Finally able to play an 'old classic' again.

In 2008 I was visiting a lot of Pinball shows and playing a lot of real pinball. There wasn't a lot of good video pinball about at the time. Virtual Pinball and Future Pinball existed, as did Windows Pinball. I became aware of Williams Pinball by Farsight on the PlayStation 2. Alas at the time it was NTSC-U/C (North American) release only, and be default you can't play NTSC disks on a PAL (Euro) PS2.

I researched my options and thought my best bet for playing the one import game I wanted to play was a Swap Magic, which was 2 disks and a plastic tool to open up your Phat PS2's disk drive without it realising. Boot the PS2 from either the DVD or CD disk, depending on the import game you wanted to play. You unscrewed the front of your disk tray and that enabled you to slide the tool in to open the disk drive. Swap the disk with your import disk, use the tool to slide the disk mechanism back and away you go - import game loads on your PS2.

It was a bit fiddly the first couple of times you used it, but you soon got the knack of where to insert the piece of plastic and which way to slide.

It allowed me to play the only import game I was interested in, and it was a pretty good version to boot. It was missing a couple of tables present on other versions, but nothing too important. The main ones were there like Funhouse and Black Knight. Eventually in 2011 (3 years later), System 3 published the game in Europe.

Anyway, why did I start writing this blog entry.... ah yes of course...

Just this Christmas gone when I visited my parents I got my phat PS2 out of storage and tried to boot up this game for old times sake. Curses. Took a while to get the knack of the slide tool, but curses, I couldn't get it to work. It would play normal PAL PS1 games but nothing else. I needed to slim down my stuff in storage so I decided to sell it and the controllers, but keeping my Logitech wireless controller, memory cards, games and Swap Magic. I thought later down the line I'd pick up another machine capable of playing the game.

After Christmas I was looking at modded PS2s on Ebay, but they were a bit pricier than I wanted to pay - £70+ for a Slim version - a lot of money to play a game I own on two other formats as well (PS3 and PS2). It took until lockdown when I decided to revisit the problem. I put a wanted post on RLLMUK forum and a chap responded saying he had a console only NTSC-U Slimline PS2. He wanted £19 delivered for it. Done.

While I waited for that to arrive, I set about acquiring the other parts of the puzzle. A power adaptor was BIN'd off Ebay so that was easy. Then I had to think about the display cable. I decided that HDMI would be the most flexible. The cheap (~£10ish) adaptors on Ebay got middling reviews, so I thought I'd pay a bit more as I've been bitten by going for the cheapest option before. I had been happy with the Kaico GameCube offering so I looked at their offering. £29.99 with excellent reviews. It doesn't upscale the image, (I'd have to pay nearer £50 for a device that does that), but it looked like it would do the business. So total outlay - £19 + £9.95 + £29.99.  Essentially £60 to play one game, however for nostalgia's sake - priceless!

NTSC Slim PS2	Logitech controller	Funhouse

Finally I had all the parts of the puzzle assembled. The adaptor looked to be as well made as the GameCube one and I quickly set it all up. The adaptor needed power via micro USB which the PS2 could supply. The image output is 480i which the TV deals with just fine. It looks as good as I hoped, considering it's a standard definition picture on a HD screen. The most important thing though in a game like this is lag - you can't play Pinball if you've got above the normal lag. I'm already using a wireless controller, but it plays absolutely fine. It loaded my saved game off the memory card and now I'm busy hitting high scores again. Success!

How it all connects together

Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U

I've been playing Mario Kart 8 (MK8) on the Wii U a lot more than usual recently because of the lockdown. Mario Kart is a game franchise I've loved since Super Mario Kart, and I like the fact that you can quickly play a quick Grand Prix or a few online games.

It's great to see that MK8 online is still busy with people from all over the world and there's still tournament being held on it. I do wonder how long Nintendo will keep the servers running. The game came out in 2014, so it's doing well so far.

When MK8 came out in 2014, I borrowed work's Wii U over the holidays and bought my own copy of the game. Completed it, (hammered it!), then when I returned the Wii U, I sold the game. A year or so later, I bought my own second-hand Wii U when it was floundering in the marketplace and re-bought MK8 and also both of the DLC track packs.

The Switch came out in early 2017, with MK8 Deluxe (MK8D) a few weeks later. Similar to before, I borrowed work's Switch, purchased my own copy of MK8D and hammered it again over the holidays. It was great, but when the time came to return the Switch, I also sold my copy of MK8D, content to keep playing my own Wii U version, at least until they turn off the online.

Nintendo's page detailing the differences between MK8 and MK8D.

Why I stick with MK8 for now:

I like to play on a big screen. Although I do like handheld Mario Kart versions (I own them all), I always play in the home. So I'm not going to shell out money especially on a new console, especially when I'd be paying for a big feature I wouldn't really use that much.

Since I already own the DLC for MK8, MK8D offers me very little new apart from a couple of characters, ability to hold double items, and two items (Boo/Ghost - item steal and the feather). Of those three additions, the missing items would be nice, but not enough to buy a new console and a copy of the game.

MK8 online players on Wii U generally tend to be pretty good, and there's loads of Japanese players if you log on at the right time, which, with lockdown is easy - I can do a few races before work starts in the morning!

The graphics look absolutely fine. It's 720p on Wii U compared to 1080p on Switch, but I can't tell enough of a difference. It runs at 60fps (well 59fps some of the time), which is absolutely fine.

Although I do own other Wii U games, MK8 is the game I play the most BY FAR. I won't buy a Switch just to play one game that I nearly already own.

Lets be honest here, I rarely play using the GamePad controller as I don't enjoy the way I have to hold my hands. I have a Wii U Pro Controller which is a great controller. Really comfortable, I love it. When I buy a Switch I'll also have to shell (!) out for a new Pro Controller here.

What is definitely sure though, I will pick up an original Switch and MK8D at some point, and this will be even sooner if MK9 is released. (Would be a day 1 purchase!)

A little more about the Hyperkin 3 in 1 cable...

So, lockdown and the coronavirus have taken centre stage recently, but now I've got chance to post an update about the Hyperkin cable. On my SNES, it seems to work great. I don't notice any lag. I've made sure to put the Samsung TV that I'm using into Game mode, and I turned off all post-processing. The picture quality was acceptable, however when I played Mario Kart Double Dash on the GameCube I was having trouble reaching my previous skill level. The kart just didn't seem to corner correctly. I couldn't put my finger on the exact cause. It didn't seem laggy, and other games seem OK, but I had this nagging doubt that it was lag. I received my Kaico GameCube HDMI adaptor, and of course the first thing I did was to try Double Dash. Viola, suddenly I can reach my previous skill level, leaving me in no doubt that the slight lag of the converter cable was affecting my precise timing of inputs. Suffice to say I'm very happy with the Kaico GameCube adaptor - more details coming in an upcoming post.

As for the Hyperkin cable. I'm keeping it as it's still useful as a backup, but I'm going to buy a specific cable for my SNES now that I know the Hyperkin one introduces lag.