SpaghettiOh dot com

After a good half hour blow-job with margarita-ridden breath I finally got the SNES working. Some combination of me switching out the A/V cables, playing with the power cord, and cartridge friction action finally got me a picture on screen. It worked about 50% of the time, but that 50% got me far enough into Super Metroid‘s Norfair until the screen suddenly went blank. 🙁 And of course, since I don’t usually save in the game (because it takes no time at all for me to actually beat it) I’ll have to give it another go some other time.

Anyway, Nintendo’s masterpiece console will soon be a fully functioning member of the family!

Went with Torie and Ted to the Sanford Flea Market on Sunday in search of some retro action. I’d hoped to find some rare Sega Saturn games, maybe some SNES collectibles, but hadn’t really even thought about what I’d purchased. The good fellas at Game Trader had a mint condition Model 2 Super NES; I couldn’t resist. I’ve had the traditional console since it was around in the early 90s, but was always fascinated by the sleek miniature design of the Model 2. The only problem is that I think the A/C adapter is bad, because the console doesn’t come on. I’ve tried it with the original model and it does the same: sends a signal to the screen but I guess not enough of one to actually play anything.

Along with the console, I managed to snag a bundle deal on a few games. I’ve not played an actual SNES console in ages as most of this stuff is easy available via emulation. But there really is nothing like playing this stuff with the original controller. Better yet, an ASCIIWare controller!

I’ve come to admire many of the shows on [adultswim.com] lately. The particular quote above is from a show called Assy McGee, where the main character is the lower half of a beer guzzler guy’s bod who happens to be a detective. Like many other shows on the latter half of Cartoon Network’s schedule, many characters other than the main seem to be OK with the fact that this character is, in fact, just an ass, and in more ways than one. Here’s a clip:

Going and standing in line at midnight in front of a Gamestop with a bunch of sweaty smelly game nerds has never really been my cup of joe. I recall the morning of November 9, 2004 at Full Sail; coming in at 9am only to find that I was the only one awake in class. Oh, that’s right…you’re all dumbasses. I drove by the Gamestop outside the Fashion Square Mall to see all you kids lined up outside the Ruby Tuesday next door awaiting the follow-up to the viral yet entertaining ilovebees.com.

I just couldn’t help but think to myself how impatient people are, that they couldn’t just wait til’ the next day to spend that 50-60 bucks depending on which version they reserved. 1pm rolls around and I bounce from class straight to Circuit City right down the road from the drive-by I performed the night before, waltzed in, grabbed a special edition of Halo 2, threw down some wadded up cash that probably belonged to a few pizza delivery guys, walked out, popped the game in, and enjoyed myself for a good four hours or so on an eight foot projected screen surrounded by 1500 watts of speakers, all until I had to go back to class. (sentence fragment; consider revising) No, that’s not really a text error; I put it there to fool you… because I’m awesome. 😛

That all changed April 29th…or I guess technically April 30th. I’d stopped playing every other game days before because I was so excited about the one I’m about to mention. I’ve anticipated EVERY aspect of this game; graphics, AI, gameplay, PHYSICS. Yes, I stood in front of a Gamestop at midnight. No, I wasn’t standing there for hours. I showed up at midnight. So shut-up.

What’s that? You want to know what game I’m talking about? Oh, sorry…Grand Theft Auto IV. I was amazed the second the opening cut-scene started, “And you can too!”. The technique of integrating credits into the environment is genius. You’d think, “Who’d look at that stuff?” It’s actually quite hard (for me anyway) not to look at it. Excellent stuff.

Who takes multimillion dollar hardware and software apps and says, “Hey, let’s make it so we can play video games on it!”? People like me do, that’s who. I think the more appropriate question here is, “Who takes multimillion dollar hardware and software apps capable making some of the most interactive video games on the market and applies Missile Command to them?”

Meet the DreamBox.

An HP Media Center PC with more bang for the buck than you’ll ever get putting the same thing together yourself for this price. I picked it up at Circuit City for $899. Did I mention that it nearly doubles the stats of the one I’ve had in my cart at NewEgg for 6 months? Oh…well, it does.

They’re new…