Consoles
My Playstation is the original. So original it was just a Playstation, not a “PS One” or whatever the kids call them now. My Playstation is a second-generation model though. The cd drive was relocated to fix some technical difficulties that the first generation suffered from. Let this be a lesson to never buy the first generation of anything. Regardless, the thing is old. Oh yeah, it’s also “chipped.” See, a buddy and I went in halves for the thing because it was something like three hundred bucks. The games were expensive also and we only had a couple. I got tired of playing Tekken 3 all the time so I took the unit (without first consulting my buddy) to a sketchy alley in Garden Grove and had a guy install a chip to break the copy protection on it. This made it possible to not only play games from other regions (Japan, etc.) but to play copies of games as well. Took the thing home and it wouldn’t boot. Crap. Said buddy was a bit peeved thinking he had just wasted 150 bucks. Took the unit back to sketchy alley and had another chip put in. Tested unit before leaving and all was good. It still runs like a doped-up racehorse and although I never got my original discs back from various buddies I do still have my backups that work perfectly. So I think it would be hard to get rid of this beast if only for the historical value of it, most consoles these days aren’t so easily hacked and extended.
I also have a Nintendo 64. Picked this up for the sole reason of finishing Mario 64, a game that a roommate had and I’d started playing. Picked up Mario Kart along the way and that’s all the games I have for it. I’ve beaten Mario 64 a few times now and I’m not sure if I’ll actually play it anymore. Mario Kart is still fun for me but the real fun of it comes when there are a bunch of drunk people playing together. I rarely have drunk people over at my house these days so I’ll probably never again experience the laughter and good times a real Mario Kart tournament provides. Still, MK is like an old friend to me and I’m not sure I can kick it to the curb just yet.
There’s also the Atari 2600. Took me forever to locate the right kind of RF adapter to be able to plug it in to a modern television. I’ve played this thing maybe twice in the past year. It sits over in the corner like an old grandfather, dusty and waiting to be thrown away with the rats. One of the controllers has a sticky button so it’s kind of useless but the other works just fine. I have plenty of games for it as well:
-
Adventure
Air-sea battle
Asteroids
Atlantis
Boxing
Casino
Combat
Cosmic Ark
Defender
Demon Attack
Demons to diamonds
Donkey Kong
Dragonfire
Dragster
E.T. the Extra-terrestrial
Fantastic Voyage
Fast Eddie
Fire Fighter
Football
Frogger
Golf
Haunted House
Homerun
Human cannonball
Indy 500
Laser Blast
M.A.S.H.
Maze Craze
Missile Command
Pac-Man
Real Sports Volleyball
Riddle of the Sphinx
Skiing
Space Invaders
Star Riders
Street Racer
Super Breakout
Superman
Swordquest Earthworld
Swordquest Fireworld
Video Pinball
Warlords
Worm War 1
Yar’s Revenge
So you see, there’s sort of a commitment to the Atari even though it will probably not be played again. Just knowing that I have all those game waiting to be played gives me more comfort than actually playing them.
My last console probably shouldn’t be called a console because it’s a handheld. The Nintendo Gameboy Color. Don’t know whatever happened to my original pea-green screen Gameboy but I have this color one now. It’s purple. Shut up, I like purple. Got a few games for it, the best of which are Bionic Commando and Bomber Man. I picked this up years ago because I wanted something to entertain me for the long Greyhound ride I was going to be taking. Nowdays I would of course fly but back then flying was a luxury that only Sultans and televangelists could afford. This thing runs for a shockingly long time on batteries and has a pretty good screen, although that seems to have dimmed a bit over the years. What I like about this guy is all of the third-party peripherals that were made for the little, I dunno, usb-like connector. The most useful add-on is probably the light but even that is sort of janky. I still pack this thing sometimes for traveling but I never use it and it will probably sit in the hall cabinet until the archaeologists dig it up one day.
As far as modern consoles, well, I don’t find them that interesting. Maybe because they’re so expensive and proprietary. The Wii being the exception for me. Man, that thing is friggin awesome. I have been coveting one lately but I think I’ll hold off pulling the trigger for a couple of years because there’s a NES out there somewhere, bundled with The Adventure of Link, and I have a game to finish.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Yeah, the Wii looks pretty nifty. They’ve got Rock Band too, although I’m not sure the Wii version is really worth it. For me it’d be a toss up between a PS2 and the Wii.
The PS3 I guess has problems with the older PS games, and I’ve actually still got a couple of original PS games despite having gotten rid of the console long ago.
XBox… I want to want it, but I just can’t get that excited about it.