Suddenly I’m having a little more faith in the PS3 download service. It’s not just for demos and repurposed free Flash games, apparently, but will also be serving up quality PSOne games. And — this is the important part — not just first-party software. (Because really, there’s not that much good first-party Sony stuff out there for PSOne. OH BOY LEGEND OF DRAGOON!) Now I just need to figure out a way to get the Japanese titles on a U.S. systems and I’m golden.
I think the most interesting development here is that they’ll apparently be offering the two Konami MSX Antique collections as single downloads. This is pretty surprising, since each of those has something like 20 games apiece, some of which are pretty solid — Gradius II, Salamander, that kind of thing. These aren’t the arcade versions, of course, but some of the better MSX games were on par with the NES ports. And I’m pretty sure you’ll be paying for the NES equivalents individually on Wii’s Virtual Console. Admittedly there’s the small matter of the $350 price difference between the two consoles BUT WHATEVER GUYS
Honestly, I’d rather the PS3 simply upscale my PS1/PS2 games to 480p rather than having to buy them anew, but I guess this is better than nothing. Oh, wait, it’s actually not. Since you can’t actually play the downloaded PS1 games on PS3 due to Sony not having cobbled together a functional firmware… thingy. Yet.
Thank god. For a minute there I was worried that there was something like competence on display here.
In even worse news, Phil Collins is in Vice City Stories. That would actually be grrrrrreat news except that Rockstar has categorically denied that they’ll be porting GTA:VCS to PlayStation 2, and there’s no way I’m going to play it on PSP. It’s neat that you managed to get a PS2-quality game on the handheld, but what’s the point when it’s compromised to fit the hardware’s interface to the point that every minute spent with it is searing agony? Honestly.
26 thoughts on “PS3 gets it right?”
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Legend of Dragoon wasn’t THAT bad. I may be lying through my teeth though. Meh. The back catalog thing will be nice, especially if they offer bug free Mem card emulation. There’s more than a few classics on PS1 I missed out on…both Suikodens, Valkyrie Profile…and a few others. The no playability thing at first does bother me as well. I mean, all of Sony’s hardware is supposedly back-compatible right out of the box due to reused parts, and is there honestly a difference reading an .iso off the HD vs. an actual disc?
‘Course, I’m in that group of people who’ll wait 1/2 a year so they can wrinkle out most of the major hw problems, so Sony’s incompetence doesn’t really surprise me anymore. Not after the fiasco that was the early PS2 anyway.
“and is there honestly a difference reading an .iso off the HD vs. an actual disc?”
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This baffles me as well.
I guess one could use the “OMG SOYN STEALED OTHER NINTENTO’S IEDA”, but that would be too easy. Virtual PSOne sounds like a good concept (except for the fact that I only played FFVII and SOTN). I had the impression that the PS3 would be backwards compatible, though.
I have no intention of getting a PS3, but I have a PSP, and would like to play PS1 games on it. I read somewhere you could only download the games through a PS3. I think this is the point where games have officially gotten too complicated for me, and I go collect stamps or something.
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“and is there honestly a difference reading an .iso off the HD vs. an actual disc?”
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Will it be an .iso? Or will it be some crazy root-kit/spyware/propietary format that I guess Sony hasn’t even invented yet.
1) I’m pretty sure the PS3 is backward-compatible.
2) Legend of Dragoon really is that bad.
3) OMG Silent Bomber!
If it is compatible with Mr. Back Ward, then why would anyone want to download PSOne games? For the PSP? I thought everyone sold their PSP in order to buy a DS Lite
Michael: Sony has (or will have) a website for PSP users to dl PS1 roms from if you don’t own a PS3. Don’t really remember where I read that though. One of the 1up news stories. As for the file format for the disc images, it doesn’t really matter so long as it runs. File formats are just ways of containing and compressing data from raw byte code, and all a program needs is it to be able to decode a particular format for it to work.
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Nich: “Legend of Dragoon really is that bad.” Yeah, I know that lol. I tend not to actively dislike games unless they make me want to pitch my controller through my TV though. Explains why I don’t like most platformers or shooters. I’ve played some truly excretable games though. Like Unlimited Saga. *shudder*
Shh–Sony still thinks the PSP is relevant.
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Nah, I think the big appeal is as a way to pick up old PSX games that aren’t easy to find anymore, presumably for a decent price. Personally, if this finally gives me a way to play Vib Ribbon, that’s going to go pretty far. Not “$600 to a competitor” far, but it’s not going to hurt.
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I’m also hoping the purported backwards compatibility and purported region-freeitude will mesh correctly so I can (someday) play PS2 stuff like Siren 2 that never graced these fair shores. Unless someone (hello Atlus dudes) wanted to bring the existing English version over here, which would sure save me a lot of trouble.
Silent Bomber?! What the feh!?! It’s great news, for sure, but that’s one of the last games I ever expected to be available.
BTW, it seemed that Sony let slip during the Lik Sang catfight that PS3 region locks out PS2 and PS1 import games. Meh. I’m doubting Sony is really going to stick to that promise in any way, though.
Suikoden II, please. Thanks ahead of time.
“Rockstar has categorically denied that they’ll be porting GTA:VCS to PlayStation 2”
Uh-huh. And when it doesn’t sell on PSP, they’ll categorically deny having said that and put it on PS2 anyway. Too bad they didn’t threaten to chop off their heads, though.
Rakugaki Showtime, here I come! Too bad we probably won’t be seeing Pepsiman on there, licensing issues and all. Still though, if they offer a ton of games from the get go, rare or otherwise, hopefully this will wake up Nintendo and Microsoft. Oh, and don’t forget about Zanac X Zanac kids!
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Phil Collins has been dead to me ever since the whole South Park deal. Petty, I know.
I actually kind of liked Legend of Dragoon, in the same way that you can like a cheap, greasy microwave pizza. You know it’s not really good, and it’s certainly not good for you, but you still enjoy it on some primal level.
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I also liked the chick whose special attacks emanated from her vagina.
Cheap, greasy, microwave pizzas make my stomach churn simply thinking about them. I find no enjoyment in them at all.
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With that being said, I’m kind of glad I never played Legend of Dragoon. Based on that comment, I’m positive most of my day would have been spent hurling over the toilet.
It’s nice to see that Jumping Flash! isn’t completely forgotten. Hey Sony, if you want me to buy a PS3 or even a PSP, how about a spanking new Jumping Flash! game? And with Takeo Miratsu’s music, of course!
My teenaged siblings have played Legend of Dragoon…multiple times. But at least they’re embarrassed whenever they confess what they’re playing.
Parish sad “Nah, I think the big appeal is as a way to pick up old PSX games that aren’t easy to find anymore, presumably for a decent price.”
Yeah, maybe one day someone will find a way to run old games in your PC, like, maybe emulating old hardware with software. Maybe people could copy the PSOne game isos and you could run them in your computer. We could call it… emulanization.
Correction: Kevin Cogger said “Nah, I think the big appeal is as a way to pick up old PSX games that aren’t easy to find anymore, presumably for a decent price.”
“Again, insert joke about how all of us have been playing rare PSOne games using magic.”
My PS2 thinks that Megaman Legends 2 is an audio CD, so my expectations of the PS1 backwards compatability on the PS3 are pretty slim.
Emulated games are like diet soda. Better than no soda at all, but only slightly.
As I see it, it depends on the quality of the emulation itself
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Final Fantasy Anthology/Chonicles: Bad emulation (except for FFIV)
Mega Man Anniversery Collection: Good emulation (though in this case ‘genuine’ might be more appropriate then ‘good’)
All right then, I think the big appeal is as a way to ethically pick up old PSX games that aren’t easy to find anymore, presumably for a decent price.
Pffft. As if Sony and ethics can go along in the same sentence without anyone rising an eyebrow.
Kevin, it’s just mean to go taunting people with the idea of an easy-to-find Vib Ribbon release when it’s merely a vague possibility.
Ah well, Jumping Flash could be fun. And hopefully the ability to actually run these games on the machine that’s downloading them will be ironed out by the time I pick one up in a year or so.
TheSL: That’s due to some funky disc formatting where they stored some of the game music in standard music cd format. If/when (probably when, since it’s Capcom we’re talking about here) it gets released as a rom it should work fine. I can’t see them charging any more than Nintendo is for the N64 games on the Wii though.
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I’d imagine emulating from the HD w/an iso image wouldn’t be too different from emulating with a cd/dvd. Access times might be better for the data anyway, unless the cd read on the Blu-Ray drive is OMFG fast, which translates into faster and easier emulation. Besides which, with as much horsepower as the stupid thing supposedly has, it should have no problems at all emulating PS1 games given that’s it also derived from the same architecture as the two earlier models.
So when is Sony gonna let me d/l Snatcher? Or is Kojima remaking that next?
Mightyblue: I wish I checked out Valkyrie Profile myself. I got stuck with the overrated Star Ocean, which is basically like Saga, except without the stupid micro-management of stats which seems to piss off fans of Front Mission and
Tactics. I never got to play the second Suikoden, either, and wonder why Konami doesn’t put out a collection like Sierra did for Quest for Glory. But otherwise, I’m pretty much done with the PS, with the exception of Tron Bonne.
Kevin: “Sony still thinks the PSP is relevant.”
Sony better make money on PS3 and Spider Man 3($300 estimated million production costs), or the company itself will stop being relevant. I can’t believe their defective batteries could hurt their stock that badly. Hopefully, the situation won’t be like 20th Century FOX after Cleopatra, though…