A number of weeks ago, I got annoyed that one of the three Wico bat handles I own had apparently gotten the cord badly crimped at the boot. Out of this, not only was the boot broken off, but the joystick would no longer register 'down' due to a broken wire inside the cable... and, well, the rest of the cable at that point could not be trusted.
Being a proud owner of an Atari 7800, with a somewhat dislike for the design of the Proline controller, I figured it was time to make another controller for it. I've already made one controller, this one a gutted Space Invaders tv game.
I already had some wire I could use from a previous set of projects, but I still had to go to the local Radio Shack (boo!) to get some more parts. Among this was a piece of project perf board, some resistors to match the specs on the schematics for the 7800 controller pinouts, quick release connectors, and a male 9 pin connector (more on this in a bit). I also grabbed my one remaining untouched Sega Genesis 3-button pad to serve as a donor for the new cable.
My first job was to disassemble the Genesis controller, remove anything else of potential value, and snip the cable off the board. Once it was free, and the wires stripped, I used the male 9 pin to serve as a probe extension while I used my multimeter to verify which color was for which pin. The Genesis controllers don't seem to use the industry standard colors for the inner wires. I then carefully soldered all nine wires onto one side of the perf board, in order.
With that done, I turned my attention to disassembling the Wico. Once I was in, I was surprised to find I wasn't the first to be inside. The Wico has a switch on the base to switch between the stick top and base buttons. Someone prior to me had pulled the disconnects from the buttons, stripped off some insulation in the middle of each wire, twisted the two of them together, and reconnected them as an effort to bypass the switch. However, I had another idea for the switch, so I removed the modification entirely. Removing the switch, which is only friction fit into the base body, I carefully desoldered the entirety of the original wiring installation. In a fair amount of oddity, the switch is actually 'double pole double throw', rather than the 'single pole double throw' one would expect. The switch was made single pole by merely soldering together each 'pair' of conductors. I went ahead and verified that the switch was double throw with the multimeter, and soldered in new wires for the new role of switching the button roles in the 7800 design.
Now I went in to building the circuit. I had the controller cable soldered to the project board to not only provide myself a 'breakout', but also so I wouldn't have to try to shorten the boot on the cable itself. I added in two sets of resistors in series to make up the approximate rating of 520 ohms that the schematic called for, and bridged over to the appropriate second pins for each button. I wired in each side of the 'feed' for the switch to the other end of each bridged circuit to complete the wiring for the two buttons. I also wired in a set of wires for each positive feed for the directions and the buttons (the resistors and other pins for the buttons are actually on the 'ground' side of the selector switch) and crimped on new quick disconnects for those, as well as the two sides of the selector switch.
About this time, I realized I didn't have enough quick disconnects of the right size. I cut some more wire, and, soldering directly to the points on the leaf switches, created a ground loop on the directionals that terminated in a single wire that I then married to the ground 'cluster' on my perf board. I used the multimeter to ensure we had continuity everywhere, as well as to make sure I hadn't shorted together wires on the project board by bridging the gaps with solder, and proceeded to spend several minutes cramming the controller back together, and cursing the tight fit of everything.
I had to open it back up and reclose it when I ran the first test with Xevious, an excellent game for checking a two button stick on the 7800, as I had somehow managed to get the leaf switch for the base button pressed into the closed position the first time. But the second test went off without a hitch. I could fire cannons and bombs seperately, and I could also switch, on the fly, whether I bombed from the button on top of the stick, or on the base. And all four directions were functional again.
All in all, a very successful project, but not one I'll repeat on a good controller quite yet, in part because of the excessively tight fit of the new pieces into the existing controller shell.
Why do we finish some games but quit others some games way before the end credits have rolled? What makes us give up at a certain point rather than carrying on until the (bitter) end? This is my take on the phenomena of throwing in the towel.
Let me just say I'm not a completist by any means. I have a shelf full half finished or games that have I've not started (some still in the wrapper: Persona 4 for instance), but when I buy a game I do so with the intention of completing it. When I say "complete" I mean finishing the single player game on Normal difficulty.
As a rough estimate I'd say I complete between 10 and 20 percent of the games I buy. So why do I complete some games and not others. Off the top of my head I've come up with the followings reasons.
Frustration
This is probably the number one reason I give up on certain games, they become frustrating and the frustration outweighs the fun. When an entertainment product leaves you feeling stressed and agitated then that its no longer justifying its existence. This seems to be a big problem with a lot of games. I guess the games developers have to tread a fine line between offering the player a challenge and making game that's too difficulty but sometimes it's not necessarily a case of a game being too tough.
GTA4 is a good example of frustration - which in my opinion could have been easily avoided. At this point I'd like to have a moan about GTA games in general. When GTA3 came out I was blown away by how great the game was. I would sit at work thinking about it, dreaming up plans for my approach on the next mission. With GTA3 I got pretty close to end but a mission became so frustrating that I gave up. The main reason this has happened with every GTA game since then is due to the check pointing and not the lack of quick restarts. Shockingly 7 years after GTA3 this issue has still not been resolved. Yup, this brings me to GTA4. This is a relatively new game yet it still has the same flaws as GTA3, you can't quick restart, you loose all your weapons if you die and most annoyingly of all the missions are not broken down into decent sized checkpoints.
For example, I decided to give GTA4 another blast a few weeks back, after 10 minutes back in the game I was back in love GTA and questioned why I'd not made more progress. After repeating a mission 4 times I soon realised why. This particular mission involved: Step 1 - stealing a police car; Step 2 - lookup a convict on the police computer; Step 3 - track him down to a burger shot; Step 4 follow the baddie back to his hide out; and then finally Step 5 - kill baddie and all his friends. I managed Steps 1 - 4 without a problem, but the shootout ensues at his hideout leaves me dying on the floor in a heap (dead).
As I've not played the game for ages I forget how to take cover (ok this sounds like an excuse but the controls on this game are rather flaky for a 3rd Person action game). So I restart the mission again.. Now why, why, why, do I have to redo Step 1, 2, 3 and 4 all over again? I've already completed these steps flawlessly.. It takes a good few, very dull, minutes to repeat these steps before I can get to the part I messed up. To me this repetition serves no purpose, all it does is drag out - and water down the Fun per Minute ratio. Now maybe there are people who like this kind of punishing restart (the same kind of people that like have pins stuck in their eyes) and get some sense of achievement out of completing a mission in one go without failing anything but I'm not one of them. Why not stick a check point in the game? At least after Step 4 which involves a 2 minute drive from one part of the city to the other! I paid good money for this game but as I'm not prepared to put up with the lack of in mission checkpoints I don't get to see the end game. Personally, my free time is severely limited, to the extent that I need to spend it as wisely as possible. This is probably the reason I loved Saints Row (1 and 2) - there are instants restarts, which are very well implemented. By the way - check out the Saints Row franchise - it's not as polished as GTA but a lot more fun.
Getting Lost
with the sheer number of good games being released at the moment it's tempting to stick a game in and then whip it out as soon as then next hyped up triple A release comes out. This means I often "park" a game for no other reason than something bigger and better that's just dropped through the letter box. So when the hype dies down and I go back to the game I was playing previously I spend a long time trying to remember where I am in the game and what I'm suppose to be doing. Now this is more of a problem on some games rather than others. I would say RPGs are particularly bad offenders as they are all about the story. To get round this problem perhaps there should be a recap" options where the game provides quick catch up of the story and how the game works. To summarise: games need to be easier to get back into after they've not been played for a while - all systems have a date stamp on the game saves so where this is greater than 2 weeks there should be display the recap option. This would avoid the painful hour of wandering around aimlessly hoping something will jog your mammary so you can remember what's going off and how the game works. The fact that I know that I will have to spend this house getting back up to speed means I dont even bother going back to some games.
Getting Bored
There's not just too many games - there's too many long, drawn out games. The demographic of gamers has changed, many of us are older (30s+) and have full time jobs and families. A lot of us don't have the time to spend on games like we once did. I'm not saying I want short games but why make a game 40 hours if you only have enough game play ideas to cover 20? I would sooner have a short game that's of top notch quality rather than a long game where an idea has been stretched too thin. I thought Gears of War 2 was about the right length - the story was good and it was worth getting to the end. The main was the game didn't outstay it's welcome, just as I was starting to loose interest I could see the end in sight and pushed on to the finish line. I feel like I got my monies worth out of the game, there was also plenty of multiplayer action to increase the games longevity for those that want it.
Game difficulty
As I mentioned by default difficulty setting is Normal but sometimes I like of a challenge so start off on hard (My rationale for this is Halo 3 - too easy on Normal - just right on Legendary).. I started Killzone 2 on Hard but it turned out to be too difficult (i.e. rubbish controls - how can I take cover with a shoulder button, zoom in and lean out of a corner with only 2 hands, 8 fingers and 2 thumbs - need at least another one of everything to pull this off). It would be nice to be able to switch difficulty without having to restart the entire game. Or if you get stuck on a section of a game why not have the option to drop down to "Easy" to get through it.
Buying too many games
I've already mentioned this, and this is my fault, there are just so many good games out now. It seems so easy to buy too many games especially as a lot of the good ones are released in the run up to Christmas. I don't intend to do this but I get sucked in by the hype like everyone else. I say to myself, "I'll skip Far Cry 2 and pick up cheap in the New Year" but then I find myself clicking the Buy button on Amazon.. which means the game I'm half way through gets shelved while I try and get into the latest release.
If games contained less of these problems Im sure I would get more out of the limited time I have to play them and even push up the percentage of games I complete. There will always be certain games that you dont finish, for whatever reason, perhaps I need to devote more time to each game and buy less games overall. Maybe I need to put be more tenacious and not give up so easily :-)
Hey everyone! It's another non-Mega CD related blog post. As I'm posting this, I went to my Local Car Boot Sale for the first time, for the sole purpose of adding stuff to my game collection. Continue reading to see how I got on!
I've enjoyed a variety of racing games over the years. In fact the first videogame I ever played was Night Driver on the Atari 2600.
The first simulation type racing game I played and enjoyed was Revs (BBC Micro). The game was a Formula 3 simulation with very nice pseudo 3D graphics. I seem to the recall the game being very difficult to learn and rather unforgiving which would put a lot of people off. You even had to use a clutch when changing gears (press the C button), but the game was highly rewarding when you got the hang of it. If you came any where in the top 6 cars you'd definitely earned it as the game took large amounts of concentration to put in good lap times and move up the field
In those days (the 80s) I would go to the Arcade on a regular basis and would always head to latest racing game as these tended to have massive custom cabinets with amazing graphics. A couple of arcade games spring to mind - Outrun, pumped plenty of 20p coins into this as game looked and sounded amazing. Then there was Monaco GP - again this was appealing for the awesome cabinet (complete with F1 Paddle Shifters) with force feedback etc.
Sega Rally and Daytona are probably my all time favourite arcade racing games. Both games blew me away when I first witness them running. This was not the first time I'd seen a 3D racing game but the first time I'd seen 3D graphics looking so polished and moving on screen so quickly and smoothly (must have been 60 FPS). The force feedback from Daytona took the game play experience to the next level and added massively to the immersion. The only problem with the game was it was 1 a go and this was 1994 which was a lot of money to a student in those days.
At home there were not that many racers to get excited about. As they failed to recreate or come close to the feeling of immersion created by a custom built cabinet. I found games like Gran Turismo to be sterile and overly complex, in fact this game did nothing for me. I bought it and thought it looked amazing but once I'd watched the intro and been blown away by the amazingly realistic replays I found the game dull and uninspiring. This is one of the few games which Edge magazine game 10 / 10 but left me feel cold.
The only games of the mid 90s that did much for me on the home consoles were Ridge Racer and Mario Kart. MK was a classic from the start - for me the SNES version was the best as I loved the mechanic of picking up coins to get a boost from the engine. The game was perfectly balanced and had some fantastic tracks. Ridge Racer was pure arcade and very well done. It's the only game that came close to recreating the arcade feel in the home environment, the way you could throw the cars round corners with spectacular power slides was a marvellous racing mechanic - I spent many a date trying to best the White Angel car (very tough).
Coming more up to date it's apparent that the racing game no longer holds the place in my heart it once did. Maybe I've seen everything the genre has to offer but I also think that a lot of racing games have become too hardcore and too bloated. Hundreds of cars and loads of tracks doesn't do much for me. Neither does the focus on realism and career modes. The racing games seem to have lost some of their pick up and play compactness when compared to the racers of yester year (rose tinted glasses firmly in place at this point). There are some exceptions. The burnout games have been a breath of fresh air and lots of fun. Getting back to the arcade style of racing and adding spectacular crashes has been a minor revolution for the genre - Burnout 3 then added the takedowns which again took the gameplay to another level. A truly wonderful series.
Then there's Forza 2 - which seems to have the perfect balance between simulation (rewarding following the racing line and breaking at the right time) and approachability. The game is very much a GT clone but does the GT thing without feeling so clinical. When you hook up the 360 force feedback wheel and bolt it to a table you have a very good racing game. A game which looks brilliant, it runs at 60 FPS which makes all the difference in a racing game, and sounds fantastic. The game also has a good online mode. It can be picked up very cheap now so it's a game worth checking out even if you don't particularly like racing games. The best thing the game adds to the racing game canon is the on track corner / breaking guide. Chevrons on the track show you where to turn in and when to break. This is great when trying to learn a new track and gets you on the racing line without removing the skill from the game, and of course it can be switched off if you want more of a challenge / more realism.
In terms of the future - there's nothing on the horizon that's looking to do anything new. Blur looks like it might be fun but in all honesty I'm not that excited about it. I will have a look at Forza 3 as I do rate the F2 very highly. GT5 - I'm sure this will look amazing but I still don't like the style of presentation in GT games so will probably give it a miss.
So I love ice cream and it saddens me to say that Canada is missing out on delicious flavors of ice cream. Now I've just had Ben & Jerry's Stephen Colbert's Americone Ice Cream and its really delicious. I also bought Ben & Jerry's Ginger Snap flavored ice cream and that was delicious too. But Canada doesn't have these flavors. ALSO its super expensive in Canada. I also really wish I can buy green tea flavored ice cream. Since its one of my favorites. Also being lactose intolerant DOES NOT stop me and my love for ice cream. ... The End.
P.S. This is my birthday cake. You can see the love I have for ice cream now. It's a beautiful thing.
NOTE: Ok, I don't know what's happened, but the truth is that I was meant to post this entry way later. Because even though I bought the item mentioned, I don't have it on me (hence no photo). This is because I bought the item but paypal will take a long time clearing the item before it can be sent to me. (and that is why I should just use my parent's eBay account) Hello awesome readers! Before starting this blog I ask, how are you? I have been doing exams so I haven't been commuting as much as I use to. Now this blog entry is dedicated towards a special find of mine so continue reading.
Hi - a bit of background. I wrote about trying Warcraft for the first time back in January, since then I've levelled up a Night Elf Druid to LVL 37, a Drawvern Hunter to LVL 21 and a Human Warlock to LVL 15. Overall I've enjoyed the experience - sometimes when stuck I've swithced from my main (Druid) to the Hunter - the different styles of play being a refreshing change. This is the first game I've ever played for 4 months straight so it must be doing something right!
But now I'm struggling - loosing my motivation to carry on - I really want to LVL higher but the game seems to be getting very repetitive.
Playing WoW it sometimes occurs to me that the game may be playing me; let me explain what I mean. I feel the compulsion to play WoW a lot - as I mentioned I've been playing it now for 4 months and in that time I've logged in most days with only the occasional days off. I've also joined a guild - the members of which are friendly and helpful, although I've only grouped with them once. But now I'm struggling to determine whether I've enjoyed it or not. The thing with WoW is it's all about the journey (this is what I've read) - there is no end game as such - but as much as keep telling myself this I just want to level as fast as possible, which may be the cause of my current lack of enjoyment in the game.
It's not like I have any particular goal in mind - although in the back of my mind I believe that the game is better as you get to the higher levels and able to get on to the newer content (Burning Crusades and then on Wrath of the Litch King). But in driving on to level up I find I'm enjoying the game less and less and it's becoming a choir. It got to the point last night where I turned the game off after being killed several underwater - which meant I couldn't recover my body so had to suffer resurrection sickness which meant I was killed again.. it was at this point the game was getting far too stressful and I decided i needed a break - so i logged out and switched on the Wii and booted up House of Dead: Overkill - which was refreshingly simple and easy.
If anyone has any suggestions as to where I'm going wrong with Warcraft then please let me know. Is it just harder to level when you get to the high 30s (37). Is there something else I should be doing in the game - PVP or maybe more instances? I've only done the Deadmines and the Stockades - which i went through with very high level characters so all i did was pick up loot. Or is it time to park Warcraft and get back on the 360 / PS3 / Wii which I've neglected for months (since Jan)?
Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate heard statements on a proposed 32 billion dollar bailout package requested by the Umbrella Corporation.
Residents enjoying leisure time in Raccoon City.
Albert Wesker, CFO of the Raccoon City branch, gave testimony to a senatorial committee on Monday. In his statement, Wesker blamed higher taxes, a weakened dollar, and soaring energy costs as the main factors damaging the Umbrella Corporation.
Albert Wesker
Things have been hard for awhile now. About a year ago, we had to lay off most employees of the Raccoon City branch. It practically shut the city down. We changed a few things internally, so we could hire those people back; or at least replace them. But the economy is so bleak right now that we cant get people to even consider relocating to Raccoon City. And it has nothing to do with zombies or t-viruses'. I feel the increase in taxes, as well as the astronomical cost of fuel, are forcing people to turn away from Raccoon City, and Umbrella. And this is bad for business. We need an influx of cash for man power and infrastructure improvements. Without it, we may have to sell the company to foreign interests.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who sat on the hearing, responded to Mr. Weskers statement.
We have reviewed documents and statements from the board at Umbrella, along with testimony from folks affected by the situation in Raccoon City. Much of this information points to the self-perpetuated zombie outbreak caused by the Umbrella Corporation as the causation for their current financial woes. However, I do not believe it is in the countrys best interest to allow Umbrella to fail. I will recommend a rescue package for Umbrella, to be heard by congress next week.
When asked why they approved a rescue plan for such an obviously corrupt business, the Senate panel stated no comment. The only statement we could obtain after the hearing was from Congressman Ron Paul. We spotted the Congressman hiding from our cameras behind a pillar outside the Senate building. We reluctantly asked him for his thoughts.
The last thing we need is another fricken bailout. Everyone knows you cant go to Raccoon City cause the Goddamn zombies will eat your brains! Shit, I wouldnt move back there. Those liberals are just gearing up to socialize all the businesses in America, you watch.
Regardless of the divided opinions on this latest rescue plan, it seems that Umbrella will indeed be the next major U.S. business entity to receive federal aid. We can only hope that this will help the American economy in the long term.
REACTIONS FROM RACCOON CITY
Barry Burton-S.T.A.R.S.-Maker of the Jill Sandwich Wesker is a douche. A lying, smelly douche.
Rebecca Chambers-S.T.A.R.S.-idiot Do you know why Chris left me in that room?
Another great weekend for treasure hunting. I was able to do some saling Friday again, but this time I was alone, so I was able to cover a lot more ground in a shorter amount of time. The sales weren't very good on Friday though, I only bought one thing the entire day. Luckily, Saturday was better, not a lot of stuff, but I got something that I never thought I would find, but had always hoped I would. Sunday at the flea market was freezing, Saturday was close to 80, but Sunday never went above 60 and was about 45 when we went to the flea market. Despite the cold weather, the place was packed and the deals were abundant.
Welcome to ask-a-blog, where I ask you! The reader! To answer a question posed in the blog. Today's questions comes from a bout of playing Katamari Damacy: What is the most trippy game you have ever played? Make sure to tell us what console the game is on, as well as what makes it so trip inducing. Is it the gameplay, music, visuals, or something else? Tell us all about it!
For me, the award for the trippiest game goes easily to Katamari Damacy on the PS2, pictured on the right. If you have played this game, you know what I am talking about. if you haven't, here's a little summary. You are the son of the King of All Cosmos. The king, your father, has accidentally made all of the stars go away, so he commissions you to roll "Katamari", and help bring the stars back. The Katamari is formed by rolling a ball into things that are smaller than it. This makes the smaller things stick to it. You can pick up anything. ANYTHING. People, cars, buildings, islands, towns, boats. The possibilities are endless. The game is quite short, but it has a high replay value. It is also highly trip inducing, and the music is even weirder. Man is that game odd. I recomend it to anyone wishing to have lots of fun playing a quirky type of game.
So, what do you feel the trippiest game is? Be it a shoot em up, a puzzle game, or a platformer, we want to hear about it! Let's see those comments!
Sierra Entertainment officially closed its door this year and thus comes an end to a true pioneer within the gaming industry.
The companies founders, Ken and Roberta Williams, were avid gamers and produced the first graphical adventure game for the PC entitled Mystery House, which became an instant hit and is a cult classic to this day. Sierra has endured a rollercoaster of successes, failures, acquisitions and the like. But this article is not about the history of this company, but more to celebrate and remember some of its landmark game series.
My ascension into adulthood ran a parallel course with the maturation of the the home PC. I remember being wowed when first firing up King's Quest on my Packard Bell computer after years of text-based adventure games. From then I was hooked - Sierra continued to deliver innovation and new technology into my PC gaming world. Let's take a step back through time and take a look at a few of the treasured game series from this noted software developer.
The King's Quest series is recognized as the true star that really put Sierra On-Line on the map. This adventure game centered on the plight of the Royal Family of Daventry and many within the series introduced innovative features at its time. Beginning in 1984, a total of eight ( 8 ) games were released, each subsequent plot building on the events portrayed in its predecessor. A number of these games had excruciating hard puzzles to solve without any discernable logic used in the development of these challenges. Still, game play was still a treat with an engrossing story and a satisfying experience.
This six (6) game series follows the space adventures of Roger Wilco, an every-day-Joe if there ever was one, and his antics as he unknowingly gets thrust into saving the universe from some foe. Unlike the rather somber tones of the King's Quest line, Space Quest is all about fun, silliness and taking a parodical approach to almost everything. Roger Wilco debuted in 1986 with the last game being released in 1995. This light-hearted affair is somewhat of a cult classic amongst old-school gamers. Technically, the series primarily used previously existed graphic engines that were released in King's Quest and Quest for Glory.
Writing this text is rather difficult for me, since it parodies my life. The Leisure Suit Larry series is another adventure series, this time featuring Larry Laffer - a balding, 40-something man still trying his best to score with the ladies and 'be fly' (or is it 'fresh'). This is the only series of games that Sierra developed with a strong 'mature audience' theme. Even before the days of ESRB Rating system, early games in this series required you to answer a set of questions to weed out the younger gamers. You can still enjoy the adventures of this 'playboy' to this day, though Sierra is not involved in these newer entries.
Probably my second favorite of the Sierra classics, in Police Quest you get to play as a rookie police officer working his way through crime and eventually up the ranks of his local division. These games were more of action-adventure than previous Sierra entries mentioned thus far and also featured some disturbing crimes/graphics for the time. Game play was somewhat open-ended and the best part of this series is that you really had to think about your actions and analyze data. Later games in this series also featured full-res digital crime photos which you had to scour through for clues. A true classic all the way.
Now this is one of the all-time best Action/Adventure/RPG game series of all time (IMHO). Often credited as being the first of its kind to incorporate meaningful statistical character building as a necessary component to move the story along (i.e. get past a tough bad guys in an area). Your Hero could be customized as a Fighter, Thief of a Mage - another first in this new genre. Quest for Glory was truly a landmark during its time and set the bar/base standards that many of today's games now follow.
The shortest series being featured in this article, this point-and-click adventure follows Gabriel Knight, a downtrodden horror novelist, as he unravels various mysteries of the occult. A total of three (3) games were released, all of which featured very different technologies. As depicted above, the first game started out as a pretty standard animated affair. Subsequent games in the series featured FMV cut scenes and live digitized actors. All of the games were rather dark in nature and the high tension was successfully translated to the gamer.
Hey you, random PlayStation 3 owner! I see you out there with your Dualshock 3 in hand thinking, "Hey I want a new game to play on here, but I'm cheap". Well, the good folks and Sony and Sprint have heard you and have decided to give you a FREE game for one week only.
That's right, Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic is free for all US Playstation Network members for this week. Why is it free? I guess it's because Sprint is sponsoring it.
If you feel bad for missing out on this because you don't have a US PSN account, well, there is a way you can make one if you live in another country, just Google around. Or what if you don't have a PS3 but want to add it to your collection, I'm sure there are people out there (HINT HINT) who might give you a helping hand in adding it to an account for future use.
Oh and, did I mention the game has trophies? So download it for free trophies!
For some time, I have been interested in using Linux as my primary operating system. My first experience was with Red Hat 9-10 years ago. Things have certainly progressed since then.
I have now moved on to Ubuntu. I have tried out each version of Ubuntu for a couple of years now and each has had one little thing that has kept me from switching. I tried the 9.04 beta with some higher hopes from what I had read about it. It does every thing I ask it to. I have found applications that replace my Windows versions and for those that still don't work, WINE has progressed to the point where many applications now work except for maybe the very newest.
I'm now Windows free in my house with my work laptop and home desktop running Ubuntu and our other laptop is a Mac. It is still somewhat of a learning experience and I do have to use Windows at work, but I'm not doing it to make a stand against Microsoft. I'm doing it because, honestly, I'm cheap. I don't want to keep buying an operating system. I haven't ever purchased a version of Windows and I'm not going to start now. I don't want to find ways around their protection. I want it to work. This works for me. I was still in my limbo stage when my mom came over one day and needed something printed off. I hadn't set up my networked HP printer yet, so this was just as good of a time as any. The XP driver download is something around 250MB for the full function driver. I ran the Printer tool and went to add a new printer. It found my printer and was installed within minutes. That really sealed it for me. The fact that my hardware of any type just works is already way ahead of Windows. No more installing Windows, reboot twice, install drivers, reboot, more drivers, reboot, updates, reboot, MORE updates, etc. I can now just install and have a base system with a solid web browser, e-mail client, office suite, image editor, and an adaptable media player. One reboot after install and many updates do not require a reboot during use.
If anyone is interested or wants some help with Ubuntu, I'd be happy to help out. Feel free to PM, IM, or e-mail.
Just picked up a vectrex off ebay with a multi cart for 100 bucks shipped. Had it a week been playing minestorm while I wait for the multicart to arrive. Not sure if everything is ok but minestorm plays well now that I fixed the controller-it needed a cleaning to work also ordered a new overlay for it as its current one was damaged (likely from previous cleanings and play) cool little system.
A lot of us here collect games, I'm assuming. Since this is true, I know that every one of you here has a game backlog. You know, that pile of games sitting in the corner, unplayed, unloved for various reasons. Maybe you lost interest in the game, or there's a shiny new game that captured your attention, or you just never got around to playing it. Regardless of the reasons why your backlog grows, I want to know what your approach to solving this backlog dilemma is.
Do you: Play a game for a few hours and see if it's worth playing through? Tackle a few games at a time? Prioritize games by interest? Stare at it in shame?
Personally, I find that a game goes in my backlog when there's something new that comes along and steals interest away from another game. Good example of that: Dead Space. I bought that game on day one and played through the first few chapters, but then a few weeks later, LittleBigPlanet came out and I found myself with no time for Dead Space. Then of course there was the rest of the fall games that pushed their way into my library, and pushed others into the backlog. Also, I find that games I spend less money on, especially Dreamcast and older games, tend to more easily go to my backlog because they're old and no one is talking about them anymore.
When it comes time to tackle my backlog, I look at the pile of games and decide which sounds most interesting, or which one I enjoyed most before it went into the pile. Unlike many other gamers, I actually try every game I buy for at least an hour or two, so that helps in the future when making backlog related choices. I usually only play one backlog game at a time because I find that if I add any more, my gaming time becomes too diluted across not only my backlog games but my current staples.
Anyone else have an effective approach to solving the game backlog issue? Let me know.
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A lot of us here collect games, I'm assuming. Since this is true, I know that every one of you here has a game backlog. You know, that pile of games sitting in the corner, unplayed, unloved for various reasons. Maybe you lost interest in the game, or there's a shiny new game that captured your attention, or you just never got around to playing it. Regardless of the reasons why your backlog grows, I want to know what your approach to solving this backlog dilemma is.