Warp wrote:
>   I have a question about playstation 2:
> 
>   Can you connect it directly to a CRT monitor?
> 

If your monitor supports the sync rates and inverted sync bits, then yes.

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

Post a reply to this message

On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:51:00 +0100, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> scott <sco### [at] laptopcom> wrote:
>> Or just download a PS2 emulator for your PC.
>
>   Is there any emulator which actually can run commercial games?

Last time I took a serious look (maybe a year ago), the best ones were  
able to show the *menu* of *some* commercial games. I think things have  
improved somewhat since then, but they are not yet at the point where a  
"casual" user would be interested.

You may want to check out this forum:
http://forums.ngemu.com/ps2-emulation/



-- 
FE

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:
>   Why couldn't they think that hey, perhaps someone *might* want to
> play a PS2 with a monitor instead of a TV?

My brother has his hooked up to a high-end projector. (Whoo hoo! six 
foot by 8 foot video gaming!)  I don't think the projector has a tuner 
in it, tho.  Probably a good idea to actually ask someone who has one or 
sells one. :-)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

Post a reply to this message

On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:03:48 +0100, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> My brother has his hooked up to a high-end projector. (Whoo hoo! six  
> foot by 8 foot video gaming!)  I don't think the projector has a tuner  
> in it, tho.

It probably has either S-Video, composite or component input though,  
something a computer monitor does not.



-- 
FE

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> 
> My brother has his hooked up to a high-end projector. (Whoo hoo! six 
> foot by 8 foot video gaming!)  I don't think the projector has a tuner 
> in it, tho.  Probably a good idea to actually ask someone who has one or 
> sells one. :-)
> 

http://www.zbxt.net/~aero/smb3.jpg , picture taken 23.11.2007. The 
speaker on the left side (which is barely visible) is 37cm wide. It 
really does profit the gaming experience to have proper equipment for 
image and sounds :). And I'm astonished to see, how less-distorted SMB3 
really looks on widescreen mode (still the projector settings has been 
fixed since then).

It also has VGA input:
http://www.zbxt.net/~aero/syntax.jpg

:)

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

Post a reply to this message

And lo on Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:48:17 -0000, Eero Ahonen  
<aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid> did spake, saying:

> Darren New wrote:
>>  My brother has his hooked up to a high-end projector. (Whoo hoo! six  
>> foot by 8 foot video gaming!)  I don't think the projector has a tuner  
>> in it, tho.  Probably a good idea to actually ask someone who has one  
>> or sells one. :-)

Yeah I hd a friend who did the same thing, split screen FPSs were so much  
fun on that rig.

> It also has VGA input:
> http://www.zbxt.net/~aero/syntax.jpg

I'm just impressed that you managed to balance the screen on that short  
column of paint cans :-)

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

Post a reply to this message

And lo on Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:56:28 -0000, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> di
d  

spake, saying:

> scott <sco### [at] laptopcom> wrote:
>> http://www.x2vga.com/
>
>   Btw, does it work with the PAL version of PS2?

Try http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=217685&doy=26m3#ove
rview  

you can even ask questions in the FAQ section.

-- 

Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

Post a reply to this message

On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:38:09 +0000, Phil Cook wrote:
> 
> It depends on what you what you like, rather then down to
> speed/dexterity; I mean you might like We Love Katamari which involves
> pushing a ball that collects stuff, the bigger the ball the bigger the
> objects it can collect, make as large a collection of stuff as you can
> in the time limit.
> 
> --
> Phil Cook

Katamari Damacy is the original. I don't know that much changed in We 
Love Katamari except the levels, but it's a great game. The music is 
catchy, and while I've nearly broken controllers while cursing the 
level's time limits, it's never been because I wasn't fast enough. I 
usually just get distracted by the scenery. Katamari was one of the games 
that I had to bring to my parent's on vacations, till Wii Sports.

Since the recent Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games have been 
mentioned, I'll add a few in a similar vein.

Final Fantasy Tactics is a great story, and the game mechanics are turn 
based so you can play at any pace. It can be brutal hard, though, if you 
rush into a fight without thinking about it ahead of time or with the 
wrong characters. That's not as bad as it sounds, as you can change the 
characters during the fight (think changing a pawn to a queen and back as 
needed).

Legend of Mana is a quest based world building game. It's 'real time', 
but you can still take time. Real reason I like this game is it's sprite 
animation over watercolor backgrounds, a strange mix of old 8bit and new 
graphics. Problems can be that it's easy to forget what each quest needs 
if you have started 3 or 4 and then fall asleep.

More dexterity required, but the original Spiro: The Dragon is another 
fun game. You play a baby dragon who has to rescue the other dragons with 
the help of a dragon fly. I seem to remember it taking a bit more timing 
and finesse then "bash 8 buttons in this pattern then pray," but it's 
been a while.

Kingdom Hearts is a good game series. There is something strange about 
mixing the worlds of Disney and Final Fantasy, and it works well if you 
are a fan of them both.

The Lunar series is good too, but good luck finding those. It was a re-
release of an import only Sega CD game. Good story, hits almost all of 
the RPG stereotypes though.

If you played any video games back during the Atari to Super Nintendo / 
Sega Genesis era, you can probably find those on compilation discs. Atari 
releases Playstation 1 discs with pong and pacman, while Square Enix has 
been releasing Chrono Trigger and the original Final Fantasy games in 
pairs. Remember, those Playstation 1 games will play on the PS2.

Post a reply to this message

Fredrik Eriksson wrote:
> It probably has either S-Video, composite or component input though, 
> something a computer monitor does not.

Ah! I see the problem, yes.  (I was thinking the PS2 generated a TV 
signal, like the old games where you tuned to channel 3 or 4 or something.)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

Post a reply to this message

Thanks, everybody, for all the help.  I'll be checking out the recommendations.

One of the main reasons that I decided to go ahead and give this thing a try
after all these years is that I didn't want to be what I call a "genre bigot".
I know SO many people who are sure that opera could never be anything but
boring, even though they've never been to one... or who are SURE that a graphic
novel sold in a comics store could never have any real intellectual or aesthetic
worth even though they've never actually read one. Frankly, my original
outsider's impression of the video game world was not very positive. I did not,
however, want to adopt a position of uninformed certainty that "video games are
made by and for a bunch brainless subhumans who get their jollies pretending to
hack, shoot and blow various things and people to bits".  There is certainly the
potential for video gaming to be an outlet for meaningful creative expression.

This being said, I've become fascinated with the game "Dragon Quest VIII" as a
mysterious anthropological artifact.  Mysterious? Yes. If it was just plain
awful, there would be no mystery.  There's plenty on drivel in the world and
one more piece could be circumnavigated much as one avoids the calling card of
a poorly supervised dog. Here's the mystery: How could the same people who
could create art and story components which display virtually indisputable
evidence of rather advanced aesthetic and intellectual sensibilities produce
and publish a game in which the player is compelled to spend the great majority
of playing time in INSANELY frequent and absolutely pointless battles with silly
monsters?

Their HAD to be (IMHO) artists and writers saying, "This is really STUPID and
it's wrecking the story!" and marketing "people" saying, "We need to sell
gazillions of these to the masses... No continuous monster bashing means no
gazillions of sales... No gazillions of sales means no project".

I would very much like to see the proliferation of free and inexpensive graphics
software and reusable game "engines" lead to a thriving "cottage industry" of
creative game writers who are able to make a decent living developing niche
games that have not had their stories dumbed down and the violence ratcheted up
for marketing to the billions.  I tend to believe that there's more hope for
this happening for the PC than for dedicated games systems for which licensing
and distribution is controlled by few large companies.  Sony and/or Nintendo
MIGHT see the wisdom of developing the whole market by supporting some games
outside of the old mainstream chestnuts, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

It has occurred to me that there's a lot of potential "alternative game" talent
right here in this group.  I think that, personally, I stand a decent chance of
making some fairly significant contributions in the specific areas of graphic
design, story development and (my only relevant technical skill of any note)
developing interactive natural language generation algorithms to replace
repetitive libraries of "stock dialog". I couldn't even BEGIN, however to
manage such a project due to a lack of both time and a variety of necessary
skills.

So... should there be anyone out there who DOES have the gumption and
wherewithal to be the driving force behind such a project, PLEASE SPEAK UP.
Although the chances of producing some sort of "blockbuster" that will lead to
wealth beyond the dreams of avarice are slim to none, I'd be willing to throw
in on the basis of it being a good learning experience and an opportunity for
creative outlet.

Best Regards,
Mike C.

Post a reply to this message