the $25 PSone

So the other day I was in Walmart and saw that they had clearanced their last PSone to $25. So I bought it. Sweet deal. Maybe you might find one too!

What ever happened to NESp v2?

Some people may wonder what ever happened to my NESp V2, well what has happened is that I just ran out of time and inspiration for a case.

Well, now I have an idea for a nice and easy case, I just need to find the time to make it. The Guts are all finished, I just need a case.

The loss of motivation can be attributed to my GP32 followed by my Tapwave Zodiac, and now my GP2X. When you can carry every NES game on a tiny portable, why would you go to the trouble to make a portable?

I figure I will get to it some day.

You almost had me Sony

Well, if you read this blog you will recall just the other day I was ranting on Sony on preventing me from being able to play Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max on the PSP with out upgrading the firmware to 2.5.

Thanks to my friend Spoonman if have discovered that UMDloader can run it with a special config.

Of course I fear to share this kind of stuff on this board, but I am sure it is not that hard to find.

Adding an analog stick to the Nintendo DS

When I first got my Nintendo DS (launch day) one of the first games I got for it was Super Mario 64 DS. I was really excited about being able to take thi excellent game anywhere I wanted!

I was disappointed though after trying to play this game using the limited user input of the DS, you can either use the dpad with really limited control, or use the touchscreen and get one monster of a handcramp!

First I found myself cursing the designers for not adding an analog stick to the DS, I know that they wanted to encourage something different, but geez!

But lately I have realized that it was a good idea, as the DS is not loaded with all the crap games that the GBA seems to have these days, you know what I am talking about, just stop by your local wal-mart and take a look at the $19.95 games bin. Excluding SM64 and Metroid Prime the games for the DS seem to truly embrace the difference to the DS, the percentage of good games is the highest of any game system I have even known. Well I think that the VirtualBoy didn't have one bad game (I have them all), but I am not sure many people would agree with me.

But that leaves the fact that playing SM64 on the is intollerable, and it hit that it would not be that difficult to add an analog stick the DS. You see the DS uses a standard touchscreen, and the way they work is there are two sheets of plastic separated by a gell, and when you press on the screen the plastic makes contact at that point and depending on how far it is from the edge of the screen you get a diffent resistance.

The touch screen connects to the DS via a small ribbon cable, which you can see in the photo below:

So I figure that one could make a analog stick from potentiometers as long as they are the same resistance is the screen as the DS, and make a plug it in between the touchscreen and the DS, I woul think that you would need a switch to change between analog stick and touch screen. But this way you could easily add a analog stick to the DS.

I may try to do this, but I don't think it is a high priority for me. But if you do try it and if you succeed or need help please contact me

Play any NES game character in any NES game...

Earlier this week I read on the internet about a patch that allowed you to play Mega Man in Super Mario Bros! I was soon disappointed to find out that it was just a skin for Mega Man one that made some of the levels look like Super Mario Bros worlds. Not to put down the work of the author -- who did a fine job, as most of these redresses pretty poor -- but I was expecting exactly what my teaser title said. I want to be able to play as any NES character in any NES game, which would be so awesome! I can imagine playing Super Mario Bros as Ryu from Ninja Gaiden, or Mega Man in Metroid, or Simon Belmont in Kirby! What would be even more awesome would be tag team where you can switch between characters on the fly and play throug levels of all the great classical games on the NES.

I believe that companies read these blogs and get ideas from them, and I am sure that Nintendo could stand to make a mint on an idea like this.

Why Sony dosen't get it.

Well, by this June I will have had my PSP for one year, and how may games have I bought for it?

Two. That's right, two games.

The reason for this, Sony's hostile actions against homebrew and emulators. Since the launch of the PSP they have updated the firmware multiple times, and to induce people to update they require it in order to play newer games.

If you do update, you lose the ability to run homebrew games, so what have many people choose to do? Not buy games, wow what a great idea! It was only last week when I decided to buy my third PSP game "Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max" so that I could bet the add on d-pad to that I could play emulators better. I figured that I was getting the game as a bonus, but no you need to update to firmware 2.55! Thanks Sony but no thanks Sony! I will not be buying anymore games from you.

This s why Sony will not be selling games in the future.

Easy Fix for the GP2X D-pad

If you own a GP2X, you know how bad the D-pad on it is. I have come up with a quick cheap and easy fix for it.

Things you will need

• Naki PSP Replacement Analog Stick
• Chunk of plastic

How to install on you GP2X

1. Remove original stick by pulling it off.
2. Cut a piece of the plastic so that it completely and tightly fills the rectangle shaped hole in the PSP analog stick replacement.
3. Insert onto PSP analog stick replacement.
4. Drill a small 1/16 inch hole directly in the center of the piece of plastic you inserted on the the stick. You may need to make the hole slightly larger, which you can do by wiggling the drill around in the hole, just be careful not to make too big.
5. Push the new stick on the D-pad stem of the GP2X.

There mission accomplished!

Well maybe not exactly, you might need to make the stem of the PSP stick slightly smaller if your hole is a little off center, as I did. I just took it off and squeezed ever so slightly it with a pair of pliers and put it back on. I checked the stick in the Setting, T-mode, of the GP2X menu. If all directions work then you are all set.

Not bad for $4.99? huh?