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There are a couple of faqs here that talk about some common problems, and how to fix them if you are willing to open the box and void warrenty.

I have 2 ps2s and I have encountered 2 problems that cause disc read errors.

One is where the disc is not secured tightly by the spinning mechanism, and therefore does not spin at the correct speed. This is easy to diagnose as the loose disc will create a loud buzzing sound. I added some duct-tape to the spinning mechanism, and now it grabs the disc perfectly.

The other is the more common dirty lens, and is much easier to fix.

Not for the faint hearted, you all know how these things are put together, no extra space, or slack on cables/ribbons, and things are almost kept together by tension and by overlapping peices 37 levels deep, heheh.

You can probably get your PS2 fixed for free (minus shipping), assuming you live in the US. Sony lost a class action lawsuit because of their crappy drives, so they fix them for free as a punishment. Check out the Disc Read Error Sony Repair FAQ here (no direct linking allowed).

And like others noted, you are pretty wrong on your Xbox complaint. This is to prevent cheating, which 95% of Live users are very, very happy to support!

Mortal Kombat was known for "Time Released" characters. Being that consoles can maintain clock time, it could be whats going on.

Nope, that was Tekken. Mortal Kombat 3 had one character (smoke) who was released with a code (The Ultimate Kombat Kode) in the arcade. See gamefaqs. Maybe the characters are released in some other way (1000 multiplayer wins?) or maybe they just weren't put in the finished game. You have to fight Jax and the other characters in storyline (konquest) mode, so perhaps he was included for just that.

Click "Disc Read Error Sony Repair FAQ" to discover that Sony has been party to a class action lawsuit on this issue, and that as a settlement you may have your PS2 repaired free of charge (+ S&H).

Basically, your laser is almost worn out. As a PS2 and XBOX modder, I can say the PS2 is, in fact, the poorest quality and design of console available on the market today. I wouldn't give a PS2 to anyone under 14, lest it fall off a table and end up destroyed.

The XBOX, however, is about the pinnacle in quality of design and manufacture for consoles. Those things are a treat to work inside, use only high quality durable connectors, have a very high quality PCB, and are simple to disassmenble. It would take a Mack truck to destroy an XBOX. As usual, Microsoft once again proves they are a great design company (or, in some cases, are great at outsourcing to quality companies) for hardware, but suck at software.

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Just what in the hell are you going on about, son?

Valve didn't really have any multi-player in HL either

How does this stuff get modded up? The original Half life *DID* ship with multiplayer deathmatch. and it was pretty fun too.

Heh, have you tried the computer version of Survivor? (Links to the reviews page on GameFAQs. Yeah, that may not be the best but the opinions there are numerous and representative.)

My mother-in-law got it for my wife. It is one of only two games to enter my residence and never be installed; the other is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic which I purchased on the cheap last week (before it disappeared) and is awaiting a computer that can actually run it. Crap-tastic. Survivor, that is, not KOTOR.

More info on this free Sony repair can be found in the "Disc Read Error Sony Repair FAQ" at Gamefaqs.com (which doesn't allow direct FAQ linking). Tells you how to know if you qualify, what you need, what you should say, etc. Pretty handy.

I think you mean with some help from Crack?

I don't think a port of Abuse will help.

It'll be kind of sad to see Acclaim go. Granted, most of their games were complete shit, but they had some pretty decent ones as well. I used to love playing Wizards & Warriors on my NES back in the day (almost 20 years ago!). They were a major player in the video game world, and now they're gone. I hope the talented employees are able to find work quickly, and I hope that Acclaim's good franchises find homes with publishers that will do them justice. For those curious about Acclaim's library throughout the years: http://gamefaqs.com/features/company/215.html The list is not quite complete, but gives a pretty good overview.

Thats funny, the first thing I thought of when I saw this was Wall Street Kid for the nintendo. I thought it was a fun game, but once you figured out the AI, it was pretty easy to master every time you played it.

It's very similar to the game Bishi Bashi Special which came out in 1998 according to GameFAQs. I'm not ratting on Nintendo for ripping off Konami or anything, I think it's great that they're trying to focus on less explored ideas. If the award really was for prioritizing 'creativity', then Katamari Damacy should easily have taken it.

I went to a couple of shows at the EGF. There was an XBox Live show which was awful, and another event at the national museum called 'Go Play Games' which was also a bit awful. They had a bunch of games from the past year or so, but not really an exceptional selection by any means. The only ones that interested me where Donkey Konga which my friend owns anyway, and Outrun 2 which I'd already played (and crashed) at the XBox Live show previously. I suppose it would be interesting if you were a parent wanting to take your kid somewhere but realisticly I don't quite see the point of the whole exercise.

Yeah, I was curious enough to Google some of them after posting that (I hadn't updated my page in several months) and found that. (http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/file/sonic _the_hedgehog_blue_spheres.txt). Oy vey. I guess no matter how OCD you are, there's always someone worse than you =)

You might want to know that much of it has been done already. Check out the "Blue Spheres Password FAQ" on this page at Gamefaqs. It has the first 3400 level codes, plus some for ~140 other miscellaneous levels.

Sorry, forgot to mention: Although not officially endorsed by the designer, there's also Zipangujima, which is basically what would happen if you explained Catan and Risk to a newbie in rapid succession, without clarifying that they were different games.

Try GameFAQs.

And Ryu's spinning kick is the "Tatsumaki-Senpuu-Kyaku", more commonly known as the "Hurricane Kick".

Pokemon: Hey, I didn't say no originals... but note they still do that crap with "Connect to the opposite color to have all the fun."

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Yes.

the Golden Sun series: No, that is by Camelot Co, Ltd. (Own the first one, not my style but a solid game.)

Advance Wars: Intelligent Systems, not nintendo. (Own the first one, haven't beat it yet. Would probably have gotten the second by now.)

Fire Emblem: Also Intelligent Systems.

Metroid Fusion: Yes, but Zero Mission: Remake, albeit one with actual effort.

Zelda: Four Swords: I had been under the impression that this was a remake of A Link to the Past that had multiplayer; I see now I was wrong. (But add A Link to the Past to the remake list...)

Now, please stop reading into what I said. Never said it was bad to do the remakes. I have Doom 2 and it's cool. But they've released like 20 remakes, maybe more if you count each E-Reader game seperately, to like 4 or 5 original games... that's about one original a year. Frankly, all they have to do to make me happy is to take the engine from Yoshi's Island, and make a new game from it. The content coming out of Nintendo is quite complacent.

Pokemon: Hey, I didn't say no originals... but note they still do that crap with "Connect to the opposite color to have all the fun."

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Yes.

the Golden Sun series: No, that is by Camelot Co, Ltd. (Own the first one, not my style but a solid game.)

Advance Wars: Intelligent Systems, not nintendo. (Own the first one, haven't beat it yet. Would probably have gotten the second by now.)

Fire Emblem: Also Intelligent Systems.

Metroid Fusion: Yes, but Zero Mission: Remake, albeit one with actual effort.

Zelda: Four Swords: I had been under the impression that this was a remake of A Link to the Past that had multiplayer; I see now I was wrong. (But add A Link to the Past to the remake list...)

Now, please stop reading into what I said. Never said it was bad to do the remakes. I have Doom 2 and it's cool. But they've released like 20 remakes, maybe more if you count each E-Reader game seperately, to like 4 or 5 original games... that's about one original a year. Frankly, all they have to do to make me happy is to take the engine from Yoshi's Island, and make a new game from it. The content coming out of Nintendo is quite complacent.

Pokemon: Hey, I didn't say no originals... but note they still do that crap with "Connect to the opposite color to have all the fun."

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Yes.

the Golden Sun series: No, that is by Camelot Co, Ltd. (Own the first one, not my style but a solid game.)

Advance Wars: Intelligent Systems, not nintendo. (Own the first one, haven't beat it yet. Would probably have gotten the second by now.)

Fire Emblem: Also Intelligent Systems.

Metroid Fusion: Yes, but Zero Mission: Remake, albeit one with actual effort.

Zelda: Four Swords: I had been under the impression that this was a remake of A Link to the Past that had multiplayer; I see now I was wrong. (But add A Link to the Past to the remake list...)

Now, please stop reading into what I said. Never said it was bad to do the remakes. I have Doom 2 and it's cool. But they've released like 20 remakes, maybe more if you count each E-Reader game seperately, to like 4 or 5 original games... that's about one original a year. Frankly, all they have to do to make me happy is to take the engine from Yoshi's Island, and make a new game from it. The content coming out of Nintendo is quite complacent.

Rare was bought by Microsoft about a year ago. As far as I know, the only XBox game they've released so far is Grabbed by the Ghoulies, although they've got a few more titles in development.

There is a remake of Donkey Kong Country for the GBA, and a version of DKC2 is in the works.

All three of the franchises mentioned are still going strong - there's a Donkey Kong platformer of sorts in the works for the GameCube, and Mario and Sonic are still both going strong with new games. Mind you, this is only a partial list...

And as for Contra being remade...it's been done.

Rare was bought by Microsoft about a year ago. As far as I know, the only XBox game they've released so far is Grabbed by the Ghoulies, although they've got a few more titles in development.

There is a remake of Donkey Kong Country for the GBA, and a version of DKC2 is in the works.

All three of the franchises mentioned are still going strong - there's a Donkey Kong platformer of sorts in the works for the GameCube, and Mario and Sonic are still both going strong with new games. Mind you, this is only a partial list...

And as for Contra being remade...it's been done.

Rare was bought by Microsoft about a year ago. As far as I know, the only XBox game they've released so far is Grabbed by the Ghoulies, although they've got a few more titles in development.

There is a remake of Donkey Kong Country for the GBA, and a version of DKC2 is in the works.

All three of the franchises mentioned are still going strong - there's a Donkey Kong platformer of sorts in the works for the GameCube, and Mario and Sonic are still both going strong with new games. Mind you, this is only a partial list...

And as for Contra being remade...it's been done.

Rare was bought by Microsoft about a year ago. As far as I know, the only XBox game they've released so far is Grabbed by the Ghoulies, although they've got a few more titles in development.

There is a remake of Donkey Kong Country for the GBA, and a version of DKC2 is in the works.

All three of the franchises mentioned are still going strong - there's a Donkey Kong platformer of sorts in the works for the GameCube, and Mario and Sonic are still both going strong with new games. Mind you, this is only a partial list...

And as for Contra being remade...it's been done.

Rare was bought by Microsoft about a year ago. As far as I know, the only XBox game they've released so far is Grabbed by the Ghoulies, although they've got a few more titles in development.

There is a remake of Donkey Kong Country for the GBA, and a version of DKC2 is in the works.

All three of the franchises mentioned are still going strong - there's a Donkey Kong platformer of sorts in the works for the GameCube, and Mario and Sonic are still both going strong with new games. Mind you, this is only a partial list...

And as for Contra being remade...it's been done.

Rare was bought by Microsoft about a year ago. As far as I know, the only XBox game they've released so far is Grabbed by the Ghoulies, although they've got a few more titles in development.

There is a remake of Donkey Kong Country for the GBA, and a version of DKC2 is in the works.

All three of the franchises mentioned are still going strong - there's a Donkey Kong platformer of sorts in the works for the GameCube, and Mario and Sonic are still both going strong with new games. Mind you, this is only a partial list...

And as for Contra being remade...it's been done.

Ever wanted to pick up trash in exchange for points to play mundane minigames?

Of course, if you really wanted, you could also just wander around the park in a dazed attempt to figure out where you're going or how to get somewhere else. Humanity has yet to accept this ultimate challenge.

Actually, to run those consoles (NES, SNES, N64, GC, Gameboy), you only need N64 and Gamecube (or probably only a PC, if you use emulators), because:

Using a converter...
- NES games can be played in a SNES [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/tri_star. txt],
- Game boy games can be played in a SNES [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gameboy/file/super _game_boy.txt],
- NES and SNES games can be played in a N64 [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/file/tristar_64 .txt],
- All Game boy (GB, GBC, GBA,...) games can be played in a Gamecube [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/file/gameb oy_player.txt]

(So... all you need to play those consoles is actually N64 and Gamecube).

Actually, to run those consoles (NES, SNES, N64, GC, Gameboy), you only need N64 and Gamecube (or probably only a PC, if you use emulators), because:

Using a converter...
- NES games can be played in a SNES [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/tri_star. txt],
- Game boy games can be played in a SNES [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gameboy/file/super _game_boy.txt],
- NES and SNES games can be played in a N64 [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/file/tristar_64 .txt],
- All Game boy (GB, GBC, GBA,...) games can be played in a Gamecube [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/file/gameb oy_player.txt]

(So... all you need to play those consoles is actually N64 and Gamecube).

Actually, to run those consoles (NES, SNES, N64, GC, Gameboy), you only need N64 and Gamecube (or probably only a PC, if you use emulators), because:

Using a converter...
- NES games can be played in a SNES [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/tri_star. txt],
- Game boy games can be played in a SNES [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gameboy/file/super _game_boy.txt],
- NES and SNES games can be played in a N64 [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/file/tristar_64 .txt],
- All Game boy (GB, GBC, GBA,...) games can be played in a Gamecube [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/file/gameb oy_player.txt]

(So... all you need to play those consoles is actually N64 and Gamecube).

Actually, to run those consoles (NES, SNES, N64, GC, Gameboy), you only need N64 and Gamecube (or probably only a PC, if you use emulators), because:

Using a converter...
- NES games can be played in a SNES [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/tri_star. txt],
- Game boy games can be played in a SNES [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gameboy/file/super _game_boy.txt],
- NES and SNES games can be played in a N64 [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/file/tristar_64 .txt],
- All Game boy (GB, GBC, GBA,...) games can be played in a Gamecube [ref: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/file/gameb oy_player.txt]

(So... all you need to play those consoles is actually N64 and Gamecube).

The only ones I've played are monumentally boring.

I remember one called Ultra Vixen that was basically a clickfest where you had to figure out which sexual accessory to keep clicking on to make the woman orgasm.

Of course, the "sexual accessories" were along the lines of blowtorches on the nipples, huge metal studded dildoes, clamps and other assorted fun things.

Fun game, but kind of frustrating.

Online play, the area that's going to matter most for console gaming? I certainly hope not.

This may seem like blasphemy to much of the Slashdot crowd, but I don't think that online play is the be-all-end-all of console gaming or even PC gaming. It's a nice feature, but I'd rather have a rock solid single player experience or a great local multiplayer experience. Dealing with random asshats over the internet isn't very much fun.

It's kind of interesting that there was a poll on GameFAQs about this recently. It's probably just as inaccurate as a Slashdot poll, but the gaming community seems sharply divided on how much weight online play has. It'd be even more interesting to see some real numbers on how many people actually play games online vs offline.

Maybe the Fight Club game will have the same homoerotic undertones as the movie?

Don't forget that Super Mario Bros. appears in Animal Crossing on the Gamecube along with a few other NES games. Note that the game can be downloaded onto a GBA using the link cable.

the Xbox is now positioned as the hardcore gamers console of choice
As these GameFAQs polls prove beyond All Reasonable Doubt(tm).

So not only is their logic flawed in that pre-release scepticism makes a console good (look at the N-Gage), and not only would they be in trouble even were their logic flawless (much skepticism = 'console of choice'; comparitively no skepticism = comparitively no sales), they're also basing this logic on seemingly incorrect data.

They made some good choices in the PR department.

the Xbox is now positioned as the hardcore gamers console of choice
As these GameFAQs polls prove beyond All Reasonable Doubt(tm).

So not only is their logic flawed in that pre-release scepticism makes a console good (look at the N-Gage), and not only would they be in trouble even were their logic flawless (much skepticism = 'console of choice'; comparitively no skepticism = comparitively no sales), they're also basing this logic on seemingly incorrect data.

They made some good choices in the PR department.

the Xbox is now positioned as the hardcore gamers console of choice
As these GameFAQs polls prove beyond All Reasonable Doubt(tm).

So not only is their logic flawed in that pre-release scepticism makes a console good (look at the N-Gage), and not only would they be in trouble even were their logic flawless (much skepticism = 'console of choice'; comparitively no skepticism = comparitively no sales), they're also basing this logic on seemingly incorrect data.

They made some good choices in the PR department.

Lets go oevr an example:

PC:

Slice1: OS
slice2: Load game from hd
slice3: initialize game
slice4: OS
slice5: network monitoring
slice6: switch back to game ....
Each context switch requires a refresh form main memory and a huge huge penalty in regaurds to the predictive branching algorithm for cpu pipelining. the context switches occur often, and each time the memory bus must be ustilized to refresh the cache and resupply the pipeline.

Console (Xbox et al)
slice1: load game frm DVd
slice2: Rungame ....
little to no context switching and the biggest thing on the bus is graphics. It doesn't have any context switching and thus the memory bus is almost dedicated to the GPU, since instructiosn are about 1/100 the size of textures.

As for jaming everything, a PC graphics card know it has a small and busy bus to get it's textures, so it grabs as much as it can when the pipe is available and stores it in the video ram. While a console GPU knows the bus won't be very busy and it can grab the textures when ever. Theres a big big difference in memory bandwidth. Peak bandwidth for the highest rated DDR is theoretically 3.2 gb/s Reference. While a PS2 has a theoetical memory bandwidth of 3.2 gb per second Reference. The xbox has a bandwidth of 6.4 gb/s Reference. Now for the PC it divides this bandwidth between every device that is on the memory bus, the GPU/CPU/carious controllers and the device bus. The Xbox/PS2 dedicates it to GPU/cpu. A Pc GPU has maybe 10% of the memory bus to itself, 0.32 gigs/s while a PS2/Xbox GPU has essentially the whole bus. A scene in NTSC of PAL will never require 3.2 gigs of textures every second. But a 1260x1024 res monitor will require more then 0.32gigs/s of textures thus the high ram sizes of graphics cards.

Lets go oevr an example:

PC:

Slice1: OS
slice2: Load game from hd
slice3: initialize game
slice4: OS
slice5: network monitoring
slice6: switch back to game ....
Each context switch requires a refresh form main memory and a huge huge penalty in regaurds to the predictive branching algorithm for cpu pipelining. the context switches occur often, and each time the memory bus must be ustilized to refresh the cache and resupply the pipeline.

Console (Xbox et al)
slice1: load game frm DVd
slice2: Rungame ....
little to no context switching and the biggest thing on the bus is graphics. It doesn't have any context switching and thus the memory bus is almost dedicated to the GPU, since instructiosn are about 1/100 the size of textures.

As for jaming everything, a PC graphics card know it has a small and busy bus to get it's textures, so it grabs as much as it can when the pipe is available and stores it in the video ram. While a console GPU knows the bus won't be very busy and it can grab the textures when ever. Theres a big big difference in memory bandwidth. Peak bandwidth for the highest rated DDR is theoretically 3.2 gb/s Reference. While a PS2 has a theoetical memory bandwidth of 3.2 gb per second Reference. The xbox has a bandwidth of 6.4 gb/s Reference. Now for the PC it divides this bandwidth between every device that is on the memory bus, the GPU/CPU/carious controllers and the device bus. The Xbox/PS2 dedicates it to GPU/cpu. A Pc GPU has maybe 10% of the memory bus to itself, 0.32 gigs/s while a PS2/Xbox GPU has essentially the whole bus. A scene in NTSC of PAL will never require 3.2 gigs of textures every second. But a 1260x1024 res monitor will require more then 0.32gigs/s of textures thus the high ram sizes of graphics cards.

Check out these two recent polls that GameFAQs did:

DS Poll
PSP Poll

I find it interesting that in both polls, the highest result was "Maybe, it depends on the price" - around 30% for both polls. I would guess that this would be even more of a factor for the general population. These polls are only sampling the opinions of those who frequent gaming websites.

Check out these two recent polls that GameFAQs did:

DS Poll
PSP Poll

I find it interesting that in both polls, the highest result was "Maybe, it depends on the price" - around 30% for both polls. I would guess that this would be even more of a factor for the general population. These polls are only sampling the opinions of those who frequent gaming websites.

Castlevania - Symphony of the Night.

Reason alone to use the PS2's backwards compatability.

Strategy games for current or recent (32 bit+) consoles: N64 Gamecube Saturn Dreamcast Playstation PS2

Many of the games listed there are really RPGs, but nonetheless, they're out there.

My personal favorite strategy games to date: Dragon Force for Sega Saturn, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA. You can even save in the midst of a battle, how righteous is that?

Strategy games for current or recent (32 bit+) consoles: N64 Gamecube Saturn Dreamcast Playstation PS2

Many of the games listed there are really RPGs, but nonetheless, they're out there.

My personal favorite strategy games to date: Dragon Force for Sega Saturn, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA. You can even save in the midst of a battle, how righteous is that?

Strategy games for current or recent (32 bit+) consoles: N64 Gamecube Saturn Dreamcast Playstation PS2

Many of the games listed there are really RPGs, but nonetheless, they're out there.

My personal favorite strategy games to date: Dragon Force for Sega Saturn, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA. You can even save in the midst of a battle, how righteous is that?

Strategy games for current or recent (32 bit+) consoles: N64 Gamecube Saturn Dreamcast Playstation PS2

Many of the games listed there are really RPGs, but nonetheless, they're out there.

My personal favorite strategy games to date: Dragon Force for Sega Saturn, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA. You can even save in the midst of a battle, how righteous is that?

Strategy games for current or recent (32 bit+) consoles: N64 Gamecube Saturn Dreamcast Playstation PS2

Many of the games listed there are really RPGs, but nonetheless, they're out there.

My personal favorite strategy games to date: Dragon Force for Sega Saturn, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA. You can even save in the midst of a battle, how righteous is that?

Strategy games for current or recent (32 bit+) consoles: N64 Gamecube Saturn Dreamcast Playstation PS2

Many of the games listed there are really RPGs, but nonetheless, they're out there.

My personal favorite strategy games to date: Dragon Force for Sega Saturn, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA. You can even save in the midst of a battle, how righteous is that?

Strategy games for current or recent (32 bit+) consoles: N64 Gamecube Saturn Dreamcast Playstation PS2

Many of the games listed there are really RPGs, but nonetheless, they're out there.

My personal favorite strategy games to date: Dragon Force for Sega Saturn, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA. You can even save in the midst of a battle, how righteous is that?