The C128 did, for a short while, carve out a niche for itself though, but only as a 'reduced to clear' C64 in a nicer case. The Amiga arrived the following year and the C128 was history.

Consider this though: what if the C128 hadn't been 64 compatible? It could have died a quick, painful death with no software support - which it did anyway - or its unique features could have encouraged software publishers to make an effort to get the best out of it and get behind it. Consider this also: if the Amiga, launched in the USA in 1985 and the UK in 1986, had been C64/C128 compatible, would it have ever reached the wondrous heights it did if it had been burdened with backward compatibility? "Yes, I know you've got 4,096 colours to play with, Jason, but reduce it to 16 - we don't want to close the door on all those C64 sales."

Now I'm not for one minute suggesting that backwards compatibility is going to hold back PS2 sales - we're all going to buy the bloody thing anyway - but in 1992, when the Amiga A1200 was launched, this too had backward compatibility as a feature, and few AGA-only games appeared. Indeed, the first year was almost a mirror of the C128 situation, with software which ran on both systems but was 'enhanced' for the A1200 - in other words, it had more colours.

I really hope the same doesn't happen with PS2, and that instead we're straight away treated to software which fully exploits the new machine. I really hope that games won't auto-detect what system they're running on and switch modes accordingly, resulting in just the colour palette being enhanced. I really hope that the less-than-leading-edge publishers don't 'remove' levels from the PS1 version, and 'add' them back in just for the PS2 as a 'bonus'. I really hope Kate Bush is still saving herself for me...

Backward compatibility? No thanks, I've just put one out.