For some reason I started thinking about PS3s again last night. They've been on my mind a lot recently, after I saw a really awesome game called Gundam Musou being played in an electronics store in Sannomiya about two weeks ago. It's basically Dynasty Warriors but with robots, hahaha. So basically, the most awesome game ever made :P Really excited, I quickly ran to where the consoles were and found the price list ... and was denied ;/ The cheapest one was about 40,000 yen, and I just couldn't justify that ;/ Especially since I figured I'd basically have to buy a new TV to be able to play it properly, given the ridiculously tiny size of my current one.

So after checking my local recycle store and finding that they didn't have any, I decided to give up again. Until a few days ago, when I was mucking around behind my computer monitor and noticed that it had component video inputs. Consoles can output in component format so I was pretty excited - it meant I could run the PS3 on my computer monitor and therefore wouldn't have to buy a new TV! I knew the PS3 output resolution wouldn't match my monitor resolution so it wouldn't look fantastic, but I figured it'd look good enough and it's a much bigger screen than my TV.

Everything fell into place yesterday when I remembered that GEO, the local "entertainment rental store" in Ako, sold second hand consoles. I zoomed up there on my bike to see if they had any second hand PS3s in stock, and they did! I bagged a 40GB one in great condition for about $320 - nearly 25% off! Good times! I also picked up a component video cable, Gundam Musou and Dynasty Warriors 5. Sweeeeet! After somehow managing to get it all home on my bike (it really sucks not having a car sometimes), I plugged it all in and it worked straight out, woohoo!

The graphics are a little pixelated on my monitor, as I expected, but it's still very playable and looks far better than it would on my tiny TV. The only thing I forgot about was sound. The component sound naturally doesn't plug into my computer speakers so I need to go buy a component to headphone converter and run that either to my speakers or into my computer. I'm thinking the computer is a good idea, that way I can simply run the sound through the microphone/line in and unmute it. All good! :P *happy*