Back in the day, I would power off my hardware. My computer would tell me when it was safe to power off, my Genesis and PS1 you pressed the power button and that was it.
But when I got my PS2, turning it off wasn’t just turning it off. The power button didn’t turn anything off, it just reset the system. So I always hit the power switch on the back.
It wouldn’t be for a while before we learned we can turn it off and back on faster by pressing and holding the power button. Rather than killing the system. And newer systems like the PS3 didn’t like it at all when they were powered off completely.


I’m quite fluent in English but could you please explain whiplash in this context? I would’ve thought some scandal with players maybe revolting but that does not seem to fit.
So maybe some surprising new behaviour?
Interestingly I always turned my PS2 off the intended way from the beginning. But my pc side might’ve influenced me to do that, especially with filesystems that die not yet feature journaling
The most gruelling change in consoles were that they have an OS and storage too and are basically PCs. Gone is the fun of just flipping the switch and starting.
Whiplash is when youre turned so aggressively, the acceleration causes internal damage.
People use it to mean an abrupt change in something, usually insinuating it was done with a lack of care for the drawbacks of a big decision.
Thanks. Sounds kind of like iron man landing, he would be human goo in his suit.
I think they just mean the “extreme” differences between the two. One tells you to wait for permission to turn off, the other doesn’t care when you cut the power.
being surprised