Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: collection

Is the Era of Audio CDs Really Over?

Posted on by Viljami

I remember when I first got my PS4 back in 2014. I came to understand that from the beginning it didn’t have support for audio CDs. I had to rely on another device for listening to my huge collection of CDs. A while ago I quickly counted how many CDs I have today. It seems that I have over 500 CDs.

My collection of CDs is huge. It has grown more as I have bought several classic hiphop, trance and dance CDs from flee markets. I have this old CD player that I bought for a cheap price. It was used when I got it. It probably didn’t even cost 20 euros. You can today get a new CD player for about 100 euros.

My CD player was always connected to my amplifier through RCA-connection. Earlier today I ordered an adapter that allows me to connect my audio device to any device that supports Bluetooth. Wireless connectivity is a common feature among new CD players. Now I got an update to my device. And it cost me only 40 euros.

So, is the era of CDs actually over? This format of audio has been present since the 1980s. It once decreased sales of vinyls considerably although listening to music from vinyls never completely stopped. When I was a child in the 90s every kid had a CD stereo system and some CDs in their own room. You also had to have a portable CD player since there were no mp3 players or if there were they were very expensive.

Today CD still provides digital quality of audio for different audiences. Some artists still release their music on CDs. Streaming services have made listening to music easy and cheap. The latest gaming console that I have that also supports playing audio CDs is PS3. You can get many kinds of music very cheaply on CD from several flee markets. Prices are for used CDs something form 0,50 euros to 3 euros.

The surface of a disc is very sensitive for getting scratches or dirt on it. When gaming went to storing games in CD format consumers were thinking that children wouldn’t be able to keep these discs working. Nintendo even decided to use cartridges when Nintendo 64 came available. What was the impact of mp3s becoming so popular? It waas clear that you could easily have more than just 700 MB of digital music with you. Actually you soon had something like 4 GB (thats 4000 MB) of space and the advancement of smart phones made the transition to listening music with mp3s or as a streamed service.

I still listen to CDs. I still sometimes even buy new CDs. If I do get some new record I often rip it for my personal use. I transfer then the music to my phone so I can listen to them everywhere I happen to go. Mostly I listen to Spotify. Sometimes I listen to it from my personal computer, like I do right now, and sometimes from my tablet computer. I rarely listen to Spotify from my phone. Spotify seems to be the new standard for listening to music. You can definitely see this when you think about audio CDs and how they are supported by newest gaming systems. Damn. We have this digitality coming from everywhere. We have more and more games and consoles that are only available as digital and not physical. I guess that’s just how the future is currently shaping.

My Xbox Series S

Posted on by Viljami

I decided to write about my dear Xbox Series S. I bought this gaming console last years summer. I originally placed it inside that Ikea shelf that has eight places for consoles. This shelf holds now seven of my game devices. So I actually moved my Series S to the right side of my television. And one place in this shelf has a basket in it where I store my controllers and also some cables.

Why did I move my Series S to its current position? I was thinking that it might not get enough air flowing through it. Although I haven’t heard of cases where a new Xbox console would have overheated. I thought about it for a while. As I placed my hand on the console I felt that it was extremely hot. So I thought I should place it better.

The console never gave me any error messages but I  noticed that it was cooling way better. I couldn’t feel almost any heating after I had placed the console better. I first thought I would place it on the floor but came to other thoughts a bit later. This was finally a good place for the console.

I have enjoyed my Xbox Series S greatly. I think the price was suitable. I hate that my Xbox doesn’t have so much disk space but I guess if you can play at least two or three games at a time and have them installed must be enough in these situations we are currenty still facing. I would have surely bought a Series X if they would have been available.

Some games I have for Series S are Call of Duty Vanguard, Diablo II Resurrected, Control and Mass Effect Legendary Edition. I have been content in having all of my games digital. I would like to play some of my Xbox 360 games with this new Xbox but as my Xbox 360 still works this isn’t so much of an issue. I love playing older or remade games also on my Series S. I really like the controller. It must be compatible with also a PC. I haven’t really tested. I do have  a USB to USB-C cable for the controller so I don’t have use batteries.

I think I got, once again, a nice picture for this blog post. That small device that is placed to the right of the Xbox Series S is my HDMI selector. It enables me to connect several HDMI devices to my television. I definitely had to buy this because I have so many consoles and my television had only three HDMI inputs. I also have room for up to three SCART connections in my television.

I might some day take some more pictures of my collection and setup that I have for gaming in my home. I do have lots of games and so little room. I just other day moved some of my games to storage. I still kept most of my games in this gaming corner that I have.

More Games for Nintendo GameCube?

Posted on by Viljami

Earlier this year I bought a gaming console. It was a retro console. Actually it was Nintendo Wii. I was well aware that it was capable to run also GameCube games. I had to buy also a memory card and a controller. This was nice.

Now, about ten months later, I haven’t played Wii so much. I currently have three games for it. I only have one GameCube game. You can see all my Wii and GameCube games in that featured image I took. So I don’t have so many Nintendo games. I do have Switch Lite. At some point I was considering getting the regular Switch but I decided not to buy it. At least not yet. This is also because I’m running out of space. I am also considering to selling or giving my Xbox Series S to a some of my connections if I get my hands on a Series X.

As I wrote early this year I was then hoping to get to know more about some Nintendo games. I have purchased some NES cartridges, some SNES cartridges and games for Switch Lite. This is a nice beginning to my journey. I have always been around Sega, PlayStation and Xbox. I don’t so much about Nintendo. I would like to get to know this topic a bit better.

You cannot mention Nintendo without mentioning Nintendo 64. It would be cool if there would be a mini console of it made available. I have read so much about Zelda – Ocarina of Time. I don’t actually have room for N64 in my small, or not-so-small, gaming corner I have in my living room currently. N64s controller can definitely raise some eye brows.

But to the point, again, I don’t have so many games for GameCube. They can be a bit pricey. I have heard about Eternal Darkness and there is, I think, some good Mario games also released for it and available for me to purchase. So, the game I do have is Resident Evil. It is a remake of the survival horror game that was originally released for PS1 in 1996.

Actually, any advice on this would be appreciated. I don’t know if you want to recommend a game for me or is this the right channel for it. But it was nice to give you something to read again. I am going to write some more stuff here soon. I just yesterday purchased CoD Vanguard and I am spending some time with it. I also might have something to say shortly about how it felt to play Crysis 2 and maybe even how it is as FPS compared to any Call of Duty game and what are the biggest differences.