unfortunately. Hope this helps.
Neato, you can play old playstation games on the new one. Well, as long as you have your old playstation why should it matter? Is it a law that once you buy a new system that you have to bag all your olf stuff unless it is backwards compatible? I just spent $400.00 on the new Dreamcast stuff. I'll gladly spend $3.70 for a DVD player as long as it has doubly surround sound. All the PSX2 stuff we see now is going to be totaly changed by the lauch date. We still have a year to go.
What kind of computer are YOU posting from? I don't know about you, but my video card can do some pretty nice stuff at 1024 x 768. And if there's new technology out there I can just plug it in.
The correct point to make to PC'er who lords his system over consoles is that the PC is MUCH more expensive. But with that cost comes capabilities and versatility that a console can only dream of. It's apples and oranges in the end. And its a shame that more game development companies don't realize that and keep trying to shove square pegs into round holes by porting their stuff to every last platform under the sun.
Jherico
What can the average user can do to ensure his security? "Nothing, you're screwed"
Try 8 player Sega Saturn Bomberman. It's a blast. Not all multiplayer games require split screen.
--
I'm from Australia. Our dollars only 0.65 of yours, plus, we don't get super sweet deals from major vendors with net access, etc. We have to pay a full price on machines.
Besides, a Voodoo III will not always be fully maxed out with a dual CPU because a lot of games are written for broad consumer machines, not a single spec like a console. That is why they can squeeze every last piece of performance from a console - Check out GT2 for PSX, remebering a PSX is a 486 with 16MB, a 4x CD and an equivalent of a Voodoo I.
Dan. -- So what if it's spelt wrong, nobody's perfect
Take a look at the size of the PS2. This thing is incredibly huge for a console, it's like a big tower desktop computer. I don't even think it could fit in the shelves that I store my consoles on. I wonder how much this thing weighs?
Where did you hear this? Sound's like hearsay to me.
Jherico
What can the average user can do to ensure his security? "Nothing, you're screwed"
I know the tray loaders are a bad idea (the slightest bit of pressure on it while it is open and SNAP), but from what I've heard Sony had a lot of trouble with the drive motors on the original PSX wearing out because of people grabbing discs when they are still spinning and stuff like that. Maybe they figure the systems will last a bit longer this way.
IMO the design is extremely cool.
However Sony will probably release different designs in the Western markets like Sega did with the Saturn, because the PSX is the game system which made games fashionable (and profitable) outside Japan (especially in Britain), with it's original, trendy 90's looks. The new generation of older players won't buy something that looks squarish like a NES because it'll look embaressing and geeky on top of their VCR, so they'll redesign it.
But the hardware kicks ass. I really hope we can get Linux on it and some good storage devices. Then I'll **definitely** buy one!
On a sorta related note, anyone else wish controller cords were longer? I mean, how much does it really cost Sony to add an extra 2 feet of cord? I'd love to have a little more room, or, if it weren't so expenisive already, just have cordless controllers. Wouldn't that be neat.
Come on. The playstation logo isn't even centered on the tray. The controller is a black controller you can buy down at your local Target. Why would the memory card for a black PSX2 be white? Either it's a Photoshop hack, or a clever ploy by Sony to throw it's competitors off. I have a hard time believing PSX2 will only support 2 controllers as well. They'd be making the same kind of mistakes Nintendo made when it announced the use of cartridges for the 64.
If I can find one, I'll stick an MPEG up at that URL.
How long will I have to wait before I can copy and burn my own PSX2 games ? I have a great collection of PSX games that I've burned, and I really hope to continue with the PSX2. Lets face it, the copying of PSX games did a LOT for Sony and their PSX. It created buzz, excitement and surely convinced several people to buy a PSX. PS. I just hope I can use my existing CDR, and not have to buy a new DVD-Recordable drive to copy some games. PS2. Hey all you electronic engineers (read: Sony internal employees) hurry up and leak some specs from the PSX2 so we can get mod chips made for the PSX2. Let the copying begin !
I'm not sure about the basic arcade games (what does that really mean?), but supposedly a Zelda-type RPG for the Dreamcast is coming out in November, Climax Landers, from the people who did Landstalker.
a) Controller backward compatability is important. I have over 13 controllers for my PSX
b) It gives me fewer devices I have to hook up to my TV. Which has limited # of inputs. And limited amount of space around it.
I have old PS games, but no PS, therefore backwards compatibilty will be a great boon in my case.
Why? Because my PS's memory slots went kaput post-warranty. So when I get my PSX2, I will now be able to play my whole library without spending another $100.
>What color were the NES, SNES, and PSX
NES: Gray
SNES: Gray and Purple
PSX: Gray and I'm pretty sure there was a special edition white one too.
all these people complaining about two controller ports and no modem should look at the stats and realize how upgradeably it is
That's why I like my consoles better than my computer. I don't have to upgrade and spend more money. I don't have to worry about hardware incompatibilites or having to download the latest patches. The last thing I want to do is spend time (albeit not much hopefully) and money upgrading the stupid thing.
Although this was some time ago, the Atari 7800 was backwards compatible with the Atari 2600. Which is interesting, considering the Atari 7800 came out *after* the Atari 5200, which *wasn't* backwards compatible. There were a few Atari 2600 games that weren't compatible with the 7800. You could also use 2600 controllers on the 7800, which was nice considering the 7800 controllers were terrible. Several other systems also had modules that allowed you to play 2600 games. The Atari 5200, ColecoVision, and Intellivision come to mind. Obviously building backwards compatibility for consoles as complex as the Playstation is a bit more involved than for the 2600. :)
I have never moderated a AC's posting up however, and the reason is simple, if you dont attach your name (or some kind of a persona) to you messages you may as well not have writen them.
Find me a newspaper that has letters to the editor from anonymous people. Cant be dont. One of the local papers has a weekly phone pool, and to be dirrectly quoted you need to leave you name and town.
I do have my thereshold set at -1 to check for abuses, and i have found them. I am also forced to wade through dozens of AC postings that arent worth the electrons there stored on.
If you have something to say, say it, and attach you name to it.
Ouch! That seems almost pointless! Almost every disk i'v seen in the last several monthes has been dual layered. This also limits the expandability of games. When its first released i'm sure most games won't even fill a fraction of one layer, but after a year or two, alot of games will be wanting to use very high rez cut sceenes with digital audio, this could quickly fill an entire layer. This is also a serious scaling back of DVD tech. even the first comercial DVD players from a few years ago can play dual layered disks, even though none had been produced yet. But, if this whole think is actualy just a mistake, i may have to sell that that ugly DV-414 sitting next to my TV and buy myself a PS2!
Check out:
The TOOL
What is this thing? It looks so bad-ass I must have one whatever it does!
Salieri
"Drawers cost money, and if Sony can shave off a few bucks for this sucker, they'd more than likely do it"
In addition to the drawer, it has 2 USB ports and a PCMCIA card slot, which seems like overkill on a dedicated game console with network connectivity for internet and gaming purposes. It seems odd to me that they added these extras instead of trying to get the price lower.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
Hirobou Sakaguchi said in a recent interview that FF9 will be out in Japan next year, and FF10 will be out japan in 2001.I don't have time to dig up the article right now (i'm at work) but you could prolly dig it up real quick on hotbot as it was within the last two weeks or last month. supabeast! at work
Uhm, you forgot the fact that the Saturn has no hardware 3D acceleration, therefore all 3D work had to be done in software. However, the Saturn does have more RAM. All in all, the added RAM makes the Saturn superior when it comes to 2D (esp. fighting games - their version of Marvel vs. Street Fighter actually let you flip players during play), but lets it lag horribly when it comes to 3D games.
$2500 dollars for a top gaming PC? Mostly thanks to the Celeron its actually more like $5-600, not counting a monitor.
whats wrong with region protection?? Movies do get released at different times in different parts of the world. Companies make alot of money off of sales of a "new release". but if the movie has already been availible for 3 monthes just by ording it from "distcounted-movie-store".com it cuts a big chunk out of their proffits. This way they have more control over distribution, and the true movie nuts who really just can't wait to get the new disk can simply purchase a non-region coded player.
Noone should be surprised by this, least of all Sega. They put the best hardware they could into the DC and admitted that the doolphin and psx2 would be more powerful (as they were coming out later.) Sega wrote the book on competing with less powerful hardware. They did the only thing they could -- the thing they do best: the stuck a blue haired hedgehog on Sony's butt. It is the games that make a good system -- not the specs. And noone makes better games than Sega. Plus they now have namco and capcom (actually capcom was always behind them because street fighter runs on Sega hardware better than anywhere else) and pretty much everyone else except 2 companies (Square and EA. EA is always shy when it comes to new consoles, but they wrote games for the saturn hint hint.) Nintendo knew how to fight back -- they stuck a short Italian guy on Sega's butt, and were eventually able to out last Sega (though not by much.) Sega and Nintendo got into a game war and the only real winners where the gamers of both systems. Sony doesn't have a small italian guy or a blue hedgehog. The only thing they have is 989 sports. 989 would have a hard time competing against Sega sports (let alone the sonic team and the rest of Sega army of first party game writers.) They can't sick Laura croft or final Fantasy at Sega because other companies made those titles (Tomb raider came out for the saturn -- I think the Saturn version actually came out first!) They may be able to buy the rights to Laura Croft, but Eidos can (and most certainly will) still make equal quality games for the dreamcast. So yes the specs on the psx2 are nice -- and I may even buy one (wait till they are cheaper though.) Don't under estimate the power of Sonic! BTW bought my DC on the 9th and I LOVE it!
> I have never moderated a AC's posting up however, and the reason is simple, if you dont attach your name (or some kind of a persona) to you messages you may as well not have writen them.
--
You are off your trolley if you think people who have registered a name are more or less likely to talk nonsense. Anonymous cowards on slashdot are the equivalent of cypherpunk/cypherpunk on NY times. I dont want to have to remember another user/password combo for every web site/board i post to, and im sure as hell not going to use the same one on every single one.
oooo...now where does the mod chip go?
Just wondering if anyone has looked at the boards of this thing yet or not? As a designer, I would be happy to buy a lot of them...as long as I could burn a dvd with my first couple of beta tests. ANyone got any ideas if this will be possible with the oncoming PSX2 (I am pretty sure there are a few out there wondering about it from the opposite means as well...meaning and I quote "nearly 400 bucks? I better be able to rent the games and burn one for myself to justify that!") but I digress. I am not advocating piracy of any kind
That's definately a prototype or development board, and I suspect that the pictures of the case we're seeing are as well.
You don't expect Sony to sit idly by while Sega soaks up all the press now do you?
learn to have patience...
I'm sorry, but just because Dreamcast uses Windows CE does not mean that a lot of PC games can be ported easily to it. For one thing, Windows and Windows CE are simply not the same. The differences are certainly enough to make porting non-trivial. Secondly, most programmers hate CE. One of my friends works at Acclaim, and now that they have their PSX2 development kits, they are refusing to start any new Dreamcast games. They'll finish the two that are already in development, but they hate CE so much they simply won't do another product for the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast is going to be a very short lived phenomenon (do-do-do-do-do), IMNSHO. There isn't going to be much in the way of long-term development on it, simply because not enough of the good development teams will be willing to work with CE. Oppose this to the track record of the Playstation, which is still -- some two or more years after it's release, can't recall exactly -- still getting great games released for it (FF8, anyone? That was one of the best game intros I've ever seen). Arithon "When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you" Ms. Piggy
I think this is all a matter of personal preference. But I will say this...Top load VCRs never lasted. Since it plays DVD's, I think the idea of a front (tray) load is the best idea they had for it. One of the main reasons I'm buying it is for its DVD support, but I don't think I'd buy it if it were a top load.
If you want this to be a DVD and CD player as well and hope this will be an important part of the AV market a drawer makes sense. Without a drawer you expose the lens to dirt and scratches. At the price Sony will be charging, I certainly wouldn't want a lens scratch to render my investment useless. Besides, how many DVD players do you see without a drawer? The current Playstation is cheap and looks it.
:)
Sales of the the current PlayStation accounted for around 40 percent of Sony's consolidated operating profit in the past year to March. Sony cannot simply afford to have this be a simple games console, especially, if they hope to continue to be important in the consumer AV market. It is a good move on Sony's part to allow CD and DVD playback on this. It appeals to both the games and the AV markets. And if you want to appeal to the AV market you simply can't make the thing look cheap or be easily damaged due to daily use.
That's why you have the drawer. It's part of a smart move to define a new market niche. I'm surprised it doesn't have Firewire/iLink input/output for video, but maybe that'll come eventually.
To hit the streets with an entire established library of games is a good thing
But it really isn't a library. I could play the same things on a PSX, and if I didn't already own a PSX, I could pick one up for real cheap. Why buy a PS2 if I can get the same game experiance for $300 cheaper? Counting the current PSX library in with the PS2 is not right.
If you have been through the video games newsgroups you may have remembered a thread that keeps popping up suggesting that failed consoles are always black (saturn, and it seems psx2) while successful once are grey (psx1 and dreamcast.) This theory is silly but, has come true of late. It will be interesting to see what happens.
I've heard this too, and going back farther, it seems to be true. The SMS was black vs. the NES which was grey, and look which won. Same deal with the Genesis/SNES, and then the Saturn/PSX. Not to say that each of Sega's systems didn't do ok on their own, but certainly each of the grey systems "won." We'll see if this holds true with the DC/PSY. Personally, I'm hoping it doesn't as I want to get a PSY sometime after they release.
When I was able to do my own spam-armoring, you got a chance to email me. Now you can only hope I see your reply.
Actually the Genesis came out a while before the SNES. It mainly competed with the NES, which, in my opinion, it lost horribly to, even though it had superior hardware.
Once the SNES came out, the Genesis was really left in the dust.
Man I copy playstaison gamez too. Peopel say that its bad, but thier lamerz! Copying CDs are cool! And Sony shoouldnt hate us 'cuz more people buy the sytems, and plus Sony saves money cuz they don't have to make all those extra CDs! Sony should pay us! COPYING STUFF RULEZ!! WAREZ RULEZ!!
It is ok to like 2d over 3d. That being the case, you should really buy a Sega console. Sega seems to be the only company that remembers 2d games. The best (by far!) 2d games in the 32/64 bit era came out for the Saturn (with it's 4 meg ram cart that came free with xmen versus streetfighter in Japan.) The PSX version of Streetfighter is a complete joke compared to the saturn version. That is because Sony more or less ignored 2d games when they designed the psx while the Saturn was originally going to be the best 2d game console ever (which it was until the DC) they only added on 3d hardware as an after thought. The Saturn was more than powerful enough to handle 3d -- it just took longer and cost more to get it to do it. Some people say that the reason why 2d went away was because Sony tried to stop 2d games from coming to america (so no one would find out how badly it does 2d stuff compared to the Saturn.) Anyway, here comes the DC with it's SNK versus Capcom and Marvel versus street fighter -- hopefully 2d games will be back (note there were also other games for the SS that were 2d besides fighters -- Guardian Heros and Magic night Rayearth come to mind.) Yes, I like a good hand drawn 2d game (looks like a cartoon) over the new 3d games. Although the DC does seem to be the first console that does 3d graphics any justice. Now when I see 32/64 bit graphics on any system I fell like throwing up!
The URL's /.'d out. Bugger.
Added point to your post, A Voodoo III costs $300 and its not as good, plus you need a $5000 machine to fully utilise it.
Dan. -- So what if it's spelt wrong, nobody's perfect
PC's cannot handle resolutions that true to life. True, the better TV's out there only support 400-600 line of resolution while a PC can do up to 1200 fairly inexpensively. BUT...the computing power that PC's offer cannot render it. If you want, I can dive into the numbers, but I won't. Also, it really doesn't matter which type of RAM is faster. On console games, there is virtually no OS overhead. Most PC's are capable of number crunching 10-20 times faster. But our lovely friends at Micro$oft feel the need to suck up all of the PC's power. Basically, everything on a PC that is added for performance is a waste because of Windows. The raw power that is there is actually many times more than you're using. Slower RAM on a console game will perform faster than faster RAM in a PC.
Dumping is selling an item for less than it's cost of production. Even if this were the case, which I doubt, there are no US-based competitors. Without those, no one would press for a suit to be filed. Sony would be allowed to proceed. That law is set up to "protect" domestic based competitors, a repeal(or ignoral) of which is good for consumers.
_________
Sometimes, when I'm feelin' bored, I like to take a necrotic equine and assault it physically.
Maybe I'm the only one, and maybe I just don't appreciate something like a videogame console looking less than interesting, but to me it looks like one big heatsink with a CD tray. Not a CPU heatsink, mind you, but something like the design of a car power inverter or amplifier. Maybe I just need more sleep.
Personally, I've been searching for the answer to this exact same question. I haven't found any concrete evidence of anything. But from what I HAVE found, my assumptions are this: CPU: 64 Bus: 32 RAM: 32 Video: 128 --- That's what makes it 128 bit
Ok, I just read through about 15 comments and they were pretty wrong, so I thought I'd lend my knowledge of this subject.
THe Saturn started out at $400 in america. I forget what the Playstation started at, but it was pretty close. 4 years later you can get one for $99. The orignal 8-bit Nintendo(god bless its soul) started out at I think $300 with 3 games, 2 controllers, a light gun, and the ROB. value these days.
The Playstation 2 is much more powerful than all of those linux boxes you all are running(hell, its way more powerful than my G3). Game systems are designed to play games. The new game systems are designed to play pretty games. The main processor in all of the next-gen systems, is a little more advanced than you video card. just because it says CPU doesn't mean that it is an all purpose processor like a pentium. THe amin processor alone can probally beat the pants of of a high end computer right now, not to mention the fact that it has an extral graphics processor(and in the case of the PSX2 two extra VPUs and 2 extral FPUs). You will never run word on one of these, but you'll get quake at 640x480(limitation of TV screens)at least with 60fps probally more. It has 32 megs of ram. That is more than is in all of the current generation(including the dreamcast) have combined(PSX1 4, N64 8 at most, dreamcast 16(shared between processor and graphic chips)
nintendo's next system will have 16 megs just for the graphic chip and probally 32 for the system to make use of. If you don't belive me on the raw power that these things have, imaging your system playing something like NFL2K for dreamcast with 1 megs of ram, or better lets go with something we all know and love Quake 2. You can't buy(you can make not buy) a computer with 16 megs of ram. And if you could it sure as hell couldn't play quake 2 at 640x480 with all the OpenGL extentions on, at 60 fps.(even windows would boot in like a half hour)
Second, the playstation 2 CANNOT play DVD movies. Well, technically it can, but there is no ability to do this built into the system. I'm not sure what will happen, but the PSX2 has no way to navigate the menus on DVDs. It will be added as a thingie that fits on the back, and will probally cost about $70 bucks extral(the price is spectulation, I know that there will be no movies initally).
I think those are the only glaring errors that I saw. just remember that Consoles are not full-blown computers. They don't need to be.
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
12112
First of all, what are you smoking? Second, can you get me some? The only thing that makes a console game is marketing. Look at the Atari Jaguar. Anyone ever see one? It was the 1st 64bit console and it ROCKED!!!!! But, poor marketing flushed it down the toilet. Sony knew how to market the PS and continued to market it. Their only major competitor (Ninetendo) did a crappy job of marketing the N64. Now, Sony has more games than any other system. That's where the others fell behind. Will they continue? We'll see. But so far, Sega is not marketing the DC very well.
But I think systems like NeoGeo, 3DO, the Phillips video game system, which were all superior to the 16-bit video game consoles of the time, were $300+ and I think that was a serious factor in why they didn't take off. I believe the NeoGeo was like $700+ when I first remember seeing it in a store...and the games were like $150.
Could this be Sony's first flop? Possibly...I doubt kids, and their parents, will want to throw around nearly $400 for a system when much cheaper ones (assuming the Dolphin is around ~$200) are available with comparable performance and games.
i think it looks pretty average..... although it does look better than the original playstation - that thing looked like a portable toilet.
WTF is the differance between the Dual Shock and Dual shock 2? The picture looks identical to the one I already have.
Does anyone know of any compatibility issues with the PCMCIA card slots? Or the USB/FireWire ports? Will my PC stuff work in it (hopefully?)?
Computers can only simulate determinism. ~Hermetic.
$370 is what you'll pay if you go buy it in Japan. (+/- several thousand $$ for the trip) plus or minus?? Do you mean I could get paid thousands of dolars just for going to japan? kick ass
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
I admit this is offtopic, but it has got to be said somewhere.
The slashdot moderation system is not working - decent arguments from anonymous cowards (and even logged in people) such as myself are never being rated up. I think I know why. Are the people who are moderating allowed to set their mimimum tolerance ? Ie do they set their threshold up, and then never even see the articles they are supposed to be moderating ?
Clearly if you are taking the responsibility of being a moderator then you should not be able to shield yourself from significant portions of the debate.
This theory would explain the recent spate of highly uprated articles which have recieved detailed and rigorous response (basically reducing much of what had been said to the misinformed opinion that it was) and yet while the votes continue to push the original article up, the worthy response does not get voted up, nor any real followups to it (presumably because of the threshhold problem for readers, although this is not really a problem).
What do you think ? Make people indulging in moderation read everything...seems only fair [even if the final moderation is still bad, at least they saw it]
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
Knowing the kind and number of Playstation fanatics in Japan, Sony's probably just pricing the PS2 what it thinks the market will bear. Not to say that there aren't any Playstation fanatics in the US (heh). Expect prices in the US to be a little bit more down-to-earth.
First off, I doubt it will be $370. Second,
if it also plays DVD's, then figure you're paying
$250-$300 for a DVD player, and about $100 for the
PS2 itself. However, I heard that it won't play
dual-layered DVD's, any one know if that's true?
Second, why are some people getting nuts about the
way it looks? I would prefer to be able to put it
in my stereo cabinet. Top load units suk! They
take up too much space because you have to leave
room above the unit.
Finally, I am going to buy one for one main reason: Because it will be backwards compatible.
I never owned a PS, but no other company has offered backwards compatibility. I hate having to
go out and buy new games with every console. I
don't even like Sony products that much. But I
will patronize them since they aren't going to
make me go out and buy all new shit right away.
That will be their biggest selling point.
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
But I think that supporting DVD video is really the key feature. If this comes out to the American public at under $300, this feature could be a Dad's last straw.
Heck, sell a remote at a reasonable price ($35 or under), and I bet they could cash in on that in a hurry. The beauty here is that this doesn't have to have good performance DVD-wise at all, because this is a totally different market.
I haven't bought a console since 8-bit Nintendo, but I think I'll be biting the bullet on this baby.
eh
maybe sony will be smart
and setup a VGA adapter
thats really my favorite feature from the dreamcast...just pure SWEETNESS.
Check the listing of ports and until the latter days just prior to the Saturn launch, titles would tend to get ported from SNES to Genesis so that one could be reasonably sure to find a version on each (along with Game Boy and Game Gear versions - Mortal Kombat was a good example of this strategy).
I think it's more accurate to say that the Genesis heralded the obsolescence of the NES but competed mainly with the SNES. Because of the Genesis' faster processor, sports titles (especially EA Sports) kept the system going despite dated graphics/sound hardware.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
I thought the SAME thing. Look at the european pics. Actually a cool looking machine. Stands on side, too. Wonder how the tray will work then!
Also wonder if there will be any steam from IBM over the PS2 name. Doubtful, since they seem to deny that they ever existed...
Umm, for a $600 Celeron box to compare to a
PSX2, you'd need to add a monitor (unless you
have TV-Out) $200. A GeForce256 3D card
(about 1/4 the speed of the PSX, costs $300),
and a DVD-ROM with Decoder ($200)
And even then, you can't begin to compare
a Celeron with the Emotion Engine CPU.
does anyone remember when atari tried to sue sony to prevent them from selling the PSX in the US for $199? My god that was pathetic.
Actualy, I think US tech companys are doing this in asian contrys right now
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Fear not! Nintendo is finally dumping cart format for something disc like in the Dolphin.
It's surprizing that you mixed up the relise of the Saturn and the N64. The saturn came out about a 6 months before the PSx, and then there was another 6 months or so before the n64 came out. btw, the Saturn was probably more of a joke then the 3do
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
you still have the video stream you made into that RM file? id LOVE to see it at an unchoppy framerate and color loss...try MPEG or sumthin? :)
"There is no spoon" - Neo, The Matrix
The specs say it supports DVD-Video. If this means it plays back DVD movies, $370 isn't too much IMHO. But, if it does (and I don't know if it does) will it use regional blockouts like game consoles and other DVD players?
I also noticed the article said there'd be a million chipped by March. A recent story I read said that Sony/Toshiba(?) were having problems with the chip and so may have to delay it's Japanese release. With this latest info, I'm sceptical of all the info.
Guess we'll have to let time show us what is real and what is hype.
Actualy the Genesis did pretty well aganst the SNES, it was ahead for a while, until about a year before the psx/saturn/n64. when the SNES started really showing off (with games like donkey kong contry, yoshi's island, etc)
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
the saturn did have *some* 3d capabilitys, didn't it? I think that it's sprite engien could do transformation, so polygons would be made from hardware distorted sprites
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Well, they might could use a software switch (maybe even make it dynamic). I'm sure it could be done, some of the psx emulators did this.
also, psx titles arn't being *emulated* there being *run* just like when you run that old dos program on youre new PC.
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IIRC, the original NA price for a PSX back in '95 was $300. They ended up in a price war with Sega, though, and had it down to $125 by '97 when I finally gave in for a copy of FFVII. So... don't expect it to stay up for long, especially since the Dreamcast started at $200.
Although there are 'consumer' DVD standards for recording (dvd-rw dvd-ram) none of those can produce 'true' DVDs. If you wan't to be able to do that, you'll need a $10,000 or so Dvd-r burner. so, you'd be caught up with the price of buying games after you burn 200 games....
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Am I the only one that thinks it looks a bit like a NeXTStation? If only my NeXT had DVD-ROM and funky things like this... I applaud Sony on the design aspects, now we just need windowmaker on the thing.
--- CMU Staff A Elbereth Gilthoniel!
Crack-whores are cheaper than PSX2 and have more ports too --Blantly copied off an N64 site
Is that thing a prototype, or the final design?
It sho' is ugly.
I'll wait and see what the games are like...
--
Which, by the way, would work to solve your problem of not having enough controller ports.
After all, USB is a perfectly good bus for Joystick controllers, and it also means that there will be crossover in the peripheral market - all the USB joysticks/wheels/pads/controllers that are made for the PC market may also be usable with the PSX2.
Which means, why bother putting more than 2 controller ports on the PSX2 in the first place, I think. Maybe they'll get rid of 'em and just use USB.
j.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Okay, this looks like quite a toy. Quite apart from being black and shiny, it seems to be designed as an all-round-entertainment box... DVD video, CD audio, PSX games as well as the new ones.
I can only suppose it's the idea that "this is all you need" that's prompting the price - surely DVD is established enough by now that you don't pay too much of a premium to be able to read it?
Quite amused by some of the specs, though... 32Mb RAM for the latest-and-greatest? What are these things going to be doing when they catch up with PC specs?
We now need 2 mod chips for localization lockouts. One for the games, another for the DVDs. Don't forget the mp3 playback... (^_^;)
Back to reality... When was the last time you saw a tray-loading CD console? (Sega CD, perhaps?) Anyone still do that funky hand combination, wait-for-spin-and-switch (was it called the swap trick?) on your old school PlayStation to run copied/non-local games? It's hard to try that here, I guess.
I think the bulk of Saturn die-hards got a lot of great games out of it, especially imports. Buggy it wasn't, that's for sure.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Well, in most of the world, the logical day/month/year is used... 4th March 2000... or the gimmick... *drumroll* 4/3/2000 The Faceless Master http://www.fighters.net Fignting Games ONLY!!!
The Faceless Master
http://www.fighters.net
The Faceless Master
Damn! That box looks sexy! I'll have to get me one of these when they arrive in Norway.. can hardly wait.
Does anyone know if they will continue with the stupid "zone" stuff?
For 10 points: who am I impersonating in the subject?
q3a takes more then 64 megs of ram to run correctly. John carmak wrote the code to wolfensitn, doom, quake and all subseqent derivitaves. I seriously doubt that you're a better programer then him
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
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You won't have to scrap your old PS games
That has to be worth something.
- Jaguar/3D0 (can't recall which came out first)
- Saturn (early summer)
- Playstation (fall)
- n64 (~1 year later)
- Dreamcast
The Saturn and Playstation had very close release dates in Japan, but Sega rushed the Saturn to the US market and that led to a shortage of new titles the summer of its release.Ita erat quando hic adveni.
I think Nintendo could probably get back in square's good graces, considering they own 10% of the company (or has this changed?)
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
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The new controllers, called Dual Shock 2, have analog control not only in the thumb-pads but also in every other pad... basically, everything but the Start and Select buttons have a full range of analog sensitivity, so the system can, for instance, tell how hard you are pressing any of its keys or even which side of it you are pressing. (According to www.gaming-intelligence.com)
if you have old PS games, you have an old PS, therefore you don't need backwards compatibility
true 128bit CPU registers, yep un-befuckingleavable.
the video bus is over 2.5k........
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
well intel isn't *going* to make the chips for the PSX2, so what does it matter what they can do?
also, teh console isn't going to be reliced untill "sometime next year". Next time, try to do some thinking before you post....
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
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You might be joking, but if not
remember, sony dosn't make any money when they sell a console, so if you buy one, and only play pirated games, sony looses money
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the MSRP is not $370, that's the price when converted into american dolars. The price *in* the US will be much diffrent.
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
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The real Sony URL is http://www.scei.co.jp/ps2 where you will find the real specs and screenshots.
The PSX2's CPU has *14* separate FPU units vs 3 on the Athlon. It has two vector units capable of doing dot products, cross products, etc. It has a x9 multiply-and-accumulate unit which can do super-fast matrix operations. In short, for 3d calculations, it blows the PentiumIII/Athlon, and even the Alpha away.
It's normal ram is RDRAM for a 3.6gb/sec bandwidth.
It's rasterizer has a 2,560 bit bus! (embedded dram) with a RAM bandwidth of 48 GIGABYTEs/sec which is 48 times more than AGP 2x. It can render a whopping 2.4 gigapixels/sec using 16 pixel pipelines which is about 5 times the best PC 3d accelerator.
Besides hardware transform and lighting, it's flexible enough to render 60+ million polys/sec and even 16 million+ BEZIER curved patches a sec.
That's about 20 times the bet polygon throughput on a PentiumIII with SSE, and for Bezier patches it's probably 50 times faster.
It's I/O and sound processors alone best the best PC I/O and sound controllers. (It's I/O processor alone is good enough to run Playstation 1 games)
And, it decodes and displays DVD Video.
In short, $360 is fucking cheap for this box! This box destroys E-Machine PCs 100 times over.
And they have another box called TOOL which lets you develop and run PSX2 games on Linux with the PSX2 hardware!
Just another comment. When the Playstation 1 first came out, it cost $299 with NO packin game. After buying a game and a second controller, with tax, it cost near $400.
Folks, this is technology you should be excited about. You should dream of having a Linux box with the PSX2 hardware as your CPU/graphics card/CPU and DVD player!
What sort of sound does this thing have? Does it use the TV speaker, stereo out, 4 point stereo (as in Surround sound)?
Especially with the DVD - does it does AC3 (dolby digital?)
"DNA is God's contribution to the Open Source movement"
I sincerely doubt this is the final design of the PSX2. I don't believe a drawer will be on the final design of the thing. The only other consoles that had a drawer on it was the ill fated 3DO and the CD-I. Drawers cost money, and if Sony can shave off a few bucks for this sucker, they'd more than likely do it, especially with the Dreamcast near the "impulse buy" price-range (under $200).
It's going to be an interesting Christmas, and one heck of a spring.
From the words of the CO of SEGA Of America, It will be an add-on, ust like the Sega-CD was an add-on to the Genesis (MegaDrive). We all know the GD-ROM can not read DVD. This Add-on wil be a DVD drive.
I have been following the PSX2 development for some time now and with this latest release of info on the system, I see some good and bad points. Lets see here...
Good:
"The new system is backwards compatible with the original PlayStation." Very good for those of us who have invested way more money than they should have on a huge library of games.
"High capacity 8MB Memory Card" Great, too many of the games for PSX used an entire card's blocks to save.
"CD-ROM and DVD-ROM" Good cause I just purchased FF8 and its 4 CDs, would've been nice to have it as just 1 DVD, and there would've been still more room for another 4 hours of CG animation. heh...
"128 Bit "Emotion EngineTM" 294.912 MHz 32MB Direct RDRAM "Graphics Synthesizer" 147.456MHz 4MB VRAM" What else can you say here other than its going to have some kick ass graphics.
"$370 US" I know some of you think this is way too high, but when you think of what you're getting, its not that bad. Sure, if you compare the price to say Dreamcast, N64, or PSX it may seem high, but you are not getting just a game console. You can play DVD movies on this thing. Have any of you priced DVD players, for a decent Sony DVD players you pay $300-400. So if you are getting a DVD/CD/game system in one for $370, I think you got a deal.
Now for Bad:
"Controller port (2)" I don't know about the rest of you but I find this a really bad point. I own a PSX and N64 and when it comes time to play multiplayer games with my friends when we get together, it always comes down to playing games on the N64 because it has 4 controllers standard on the system. PSX made an adapter so you could have more players playing, but there are like next to no companies that support it so what's the point. Almost anyone who plays games on the computer knows that multiplay is what keeps games alive, why not use these same principles with the PSX2 and give us atleast 4 controller ports standard!
Well that's the only thing I found wrong so the good still outweigh the bad heavily, and even if Sony doesn't modify the system to support more controllers, I know I'll still buy it and love it, just would be nice to have it all though, eh? hehe
Damn create account didn't work again!
Killjoy76
Jason Carter
I don't see any Ethernet port on the actual specs of the PSX2 so internet connection will not be in a native way as it is with the Dreamcast. If it's not native than you will have to pay for it.
Controller port x 2,
Memory card slot x 2,
AV multi output x 1,
optical digital output x 1,
USB port x 2,
IEEE-1394 x 1,
PC card slot(Type3) x 1,
301x178x78mm,
2.1kg,
DVD-ROM drive: 4xDVD-ROM, 24xCD-ROM,
Memory card: 8MB, MagicGate
I have PC software that ran fine on an 8088.
But I upgraded anyway.
So they only have two controller ports because they expect you to play networked games, and then they make you buy the modem? Gee, this thing just keeps getting expensiver by the moment.
It's my understanding that they wanted the memory slot to be compatible with old memory cards and the new ones, so they had to make something similar to the old card.
It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes -- Douglas Adam -- Life, The Universe and E
Well I just picked up a nice system for around $500 that will rock with Half-Life. Do any consoles even run Half-Life? I think I would just spend the $370 on a new PC upgrade. At least I can pirate the games for free. Playstation games are way to expensive when you take into account its not easy to share them with friends.. unless you have a mod chip I suppose.
I agree that is a bad idea. A friend of mine bought a Sega CD when they first came out. Within 6 months the tray got stuck and wouldn't close. Tray loading is not known for sturdyness.
The PSX2 does not seem to have a modem (or network adapter), so you won't be able to play in network and download saved games directly to your memory card as you can do with the Dreamcast. Als o Sony can still make a peripherical conected to the Firewire or USB port, adding something from $50-$100 for a modem and $100-$150 for the NIC. Also the Dreamcast will have a DVD player out soon and also a NIC. SEGA is not already dead, and with already 80 games released in japan, the US Dreamcast will have more than 100 games before the PSX2 came out in one year. Also I heard it's very difficult to program using the Emotion Engines and certainly many game will not have to use it (like Car Racing...). Also in one year a lot a american family will have a DVD players connected to the TV and in the home computers so a DVD player in the PSX2 except to read 5 Gb of game data is not somewhat useful.
Please Flame me is I am wrong
Yes, but hown many people have video reciviers w/ extra ports on them. I for one have to have a seconday switch already. One for N64, one for PSX and one for DC.
I believe you are mistaken here. Those ports are the backwards compatable kind. (they do have more widgets to them but that is basicly what they are). I have read in several places that the USB bus will be the main controller bus. This will allow you to connect almost anything. Including gamepads, joysticks, keyboards, mice, modems, floppy drives, hard drives, etc. As long as Sony makes it easy of game designers to support a wide range of USB devices you will be quite happy with the number of controllers you can attach.
I apologize about my reply above. Big hands small keyboard. Bad combination.
I've got some old Japanese games (Gradius Gaiden comes to mind) and I'm sure that it won't play on the new unit, seeing as I needed a mod chip to get the game to play here.
So, I'll keep my PS1 until it dies. and then get an emulator to keep my Gradius addiction fueled.
Karnal
Woohoo!
Personally, I can't wait to see how Square takes advantage of the DVD capabilities of the PSX2
--
Donald Roeber
Donald Roeber
Generating 2048 Bits of Randomness...
I paid $300 for the Playstation, and it was well worth it. $370, while making the Playstation 2 one of the more expensive consoles, is justified for the amount of technology in the thing. You're getting a DVD player, and the most powerful video game device ever (well, PCs will probably have surpassed the PS2 by the time it comes out, but not by much).
Look at it this way. To get the equivalent of a PS2, I'd have to buy the lates in PC 3D graphics technology, processors, and sound. Let's say that I could put this together for around...$1500.So, with the PS2, I'm getting EQIVALENT technology for $370. Probably be cheaper than that by the time it comes to the US.
I don't know man, that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
Just remember the Genesis that use cartridges was connected to the SEGA-CD...
Can anyone clarify what they mean by 128-bit system? Is that the internal register size? Bus? I think the the Dreamcast was billed as being 128-bit as well, yet when I looked at the specs, the integer processor was 32-bits, the floating point was 64, and the bus was 32. Yeah, 32+32+64=128, but really that means absolutely nada. Anyone have info on the Playstation2?
As someone who works (well, as of a few days ago) for a RPG site, I've heard many rumours of FFIX already being in development, with a projected Japanese release of sometime within a year.
Yup... the interesting parts are the expansion ports...
USB:
USB Network cards.
USB modem.
USB Zip drive to store game settings?
..
PCMCIA:
Network Cards.
Modem.
Flash Memory for game settings
..
https://www.mav.net/teddyr/syousif/
--
Time is on my side
Luckily, most modern TVs have two inputs (in the mid-range sets, no less) and most VCRs have at least on set of inputs.
:)
Plenty of connections
Lowmag.net
This is a Sony Playstation that you're talking about. The company who has been backing the fight to destroy MP3(unsuccessfully), and attacking people writing emulators for their console system. Sony will not be supporting the play of mp3 on CD-R or bootleg movies.
I'm even willing to put money on that bet.
I'm surprised Sony isn't trying to use their own Memory Stick thing.
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Donald Roeber
Donald Roeber
Generating 2048 Bits of Randomness...
Something I would like to see in the specs is support for CD-R so I can play my MP3s on there. What about VCD so I can play my "pirated" movies?
Maybe they aren't supporting CD-R (or at least not saying they are supporting) it because of the huge following for illegal ISOs of PSX games. I for one, never owned a PSX, so I don't know too much about the subject. But I do know there's a huge scene for that... I guess it'd be pretty smart for Sony to not support that format. But that dissuades me from buying it... only time will tell.
Dreamcast has something going for it: it'll be the only next-generation console on the market this Christmas. PS2 won't be hitting American markets until next Christmas. I'm sure PS2 will have cool effects, but I'm getting a DC. I think SEGA came out with a sweet product.
No, they won't need ram.
Quake sucks up a lot of RAM because it uses lots of prerendered models and textures.
Carmack's latest plan on Quake3 shows that this technique is a failure, and he's moving to skeletal animation.
the PSX2 has enough power to handle realtime calculations of models, physics, lighting, and environment maps. It doesn't need to waste ram storing precalculated BSP maps, model vertexes, lightmaps, etc.
Furthermore, consoles typically don't run HUGE OPERATING systems that suck up RAM, and, with a 4x DVD, the PSX2 can easily stream code/video as needed.
The PSX2 has 32mb of RAM that is 4 times faster than the best PC ram. On the video chip, it has embedded ram that is a whopping 96 times faster than regular old RAM xfer rates.
Even games on the PSX show better design than most PC games. Just look at the graphical effects in Final Fantasy 7/8 alone.
Most new devices are overpriced when they first come out....
Then there is the "cost of living" factor... $370 may sound like alot when compared to the US market, but think of it...
It happens in the US as well... (eg: The price of a movie down here in TX is US$6.25; the same movie in the same quality theatre in NY is US$9.50... A movie in Paris is over FF55.00; which comes to over US$9.00....)
When it comes to the US, I expect it to be priced in the 200-250 range....
https://www.mav.net/teddyr/syousif/
--
Time is on my side
-=-=-=-=-
-=-=-=-=-
My mom's going to kick you in the face!
This is why I'm glad it will have a flexible output and fibre optic audio lines. (swweeeet) You can plug it into a pc monitor. you can plug it into a DTV.
Lowmag.net
-=-=-=-=-
-=-=-=-=-
My mom's going to kick you in the face!
Its a full DVD player too. THat alone will make it worth while too Its kickass NOw it just needs some software to play mp3s too
How many times have we seen "benchmarks" quoting amazing performance? Mindcraft, hint hint
I thought it was a car amplifier at first.
--
Donald Roeber
Donald Roeber
Generating 2048 Bits of Randomness...
Are the USB, firewire and PCMCIA slots - add a USB keyboard and mouse, a firewire harddrive, and you've effectively got something with the power and capability of a PC. Then you just need to see if it will be possible to run a different operating system on it ;)
Until there is a HDTV console I'll stick with 1024x768 on the PC. RDRAM? Didn't we find out last week that it is actually slower than PC100 SDRAM?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If you have been through the video games newsgroups you may have remembered a thread that keeps popping up suggesting that failed consoles are always black (saturn, and it seems psx2) while successful once are grey (psx1 and dreamcast.) This theory is silly but, has come true of late. It will be interesting to see what happens.
I look at it this way. If I buy a PS2 next fall, I don't need to worry about there only being 5 PS2 games out for it because I can always buy PS1 games to play. I think you need backwards compatibility to keep the older games (that are still fun to play and still a viable sale) from dying.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Comment removed based on user account deletion
How much those systems look like HP 712 workstations? I didn't catch it until I saw it on it's side (and it looks crappy horizontal, not bad vertical.) Can't wait to get my hands on one of these, all these people complaining about two controller ports and no modem should look at the stats and realize how upgradeably it is. A modem I would think would be a bad way to go right now, since I see modems getting phased out surprisingly quickly witht he advent of widely-available cable and xDSL services. Also, I was under the impression that they were designing USB controllers for PS2 as well, so those two USB ports could very well supplement it to a lot of controllers... Of course, all my Playstation does is play RPGs and the occasional one-on-one game like Tekken3, Soul Blade, Bust a Groove.... Think I'll stick with Sony and Squaresoft and wait for the PS2 since Dreamcast falls short on titles (and will probably forever considering the massive PS2 library)
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
It will be proportionally less here...I think $200-$250 is the anticipated price.
I think a more reasonable estimate is $349.99. Why? Because you can't sell a system for $370 in Japan and then bring it to the US for $200. It's called "dumping" and it's illegal. The Japanese are known to gleefully pay a lot of money for consoles while American folk are more frugal. Because of this, laws have been set up (for all products) that do not allow you to take advantage of countries where high price isn't a big issue (such as Japan). Thus, prices in all countries have to be reasonably similar. Meaning it doesn't have to be $370 when it comes out in America, but it should be close, and lowering the price by $150 is setting off some huge red flags, and would be a no-no.
can also be found here, along with a couple of Game screenshots
http://www.playstation-europe.com/ps2/
What about games? Sony (historically) has a similar game selection to Sega: they're mostly fighting and sports games. Plus a few Final Fantasy-style RPGs. For those of us who prefer basic arcade games and (for lack of a better term) Zelda style RPGs, it doesn't matter that this thing has more connectivity than an iMac II.... it just won't have the software to make the platform worthwhile.
As bummed as I am waiting for that next Nintendo (Dolphin, is that what they're calling it these days?), I'll probably wait for that (even if it DOES do carts instead of the infinitely-more-convenient CD/DVD drive) simply because the games will be closer to home. I don't care about "Football 2000" or "Kick Some Guys Ass IV"; I want to play Super Mario 47, Zelda 24 and Metroid 8.
-Chris
Wow, the playstation 2 looks so retro cool! But there are some problems I have with it...
;)
a) the high high price. Consider the Dreamcast is selling for about $160 in japan and $200 here. The PSY is still gonna be quite a chunk of change by the time it hits these shores. Does it really need DVD playback? Looking at the items listed, it will play its own "Playstation2 CD-ROMs".. probably much like Sega's GD-ROMs (sega's propreitary format have proved very effective against the rampant piracy seen on the previous console generation). could it have been cheaper without the touted dvd playback? i think sony got into trouble when they promised dvd too early before they saw that sega's way was a better solution for their storage and anti piracy needs
b) No out of the box internet connectivity. Sure you could buy a USB modem or PCMCIA ethernet card, but consoles addons have a long history of being total busts.
c) Where's the Sony memory stick??
Besides those points however, it looks like a cool system. Hopefully they'll concentrate on gaming and not trying to do too many things at the same time (shoulda thrown a DTV tuner in while they're at it
http://www.s4biturbo.com/
My N64 is black... I like it.
Of course, it sits right next to my PSX, which is grey.
Perhaps Sony will take a hint from Apple, and offer them in "flavors"? Wouldn't that be fun?
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Donald Roeber
Donald Roeber
Generating 2048 Bits of Randomness...
The possibilities.....
if you have old PS games, you have an old PS, therefore you don't need backwards compatibility
True, I may not need backward compatability, but let's face it - Sony needs it. They'll be going up against DreamCast which, by the time PSX2 ships, will have been on the market for, what, six months. To hit the streets with an entire established library of games is a good thing.
Besides, I want backward compatability. I've already got too many toys hanging off my AV system as it is. AV switches are an ugly "solution". This is much better.
Where the value of X-Mailer: is the true measure of a man...