The first BEMANI game for home console: beatmania

After the successful released of the first beatmania in the arcades back in 1997, Konami released its direct arcade port for the PlayStation, released in October 1, 1998. The first beatmania game consist of two disc, a direct arcade port from beatmania 2ndMIX (ARCADE DISC) and an append disc (YEBISU MIX). The game is also the KEY DISC to all APPEND DISC in the beatmania games, explanation here. 

The beatmania box art

Nowadays, getting a used copy at Ebay will cost you less $10.00 (depending on the condition). However, looking for a sealed copy is rare and expensive. I wasn't able to play the first beatmania game, the earliest beatmania version I played is a beatmania 3rdMIX mini located in Morayta, Manila. I know big Game Centers in the Philippines like Timezone and Quantum had their beatmania arcade machines but their whereabouts are unknown, most likely they are in storage or scrapped. It's good to reminisce on how beatmania looks like in its early years and how it evolved thru the years with beatmaniaIIDX. 

The Arcade and Yebisu disc

Inside the game, includes a leaflet for the beatmania controller created by ASCII and Konami

At launch, the game costs 5,800JPY, while the BEST edition retails for 2,800JPY

Cheap Upscale converter for PlayStation 2!

Last August 8, 2020, Shopee held its 8.8 event. A site wide event for big discounts and free shipping to all their listings. On that day, I decided to buy the generic PS2 to HDMI converter for 162.00Php! According to the seller, the item will be coming from overseas (Shenzhen, China) and shipping fees will be waived, thanks to their 8.8 event. 

The listing where I bought the converter

Yesterday, the courier came, and delivered the item after 6 days after my order was placed. Tried the converter and it works! My initial observation were the resolution are refined than using the composite (Red, Yellow, and White) cable and our TV recognized it as 480i resolution (I don't know if the 480i is the standard resolution when using the composite). As the description says, the converter can give a 480p, 576i, and 576p video output.  Tried the converter to a PS2 game, the images are more sharper than composite. Unfortunately, PlayStation 1 games won't work for the converter. As lags are still present although more brighter than composite. I searched over the internet and found out that there are two variants of PS2 to HDMI converter.

The actual product

I also read reviews about this item and found out that the converter is a hit-or-miss product. Some buyers reported that they got a faulty item, some became faulty days after they received it, and some were works like a charm. Good thing I received a working unit but I don't how long it will last. Some buyers would expect buying cheap will give them a high quality product. There are other sellers who are selling the same product in Shopee's website and their prices varies, ranging from 162 to 250.00Php.

Aside from the generic converter that I bought, there is an another PS2 converter can be bought, from Pound. The converter from Pound, which I believe more powerful and more expensive than the generic ones. For me, I think the generic one will suffice my need to upscale the resolution of my PS2. Maybe I will buy the Pound brand if the generic converter becomes faulty. All I can say is that, even though, the console is 20 years old, there are still people who are using the world's best selling console.