Last Ever PS2 Game is Released Today

Today is the day, an event 13 years in the making. Throughout the year 2000, the Sony PlayStation 2 was released to great fanfare all over the world. 155 million units later, the last ever game was released today. The milestone game is of course, a generic sports game. FIFA14 may not be the most exciting game around, but the fact there is something being released this late in the consoles life cycle, is amazing non the less.

Funnily enough, the last ever game released on the PSone was FIFA Football 2005, in the October of 2004. That was roughly 10 years after its release, so it's impressive that the PS2 has powered on for those extra couple of years. It makes you think how long the PS3 will last considering we're so close to the release of the PS4. Hopefully the humble PS3's last game won't be FIFA2020-WE-NEVER-CHANGE-THE-GAME-LOL-THAT-WILL-BE-ANOTHER-$80-THANKS.

So I guess all this means we won't be able to classify the PS2 as retro yet. I haven't seen a brand new PS2 for sale for a couple of years though now, and I have no idea where you would buy its version of FIFA14. All I can say is that it's close now, as it will be two generations behind soon. Either way, now is the time to collect PS2 games. They cost peanuts.

Video: How to Replace the Capacitors in Your Sega Game Gear

How's the Sega Game Gear situation going? Well, I could type it for you, but today I have a special treat instead. Instead of you having to read it, I've nicely put it all into a video for you. Hell, you might even learn something. That's a two for one deal! You're welcome.

Retro Scan: Retro Gamer - Issue Three

What is this? A retro scan of a retro scan? Part of me wants to say retroception, but that joke would just be lame.
Let's just call it as it is; madness.
This retro scan is out of the 1985 Advertising Gallery section of the magazine, which it basically their retro scan section. Ack, my cortex.

This page of course comes from the third ever issue of probably the only magazine out there still worth reading, Retro Gamer. This was released way back in 2004, nearly 10 years ago now. I guess it nearly makes it retro in its self. What a mindfizz.



Believe it or not, I actually remember purchasing this magazine. Well, I remember it being purchased for me anyway.
You see, I use to be a Scout. Hard to believe now considering I bet I don't come off as the biggest outdoorsy-type person (besides from my love of camping, which I guess stems from being a Scout all those years ago). Each group of Scouts (Pack? I dunno) had to do fundraising for their group so they could pay for tents, gas lamps, bit of string for sessions of endless knot tying; all the important things to keep on going. One way of doing this was selling raffle tickets at shopping centres.
This, I absolutely hated. I feel very sorry for my father, he literally had to bribe me into selling those bastard pieces of paper, or I would be a whiny little shit about it.

We always did this in-between a Coles and a newsagent. If I didn't complain too much, I received a magazine for my efforts. Since I was only 10 or 11 at the time, this was an excellent deal and one time he bought me this magazine. Suffice to say, I read and reread it a million times over and played the emulated games that came with the disk for hours. I still have that disk to this day, and attribute it a lot for my interest in this hobby today.

Flu Induced Gumtree Pickup #2

Honestly, I shouldn't be let anywhere near that website when I'm sick. Usual I'm fairly cool headed and in control of where I spend my money. But as soon as I get a runny nose, sore throat, and a stuffy head, I loose all control and start splashing around money to make me feel better. I also eat lots of junk food too, but lets not talk about that.

I started negotiations for these Sega Game Gear games last Friday, when I was in full swing of the illness. These nine game set me back $70, which isn't all that bad when you think about it. That's $7.77 per game, which is quite fantastic when you consider this is Australia (land of the rip-off when it comes to retro games).
The original price for these select titles would of been around $90, and you could tell that the seller had been comparing eBay prices; most were a couple of dollars under the medium. So, considering I haggled him down another $20 after the prices were already ahead of decent, I feel like this was a worthwhile purchase.

The games are Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mappy, Outrun, Sonic the Hedgehog, Chase HQ, Space Harrier, Pac-Man and The Simpsons: Bart VS. the World.

But Brendan! (you exclaim) You have no working Game Gear! That maybe true, but I have a cunning plan. I was quite sick of the fact that I have no working Game Gear, so I started looking at refurbished consoles on eBay. They're not cheap though, most are over $100.
It was there that I decided that I was going to try and fix one myself, again. Last time my shortcoming was my terrible soldering skills, mixed in with me ruining a solder point by cleaning it too roughly (which was honestly the last thing I expected to brick the console). That was over two years ago though, and my soldering skills have (hopefully) improved and now that I know if there is any muck to clean up, I'll be using q-tips with rubbing alcohol as opposed to a toothbrush.

I still have all the capacitors that I bought for the project the first time around (plus various tools) and I have an untested GG coming in the mail. It's not actually posted as broken, but as we all know, all Game Gears were manufactured with shitty capacitors meaning that if it isn't already broken, it will be soon.

If I do manage to screw this up again, I'll just suck it in and buy a pricey refurbished model. I now own too many Game Gear games to ignore.

Flu Induced Gumtree Pickup #1

Gumtree, for those not in the know, is an online classified website that is much like Craigslist. Unlike Craigslist though, Gumtree is quite popular in Australia. I bought the Retromobile through Gumtree, and I always like to browse through it to see if there is anything worth picking up. Up until today though I've never come across anything worthy of my retro appetite, but since I'm home sick (and to be honest, a bit delirious) I thought I would give it a solid chance. 

Good thing I did too, because I picked this up for $10:

That is an Atari 520ST FM, something I've wanted since I was a child. I always use to play the Atari ST emulators, I remember downloading the ROM's on a dial-up connection; good times. It isn't something I thought I would ever come across in the wild though and bids are hard to find locally on eBay. When I do come across them, the postage prices always kills the temptation for me.

The ad for this was pretty blunt, it said something along the lines of "give me a price for this today or it's going down to the tip, sold as is." I sent a text explaining I would give the man $10 to take it off his hands, and we had a deal. It didn't come with any leads, but the power cable is the same sort you'd plug into your computers PSU and it can be tuned into any TV with an RCA to COAX cable. The kicker to it all, is that it actually works. This surprised me quite a bit considering it looks like it's been in a shed for a couple of decades (as well as there being a few missing keys), but who am I to complain?
It probably cost me $10 in fuel to drive to where it was, and I found out today that driving while sick is as fun as stubbing your toe on an Atari 7800. Having said that though, it's totally worth it knowing that I saved it from certain death. The fact that it works almost seems like a bonus.
I have a cheap game and a joystick coming in the mail.

Blog Update: 12/09/13

Retro Game On is growing up; it's somewhat broken free of some Blogspot shackles, the URL is now mine!
Before you may have noticed that the URL was www.retrogameon.blogspot.com, but after finding out that retrogameon.com was free I decided to see how much it costs to rent.
Turns out, it costs peanuts. Using the widely recommended Dreamhost (which sounds a lot like Dreamcast, which is humbling) I now have ownership of this URL for 12 months, for the meager sum of something like $12.
I'm quite impressed with that price, and having my own URL makes me feel quite important.

Star Fox for the Super Famicom Video Review

This would have been up earlier, but this was my second attempt at uploading after my computer crashed the first time around (and it NEVER crashes).
Today we look at the classic, Star Fox, for the Super Famicom. So sit back, relax, and just pretend you're in 1993 Japan for 10 minutes.

The Adventures of the Retromobile and I, Stalking out Thrift Stores

Having a day off these days means one of several things. Either I'm at home all day playing video games, or I'm at home all day reviewing video games. It's a hectic life, and sometimes I need to shake it up a bit. Yesterday for the first time since I've gotten my licence, I fulfilled my dream of going out for a drive just to check out thrift stores. Probably doesn't sound all that exciting to some readers, but before I only went to retro stores of interest when I was already in a place for another reason. Yesterday was a milestone in my books, and I thought I would share it here today.

1# Cash City

It was rainy and just terribly sad looking when I started, but that was no deterrent. I started at Cash City. Usually Cash City is kinda shit; it has a lot but the prices are usually ridiculous. I have had some luck there in the past though, I bought a whole heap of Atari 2600 games there for $5 not too long ago. Sadly they didn't have any actual 2600 consoles though, so I still can't play those games. Maybe that's a good thing though, as it might cost $130.

Sadly, the signed Batman and Robin poster wasn't for sale.  

The prices weren't that bad this time though (besides from the above photo), but most were a bit more than I wanted to spend. I did however, pick up Golf for the Game Boy for $10. Not too bad, for a golf game. Hell, I don't even know why I bought a golf game, but there you have it; now I own one.



#2 Cash Converters



One thing about Perth, as soon as it rains, all the crazy drivers come out of the woodwork. Most of them are old people too. On the way from Cash City to Cash Converters I had two driving incidents. Firstly, I was cut off by some old bloke in a van, who wasn't even nice enough to indicate as he was cutting me off. After nearly ramming into the back of him, I had to slow down on the highway as an old lady was driving down the wrong side of the highway. Good times.
Finally I did make it to Cash Converters alive, and to celebrate Perth's bad driving, I bought this for $4:



After all that, I decided I was hungry and had a pit-stop at McDonalds. I tried that new burger, Son of Mac, and was quite impressed. Try it out while you can!



And yes, I'm the type of person who will go through a drive-thru just to eat it in my car, in the fast food joints carpark. I don't really have a particular reason why I do it, but it always feels weird to go into a McDonlads (or whatever) and just sit there by myself eating. Even more so when I demolish my meal in about 5 minutes flat, it's just not the same as going to a restaurant or a cafe.

3# Cash Generators


Last but not least, I stopped off at Cash Generators (starting to see a theme with thrift store naming?).
Sadly, I didn't buy anything there that day but usually I come out with something, thus making it my favourite thrift store in the area. Most noticeably recently, was a cheap copy of Banjo-Kazooie.

So all in all, not a bad run for a first time. Sometime in the future I'll probably do the same thing but with Op Shops instead.