PlayStation (1) Flakey Dual Shock

[overpowered]

Oddly enough, new PS1's are still available on Amazon, though expensive. Used also available and very cheap.

PS2's are also available.

You can even still get the first gen PS3 (60GB) which had the PS2 emulation and the best collection of ports and card slots:

http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-3-...n+3+%2860GB%29

I was always disappointed that they dumped the PS2 emulation.

I hope my 60GB PS3 doesn't die.

[Leon]

I found my "old" PS1 controllers and negcon in my garage the other week.

The reason I say "old" as I think they were almost brand new when I sold the PS1.

[SportWagon]

Suppose I should check, but I doubt you can get a new PSX with expansion port. Cheap used could have similar to mine.

Getting a new PSX isn't a high priority.

Strangely, my wife doesn't seem as opposed to me going to a newer GT as she did a few months ago.

She now claims I didn't seem to spend all that much time on GT4. Hmm. My schedule is different now, though, and it could be difficult to do any play most weekdays, as opposed to the hour or two a night I'd regularly do on GT4.

[SportWagon]

So the other Sunday I checked out the "Just by Chance Games" store near the Tim Horton's doughnut shop I often go to on Sundays. Turns out it's purely RPG -- almost a clubhouse; I had actually seen some gamers stocking up on life force in the doughnut shop beforehand. Including the obligatory guy with bright red hair and beard.

That store sent me to "Good Time Games" http://www.goodtimegames.ca. Not very far from a different Tim Horton's and actually very close to where I live.

So it seems that sometimes you don't see a lot of PSX hardware in these places because they hide it all in the back. Anyway, so last Sunday (Feb 23) I managed to get there and select a PSX with an expansion port (not tested that yet), and chose one with an undamaged CD hub, and a lid raiser whose button didn't stick down. It was superficially a little dirtier than the other two; perhaps it had been owned by a smoker. He had used memory cards for $15, and new third-party for $8, so I got one of each. He let me test the Playstation (with Gran Turismo) for quite a while. In fact, being a slow Sunday he probably would have let me test even longer than I did. I seem to recall I once, a long time ago, looked at a PlayStation diagnostic disk of some sort, but I can't remember whether I purchased it.

The controller I was using seemed to respond sufficiently to navigate Autumn Ring Mini, and allowed me to gold the B1 acceleration/deceleration test on the first try. So I had him include that too. Since I didn't need power or video cables, PlayStation and controller were $20.

When I had walked into the store the first thing I noticed, after the PayDay Cash Loan desk at the front, was a Commodore 1541 large-size disk drive. Apparently he had a Commodore 64 system in the back somewhere, also. In the display case underneath the 1541 was a large pile of Commodore video cartridges, which I recognized as being for the VIC20.

Unfortunately, the controller is actually noticeably a little lacking in acceleration (when I use my habitual right stick configuration). Pretty subtle, but noticeable.

[SportWagon]

Eventually tested the Gameshark port the weekend of March 1. Started a GT2 game with code which meant I would win license test prize cars for winning the single Sunday Cup races. Seemed to work. 15th Anniversary GT2 game isn't due to start until December 17, 2014, however.