lproven | Fiddling while Rome burns

I went mad a little while ago and bought myself a cheap used Playstation 2.

It was to replace the one that Scroteboy - AKA Tony John Beasley of Tooting - stole from me a couple of years back. I'd not noticed until that point, but he stole all my games, too, the hateful junkie bastard. All I had left was my PS1 copy of Quake and my memory card. And a retro 80s-style joystick I bought myself at the Retro Gamer show some years back.

But I didn't have anything to play on it until recently, until I bought myself a guitar controller and a copy of "Guitar Hero Rocks the '80s" on eBay. Total outlay, not a lot - about £75 for all of it, including the console, which was £40 from X Electrical.

And now, I am finding that a lot of my evenings are disappearing. I've not been out once this week since

suaveswede went home, which probably means that the PS2 has already paid for itself.

I am terribly impressed with Guitar Hero. No, it's nothing like playing a real guitar. Yes, it's an entirely useless skill. But it is terrific fun.

Now, though, I hanker after Rock Band and its drumkit... But I don't have a Gen3 32-bit console. At least a Gen2 one - a replacement PS2 - was cheap. (AFAICS, there was no Guitar Hero for the Xbox, as thanks to

ajshepherd, I do have one of those. Was rather enjoying GTA Vice City on it occasionally. Splinter Cell was way too hard.)

The trouble is, I may have found an excuse.

Some months ago, I was chatting with

lostcarpark during one of his visits. He felt that the balance board from Wii Fit would be ideal for a snowboarding game.

Oh dear.

I foresee additional expenditure...