What's on your mind?

[Bounty Hunter Lani]

I recently bought a PS1 to play FF8 again the old fashioned way. Originally, I tried emulation but that was a headache. The entire game was brand new 4 discs inside a jewel case; never been opened prior to 2019, always placed somewhere safe and out of the way. Regardless of being brand new discs, it seems the data isn't so easy to read; spots of the game don't always load so I have to reset and retrace my steps and hope I'm lucky in the next session. Not a huge deal, I'm on disc 2 and going strong aside from the game CD's hiccups.

Old games have a limited shelf life and fragility. I wonder if the game is suffering from digital "bit rot" or something because there are no scratches (aside from the one I just made not even a second ago.) I hate touching, let alone handling, old black PS1 discs because their sensitive nature. Its one of those things where I feel need to be in a laboratory clean room wearing specialized gloves and a white chemical jumpsuit before I load it in the lid.

In reality, I'm wiping grease from my eyelids and rubbing it onto the surface of the disc because there is a micro scratch. Hey, it works!

Retroarch is best for FF8 emulation. Most emulators have annoying boost issues and graphical glitches, and most emulators focus on upscaling capabilities rather than accuracy. Though, the newer versions of Retroarch keep switching my controller to a non-analog one, and I have to keep manually switching it back.   

When it comes to the old PS1 console... yeah, I tried wearing gloves to keep the disc clean back in the day, but it didn't work very well even back then. I think it's just the console itself. PS2 sometimes had issues also, even with reading brand new memory cards properly. 
Whatever works for you, though       



Now, what's on MY mind?!

TIME!
It will not wait. No matter how hard you hold on, it escapes you.   

I wish I had more time to do things.