There are some old products, they may have faded out of people’s eyes, but every time we think about it, it makes us full of memories. As a nostalgic section of GeekChoice (GeekChoice), “Geek Museum” hopes to find these products that have brought us surprises and emotions, and take you back to their charming qualities.
Some time ago, Sony announced some of the PlayStation 5 information, although the time to market and price information are still unknown, but this does not affect players’ attention and expectations for PlayStation 5. Taking advantage of the popularity of the new machine, the Geek Museum, which has been a pigeon for a month, also brought a heavyweight player. This time let us recall the most classic model of the PlayStation series-PlayStation 2 in most people’s hearts.
For the post-80s and post-90s, the red and white machines can be said to be the “enlightenment teachers” who opened the game world, but in the entire teenage years, PlayStation 2 (hereinafter referred to as PS2) was the longest time to accompany them. The one where more people fall in love with the game.
The most successful game console in history
According to statistics from third-party organizations, PS2 is the highest-selling game console in history. As of May 25, 2020, PS2 sales reached 158 million units, followed by Nintendo DS with a cumulative sales of 154 million units, and the third place is GameBoy, which was previously written by the Geek Museum, but it is GameBoy.
The first generation of the model, which is commonly known as the “brick” by players, has a relatively large sales gap with the top two, “only” 118 million units. It is not difficult to see from this data that the classic status of PS2 is almost unshakable. PS4 has now reached the end of its life cycle, and sales are only 109 million units. It’s not just the PlayStation series, it’s not an exaggeration to think of PS2 as the most successful game console in history.
For domestic gamers, PS2 actually has a black past. PS2 was officially released globally on March 4, 2000. Sony officially announced the mainland’s licensed listing until November 28, 2003. However, the Ministry of Culture broke the expectations of gamers without waiting for players to be happy for a few days. Therefore, even though PS2 has very high domestic sales, 99% of consumers buy are parallel imports.
Various models are indistinguishable
The entire update track of PS2 is similar to that of PS4. In the later period, the “slim” version was launched. However, “PS2 slim” is not specifically marked on the name, only the model number is different. This is the geek’s choice. The PS2 model is-SCPH-50004. It is said that this model is not a hot-selling version.
Its first two digits represent the version of the machine (small change), and the last digit represents the sales area. At that time, the popular version was the US version and the Japanese version. However, other versions of the machine also have advantages, that is, the input voltage is 200-240V, which can be used directly in China. If you buy the US version or the Japanese version, A bulky inverter is required.
The PS2 at the beginning of the models 1, 3, and 5 are all “thick machines”, and after the 7 prefix are “thin machines”. In addition to the early “thin machines”, the “thick machine” has a great advantage, that is, it can be changed to Hard drives, games can be copied directly to the hard drive, both stability and reading speed have better performance than CDs, of course, all this needs to be built on the basis of “cracking”.
There are quite a lot of doorways and bends about the model part, because it involves a lot of knowledge points and the parts that need to be explained are also very complex, so it is not shown in the article. After all, the “Geek Museum” column just wants to take a good look back. Happy.
Perhaps it was the reason for the relatively short stature at that time. When I first got this PS2, I felt that its size was not as big as it was. Even if compared with the PS4, there seems to be no big gap, although the PS4 body is more Thin, but heavier. Whether the PS2 is placed horizontally or vertically has always been a problem that bothers me. Almost no one in the impression is placed vertically. It may be because it is too much like a heater and it is easy for the elderly to clean up the house. Right. In my impression, PS2 also has official bracket accessories, just to make the main unit more stable when placed vertically.
In fact, there are feet on the bottom of the fuselage
At that time, Sony had already played the limited color set quite skillfully, and it really hurt everyone’s wallet. In fact, the limited models at that time were not as sincere as they are today, just a color change. The common color restrictions are ceramic white, gouache, blue, various transparent colors and so on. To be reasonable, most people should be purchased by their parents, so it is highly likely that they will choose the ordinary version of black, after all, it is the cheapest.
There are only two buttons on the front of the PS2 fuselage, all at the top position, and their functions are very simple-restart (open/shutdown) and cancel the warehouse (the opening of the warehouse should not be a problem). Maybe it was because the machine was fragile at that time, or it might be because the small operation was often violent, and there were always failures related to the disk reading head around. In addition, this was more or less like the scratch on the game disk itself. relationship.
On the back of the fuselage, there are not many PS2 interfaces. In addition to the power interface and AV output interface, it is the network cable interface and the expansion compartment. Whether there is a network cable interface will be different according to different versions, some versions need to purchase an external network card separately, and some models have a built-in network card. However, during the hottest era of PS2 around 2003, domestic ADSL broadband was not so popular, and many people were still using dial-up Internet access, coupled with the need for more complicated operations, even if PS2 supports online battles, but for domestic users Except for a very small number of enthusiasts, most people will ignore the function of online battle.
The DualShock handle that hasn’t changed much until now
PS2 has two handle interfaces, and there is a memory card slot above each interface. Because there was no built-in hard disk and storage space for the body at that time, the memory card became a necessity. Use it to store some relevant information such as game records. . This setting actually restores the feeling of arcade, but the domestic friends may have less contact.
If you have a lot of game disks, the memory card is really easy to fill up. If you don’t want to organize and archive frequently, you have to buy a large-capacity memory card, and because of Sony’s usual non-universal standards, it has properly harvested a wave. Where there is profit, there will be profiteers. There must be many friends who buy memory cards. They are fooled by the blackhearted boss. As a result, they bought an assembly card, and they will be able to use it if they have good luck. damn
The algebra of Sony PlayStation series consoles and DualShock handles are corresponding, that is to say, the DualShock 2 handle is used on PS2. Aside from the wireless connection and touchpad design of the DualShock 4 controller, the entire PlayStation series console’s controller has almost no major changes (the PS5’s controller has only changed its design style). For most players, the PS2 handle is definitely a “consumable” like existence, because it is really too easy to go wrong, it is not difficult to use a handle in a month. On the other hand, just like the memory cards mentioned above, there are many imitations of PS2 accessories on the market, which are easy to be fooled or dropped by profiteers.
For this second-hand PS2 acquired by Geek Select, the seller gave a total of 3 handles, but only one of them is completely normal, and the other two handles are somewhat problematic. Although the DualShock series controller is very classic, and there are various limited editions like the main unit, but it is really impossible to beat the Xbox controller when it comes to the feeling of the touch and the color matching.
PS2 uses AV output, and some TVs may not have such an interface nowadays. At that time, most TVs used a 4:3 screen, so the default maximum output resolution of the PS2 was 1024*768 pixels. The user can adjust it to 16:9 in the system settings, but it was cut from the screen. . In the later period, many players wanted to achieve the best output of the PS2 through RGB, component color difference lines, etc. In fact, the PS2 is worthy of the title of “next generation home console”, and its performance and image quality were still quite capable at that time.
Too many classic games “occupied” my childhood
In the era of rampant piracy, PS2 basically bought cracked machines in China and could directly read pirated game discs. For this second-hand console purchased by Geek, the seller still has a large package of game discs. In fact, the quality and price of this machine do not have much advantage. What really impressed me is this package of game discs. Not surprisingly, this package of CDs should be pirated, but you don’t have to worry too much about it. After all, as of today, the upgrade of encryption technology and the enhancement of consumer copyright awareness have given the game field a very good market atmosphere. This is already a considerable progress.
Although I just said that the PS2’s picture quality is very good, but it is limited to that era. Looking at it from the current perspective, it is difficult to imagine that I played it all afternoon. In my student days, my classmates and I often rented machines to play in the stalls of the small commodity market after school. If I remember correctly, it should be 2 yuan an hour. At that time, it seemed that the pocket money that was not much was spent on “spiritual needs.” How much did you rent in front of the screen for an hour? Welcome all friends to share in the comment area.
God of War 2 scenes
For me personally, the most memorable games are the Dragon Ball series, the Naruto series, and the NBA Live series (at that time, the 2K series has not yet gained popularity in the domestic market) and the live series, perhaps because of the frequent renting of machines to play, “Alloy “Equipment” or plot type, role-playing games are not my dishes, I prefer to compete with friends. After all, it costs 2 bucks, and the two people spray some rubbish from time to time against each other, that’s where the fun lies. Because there are too many classic games, everyone’s preferences are different, so I will not do more review here
At that time, the name of JOJO was not as loud as it is now
I have to say one thing, sometimes it’s terrible to memorize this thing. I just received this PS2 and just opened live football during the test. Although I can’t read a single letter in German, Leng was able to hum along with BGM…
Final Words
The success of a game console is by no means merely eye-catching or powerful, but a pure game experience is the core competitiveness. In addition to many classic games, PS2 also has a lot of exclusive games, the most famous of which are Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, God of War, GT Racing, Nordic Goddess, etc. Fans of these exclusive game IPs should also become loyal fans of the PlayStation series, which is one of the reasons why PlayStation 2 can be successful.