PS2 DEVs coming out of the wood work

[Famicoman]

I keep seing these on ebay, like one every week. WHere do these keep coming from?

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-TEST-Debugging-St...1QQcmdZViewItem

[spacecadet]

I keep seing these on ebay, like one every week. WHere do these keep coming from?

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-TEST-Debugging-St...1QQcmdZViewItem

905962[/snapback]

 

Ok, just FYI, and for everyone else too (so nobody places some massively unjustifiable bid), these are not dev kits, these are debug kits. Differences are:

 

a) you can't develop on a debug kit.

 

b) a debug is basically just a regular PS2 that may *only* play non-retail games, depending on the version. (Some would play anything, others would only play games without the retail locks in place.)

 

Debugs were/are used by developers to test and debug games and they're also used by the press to play preview (i.e. "prototype") versions of games. My guess is if you're seeing a lot of these lately, they're coming from less scrupulous members of the press.

 

I'd like to have one of these, but they're not worth anywhere near what a real dev kit would be worth. The PS2 dev kits are basically just big, black Linux PC's with a case styled like a PS2. They're monsters. They say "TOOL" on the side if you ever see an auction and aren't sure if it's a real dev kit or not.

 

These are tightly controlled by Sony, though (the debug kits are too, but not as much as the devs), and there are few enough of them that Sony basically knows where each one is at all times. Anyone that tried to sell one would get reamed by Sony; it'd be a real black market item at this point. In the future that will probably change, though.

[vb_master]

This is probably going to get pulled, right?

[Famicoman]

Go ahead, I don't care.

[Blur2040]

The Dev kit is TOOL. It looks like a PS2 on steroids.