Expert: Octane - 12/24/2009

Question
Hello again Octane,

thanks for all your help with the previous questions, just have a few more for you. i also want to wish you a merry xmas and a happy new year :-)

you said in your previous answers that a xbox 360 will play xbox games prvided that it is a hard drive model and not a arcade edition. i went into a local gaming store and asked them the same question as i was about to buy a xbox 360 and they said that a xbox 360 wouldnt play xbox games so im just a bit confused ? also whats the difference between the arcade edition and hard drive model ?

you said a ps2 will play ps1 games, do i need to get anything for my ps2 to play the ps1 games ? eg. ps1 controllers, memory card etc

you said a N64 will play nes and snes games only if it has a tristar 64. you did say the tristar 64 is quite rare, so how rare are we talking ? and how much should one be rougly ?

you said a wii will play gamecube games no problems but do i need to buy anything to play the gamecube games on the wii ? eg. gamecube controllers, memory cards etc

ok mate im off, thanks once again. talk soon

Answer
Gday again Jason,

The local gaming store are a bunch of idiots and because of there stupidity really should not be working at a game store.

Have a read of either the Wiki page or the official Microsoft page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_games_compatible_with_Xbox_360

http://www.xbox.com/en-AU/games/backwardcompatibility-overview.htm

The Difference between and Arcade Edition and Hard Drive models is basically the hard drive.  But again you need the Hard drive for things like Xbox Live, Playing Xbox Games, connecting to the Internet and downloading anything.  If you wanted just a stand allow system that just plays 360 Games the Arcade would be the one to go for.  It's quite slick marketing from Microsoft get a cheap Xbox 360 (But they don't tell you what it will not be able to do)

PS1 Games on a PS2 all you really need is a PS1 Memory card.  PS1 Games saves will not save on a PS2 Card.  Controllers are the similar.

For the Wii I would invest in both a Gamecube memory card (Can't save on Wii cards unless you are downloading) and Gamecube controller (Because it works better than waving around like a spaz).

Tristar 64 are fairly rare.  You might pay anywhere between $80-$200 USD for one.  There do appear on Ebay a bit but go for a fairly high price ($100+).  The PAL version is much harder to find then the NTSC model.  The also don't work all that well and it looks like you are strapping a unit the size of a SNES on top of the N64 so space wise you arn't really saving any space and they have several compatability issues.

Hope that helps you again

(Watch the Cricket on Boxing day for me mate)

Octane