That's the best way. Try and find yourself one of the older 'fat' consoles rather than the newest slimline consoles which are rumoured to have problems with certain games. Think this was because in the last versions of the PS2 the seperate EE and GS chips were integrated into a single chip along with some other stuff from the motherboard.
Divine Avenger - two of my friends have newer style PS3's and they play PS games. Maybe it's just certain versions and / or territories but I thought all of them played PS games. Could be wrong though.
There may be a slim chance your console has a stuffed CD laser - see if it plays audio CD's OK. When the laser is on it's way out they have trouble reading certain disks e.g read blu-ray & CD OK but not DVD or vice versa.
