End of an Era: FFXI servers shut down for consoles: Xbox 360, PlayStation 2

(from the Adventures in Vana'diel department)

So - it finally had to happen. SquareEnix shut down the remaining servers for the console versions of Final Fantasy XI this morning, leaving it PC-only for now.

Full info here: http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/envi/win/winshift.html

I remember getting FFXI for my PlayStation 2 - it came with the Sony PlayStation 2 HDD and the promise of a whole new world of PlayStation features. Unfortunately, right after launch, Sony canceled their US plans, and the Japanese features like storing games on the hard drive, and the Sony Broadband Navigator never came to these shores. Still - it was a rock solid FFXI platform, and I spent many hours exploring the world of Vana'diel on my PS2.

When the Xbox 360 client came out, it was a blast to have an MMORPG on that platform. There were some odd issues with Xbox Live integration, and a couple of performance quirks, but the true widescreen and increased draw distance made it the FFXI platform of choice until the PC hardware and software options finally overtook it.

I played both console versions last night, archiving all of my screen shots and other ephemera. It was a bittersweet farewell. The servers were definitely overloaded - but it was still a lot of fun to run around Vana'diel and look at the sights one last time.

FFXI is going to continue on PC for the near future. Also - SquareEnix has announced plans for a full mobile version in the next year or so. This means adventurers will continue to fight the good fight, and explore the world of Vana'diel - but it's definitely the end of the console era for FFXI.

See you in Windurst!

Cheers,
Paul

GameStop: Good News For Retro Gamers

tl;dr: GameStop online is now selling retro/vintage games and accessories

When I was in GameStop this weekend, I noticed a flyer at the desk offering trade-in deals for NES, Genesis, SNES, Dreamcasts and PlayStations. I asked the clerk about it, and he said that they're using this to get retro gear for their on-line site. I found the link here:

http://www.gamestop.com/collection/retro-classics

This is a change in their policy where they would discontinuing selling older systems when newer systems were released.

UPDATE:  So - I ordered a Dreamcast game - D2 - from them. It arrived promptly, and the shipping container was a sturdy cardboard box with air pillows. They do warn you that the game packaging may not be perfect. In this case, it contained the original jewel box - definitely used, but not trashed. The booklet was included, as was the tray art. The hub for the fourth disk was broken, so they put the fourth disk in a separate envelope. The discs themselves appeared to be in good condition.

All in all - pleased with this service. We will have to see how the prices compare over time.

Cheers,

Paul

Tiger Woods - Gamer!

Hi everyone,

Quick blog post. Saw this in the NY Times - worth a read:
Tiger Woods, Sporadic Gamer

Cheers,
Paul

Saying "farewell" to a part of Sony history....

(this is adapted from an entry I originally published on the Yellow Dog Linux community forums)


Hi everyone,

Well - it looks like one of PS3 Linux's ancestors is finally calling it a day. Sony is shutting down the PS2 Linux site: http://playstation2-linux.com/forum/forum.php?forum_id=1251

I'm fairly sad to see this go. I contributed many, many PS2 builds of Mozilla, Firefox & Thunderbird to this site. In fact, I attended the Mozilla 1.0 release celebrations, based on my membership there. See here: http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/mozilla-ps2

I learned much about the ways of the Sony from this site. In some ways, what we do with PS3 Linux is based on lessons learned (or unlearned) from PS2 Linux. Much like Yellow Dog Linux, PS2 Linux was also derived from Red Hat Linux, via Kondara Linux. It allowed full access to the PS2's Emotion Engine - including the twin Vector Unit processors. Only the cryptography functions were restricted so that you couldn't copy PS2 games directly.

That website was also the place I met some like-minded PS2 Linux enthusiasts. One of them is now a PS3 Linux moderator with me at the Yellow Dog Linux community forums. We met trying to compile the PS2 version of Firefox with gtk2 and freetype. Good times.

It's worth poking around the site a little bit before they shut it down for good. There's a lot of knowledge locked up in there.

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. For those of you who have never seen the PS2 Linux kit - it was quite impressive. It came with a keyboard, mouse, special network adaptor, hard drive, special VGA cable and two DVDs of source code & binary code. Here's the bundle:

Finally - a good PS3 diagram

(from the Aha! So *that's* what it looks like! department)

Hi everyone,

Just a quick digaram of the internals of the PS3. Original article here. (Translation)



Also, as a follow-up to my prior post, if you translate the original article, you find this tidbit of information about the original EE-less design constraints:

(Note: I've smoothed out the auto translator "english" a little. It should be pretty close to the original Japanese, although this is *not* a direct translation.)

"According to an industry insider, the GS was retained because it can't be emulated by the PS3 chipset. This is due to the GS's pipeline architecture which requires 4MB of super-wideband and low latency eDRAM. Because the RSX (Reality Synthesizer) GPU of the PS3 has a PC graphics pipeline with external memory, it can't replicate the special architecture of the GS."

"Moreover, it is difficult for the cluster of SPUs (Synergistic Processor Unit) in the PS3's Cell BE processor to emulate the GS. Even though each SPU has 256KB of on-chip memory (Local Store), that is insufficient for the requirements of the GS. In addition, a number of game industry insiders point out that there are many developers who did direct, custom access to the GS which would necessitate a hardware solution."

So, based on this, it looks like these 40 gig PS3s are going to remain incompatible with the PS2 - for the foreseeable future, anyway. I'll keep you posted if Sony changes their mind, but at this point, I think it's fairly safe to say that PS2 emulation has been eliminated from the PS3.

Cheers,
Paul

40 gig Euro PS3 released without PS2 compatibility - entire world says "Wha?"

(from the Wha? Guh! department)

Hi everyone,

Well - Sony continues to send a very mixed message with their marketing strategy for the PS3.

First of all - they added rumble to the SIXAXIS controller after they said that it was "last generation" technology. All well and good - but although the controller comes out next month in Japan, customers in North America and Europe have to wait until "Spring 2008".

Wha?

Well... okay... it seems stupid to miss the Holiday season window in NA & Europe, but... okay...

But wait - that's not all. Today Sony announced a new, low-cost PS3 model in Europe. As predicted by various news sources, this model lowers the HDD size to 40 gig, reduces the number of USB ports from 4 to 2, and removes the multi-function memory card slots. All well and good - it's a lower cost machine - but here's the strange part.

They also removed PS2 backwards compatibility.

Wuh? Wuh? Wuh...WHA?

Didn't Ken Kutaragi himself once say, "the PS3 will feature backwards compatibility with PS and PS2 games from day one. I'm emphasizing this because, from what I hear, there are some platforms that haven't been able to completely do this. It's costly in terms of hardware, but we'd rather [invest] firmly on compatibility from the beginning, rather than to have issues later on."

Oh yeah - that's right - he's not there anymore.

Some of you might be wondering how this is possible, given what I said earlier about backwards compatibility in my blog.

Well - the answer is simple. The heart of the PlayStation 2 is two chips - the Emotion Engine (EE) and the Graphics Synthesizer (GS). The earliest PS3s had the EE + GS in silicon - thus hardware PS2 compatibility. The next revision (Europe, Korean, 80 gig US) of the motherboard removed the EE in favor of software emulation by the Cell BE processor of the PS3, but left the GS in place. Apparently, this new 40 gig model removes the GS entirely, breaking backwards compatibility. Someday, if they were so inclined, they might be able to get the PS3's nVidia RSX GPU to emulate the GS, but that would be quite the undertaking, since they are fundamentally different beasts.

*sigh*

If PS2 compatibility means anything to you, buy that 60 gig model now - before it's too late!

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. The other thing about Sony that's annoying me right now? They're not releasing the S-Video cable for the new PSP in America. Grrrrrrr....

UPDATE: Some of the European blogs have reported that the 40 gig model has lost SACD playback capabilities as well. I did confirm that on Sony's Australian PlayStation site. The blogs theorize that the SACD playback was discontinued due to either a licensing issue with the SACD division of Sony or due to the increased costs of incorporating Pit Stream Protection in the BluRay Drive. This latter reason seems most plausible to me. By removing Pit Stream Protection, you can use a "standard" BluRay drive, and could shave a little bit more from the cost of manufacturing.

UPDATE 2: I had mentioned that the 40 gig PS3 had dropped PS1 backwards compatibility. This is not true - the 40 gig PS3 will still play PS1 games. As it turns out, PS1 compatibility had been achived entirely through software emulation since the launch of the PS3. The PSP also uses a full software emulator for PS1 games; that is why you can share them between your PSP and your PS3. That is also why the PS3 dramatically improves the graphics quality of PS1 games; it isn't constrained by the original PS1 hardware. Mea culpa.

Paul's "Twisted Thought Of The Day®" (inaugural edition)

(from the Snowball's chance in Heck department)

Hi everyone,

I just had one of those weird thoughts that sometimes occur to me.... I think I'm going to start keeping track of these here: My "Twisted Thought Of The Day®" (or TTOTD® for short).

So - follow my logic here....

1. The original Xbox used an Intel processor with nVidia graphics and USB peripherals.
2. The Xbox 360 uses a PowerPC processor with ATi graphics and USB peripherals.
3. The Xbox 360 offers backwards compatibility by software emulation. This is tricky because the CPU and the GPU both have to have an emulation layer.
4. The PlayStation 3 has a PowerPC processor with nVidia graphics and USB peripherals.

Therefore, to my way of thinking, you should be able to create an Xbox emulator for the PS3 with decent performance. In addition - you wouldn't have to translate the GPU commands with as much effort - the architecture between the Xbox and PS3 GPUs should be similar. (Not identical, but similar). And the Cell should do a great job emulating an Intel microprocessor.

Wouldn't that be a scream? Playing my Xbox games on my PS3?

Unfortunately, we'll have to file this in the "never gonna happen" department, I'm afraid. Still - Halo on the PS3 would be something.

Cheers,
Paul

PS3: 60 gig or 80 gig?

(from the Hardware vs. Software department)

Hi everyone,

I'm posting this information in my blog because there's been a lot of churn on these facts, and I need to document all of this information with as much real data as possible, before it gets lost. Most people will find this pretty esoteric, but if you want to see how global companies operate, read on!

Cheers,
Paul

---

The Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) is backwards compatible with the PlayStation 2 (PS2) and PlayStation (PS1). However, Sony has developed two different ways of doing backwards compatibility using either a hardware or a software solution.

Originally, the PS3 was to use pure software emulation via its powerful Cell microprocessor for PS2 and PS1 backwards compatibility. It is theorized that PS1 titles still may only utilize software emulation, based on this original development decision. However, sometime during the development process, this plan was partially abandoned in favor of a hardware solution for PS2 compatibility.

Therefore, at their November 2006 launch, the original North American and Japanese 20 gig and 60 gig PS3s had a custom PS2 Emotion Engine (EE) + Graphics Synthesizer (GS) chip on their motherboards for backwards compatibility. This custom EE+GS chip was later replaced on the European and Korean models with a single PS2 GS chip in a motherboard revision before their respective product launches, due to the increased performance of the EE software emulator, and to save money on the manufacturing costs. Interestingly, the two different motherboard revisions are apparently not interchangeable - the hardware units can't be "switched off" to become software units.

Since these models relied on software EE emulation, and this type of emulation is quite complex, the percentage of compatible PS2 games were lower for these machines at launch. Each successive System Software revision, however, has seen continual improvement in PS2 backwards compatibility percentages for these hybrid software emulation PS3s. Direct comparisons between the two different designs were initially hard to quantify, since there was only one motherboard design released in a region, and games differ too much between these regions.

The software emulator's difficulties with PS2 backwards compatibility was not a big issue for North American users since all models sold since launch, including the almost immediately discontinued 20 gig model, had the EE in hardware on the motherboard. This situation would soon change when Sony dropped the price of the 60 gig PS3 to $499 in North America and introduced a new 80 gig model at $599. Early press reports revealed that the 80 gig model would be using the EE-less motherboard, and therefore would rely on software emulation for PS2 compatibility. It also was quickly revealed that the 60 gig model was being price reduced because it was being phased out. Sony stated that they would only offer the 60 gig model until stocks ran out.

Sony recently started offering an on-line service for checking compatibility between the North American EE 60 gig models (including the discontinued 20 gig) and the non-EE 80 gig models. Curmudgeon Gamer has recently gone through their game library with this web service, and posted some interesting results. In their findings, the PS1 compatibility results are identical, lending some credence to the theory that the PS3 uses pure software emulation for PS1 titles. However, the PS2 compatibility results are quite different, with the hardware EE 60 gig model seemingly much more backwards compatible.

In summary, if backwards compatibility is important, it might be a good idea to pick up one of the 60 gig PS3s before stocks run out. PS1 compatibility appears identical between the two revisions, but PS2 compatibility seems to benefit from having the EE present, as in the 60 gig model.

UPDATE: added additional hardware GS information, per recent Sony documentation.

CXA2075

(from the Paul's Smarter Brother department)

Hi everyone,

It's a little known fact, but my brother David is a silicon chip designer. At one point in his career, he worked for Sony and designed an RGB-to-Video (NTSC/PAL) chip for the PlayStation called the CXA2075.

Well, yesterday, I was poking around on the web, and found the data sheet for it (PDF). Very impressive Dave!

There's still a number of people who use it, too.

Dave's own recollections can be found here.

Cheers,
Paul