Seems I got the release date wrong, whoops on my part. I remember reading a book on various video game systems and it mentioned the PS2 coming out in 1999, the date stuck in my mind from that but it must have been a mistake or a planned release that got delayed.
As far as I know there's no way to update the firmware on PS2 systems. The updates came out as hardware revisions were made, not all hardware is compatible with all features. I could be wrong though.
I figured that they had updated it just like they update most every other component, but it wasn't important since I was out to drive home that PS2's couldn't have their firmware updated.
Systems without updating mechanisms or unsupportive manufacturers shouldn't suffer too badly, as seen by the PS2. Blu-Ray's won't be expecting a non-existent firmware revision to be present and most of the incompatibilities happen when scenarios like Disc A from 2016 expects Player X from 2010 to have firmware 1.5 from 2015 installed, with it refusing to play when it's notices that the firmware level is still just 1.2 from 2012.
They wouldn't have that mandate on their disc for firmware 1.5 if it didn't exist for said hardware and wasn't possible to update the hardware to those specifications.
Last edited by Leo_A; 05-25-2016 at 01:58 PM.
I believe the PS2 was capable of updating its firmware. I remember having to use the BB adapter disc to install firmware onto my PS2, to enable it to recognize and use the device.Originally Posted by Leo_A
http://www.ehow.com/how_5341236_upda...em-driver.html
Last edited by Gamevet; 05-25-2016 at 10:05 PM.
Interesting tidbit, but the gist of it stands for how this stuff works even if the PS2 apparently doesn't quite qualify.
I'd say that it's quite rare for a disc incompatibility to happen due to a practical reason outside of out of spec hardware, unlike arbitrary reasons like we're discussing here where a disc refuses to play just to force a firmware update.
Last edited by Leo_A; 05-26-2016 at 09:41 AM.
Just to be clear with the PS2, when you update the firmware it just gets saved to the memory card and the system boots off of that. With any updates on the PS2 including with updating the browser, it just gets saved to the memory card or hard drive. To me that's different than actually flashing a new firmware like updating a bios chip, as with the PS2 you need optional accessories installed.
I've had a bit of time to look this up in more detail.
Unfortunately, updates have gone on since the original Xbox. Once you have a console with an HDD, developers and console makers will use that to their advantage.
Resistance 3 is the one game that I can't get to run on my PS3, since I just recently tried to install it. There's some kind of BS with the game, that requires an update, and there have been a couple of updates to the title since it was launched. Disconnecting the PS3 from the internet did not solve the problem, which was the suggestion on older forum threads.
Last edited by Gamevet; 05-27-2016 at 09:41 PM.
Hope I can get Resistance 3 to run, since I'm looking forward to playing that one.
To be fair, most games this and last gen if you weren't to download any patches, you probably would rarely run across any issues. Compare that to games that couldn't be patched in the past on the NES, SNES, PSX, etc. There are more frequent issues this gen than past gens, but previous gens weren't void of these issues, but back then there were no patches to fix the games.
Lufia 2 has one area in the game that's completely bugged and you have to go through the area blind. Final Fantasy 1 on NES has many spells that have no effect or the wrong effect. Final Fantasy 6 has a massive amount of glitches. Final Fantasy 4 Advance has bugs and a ridiclous amount of lag in the US/JP versions, and the PAL version has no lag but instead introduces an insane amount of button lag. Additionally on the Advance games Edge's long range weapons are front row weapons and still take half damage in the back row. Nightmare Creatures on the PSX playing as Ignatius, there's a few combos that have poor hit detection for certain attacks(still an amazing game, even as Ignatius.) Just a few examples of sort of game breaking bugs and glitches. Then there are issues that aren't so huge. Final Fantasy 2 on the NES, attacking then cancelling will still power up your weapon like you did attack. Final Fantasy 7, W-Item duplicates the first item used if you choose the second item then cancel. There are many more games that could be listed, but just listing a few good games that have these issues.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
The black label version of Gran Turismo 2 cannot be 100% completed, because of some bug in the game. The Greatest Hits version corrected that issue.
Whaaa? I guess Sony's strict "Greatest Hits releases must totally exactly like the original disc" doesn't apply to their own products.
Quite a few Greatest Hits releases for the PS1 saw changes, so I don't believe that they had any such policy.
For instance, the difficulty is toned down with the rereleases of Soviet Strike and Nuclear Strike. Lots of changes happened to make them easier, such as this list pulled off YouTube just now for Soviet Strike.
01) Added additional fuel, armor, and ammo to all levels.
02) Changed all missiles into rockets, i.e. they won't lock onto you and you can dodge them
03) Reduced weapon power on some of the nastier enemies (SKARs and BM-21s mainly)
04) Reduced armor on Aphid Soldiers by 40%
05) Changed the fuel rate so one tank lasts ~10 minutes
06) Made the end boss of Caspian, Dracula, and Kremlin easier to kill
07) Added additional depth charges to Black Sea for sub killing
08) Delayed the start of the tanks in Caspian
09) Delayed Nick's execution in mission 1&2 of Crimea
10) Took out SNAFU in Black Sea, mission 2
11) Added an additional unhidden super gun in Dracula and Kremlin
12) Gave the scientists in Dracula more armor
13) Increased Armor gained from POWs
14) Increased amount of time before SCUD launches in Dracula and ICBM launches in Kremlin
15) Decreased Mob Boss armor (Kremlin Mission #6)
Last edited by Leo_A; 05-29-2016 at 11:41 AM.
I know the GH version of Final Fantasy Anthology has updated files on the disc.
I want to believe they may have fixed the FF5 menu graphics corruption bug (as I never saw it when I played much of the game years ago, but saw it instantly when I played the PSN release), but I don't know if it has been confirmed.
As to Lufia II, it's not the worst thing as you can still "feel" your way around the room and it thankfully has no enemies. I wonder if that is a reason it has not been re-released on VC (though the PAL version, though not bug-free, had at least fixed all the glaring bugs and typos with the US release. Probably because Nintendo published the PAL version, and as such probably gave it more thorough testing than Natsume, to be honest. :P ).
You are making me feel no level of regret anymore about buying Lufia 2 a few years ago, sitting on it over a year or two and never sadly getting around to it and then just selling it off. If it has so many script problems combined with basically a broken room you have to blindly wander that would have put me off 100%.
The buggy room is really a minor annoyance than something truly game-breaking, since it's only one relatively small room which you can feel your way around (as it's mostly a black screen but with enough visible objects, like treasure chests, that you can tell when you hit a wall).
The one other major NA version bug involves a little side feature called "Capsule Monsters". They are seven little monsters that can join your party as an AI-controlled fifth member. The idea was that they can be evolved by feeding them items (as requested, each rank has a set of like 10 items and after each battle they will randomly select a different item from that set.) In the properly-functioning versions, it's all common stuff but in the NA version the item sets are broken and they will request rare one-time items.
It's a bit of a disappointment that it doesn't work right in the NA version but it's not a huge loss as the monsters are only a little help and you can easily finish the game with your regular human party members. (I know the Capsule Monsters were expanded in the GBA side-game to utilize normal party member slots but they were still AI-controlled, with limited ability for the player to customize the AI, as I recall, and yet now limited by MP, which I don't know if that game was kind enough to let you buy MP recovery items for them.)
The typos is like a few item descriptions, a couple place names wrong (like a town called Karlloon, listed as Carol in the Warp spell town list. It's at least close enough you could figure out what they meant) causing a few places to have incomplete or blank names in the location box on the save screen. One party member is named Arty in the menus and Artea in dialogue. (now I know the former is normal English spelling, but the latter is what the first game called him so I'd rather at least have consistency).
One party member was called Hydecka (Hydecker?) in the manual but Dekar (due to space limits) in the game.
I'd recommend you try the game out even if through emulation. The first one imo is meh, but due to one part in the second game is worth atleast playing the first hour just for the nostalgia overload(similar to the end of Dragon Quest 3 if you've played the first one already.)
Lufia 2 though is a great RPG and it's actually one I'd recommend over most if someone wanted something that was simple to get through but still was good. Lufia 2 predates Wild ARMs, but traversing dungeons is pretty much identical to Wild ARMs. Zelda-esque style where your characters can push items, slash objects, drop bombs, hookshot, etc. The battle system is your classic RPG style battle system, but like the FP system in Wild ARMs, there's an IP system in Lufia 2 where equipped items can use spells and skills through damage dealt/received. The world map is probably the simplest of all RPG world maps which is why I'd recommend it over any other if you wanted something easy to find your way through. The world map is pretty much point a to b to each area you're required to go to. There's no backtracking to another town because you now have an item that can open this area, up until the end of the game where you get a ship, it's pretty much dungeon, town, dungeon, town, dungeon, town. You literally can't get lost on where you have to get next except for the puzzles in the dungeons. Even though my favorite genre, if there's one thing I hate in an RPG, it's finishing a story segment and then given no clue where to go only to spend hours until you've exhausted every possibility and then trip over the objective when going back to a town you've cleared half the game ago, and Lufia 2 definitely doesn't have that problem.
Speaking of Lufia 2 though, another game that has issues. The final area of the game in its action RPG remake. Lufia Curse of the Sinistrals, was more frustrating than the rest because it couldn't keep a stable framerate. Everything prior to that seemed to have good framerate, must have ran out of money or time and pushed the game out incomplete. Other than that, it's a good game which is a sort of retelling of Lufia 2, tells mostly the same story and then plays a lot like Ys game while still being puzzle heavy like the SNES game.
Last edited by kupomogli; 05-30-2016 at 12:53 AM.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
Considering there was speculation that this might have been the generation that games went mostly digital, how could I possibly complain as a collector. Games are being printed on disc with print runs of only a few thousand. I think this generation has turned into a pleasant surprise for most collector's.
The Xbox One had a very collector unfriendly plan to eliminate used games. That plan failed spectacularly and a once popular brand was re-branded by the public into the Xbone, sending a pretty clear message on the subject to publishers and console makers alike.
I do collect for the Xbox One and there are a few digital games that made it onto disc that I've found; State of Decay, Killer Instinct, Raiden V and the Goat Simulator.
I felt the Day One Edition Console was collectable, it has Day One 2013 printed on the controller and includes the once mandatory Kinect sensor that has since been discarded. I thought the white Special Edition Sunset Overdrive console looked pretty nice and hoped it's color would stay unique, but that didn't happen. I don't have it yet, but there is a blue Forza Limited Edition console also. Of course, if you're going to collect for the Xbox, then you have to have the Limited Edition Halo consoles - The Master Chief Collection and Halo 5 Guardians. They aren't all that much to look at though. But what I really dislike are those gaudy green box's that most Xbox One consoles are sold in. YUCK!
It's a little better on the PS4 side of collecting.
The Limited Edition Destiny: The Taken King Bundle is gorgeous! And I really like the design of the Limited Edition Batman: Arkham Knight, Star Wars Battlefront and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End bundles. I just hope they don't overdo that series.
Here's some of the Digital/Mobile/Steam games that I've found on disc...
We have:
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
Awesomenauts Assemble!
Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops
Kromaia: Omega
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Terraria
Ether One
The Last Tinker: City of Colors
Toki Tori 2
Ziggurat
Tower of Guns
Teslagrad
This War of Mine: The Little Ones
Flockers
Infamous: First Light
Saturday Morning RPG
Retro City Rampage
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty!
Pure Pool
Pure Chess
Pure Hold'em Poker
And here's some Kickstarter/Indie games I found on disc.
We have:
Wasteland 2: Director's Cut,
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2
Shovel Knight
Republique
Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse
Battle Worlds: Kronos
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dream
The Pinball Arcade 1 & 2
The Escapists
The Escapists: The Walking Dead
The Talos Principle
Stick It to the Man
Zombie Vikings
Futuridium
Ohhh - and I just realized Shovel Knight fell over. Son of a B...!
The Hotline Miami: Collected Edition (JP) included both Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. The Bloodborne Game of the Year Edition included the Old Hunter DLC on disc.
Some interesting imports include indie developer Dracue's remake of Target Earth (Assault Suit Leynos) and a game that I think was only sold in Spain but that I've heard plays in English, Tadeo Jones And The Lost Manuscript. There's also a PS4 version of ZombiU, of all things. And there's a spiffied up PS4 version of the Journey Collector's Edition indie games.
Speaking as a collector, it's sure nice seeing all these games on disc!
Last edited by Spartacus; 06-05-2016 at 04:06 PM.
In a way I do agree with you. There are much less games for the two systems at this point in their history that I am excited about than either of the past "big" systems. Also, as a fighting game collector/fan, making Street Fighter and King of Fighters as exclusives really is a hard move to sell (Killer Instinct makes sense at least since Microsoft owns Rare).
The original DVD remote for the PS2 came with an update disc which "updated the firmware" via the memory card, otherwise the remote would only act as a PS2 controller with none of the extra buttons doing anything. I wonder if this sort of "firmware updates on memory card" thing is how FreeMcBoot is able to do what it does.
When did it ever apply? Greatest Hits version of RE Director's Cut added Dual Shock support, for instance.
I own this but it's sealed, did some research before I bought it(I own both games on all PS consoles because Cross Buy and own the first one on PC.) Hotline Miami is on disc while Hotline Miami 2 is just a digital code that will only work on Japanese PSN. The disc will be in English or Japanese depending on what language your PS4 is set to.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
I'm just going on the old story about the Jet Moto 2 Greatest Hits version that has a bunch of changes to the original release. Supposedly Sony was adamant that the Greatest Hits discs had to be exactly the same as the original, which is why that version was released as Champion Edition (or whatever the name).
Supposedly Sony requires this of PSOne games released as PSP/PS3 downloads (unaltered from original disc), which is why Mega Man Legends could never be released as a PSP game. It has some licensed advertisements or billboards that Capcom would have to change for a rerelease.
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