I just played a PlayStation 2 game for the first time in my life. Up until the PlayStation 4, I haven’t got much experience with them. I remember playing on a PlayStation 1 back in the 90s one short afternoon with friends. I also played some God of War 2, Sackboy, Trine and a soccer game together with friends on a friend’s PlayStation 3. But my PlayStation experiences remained sparce until 2014 when I bought the PlayStation 4. I’ve not played many early PlayStation titles, because I didn’t have much interest in the typical PlayStation games, although I’m catching up a little bit bit the latest Evercade releases like Tomb Raider and Legacy of Kain.

Over the last two years or so I tried to play Escape from Monkey Island again. But I didn’t have much luck installing it on my Windows 11 laptop. And ideally I want to play it on a dedicated Windows 98 setup. The thin client on which I was playing it was a bit too slow to properly enjoy the experience. That was replaced by a faster thin client, but that one doesn’t seem to work with any of the storage devices I’ve tried to upgrade it with.

As with any predicament you find yourself in, you’re never the only one, and some other people solved the situation by playing the PlayStation 2 version through emulation. Installing the PSCX2 emulator proved quite effortless, although getting a PS4 controller to work was a bit finicky. And before long I was playing EfMI! My first PS2 game!

Although the game plays very well with a PS4 controller (if I remember to toggle all the right switches in the emulator that is), and the PS2 version controls much better than the PC version with its tank controls, I should try to get it to work with the Microsoft Sidewinder gamepad to have a more nostalgic experience. And who knows, maybe I’ll fix the thin client situation before finishing the game, because I’ve just ordered some old 2.5 inch IDE drives. If those don’t work, I’ll give up on the thin client situation.

I remember really liking EfMI and the beginning hasn’t left me disappointed. The characters have great lines and voices, and the puzzles are fun so far. I vaguely remember a couple of funny moments later on in the game, although the general consensus is that the latest part is annoying. We’ll see. For now, I’m enjoying myself with it.