Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: Retro

Clone Your Memory Card in PCSX2 Emulator

Posted on by Viljami

We are dealing with a PS2 emulator that is very capable and that provides you a good quality of emulation for your PC. PCSX2 is available for Linux, Windows and MacOS. Its system requirements include 2 GB of video memory and 8 GB of RAM. There are some requirements also for the CPU or processor. A 64-bit operating system is also a requirement. The recommended system settings are a bit higher. PCSX2 has a good and comprehensive website where you can also look for more details.

PCSX2 utilizes virtual memory cards that are files that have a filename that is ending in *.ps2.  Now, the standard memory cards have 8 MB of space. So, you have to use these memory cards just to save your progress in a game. I am currently playing, once again, Gran Turismo 4 and it takes about 1,5 MB just for the save. There were already some other saves and the emulator printed a message for me saying that the memory card is already full.

So, what do you do? You can of course start your PS2 with no disc inside so that it goes to BIOS. Then you can delete some saved games. You can access BIOS within PCSX2 by first clicking, on your upper left corner: System->Start BIOS. You should do this while there isn’t a game running. Now you can get an access to your memory card by selecting Browser->Memory card on your emulated virtual PS2.

However there is another and more practical way to handle this situation. With no game running on your PCSX2 head over to Settings->Memory cards. Now, click Open… button that is located on the right side of the part that reads Memory cars – Folder: and the location of your virtual memory cards or the files ending with .ps2. Click that button (Open…). Now these files are showing in your operating systems resource manager or the application that you actually handle your files. Now make a copy of the file. This memory card file should preferably be empty. You can empty the file within your PS2 system and then make a copy of the file. You can also leave an empty memory card file that you can copy or clone when you need more space for your saves. I know that I am not going to closely to how the memory card gets copied in your operating system, be it Linux, Windows or Mac, but I think you can manage to do this and will get the idea that I am telling you.

Now, move to your PCSX2 graphical interface. You should be in a windowed view and you should see every memory card file that you have in this specific folder. Make sure there is a tap on your memory card slot 1. Click the “eject” button.  Now the virtual memory card gets ejected. Next you must drag-and-drop your new and preferably suitably named memory card file to the slot that was emptied earlier. Congratulations! You have now a fresh virtual memory card to be used with your PCSX2 emulator. You can now click Close on the window and continue using your PCSX2 emulator.

PCSX2 is a very capable PS2 emulator. It makes playing all almost 4000 PS2 games a smooth experience. I found out that tweaking some graphics settings and also settings found from within the game you could actually make the visuals more detailed. You can manage the settings by going in PCSX2 to Settings->Graphics. From Display I changed Aspect Ratio to 16:9. It can be set to standard 4:3 that is the original aspect ratio. You can also change, from Rendering tap, your Internal Resolution. I changed it to 6x Native (4K UHD). You have to consider how powerful your host PC is. I have a compatible CPU, a video card with 8 GB of memory and 16 GB of RAM. I haven’t had any major issues while running PCSX2 with these settings.

I ended up using PCSX2 because my PS2 always kept breaking. I don’t know if it is because all this dust that you must have seen in my pictures here on this blog. Is it because of the poor overall quality of these game consoles or what. In any way I just find it easier to rip my PS2 games to my PC and then utilize PCSX2 to play them. I don’t get to play with a real PS2 controller but I think that is not so important. Okay then – I hope you found something interesting from this blog post. See you again soon!

Two Different Approaches to a Rally Game

Posted on by Viljami

This blog post is about how you can approach a game or specifically a rally game. So, a game has graphics, sound and overall game-play and also some rules of how to create the physics in the game. From this point of view you can try to create a popular game and a game that is nice or/and a game that is as realistic as possible. I am taking a look at two rally games right here in this blog post and right now.

Dirt 3 is part of a legendary rally game series that originates from legendary PlayStation 1 game Colin McRae Rally. There was also a sequel released for PS1 and it was called Colin McRae Rally 2.0. Dirt 3 is also a sequel to games called Colin McRae Dirt and Colin McRae Dirt 2. So, this game has a bit shorter title. These games were released for PS3 and Xbox 360 and also for PC. Dirt 3 can be played on Xbox Series X as it is backwards compatible. Every Xbox 360 game isn’t compatible in this way. Dirt 3 has now two sequels called Dirt 4 and Dirt 5. Codemasters made also two games called Dirt Rally and Dirt Rally 2.0. later.

Dirt 3 was released 2010. I remember back in the day when I just had to buy this game as soon as it was released. I remember paying 60 euros for this game. At that moment I only had one video game console and that console was PS3 back then. Dirt 3 takes an approach of trying to be as realistic as a rally game as can be. The camera can be adjusted and it is tightly following the car. There are some options here. Usually I adjust the camera angle so that I see the road as closely as possible. If you make a mistake you can pause the game and go back to where you made the mistake and try to correct the way you did drive.

There has been some time since Dirt 3 was released. It is a very good game. I like the background music a lot. You don’t hear any music while you are driving. There is something important in this game as it seems that you can also hear your cars performance. We can also say that the team that was involved in developing this rally game was a large one as it had, I think, hundreds or at least tens of people working with the rally game.

What about Art of Rally? It was released roughly about ten years after Dirt 3. The approach is slightly different as is obvious already. Graphics are somewhat basic. They aren’t even trying to aim to be as realistic as can be. This also makes the game lighter to run and so this rally game doesn’t require so powerful hardware. I have this game for Nintendo Switch and lately bought it also for PC through Steam. It cost something from 25 to 30 euros. The “deluxe edition” is somewhat more expensive but only about 5 euros or something like that.

Art of Rally has a very good physical modeling. What it lacks in pure graphical performance it compensates on game-play and overall realistic feel it is able to generate. It feels nice t and realistic to drive the vehicles that are in this rally game. Cars in Art of Rally aren’t real cars. Their names are just something that has been generated by the developer. Dirt 3 does have real drivers and also cars. It would be awkward in my sense to play Art of Rally with a steering wheel and pedals while Dirt 3 gives you everything concerning a simulation type of a rally game. I do play currently both games with a game-pad.

There are only a few people that worked in the development of Art of Rally. The music is in the background while you are driving. I like also the music of this rally game. So, I adjusted the volume settings so that I can clearly hear the music while I drive. I set the engine volume of the car a bit lower, actually way lower, than it was as a default. Art of Rally has a career mode. I recommend that you play the career mode through. It is a nice experience all in all. There are many ways in both of these games that you can drive with your friends in a multiplayer mode but I am not so into playing with other people through network or internet connection.

So, these two games bring you a bit different and unique take. Should we appreciate clever software design or even a form of art more than some video game that is realistic and seems to demand a more powerful hardware? Nintendo Switch was released in 2017 and it has tens or even hundreds of good games that have been released on it. It isn’t the most powerful console but it definitely can deliver some good quality games. Also the next Switch console has been rumored to be as powerful as a PS4 which is, by the way, also a cheap console that still seems to have some players place in their hearths. Should we always go for the most expensive choice or is there a room for some games that just don’t compete in this way at all. Could there be a cheaper or somewhat different option? And this is the question I am leaving you to ponder this time. See you soon again!

Latest Purchase From Flea Market – Rage for PS3

Posted on by Viljami

Yesterday was a sunny day. It was Sunday. There was a new flea market opened recently and I decided to test it out. I took a bus and ended up at the door of this building. There were loads of tables to investigate around and try to find something interesting to buy.

I really like going to flea markets. You never know beforehand what you will find. Of course the prices are very low. You mainly do find used stuff. I usually look for books, movies and games. I rarely find any clothes from places like this. Sometimes I have bough a glass for whiskey for me or for a friend.

The weather was great outside. The flea market was huge. Since it was a common day without work you can think that there were lots of customers around. Everything went nice. I got some pretty good finds. I bought a Bluray of Die Hard 2. I also bought a Finnish book that was written by Stephen King. It was the “Dark Tower” or in Finnish “Musta Torni”. The books price was only 1,5 euros. I also found a Tiesto concert DVD. I also found one game and that was Rage for PS3.

Rage was the first game I found that Sunday from that flea market. It was also the only game I ended up buying. What I love about flea markets is that you find some very unique goods at a very low price. I ended up paying a bit over 12 euros for everything I mentioned in the last paragraph.

I didn’t have Rage for PS3 yet. So, it was a good find. It cost 5 euros. The disc was in perfect condition. I think that today people know how to handle these optical discs properly so they rarely have any scratches. I haven’t had time to play this game yet. It seems promising since it is produced by Id and Bethesda which are also makers of Doom and Quake.

If there has to be some sort of a lesson formed about this visit I would say that you definitely should go around all of the tables while visiting a flea market. I am considering to visit this particular place again maybe on a week day so that I can make some better and more finds.

My PS3 is doing so far fine. I haven’t had any issues yet. The dust seems to be my biggest enemy when it comes to old retro gaming hardware. I have had issues with some of my older consoles and especially the ones that utilize some sort of an optical disc drive. I have broken already two PS2s, an original Xbox and also Xbox 360. I am waiting to get a more powerful PC so that I could also play also PS3 and Xbox 360 games using emulation.

Rage has received good reviews. I checked Metacritic and found out that Rage has a score of 81 out of 100. The genre of this game is a shooter. When it comes to first-person-shooters I think Id and Bethesda are very big names. Bethesda also has a history of some Elder Scrolls games like Oblivion and Skyrim.

Its fun to visit flea markets. Yesterday there were so many customers out there trying to find something they would value that I think I have to make another visit some day soon and maybe on a week day. Who knows what kinds of treasures may I find there. The flea market was called Bella. They have also another store in Helsinki and this one was here at Vantaa. That’s everything from me this time. See you again soon!