Paid Members BigJag Posted January 7 Paid Members Share Posted January 7 Â Reminds me of those 8bit cassettes that could be bought in the local newsagents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 (edited) Ha yeah, only £1.99 but it's some trash made in machine code. There were some classics released on those budget labels though, I think even Dizzy started as one. Edited January 7 by Merzbow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCW Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Been playing some emulated PS2 games on my laptop over Christmas, but its a bit laggy cos my laptop isn't great and I only really use it for internet browsing these days. So going to buy a PS2 console from cex. Am I better buying one of the original fat PS2's or the slimmer versions? or does it make any difference? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Just now, DCW said: Been playing some emulated PS2 games on my laptop over Christmas, but its a bit laggy cos my laptop isn't great and I only really use it for internet browsing these days. So going to buy a PS2 console from cex. Am I better buying one of the original fat PS2's or the slimmer versions? or does it make any difference? If it makes a difference a few years ago I bought a big fat original and it refuses to play any discs with a "dark" underside of the disc if that makes sense. It was only £30 and all the games were pretty much a quid and obviously I cba to fix it but just an FYI. For clarity, there are mirror discs and dark discs and I'm sure they are the technical terms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Yeah I think both versions suffer with dying lasers that are slowly not reading discs, I'd personally get the phat version of you're ever thinking of upgrading to an SSD mod to play backups. No more discs needed. https://macho-nacho.com/news/the-easiest-ps2-ssd-and-fan-mod-create-a-silent-console/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BigJag Posted January 7 Paid Members Share Posted January 7 3 hours ago, Merzbow said: Ha yeah, only £1.99 but it's some trash made in machine code. There were some classics released on those budget labels though, I think even Dizzy started as one. Oh absolutely. I'm pretty sure stuff like Stuntman, BMX Simulator, and Kickstart were in those bargain selections.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted January 7 Awards Moderator Share Posted January 7 2 hours ago, BigJag said: Oh absolutely. I'm pretty sure stuff like Stuntman, BMX Simulator, and Kickstart were in those bargain selections.  The Mastertronic special. My sister worked at a newsagents in the early 80s and got me this poster. Had it on my wall for ages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Scratch Posted January 7 Paid Members Share Posted January 7 (edited) I got my first computer on Christmas Day in 1984 - An Amstrad CPC 464 with a green monitor that set my dad back £200. That works out at around £620 in today’s money, so no small change given we weren’t well off at all. I’ve no idea to this day why my dad even considered it, as even now he just doesn’t get computers, iPads, the internet or indeed anything more technical than a newspaper. He must’ve had to do a ridiculous amount of persuasion to get my mum to agree to it, too. I was far more interested in writing the Basic code from the manual than I was playing the games, but once I’d exhausted the Amsoft cassettes that came with it (Harrier Attack being the strong highlight) dad offered to take me to Woolworths to get a new game. I remember being somewhat overwhelmed with the choice, with 2.99 buying you anything from any of the main genres. So it’s still genuinely baffling to me to this day why I chose this brass sod. It wasn’t even a £2.99 game, but one of the £1.99 ones. I did complete it though. The Amstrad still sits on my desk in the office and it still works. I’d imagine the chances of any modern computing device still working flawlessly in 40 years time is almost zero. Edited January 7 by Scratch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted January 7 Awards Moderator Share Posted January 7  57 minutes ago, Scratch said: I’d imagine the chances of any modern computing device still working flawlessly in 40 years time is almost zero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TibBo Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 It definitely took longer to airbrush the covers of some of those games than it did to actually code them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 The only real issues with older pre-CD hardware is capacitors leaking/blowing and the dodgy power supplies they came with, like if you want to boot up a C64 please go out and get a modern plug for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TibBo Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 The demos on some of the old magazines were amazing too.  I remember a mate bringing round a cd with the first bit of GTA 1 on it, and we spent weeks running over innocent pedestrians. even the old spectrum mag demos had hours of gameplay and random bits of software…some real gems on there. I’d never have completed dizzy without their maps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BigJag Posted January 8 Paid Members Share Posted January 8 The Rollcage demo on OPM is one that I remember from the Playstation era. Random: Modder Creates Frankenstein 'Nintendo PlayStation' https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/01/random-modder-creates-frankenstein-nintendo-playstation Errrm. This modder went a bit crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 The first CD demo I had was the first ever PSX "Demo One" and it was the perfect thing to put in the box with the console, it came with playable versions of: Battle Arena Toshinden Destruction Derby    Loaded Wipeout We went out and bought Destruction Derby the day after on Boxing Day because of it, pretty sure the only place open was a Dixons rammed with families buying PlayStation games too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 8 Paid Members Share Posted January 8 Very strong memories of that disc! There are games I look back on really fondly from that era, and then realise I never played in full, I just played the demo to death. They were such a huge part of how I experienced the Playstation. I've already mentioned it before, but now I've finished it, I can't recommend this book on the Bitmap Brothers enough: https://readonlymemory.vg/shop/book/the-bitmap-brothers-universe/  For one, it's a beautiful book. But mostly because it's a real labour of love and really sheds light on the development of some incredible games - some of the things they achieved with a fraction of the processing power available today is mindblowing when you see it all laid out and explained. The story of their downfall is really interesting, too, as it's basically a story of the industry overtaking them in many ways with the pivot to CDs and 3D, but also of the decline of the British and European cottage industries as Japanese and American companies dominated the market, and small developers either got swallowed up by it or had to fight a losing battle. A really compelling read if you're into this stuff, as well as a lot of lovely art pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.