New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

Yes, I have a cobwebbed PS3 which when I bought it quite a few years ago second hand, was less than half price new from someone that needed the money. Quite a bargain - if I had actually ever used it (I did play Half Life 2 through which was quite a step up from my up-till-then most recent memorable FPS gaming experience, Quake).

Now I find myself contemplating wanting to play some modern definitive and 'must-play' type games, but what do you know, it requires/demands/forces updates to the OS to play anything new or run hardware like the EyeTV I have.

I consider the 'Other OS' story/fiasco/travesty ( http://www.pcworld.com/article/192731/s ... ature.html) something worthy of study in my technology museum, but a $500 investment in a PS3 is something not to be sneezed at (along with their rootkit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_c ... it_scandal ).

So, does anyone now how much of a rarity it might be at the moment? Or should I just update it and know that at some point in the far far away future I will be able to obtain one without too much difficulty. They should be plentiful in the states : http://gamepolitics.com/2010/05/13/us-a ... 39-removal , but here???

I don't feel like biting the bullet for the museum when I could be spitting them out playing some modern FPS.

Soothsayers, what do ye say?

Hmm... Couldn't you just update it for the gameplay you want. Then if later you wanted to revert to a more typical spec of the time you could just do a re-install with an older OS, yes? I don't know much about PS units (in fact I know nothing about them). Is it easy (or even possible) to re-install the original OS? Or is there no such thing as Installation disks for these things.

None of the above tezza, as far as I believe once you roll a Playstation3 forward, it doesn't roll backward. Which is the way Sony wants it of course.

You simply get an external usb hard drive drive (2.5" preferred)

1. Format it as FAT32 on your Windows/OSX machine.
2. Browse to http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/pc_update/index.htm and download the latest system software update for your PS3, onto the external drive as per the instructions.
3. Follow the rest of the instructions and viola, your PS3 is back to running legit PS3 system software.

port22 wrote:You simply get an external usb hard drive drive (2.5" preferred)
1. ...
2. ...
3. ...

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately my dilemma (still) is not that I don't know how to update my PS3, but whether I should, thereby losing forever the 'Other OS' option, and something valuable as an item in a technology museum (at least for what social aspects I wish to educate about).

The real question is, in the future, how hard might it be to come across PS3s for sale that might be old and never updated? I doubt there's too many as it's not in the nature of the machine and gamer to keep it so out of date and incapable of running any new titles.

I never took the leap to try out Linux on my 40 GB PS3 after reading that it could not make proper use of the graphics hardware. A shame really as it would otherwise make an awesome Linux box.

As much as I used to like trying to install Linux on every CPU made, it does get old after a while and the more obscure distributions are next to useless.

I don't think there is any value in hanging on to the Linux install - the Sony OS does a much better job of utilizing the hardware and might be more historic assuming they haven't rigged a firmware time bomb to break it in 20 years!