Sony PlayStation 2 - PAL OPS2M Magazine Demo List

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Revision as of 20:14, 16 July 2019

Official PlayStation 2 Magazine was released in the United States as well as many PAL territories with accompanying demo discs. All of the USA discs are dumped, so this list is only related to PAL OPS2M demos.

The PAL territory releases are particularly confusing for several reasons:

• Discs were often re-released in different regions.
• Discs were sometimes unique to different regions.
• Discs were often released with a different Issue number on packaging versus disc label. This occurred because UK discs were often repackaged to other PAL regions which followed a different numbering system.
• Usually serial numbers can differentiate whether a disc from one region will match a disc from another region. However in some instances, the same serial number from different regional OPS2M variants does NOT match.
• Serial numbers on the spines of some cases were not updated between issues, leaving an incorrect serial number on the spine (versus the disc), often repeating spine serial numbers across Issues. This phenomenon was noticed in Australia, but may extend to other regions.

How to determine how a Redump entry should be named:

• UK acts as the "master" title for two reasons. English is preferential as a lingua franca, and UK got first release of discs. As a result of this latter point, in UK Case and Disc labels always match with issue numbering (creating the most accurate and intuitive naming convention) - with the exception of demos #2-#4 (where disc and packaging #'s do NOT match).
• Titles are normalized. Because packaging titles are often ambiguous due to coming from cover, spine, and sometimes back - naming convention that has been used by redump is to normalize the title to follow a format. For example packaging art for the UK variant of OPS2M demo #1 would perhaps more accurately be "PlayStation 2 Official Magazine-UK Demo Disc One", but in redump is normalized as "Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Demo 1". It is good to provide details on titles in the Comments section of an entry, including title info from packaging spine / cover / rear as well as disc label title.
• If a dump from somewhere other than UK does NOT match the UK entry, then the numbering system of the magazine should be used. For example, if the case packaging has one Issue number, and the disc has a different number in the title, then use the case Issue number. The reason this mismatch might occur is if a disc from UK was brought over to a PAL region, modified, but kept the old disc label title.

The goals of this checklist:

1. Dump all unique serial numbers. They will all be unique dumps. Serial number extensions (example: SCED-12345-ANZ) are NOT likely to differ from their non-extended counterparts (SCED-12345).
2. Confirm regional variants with entries of matching serial numbers. For any regional variant verifications, please add the regional details to the master entry which is being verified.
3. To be accurate. Please only add data to this list if it can be confirmed coming from regional original packaging AND disc label info.

Legend

UK

The final OPS2M UK demo disc was #100, released July 2008[1]. Many special OPS2M UK demos were released as well.

Special demos:

Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Greatest Hits Vol.5
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Crime Special
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Special Edition 11: The World's Best PS2 Games Ever
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Special Edition 12: PlayStation 2 Blockbusters!
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Special Edition 13 - Girls! Motors! Guns! War! Monsters!
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Special Edition 14: The Hit Squad
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Special Edition 15: Summer Blockbusters!
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Special Edition 16: Buyers Guide
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Special Edition 17: The Best Games Of 2003!
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Special Edition 18 - Hot 100
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Special Edition 19 - 2004 Classics Hitlist
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Special Edition 20 - It's Here!
PlayStation 2 Best Games Ever 1
PlayStation 2 Best Games Ever 2
PlayStation 2 Best Games Ever 3
PlayStation 2 Best Games Ever 4
PlayStation 2 Best Games Ever 6
PlayStation 2 Best Games Ever 8
PlayStation 2 Best Games Ever 9

Australia

OPS2M Australia demo series completed with the final demo disc #62 [2].

France

"PlayStation 2 Magazine" appears on the demo packaging (no "Official"). It looks like the magazine also may have been missing "Official" from it's title [4].

Any after Demo 92?

Unknown French serial: SCED-50381

Germany

Italy

Special demos:

WIP

Benelux

OPS2M got a "Benelux" (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg) regional release. The region release is called out on the disc label of Demo #57 [6].

Portugal

Spain

Title changed from "PlayStation 2 Revista Oficial - España" to "PlayStation Revista Oficial - España" with Issue #81 (see slide show text)[7], could the last PS2 demo disc be Issue #80?

Any after 77?