Japanese Playstation2

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Playstation2 frequent questions:
(Last updated April 7th)

What are US and European launch dates for PlayStation2 ?

Keeping up with the usual console tradition of breaking up the world into smaller markets, Sony has scheduled the PS2 for a Fall 2000 USA release, with speculation focusing on September. Yep, that's a minimum of at least 6 months after the Japanese debut, far too much time for many of us to wait!

Europe and the rest of the World are unlikely to see a PS2 launch until very late in 2000. An early 2001 debut seems to be the most likely.

If I buy a Japanese PS2, what compatibility issues will I have to face?

Just like about every console released in recent years, Sony will attempt to seggregate the world into 3 territories: Japan; USA and North America; and Europe, Australia and the rest of the world. However, just like before, this isn't so easy to do in practice.

To use a Japanese PS2 outside of Japan, you will first of all need a power convertor, which we will supply for the UK. You also need a TV that can display an NTSC signal through a SCART or S-Video socket. From our experience, if you have a TV that is less than 8 years old and it has a SCART or S-Video socket, you will be 95% fine. You can test your TV with any existing chipped or imported console you care to mention.

Will I be able to play US and European games?

It may well be possible to manually trick a Japanese PS2 into playin US or European games in the same way you can with PSX and Dreamcast, ie, swapping discs. However, we are already in contact with several Far East manufacturers who working on a mod chip to unlock the territory locking system. We expect to stock such a universal adapter within a few months of launch.

How about DVDs, will it only play Japanese releases?

There are 3 types of DVD releases.

Region 1 (USA NTSC)
Region 2 (Japanase NTSC) and (PAL, mostly Europe)

Japanese PS2s will play region 2 releases. So you should be able to play most European DVD's without any trouble.

The step-by-step instructions to play an American DVD on your PS2 are as follows. This may not work on the first try every time, but keep trying. Some DVDs took 3-5 tries before they would work.

1. Turn on your PlayStation 2 with no disc in the tray and the memory card in slot 1.

2. When the system loads up, go into browser mode. You will see only the memory card icon.

3. Insert the DVD into the disc drive, the PS2 will read and load the disc.

4. Select the DVD disc icon, press O (circle), and quickly press and hold the UP button on the controller’s digital pad.

5. Hold this down until the DVD boots up and you get a success message (one line of Japanese). If you get a failure message (2 lines of Japanese), just eject the disc, wait for the browser screen to come back up, and try it again. If you don’t get anything at all, you may need to reinstall your DVD drivers on the memory card.

6. Once you’re in, press O to bypass the success message. You’ll see a menu with a bunch of numbers and icons. Press select twice to get rid of the menu, then press start to begin playing the DVD. The movie should start playing, and you will be able to use the controller to move around the DVD.

7. If the movie doesn’t play and you get the menu again, your DVD may not work on PS2. We found that by pressing one of the first two buttons on the second line of the menu (use O), you could display the menu for these DVDs, but not actually watch the movie.

8. Beware, Sony’s next shipment of PS2’s will include a fix for this code, so if you haven’t gotten your hands on a version 1.00 PS2 and utility disc, you may be out of luck. We’re sure copies of the utility disc will be flying around the web soon, though.

DVD Controls:

Now that your DVD is playing, you’ll need to move around in it. Use these controls to do that:

Stop/Play – Start
Pause – Triangle
View Menu – Press triangle to pause, then square to go to the menu
Confirm – O
Cancel – X
Fast Forward – R2
Next Chapter – R1
Rewind – L2
Previous Chapter – L1
D-Pad – Menu Navigation

What does it come with?

When you buy a Japanese PS2 from Otherland Toys, you'll get a controller, a memory card, all the cords you need to hook it up, and a free game & a demo CD. You will also get a specially written instruction booklet in English.

What games will you be stocking?

We plan to stock all titles, available internationally just a few days after their Japanese release.

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What else can this thing do?

Right out of the box, the PS2 can play DVDs and is backwards-compatible for old PS games. Eventually, SONY will release an adapter that you can plug in and use your PS2 for web browsing thru a broadband network (aka Cable modems or DSL). This internet access also lends itself to online gaming, something Sega threatened to do with DC but never came through on.

What's "Backwards Compatible"

Backwards compatible means that you can play old Playstation games on the Playstation 2. The PS2 won't boost the graphics any, but you can bet that you'll benefit from faster load times and bigger memory storage. This also gives the PS2 a huge selection of games the day it comes out, especially for people who don't have a PS1.

Will my Game Shark or MOD Chip still work on PS2?

You can use any SONY peripherals, like your PS1 Dual Shock controllers or memory cards.

Does it have a modem like Dreamcast?

No, but SONY keeps alluding to the release of hardware that will let you hook it up to your cable line for a really fast net connection. Don't expect anything like this until at least 2001.

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