1000+ PS2 titles BC with PS3 for European Launch

[djskribbles]

http://www.threespeech.com/

Yet again, a seemingly innocent press release from Sony – detailing the specification of the PAL territory PlayStation 3 – has been met with the reception you’d expect if the sky started falling in. That, as we all know, is because it revealed that PAL (why is Sony still calling them PAL, since HDMI renders the whole concept of PAL, NTSC and Secam redundant?) PS3s will have had the Emotion Engine chips surgically removed from their motherboards, so backwards compatibility with PS2 games will be achieved via software emulation. Sony’s decision to point consumers towards a website (http://faq.eu.playstation.com/bc) detailing which PS2 games will be playable on the PS3, but which won’t go live until March 23 also hardly made PlayStation enthusiasts feel any less unloved. But we have good news: we managed to snatch a quick interview with head of worldwide studios Phil Harrison, in between putting the finishing touches to his Game Developers’ Conference keynote, and what he said firmly puts the contentious issue of backwards compatibility into storm-in-a-teacup territory.

Harrison would not be drawn on specific PS2 titles which will be playable on PS3 on March 23, but it seems the only problem we will have is deciding which ones to play: “The situation is changing every day, but on March 23, we expect the list to include over 1,000 PS2 titles.†That enough for you? Even when you’ve played your way through MotorStorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Ridge Racer 7, Virtua Tennis 3, Call of Duty 3, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Formula One Championship Edition and so on?

 

[infinity4]

how many games came out on ps2 so far??? doesn't look bad as far as they are latest (in last 2-3 years) and decent games...

 

[djskribbles]

how many games came out on ps2 so far??? doesn't look bad as far as they are latest (in last 2-3 years) and decent games...

according to wiki, there were ~2300 PS2 games released in Europe as of Sep. 2006. so yes, over 1000 is quite good imo.

 

[Xenus]

Yeah and for all we know there could be another 100+ or so that have a glitch that still allows the game to run but might be a little annoying. EG. sound cutting out in cutscenes or something stupid like that.

 

[NovemberMike]

How many of these are Barbie's Adventures though? It would be interesting to see if the least technically impressive titles are the ones that got in, or if they got all of the big titles...

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Yeah and for all we know there could be another 100+ or so that have a glitch that still allows the game to run but might be a little annoying. EG. sound cutting out in cutscenes or something stupid like that.

For all we know the 1000 games could also be "glitched".

Kinda like more or less all the titles on Xbox 360's BC list have problems with something or another

 

[djskribbles]

How many of these are Barbie's Adventures though? It would be interesting to see if the least technically impressive titles are the ones that got in, or if they got all of the big titles...

i think sony tweaks the ps3 to be compatible with certain games. in other words, sony decides which games are compatible. if this is the case, they'll probably do the more popular titles first.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Unlikely. They are emulating PS2's CPU. They'll start was the simplest emulation to just get it working, and include better emulation of the more obscure functions later with updates. That means the games running on simpler engines are likely to be more compatible. Those that really stretch the hardware are more likely to have problems. eg. VU0 was often overlooked. Sony can thus ignore emulating VU0 and have a lot of titles not care, but the really effective titles like RnC that used VU0 will come unstuck.

It's not emulation on a game by game basis. They may be able to pin some high-end titles to a few obscure features, and implementing them successfully enables a set of top-end titles. But overall, I expect compatibility to be on the less interesting titles at first.

 

[NovemberMike]

Unlikely. They are emulating PS2's CPU. They'll start was the simplest emulation to just get it working, and include better emulation of the more obscure functions later with updates. That means the games running on simpler engines are likely to be more compatible. Those that really stretch the hardware are more likely to have problems. eg. VU0 was often overlooked. Sony can thus ignore emulating VU0 and have a lot of titles not care, but the really effective titles like RnC that used VU0 will come unstuck.

It's not emulation on a game by game basis. They may be able to pin some high-end titles to a few obscure features, and implementing them successfully enables a set of top-end titles. But overall, I expect compatibility to be on the less interesting titles at first.

What I was thinking. Case by case emulation would ensure that the top titles are working, but it seems that they are trying to have a more general emulation...

 

[infinity4]

40% BC is not as bad as we first expected

 

[weaksauce]

Does the emulation upscale and AA the games?

 

[Acert93]

Does the emulation upscale and AA the games?

GS is still in the kit. It is EE that is being emulated.

 

[Bad_Boy]

Does the emulation upscale and AA the games?

Theres a rumor going around (started by the same site that broke the warhawk psn rumor) saying that they will have some PS1/PS2 games upscaled to 720p/1080i later in the year. I'm taking it with a grain of salt, but it sounds possible.