New PS2 games still being released

[Liamh1982]

The console is probably too old but I wonder if after the last official software release the console will be enbraced by the homebrew shmup community like the DC?

Doubt it - remember all the early talk of the PS2 being a right pig to develop for? Unless you see homebrewers get hold of a decent amount of documentation any stuff you would see will be rather limited.

[Freestyler]

i recently bought the orginal unreal
which is damn impressive it runs fine on a vista machine and even now looks great ina very polygonal way
it even supports eye bleeding high resolutions

Try to source yourself the expansion as it's really a nice extension to the whole Unreal mythos. It's great fun.
I'm off to replay it actually! You've made me want to take another look!

[DPrinny]

The console is probably too old but I wonder if after the last official software release the console will be enbraced by the homebrew shmup community like the DC?

Doubt it - remember all the early talk of the PS2 being a right pig to develop for? Unless you see homebrewers get hold of a decent amount of documentation any stuff you would see will be rather limited.

Homebrew for the PS2 is very limited (read bugger all good)

theres more for the Wii than there is for the PS2

[Mr.Saturn]

The PS2 is still being launched in the likes Brazil and other countries where taxes and class divisions often forbade certain sectors of society from getting in on certain platforms.

[snowkatt]

The PS2 is still being launched in the likes Brazil and other countries where taxes and class divisions often forbade certain sectors of society from getting in on certain platforms.

so the ps2 is not out of the running yet
not by a long shot

[skylarking]

The PS2 is still being launched in the likes Brazil and other countries where taxes and class divisions often forbade certain sectors of society from getting in on certain platforms.

so the ps2 is not out of the running yet
not by a long shot

I've noticed that while games shops often don't sell the actual consoles now, they still have a reasonably wide range of second hand games, and still sell new accessories such as memory cards and controllers. I wonder when exactly one can say a console ceases to become "current"? When the console and its games are no longer sold new, or does the fact that new accessories continue to be sold mean it's still "current"?

[snowkatt]

personally i think of it when the hardware ie the console it self ceases to be produced it stops being current
the dreamcast and xbox are not current any more
the ps2 is stil current but only threadbarely so its not dead yet but on life support

acessoires could just be new old stock

[GarryG]

I agree. Official production of both the hardware and software for the DC and xBox has stopped.
This makes them out-of-production, or old, systems. Not neceseraly the same thing as 'retro' to many people, but it does to some...

In the case if the DC this state came naturaly due to SEGAs bungeling.
In the case of the xBox it was just cut stone-dead by MS, or we could still see games trickeling out for this as well as the PS2.
Sony have no MS-like sudden-death strategy, so the PS2 will die naturally and gracefully of old age...


I dont think it will ever get the home-brew scene that the DC and xBox have.
I don't see anything wrong with this type of development on officualy defunct machines but can't see Sony agreeing with me!

[snowkatt]

very old age
the ps2 has a new lease on life in brazil apparantly
much like the master system which didnt die in brazil until 1997

[Liamh1982]

And TecToy also released new Mega Drive cartridges up till 2002!

[Freestyler]

very old age
the ps2 has a new lease on life in brazil apparantly
much like the master system which didnt die in brazil until 1997

Yeah, like I linked to earlier in this thread the "Emerging Economies" are all getting very interested indeed in consoles and computers. If I was somebody in the scene I'd have tried to get a console Amiga off the ground.

Imagine a small console Amiga A1200 with games on cart. You could load 10 or 20 games to a cart and charge a tenner. Or even have the carts themselves pluggable into a TV, using some cheap system-on-a-chip design. If Raspberry Pi shows us anything it's that people are genuinely interested in tiny self-contained computers that can function as potentially decent gaming machines.

Hell, why stop with the Amiga? Any one of us could list a console or computer they'd like in throwaway TV Pluggable form with 20-30 games on! I suppose it's the whole licensing issue though?

[Mr.Saturn]

I imagine the PS2 will also see some life in China as a taster, in one form or another. Nintendo make a console specifically for the Chinese market, a mix of N64 and Plug 'n Play, so I can see Sony trying to go ahead and do something similar. I mean, you can find PS3s and 360s on the black market in China, but since there's no official support for either of them, that is, no legit market, all the games are pirated and can't be played online. So, I can see some reception for licensed gear, whatever form it may take.

[snowkatt]

I imagine the PS2 will also see some life in China as a taster, in one form or another. Nintendo make a console specifically for the Chinese market, a mix of N64 and Plug 'n Play, so I can see Sony trying to go ahead and do something similar. I mean, you can find PS3s and 360s on the black market in China, but since there's no official support for either of them, that is, no legit market, all the games are pirated and can't be played online. So, I can see some reception for licensed gear, whatever form it may take.

they did that to combat the rampant piracy in china

[Mr.Saturn]

they did that to combat the rampant piracy in china

Well, no. They did it to cash in on the pirate market, as there's no way the could combat it. I mean, the piraters even advertise on telly in parts of China.

[snowkatt]

same thing as far as i am concerned