This thing is ridiculously small! If you can imagine those plastic cases the game comes in, the new PS2 is literally the thickness of 2 of those plastic cases and just a bit taller and wider. If they didn't have to fit a disc drive inside it, they probably could have made it the size of the game case itself, if not smaller.
Since my GT3 PS2 is Disk Read Erroring (DRE) all over the place I'll be picking up the new model any day now. I have Star Ocean still wrapped in plastic waiting. Plus I'll be able to play Amplitude or Hot Shots Golf Fore! without waiting 5+ minutes to get it work past DREs.
No more motorized CD tray, some import fans think this would allow easier swapping but meh. If you want to play imports its easier to just buy an foreign system.
eh, my old-school ps2 has been in "the shop" for a dead DVD drive for the past week and a half. you should have SEEN the pile my unit got placed on top of. i probably could have fixed it myself if i had time, but i didn't, so i'll pay for someone else to handle it.
either way, here's hoping they have the drive issue sorted out...
"Of course, if you play a hard drive-based game like Final Fantasy XI, you'll have to keep using the old model."
They had to step on a few toes. Out of hundreds (thousands?) of games one (FFXI) won't work on the unit. No loss. Not sure what GT4 will do, as I've heard that may use the HDD unit.
In Japan there is an external HDD unit as well but I'm not sure how the PSTwo will use one as they removed the FireWire ports. Yum, USB1 HDD!
So it is a smaller, less functional version of something that already exists?
Why do people care?
You don't really gain space even though it's smaller, look at how the thing opens to put the discs in.
I guess if you've got $150 that you think is going to give you cancer it's a good idea to buy the PS2.1
No, I just really like car driving games, and have held off until now. Plus, $200 for the game and PS2 isn't a big deal for me, as I have a good job and no life.
Why do I care that it's smaller? Well, for one, it doesn't take up much space in my TV cabinet, which is already overstuffed with AV crap. Furthermore, size is elegance, and as a product designer I value that. A lot. So that's why people care.
I've heard the original USB inputs have since been upgraded to USB2 components, however, I have not heard if they will still be enabled for such operation via software or I/O hardware capability farther down the chain.
The price of the big one isn't going to drop at all. Sony has already said this.
tonton:
Put the little one next to the big one. Now open both of them so they can accept discs. What was that size advantage again?
If you don't already have a PS2 then I understand getting a PS2.1. Hell, GTA:SA is making me consider a PS2.1 (I don't have a PS2). But if you already have a functioning PS2 you will be loathe to justify getting a PS2.1 outside of "MONEY IS FOR SPENDING LOL!"
It's still ugly; it's just that the ugly is less noticeable because it's smaller (and yet again, you're going to need just as much, if not more, vertical clearance (which is what matters most in a home entertainment setup) to have that thing opened.) Depth (which is what you need for the PS2's tray) is not an issue for any item in an HE system except for a big TV maybe.
Don't be whores to corporations because they make a neater plastic version of something you already have. Take your woman out for a great date (with flowers) instead.
To me, the PS2.1 is for (a) people who don't already have PS2s and (b) people who want to put one in their car or some other non-home system (so, for people with more money than sense). If you buy a PS2.1 and put your working PS2 in the closet you deserve to be slapped with a large trout.
Well technically, the old one "occupies" even more space when the tray is deployed to load a disc. So it is not like the space factor of the newer one somehow becomes on par with the older one when you swing up the door to place a disc.
It is a tiny unit, no matter how you slice it, and probably ridiculously cheap to make, at this point. Though I would be in agreement to not buy a newer model just for the sake of it. If my original model broke, then I might ('course my game playing as of late has been severely limited). This is simply Sony exercising due diligence to miniaturize, simplify, and reduce cost of a commodity product as the march of technology progresses.
Perhaps, we may even see some spillover of this miniaturization design to the PS3, which could be interesting- a little box with such sheer amount of power (based on the claims and depending on who's making them) that you can literally carry away in a single hand? If they ever get a desktop OS to run on the thing, can you imagine the amount of power at your disposal with a clustered unit that merely occupies the same space factor as a typical Windows box? Nootz! [/wishful thinking]
Well my current machine is broken, its just a pain to get most any game to work. They will work, most the time, with some effort. After spending most of its life horizontal I've had to since move it vertical for games to work at all. Its not broken, but it not exactly working either.
Its also a noisy bastard. Loud! My sister has wanted a PS2 so play a few games to she can have it. The new design is a fraction of the size (miniscule) and noise (whisper) of a previous model, offers integrated networking (where an adapter is required previously) and in time can be made cheaper then the previous model. Oh and they caught me with a semi-dead console. Good job Sony
Arguing how much space it takes up is something. What groverat is saying, is that when the thing is open, you have to now give more room to it vertically, can't stack anything on top of it, etc. But that argument doesn't hold much water. You don't have to open it all the way to put in a disc.
A good example; my GameCube with GameBoy Player gives me about 2.5" of clearance (probably less) to get games in and out. Can I do it, yeah. It can be a pain because the games resides deep (relative to the clearance I have) inside. Same can be done with this system.
Besides, it was odd the PS2 had a motorized tray to begin with. The list of consoles with motorized trays can be counted on a single hand; Xbox, PS2, Goldstar 3D0, Sega CD for Genesis 1. And you know whats funny, ALL of them (save the Xbox) had later revisions to make them top loading. Because its more reliable and cheaper. Heck the best versions have naturally been top-loaders because of their reliability.
Here I am stuck with the original NES when it would be easier to get games working on the top-loader, oh well
Comments
Originally posted by Splinemodel
I am a consumer whore.
And how!
A Google Hit with a few pictures.
Since my GT3 PS2 is Disk Read Erroring (DRE) all over the place I'll be picking up the new model any day now. I have Star Ocean still wrapped in plastic waiting. Plus I'll be able to play Amplitude or Hot Shots Golf Fore! without waiting 5+ minutes to get it work past DREs.
No more motorized CD tray, some import fans think this would allow easier swapping but meh. If you want to play imports its easier to just buy an foreign system.
either way, here's hoping they have the drive issue sorted out...
Originally posted by jwri004
"Of course, if you play a hard drive-based game like Final Fantasy XI, you'll have to keep using the old model."
They had to step on a few toes. Out of hundreds (thousands?) of games one (FFXI) won't work on the unit. No loss. Not sure what GT4 will do, as I've heard that may use the HDD unit.
In Japan there is an external HDD unit as well but I'm not sure how the PSTwo will use one as they removed the FireWire ports. Yum, USB1 HDD!
Why do people care?
You don't really gain space even though it's smaller, look at how the thing opens to put the discs in.
I guess if you've got $150 that you think is going to give you cancer it's a good idea to buy the PS2.1
Originally posted by groverat
So it is a smaller, less functional version of something that already exists?
Why do people care?
You don't really gain space even though it's smaller, look at how the thing opens to put the discs in.
I guess if you've got $150 that you think is going to give you cancer it's a good idea to buy the PS2.1
No, I just really like car driving games, and have held off until now. Plus, $200 for the game and PS2 isn't a big deal for me, as I have a good job and no life.
Why do I care that it's smaller? Well, for one, it doesn't take up much space in my TV cabinet, which is already overstuffed with AV crap. Furthermore, size is elegance, and as a product designer I value that. A lot. So that's why people care.
Is the absense of Firewire on this new model a big deal if you don't play games that require a hard drive?
tonton:
Put the little one next to the big one. Now open both of them so they can accept discs. What was that size advantage again?
If you don't already have a PS2 then I understand getting a PS2.1. Hell, GTA:SA is making me consider a PS2.1 (I don't have a PS2). But if you already have a functioning PS2 you will be loathe to justify getting a PS2.1 outside of "MONEY IS FOR SPENDING LOL!"
It's still ugly; it's just that the ugly is less noticeable because it's smaller (and yet again, you're going to need just as much, if not more, vertical clearance (which is what matters most in a home entertainment setup) to have that thing opened.) Depth (which is what you need for the PS2's tray) is not an issue for any item in an HE system except for a big TV maybe.
Don't be whores to corporations because they make a neater plastic version of something you already have. Take your woman out for a great date (with flowers) instead.
To me, the PS2.1 is for (a) people who don't already have PS2s and (b) people who want to put one in their car or some other non-home system (so, for people with more money than sense). If you buy a PS2.1 and put your working PS2 in the closet you deserve to be slapped with a large trout.
It is a tiny unit, no matter how you slice it, and probably ridiculously cheap to make, at this point. Though I would be in agreement to not buy a newer model just for the sake of it. If my original model broke, then I might ('course my game playing as of late has been severely limited). This is simply Sony exercising due diligence to miniaturize, simplify, and reduce cost of a commodity product as the march of technology progresses.
Perhaps, we may even see some spillover of this miniaturization design to the PS3, which could be interesting- a little box with such sheer amount of power (based on the claims and depending on who's making them) that you can literally carry away in a single hand? If they ever get a desktop OS to run on the thing, can you imagine the amount of power at your disposal with a clustered unit that merely occupies the same space factor as a typical Windows box? Nootz! [/wishful thinking]
Its also a noisy bastard. Loud! My sister has wanted a PS2 so play a few games to she can have it. The new design is a fraction of the size (miniscule) and noise (whisper) of a previous model, offers integrated networking (where an adapter is required previously) and in time can be made cheaper then the previous model. Oh and they caught me with a semi-dead console. Good job Sony
Arguing how much space it takes up is something. What groverat is saying, is that when the thing is open, you have to now give more room to it vertically, can't stack anything on top of it, etc. But that argument doesn't hold much water. You don't have to open it all the way to put in a disc.
A good example; my GameCube with GameBoy Player gives me about 2.5" of clearance (probably less) to get games in and out. Can I do it, yeah. It can be a pain because the games resides deep (relative to the clearance I have) inside. Same can be done with this system.
Besides, it was odd the PS2 had a motorized tray to begin with. The list of consoles with motorized trays can be counted on a single hand; Xbox, PS2, Goldstar 3D0, Sega CD for Genesis 1. And you know whats funny, ALL of them (save the Xbox) had later revisions to make them top loading. Because its more reliable and cheaper. Heck the best versions have naturally been top-loaders because of their reliability.
Here I am stuck with the original NES when it would be easier to get games working on the top-loader, oh well
Originally posted by IonYz
Here I am stuck with the original NES when it would be easier to get games working on the top-loader, oh well
My NES has some loose wiring. I should fix it, and play some of those old games. There are quite a few really good ones out there.