Playing PS1 games on a PS2

I recently picked up a used PS2, and it came bundled with about twenty great games that run perfectly fine. I’ve still got my old PS1 lying around along with a massive collection of awesome titles, but for some reason, this PS2 refuses to load a single one of my PS1 discs. It's like trying to plug a vintage lamp into a modern outlet—it just won't connect. Does anyone know what the deal is?

It’s highly probable that your drive is struggling with the CD-ROM aspect because those PS1 titles are burned onto standard CDs, whereas your DVD-ROM functionality seems to be holding up fine for now. Regardless, I suspect your optical drive is on its last legs, and it’s really just a matter of time before it stops reading DVDs reliably too. I’m not entirely sure how much this will actually help, but maybe you could try burning one of those PS1 games from a CD onto one of your own DVDs to test it out. If the issue isn't the hardware—though I have my doubts—it might just be an issue with the specific PS2 version you're playing.

I seem to remember back when I had my PS2, if I wanted to play any old PS1 games, I actually had to hit the reset button twice just to get things to load properly. I’m not sure if that still applies today—maybe give it a shot? It might actually help, assuming your disc drive isn't totally fried 😉