The PlayStation 2 Is 20 Years Old Today, here are some fun facts about the legendary console.
The PS2’s last game was released in 2013
Over its lifetime, the PlayStation 2 had 3,874 titles and sold 1.5 billion copies.
The last games to be made for the PS2 reached way into the life of its successor, the PS3.
Fifa 2014 was the last game to be made for the PS2 in the US on 24th September 2013 but Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 was officially the last ever game for the PS2 being released later in the same year.
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
was and still is one of the best games I and so many others have ever
played and was also the best-selling game for the platform with over 17
million copies being sold.
The towers during startup actually had a purpose
Anyone who has ever owned this console remembers them for many things
but the random white towers shooting up and down during the loading
screen is something that springs to my mind first.
This screen, although appearing completely random, had a secret purpose.
The towers represented saved game data, so the more towers appearing on the screen, the more saved data you had.
Try
it, if you still own one, turn it on with the memory card in and count
how many towers you have then restart the console with the memory card
removed, the towers would have disappeared.
This didn’t really
have any well-known purpose apart from being a great way of knowing if
the saved data was being detected or not when troubleshooting.
A man legally changed his name to PS2
Now I know we all do some crazy things when we find something we love
deeply but have you ever thought of changing your name to your favorite
piece of technology?
No? Why not? Because it’s crazy that’s why!
In 2002, a British man named Dan Holmes loved his PS2 so much he legally changed his name to Mr PlayStation 2.
Dan
(Mr Playstation) said he would take the console on holiday with him and
had already spent over £7,000 on games alone so who knows how much he’s
spent by now!
Dan even asked the church to marry him and his console. That’s what we call a diehard fan!
The shape of the PS2 wasn’t Sony’s brainchild
The actual console itself, with its box-like shape and perpendicular lines across the body, was based on a computer from 1993.
The Atari Falcon Microbox 030/040 was the final computer released by Atari and quickly became a massive flop.
PlayStation
– 8 years later – for whatever reason, decided they loved the design
and when the 2 are placed side by side the similarities are uncanny,
from the perpendicular lines to the smaller and larger connected
rectangles making up the overall design.
The PS2 allowed the
customer to have the console either led down or upright with the help of
a blue triangle stand that the device simply slotted into, this was
exactly the same as that of the Falcon just in a different color.
Sony even mentions Atari in their patent for the PS2.
It was also a Linux computer
The PS2 most impressively had an optional kit to convert it into a Linux computer.
The
kit cost around $200 and included a Linux distribution on DVD,
documentation, an Ethernet adapter, a USB mouse and keyboard, a hard
drive and a computer monitor cable.
This allowed users to develop their own games without the need for expensive developing licenses from Sony.
Obviously
they didn’t have full access to the developer suite but for many it
gave them the chance to develop games on a major gaming platform.
Sony
kept this product quiet as they didn’t want to confuse their customers
or give them the impression that they wanted the PS2 to be used more as a
computer than a console.
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