Buying a used PS2

meatflower

Well there's probably 5 or so of us left, but I don't have a PS2. What's motivating me to get a PS2 at this point in time? Guitar Hero.

With that said, I've been looking around eBay for the cheapest (working) PS2 I can get. I found an auction for one and the seller claims the following:

"This console has problems playing games with purple on the bottom of the disc but plays all other discs just fine."

Is Guitar Hero I or II on one of these allegedly "purple discs"? I'm thinking that's just older games or something. I don't really know though, never owned a PS2. Also, is this a fixable issue? Perhaps one of those "laser cleaning" discs would fix the problem?

Thanks.

oh and they're asking $50 for it, comes with one controller and cables.

Vulpine

Blue or purple undersides to a PS2 disc indicate it's on CD-ROM. Many older games were, and some more recent titles still are released as a CD instead of a DVD. I'm not sure about Guitar Hero, but the number of songs I see bandied about on the net makes me think it's more likely to be on a silver DVD instead; the only CD games I've got are ports of Neo-Geo fighters.


With this in mind, you have to ask whether you'd like to [try to] get the console to load blue discs again. Obviously you'll need to borrow one to test with if you don't have one of your own.

A good cleanout works wonders for the PS2, so a laser cleaning disc if you've got one or can borrow one from a friend could easily convince it to load CDs again.

If this doesn't work, and you don't mind opening the console up (voiding the warranty, mind), and you have a suitable model, you can adjust the height of the laser assembly by adjusting a cog inside the DVD-ROM drive. This works on some models, not on others - on some the cog resets itself on boot, though I've not personally come across one like that yet.

Hope all this ramble's made some sense, and good luck with the PS2 should you buy it. I've managed to acquire my own first PS2 recently by fixing a friend's which had this problem, though obviously I can't guarantee it's fixable for you.

SkyGheNe

Unless it's a slim ps2, i would be hesitant. I generally don't like used ps2 consoles.

supabeast

Getting a used one from a store makes it very easy to return. No so much with eBay.

ChopperDave

Getting a used PS2 is a bad idea. The things are shoddy pieces of hardware, and being used/refurbished doesn't help them one bit. If you buy a PS2 used, you may very well find it not playing disks, scratching/destroying disks, and generally just falling apart within 2 or 3 months.

If you consider the damage the PS2 will probably do to your games (I had to spend something like 80 dollars to replace all the games my used PS2 scratched to hell, PLUS the 70 dollars or so it took to trade up for a new one), you're much better off just getting a new one.

tech_hunter

I agree a with Chopper Dave the PS2 new is 129 just about everywhere, and if it doesnt work or somethng happens making a return is easy, unlike if you get it off of ebay and its shipped from some remote village in the Appalachians. I also would recomend Guitar hero 2 It has more songs than 1 and I think at least they are a better compilation of songs. Also the multiplayer and coop modes are a lot better in 2

meatflower

Thanks for all the words of wisdom.

I'm either going to get a new one for $129 or pickup a used one at a local used games store for $89. On their website they say they don't take SCPH-30001
or SCPH 30001 R, I assume these are known "bad" model numbers so at least it shows they're being conscientious. According to their price list (not stock) they sell the slim model used for $99. I don't really care about the size of it personally, is there any compelling reason to spend $10 more for the redesign?

I wouldn't mind getting a new one but Guitar Hero II is already gonna run me $60 so I'm trying to minimize the overall cost as much as possible.

While it's primarily going to be a Guitar Hero machine, I realize there is a plethora of PS2 games I have been missing out on (all those JRPG's for one). Probably gonna put my GameFly subscription to use finally.

Thanks guys.

Daedalus

If you're getting a used one, don't get a SCPH-3nnnn anything. Those were the first-gen launch units and if it's not broken already, it will be. If you can't find the slim one for cheap, go with a SCPH-5nnnn model if you can find it; they fixed most of the bugs by then.

meatflower

Well I just said, the place I would get my used one says on their website they don't take the SCPH-3xxxx's so that's a non-issue.

I'm just trying to figure out if that slim model is worth $10 more if I don't care about the size of the unit. Let's say the used slim isn't a SCPH-5nnnn but the used original version is a later model number. Should I got with the later version original over the early slim?

edit:

Looks like I don't have a choice, called the place and they only have used Slim's so it looks like that's what I'm getting. It's a very reputable store (for those that live in the Los Angeles area, Game Dude) and one of my few alternatives to EBStop.