Procuring PS2 takes ‘tenacity’ System excellent for gaming, but below average DVD player

PlayStation 2. List price: $299; if bundled with the sports pack (Madden NFL 2001, SSX, Ready to Rumble 2, one extra controller, one DVD movie) $499. 8MB memory card: $32. DVD remote for PS2: $17.99-$29.99.

Parents, take heart. After all the hype surrounding Sony’s allegedly impossible-to-snag PlayStation 2, the entertainment system that hit the U.S. in late October only to quickly sell out, I was able to secure one from Amazon.com. It did take an eight-hour marathon, surfing the Web to find and purchase the machine, which plays PlayStation games as well as DVD movies and music CDs.

With more shipments scheduled to arrive at Amazon and other online sites before Christmas (Buy.com and Kmart’s Bluelight.com have turned their shipments into shopping “events”), getting the machine isn’t out of the question, but if you are intent on buying one, expect it to take a monumental effort.

The system I purchased wasn’t part of any inflated auction – of which there are literally scores on sites such as Amazon.com Auctions and eBay, with some machines going for as much as $2,000. Mine came direct from Toy ‘R’ Us, which has a deal with Amazon to sell its wares through their Web site.

How did I get one from a legitimate dealer? In a word – tenacity. Knowing the PS2 is hot, Amazon periodically advertises on the front page of its Web site when new shipments of the machine will arrive; those eager to buy, Amazon suggests, should “check back soon and often.”

I did, and when a new shipment arrived, I hunkered down and literally kept refreshing their PS2 link for eight hours until it was finally announced that the system was “in the warehouse” and available for sale. Three minutes later, their entire shipment was sold out and my credit card was charged a steep $513.

Now, having used the machine for two weeks, the question is whether it was worth the cost and effort. That depends on what’s drawing you to the machine. Sony is touting the PS2 as an all-in-one entertainment system capable of playing DVD movies (my main interest) as well as a wealth of high-end games and music CDs. As a gaming system, it shows enormous promise – the snowboarding game, SSX, and the boxing game, Ready to Rumble 2, in particular, feature outstanding graphics and game play.

But those interested in buying the PS2 for its DVD capabilities should be forewarned – while the PS2 certainly does play DVDs, it doesn’t do so seamlessly or, for that matter, with intuitive ease.

When the system arrived from Amazon via next-day air – complete with two controllers, three games and the DVD movie “Armageddon,” – I was anxious to see how well the system worked as a DVD player and popped the movie into the machine. In no time, Armageddon began.

Not the movie. The experience of getting the film to play.

The problem with the PS2 as a DVD player is that it doesn’t come with a remote control specifically designed for use with DVDs. Unless you purchase one of several third-party remotes (the two I tried from InterAct and Saitek are seriously flawed with compatibility issues, a fact each company has since admitted on their Web sites), everything must be controlled from the game pad. This is something of a problem since Sony’s game pad is specifically designed for use with PS1 and PS2 games.

For instance, instead of finding buttons on the controller marked Play, Pause, Menu, Stop and Slow, consumers get two joysticks, four triggers and eight buttons, four of which are marked with an array of symbols clearly meant for use with PS2’s games.

Over time, all of this can obviously be learned, but in the interim, it’s unnecessarily frustrating and complicated – especially for those used to using a television or a VCR remote. And especially after spending $500 for a machine that should have come bundled with its own DVD remote.

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style and Thursdays in the scene.