I have a tonne of really fond memories of this machine, both as a developer and a gamer. From many a late night cursing at the lack of proper development tools to debug VU code to the hilarity of booze fueled evenings playing Timesplitters 2 with my housemates, this is the machine that pretty much dominated my 20's.

In many ways, the PS2 along with the XBox, are also responsible for killing off the budding indie developer scene and forcing the industry into the AAA+ model for games. The PS1 was a revolution in that it enabled small teams to make great games. But the PS2, as great as machine as it was, completely reversed that trend. Many developers went under because they could no longer deal with the complexity of the technology needed, along with the exponential increase in cost for content creation. Even large studios weren't immune to this problem - you only have to look at how Core Design dropped the ball with its Tomb Raider franchise because it kept on trying to work the same way it had done back in the PS1 days (I know this because I was at Core during during development of Angel Of Darkness).

But as a gamer, the machine was just awesome once developers had gotten to grips with it. Stand out moments for me were Shadow Of The Colossus, Timesplitters 2, Firewarrior, GTA:San Andreas, Metal gear Solid 2+3, Gran Turismo, Jax & Daxter, Prince Of Persia:Sands Of Time and Ico. When I moved half way across the globe, one of my first purchases was a new PS2 to replace my old one, and I did the same thing again when I moved back to Europe.

 

Wow. Hard to believe it's been that long.

It was sold out all over the US so I didn't have a chance to buy one before my parents and I took our trip to Norway for Christmas. But it turns out my cousin there had bought one, so I spent a lot of time at his house playing Tekken Tag Tournament (Tekken Bowl is a frickin' blast  ). I bought him Timesplitters as an early Christmas present. After we came home, I went to Target the next day and they happened to have one in stock, so I jumped on it.

The next year he tried to show me how "awesome" GTA3 was, but I wasn't into it (still not). Mainly we played the hell out of SSX Tricky.

I'm guessing you had to get a replacement because of the NTSC/PAL incompatibility issue?

I had a similar problem with the NES when we lived in Germany in the late 80's. We knew we were going to move back to the US eventually, so my parents got me an NTSC NES, and I played it on the NTSC TV in my room using an electrical transformer. But we didn't know about the system difference, so buying a new game at a German store didn't go well. Fortunately, the store took the game back. Unfortunately, I had to have NES games mailed to me by relatives in the US, or sometimes my dad would bring games back with him when he returned from a business trip.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, das stimmt  
(haven't spoken it in 30 years, and I was never fluent, so my German is a bit rusty)

 

As it happens, no! I was in Australia for a couple years and they used PAL, along with the same game region as the EU. The only thing that was different was that DVD region, so I bought one for when we moved back here. When I moved to Australia, I pretty much sold/got rid of everything that I owned, bar some clothes, personal items, my laptop and my MP-01 figure.

 

Wow just hard to believe that this much time has pasted on PS2 MACHINE. I HAVE the little ps2 cause my old one went caput so mom bought me the update for my irth day. I still have it but don't play it..maybe i'll get it out and play some orginal battlefront both 1 and 2.

 

Yup i recall that and 19 years ago when i was 19 i got it for my birthday and still own PS1 PS2 PS3 and have PS4.

 

I still remember when I first bought mine, and picked up "Mega Man 8" with it. Also was my first DVD player. I think the first DVD I got for it was the first Funimation release of The Bardock Special.

 

The Backwards compatibility was a big boon to me since I skipped out on the whole PS1 Gen, especially for RPGs I played for the first time through it. "Lunar: Silver Star Story", "Final Fantasy IV", and "Chrono Trigger" (I missed out on it's SNES release) are good examples.