Author Archive for Scott

Video Game Update

Published by Scott on April 27, 2008 in Shopping and Video Games. 0 Comments

We got some new additions to our ever expanding retro collection this week:

sega saturn

First up, an awesome deal for a Sega Saturn that I found on craigslist. The woman I bought it from said it was her ex-husband’s and she just wanted to get rid of it. For $30 the package included the console and cords, two controllers, a steering wheel accessory, and a handful of games. The games are mostly old sports titles, which I don’t have any interest in, but the keepers include Virtua Cop (needs a light gun though), Virtua Fighter 2, Daytona USA, and The Need For Speed. There was also a pair of sealed Japanese imports, Godzilla and Virtua Fighter 2. I’m going to try to sell those and put the money toward a mod chip that will allow us to play burned copies of Saturn games.

ps1 plus gold finger

Next, another Playstation. We already had one but this is an earlier model with a parallel port. That’s significant because it also came with a Gold Finger Game Enhancer that plugs into that port and allows you to play backups and imports.

It’s kind of crazy because you have to trick the PS into letting you play a burned copy. You do this by booting up the system with an original disc first and then swapping it out with the game you want to play. All the while something has to be jammed in the lid open/close sensor so it thinks the lid is closed.

Anyway, I’m thrilled to be able to play some of those old titles that go for pretty significant amounts of money if I were to actually, you know, buy them.

garage sale tv

And finally, Helen scored a cheap tv from a garage sale so we can play these old systems and actually see what’s going on. Our NES, SNES, PS, and N64 were all connected to a tiny little portable dvd player through a four way A/V selector. It served its purpose but this smoky smelling old box is so much nicer. I had to buy an RF modulator because it didn’t have any RCA jacks, but that little spike to the initial ten dollar price tag was totally worth it.

Mythbusters

Published by Scott on March 23, 2008 in Holidays. 5 Comments

easter_bunny3.jpgI got up at 6:45 this morning to fulfill my Easter Bunny chores. Pretty early to roll out of bed on a Sunday, but what can you do? While I was outside hiding plastic, candy-filled eggs, Dashiell and Ray tiptoed to the back door to see if they could spot any evidence of EB’s work. Ray couldn’t sleep the night before because he was worried that he might not come for some reason. Sure enough, they saw me skulking around.

They apparently went to bed to discuss matters because I had no idea I’d been spotted. About a half an hour later they confronted me. “We know who the Easter Bunny is and he’s sitting on this bed,” Ray said. I gamely looked behind me to see if there happened to be a long-eared furry rodent curled up in the covers. There wasn’t. “How do you know I wasn’t just checking to see if he had come?” I asked. They weren’t fooled.

Fortunately the lads weren’t the slightest bit traumatized by their discovery. I think they’ve suspected something was up for awhile now but weren’t quite ready to give up their childhood beliefs. We had a nice long discussion in which they also deduced that Santa must not be real either. I was relieved because it had been bothering me. They are nine years old after all and I didn’t feel right about lying to them anymore. It was different when they were gullible little kids but they’re growing up so fast now and becoming more and more sophisticated. I was also getting tired of these mythical strangers getting credit for our hard work and thoughtfulness!

Ray is an artist

Published by Scott on February 11, 2008 in Chatter. 4 Comments

I really like this picture Ray drew. It just makes me happy every time I see it, which is quite often since I have it set as my desktop background. I especially dig the guys at the top looking in opposite directions. Upside down head guy is funny too. I just love how he filled the whole paper. That boy has style!

 

ray's pictures

Justice League Heroes: The Flash (Game Boy Advance, 2006)

Published by Scott on January 14, 2008 in Reviews and Video Games. 0 Comments

317og9quutl_aa_sl160_.jpgOverview
A beat ‘em up with a speedy superhero twist. As Flash you can zip up to an enemy, give him a hearty punch, and zoom off to another target before he has time to retaliate. This is all done by tapping the “A” button. With good timing you can pinball off a crowd of bad guys and defeat them before they’re any the wiser. Of course some enemies in later levels can counterattack more quickly so it’s not all a cakewalk. When things get too hectic though pressing the left trigger will call on one of the other Justice League members to fly in and clear the screen with a heaping helping of whupass.

The Good
This is a really short game but I’m going to count that as a positive. Sometimes you need short bursts of simple fun to balance out the epic games you may also be playing. With an interesting array of progressively harder enemies, somewhat challenging bosses, and a couple of nifty attacks earned at the end of certain levels, The Flash is engaging and well paced.

There are several unlockable features that make it worth the investment too. Beating it on the default easy mode unlocks two more difficult settings. There’s also a Boss Rush, a “Making Of” mini-documentary, a race against Superman, and a way to read through the comic book style cut scenes from the story mode all at once.

The Bad
Continuous hordes of enemies can feel a bit tedious as you blaze through Keystone City, Metropolis, Gotham City, and Themyscira. These foes occasionally hang out on either edge of the screen, completely out of view. This can be frustrating because Flash will lock on to an invisible target and take off in that direction. A couple of times this led to him becoming “stuck.” The screen action won’t scroll until all enemies in the vicinity are defeated so I actually had to turn off the game and restart levels when this happened.

The extra attacks, such as ground pound and whirlwind, are cool but completely unnecessary. I pretty much just tried them out before going back to the targeting system. It seems like the special attacks could have been put to better use by making them the only way to defeat certain enemies for example.

Bottom Line
Justice League Heroes: The Flash is a short, fun game worth playing if you’re a fan of beat ‘em ups and superheroes. It does have replay value, but it’s more likely a younger audience that would find long lasting appeal.

Rating: 7 / 10

Star Wars: The Paradise Snare by A.C. Crispin (1997)

Published by Scott on January 9, 2008 in Books, Fiction and Reviews. 0 Comments

211jlnrwxel_aa_sl110_.jpgOverview
Volume one of the Han Solo Trilogy chronicles the young scoundrel’s rise from an Oliver Twist-like background to his first job as a pilot running illegal spice loads for the priests of a religious cult.

The Good
It was interesting to read Solo’s back story. Fun facts and trivia:

  • As a boy Han befriends a female Wookie named Dewlanna, who later helps him escape from his cruel master’s ship so that he may pursue his dream to become an Imperial Navy pilot.
  • His first love is a young cult member named Bria Tharen. After discovering that disciples are eventually sold into slavery to work the spice mines or Imperial pleasure houses, he tries to help her escape. What a softie!
  • Han has an affinity for hulking, hairy humanoids. In addition to his pre-Chewbacca Wookie relationship with Dewlanna, he becomes friendly with a giant cat-like Togorian named Muuurgh.

The Bad
I stalled out on this one after the Big Escape. There was still a quarter of the book left and it felt like that segment should have been the end. It does pick up and Crispin ties it all together nicely, but I had to make myself finish after a nearly two week layoff.

Bottom Line
Despite being populated by familiar species (Hutts, Wookies, Sullustans, etc.) and locales (Corellia, Alderaan, Coruscant) as well as the usual space ship travel and laser gun play, it somehow didn’t feel especially Star Wars-y. The missing ingredients of politics and Jedi are probably the reason for this. It came across as a straight forward adventure, and not a particularly compelling one, without those elements.

Star Wars nerd rating: 6 / 10

Sign o’ the Times

Published by Scott on January 8, 2008 in Environment and Work. 5 Comments

usgs_drought_map.gifMy school, like most elementary schools, has an annual carnival. It’s usually in the spring but some of the other local schools have their versions in the fall. I’m sure they’re all pretty much the same- cake walks, raffle baskets, pony rides, bouncy castles, a dunk tank, face painting, crappy games with crappier prizes, and lots of junk food. The kids love it and the school rakes in a lot of cash.

I found out today we’ll be crossing dunk tank off the list of “fun” things to do this year. Because of the prolonged drought and prohibitive water restrictions, we’re not permitted to have one. How crazy is that? Not that I don’t completely agree with the decision. It’s a waste of water. I find it remarkable the considerations we now have to take into account compared with just a year ago. It’s been such a radical change in mind set that I now find myself giving doubly disapproving looks at most drivers of gargantuan SUVs- one for the gas guzzling, the other for having a sparkling clean vehicle!

Behind the Scenes WordPress Upgrade

Published by Scott on January 6, 2008 in Chatter. 3 Comments

I finally upgraded to the newest version of WordPress (2.3.2), just in time for the next upgrade in March! I won’t wait so long when the next one rolls out. James provided me with these easy to follow instructions (way back in June!) and it was a snap:

  1. Backup the database either with the WP plug in or through PHPMyAdmin
  2. Backup the site via FTP
  3. Turn off K2 by selecting the default WP theme
  4. Disable any extensions you have installed
  5. Delete everything except wp-config.php and the directory wp-content
  6. Navigate into the wp-content/themes and delete the K2 directory
  7. Upload the latest version of WP
  8. Navigate to (…admin page) and follow the instructions
  9. Re-enable all the plug ins
  10. Visit the site homepage to make sure all is kosher (it will have the default theme up)
  11. Upload the latest K2
  12. Enable K2 as your theme
  13. Repeat step 10 as a sanity check

I guess I was put off by the problems he mentioned and that lengthy list of things to do. Those steps look a lot more involved than they are though. But make no mistake, it most definitely would have been a monumental task for me without any guidance. Thanks again, James!

My Sonic Adventure: Boiling Didn’t Work

Published by Scott on January 2, 2008 in Video Games. 6 Comments

I told my sad tale about the hoops I had to jump through to get an official copy of Sonic Adventure for the Sega Dreamcast. Let me tell you, that game is becoming my personal white whale. We broke it out at Christmas hoping for some high speed ring collecting fun only to discover it didn’t work. I couldn’t get it to load most of the time on either of our two “new” Dreamcasts. When it did finally boot up it would always freeze after the first battle against Chaos. The disc has a couple of tiny light scratches but nothing that should prevent it from playing.

I cleaned it up with a soft cloth first, naturally, but that didn’t have any effect on it. Next I bought a scratch repair / disc cleaning kit from Radio Shack. Still no improvement for Sonic but it did a nice job cleaning up Virtua Tennis and Rogue Squadron III, two other games we got that were in poor but playable condition. I should mention at this point that I didn’t bother contacting the eBay seller I bought it from because it had been quite a long time since I made the purchase and the game itself was only a buck-fifty. That’s how much it would cost to mail back and I’m sure I would have no chance of recouping the six bucks I paid for shipping and “handling.” (That’s how they get you!)

Then I remembered reading about how people got Xbox discs to work by boiling them in water. I figured it would be a fun experiment. Couldn’t hurt anyway. I did some some Googling to read up on people’s techniques and found this video on YouTube:

That’s pretty much exactly what I did, except I used a slotted spatula to lower the disc into the water. After drying it off and letting it cool, I stuck it in the Dreamcast and crossed my fingers.

At first I was really excited because it actually started up and and took me to the cut scene after my initial save point. “Hot dog, it worked!” I thought. My joy was short-lived however. It froze up while loading the Emerald Coast level and that’s all I was ever able to get it after that. Oh well.

I did some more reading around and found out that ten percent of the initial Sonic Adventure pressing was defective. Sega acknowledged it at the time and would replace the game with a working one. Something about the calibration being off on one of their gd-rom copiers. I figure I must be unlucky enough to have bought one of these bad discs. I guess they will play on certain machines without a problem though. No rhyme or reason to it, just a strange quirk.

I’m in no hurry to try to find a working copy of the game. Maybe some day it will turn up at Goodwill. I might even get the port for Gamecube since it’s generally cheaper and has a lot of extras. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. There’s plenty to play in the meantime…

More Birds

Published by Scott on January 1, 2008 in Nature. 1 Comment

I was inside today and suddenly heard all kinds of squeaking sounds, like machinery badly in need of oiling. I was on the verge of freaking out wondering what expensive repair bills were on the horizon (heating system? washing machine?) before I realized it was coming from outside. Turns out it was a huge flock of blackbirds taking a rest in our pine trees. There were hundreds of them! We couldn’t believe how noisy they were. Hazel, Helen, and I watched them for quite a few minutes before they spectacularly flew away. The video didn’t turn out that great (my first YouTube upload!) but you can sort of get the idea.

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Bird Watching - Pine Siskin

Published by Scott on December 31, 2007 in Nature. 0 Comments

Dashiell and Ray came in from outside this morning very excited to have discovered a tiny brown and white bird with some yellow on its back. It was picking out seeds from the trumpet vine seed pods that hang over the roof of our old tin shed. The shed itself is directly behind our deck, maybe ten feet away, so we had front row seats for the show. The little fellow paid us no mind as it gorged for a good twenty minutes.

I grabbed a couple of trusty field guides and we figured out it was a pine siskin. They’re apparently very common up north but only wander this way in the winter. It wasn’t anything flashy to look at but none of us had ever seen one before so we were impressed. These were the best shots I came up with:

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