Aaaaaaaakchually I think that’s a picture of the $599 “A01” 60GB model. It had WiFi and the chrome trim along the front. The $499 “B01” 20GB model was all black and looks slightly cooler imo
the original fatboys in 20gb and 60gb only - you could sideload an OS and there was a specific linux distro i think. I want to say it was originally pumped up because it allowed the cell cpu architecture to run folding@home
pretty sure literally the first revision (the 40gb? was there also a 100gb model too?) removed the feature to install OS because they immediately realised it would allow piracy and homebrew lol (with me thinking that homebrew development was the entire point but idk)
The thing that made me really mad is that Sony released the PSVR2, but removed support for playing 3D BluRay's from the PS5. The higher resolution would've been so amazing, but the PS4 is the last model that can do it.
Iirc, the first models of the PS3 had basically most of the drives of the PS2 and PS1 inside it. Making it the best Consoles to emulate PS2, since it was running on basically original hardware.
Playstation 1 was always emulated, it has good compatibility but is forced to at least 480p so it's kind of ugly, soft. The PS2 was not emulated, full hardware in the A01 and B01, C01/D01/E01 have the GPU emulated by software. Neither has perfect compatibility, and since original PS3s are trying to catch fire all the time it's less practical than just owning a PS2.
Yeah, the retro shop near downtown here is loaded with ps2s last I checked, easy if you have some cash and with FreeDVDBoot and some DVD-Rs (and a couple extra, in case the PS2 doesn't like the burn or it degrades over time) you can play anything PS2 (Like Gitaroo Man. Play Gitaroo Man. I love rhythm games lmao). I would never be satisfied with emulation (except in rare instances where the TV is already in use) tbh, and the soft PS1 picture would be a dealbreaker for me, so we have a PSX, PS2 slim, and two PS3s (we each had one) lol
Aside, thoughts on dithering on the PSX? I like preserving the dithering, I have a SCART cable plugged into mine. When Partner was playing Silent Hill 2 I fucking was over the moon, loved the way it looked, but I know this is a very divisive topic, and I bet the devs themselves were not intending for the dithering to be seen. (I struggle with Genesis games since there's no alpha blending as far as I can tell, but I really like the sharp pixels, so waterfalls in like Ristar or Sonic games are cool to behold, technically, but don't really have the illusion correctly lol)
The Emotion Engine! The later PS3 slim dropped the EE chip and switched to software emulation of it, which meant that like 50% of PS2 games no longer functioned because the emulation wasn't as good as having the actual chip, which was a shame but I bet it represented a significant amount of the price drop.
Mine lasted until last year unlike most ylod victims, I got it in 2008 slightly used but as an all purpose media player, I've for sure gotten that much in value