Hobbies And Interests
USB Mouse and Keyboard
It's a well kept secret--mostly because there are very few games that actually make use of them--that the Playstation 2 actually supports keyboard and mouse controls for some of its games. While games that support the Playstation 2's USB keyboard are not an incredibly rare breed--almost any game that supports online play will also support the use of a keyboard for online chat purposes--you can count the number of games that support a PS2 USB mouse on one hand. These games include Final Fantasy 11--Square-Enix's first massively multiplayer online role-playing game foray--and Half Life.
USB Headsets and USB Microphones
Perhaps taking a page from the success of Xbox Live, the Playstation 2 soon developed a headset and microphone that allows gamers to talk to one another while playing online games such as Call of Duty. The headset is also compatible with the PS3 game console. Be sure to consult your game's documentation to determine whether or not it is compatible with the PS2 USB headset.
Another microphone-based product was developed exclusively for a series of karaoke-like games known as the Singstar series. These games could be played only with the official Singstar microphones, full-sized microphones that plugged directly into the USB ports on the PS2. These microphones allow players to sing along with popular songs and music videos included in the Singstar line of games.
The Eyetoy
The Playstation 2 Eyetoy is essentially a small webcam manufactured exclusively for the PS2 and used through the USB ports on the front of the console. The camera is designed to be used with the Play and Play 2 games, a collection of minigames that allow players to control the action through motions captured by the camera. Play and Play 2 were billed as party games, and succeeded in being enjoyable to play with friends despite small technical glitches and Play 1's excessive loading times. The Eyetoy is incompatible with the PS3.
Homebrew
Where there are gaming consoles, there will always be those who create homebrewed products for those gaming consoles. As of the writing of this article, there are quite a few different homebrew applications that let you use a flash memory device with your Playstation 2 via the USB ports, and even some that allow you to use an entire external hard drive to backup music and games from the PS2. The process of getting the USB devices to work, however, is often convoluted and very technically involved, and so is not something the casual PS2 owner should dabble in for fear of damaging their console.