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Play PS2 XBOX and More on Your PC Monitor

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It sounds simple enough, you want to play your Playstation 2 (PS2), XBOX, or other gaming console that uses composite video, on your computer monitor. Turns out that doing this can prove to be quite difficult, but here’s a solution.

You may start out looking for adapters on Amazon or eBay and within seconds you find tons of different adapters. Some of these adapters look like they will work just fine, RCA inputs on one side and VGA or HDMI on the other side. What’s even better is that you likely get a great deal on the adapter, perhaps it will only set you back $1.50.

Unfortunately, this will leave you without an image on your PC monitor and you will find yourself trying to figure out how to get your $1.50 back. The truth is these adapters weren’t designed to work the way you think they would. Most of these kinds of adapters were meant to work the other way around and were never intended to be used to hook a gaming console up to a PC monitor. Luckily there is a simple solution that will get you up and running quickly.

PETRH RGB to HDMI PS2 Xbox to PC monitor

You can use the PETRH RCA Component RGB YPbPr to HDMI v1.3 Video Converter or one similar to this. Not many monitors have composite video hookups so this will be very helpful as it will provide you with an HDMI connection to plug right into your monitor. This is the fastest way to get up and running without getting all caught up in the adapter game. This converter also handles audio which is a nice addition that some adapters might not have. The key to finding a working adapter in this case is one that is powered and comes with it’s own power supply.

Please note that you will also need to get a component cable for your PS2 or original Xbox as the original cable provided with these consoles only offers composite video (Red, White and Yellow). After that, the only other connection you need to make is to hook up the power supply to the converter box and you’re ready to game. Of course you don’t have to just use this converter for games, you can use it for just about anything you want to hook up that only accepts and HDMI signal. You can pick this unit up for around $25.00 on Amazon or eBay.

 

StarCraft II Heart of the Swarm Beta for Those Who Pre-Ordered

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Starcraft II Heart of the Swarm Logo

If you got onboard early with StarCraft II Heart of the Swarm and pre-ordered the game before December 18th, you will have access to test out the beta version of the game. Amazon will be sending out promotional beta key codes with actual physical pre-orders. That’s a pretty sweet deal. Blizzard Entertainment will be releasing StarCraft II Heart of the Swarm will launch 3-12-2012. You can get more information about the upcoming expansion from our earlier post here.

Update: PCGamesN.

Featured App: Angry Birds Star Wars

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Angry-Bird-Star-Wars-Nerd-Style.com_

Everyone knows the original Angry Birds was a huge hit back in 2009. Since then, they have released many different versions and add-ons for this game, and has become a great franchise.

Ever since the original though, I have not been interested. It’s all been pretty much the same game to me, but this year they announced and released Angry Birds Star Wars, and being the Star Wars geek that I am, I had to try it out. To my surprise, I was hooked pretty much instantly. Yes, it is still the classic Angry Birds game-play, but the additions made are amazing. The birds are dressed up as all the characters from Luke Skywalker to R2-D2. As you go through the levels you can unlock new characters. Each one has a unique ability (e.g. Han Solo will shoot his gun, Luke has a lightsaber, and Chewbacca just plows right into everything).

angry-birds-star-wars-review

The game also has nice cut scenes, which are very short, but still a great addition. The artwork and music are fantastic, and I love the way each level is designed. Everything about it has the look and feel of Star Wars. You will fight your way through stormtrooper pigs and go up against Darth Vader pig. It’s like playing through scenes of the movie.

If you are a Star Wars fan this is a must try. Check it out!

Available for download here: Angry Birds

 

 

 

How To Quickly Shut Down Windows 8

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With Windows 8 it seems just a bit difficult to simply shut down your computer. Unlike previous versions of Windows, you can no longer just click Start and then proceed to shut down your PC.

Instead, Windows 8 makes you take the scenic route and either go through the process of logging off or flipping through the Charms menu, diving into Settings then pressing power and finally clicking Shutdown. Super intuitive right? Well, there is an easy way to get around all of this and quickly shut down your PC.

  • Head to your desktop.
  • Right-click and select New.
  • Create a shortcut.
  • Type the following in the text box: “shutdown /s /t 0″(that is a zero at the end.)

Once the shortcut is created you can change the icon of the shortcut to something a little more interesting by right-clicking the shortcut, selecting Properties, and then under the “Shortcut” tab, click Change Icon.

Now you can shutdown Windows 8 in record time!

ShutdownHowToSS

Let’s go a little deeper into what we’re asking the system to do when creating our new shortcut.

When we type “shutdown” we are simply asking the system to execute the shutdown.exe file located in the Windows System32 folder. The “/s” lets the shutdown.exe program know that we intend to shutdown our computer. I know it seems redundant but there are a bunch of other options (sometimes referred to as flags or switches) that the shutdown.exe program can perform including restarting the computer after it shuts down (/r). The “/t” lets the shutdown program know that we are about to tell it the time-out period we wish to use for this shutdown, which is then followed by the actual time-out period we want, in this case we used “0”.

For a full list of options to use with shutdown.exe, you can simply type “shutdown ?” in your command prompt or power shell.

 

Lifetime Ban for League of Legends Pro

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 LoLSS19

Pro gamer, Christian Rivera, who goes by the name I_Will_Dominate, has just been served a lifetime ban from the e-sports team of developer Riot Games. Rivera competed professionally as part of Team Dignitas for the game League of Legends. This should come as no surprise to those who follow him as he has been in trouble 8 times before and has received numerous warnings about his attitude toward other gamers. Here is a quote from the ruling.

“Despite the punishments and official warnings, his harassment score has risen more than 30% from early August to the present date, placing him at the top of the list of North American pro players and among the worst 0.7% of all North American players,”

An official post on the League of Legends community forums states the developer’s low tolerance level for this type of behavior.

“I’ve got some tough news to share with you. We take sportsmanship and player behavior very seriously, and we fundamentally believe that pro players should not be exempt from scrutiny over their behavior.”

“Promoting good sportsmanship and improving player behavior is a mission that’s extremely important to Riot, and this ruling is a reflection of our commitment.”

Update from Polygon.