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The machine
Sony and Toshiba built a 294.912 MHz chip, called it the Emotion Engine and put it in a black tower that could stand up or lie down.
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2000Launch model
SCPH-10000
The Japanese launch console, out on 4 March 2000 for ¥39,800. It played DVDs straight out of the box, and The Matrix was the top-selling DVD at launch.
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2000Fat model
SCPH-30000 series
The first consoles sold in North America and Europe. The Expansion Bay at the back took the Network Adaptor and the hard drive.
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2004Slimline
SCPH-70000
The PS2 shrank to the size of a thick book. Europe got it on 29 October, Japan on 3 November and North America on 25 November 2004, at $149.
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2003Japan only
PSX DVR
A PS2 built into a DVD and hard-disk video recorder, out on 13 December 2003. It was the first device with the XrossMediaBar menu, and it sold 100,000 in its first week.
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2002Official kit
Linux for PlayStation 2
A keyboard, a mouse, a VGA adapter, an Ethernet adapter and a 40 GB hard drive turned the console into a Linux computer.
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2010Television
Sony Bravia KDL-22PX300
A 22-inch Bravia TV with a whole PlayStation 2 built inside it, ten years after the launch.
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2000Developers
DTL-T10000 TOOL
The studio machine games were built and tested on. The earlier EB-1000 prototype boards were crushed, so very few survive.
Inside the tower
| Part | What it was |
|---|---|
| Main chip | Emotion Engine by Sony and Toshiba: a 64-bit core at 294.912 MHz, sold as “128-bit”, with two vector units, VPU0 and VPU1 |
| Graphics | Graphics Synthesizer with 4 MB of memory built into the chip |
| Memory | 32 MB |
| Input and output | The original PlayStation’s processor at 36.864 MHz, which is why PS1 games run on a PS2 |
| Drive | DVD at 4x, CD at 24x |
| Ports | Two USB ports, i.LINK on early models, a PC card slot on the Japanese 10000, 15000 and 18000 models |
The colours
Black was only the start. Over the years the PS2 came in ceramic white, aqua, metallic silver, midnight black, pearl white, sakura pink, satin silver and ocean blue, among others. Collectors still hunt for the full set.