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PS2: PlayStation 2 FAQ All of the updated facts, specs, games, and detailed information you need for PlayStation2. January 19, 2000 You want to know everything there is to know about Sony's next game system? Here's everything that's currently known about it. No rumors. Just facts. Enjoy. What's the new system called? PlayStation 2. Or for short, PS2. When is it coming out? In Japan, the official launch date is Saturday, March 4, 2000. The specific official North American launch date has not yet been announced. However, Sony Computer Entertainment America officially has said PS2 will come to the US in fall 2000. Expect a September release of the system. Sony said it expects to announce the official date by E3 in May. How much will the system cost? SCEI has announced the price of the PlayStation 2 in Japan -- and in Japan only -- at 39,800 yen (about $360-$370). SCEA has not announced a US price. But it is sure to announce the PS2 at a reasonable price, probably $299, we suspect. After all, that is what the original PlayStation was first priced at in 1995. But, again, SCEA has not announced a price yet. Will it be backward compatible with all older PlayStation games? Yes, the PlayStation 2 will be able to play original PlayStation games. Because the system's I/O (input/output) processor is essentially the core (main processor) of the original PlayStation, the system will use this processor to insure backward compatibility with all existing PlayStation games. Sony will most likely continue to institute the territorial lockout to make sure that only US PlayStation 2s play original US PlayStation games. Answers to questions as to whether or not the PlayStation 2 will "enhance" original games with effects like a high-resolution mode and texture filtering has been answered. Sony has said that the system will not enhance PlayStation games, but rather play them in their original look, speed and context. Will the current PlayStation be able to play new PlayStation 2 games? Absolutely not. PlayStation 2 games will be written specifically for the PlayStation 2 hardware, and the current PlayStation will not recognize the instructions on a PlayStation 2 game disc. Will it use existing PlayStation peripherals, like controllers and memory cards? Yes. While the PlayStation 2 will have its own specific controllers, memory cards and peripherals, all original PlayStation memory cards, controllers -- even the PocketStation -- will work on the PlayStation 2. This will insure 100% backward-compatibility. The two announced peripherals are the new PS2 analog dual shock controller and the 8-MB Memory Card. However, the new PlayStation2 peripherals will not work with PlayStation. What are the unofficially announced peripherals? The PS2 Multitap and a hard drive add-on for downloading movies, music and games. Neither of these have been anounced yet, but they are definitely coming. Phil Harrison said so. What is the official game lineup? In Japan the official launch lineup consists of 12 games, ranging from RPGs to racers to fighting games and strategies. The lineup is: Golf Paradise (T&E Soft) Ridge Racer V (Racing Namco) Eternal Ring (Adventure, From Software) Kesson (Strategic sim, KOEI) Popolocrois 3 ("Romantic anime," Sony) Dark Cloud (RPG, Sony) Unison (Dance action and sim, Tecmo) Drum Mania (Action, Konami) Den Sen Electric Lines (Action, Sony) A-Train (Sim, Artdink) Street Fighter EX3 (Fighter, Capcom) These games have been pushed back into a spring time period: Gran Turismo 2000 (Racing, Sony) The Bouncer (Fighting-action, Square) Tekken Tag Tournament (Fighting, Namco) Jikkyou World Soccer 2000 (Sports, Konami) What about the North American lineup? In North America, no official line up has been announced yet. But we expect to see Tekken Tag Tournament, Gran Turismo 2000, The Bouncer, Street Fighter EX3, Eternal Ring, the new Ridge Racer, and Dark Cloud among the first games out on PS2.
Um, can we see bigger shots of what the system looks like, please?
Sure. Just click on these thumbnails.
What are the official specs of the system? CPU: 128 Bit "Emotion Engine" System Clock: 300 MHz System Memory: 32 MB Direct Rambus Memory Bus Bandwidth: 3.2 GB per second Co-Processor: FPU (Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x 1, Floating Point Divider x 1) Vector Units: VU0 and VU1 (Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x 9, Floating Point Divider x 1) Floating Point Performance: 6.2 GFLOPS 3D CG Geometric Transformation: 66 million Polygons Per Second Compressed Image Decoder: MPEG2 Graphics: "Graphics Synthesizer" Clock Frequency: 150MHz DRAM Bus bandwidth: 48 GB Per Second DRAM Bus width: 2560 bits Pixel Configuration: RGB:Alpha:Z Buffer (24:8:32) Maximum Polygon Rate: 75 Million Polygons Per Second Sound: "SPU2+CPU" Number of voices: ADPCM: 48 channel on SPU2 plus definable by software Sampling Frequency: 44.1 KHz or 48 KHz (selectable) I/O Processor CPU Core: Current PlayStation CPU Clock Frequency: 33.8 MHz or 37.5 MHz (selectable) Sub Bus: 32 Bit Interface Types: IEEE1394, Universal Serial Bus (USB) Communication via PC-Card PCMCIA Disc Media: DVD-ROM (CD-ROM compatible) In real-world numbers, how many polygons can the PlayStation 2 handle on screen? Since a 3D object is constructed of pieces (known as polygons), the number of polygons per second a system can process indicates how detailed the 3D graphics can be, and how smoothly they can animate. Officially, the maximum number the system can process is 75 million polygons per second. But this number doesn't take into account texture maps (images wrapped onto the polygon set), filtering (making the textures look clean, natural, and unpixelated), and lighting (giving the object a more 3D look with realistic shadows and light effects). With all this into place, the PlayStation 2 can process 20 million polygons per second. Again, this number will be affected by in-game physics, character artificial intelligence, audio, and other processor-intensive effects. We'll take a conservative estimate and saying initial games will push around eight to ten million polygons per second - and believe us when we say that this number is still no slouch. What kind of effects will the PlayStation 2 be capable of?
How does the PlayStation 2's power compare to other systems, including the
Dreamcast, N64, and the original PlayStation?
Here's the answer, in a nutshell.
Polygon Power
PlayStation 2: Around 20 million polygons per second
Main Clock Speed
PlayStation 2: 300MHz (294.912 to be exact) Memory
PlayStation 2: 32MB Direct Rambus RAM Memory Bus Bandwidth
PlayStation 2: 3.2 GB/s (Gigabytes per second) Will it use CDs or DVDs? The PlayStation2 will have a DVD drive that is capable of reading both CD-formatted (650 megabytes) discs as well as DVD-formatted discs (4.7 gigabytes). Most of the initial games will be straight CD games, however, as time progresses, more and more games will be produced on DVD. The first DVD game is by Koei, entitled Kessen. Sony announced that it has developed a specially designed spindle that can read both DVDs and CDs from the same laser. Normal DVD readers have two sets of lasers -- one to read CDs, and one to read the finer pits of a DVD. This measure of combining the laser functionality will reduce the cost of the PlayStation 2's manufacturing in the long run.
What do the different colored discs mean?
There are three colored discs.
Blue = CD-ROM What's the speed on the drive? Will there be load times?
CD-ROM = 24X speed
Sony has said that, right out of the box, the PlayStation 2 will indeed have the ability to play DVD movies. Sony has official plans to release a hard drive-like peripheral in the year 2001 to coincide with its broader e-commerce scheme. This will enable players to buy games, or perhaps update games, as well as movies, and music online. The system has MPEG2 capabilities, too. Will it have a modem? ] Sony has officially stated it will not ship the machine with a modem. However, the system will use a modem for several purposes. Sony will enable gamers to choose from USB, IEEE 1394 (identified as "i-Link" by Sony) and PCMCIA PC card interfaces, with a modem slot. At a later time Sony will announce its online strategy, which is likely to include online gaming possibilities as well. What about multiplayer games? Will there be online multiplayer games? Sony has unofficially announced that a new PS2 multitap will be sold in the future, which means at least four-player support. No currently announced games have multiplayer capabilities for more than two players. Sony will announce a more comprehensive online strategy later on in 2000, and may announce multiplayer online gaming then. |
