Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: playstation 2

Some Reasons for the Success of Nintendo Switch

Posted on by Viljami

Today Nintendo Switch is the third most sold video game console. Only some legendary and popular devices are above it in the statistics. Those consoles are PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS. I am talking about the global top list of consoles sold. The statistics of a specific region, like North America, Europe or Asia, might differ from the ones that I here am writing you about.

The most sold consoles, huh? PlayStation 2 has held this position for a long time now. It dominated the statistics being the first DVD player for many gamers. It has also a very wide selection in a form of a game library. People were expecting something like this already when only PlayStation 1 was available. During this period we saw a great increase in the number of gamers worldwide as new players and groups were starting to get interested in video games.

What about Nintendo DS and its success. Why did it take place? I guess this has everything to do with it being a portable gaming device. You could take it everywhere and it provided solid library of games and a decent three-dimensional environment for these new types of video games. I guess that before the era of smart phones (I think Apple begun this era by releasing the first iPhone in 2007) this was something very attracting for a gamer.

We are taking now Nintendo Switch in to account while we are having a conversation about the most sold gaming consoles. And actually why is it so? Well, there are some quite clear matters that we can think for a while. One of them is that Nintendo Switch has a gaming library that has a very good quality. There are several Nintendo exclusive games being still released that are very good ones and that you cannot play on another console.

We have to take in count also these delivery problems that Sony and Microsoft faced during the pandemic. This is a reason you cannot underestimate in these talks. There was a long period of time that Xbox Series X and both PS5 models, the one with the disc drive and the one without, were totally unavailable. You could find a Xbox Series S if you were lucky but there was no serious lack of Nintendo Switch consoles. The availability might be the biggest reason that Nintendo Switch climbed to such high levels of units sold during these times.

Why is the Nintendo Switch so cheap? The price is today about 300 euros here in Europe while PS5’s and Xbox’s pricier models wear a price tags way higher. You have to consider that Switch doesn’t come with a proper controller so you might have to spend like 70 euros for Pro Controller. This is of course optional. One factor of the low price seems to be that Nintendo Switch is very underpowered especially when compared to its main competitors of this generation of consoles. It is compared to Xbox 360 when we are discussing about pure performance. The upcoming Switch 2 that we are going to get more information from Nintendo by 2nd of April is said to be as powerful as PS4. So, the pure power is not the case when dealing with success here.

We also cannot forget the appeal of Nintendo’s brand. They are known to be a “mega” huge gaming company since the early days of Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short, back in the beginning of 1980s. It was the video game console that made home video gaming popular again while many consumers were very disappointed in Atari’s 2600 and especially their games and overall quality that finally caused a big depression of video games consuming and playing in the first years of 1980s. NES was definitely the console that made gaming popular again. You could trust Nintendo and it was something considered to have a good quality.

Today PS2 has sold wolrdwide over 160 million units. Nintendo DS has sold 154 million units. Nintendo Switch is behind these two with 150,8 million sold units. It is very exciting to see how is the Switch ending up to sell as the sales might dive down after or even before Switch 2 is getting released. How many people are going to buy Nintendo Switch if the Switch 2 is already available? The price of this new Nintendo console is predicted to be somewhere between 400 or 500 euros. However the price or other details, like release date, are not yet officially announced.

Transition From PS2 To PS3

Posted on by Viljami

In this blog post we are dealing with the step from Sony PlayStation 2, PS2 for short, to Sony PlayStation 3, PS3 for short. Today we are used to see a new gaming console from a manufacturer in about six to eight years after release of a system.

I think that the transition from PS2 to PS3 was a huge one. Lets start by comparing these two systems and actually their specs. PS3 has 256 MB of RAM while PS2 has 32 MB. This means that PS3 has eight times more randomly accesssed memory. We can proceed and compare the hard disk space of these two consoles. PS3 has, depending on the model at hand, a hard disk of 12 to 500 GB. PS2 doesn’t have a hard drive. Instead it uses memory cards that have at least 8 MB of space.

PS3 has a more powerful processor and it handles graphics with a stronger and more powerful GPU. The actual weights of the units are for PS2 0,6 kg and for PS3 2,1 kg. PS2 offers an AV output with SCART connector while PS3 is also capable to output AV signal with an HDMI connector. Also PS3 has more USB connections available.

PS3 has a capability for its user to view a movie with its Bluray drive while PS2 is able to play you a movie in a DVD format. PS3 enables also an internet connection through WLAN while PS2 only supports Ethernet connection.

What it comes to controllers PS3 has a controller that is called Dual Shock 3. It is a wireless controller. I have always used the cable with my controllers but there is also wireless function which some gamers do prefer. The button layout is slightly modified in comparison to the Dual Shock 2 that is the controller for PS2. The controller of PS2 is a wired one while there can be some other wireless controllers available also for PS2.

What were some of the most important games for these two consoles? For PS2 there were games like Gran Turismo 3 and 4, Grand Theft Auto 3, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, Max Payne 1 and 2, Ratchet and Clank series and many others. As you can figure there were many sequels to some games that started on the first PlayStation, or PS1 for short.

Some of the greatest games for PS3 were Max Payne 3, Gran Turismo 5 and 6, Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5, Skyrim, Metal Gear Solid 4, Silent Hill Homecoming and many others.

All in all the transition from PS2 to PS3 was a huge one. While we could still use Full HD televisions while playing PS3 the graphics were totally clearer compared to what PS2 offered. I mean that you could still be playing PS2 with a CRT TV. Could you imagine playing a PS3 with one? I doubt that.

PS2 was released in 2000 and PS3 in 2006. Although PS2 has lower performance all in all it has sold way more units than PS3. The numbers are almost 159 million units for PS2 and about 87 million units for PS3. The production of PS2 discontinued in 2013 and the production of PS3 in 2017. You still might be able to buy a used  PS2 or PS3. Also I think that both of them can be played on a PC with a good emulation software today if you have a powerful enough computer.

Some Problems with Retro Hardware

Posted on by Viljami

As you have probably noticed I have been lately playing lots of PlayStation 2 games. My console is fairly new. What I mean is that I have only owned it for under a year or so. It is now malfunctioning. I am having problems with audio and video being cut off in the middle of playing a game like Need for Speed Prostreet or Tenchu – Wrath of Heaven. They come back after some seconds but what it comes to playing this is very disturbing.

Well what can you expect? This device is old. PS2 was released over 20 years ago. Would you expect some similar device, like computer, to function after this long of a time? Probably not.

This isn’t the first time that I am coming across issues with old hardware. I have had Xbox, Xbox 360 and earlier I had one other PS2 that started to malfunction. It couldn’t read the disc anymore. Dust can be one issue. One issue is that these old parts just aren’t reliable anymore after all this time that has passed.

You can, of course, try to fix the console yourself. This can be tricky. Not everyone is capable of doing this on their own. You can contact your closest electronic repair shop and ask them how much would they charge for the repairment of your console. There is also one more option and it seems to be an interesting one.

I am talking about emulation. You have retro games but you aren’t able to play them since your gaming console is broken. Why not make copies of them for your own use? I think it is reasonable since the console is broken, right? And with games that are on DVD this shouldn’t be an issue. What we know is that PS1 and PS2 games can be ripped to ISO files (files that end in .iso) with proper tools (software).

There are many options available. Some years ago I came across NVIDIA Shield TV. It is a device that makes your regular television a smart device that is basically operating on Android. You can install RetroArch to it. It is this kind of a forntend that you can run retro games on. It combines several emulator together. I found this to be handy with for example PS1 games. You could even hook your PS4 controller to the Shield TV with Bluetooth. You can install RetroArch on several devices. Windows and Linux are also supported along with Raspberry Pi.

You can also use a full Linux operating system on any PC that you can also hook up to any television that has the connectivity required. That is means to transfer video and audio from your dedicated computer to your television. One popular opertating system of this kind is Lakka OS.

Lakka OS boots up to its own user interface. You only need to go through some menus with your controller. This can be any USB controller that you might have. Lakka OS supports several retro gaming platforms including NES, SNES, Mega Drive and so on. The full list can be found from your favorite search engine. I can tell you that this list is long.

What I am most interested about concerning emulation, like using Lakka OS or RetroArch, is playing games of PS1, PS2 and GameCube. I can currently play my NES, SNES, Game Boy, Mega Drive and Master System games with my Retro Trio console and with the assistance of some adapters (Master System->Mega Drive adapter and SNES->Game Boy adapter). I also have a Mega Drive Mini also for playing Mega Drive games. I also play PC games. I also play games on newer systems like Xbox Series X, PS3, PS4 and Nintendo Switch. As you can imagine my setup is huge.

I hope this blog post gave you some ideas concerning playing retro games. The hardware isn’t perfect. It does wear out with time. Software emulation might provide a more stable way for a gamer to enjoy his/her retro games for a long time.