New models of the PlayStation 3 don’t feature PS2 backwards compatibility, but certain games have made the leap onto the PS3 via software emulation, and then been made available via the PSN Store for a fee. The games available haven’t been that exciting in the whole, though.
A recent job posting on the official PlayStation Jobs site suggests that Sony might be ramping up the number of titles, though, or at least getting better at making that emulator sing.
The job, for a “PS2 Emulation Debug Engineer” at either Liverpool or London, requires the applicant to have PS2 coding experience, familiarity with MIPS assembler and be proficient in C/C++ programming. Is that you, by any chance?
It’d be wonderful if this was a wholesale software emulator so we could feed in any old PS2 disk, but that’s sadly unlikely.
Spence1115
Or PS2 games on the Vita?
ron_mcphatty
Or maybe even on PS4? I hope they wage is good for this job, sounds like hard and potentially terminally boring graft. A mate of mine did PS1 compatibility debugging for the PS3, he spent one particularly hellish week completing Spice World: The Game… 7 times.
BrendanCalls
I’ve heard criminals get a lesser sentence than that ;-)
Paulo Vinicius Radtke
I feel sorry for your friend. Was he getting some sort of extra payment for his suffering and damage?
ron_mcphatty
Haha yeah he got paid, not sure how much, it was a temp job so probably barely more than min wage. I think either he or his mate from home had to test a My Little Pony game too! Good times…
Dazbobaby
The horse has bolted, too late closing the gate.
Give it another 5-6 years and they’ll be asking for a Ps3 emulator engineer.
cc_star
This should have been there from a couple of years ago (or never removed int he first place), not as they’re going to be winding down in advance of next E3
stage1
The definately wont allow you start playing your old PS2 discs. This is just a coding job for more PS2 classics to get on the store.
JBoo
This is the only thing i really moan about really LoL:D Wish they did it years ago & i wish the new PS3 had FULL PS2 disc playback. Oh well.
Paulo Vinicius Radtke
I don’t think that the PS2 games available at PSN are emulated. I’m doing some guessing here, but I think that those games where recompiled for the PS3, using the same framework used to build the HD versions of God of War, Ico and other games. I remember reading an interview about the God of War HD update, and the lead developer said they used a tool chain that allowed them to compile PS2 source code and generate PS3 code to start the HD versions. Now getting an emulator to work makes sense, as some games have no source code available (like Silent Hill 2, for instance) or are difficult to get them working in the framework (which happened to Ico). However, I don’t know if the Cell is powerful enough to do it properly, no matter ho much JIT compiling they use to speed up emulation. Nevertheless, I’d love to see it workig so I could play Gradius V again.
Louise
That’s what I’m thinking. Because if they were emulated, then surely there’s no reason why they can’t just release a software emulator in a firmware update, and then we would be able to run our original PS2 games, without having to ‘purchase’ the same games all over again.
I don’t think the PS3 is powerful enough to straight emulate the PS2.
Louise
I talking about the PS3’s after the original 60gb model, as a hardware component was obviously removed which aided with PS2 emulation
nex86
they should hire the PCSX2 developers. then the emulator is going to be awesome.
danno_uk
Sony missed a big open goal with the PS3 super slim. How much would it cost to produce an Emotion Engine or even a full PS2 on a chip these days? They could have squeezed that into the new SKU almost without noticing or at least given us an upgrade slot into which we could slide our store bought £20 PS2-on-a-chip expansion card to say “sorry about that guys, here’s a goodwill gesture ahead of the PS4”. But no. We’ll have to wait for more dubious emulation on the PS4.
xdarkmagician
maybe its for the PS4 and Sony don’t want to advertise it for the PS4 yet.
It just doesn’t make alot of sense if were getting a PS4 next year to start emulating PS2 games for the PS3. When you look at the PS2 games on the store, all the good PS2 games get the HD remake they don’t get emulated. If this is for the PS3 its either a tactic to get casual PS2 gamers to update to a PS3 and rebuy their games, or a 5 year late idea. Unless theres something inside the new SS that Sony hasnt told us about yet, could be the reason for the higher price.
TSBonyman
Indeed, why would they be putting so much work into PS2 emulation when PS3 is essentially winding down…. could it be because they will carry it over to PS4.. ? I hope that is the case and that they are investing in emulation for the long term.
hazelam
whatever machine it’s for, no doubt they’ll force you to buy the games off the store if you want to play them on ps3/4.
even if we have a perfectly fine copy on disc, which i have for a few of the games they’re selling.
even some of those shitty midas shovelware titles, which i paid something like 99p each for.
even ms didn’t go that far, they at least let you play the games off the disc if the emulator will run them.
it takes a special kind of greed to outdo ms on the being a douche to your customers scale, but somehow sony managed it.