Thanks for the preface :)

I've wanted to do the woods/faraday cage/etc thing for ages, because I want to concretely debunk/prove this whole thing. If I debunk it I can say "look, I have a condition, and there's no link", whereas if I can prove it, I can be one of the few non-kooky testcases :) (as I noted, I used to be crazy kooky myself - it seems that this condition attacks the nervous system itself, so suddenly you have the situation where the "all systems okay" infrastructure itself is being compromised, and pandemonium - paranoia, persecution complexes, etc - ensue.)

I am very very curious how I'd test for nerve degeneration issues.

The PSU idea you suggested is compelling, but, the slimine PS2 used an external brick, while the original used an integrated supply. For me to feel exactly the same using both indicates that I'm being exposed to something that is generating the exact same frequency profile. The likelihood that the brick and the original PS2's internal PSU use a design that spit out identical RF/EM profiles is... I won't rule it out, but I'd argue it's low. The slimline PS2 just needs 8.5V (IIRC), testing an alternative supply shouldn't be hard, but it's not on my priority list due to lack of budget :P

About the 3D graphics idea: The PS2 has an on/standby button on the front, and a mains switch on the back. If I put it in standby, I still feel drained; it's the moment I flick the switch at the back I go "WHEW". (And, for completeness, if the PS2 is on but the TV is off, I also feel drained.)

Two things about the evolutionary thing: one, that whole thing is insane; it's responsible for innumerable superstitions, haha. Secondly, your theory is interesting, and I have a very relevant subjective experience - except instead of perceiving my body as going "nope, fight/flight time", I perceive "SOS, this thing is causing you more distress than you have the ability to handle, RUN" - so essentially a 100% flight response, but not only that, it's a "flight with explanation" response, in the sense that I don't just think run, I know why I need to run. I can understand a "RUN AWAY" signal getting through from the lizard brain, but I find it novel that I perceive more than just a basic run signal.

I've tried using the PS2 on exactly one occasion several years after my first experience - incidentally, when I spied a slimline PS2 at a 2nd-hand shop and took it home to test. Different PS2, same response. I turned it off after about half an hour (I didn't try the original as well).

The huge problem I have is that, the whole time I used the first PS2 for a couple days, I could distinctly feel that something in my head was breaking apart or being worn down (????). Also, at some point (around day 2 or so), something hit some kind of threshold, and after that I began getting the same symptoms from my PS2 as from my computers, which was why I had to stop using them. I still feel exactly the same "everything's breaking apart" thing when I turned the 2nd PS2 on. So, yes, my refusal to do extensive testing does create a self-fulfilling prophecy here, BUT, unless a doctor/practitioner can give me something (a drug/device/alternative thing/whatever) to reverse any impact, I can't risk losing access to the computer again.

(About the "something hitting some kind of threshold" thing, that's the doom/gloom I mentioned in my first comment. That reminds me, the "impending thing" sense is huge. I don't know what the impending thing actually is, but it gets really bad.)

I will definitely note that my only exposure to 3D games has been from this PS2, with some minor exposure to things like Doom or Wolfenstein 3D when I was given some ancient DOS machines a few years ago. So I do have a very negative/depressed/pitiful perspective when I see gaming discussed, but that ties mostly into my circumstances (not being able to buy GPUs to test) rather than me seeing the PS2 as entirely at fault.

Another fun story from the 2009-2012 era: I found a Casio 9850GB+ graphing calculator in an op-shop a few years ago. (I since found a TI-83+ in a disposal store, and discovered I hated its interface compared to the Casio, lol.) This thing used a triple-layer dot-matrix LCD that could display three "hues": yellow, green and blue, I think because each film had a thin layer over it for that color. Anyway, after using this calculator one day, I happened to be staring at a wall and noticed all kinds of swirling patterns in front of my eyes. I blinked a few times to best weigh up what I was looking at, and concluded that there was something wrong with my eyes. It went away after a few minutes though.

That also reminds me - I used to have bipolar (I managed to find an alternative therapy product that nuked it completely, even after I stopped taking it) and exposure (if you could call it that) would tend to provoke bipolar manic phases (I had the minor/small kind, I forget what type it was). I don't know why; one theory is that my system would go "we need extra resources to cope with this" and trigger mania (why?!), another theory is that the nerve excitation itself would trigger it. I don't really know.