Me and my girlfriend enjoyed the PS2 version a lot and, as I’m reading lots of good things about this new one, and because I am the impatient type, I couldn’t resist ordering it after reading that there is still no sign of a definite European release date.

Graphically, it looks like an awesome game and knowing the franchise, I bet we’ll enjoy it lots.

And in awe we were! Damn, that shit looks sharp.

I had downloaded a few high-definition movie- and game-trailers from the PlayStation Network for playback and of course checked out the Casino Royale Blu-Ray that us Europeans got when registering our PS3.

Pretty awesome quality indeed… And the games, man, the games! Of course, MotorStorm has some impressive graphics and the PSN game Super Stardust HD just looks frigging amazing, Super Rub-a-Dub looking really smooth and even the Heavenly Sword demo that, honestly graphically wasn’t that impressive when watched on a standard TV-set, looked pretty cool.

I already wanted one, but now I definitely want one, having seen how the PS3 games look on high-def. But… dang…. those TV’s are still waaay too expensive.

Yeh, well, what can I say — it can run Linux, dude.

The adapter with 2 pads plugged in. If you’re wondering about the semi-transparent white plastic wrapping around the
controllers’ wirings: that’s to rabbit-proof them. Rabbits and loose wires don’t mix.

What’s in the package?
Apart from the adapter itself, the package contains a (Windows/Mac) driver diskette and a brief explanation how to set it all up. Well, if you use Windows or OS X anyways.. As a reference I googled around to see how other USB joysticks are being set up.

Set-up
The actual set-up was a breeze. Before ordering, as with any other device a Linux-user buys, I had to make sure it was supported. I found out it is a HID-compliant device — so this should not pose any problem.

The supplied driver allows you to map buttons and probably do other stuff but obviously I can’t use that on my operating system. Possibly, additionally force feedback may be a problem — but that’s the first thing I disable in games anyways to save my wrists — so, at least for me, that is a non-issue.

In order for the device to be properly picked up by the Linux (2.6.17) kernel, I figured I had to modify its configuration.

First, obviously, joystick support has to be enabled (Kernel configuration / Device Drivers / Input device support). Additionally, I also enabled the ‘Multisystem gamepads’ under Kernel configuration / Device drivers / Input device support / Joysticks. In retrospect I don’t think these are necessary as the thing works, without any additional module loaded apart from ‘joydev‘.

Although I already had USB and HID support compiled-in (Kernel configuration / Device drivers / USB support), I also enabled

• Force feedback support
• /dev/hiddev’ raw HID device support

After my kernel was re-compiled and I loaded the modules (depending on your kernel configuration you might need to reboot though), I could insert the adapter to see it nicely being picked up as a:

input: WiseGroup.,Ltd SmartJoy Dual PLUS Adapter as /class/input/input5
input: USB HID v1.00 Joystick [WiseGroup.,Ltd SmartJoy Dual PLUS Adapter] on usb-0000:00:02.1-1

Usage
To test the device I quickly did a ‘cat /dev/input/js0′ to see some garbage being spit out, which was an indication for me that the device was actually sending data to my PC.

I opened the KDE’s Control Panel and lo and behold, in the Joystick screen, it could see the joystick — and all its buttons and axis:

I noticed, when configuring some programs that a slight drawback is the fact that the adapter presents itself as one device: one joystick with a ‘double’ amount of axis and buttons. This may be a configuration issue or a driver bug. This hasn’t bothered me yet, as most games allow one to assign different mappings. I can imagine that some games might not understand that, though. This is something I’m going to look into.

If you have ever played two player games on one keyboard — you know, like playing Twister while your fingers get intertwined with the other persons’ — you can imagine how it feels to now use gamepads: bliss. It was an extensive — err — ‘testing’ session.

Update: After fiddling and looking around, I found out that what was causing the device to export only one joystick in stead of two. It was a driver issue all along: it simply didn’t know this devices’ vendor and product IDs. I cooked up this simple patch against linux/drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c to make two joysticks appear in stead of only one with all the buttons crammed into it:

Force Feedback
I tried to test force feedback today using the fftest utility but that didn’t do anything apart from barfing an error at me that the upload of effects failed due to a ‘function not implemented’. Oh well, at least I tried — I don’t miss it. I knew what I was getting into when I ordered it.

Conclusion
For a mere €15,95, the SmartJoy Dual Plus PS2 to USB adapter is a cheap, yet very functional solution to get to use your PS2 controllers on your Linux PC.

Given the fact that, ‘out of the box’ when 2 controllers are plugged in, it presents itself as one joystick device rather than two, and the force-feedback seems not to function, I give this piece of hardware a solid 8/10.

SmartJoy, USB, PS2, Joystick, Gaming, Linux

It must have been great for people to actually have been there, when I read that:

he’s controlling a plane on-screen by wiggling the pad with his hands, using the buttons to fire and nothing else. It looks like one of those dodgy virtual reality film concepts, except, er, he’s doing it.

That’s pretty cool stuff.

They are planning to launch two different configurations, one cheaper one with a reduced feature set. Well, it’s not really cheap, just a 100 bucks short of its bigger brother.

This sucks major ass though:

America: Nov 17th. 20GB: USD 499, 60GB: USD 599.
Europe: Nov 17th. 20GB: EUR 499. 60GB: EUR 599.

Ouch — we’ll be paying a hell of a lot more for them over here. That is a hell of a disillusion: 499 EUR is about 634 USD. My ass hurts because I feel I’m getting fucked.

But, to put stuff in perspective: the Playstation 2 got on the market here for 1199 Dutch guilders, roughly 600 EUR, but Sony nearly halved its price when nobody bought it.

I doubt a similar situation will occur though because all-in-all it’s not that expensive, but I keep my fingers crossed though.

PS3, Sony, Playstation

In the games, players can solicit “services” from prostitutes by driving their cars slowly near them. No sexual acts are in clear visible view, but during the “transaction,” the player regains health and loses money. Though the player cannot actively rape prostitutes in the game, a possible rape is alluded to once during the storyline of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The prostitutes, like every other character, are also subject to homicide at the hands of the protagonist.

So the prostitutes think that this game causes them to be treated more violently.

Excuse me? Get a real fucking job to begin with — also easy money has a price. I’d think getting raped is the least of their worries — what about AIDS and stuff like that? Or they gonna sue then, too? As if that would cure them.

In fact — prostitutes here need to sue those prostitutes because it has never even gotten to my mind to actually do the stuff they do in the game, in real life! What an interesting idea — I’m going out today to rape a prostitute to see if its really what its cranked up to be. (And that, of course, is a joke…)

Games, Ban, Prostitutes

Something harmless (and expressive) like graffiti is not at all sending out such a signal. Graffiti breaks the monotone look of a city. I’m all for it.

But this game is probably, causing terrorism, I guess?

Set in a city of the future, the game features a world where freedom of expression is suppressed by a tyrannical city government.

Game players battle the authorities to overthrow corrupt officials using only street fighting skills and graffiti.

Computer games are refused classification on the basis that they either promote, instruct or incite a matter of crime or violence.

Holy fucking shit! And this comes from the same government that allows that we are see people tortured, maimed, shot, burnt, ripped to shreds by dangerous wildlife on the usual TV? That does not ‘intice a matter of crime of violence’?

Hell, ‘Crime Scene Investigation’, or any other lame excuse for a detective series, they ‘instruct’ how (not) to perform the perfect crime. On daytime television for fuck sakes.

I’m confused…

Games, Graffiti

Sony’s new super-packed PS3 handles a lot more than games. That, some say, could confuse buyers

I think those kind of articles only confuse buyers.

If the Cell technology is really good for military and medical appliances, and if that’s really gonna sell, Sony would be able to sell the units at a terribly low price.

Sony, Playstation, PS3, Marketing

WTF!?

Not that interesting, but do you know what I find, well, ‘typical’ ?

This quote right here:

A Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters that glitches affected only a “very, very small fraction” of the units shipped, and that “the number of calls was not unexpected”.

This sure as hell implies they knew about the problems beforehand. Just like probably all the vulnerabilities in Office, Internet Exploder, and that lame excuse of an operating system that’s always shipped 2 years late, with less than half the functionality they promised.

Holy fuck — and there are actually people that run some form of embedded Windows operating system in their cars?

There have been several postings over at Xbox-scene complaining of crashing Xbox’s on new games, with default settings on single player. Crashes on Xbox Live and on startup have been reported too, and Project Gotham Racing 3 crashes before finishing the first lap. Screenshots and Video are available showing the crash.

..Microsoft has posted a list of 212 Xbox games that are backward-compatible with the Xbox 360 – but only next-generation consoles with a hard drive.

The list, which you can view here, contains all the best-known Xbox titles. Games not present on the list will not run on the 360.

Obviously the number of games reported to work is limited, because the hardware changed along the way. They’ve moved to a whole new architecture (and I bet the owners of those console will notice that in due time).

My money’s on the PS3…

Not solely because I simply dislike Microsoft and their products, but simply because the Playstation has always been an elegant piece of machinery. Reading up on the Cell-technology, the PS3 would be the most elegant gaming console out there. Admitted, it wouldn’t be the first time that a ‘technologically challenged’ product outmarkets the better one (Betamax, VHS, anyone?).

So they’re both moving to a new architecture, only I have more faith in Sony actually getting done what they promise. For some strange reason I don’t have this amount of faith in Microsoft… (Now why would that be? )

Sony did manage to get the PS2 to play 100% of the PS1 games through an emulation layer. I have read the new PS3 will have a similar layer for PS2 games. Theoretically, it would even be possible to play the old PSone games on the new hardware without any hassle or restrictions at all.

I guess time will tell, and we’ll just have to wait until the PS3. In the meantime, we’ll have to get used to those irritating Xbox 360 adverts on- and offline, as a feeble attempt to get their console on the number 1 spot.

Wouldn’t we all be so much better of if all these companies would just work together in stead of against eachother? Until that happens, …

…my money’s on the PS3…