Technological priorities

You won't know this, because I didn't do a tedious post about what the weekend held in store for me... but on Friday night, I raced around the dog circuit needing to be home by 6pm to greet 8 or so 12 year olds whose (netball) A Team celebration was being held in the form of a sleepover at our place. Mrs Llew was at the supermarket getting provisions for the evening (which didn't get used in the end & were substituted by a fine selection of Pizza Hut goodies).

I got back just as the first batch were arriving. It's not a good look for parents to deliver their young some place to find no adults in attendance.

Some short time later, Mrs Llew turned up with a package.

"Can you wire this up for tonight?"
"I can wire anything up, what is it?"
"Singstar."
"WTF? Singstar sucks! Anyway, you need a PS2 for that."
"That's in the box too."
"Are you telling me that we had disposable income?"
"Shaddup & plug in the Singstar."

Now... let's pause just a moment to fill in some backstory. For the last several years, we have had a PS1 in the entertainment cabinet, which we inherited from my brother-in-law when he went overseas, no-one, aside from the occasional young visitor ever uses it. We've discussed upgrading in the past, but dismissed the idea as we just don't seem to be gamers.

Then... my niece visited with her PS2 & Singstar & we have been subjected to various thin voiced warblings in the service of many, generic & boring pop songs.

Additionally, we regularly review the state of entertainment technology & I thought we were all agreed that should appropriate funding become available, a DVR Hard Drive was the priority!

So anyway. I plugged in the PS2. And compared to the PS1, it is beautiful! At the end of this post, I will have some salient questions to ask the initiated.

The SIngstar disc that came with the package contains I guess, a selection from the Sony catalogue. I'm having difficulty remembering what exactly though.

The girls, after various standard & gourmet pizzas, assembled in the lounge, and agreed the format (duets, medleys, 2 teams etc etc - I don't actually know how to navigate the things), huddled around the TV (way too close for their eyes) and gave it what for.

Funniest cacophany was the team of 4 trying to do the rap bit from the Black Eyed Peas Shaddup. priceless. Ah... now it's coming back to me.

It also has INXS' New Sensation, and I was reluctantly enticed to the mike to show them how it's done.

"Hey, The lead singer looks like your dad!"
"Hey, your dad is beating you!"
"Hey, your dad creamed you!"

Hah! Let that be a lesson to them all!

Now. My questions...

Can the... I don't know the jargon... can the game controller things, that you hold in your hand with triangles, circles & squares etc on it, from a PS1 be used on a PS2? Can the old PS1 memory modules?

I notice it has a network jack on it, what's that for?

And aside from Singstar & games, and DVD playing, can they be used for anything else?