Which PS1 games are better on PS2

[theoakwoody]

Has anyone played any PS1 games on their PS2 that actually made the game more enjoyable whether it be better graphics or load times. How about a top five?

I'll start.

The best:

1. Wipeout
2. gran turismo
3. twisted metal
4. metal gear solid
5. tekken

The worst:

1. Resident Evil
2. wwf smackdown
3. In the Zone
4. tomb raider
5. symphony of the night

[BocoDragon]

Final Fantasy IX was designed with PS2's upgrades in mind, so you can safely turn on fast disc speed and texture smoothing.

Vagrant Story looks great with texture smoothing too.

I think FF Tactics was a good one too... it's been a few years.

[Dangerboy]

Battle Assault Gundam I + II both have superior character sprites with smoothing option on; they literally look like toys duking it out. The backgrounds will suffer eve so slightly, but man the mechs look great.

Interesting you should bring this up. Right before my Bachelor Degree sabbatical from my web-site (I'm getting back to it, honest), I added a new section on the game pages that tracks the effects of the PS2 smoothing and loading options.

Not all the games have it, as I will have to retro-review the first ones, but you can check out examples here (Scroll to the bottom of each game page):

007 World is Not Enough
http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playstation_perfect_guide/releasedgames/007_world/index.html

Ace Combat 2
http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playstation_perfect_guide/releasedgames/ace_combat_3/index.html

Samuai Shodown III
http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playstation_perfect_guide/releasedgames/samurai_shodown3/index.html

I also have a page dedicated to games personally tested that will not work here:

http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playstation_perfect_guide/compat/index.html

Eventually I will get back to updating that poor site more regularly.

Hope it helps,
Jason

[TurboGenesis]

Whats the deal with Gradius Gaiden?

I have heard that this game may have or has issues running on PlayStation 2. Is it all releases of the game?

I have picked up the Books version of Gradius Gaiden and am wondering if it will have issue running in the PS2.

[LiquidPolicenaut]

I agree with MGS. Although the texture smoothing isnt perfect (sometimes you can se through walls), it still is 98% great and makes the game look good even today. Another game in the same category would be Xenogears. Although there is a ton more screen tearing and some prominent black lines showing up, the texture smoothing on the characters and environments look pretty :)

[Three-P]

I never really noticed a difference with the graphics, but that's just me. (The same kinda person who can't tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi from taste alone.)

[MegaDrive20XX]

Samuai Shodown III
http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playstation_perfect_guide/releasedgames/samurai_shodown3/index.html

Hope it helps,
Jason

Speaking of this, I got the chance to play this PS1 SS3 on the PS3 and I was very impressed how it handled and still looks as good as it did on the PS2

[Kitsune Sniper]

I'm probably the only one who likes his games grainy. :p

Seriously though, Dangerboy, I've heard that different PS2 models have different compatibility glitches. Some games won't work on certain models. Wonder if this could also apply to these "enhancements"...

[Dire 51]

Whats the deal with Gradius Gaiden?

I have heard that this game may have or has issues running on PlayStation 2. Is it all releases of the game?

I have picked up the Books version of Gradius Gaiden and am wondering if it will have issue running in the PS2.
The game (original release here) ran fine for me until I reached the "Beyond the Event Horizon" stage. Then it slowed to less than a crawl.

I don't remember if I bothered to complete the stage or not after that, though.

[klausien]

My personal fave with the PS2 smoothing is Doom: Special Playstation Edition. It was already my favorite version of Doom, and the smoothing makes the enemies look 100% better; even moreso than Doom 64. Some people might like the pixellated enemies better, but I think it looks better overall on the PS2. Its a shame that you can't play via system link on the PS2.

Ghost in the Shell also looks spectacular. There are some black lines going on in the sky, but that is par for the course. The Jumping Flash games look nice as well.

The 60 FPS version of Ridge Racer that comes with R4 (which also looks great) is about as close to the arcade original is possible with the enhanced graphics, black lines in the sky notwithstanding.

Almost anything with involved polygonal graphics looks better with the smoothing option turned on. 2D can be a mixed bag, as the black lines rear their ugly heads.

[theoakwoody]

Dangerboy, this is exactly the response I was fishing for. I tried searching people's personal sites to see if anyone had taken the time to do something like this. I think I'm going to have to pick up a PS1 regardless.

[Gapporin]

I've heard that Omega Boost looks spectacular with the texture smoothing, however, with my PS2 gone, I can't test it for myself. YMMV.

[Dangerboy]

"...Seriously though, Dangerboy, I've heard that different PS2 models have different compatibility glitches. Some games won't work on certain models. Wonder if this could also apply to these "enhancements"..."

Which is why I specify which model PS2 and drivers I'm using. Better to have a general idea than none at all. ^_^;;

[c0ldb33r]

What is this? I had no idea you could turn on smoothing and faster load times when using a psx game in a ps2. wtf?

How do you do it?

[Dangerboy]

coldbeer: With the PS2 tray open, and at the browser / options screen, hit triangle a few times. It'll take you to the PS driver screen.

[Azraelscross]

I tested Dead or Alive out of curiosity today. and found while fast speed didn't do anything much to load times the characters and some of the backrounds were alot smoother with smooth textures on

[bangtango]

Good thing I read some of these posts. Based on the title, I initially thought you were asking which games were better on PS2 than PS1 out of games that each system had their own version of (i.e. Tony Hawk, etc.). I'd have said all of them.

[theshizzle3000]

The better ones would include Fear Effect, Chrono Cross and Armored Core as for bad games the worst looking games that I have played visually on my PS2 include Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick, Magic Carpet and Parasite Eve. Now don't get me wrong I love Parasite Eve, but it is so hard to tell what the hell is attacking me.

[Kid Ice]

Good thing I read some of these posts. Based on the title, I initially thought you were asking which games were better on PS2 than PS1 out of games that each system had their own version of (i.e. Tony Hawk, etc.). I'd have said all of them.

ooh that'd be a good new thread...I'd thoroughly disagree with "all of them" though (Wipeout? Tekken? Ace Combat?)

Back on topic...I've never noticed any difference playing PS1 games on a PS2. I have played around with the effects and all...it might not help that in between the PS1 and PS2 I played Dreamcast for a couple years. Could just be that I forgot what those PS1 games were supposed to look like.

[veronica_marsfan]

The worst: 4. tomb raider
What was wrong with Tomb Raider? I thought it looked okay [with smoothing turned on].

LOADING - I never use this option; too many problems.

SMOOTHING - I use it all the time, unless it's a sprite-based game. Smoothing does nothing for 2D sprites, but looks fantastic on 3D games like Final Fantasy. Hides the jaggies.

Query-

How does smoothing work? It it dithering? Or blurring?

[theoakwoody]

Okay I'll defend my Tomb Raider bashing. I think that Lara Croft looks worse without the jaggies. Something just doesn't look right, it's like playing a game on an emulator and pumping the resolution up way higher than it was ever meant to be. Obviously none of the games were designed to be at a high resolution but some look more natural than some.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Okay I'll defend my Tomb Raider bashing. I think that Lara Croft looks worse without the jaggies. Something just doesn't look right, it's like playing a game on an emulator and pumping the resolution up way higher than it was ever meant to be. Obviously none of the games were designed to be at a high resolution but some look more natural than some.

Well,several games look fine because the models have a relatively high polygon count, or at least they're designed to look as smooth as possible.

But Lara's early games? She was always a bunch of pointy triangles. Her boobs look like this, for cris'sakes!

http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/4458/039uh3.jpg

I can't imagine how smoothing could help THAT mess.