Game Consoles

Since its debut in the year 2000, sony’s play station had been the best selling gaming console ever. This is being kept up till this year, 2009, with its playstation  3. In the year 2004, when we were all thinking that the days of Sony PlayStation 2 is over and that, it is about to knock the doors of the retirement village, it has come again with an ace new design and super-skinny size. Sony has looped off all the excess flab that it used to carry around and some excess pounds too. Before we proceed we would like to present to you the main differences between the original PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 2 slim.

PS2 Original vs PS2 Slim – A Comparison

Design:

With some strenuous effort, the engineers of Sony have managed to reduce the size of Sony PlayStation 2 to half its original size, with the internal volume reduced by 75 percentage. Having said that, you must be asking what has been sacrificed to attain this. Yes, compromises have been made , the hard drive bay is absent and there are only two controller ports. An important note to be made here is that, the multi-tap accessory used for the original PS2 will not fit. Some new features has been included too which initially required some bulky hardware upgrades in the original Sony PlayStation 2.

It is very sleek having its dimensions as just (H x W x D) 1.1” x 9.1” x 6” Another design compromise that had been made is the PS2 top-loader, which pops up like a Discman where you will have to snap the disc on to the spindle. The PS2’s front panel includes two memory card slots, two controller ports, two USB ports, a power and a disc eject button. There is a dedicated infra red receiver in the front panel. This allows you to control the PS2’s CD/DVD functionality using any of the several remotes that are available . Even after the makeover, the Sony PlayStation 2 slim requires an add on adaptor if you want to use four controllers at the same time.

The Sony PlayStation 2 Slim, like every other console, has a composite A/V cord in the box, which you use to connect the console to your TV. However, S-Video and component-video connectors are also available separately if you would like to improve the picture quality. For surround-sound audio, there is a built-in optical digital audio jack
The drive handles standard CD, DVD movies and the games. Sony has included a lot of functionalities to the drive. The dualshock controller doubles as DVD playback control too.

Long list of games:

The reason why Sony PlayStation 2 Slim Form Factor Console has an everlasting place in our hearts is because its huge and ever-growing catalogue of games. There are hundreds of titles available for Sony PlayStation 2 and there will be thousands if the PS one games are included. They have included the footie frolics along with the classics such as, GTA, San Andreas and Gran Turismo 4. The Guitar Hero and Singstar series is included for the music lovers.

Support for online games:

Being one third as thick and heavy as the original, the slim has also included an Ethernet port. The new PS2 also includes support for online games which includes Madden NFL 2005, SOCOM II, and Burnout 3. This was made possible with the help of the 56Kbps modem jack and the Ethernet port. Online gaming was available in the original  PlayStation 2 too, but there, it was achieved with the Sony’s online adaptor but, having the games built-in, makes work much easier. It supports dial-up connections and does not charge you any monthly fees. But the black spot involved is that, PS2’s online gaming experience requires title by title configuration rather than the elegant and unified interface such as that of the XBox live. Another irritating fact is that, you will have to purchase a PS2 memory card in order to store the network configuration that is found in the included installation disc.

Power supply:

The internal power supply has been removed and tagged to a power chord similar to the game chord which reduces the noise of the fan puffing away as you are fiddling your DVD.

Retainment of important features:

This new version has not omitted the most loved features that were available in the original PS2 such as, the DualShock2 controller, backward compatibility with Classic PS One  games and the DVD playback.  The backward compatibility is achieved as Sony uses the original Sony Play station ‘s CPU as its I/O processor. When the games of the PS one are played in PS2, most of them looked similar and in fact, the responsiveness was much better with Sony PS2 slim. The PS2 has a new memory format and new cards are available that work with the new format of the PS2.

Sony PlayStation 2 (slim) Game Console is still lagging behind GameCube and Xbox in terms of the graphical performance and support for HDTV but is still the winner when it comes to the options of the games available. When compared directly to the Xbox, the PS2′s 32-bit Emotion Engine yields in-game graphics with more jagged edges. People playing on an ordinary TV are not too likely to notice those flaws.

Verdict:

Sony PlayStation 2 slim Gaming Console is a great option if you are considering to pimp your ride by adding a game console to your car or if you are looking for a hi-fi portable gaming console. But, it you are already owing a PlayStation 2, ie, the older version, then you can just add the online adaptor. This PS2 Slim Comes with one year warranty.

Sony PS2 Game Console – Technical Specification Details

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