My Dualshock One... It Lives!

You may or may not remember this post, where I was complaining about my former, littler self destroying my first console.
Commenter and fellow blogger, Sega MikeyDrive said I probably could put it back together, so I did. I did mention there that it still all worked and that I just needed to fix the casing, I did do that to but it still had a buttcrack.  I actually had it set up for a while but then I decided to replace it and put it in storage.

Fast forward a few months and the rubber on my left thumbstick for my white Dualshock 3 completely comes off, something to do with humidity or some shit. I look for replacement rubbers only to find that I can't really buy those but I can buy whole thumbstick replacements off eBay. That will be a future job for me to replace them when they finally come (postage from Hong Kong always takes forever) but it reminded me of my poor Dualshock One which still lay in pieces.
I decided to have a crack at putting it back together and make it usable again. I was putting it off for so long that I completely forgot about it, but to my surprise it was quite easy. The first time I tried I didn't align the L and R buttons correctly, but after quickly trying again it's working in top shape!

The only problem is that the actual 'dualshocks' are not connected. These were originally connected by two wires each but they must of come off while in the box, which is the only real damage that has occurred. I feel this would just be a real simple soldering job though, and I'll get to it soon. I just need to find a good diagram which will show me where the solder points are.
There is no hurry to do that now though, as the controller is in a playable form. It's completely sealed up and none of the buttons stick, which was actually happening before I originally pulled it apart. So all in all, mission successful!

Shenmue

It finally arrived! What can I say about it? Well, what can't I say about it? It's simply amazing.
Australian Post where I live is so slow, everyday it didn't come a little of me died on the inside. The day it did come though, what a day. I stopped everything and I just played. I've been wanting this game since I got my Dreamcast a while back but just never happened across it in the wild. I finally gave in and bought it off eBay a few weeks ago.

The copy I got was in fairly excellent condition. It came in its cardboard case, the instruction manual was present as well as another promotional brochure. The disks are in great condition also, there are no scratches or marks. There are some scuffs on the cardboard box though, but this doesn't matter. It certainly doesn't effect anything. 

For anyone not in the know, Shenmue is based in a small seaside Japanese town at the end of 1986. You take control of a teenager named Ryo, who witnesses his father (who is a martial arts instructor) getting murdered for some sort of mirror he owns at the start. From then onwards you vow to revenge his death and find out more about this mysterious mirror. 

The game is set out in a 3D RPG manner. You walk around this huge sandbox environment (which is immensely detailed) and try to solve the death. Ryo himself is quite good at martial arts and you can fight as him during certain parts of the game. It's all pretty much what Heavy Rain tried to be, in my opinion anyway.

I haven't finished yet, but when I do you can guarantee a review. I must be off now though, because I'm only up to the second disk :D

Let's Talk About Dreams...

No, I haven't turned batshit crazy. This isn't going to turn into a blog were I rant and rave about my dreams, that would probably disturb most and send a select few of you insane. No, coincidently this dream was retro related.

So there I was having the best sleep of my life, and next thing I know I'm in Perth's first fully retro gaming store (besides from that shitty Gametrader's). Keep in mind as you read this, Perth doesn't exactly have the best retro game scene. It does have a truffle festival, but no retro shops.

So anyway, as you can imagine I'm over the fricken moon. I go there and find it's more than you're average retro game shop. It also incorporates an arcade and a LAN section. 

It's great, I buy a $20 boxed Neo Geo.

Now while some elements of this dream are pure bullshit *cough*Neo Geo*cough*, some actually seem like decent ideas.

This shop also mixed newer second-hand games as well as the retro stuff. Mix that with an arcade (Perth is in short demand of those as well) and a LAN section, I feel if handled rightly this could be an awesome shop.

One I would love to run actually. But what do I know about running a shop? 

Well, I did get a B in Small Business in year 10. I wouldn't trust that though, I sold these rank jelly cup things that actually made people sick. Heh...

So as it stands though, it is what it is. A dream. Maybe one day, but not any day soon.

Retro Scan: Army Men: Operation Meltdown (PS1, 3DO)

Scanned out of the Official Australian PlayStation Magazine, issue 38, October 2000.

I find this one particularly interesting because it was also released for the 3DO, those things are awesome. 

As soon as I have some spare money and a step down transformer I'm importing one. I have a space in my heart for the more off the beaten track consoles. 

Also happy 10 month anniversary to my lovely girlfriend, Jayne! :D

The Saga Continues

I was feeling a bit empty when I woke up this morning. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Was it to with my eggs? My coffee? No.
As I was eating my eggs and drinking my coffee, I looked up the statistics for this blog and saw that I hadn't done a post in two weeks!
"That was it!" I yelled to myself, making the dog next door bark and a baby in the distance wail. Time to start writing!

Instead of a post about one particular subject, I thought I would just give a short sort of update on my current retro gaming lifestyle.
First off I received my solder sucker and my solder in the mail, now I can get onto hopefully finally playing my Game Gear. I've just got to suck out the amateurishness done solder job, give the mobo a bit of a clean and then solder the caps back in using the smaller in diameter solder I've bought.
I've also finally tracked down a copy of Shenmue for Dreamcast off eBay. Copies are fairly common but I always kept on getting snipped at the last second, I think it's in pretty high demand. In the end I just gave in and bought a cheapish Buy It Now. It's a bit more than I would of paid in a bid but its in excellent condition and isn't as near a rip off as some other Buy It Now's I saw. Some were around the $110 mark, no joke. It's been mailed to me as we speak.
I'm very excited to play it as I've wanted this since I originally got my Dreamcast, I can't wait.