Ken Kutaragi's finest hour hails from an era where games machines featured custom components built from the ground up, a necessity in an era where PC parts were too expensive to be crammed into a console box. From a technical perspective, the notion of original PS2 code being able to run under emulation on the PlayStation 3 is a seriously impressive feat of engineering. Value issues aside, we wanted to find out more. While lesser known games cost between £0.99 to £3.99, most of the titles cost £7.99 a pop. Warnings are given out that the games are running under emulation and may vary from the original PS2 experience, but the real kicker is that you'll have to pay for them - even if you own the original discs. Behind the scenes, Sony has been working on restoring PS2 support for all PlayStation 3 consoles regardless of configuration, and we've now reached the point where you can visit the PlayStation Store and download 74 'PS2 Classics' - in truth a roster of immensely variable quality, with only a smattering of stand-out titles.

With Sony still haemorrhaging cash on PS3 production, all PS2 components were removed by October 2007, and backwards compatibility was no more.īut the story doesn't end there. By the time the EU launch rolled up months later, the design was altered, removing the PS2 CPU - dubbed the Emotion Engine - and replacing it with software emulation to mixed results. US and Japanese launch models featured the principle PS2 hardware built into the system, making for excellent support for almost all legacy PlayStation titles and the ability to run older games with a precision HDMI output. PS2 backwards compatibility remains something of a contentious issue for PlayStation 3 users.

Emulation games ps3