Nuon consoles were basically DVD players that played games. The PlayStation 2 (PS2) was a game machine that also played DVDs. And it was the console from the three major hardware manufacturers, Nintendo, Sega and even SCE, that could play DVDs.
While the Xbox garnered much attention throughout the year, it was nothing compared to what SCE mustered. The PS2 i en in in e i ion that usually ignored videogames. The Wall Street Journal called it “Sony’s Trojan Horse,” a device that would enter households as a videogame console but wind up being an all- purpose entertainment system. Trip Hawkins who had failed in a similar attempt with his 3DO console, said that the “PlayStation 2 [would] do for entertainment what Johannes en e ’s movable type did for printing.” With more hype preceding it than any other gaming console in history, SCE released the PS2 on March 4 to record crowds in Japan, where excitement for the new console began to intensify one week prior to that date. In Akihabara, Tokyo’s electronic district, people began camping outside shops on March 1, knowing that stores would distribute the PS2 on a first-come, first serve basis.
Check out more of the rich history of the industry in Leonard Herman’s book Phoenix IV available at Rolenta Press www.RolentaPress.com and make sure to sign up to get Old School Gamer Magazine for free by clicking here!
Leonard Herman, The Game Scholar, is regarded as one of the earliest and most respected videogame historians. The first edition of his book Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Home Videogames, which was published in 1994, is considered to be the first serious and comprehensive book about the history of videogames. He has written articles for Videogaming & Computer Illustrated, Games Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Pocket Games, Classic Gamer Magazine, Edge, Game Informer, Classic Gamer Magazine, Manci Games, Gamespot.com and Video Game Trader, which he also edited. He has also contributed articles to several videogame-related books, including Supercade, The Video Game Explosion and The Encyclopedia of Video Games. Mr. Herman has also written the book ABC To the VCS (A Directory of Software for the Atari 2600), a compendium of game summaries. He has also written and designed user's manuals for the following Atari VCS games: Cracked, Save the Whales, Pick-Up, Rush Hour, Looping, The Entity and Lasercade, as well as the user's guide to Ralph Baer's Pinball! for the Odyssey2. In 1994, he founded Rolenta Press, a publisher of videogame books, whose catalogue included Videogames: In the Beginning, by Ralph H. Baer, the inventor of the videogame console, and Confessions of the Game Doctor by Bill Kunkel, the world's first videogame journalist. Two Rolenta Press books were included in a list of the top ten videogame books of all time by Game Informer magazine in 2008. Mr. Herman has served as an advisor for Videotopia, Classic Gaming Expo and the National Videogame Museum. He has appeared in several episodes of G4's Icons and in the documentary, The King of Arcades. In 2003, Mr. Herman received a Classic Gaming Expo Achievement Award in recognition for his accomplishments in documenting game history
