to the ultimate PlayStation comparison.

And of course, how else could we begin,

but with the original PlayStation One?

In 1994, the world got this, the original PlayStation.

Now what's interesting is,

is that this actually almost didn't even happen.

Originally, Sony was developing the PlayStation

as an add-on for the Super Nintendo.

But after Nintendo bailed on the deal,

they figured, "Hey, we've already put the work in,

we might as well make our own game console."

And thus, the original PlayStation was born.

It's hard to overstate just how good of an idea that was.

The PlayStation was the very first game console

to ever hit 100 million sales,

and after being sold for ten years,

the games continue to come out for the PlayStation

all the way up until 2006.

You know, when the PlayStation 3 came out.

Now, I have a special attachment to the PlayStation,

as this was my very first game console.

However, it actually wasn't the only version.

They also released this, the PS1,

which was a much, much smaller version of the console.

Oh, wow.

So of course, that is the

legendary PlayStation boot up screen.

Oh, this brings me right back.

So this is Gran Turismo 2,

and as far as PlayStation One games,

I definitely spent the most time with this one.

One of the cool things about Gran Turismo,

and indeed the PlayStation One in general,

was the idea that this was one

of the very first fully 3D capable consoles.

Look at these car models.

I mean, sure, they might not look incredibly detailed

by today's standards, but for back in the 90s,

this was pretty solid.

So one of the cool things about this

was that it was actually pretty realistic.

I mean, sure, the resolution is really low.

You can see mountains and everything popping in

just in the background.

But, when you consider that the audio

was actually pretty accurate to what the car sounded like,

and this was a properly performing game.

I mean, there are real physics, yeah, see?

You can see, I pull into the shadows, my car gets darker.

I mean, this was seriously cutting edge back in the 90s.

It's funny, the resolutions is so laughably low right now,

and yet, it doesn't really matter that much.

I mean, yeah of course, the cars look a little blocky,

it's kinda hard to see, but you get the idea.

And look at this, I mean...

Awww.

Next, we have another retro classic.

And I say retro because it's what I played when I was a kid.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

And this was back when you actually

could get a decent video game based on a movie.

Unlike today where they pretty much

don't even do it anymore.

So something to keep in mind here,

is that this game came out on the tail end

of the PlayStation's life cycle,

and because of that it is one

of the more technically advanced titles.

So, while the resolution might not be massively upgraded

over something like Gran Turismo,

it actually does look pretty nice.

Something else cool about this,

is that I actually am getting full voice acting.

I forgot that this game actually had that.

- But again, this is one of the major advantages

of using a CD, you actually do have plenty

of space for things like actual audio.

Fast forward to 2000, and we have the Sony PlayStation 2.

Now this still holds the record

for the best selling game console of all time.

The next closest is the Nintendo DS,

but at 155 million units, nothing touches the PS2.

One of the main reasons why the PS2 is so successful

is actually a little bit of a weird one.

This, at the time, was the cheapest DVD player

that you could get your hands on.

And well, DVD was kind of a big deal back in 2000.

The PS2 really pushed a lot of tech forward.

So not only did it support online play

as the very first PlayStation to do so,

where it also allow you to install a hard drive.

And you can even output 1080i signals

from this guy on certain games.

Now mind you, that was stuff like Gran Turismo 4,

but considering that the PlayStation 2 was available

at a time where high def TVs really weren't even a thing,

it definitely pushed the envelope.

There was one big difference

with the PS2 compared to the PSOne.

It was much, much larger.

However, it didn't take long for Sony to fix that

by releasing the PS2 Slim.

Now this actually pretty much took all the same features,

and took it into a much, much smaller form factor,

while including things like the ethernet jack,

which used to need an actual adaptor on this guy.

What's important to remember, is that both the PS2,

as well as the PS2 Slim were fully backwards compatible.

Now these days, it's a little bit hit or miss,

but back in 2000, this was pretty much unheard of.

No real game console would ever be able to play

the previous generation of games.

However, not only could you put a PSOne game

into these guys, but it also fully supported

not only the controllers, but also even the memory cards.

For the PS2, we have Gran Turismo 3.

Immediately you can tell that,

while the menus are even weirder than they were

on the PlayStation One,

the graphics are seriously improved.

Now only are we getting a higher resolution,

especially when you look at the car model and the lighting.

There is a big, big jump.

You also see obviously the track

got a huge graphical update.

But the jump between PSOne and PS2 is massive.

I mean, it's really hard to sort of overstate that.

Now, what's funny is the car models

actually don't look wildly different.

I think a lot of it is just the idea

that because you have so much power,

they pretty much overhauled everything in the game.

I'll say though, the audio actually isn't

as good as on Gran Turismo 2.

I don't remember it being like this,

but the cars don't really sound that loud.

I feel like the music is cranked up way too high.

I could probably change that though.

Dude, that frame rate is such a huge difference.

I don't know what the Gran Turismo 2

on the PlayStation One ran at,

but I wanna say it's like,

well below 30 frames per second a lot of times.

Whereas this is so much better.

Next we have Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Now this is a game that also does actually do

a pretty good job of showing off what the PS2 is capable of.

There's a, some pretty serious effects

on these headlights right now.

Oh, he's just jump on?

Okay. (laughs)

It's funny to think how far Grand Theft Auto has come.

I mean, when you look back at something like this,

versus like GTAV, it actually,

I mean it doesn't feel that different.

Now it might not look all that impressive today,

but the idea that you have a full open world game

on the PlayStation 2 is really something

the PSOne wasn't capable of.

I mean, think about it, Grand Theft Auto on PlayStation

was just a top down sort of shooter style game.

Whereas here, we have a fully modeled 3D world to work with.

Ugh, if I don't crash.

And I crashed, okay.

Move onto 2006, and we have the PlayStation 3.

Not only was this a much, much larger console,

but in some ways, at least in my opinion,

it was a little bit of a flop.

This was an incredibly expensive console,

that at the end of the day was not as successful

as the PSOne or even the PS2.

A lot of that comes down to price.

When the PS3 first launched, it had a base model

that was a 20GB hard drive for $500,

but if you wanted the full features and everything included,

you're gonna have to pay $600 for the 60GB version.

Where the PS2 had a lot of interesting new tech,

the PS3 was absolutely loaded with it.

Now a lot of this stuff is easy to take for granted today,

but the PlayStation 3 had some really interesting stuff.

Including 1080p over HDMI, WiFi that was built in,

Bluetooth, wireless controllers

that didn't require batteries,

not like anyone would still ship that today or anything.

And on top of that, just like the PlayStation 2

made DVD very, very popular, the PlayStation 3

almost single-handedly made Blu-ray a success.

Which is especially impressive, when you consider that this

was the cheapest Blu-ray player at the time, at like $600.

It's clear that Sony were trying

to make the most ridiculous,

over the top console they could with the PS3.

So take things like the slot loading Blu-ray drive,

which surely cost a fortune for them to make.

Or things like having four USB ports,

more than even a current PS4, and my personal favorite,

is underneath this little flap.

It has a series of different memory card slots,

including Compact Flash.

Because you know, that's what people want in a game console.

Unfortunately the PS3 really wasn't a huge success

until the PS3 Slim came out.

Now importantly, this was a much cheaper alternative

to the console, but it did that

by stripping out a ton of features.

Stuff like the extra USB ports, the card reader,

and one of the really important things,

was the lack of any kind of backwards compatibility

with PS2 games.

Something that really only the launch PS3 ever had.

All that being said, it's easy to see why the PS3 Slim

was such a huge sales success compared

to the original Fat model.

So if you take a look at it,

one of the very first things you're going to notice

is that it's going to be a lot smaller.

And because of that, it's also not only going

to be more efficient, which then makes it quieter,

makes it take less power, but also importantly,

it had a lot fewer reliability issues.

The original Fat PS3, while it was

for the most part better than something like the Xbox 360,

still had its fair share of yellow light of death issues.

But all of that was absolutely second to the fact

that the PS3 Slim was going to be a lot cheaper than the OG.

Now this was by far the most popular model.

However, they actually did make one more.

The PS3 Super Slim.

Now the issue here was just like how the Slim

was not as good as the Fat PS3,

this was not as good as the PS3 Slim.

So my biggest problem with it was this.

It was just a stupid sliding door mechanism,

which of course saved a lot of money,

but it just feels cheap compared

to the nice slot-loading drives on the originals.

Something that all three models share, though,

is the Cell processor which was enormously expensive

to develop, but did make the PlayStation 3

the most powerful console of its generation.

Unfortunately, it was also the most difficult

to work with console of its generation.