The PS2 is capable of a lot of things outside of just playing games. Many people have used the game console to play music from CDs and watch DVDs, but it’s capable of even more than that, and people are still pushing the boundaries today. For example, you might not know that the popular game console can runWindows 95. People figure out all sorts ofwacky things with their old hardware, so I’m not surprised about this.
In a roughly 30-minute video,YouTuber MetraBytedemonstrated how to run Windows 95 on PS2 hardware. There are some caveats to be aware of, however. The big one is that the PS2 itself is modded, and it’s not as simple as putting in a Windows 95 disc and starting the installation. This means that if you have an old Windows 95 install disc lying around, don’t expect to just pop it in your PS2 and run it.
Given the hardware limitations of the PS2 and the fact that this isn’t supposed to be something you try, installation time is much longer than you’d expect from anything modern. There will likely be many roadblocks, too, as evidenced by MetraByte’s video. The light at the end of the tunnel is that once all the hiccups are handled, Windows 95 does work on the PS2, but I wouldn’t recommend this myself unless you are very bored.
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Windows 95 works on PS2, but at what cost?
A fun project, but not much else
The shocking thing here is that Windows 95 runs on PS2 hardware, but it doesn’t exactly let you do a whole lot. With the OS running, MetraByte decided to try some things. He opened up Paint and tried to draw, but since he couldn’t get a mouse working on his device, he couldn’t make this into a reality. Since Doom runs onjust about anythingthese days, he, perhaps unsurprisingly, tried to get it running on the PS2 via Windows 95.
The PS2 never received an official Doom port, one of the few consoles in the world that doesn’t have one, but it has enough power to run, considering the game was ported to the last-generation PS1. To his credit, the launcher opened on the PS2, but there were problems completing the installation, and, sadly, the game wasn’t playable. The verdict is in: the PS2 can run Windows, but it cannot run Doom. If you want to stare at the desktop, however, the PS2 is more than capable of making that happen for you.
After more than 10 hours of installing and countless more spent troubleshooting, there wasn’t much to show for it at the end of the day. This seems like something you should only tackle for the novelty of having Windows 95 on something that’s not a PC, because it doesn’t look like it can do much else. Thankfully, a used PS2 console is still easy to find today, so if you end up ruining yours, you can always find a replacement.
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