Yesterday I did the unthinkable. I got a PS3 game. Don't take me wrong, I have nothing against the Playstation brand, I have a PS2 and I love playing PS1 and PS2 games.
Back in 06 I decided to go with the X360 because of the great experience I had with the original Xbox and also because of availability. Down the road I didn't decide on a PS3 mainly because most games were available on both platforms.
Well, reason I decided to get this particular PS3 game (2014 World Cup) was because I couldn't find it for X360.
Also, at this point in time (2014) there are a number of PS3 exclusives I'm interested in playing:
- Gran Turismo 5
- Gran Turismo 6
- Initial D
- Los juegos de Saint Seiya - Playstation Battle Royale (o como se llame el clon del Smash Bros)
- Metal Gear Solid 4 (igual convendria conseguir la legacy collection)
- Ridge Racer 7
- Little big planet
- Twisted metal
- Motostorm
To name a few. Through history PS3 consoles don't seem to fail as much as the X360, so I'm not sure what model to get. PS2 backwards compatiblity is not an issue since I have a PS2. I guess as long as it is close to a 100 bucks it'll be fine.
I got into Sonic thanks to a buddy of mine who invited me to his house to "play Sega". He got Montana sports talk football and we were playing for hours. Later that evening I saw a box with a "cat" (I thought that was a cat at the time). I asked my buddy and he said, "oh yeah, that's Sonic the Hedgehog, wanna play?" I said "sure, why not".
Since that day, my life was changed and history was rewritten. Instead of saving for a SNES for Christmas, I got the Genesis and Sonic. All the awesomeness and for a lower price.
It's been quite a while since I wrote anything here (nah, really?).
The retro gaming PC is a project I've been working for sometime since last year when I recovered an old PC I assembled back in 02. The current system specs are:
- Mobo: ECS K7SEM
- CPU: (integrated) AMD Duron 1300 (about 1 ghz)
- Ram: 512 MB PC133 (Kingston and Markvision)
- Sound Card: SB Audigy Digital Studio (LA Edition)
- Capture Card: Avermedia AverTV
- 2 x 40 GB IDE HDD (Seagate and Maxtor)
- Gravis gamepad pro
- Windows 98 SE
I've tried the following games with satisfactory results (I mean, why they wouldn't work?):
- Fifa 98 (sometimes sounds bad, I don't know why)
- 4x4 Evo
- Monster Truck Madness 1 and 2
- Midtown Madness 1 and 2
- Need for Sped 2 SE
- Chesmaster 8000
- Roadrash
- Sonic 3D (I have to run it from a physical CD to get music)
- Sonic CD (still have to switch to 256 colors, also a physical CD is required for music))
Some of this games work on Windows 7, however, since I no longer run it at home (all migrated to Ubuntu) this PC is the way to go.
After finding some software discs and hardware I expanded the scope of this system beyond gaming. Some productivity (and not so much) stuff I added:
- Canon LPT1 scanner and software (works lke day one)
- Office 97 (ust the way I remeber it)
- Cool edit Pro (awesome audio editor)
- MS Plus (collection of themes and games)
- IMGBurn (the latest version works!)
- Daemon tools (older version which works on Win98)
The only thing that this PC is no good at is the internet. Most sites won't load correctly with the version of Firefox I installed, forget about IE6.
December 7th was when I got me a WiiU plus a handful of games. However, it wasn't until last night when I hooked up the system.
Having the Wii I knew it wasn't going to be a breeze to hook it up but at the same time it wasn't rocket science etiher.
One of the first things I dind't like is the glossy finish on the main unit, it is big finger print collector. I had to clean it when I decied where to put it (on top of the X360).
I like the fact, every single basic cable is included (namely the HDMI cable). I already had Wii remotes laying around, although I ultimately decided to get a candy orange control which will be dedicated to the WiiU.
After I hooked up everything, I had to remove the Wii U gamepad form the craddle and hook it up directly to the AC adapter since it was completely dry. The first thing I had to do was to sync up the Wii U tablet, after syncing the controller I set up the WiFi connection, the TV remote (very easy to pair with my Samsung TV and my Dish receiver) and then the dreaded update. It took like an hour or so, I don't since I abandoned the console and went to the living room to watch the soccer final (León Campeón yay!!!).
After the update finished, my controller was also fully charged. I hooked up the craddle the way it is supossed to be. I spent some time creating a Mii and a Nintendo Network account, and then finally I went on to play some Super Mario 3D World. I played a couple levels (I love what I'm seeing).
Also, I popped in Ducktales remastered. Some people may feel anoyed by the cutscenes, in my opinion, I like them. I like how they created a backstory and how the story develops during the game, it feels almost like watching a Ducktales episode. I just played the Transyvania level.
Al the time I played using the tablet and it felt comfortable, perhaps a bit bulky at times but comfortable overall. Next session I'll give the wii remote + classic controller pro a try.
This is how I replaced the stock head unit on my 13' Versa. The stock audio system is a good system, but after almost a year I wanted something with more features (most notably a touch screen). Previous to this, I had the speakers replaced with four Polk Audio Dxi 650.
After doing some research and asking a few vendors, this is what I came up with:
The first step was to prepare the harness. Using the couplers included with the TK12 I color matched all cables with the JVC harness. Also, I performed the power connections for the ASWC-1 harness. The ASWC-1's Gray/Red and Gray/Blue wires were left pending as the 70-7552 doesn't have the pins for the steering wheel controls.
This is the resulting harness:
Next was remove the panel. For that purpose I used the panel removal tool. It was matter of inserting it in the let top corner. As I removed the panel I was careful with the hazard flashers switch.
With the radio now accesible it was a matter of just removing the four screws and unplugging the cables.
At this stage, from the car harness, I spliced cables at pins 6, 16 and 15 and perfomed the connections to gray/red, gray/blue and ground on the ASWC-1.
As stated before, the Metra 99-7613 is not required if the original brackets are available. With the excpetion of one screw on each side, the brackets fit nicely.
With all harnesses ready, I hooked up everything to test the radio and program the ASWC-1
With the 13' Versa press the igintion switch twice without pressing the brake pedal. After the ASWC-1 start blinking rapidly, press and hold the Steering Wheel Volume Up button until the unit stops flashing, after that release the button and wait for the LED to stay solid red. At that point test the volume control.
The XM unit is located in a compartment behind the glove box (plenty of room there) and I routed the cable and mounted the antenna inside the windshield on the passenger side. The reception is really good, so I didn't have to mount the antenna outside.
I ran the microphone cable above the flashers switch. A matter of remving a small cover.
This is how it looks after I put everything in place:
For the video bypass, I only had to ground the green e-brake cable. As a protective meassure I ordered this fake faceplate:
However, being a common item, it could be counterproductive to use it, so I ordered a 07 Versa OEM faceplate. I didn't have to alter it in any way. It fits perfectly in place of the JVC faceplate.
Now it looks like it still has the stock radio. Here's a video showing DVD player and steering wheel control in action:
For my next projects I intend to install a backup camera and mount a Dreamcast. Until the next time...
From Krikzz (famous for his Everdrive line of flashcarts) and DuoR (well known PCEngineFX modder) we have the NES Everdrive N8 "Pimped Out" edition.
Whats is the Everdrive N8?
Well, it is a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) which allows you to load (from an SD card) any NES and Famicom Disk System rom you want on real hardware. In other words, games you typically play on an emulator can be played on the real console.
What is the advantage?
Since we are executing the game code directly on original hardware, the experience is exactly the same as if we were playing with the original cartridge.
Dude, I still don't get it, can you give an example?
Let's say you wanna play The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak on a real NES console. You would have to shell out some serious cash for the original game or ask someone to make a reproduction (good luck with that one). With this cartridge, you can play the game just like if you were using the real cartridge. Another example would be if you want to play a homebrew or a hacked game, like for example DPad Hero, Mario Adventure, the translated Final Fantasy II or maybe the 32 teams updated roster version of Tecmo Super Bowl.
What about compatiblity, will all games work?
The compatiblity is great, the most popular titles such as Mario, Megaman Ninja Gaiden, TMNT, etc work just the same as playing them from the real carts. What really surprised me was the fact you can play FDS games. The original Zelda, the original Mario II (Lost Levels), All Night Nippon Super Mario, Doki Doki Panic, etc are fully playable on the NES. Even if a game asks to switch to side B, that's no problem, the Everdrive will switch it for you. Pressing the reset button will save your data to the SD, simulating saving to the floppy disk. Unfortunately not all roms work, some of them (most notably the multicart cagmes) will throw an A5 error (rom is bigger than 512 kb), other will throw a non supported mapper error. Krikzz is continuosly working and compatiblity may be increased on a future firmware update.
One of the most notable non working games is Castlevania 3, luckily, its japanese counterpart Akumajo Densetsu works, although it sounds a bit odd. This is because of the extra sound hardware present on the Famicom but absent on the NES.
Can I save my progress in Gold Medal Challenge, NES Open Golf, etc?
Yessss!!! For those games which featured a battery (Kirby, Turbo Racing, etc) the Everdrive saves our progress in a .sav file inside the SD card. So no more frustatration because you lost your progress in Zelda. Also, these .sav files are compatibles with emulators, so you may continue / resume to / from other devices as you wish.
What is this "pimping" all about?
Normally, if you order a flash cart directly form Krikzz, you would typically get the bare PCB or for an addtional $15 you would get a (not so inspired) shell and that's it. The price would be something like $124 + shipping. However, if you order 10+ unit you get a discount. So, what our friend DuoR did was order 10 PCBs directly form Krikzz. Once he got them, using original shells, he: - Cut a hole to insert / remove the SD card. - Painted them in the buyer's requested color (the options if I remember correctly were, no paint, charcoal, blue and black)
- Designed and applied a cartridge label - Conditioned a "universal" box - Designed and printed a box insert and manual. The result can be apreciated in the video. The final price was $115.49 including shipping and it looks way cooler.
I'm pending to edit the video and show the Everdrive itself in action. Until the next time.
(2) They;re called universal because they can be used with any videogame cartridge. The truth is DuoR had to cut a few pieces of plastic and decorate with a cool Everdrive label so the NES cart would properly fit.
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