What retro system do you just not understand the appeal of?

[marlowe221]

And, as I mentioned earlier, a side effect of moving to LCD displays, particularly ones that don't de-interlace well, is that those drab, low-contrast games look even more low contrast. I'd very much recommend playing on a good CRT or a TV that scales well for PS2 gaming. (Or use a Framemeister, although I don't have one of those.)

Or emulate. That's totally viable these days if you're not rocking a six-year-old laptop like I am.

Wait... PS2 emulation is a thing??? How did I not know that?

You mean I can play Burnout 3 Takedown again?

[Exhuminator]

Wait... PS2 emulation is a thing??? How did I not know that?

It's a compromised glitchy thing, yes.

[Sarge]

Depends on the game. It's probably N64 level. Takes a beefy rig, though.

[Jagosaurus]

My vote is the Virtua Boy. I didn't understand it when it was new, much less now.

For those interested in the NGPC, SainT at Atari Age (AA) is fairly far along in his flash cart development for the handheld!

I appreciate the Jaguar as a "between generation" console & really think it had more potential. This plus Atari's history, the quirkiness, and the homebrew/indie scene keep me into it. The Jag had 3 retail games released this year on cartridge with boxes & manuals (Custodian, Rebooteroids, Xenon 2). I'm not talking mini games. Also, there's an AA forum member (CJ) porting over a ton of the Atari ST library. Pretty awesome to see 4 player Gauntlet II running on a Jaguar. Many of these direct ST ports saw cart & box releases as well.

Freaking Jeff Minter (T2K, Defender 2K, Vita TXK, xbox 360 visualizer, Space Giraffe) posted on the AA boards Jaguar sub forum today for example. The Jag community can be a bit toxic at times, but it is alive, thriving, and fast approaching the DC indie & homebrew scene IMO. The upcoming SD cart is being made with game development in mind so this will only grow. The SD cart will even be able to emulate the CD drive so we can enjoy such legendary titles as Highlander

@JMustang, not surprised at all by your DC comment. There's only a dozen RPGs & no SRPGs. I am a bit surprised you dont keep one around for Grandia II & Skies though. Guess Grandia II is on Steam & Skies on GCN.

HDAdvance/HDLoader/FreeMC makes the PS2 a very desirable convenient console for ease of choosing various games. Install the games, put the original discs away and fast load off the internal hard drive. So many controller options and such a huge library. Throw in all the obscure exclusive imports which also can be installed without need of a mod chip.

This! While I've always liked the PS2, I agree having the ability to easily boot games right off the internal HDD or USB has gotten me MUCH more into the scene.

The console essentially has a "flash cart"/Optical Drive Emulator solution nearly out of the box. $10 FMCB mem card off ebay + USB. Of course the HDD method is better & still cheap. Over the years, I think that scene will grow the PS2's stock in our community. A couple of us in mod section even have PS1 games running via USB on PS2.

While I know CRT knows this, for others:
The oXbox can easily be soft modded for retail titles (not near as easy as the PS2 FMCB though). The stock HDD is only 8GB though so you're storing 1 game or so. That brings you into the much more complicated process of upgrading the HDD. Then you have to convert .iso to .xbe files. It gets cumbersome.

Essentially, the PS2 wins the "playing retail digital games battle" IMO but oXbox wins the emu/MAME scene.

[CRTGAMER]

While I know CRT knows this, for others:
The oXbox can easily be soft modded for retail titles (not near as easy as the PS2 FMCB though). The stock HDD is only 8GB though so you're storing 1 game or so. That brings you into the much more complicated process of upgrading the HDD. Then you have to convert .iso to .xbe files. It gets cumbersome.

Essentially, the PS2 wins the "playing retail digital games battle" IMO but oXbox wins the emu/MAME scene.

So true, both the PS2 and Original Xbox a big plus for the internal hard drive route. On both consoles, I prefer the direct install to verify good copies of obscure import ISOs and original discs. The Xbox actually installs the discs pretty quickly compared to the PS2.

A flat CRT or flat HD CRT the best way to play the PS2 games. No muddy pixelated graphics compared to upscaling on a 1080p LCD.

[alienjesus]

All I'm saying is that even games that were deliberately given gritty colour schemes (like Resident Evil 4) somehow seem to have more defined colours on GameCube than on PS2

[Jagosaurus]

All I'm saying is that even games that were deliberately given gritty colour schemes (like Resident Evil 4) somehow seem to have more defined colours on GameCube than on PS2

The GCN & Wii ports of RE4 are amazing.

I don't think there's any debate that the PS2 is lesser machine spec wise between those 3. So in turn it would suffer from less textures and colors.

I also agree that it was a time when gritty was in and a bit overused due to both style and console limitations. It's just part of that generation's legacy like the limited draw distance and/or fog in the 32/64 bit era... or flicker in the 8 bit era.

Component cables do help clean up this look a bit but they'll always be many drab games that gen.

Immediately Hunter the Reckoning Wayward popped into my mind. I can see why folks don't like, but again, just part of that gen to me.

[marurun]

The PS2 was arguably the weakest (in terms of raw hardware power) console of its generation, with perhaps the exception of the Dreamcast.

[Forlorn Drifter]

Actually, I have to be honest I have yet to feel any appeal to the PS2. I get the appeal, I just don't feel it myself. I feel like the depths of the library just makes me not even want to try.

[Ack]

Actually, I have to be honest I have yet to feel any appeal to the PS2. I get the appeal, I just don't feel it myself. I feel like the depths of the library just makes me not even want to try.

Nah man, just name a genre, and someone here will likely be able to point you towards what games to check out.