Another month has passed, and another PSP has been delivered to me (...and another PSP article has been written, one of many!)

One of my favorite things to do is to keep an eye on Mercari via Buyee, and to buy cheap PSPs. When they're listed on there 99% of the time they'll have the word 'junk' attached, which can mean anything from being dusty to not being charged to being totally ruined. I find sifting through what it might be to be super fun.

This one was really cheap for the condition it was in, judging by the pictures they shared of it. The white of the thumbstick was still white, which itself is a super rarity (they get grubby or yellow SO easily!), but it did have one issue, the charger was broken inside the charging port.

Anyway, this really isn't a deep-dive of an article. Or a guide, it was really just an excuse to share what it was like to take a gamble on the 'junk' tag and buy a dead cheap PSP which in the end required a tiny little fix I did.

If you're at all interested, or nostalgic about PSPs then follow my link to read along. Warning, I ramble and haven't written this very well at all:

https://gardinerbryant.com/buying-a-psp-from-japan/

(spoiler, it came out amazingly and works perfectly for a total of like $35.50 USD)

Picked up a used Gigabyte HD 4850 with Zalman aftermarket cooler for $10. The Zalman cooler kept temps at just 53°C — massive difference from my previous HD 3850 that hit 106°C! Tested on a Core 2 Duo rig with GTA SA, CoD4, Crysis and more. Full video here: https://youtu.be/0ORqQPk7kjs

cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/49161208

The development and release of Pole Position is probably worthy of an in depth deep dive for another time, so look out for that in a future post. In the meantime, I’ve come across some more e…

Nowhere (Devalley Entertainment, 2007) is a psychological survival horror that ran on old keypad phones. Two parallel worlds, two characters, and honestly pretty unsettling for something that fit on a Nokia. Mostly I just want to get it in front of people who've never even heard of it.

The thing is, the original couldn't show Cyrillic and Western letters at the same time, so it never really got translated. So I ended up making two things, a mod and an editor.

The mod:

• re-encoded everything to UTF-8, so it's 6 languages in one jar now (EN/DE/IT/PL/PT/RU), switchable in-game
• parallax fog it didn't have before
• hardcore mode, enemies get 3x HP
• speed control per save, helps a lot on slower emulators

The editor (Windows):

• visual editor for text and dialogue, with avatar preview and CP1251/UTF-8
• tile map editor with a brush, palette, resize
• zone editor for collisions, warps, entity spawns, events
• sprite sheet viewer with PNG export/import
• palette editor (16 colors) with live preview
• reference text for all 6 languages built in, so you can add your own without diving into hex

You can play it right in the browser, or grab the jar for J2ME Loader or KEmulator. The editor and a video on how to translate are on the same page:

https://bittertears.itch.io/nowhere

https://github.com/bittertears/NOWHERE_EDITOR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJPq5GX_sK8&t=29s

Anyway, hope someone here digs it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmus.org/post/22946811

This intriguing Earthbound interview between producer Shigesato Itoi and fellow writer Hajime Kimura originally appeared in the 9/94 edition of Family Computer Magazine. As one might expect from a conversation between two writers, the tone is philosophical and big-picture, with Itoi offering many insights into Earthbound's influences and conception.

This video turned out to be much more fun than I expected!

Never seen this be mentioned here, so I thought I should.

cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/49003445

This Earthbound interview between Shigesato Itoi and writer Hajime Kimura originally appeared in the 9/94 edition of Family Computer Magazine.

I started with some knockoff clear shells and used this plus this for mister chef's but I think I used too much black. For barbieter, I used this and it was way more pink once done than I wanted. It probably could have used some black or blue added.

Both color sets were put in my heated ultrasonic cleaner at 50c for 20 minutes then removed, washed in cold water and allowed to dry. Heads up, the dye packets come with an intensifier, I used it on both but it has a weird chemical smell that lingers after you take and wash the parts. About a week on, they don't stink anymore.

The shells themselves were mid quality. The d-pads are super sloppy and the buttons stick so I used the original buttons from the first party shells. The gold shell I bought for the green accents needed the shoulder buttons and select button adjusted, it also came with 2 left triggers... Overall, I like how they came out. I wish the green was lighter but thats my fault. I may do some backlights or something in them to accent it but for now, its a unique setup and not sticky with 20 years of Doritos powder and baja blast.

Some notes:

• This was done for ZakStunts.

• The game is normally pretty lenient about offroading, so:

• There's a side competition where it's disallowed.

Q: When will you go for it on the main leaderboard?

A: Probably after the public days end.

Following up from my HD 3870 video — this time I picked up an untested HD 3850 from 2007 for $9.90. Cleaned it, repasted it and threw it at 6 games on a Core 2 Duo rig. • GTA San Andreas • CoD4 Modern Warfare • Tomb Raider Underworld • Just Cause 2 • NFS Most Wanted • Crysis Temps hit 106°C but it survived.

There's nothing more satisfying that being able to gradually break something up, with different graphical layers of damage, without having to think about opponents getting in the way, like annoying mosquitoes.

So, Lemmy, any recommendations besides the bonus levels on Street Fighter II and Final Fight? Edit: Preferably not FPS.

A hobbyist is rebuilding Microsoft’s 3D Pinball: Space Cadet as a real machine, crafting a physical playfield with working bumpers, ramps, and lighting.

Some people hear the Dark Souls intro and go "aw yeah, now we're in for some challenging shit."

But not me.
I suffered through this.
Got 90-something percent done.
I keep listening to this music.
God-damn.
One day. One day.
Then I'll go for Dark Souls.

Picked up a Radeon HD 3870 for $10 with no guarantees. Cleaned it, repasted it and threw it at CoD4 Modern Warfare and Crysis 1 on a Core 2 Duo rig. The nostalgia was real. Full video here: https://youtu.be/WuTVt4ZCmoY

Just a little article from me today. I've been enjoying a few cyberpunkish things recently:

• Psycho-Pass
• Dark Rain
• Cyberpunk 2077

...which reminded me that there was a semi-recent effort at bringing the classic Blade Runner PC game from 1997 to a new era of gaming. It didn't land very well (everyone hated the smoothed graphics nonsense they did for it), but on a subsequent update they did fix that.

Anyway, that recollection led to me installing it on my OLED Switch, which then made me appreciate the atmosphere and environments, the beautiful backgrounds and so on. The backgrounds in this game are truly top-notch.

SO, if you'd like a little rambling about how Westwood went against the grain when 3D gaming was really taking off, and instead focused on a point-and-click adventure, then follow the link as per usual:

https://gardinerbryant.com/when-other-games-chased-polygons/