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We are what we think & my blog entries reflect how I think. Have a sip of the poison of my mind.. It's not always lethal.

Friday, October 18, 2013

My Galaxy Note 2 - Now Also a PSP And a Playstation 1 Console


PSP Games
 
That's the PSP Puzzle Bubble (Bust A Move) game on my Galaxy Note 2 there. Yup, you can play some of the PSP games on your Android device with the PPSSPP app, which is a PSP emulator.

Notice I mentioned you can play some PSP games with the app as opposed to 'all'. That's how it is with emulators, actually. But as you can see on PPSSPP's games compatibility list, quite a number of PSP games are supported. I myself tried running Silent Hill Origins and Obscure: The Aftermath but they couldn't work past their menu screens. Bummer. There could probably be some settings I need to adjust to get them to work properly, I'll have to experiment and see.

For games that work straight without me having to fiddle with anything (like Metal Slug, for example), they work and play just fine and since the screen of the Galaxy Note 2 is bigger than the PSP's, it's a more pleasurable gaming experience for the eyes, even though the hardware buttons of the PSP make it a little easier to control your game character as opposed to on-screen soft buttons, at least for me. Guess I'll need some practice.

Playstation 1 Games

I can't tell you how happy I am to be able to play my favourite Playstation 1 games on my Note 2 thanks to the FPse app. You can spot the on-screen soft controls (you can adjust their opacity) representing the Playstation's controller buttons in the photo there on the left and you have the option to place each of them in several different places around the screen as you see fit.

Oh, and the ability to enable your device's vibration feedback from within the app's settings to emulate the dual-shock Playstation 1 controller is certainly a nice vibrating touch and you can adjust and select the intensity of the vibration feedback. Every Silent Hill fan knows enough to keep the vibration feedback at maximum intensity for optimal kick when blasting shotgun shells right into the faces of the resident mutated monstrosities trying to eat you alive.

I can't seem to be able to find an official updated games compatibility list for FPse though. For example, some of the sites I came across list Silent Hill as being unplayable but the game is working just fine on my Note 2, minus some dialogue sound mash-ups during in-game cut scenes, which is no biggie for me since the cut scenes have subtitles in them.

You can still hear the conversations clearly, it's just that conversation bits from other cut scenes get interjected here and there. Since you play the game much more than watching in-game cut scenes, this shouldn't bother anyone that much and it doesn't detract me away from the gameplay even though the sound mash-ups sound weird.. Well, Silent Hill is meant to be a deliciously weird serving. Shrugs.

Many many moons ago before the turn of the century, I had to be confined at home to be able to play my favourite PSX games on the Playstation 1 console hooked up to the TV. Now? I can take the games and go anywhere outside, including creepy places to play games like Silent Hill on my Note 2.. You know, getting into the mood and all that - And what a joy it is to be able to do so.

I once played some Silent Hill at the playground in Jalan Bahar past midnight all by myself in the dark there (just a few days before the town council decided to leave the lights there on past 00:00a.m. They probably heard the diabolical moans and monstrous groans coming from my Silent Hill game and figured the playground was haunted) and boy, talk about creeped-out kicks. Freakishly awesome.

When you talk about Playstation 1, you talk about Metal Gear Solid. In my opinion, Metal Gear is the tip-top game for the Playstation 1. Every review praised it for its movie-like presentation and story line but for me, the main factor that got me hooked to this game was the conversations.

Lots of games come with bland, corny or even laughable (in a bad and cliche B movie kind of way) conversations and if I could, I would award Metal Gear's scriptwriter the highest gaming award. The conversations in Metal Gear Solid are so good, witty and even educational it makes the conversations of a horde of other games, like yes, even Resident Evil, sound retarded.

When Barry Burton met up with Jill Valentine in the hallway:
Barry: "Jill! I found something!"
Jill: "W-what is it?"
Barry: "It's a weapon.. It's reeeaally powerful!"
So I thought Barry found me a nuclear warhead but turns out, it was just some grenade rounds. Oh please. But ha, still part of the good old gaming times none the less.


Metal Gear Solid and good ol' Solid Snake.. What a thrill it is to be able to play this masterpiece all over again. My Note is now like a time machine that brings me back to the good old retro gaming times. I've tested FPse on my Note 8 tablet too and expected, everything functions just like on my Note 2 - the Galaxy Note 8 is basically a bigger version of the Galaxy Note 2 anyway.

To get FPse to run Playstation 1 games, just google and hunt down the bios file for the Playstation 1 and then within the app's settings, point it to the bios file. You then grab your Playstation 1 game discs you own, convert them to Eboot files and place them in your phone (I place mine in my external micro SD card). To launch them, just select the Eboot file from within FPse. That's the gist of it.

Oh, and you can save your game progress absolutely anywhere in-game with the Quick Save function (you can designate your own Quick Save folder); You are no longer restricted to checkpoints and fixed designated save points, which are limitations of the Playstation 1 console. Cool, huh?

(Update from 2015: I have switched to using ePSXe for playing my Playstation 1 games, which is working better for me on my Note 4)

For PPSSPP, you don't need to hunt down the bios file for the PSP, you just need the ROMs of the PSP games. Just for the record, there are other emulators for other gaming consoles too, like Super Nintendo 64 and Gameboy Advance, for example.

So yeah, happy retro gaming. Enjoy the ride as you yank the past into the present on the screen of your Android device.

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