MILES to GO || before I sleep

So my dad is here, and he tried to help me fix my PS2. He opened it up, fixed this loose cover over the lens, and we tried to play games. At least Katamari started up, as did FFX-2 I+LM. But Katamari has the same issue with the music dying on me and replacing it with a loud "squee!" (and not the happy fangirl kind) of sound. Then again, it might be the disc itself, which looks pretty beat up for only 5 or so plays. I wish I could return it to Game Stop, except I can't find the receipt. I think I paid cash for it... it was only $12.50 from my GameStop Bucks, and I can't remember what I did with that receipt.

Well, buying Katamari wouldn't be so bad, but I'm still not convinced that it's not my PS2. It's an old PS2, really. The disc tray is taped in there, the inner ribbon connecting the eject/reset buttons is not taped down anymore either, and the cover over the lens was loose. I could pay $150 for a new slimline PS2, and the extra $100 for a new mod chip, shipping and installation (theoretically), and it would only be a total $50 shy of the projected new PS3 price... which may NOT be coming out in March after all (so much for a birthday present), but in FALL!

Shit.

So what has anyone heard about the PS3's imminent release? I think I can get by okay without my games... *sniff* But I miss not being able to watch my DVDs on the couch in front of a wider-screen (than my monitor, that is) TV.

What about whether buying a new slimline and TRYING to find a modchip installer in the Los Angeles area (trying now... no luck so far) and doing it that way?

Or what? Should I just forget about this whole deal and save myself $250?

Help. (If you can point me toward modchip installers, repair places that actually do modified PS2s -not that the mod should have anything to do with the errors I'm having- and get back to their customers, or whatever... I'd appreciate it. So far, I haven't heard from any of the repair places I've called or emailed. And for the record, Dave of PSX-TECH.com has apparently gone out of business. :P)

I returned the Crossover cable to Best Buy; no hassle. There was a $5 difference between it and my new blue PS2 controller. :D The whole store was so noisy though, because they had some girl named Sabrina there from Radio Disney. All these screaming tweenyboppers. X_X Gah, I'm glad I don't work at Best Buy. Their poor employees didn't even get ear plugs!

Okay, so I got the Crystal Chip firmware working. Dave set it to boot automatically; all I have to do is press the reset button. Simple enough. :) I already played DDR 3rd Mix (ow...), but 5th Mix doesn't work; I guess the CD it's on is too scratched up. But I can try to do a disc-to-disc copy and see if that works. I tried the reset thing with Persona 2, but it gives me a disc read error (not even a "insert a Playstation or Playstation 2 format disc" error).

...And even though the 5th Mix CD takes up 380+ MB of space, my Explorer can't see anything on it (thus, nothing to copy to another disc), unless there's something I don't know about burning games...?

I'm crossing my fingers that I'll win the Persona 2 auction on eBay, but I'd also like to get FFX-2: International/Last Mission. I think I know the game well enough to be able to read the menus (plus I know 'Hai' and 'Iie' in kanji...) but the whole point of buying I+LM is LM... which is entirely in Japanese. Does anyone know of where there's a Last Mission translation? And supposedly if you beat FFX-2 (J) or FFX-2 International, when you play LM and get to the top of The Tower, you get a special ending. Anyone know where that's hosted? I've already seen the "perfect" ending of FFX-2, but not this LM one.

Oh, and is there any released artwork for YRP in their new dress sphere outfits, Psychiccer and Festival-goer?