Retro games and emulation - Discuss retro shit in case you're stuck in the past or a hipster

[foam rolla]

I was a bit bored today and I found out my PS2 slim has a bad laser. I always figured the freezing issues I had with prior games I tried was due to the discs themselves because I know my games aren't in the best of condition since we didn't take the best care of them as kids. Today though I tried another game in PCX2 which played fine with some small stutters (though it just might be due to the fact I used a USB DVD drive that can use one or two usb ports on my PC but I was only using one), but it completely froze on the PS2. Unfortunately, I never soft-modded it so I don't have freemcboot on a memory card. Even then, my controller is in bad shape and I don't have anything to make the picture look better on a 1080p TV. Yeah emulation makes more sense for me, but like I said I was bored.

Just turn it on its side.

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

Just turn it on its side.

It already is sitting horizontally unless you mean I should turn it vertically.

 

[foam rolla]

It already is sitting horizontally unless you mean I should turn it vertically.

Give it a try. I noticed that it works with the FAT model if it isn't reading properly and it could make a difference.
I picked up a old PS2 fat model that was deemed to not reading discs properly and I turned it up vertically and it read the discs.

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

Give it a try. I noticed that it works with the FAT model if it isn't reading properly and it could make a difference.
I picked up a old PS2 fat model that was deemed to not reading discs properly and I turned it up vertically and it read the discs.

I tested mw2005 again with my slim standing up vertically, I did initially get farther but then it stopped working part way through a quick race. But when I did tested it vertically and put the system in diagnostic mode, I was able to finish a quick race. I then tried the bonus dvd that came with the game, but that didn't read at all despite never being used all the years my family had the game. The freedvdboot disc still doesn't work either.

 

[Two Dollars]

The freedvdboot disc still doesn't work either.

Is your model compatible with FreeDVDBoot? I think most/all slims are compatible but only certain fats. You’re probably better off buying a HDD adapter and a cheap 500GB drive.

EDIT: Oh, you said yours is slim. Still, double check.

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

Is your model compatible with FreeDVDBoot? I think most/all slims are compatible but only certain fats. You’re probably better off buying a HDD adapter and a cheap 500GB drive.

EDIT: Oh, you said yours is slim. Still, double check.

My slim should be compatible since it's the 7701 and not any of the 9000 series.

EDIT: the github says it should work for all slim models

 

[Pissmaster]

I'm convinced 30%+ of the oft-cited PS2 sales numbers were replacements. I ended up buying three of those goddamn things by the time the next generation was released.

In fact, it was one of the major factors in my decision to abandon consoles and switch to PC exclusively. Console gaming ain't cheaper if you have to buy a new one every two years.

Other than the very first one, I've never owned a PlayStation that didn't require a replacement during its lifespan. PlayStation's a household name only because of the terrific game libraries, and absolutely not because of quality hardware. That's one of several reasons I'm staying away from the PS5.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

Other than the very first one, I've never owned a PlayStation that didn't require a replacement during its lifespan.

I don't remember if I replaced my PS1, but I definitely had to turn it on its sides because the motor/gear in the CD drive was failing.

I know a lot of people have nostalgia for optical media, but everything about it fucking sucked. It was slow and fiddly and always the part most prone to failure.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

My PS1 never had any issues, but it was the redesigned little one. The discs often did (I got them used usually), but not the system itself.

 

[Pissmaster]

I don't remember if I replaced my PS1, but I definitely had to turn it on its sides because the motor/gear in the CD drive was failing.

I know a lot of people have nostalgia for optical media, but everything about it fucking sucked. It was slow and fiddly and always the part most prone to failure.

Before Byuu was killed by Null, he wrote up a great article that went into detail on how exactly discs work: https://archive.ph/NNsPl

The engineering is amazing, and it's crazy just how much error correction has to go into them to get them to work as well as they did in the first place. Even though they did always suck. And soon we'll be entering the age of disc rot for all our old discs, so that's gonna be a shitshow.

My PS1 never had any issues, but it was the redesigned little one. The discs often did (I got them used usually), but not the system itself.

I have a few original ones that never had problems. Even my ancient SCPH-1001.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I have a few original ones that never had problems. Even my ancient SCPH-1001.

It seems like 90's consoles usually worked well. I don't hear about PS1 or Dreamcast issues very often, but PS2 and even GC could be a problem. Not sure about Xbox though.

 

[Pissmaster]

It seems like 90's consoles usually worked well. I don't hear about PS1 or Dreamcast issues very often, but PS2 and even GC could be a problem. Not sure about Xbox though.

My first Gamecube died, and I got that back in 2001, so you can't blame the bad solder that killed off so many electronics that were made in the 2000s.

90s electronics were just simpler and well made. I think Nintendo was still manufacturing almost everything in Japan at the time. Speaking of which, Game Boys were really sturdy, but the many different 3DSes were all fragile. And then Switch had all those controller issues, lol. What a different world we're now living in.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

My first Gamecube died, and I got that back in 2001, so you can't blame the bad solder that killed off so many electronics that were made in the 2000s.

90s electronics were just simpler and well made. I think Nintendo was still manufacturing almost everything in Japan at the time. Speaking of which, Game Boys were really sturdy, but the many different 3DSes were all fragile. And then Switch had all those controller issues, lol. What a different world we're now living in.

Even DS is allegedly fragile but that wasn't my experience, though I tend to be careful with my devices (my Vita took several beatings though, it's a tough fucker).

My Switch Lite seemed to have light drift out of the box. Definitely a different "quality" these days...

 

[Two Dollars]

I miss Nintendium. You couldn’t break those systems if you tried.

 

[Enig]

I miss Nintendium. You couldn’t break those systems if you tried.

The Nintendium effect wore off with the introduction of hinges and Nintendo being unable to understand how to use them properly, in my lifetime I have had two SPs, one DS and two DS lites get fucked up from hinge failure because of them using joint capsules and having weird ass spacing in the actual hinge points (just think of that weird tiny ring space in the DS lite's hinge because that is what broke on both of them). The effect wore off on consoles with the Wii too since they thought it was a good idea to have WiiConnect24 turn it into a furnace because the fan doesn't run and the heat has nowhere to go but bake the DVD drive.

 

[vomitusdeux]

Even DS is allegedly fragile but that wasn't my experience, though I tend to be careful with my devices (my Vita took several beatings though, it's a tough fucker).

My ds lite broke on the hinges and L and R button. DSi and 3DS are both still going strong. my PSP is like a vietnam war vet and ready for retirement.

 

[foam rolla]

I don't remember if I replaced my PS1, but I definitely had to turn it on its sides because the motor/gear in the CD drive was failing.

I know a lot of people have nostalgia for optical media, but everything about it fucking sucked. It was slow and fiddly and always the part most prone to failure.

My original PS1 as a kid fucked out after a year or two. Think it was either the laser or the motor that spun the disc. Pretty much wouldn't load a disc up.

Similar think happened with my SNES also. But then again, we gave those things a thrashing.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I’d assume the Gamecube version had compressed textures to save space, but what was wrong with the Xbox version?

Having never played the ports so I can't confirm. Allegedly the PS2 version was handled by BlackBox, and the ports were handled by another studio who messed with the handling model (or my guess, ported the game before the handling model was tweaked). So as a result you have two racing games with the same content that played differently.

Related, one of the Burnout games plays best on PS2 (and I guess Xbox) because the 360 and PS3 versions fill the game with bloom, motion blur, and other filters that make the game look and play worse.

I know a lot of people have nostalgia for optical media, but everything about it fucking sucked. It was slow and fiddly and always the part most prone to failure.

I still think consoles and DVDs should have gone with disc caddies.

Speaking of which, Game Boys were really sturdy,

There was a famous GameBoy that was bombed and still worked. It was put in a museum iirc. I wonder if that one still works.

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

Okay so I finally got around to trying DVD movies, and yeah that doesn't work. Since FreeDVDBoot relies on DVD movie playback working, that makes using that method of softmodding my PS2 impossible.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

I bought a Castlevania multicart on AliExpress that has every Castlevania game from the NES, as well as ROMS that show different remixes of what Castlevania would look like on the Game Boy to what would happen if it were placed in the same universe as Super Mario

Here‘s an actual video of what it looks like (even though the one I bought was for a Famicom clone):