News Sony to reintroduce PS2 emulation on PS3?

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2009/06/30/sony-to-reintroduce-ps2-emulation-on-ps3/1

A patent has emerged revealing that Sony may be ready to reintroduce backwards compatibility on the PlayStation 3.

 

Well...at least they're not releasing yet another SKU.

 

The original UK 20GB/60GB PS3 is able to play PS2 games thanks to still having the RSX GPU from the PS2 (The EE was emulated by the cell CPU / software).

IIRC the main reason why the later PS3's didn't have any PS2 backwards compatability was sony said the RSX was impossible to emulate in software / by the cell cpu due to bandwidth limitations. This turnaround could be interesting.

 

I just want to be able to play Mashed Fully Loaded without digging out the old xbox! Best party game ever and the only reason I still have the old box.

 

I thought the US/Japanese PS3s had hardware emulation because they hadn't sorted software emulation yet. When it was released in Europe the original SKUs for the first few months had the emulation software, and the US/Japanese ones switched to this too to reduce the manufacturing costs. Then they released their cheap version where they cut the emulation, not because it cost more, but because they wanted people to buy more PS3 games.

As far as BC goes, for me it's either hardware or not worth bothering with. I attempted playing KotOR 2 on my 360 and there was a bug which made the framerate crawl when something decloaked (even off screen) which made it incredibly annoying to play. Plus I play my 360 through a monitor right now so if it won't play at 60Hz then it won't play. So I do still own my xbox with a nice stack of games, and my PS2 and GC.

That reminds me, I still need to grab 4 GBAs and FF:CC

 

woo gt4 on ps3 without having to dig ps2 out

 

TBH i was considering buying a PS3 a while back and the lack of PS2 emulation was a deal breaker for me so i did not buy one (and im bvery glad i didnt)

 

Backwards compatability is a deal breaker for me, I really hope they bring it back. I have a lot of unopened PS2 games, as I only got the PS2 6 months ago and I grabbed a large back catalogue that I had always wanted to play. I also don't have room for my TV where I live atm, and the PS3's HDMI going to my monitor would help. That's not to say the PS3 isn't attractive with bluray and a few titles, but at 700NZD there is no way I'm grabbing it unless it does everything I need it to.

 

got that, which reminds me: I need to see if the DS/DSLITE will work in place of a GBA and then grab another 2 GC to GBA cables.

 

Wait...so on the PS3 i bought off my cousin, he got it at USA launch date, I can play PS2 games?

 

Backwards compatibility was so important to me that I bought a used PS3 so that I could get a 20 GB model rather than a cheaper 40 GB model.

 

Likely, yes. Grab an old copy of GTA and see.

 

PS2 backward compatibility is a necessary condition for me to consider a PS3. I do not have many PS2 games but they are all classics: Rez, WipeOut 2097, Ico, Shadow of the Collossus, Katamari.

 

I'd be in a mess without Ribbit King.

 

Damn I still need to find Ico and Katamari. The 2nd hand Shadow of the Colossus copy I found for 20NZD was in excellent condition and even had the postcards that originally came with it, I was so happy haha.

 

I think the original launch consoles came with both processor and gpu chips, requiring no emulation. Later on they dropped the processor and made 80GB version with only the gpu chip with some software emulation. Then a little before they came out with the 160GB line, they dropped all BC across all tiers.
This is just the US consoles though.

 

I've got the original 60GB UK/EU model PS3, and it has a sort of *******ised software/hardware PS2 emulation. I've got a list of PS2 games that hate the PS3 with that software emulator (most of them JRPGs) so despite the fact that there are a few games out there that work OK... most don't. With the 100% hardware 'emulation' in the original US models I wasn't aware of any issue. But unless they can sort out the software emulation issues, it's still going to be a case of keeping a PStwo handy for those games that just don't want to know...

 

It will not. The DS/DS Lite lack the port necessary to use the cable. I tried this myself as both my wife and I have DS Lites and I have my GC. Ended up taking FF:CC back very dissappointed.

 

Maybe it's just me. But lacking B/C isn't a huge issue for me. I still have all 3 last gen consoles so with or without it I wouldn't have noticed between the Wii/360/PS3 if I really wanted to play my older games. Slim PS2's aren't that expensive (or even that big) considering and I would imagine alot of you still have the old hardware if you are still playing PS2 games. I will admit it was convenient though, my PS2 is just a DVD player in my bedroom now which saved me a $30 Wal-Mart purchase for one.

Even still, with B/C I was dissapointed Sony didn't ship the PS2/PSOne Memory Card transfer kit with the console at launch in the U.S. I hate buying accessories I don't need (especially when it will only be used once).

 

sweet nice, now im going to go play RE4 then RE5 in a marathon. Then maybe go thru the entire GTA series from ps1 to ps3