Hi there. I just wanted to know if you can play Playstation 1 games on a Playstation 2. Common sense tells me it’s a dumb question but I’ve not got any decent Playstation 2 games and tons of wicked Playstation 1 games that I’d like to play again. However, my Playstation 1 is irreparably broken. I figured it was worth a shot but I don’t want to risk damaging my brand new Playstation 2 by putting in the wrong sort of disc. Again, common sense tells me that it won’t damage the console but it is brand new and was pretty expensive so I don’t think it’s worth the (small) risk. The Platstation 2’s manual doesn’t seem to hold the answer so I turn to the teeming millions.
Can I play playstation 1 games on my playstation 2?
Yes, you can. The only problem is you can’t save PS1 games on a PS2. That was a big disapointment to my brother who bought a few when he got his PS2. Maybe if you use a PS1 memory card, but I don’t even know if you can do that.
PSOne memory cards can be used in a PlayStation 2, but only to save PSOne games. PSOne cards have a capacity of 120Kb and PlayStation 2 cards a capacity of 8Mb, according to my instruction manual.
You can’t save PSone games to PS2 cards directly, but you can “archive” files on PSone cards to PS2 cards. The PS2’s browser lets you copy files from PSone cards to PS2 cards, but you have to copy them back when you want to use them.
It’s a big help because PS2 cards are a lot bigger. I wonder if it’s even possible to fill up an entire PS2 card with PSone games. It probably is, but nobody but Bill Gates could afford to buy enough games to do that.
Sode note: last year, a bunch of PS2s were manufactured with the wrong OS that caused it to ignore PS1 games. The one I got for my son was one of them (of course). It was exchanged for one with an updated OS.
I know, Mikahw! My brother saw it at Best Buy and figured he’d save $20 by getting the PS1 version. Ends up he can’t save with his PS2 card, plus it is no where near as good as the PS2 version! Oh well.
This should be documented in your PS2’s manual, unless they’ve taken it out since I bought mine.
You can also “enhance” PS1 games a little bit with the PS2, by turning on smooth texture mapping and fast CD access. Reset the PS2 with no disc in, then press triangle at the main menu.
The enhancements can sometimes do funny things, so you should keep that in mind as well. For example, I hear that in certain games, the FMV will play a lot faster if you have it set to "fast loading"mode. It’d be a funny thing to see, but probably not something you’d want if you were seriously playing the game and not just goofing around.
