A relatively recent comer to home video game systems, Sony has developed a reputation for high quality, high functionality and great games which has positioned them as a market leader.
Click any photo to view a large high-resolution image.
Sony's first gaming system, the Playstation uses CDs as the game storage. Good
performance, high quality games and a solid company name behind it made this
unit a success and launched Sony as a serious contender in the home video game
market.
Views: Back, Bottom, Game discs.
The PS1 is an evolution of the Playstation - functionally identical to the
Playstation, the Playstation 1 is much smaller, but uses an external power
adapter. This system also shipped with the analog joystick controller.
With dazzeling graphics, high performance and sleek good looks, the PS2 would
be a winner in any circle, however Sony wisely gave it two more features that
locked it in as the clear winner in this generation of gaming systems.
DVD player - At a time when home DVD players were still pricy, the PS2 included a "free" DVD player. You can even get a infrared "DVD remote".
Backward compatibility - Almost unheard of in the video game industry,
the PS2 could play Playstation/PS1 games! Even the controller was backward
compatible, with the same size, shape and button layout. This gave the PS2 two
very important advantages:
Views: Back, Vertical orientation (shows bottom).
In 2004 Sony updated the PS2 with the "slim" version. Much
smaller,
top-loading CD
instead of a motorized tray, external power supply (internal on the original
PS2) and with a built in network port (optional on the original PS2), this
version of the PS2 is still being sold (2007).
Views: Back, Bottom, Box-Front, Box-Back.
PS1/PS2 controllers:
Lower-left: Original Playstation controller
Lower-Right: Updated with analog feedback and "rumble" feature
Upper-Left: Relabled PSone for the updated/slim PS1 system
Upper-Right: Updated with pressure senstivei buttons for the PS2
There are also many third party controllers and extensions such as this light-gun.
The PS3 brings a new meaning to the word "video game" - Video output is
in high definition, and many PS3 games are almost photo-realistic.
It's also the highest priced of all current generation consoles, which
has contributed to it having a slow start in the markedplace.
Like the PS2, the PS3 provides an attractive "extra" - a built in high-definition blu-ray player. Left to right (large photo): 20G and 60G launch versions - these provide full backward compatibility by including the core hardware components of the PS2 in the box - the "emotion engine" CPU, and PS2 graphics chip. Next is the early 80G model which retains the PS2 graphics chip, but uses software emulation of the processor. Rightmost is the 40G (which is the same chassis as current 80G and 160G) models which has no PS2 backward compatibility at all,
Sony has claimed high losses in the production of early "feature rich" PS3 models and have trimmed later models to a simpler configuration. Accessories.
HD/model USB WiFi PS2 CardRDR SACD Year Status --------------------------------------------------------- 20G 4 No H/W No Yes 2006 Discontinued 60G 4 Yes H/W Yes Yes 2006 Discontinued 80G 4 Yes S/W Yes Yes 2007 Discontinued 40G 2 Yes No No No 2007 Discontinued 80G 2 Yes No No No 2008 In-production 160G 2 Yes No No No 2008 In-production
The Playstation Portable is a powerful hand-held multimedia and gaming
center. It features a *BIG* wide screen,
and WiFi connectivity. Built-in applications include gaming (of course),
photo viewer, movie viewer, ATTRAC/MP3 player and more. Unlike other
portable systems, it uses a high capacity optical disk called
UMD (Universal Media Disk) making not just games,
but full length movies available.
