Playstation 2 Game Pads - Where do I get them?

I played Burnout: Revenge on the PS2 with a gamepad covered with drool several nights ago. My dog was in the living room and immediately took a liking to the almost brand new gamepad (I hardly used it since last year).

Drool aside, the gamepad that I'm using is actually a replica of the Dual Shock 2. Don't get it? Well, try "knock-off". It looks the part, feels the part and in my opinion, almost indistinguishable from the real thing and it costs less than RM 30.

But before you jump off your seat and head off to the nearest video games shop (or stall for that matter), most shops carry two types of knock-offs. The first type, is probably the worse but cheapest of the two. With analog buttons as stiff as rusty bicycle chains and buttons with the response times of bricks, you would be better off getting the second type, which I'm using.

But of course, knock-offs do come with general drawbacks. They kaput faster, buttons wear off faster and the response times can be a little suspect. The one that I was using previously had its R1 and R2 buttons stuck. I'm guessing too much SSX.


Original Dual Shock 2 gamepads come with a price variance that is bound to boggle the mind. It retails at RM 95.00 on the Sony website. Too expensive? Play-Asia sells the same thing for just USD 16.90 (RM 54) and the site stocks a variety of colours too.

• Black
• Crimson Red
• Crystal
• Slate Gray
• Ocean Blue
• Lemon Yellow
• Ceramic White
• Midnight Blue
• Emerald
• Satin Silver

I would probably go for the traditional black, or perhaps the Slate Gray, but the Emerald does exude some "Master Chief" glow.. So what about you? :)

Weekend Surf

While you guys shake a Wiimote (and a Nunchuk) at SSX Blur and probably end up looking like fools (yes..the Wii does that to you), I'm going downstairs to play what is considered the best in the entire series, SSX 3, and it's on the PS2.


Aside from games, the weekend calls for 10 kilometres of running and some work to be done on a freelance project. Happy Weekend people!

Component Cables Are Your PS2's Best Friend...If You Have a LCD TV

If you have a PS2 and a LCD TV and you are still using composite cable, I highly recommend that you ditch that composite cable and get a component cable instead. My component cable arrived through the mail today. I ordered it from an online retailer for a pretty good price of RM 21.19, which is 10 ringgit lesser than the price given to me by a retailer in Damansara.

Installing the component cable was a pretty straightforward affair. I removed the composite cables connecting my PS2 to the splitter and directly connected the PS2 to the Samsung R7 LCD TV with the component cable. The TV end of the component cable had colour coded male connectors that correspond with the female connectors located at the back of the TV.

The first game that I tested with was SSX. This snowboarding game, having the sole distinction of being the only game I'd ever finished on the PS2, had only "okay" graphics with the composite cable. The output from the component cable was sharper, clearer, and I dare say more vivid. I can also see various shades of black, which was good, as I only got a flat output from the composite cable.

The second game was Burnout: Revenge. This game was one of the first games that I played with the R7, and it was probably the awe of playing it on a wide screen that got me raving. In any case, with the composite cable, the game was a virtual smash fest in 2 player mode, as both my brother and I cannot make out what was coming towards us on screen.

The game is still a virtual smash fest with the component cable. The graphics have become clearer, sharper and like SSX, more vivid; and we can finally see what we were ramming our cars into. Burnout never looked better on my LCD TV.

Not convinced? Go try it yourself, after all, the cables are priced just above RM20 and are available at Play-Asia.com (click here)

The Next Best Thing

Supposedly Chinese New Year just ended and you have collected a nifty sum of around RM500, which you, having not owned a video game console before, intend on using to enter a whole new world filled with surreal sights and sounds. But lets face it, RM 500 is chump change for upgrading your PC and it only covers a fraction of the price tag for any of the current generation consoles: the PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii.

So, what does an aspiring but broke (despite having RM 500) video gamer do? Well, for starters, do yourself a favour and get a PS2. Why a PS2 you ask? Here are the reasons:

• It's a video games console just past its peak (not that outdated)
• It has a huge library of games and plenty of AAA titles, some of which still look very pretty by today's standards. The PS2 is also the bastion of Final Fantasy games and if you are a fan, you should really be looking into getting this console.
• Great 1st and 3rd party hardware support. Steering wheels, gamepads (wired or wireless, have your pick), dance mats, and the Eye toy are just some of the peripherals that you can connect with a PS2
• Parts and expertise are easily found should the need arise.
• Original games are selling for cheap, get them brand new at online retailers like Play-Asia or at your local brick and mortar store. You can also get them secondhand on eBay.
  
• You can get a 2nd-hand PS2 for around RM 400 and you'll have spare change for games!
  

Cables, Smables, Gables...

I was watching Star Wars Episode V on my LCD TV earlier this evening and I realised that even without the much fancied S-video cable, the picture quality using normal AV cables was pretty good. Sure, there were some scenes whereby the dark side...I mean dark portions were simply too dark but there was nothing a display mode change couldn't solve.

Since S-video cables are rather expensive, a sales man quote RM 100 a piece, I might just pull off purchasing the cable for the time being. However, I'm more concerned about the picture quality coming off from my PS2 using the normal AV cables. The visuals are just okay at best and apparently I need to use composite cables with the PS2 and LCD TV.

Gamers Hideout at Cineleisure, Kota Damansara is selling a 3rd party PS2 composite cable for RM 39 but with all due respect to the owners, the cable looks really "cheap". Even though I don't like sound like I'm judging a book by its cover, the appearance was already a turn off (note to person in-charge of marketing for said 3rd party product). It just goes against one of my personal rules on buying stuff....buy only the item that you are comfortable with (in terms of looks, price, etc.).

On the other hand, Play-Asia sells a composite cable from XCM for RM 70 and the reviews for this product average 5 stars out of 5. Did I mention that the XCM composite cable is multi-console and supports the PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii? Now that's what I call value for money and I'll most likely order it in early February.

Interested? Visit Play-Asia (here) for a look at the specs.