tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1148064690846089282024-02-20T12:49:38.975-05:00A Modding Home CompanionA blog about technology, gadgets, and the modification thereof.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-4360779743623301002012-05-01T14:22:00.001-04:002012-05-01T14:24:56.644-04:00More Neo Geo Favorites<br />
Last year, I compiled a list of my <a href="http://amoddinghomecompanion.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-top-10-favorite-neo-geo-games.html">Top 10 Neo Geo games</a>. Since obtaining a 4-slot MVS cabinet, my fondness for the Neo Geo platform as a whole has grown leaps and bounds. While I'm sticking to my top 10 list, I thought I should mention some of the other games I find myself playing and enjoying. Here they are, in alphabetical order:<br />
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<b>Blue's Journey</b><br />
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This action platformer is SNK's attempt to ride the coattails of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. franchise. While a far cry from Mario, Blue's Journey is cutesy, colorful, often (unintentionally) hilarious, and even has an environmentalist story line. One game feature that Blue beat Mario to by almost two decades is 2-player co-op play, a la Mario Wii. Very fun for kids or the casual gamer.</div>
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<b>Captain Tomaday</b><br />
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I honestly cannot think of a more bizarre shmup than Captain Tomaday. The hero is a mutant tomato that flies around and punches other vegetables, and sometimes babies. He eats pills that mutate him into all sorts of things. Weird and funny, this one is worth at least a casual play.<br />
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<b>The Last Blade 2</b><br />
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Never has there been a more beautiful 2D fighter than The Last Blade 2. This is a weapon-based fighter in the vein of Samurai Shodown, but with a completely different fighting system. The backgrounds and sprites are magnificently hand drawn. There is a stage consisting of a dojo that is on fire. I can just sit and stare, not even playing, admiring the heat rippling over the burning wood. It's really something. The finishing moves, which I have yet to master, are brutal and creative. If you like fighters, you need to play this one.<br />
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<b>Magician Lord</b><br />
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Magician Lord was one of the launch titles for the Neo Geo in 1990. It's similar to Sega's Altered Beast, except it doesn't suck. A fantasy action platformer that satisfies, this one holds up relatively well for its age.<br />
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<b>Metal Slug X</b><br />
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My 2nd favorite Metal Slug game behind MS3. This is a "corrected" version of Metal Slug 2, which suffers from a programming error that makes the game lag horribly. That's a shame, because 2 is a nice game. X takes 2, corrects the lag, changes enemies and backgrounds, and adds some new weapons. The result makes for one of the crown jewels in the Neo Geo library. It's as good a 2D run 'n gun than you'll find just about anywhere. Addictive and creative game play, beautiful sprites, and some serious difficulty make this one a must-have.<br />
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<b>Puzzled</b><br />
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This is a Tetris clone that changes game play just enough for SNK to not get sued. In each level, you need to clear lines in order to free a balloon character. It is a fun game. The Japanese name for the game is Joy Joy Kid, which is pretty funny.<br />
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<b>Samurai Shodown V Special</b><br />
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The final official game in the Neo Geo MVS library. It's an updated version of Samurai Shodown V, where you can play as the boss characters as well. A beautiful and compelling fighter, it's arguably the best game in the series.<br />
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<b>Sengoku 3</b><br />
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On a platform not really known for it's beat 'em ups, Sengoku 3 stands out. I admit I haven't played this one that much, but it's good looking and pretty fun. </div>
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<b>Shock Troopers</b><br />
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A top down run 'n gun that's pretty fun and addictive. Kind of an update to SNK's earlier <i>Guerilla War</i>. One of the gems of the genre. The sequel is good, but suffers from lag.<br />
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<b>SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos</b><br />
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This game may have a flawed fighting engine, but the sprites and backgrounds are beautiful. The addition of Capcom characters, which many gamers are familiar with, make this game good to have around for people who aren't familiar with the Neo fighters. A very good casual fighter.<br />
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<b>Spin Master</b><br />
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Odd platformer about a boy fighting evil with a yo-yo, among other things. Rescue the kidnapped girl, yada yada. Very campy and cartoonish, but oddly fun.<br />
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<b>Top Hunter</b><br />
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A unique beat 'em up with two-plane action, meaning you can kick ass in the foreground, or hit a button and jump to the background to continue kicking ass. Interesting approach to the game clock as well, where you must acquire time-based power-ups to finish a given level.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-39023059013768670772012-03-22T08:52:00.000-04:002012-03-22T08:52:02.705-04:00SNES and SCART: Reluctant Friends<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhsukkqxlV1DFZ_t1Yz5D_eSMwnCryPLdGpAu8DVEv0WwRJ6AQX3_xJhMhKNClLXK4cnLfUfb3vnQRim8y1UsjXSvixzciK033tVhZpp1BhuH66q00R0GA-WihDCDNa7BcF2skU1IUMVso/s1600/SNES.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhsukkqxlV1DFZ_t1Yz5D_eSMwnCryPLdGpAu8DVEv0WwRJ6AQX3_xJhMhKNClLXK4cnLfUfb3vnQRim8y1UsjXSvixzciK033tVhZpp1BhuH66q00R0GA-WihDCDNa7BcF2skU1IUMVso/s320/SNES.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Recently, I picked up what was basically the last (what I consider) essential system in my retrogaming collection, a Super Nintendo. I used to have one as a kid and was quite fond of it. I have a setup in my game room that consists of, among other things, a smattering of retro consoles attached via SCART to a 32" Sony PVM monitor. SCART delivers pure RGB video signals from consoles like Sega Genesis, Dreamcast, and Playstation, and let me tell you, they look fantastic. The NTSC SNES (v1) supports RGB via SCART as well, but with a caveat: you need to make sure the RGB lines coming out of the multi-out have 330 uF capacitors on them. If they do not, and you try to attach the SNES to a monitor, the picture will be too bright, and the colors will be washed out. I bought a cheap SCART cable from eBay, and sure enough it was wired incorrectly for my monitor. The RGB lines must be capped, and the ground, sync, 5v, and audio must be straight thru. After much soldering and hassle, I hit upon this configuration. You have never seen Super Nintendo until you've seen it in RGB. It's a thing of beauty. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The audio when using SCART is another issue. There is insufficent shielding either in the SNES or the SCART cable for the audio circuitry, which causes some buzzing noise. It is such that the brighter the image onscreen, the louder the buzz. There exist SCART cables with dedicated RCA outs for audio, which minimizes or alleviates the buzz, but those are currently inadequate for my setup. I just keep the volume low and try to ignore the noise.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-67304636304297113282012-03-06T19:53:00.001-05:002012-03-07T10:26:05.754-05:00Agetec Dreamcast Stick Full Sanwa Mod<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFXmtptVAXR_F7JbBMBXrI-RpGQ3msfo8i-AgAA9uapuhdk_fzQY_KUkwSeQpNDhNbjqWVLiyRw8MIh_2AaZ08K_zywf7mFe6ZaeeYAKnMTexhLRGx_ZFIHoxF_O_rcXgteUdbkVxXAJZc/s1600/IMAG0027.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFXmtptVAXR_F7JbBMBXrI-RpGQ3msfo8i-AgAA9uapuhdk_fzQY_KUkwSeQpNDhNbjqWVLiyRw8MIh_2AaZ08K_zywf7mFe6ZaeeYAKnMTexhLRGx_ZFIHoxF_O_rcXgteUdbkVxXAJZc/s320/IMAG0027.jpg" uda="true" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBSV-D5nYmQdkjkbTCRte0Z7pcLTSrwsF3SdrivRGBuUroEPlUNImepaJMQo8S6TAcVS93_imSS1f1bg_68zQOBUWkVyglFkUiq5udGTgs-ucCIyeHqNv_jylAH0X1-vneSMSivSrE7d1a/s1600/IMG_3388.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBSV-D5nYmQdkjkbTCRte0Z7pcLTSrwsF3SdrivRGBuUroEPlUNImepaJMQo8S6TAcVS93_imSS1f1bg_68zQOBUWkVyglFkUiq5udGTgs-ucCIyeHqNv_jylAH0X1-vneSMSivSrE7d1a/s400/IMG_3388.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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I got the Agetec Arcade Stick for the Sega Dreamcast for Xmas. What a great gift! The stick is built like a tank, and it's meant to mimic a Japanese arcade machine, AKA a candy cab. I no longer had to use the standard Dreamcast controller for 2D-shooters and fighters, which encompass my favorite DC games. The standard controller is ill-equipped for titles like Marvel Vs. Capcom, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Gunbird 2, and Mars Matrix. The Agetec stick is <em>made</em> for those games. But as much as I liked this arcade stick, something was missing. The sticks and buttons felt good, but not great. I read that people were unlocking the full potential of this controller but removing the standard stick and buttons and replacing them with a Sanwa stick and buttons, and replacing the Agetec's 4-way joystick gate with a Sanwa octal gate. Sanwa is the most popular arcade control manufacturer in Japan. They make great looking, durable, reliable, accurate, and comfortable sticks and buttons. I read a couple tutorials about how to do this mod <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbEwg6hg5bM">here</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBqaJTI6_vs">here</a>. Looked simple enough, so I placed an order for a white-top Sanwa JLF stick, octal gate, and 6 white 30mm buttons.<br />
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I used a Dremel to enlarge the button holes from 28mm to 30mm so that the new buttons would fit. I also removed some of the mounting plastic for the old stick so that the new one would fit, and drilled holes to mount the new stick. I installed the Sanwa buttons and the stick, soldered the wires in place, closed it up, and tested. (All this is covered in the above tutorials.) The buttons all worked right away, but both tutorials had the wrong colors listed for splicing the stick controls. I had to do this manually by testing at the Dreamcast menu screen. After a while I found the right combinations. The correct joystick wire color combinations are as follows:<br />
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<u>Agetec</u> <u>Sanwa</u><br />
Yellow > Black<br />
Orange > Yellow<br />
Red > Green<br />
Brown > Red<br />
Black > Orange<br />
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The stick is now perfect. The 8-way gate makes fighters feel like they should. The buttons are a bit lighter and more respnsive. Plus, I think it looks pimp in white. If you have the Agetec stick, this mod is highly recommended, especially for shmup and fighter fans. I'd consider it essential.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-88481268252594764902012-01-11T19:12:00.002-05:002012-01-18T12:44:52.718-05:00Game Room UpdateIn November, I bought a Neo Geo MVS cabinet from someone off of Craigslist. It was in very good condition, fully functional, except for a half dead power supply. I replaced the PSU and several other cosmetic components. It fit into my apartment with no problem. Here's some before and after pics:<br />
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</div>Here's the full list of what I replaced:<br />
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Marquee Artwork <br />
Monitor Bezel <br />
Power Supply <br />
Coin door bulb<br />
Sticks + Buttons <br />
Foot<br />
Door locks<br />
Coin reject button <br />
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I love this thing. I have 5 games for it now (Metal Slug 1,2,X, Puzzle Bobble, Baseball Stars 2), with 5 more coming (Last Blade 2, Samurai Showdown 2, Blue's Journey, Blazing Star, Neo Turf Masters). I'm beyond happy. <br />
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I also added some Ikea shelving to hold all of my controllers. Very nice. Here's a pic of the room as it looks now:<br />
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One of my Xmas gifts was the official Dreamcast Arcade Stick, which can be seen on the shelf. It makes playing Dreamcast fighters much more enjoyable than using the stock controller, which I'm not a fan of. I need to get another stick for 2-player fight sessions. Highly recommended. I may swap out its stick and buttons for Sanwa ones, but that's another project.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-32876878252372137612012-01-03T19:42:00.001-05:002012-01-10T07:08:30.508-05:00Sony PVM + NES + Comb Filter = AwesomeI recently gave away a Sony 32" TV and swapped in a Sony PVM pro monitor for use with the retro consoles in my game room. This was a good decision. The PVM is an RGB monitor. All my consoles, like my Genesis, PS2, Dreamcast, and Xbox look their best in RGB, and almost every system supports it. Except the NES. The NES only supports composite out (unless you wanna hack the hell out of it for RGB, which I'm not a fan of). The extremely unforgiving composite input on the PVM made my NES games look like ass. I found out that what I needed was a comb filter, something the TV I gave away had, and something my PVM lacks. I found a Kramer FC-10D comb filter on eBay for $14 shipped. This little box has composite in/s-video out and s-video in/composite out. I'm using the former. Man, what a difference in picture quality! The images below tell the story. Super C and Mega Man 2, respectively. Without the Kramer, and with, respectively. If you're using a monitor without a comb filter with your NES, I <u>highly</u> suggest getting one. The Kramer FC-10D is cheap and works great.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fA1uzj-L7oU/TwwqAvQKiBI/AAAAAAAAB8Q/6vB1z_PLq_k/s1600/IMG_3365.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" kba="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fA1uzj-L7oU/TwwqAvQKiBI/AAAAAAAAB8Q/6vB1z_PLq_k/s320/IMG_3365.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-54980766852746414972011-11-21T22:31:00.000-05:002011-11-21T22:31:57.126-05:00Retrobrighting a Dreamcast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV9aJ8ry7sgHluB6GbWOcyK6DiUxnPGW1uBNsyP6rSTjYQsj6gP1z3wA-psi5c5zKxhyMeAG4qzipqQoSprYu4XsAkW1u2MwHq7ZvMTQjmiQdUj5V9mq061jTpeGPyQZtu9GSzUey7F2pd/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV9aJ8ry7sgHluB6GbWOcyK6DiUxnPGW1uBNsyP6rSTjYQsj6gP1z3wA-psi5c5zKxhyMeAG4qzipqQoSprYu4XsAkW1u2MwHq7ZvMTQjmiQdUj5V9mq061jTpeGPyQZtu9GSzUey7F2pd/s320/Untitled.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOPjsmnzLbjWG6uxoIvXDll_x8g2cQc0e2rqnSzeebzR_dUY5M9C4XWo1xRpAWdD6YfW4EJ7POPvyQXx3fA8tQWP6X3x8qmxJodNlDSZlelTqb0UbcrIBHgA2XmZQGiEMWQdHgODfM4myQ/s1600/IMG_3305.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOPjsmnzLbjWG6uxoIvXDll_x8g2cQc0e2rqnSzeebzR_dUY5M9C4XWo1xRpAWdD6YfW4EJ7POPvyQXx3fA8tQWP6X3x8qmxJodNlDSZlelTqb0UbcrIBHgA2XmZQGiEMWQdHgODfM4myQ/s320/IMG_3305.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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ABS plastic was commonly used in the 90's as a cost-effective way to house electronics, like computers and video game consoles. It had one major drawback that was not immediately apparent: it yellowed badly over time and more so in direct sunlight. My Sega Dreamcast that I bought second hand suffered this very affliction. I thought I was just going to have to deal with it until I found out about <a href="http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/">Retrobright</a>. This a paste that you can make at home out of semi-common products that is supposed to remove the yellow from ABS. I thought it's worth a try, since I'm planning on playing my DC more in the near future. You basically take the highest concentration Peroxide you can find (in my case 12% from Sally Beauty Supply), mix it in a blender with Glycerin gel and Xantham Gum to form a paste. The last setup before application is to mix in a small amount of Oxy laundry powder. Blend it up and put on some rubber gloves to spread it on the plastic in question. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and put it under a UV lamp (blacklight) for 24 hours, and you'll be amazed at the results. Granted, I did not get perfect results. My DC still had small amounts of faded yellow hues here and there. Overall, however, it looks way better than it did before. Some parts look perfect. The proof is in the pictures (see above). If I had used a higher concentration Peroxide, like 15%, or if I had spread the paste a little thicker, I think it may have worked better. A word of advice: Unless your Retrobrighting 10 devices, do not make the amount listed on the website. Make 1/6 to 1/8 of the amount for a batch capable of coating one device. I'll conclude by saying that if you have a yellowed SNES or Dreamcast, or an old Apple computer, then Retrobright is your friend. I'm very happy with the results.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-83122869931053526812011-11-18T15:10:00.003-05:002011-11-18T15:25:29.347-05:00Review: HTC Rezound (Verizon)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGRb6G77wVY1MWZ97luYpn_VrVkx-eBAtcRN4QyKWUD7AtAcYQi2l7rdls8WhLktmMIRz4GQHZz-kOxZvmtLvyKHFAKK1mpJOkEwEfvJRUVRHa7FhgqvjvGQmgJyZaSh0pTkxBEZQf5WTh/s1600/100_6115.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGRb6G77wVY1MWZ97luYpn_VrVkx-eBAtcRN4QyKWUD7AtAcYQi2l7rdls8WhLktmMIRz4GQHZz-kOxZvmtLvyKHFAKK1mpJOkEwEfvJRUVRHa7FhgqvjvGQmgJyZaSh0pTkxBEZQf5WTh/s320/100_6115.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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I've had a cell phone since 2003, but didn't own a smartphone until this past Monday. Until that point I had owned only 2 phones, both of which were Verizon LG phones that served me very well. My last phone was an enV2 that I had modded so that I could tether it, wired or wireless via bluetooth, to a laptop and use as a modem. The time spent on the blazingly-slow EVDO-based Internet connection merely counted against my voice minutes. Very handy on vacation. I also loved the full QWERTY keyboard for texting. I basically used the phone until it literally fell apart in my hands. Whatever replaces it, I told myself, had better be an upgrade. Well, the HTC Rezound is just such an upgrade.<br />
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I first read about the Rezound (then Vigor) over the summer, I believe. I heard about it having a 720p screen and a 1.5Ghz dual core processor, and said, "That's my next phone." I read all the pre-launch hype, and post-launch reviews, still unwavering in my attraction to this handset, at least on paper. I went to my local Verizon Wireless store at lunch time on launch day, and bought it for $250 ($300 minus $50 loyalty discount). I also bought two years of insurance for $100, which I sort of regret. Total was $365. I had already budgeted for this, so no real issue there. They gave me the "4GB-for-the-price-of-2GB" promo, which is nice, especially since I'm a light data user (more on this later). I walked out of the store a happy guy. <br />
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I've been using the phone for 4 days now. The battery life was an issue at first. I was lucky if I could get a day of use on one charge for the first two days, then I wised up. I noticed that the phone has an on/off switch (soft) for 4G and GPS. I turned them off. The real culprit, though, is the Wifi radio. I downloaded a widget that acts as a switch for that as well, and turned it off. Some of you may be thinking, "But don't you want always-on notifications, etc.?" No, I don't. I find them annoying. If I want email, eBay, etc., I'll ask for it. No reason at all to have Wifi running all the time. This is not for all users, I realize. But if you want to get decent battery life out of this phone, or most smartphones for that matter, you'll do as I have. Also, "Task Manager > Kill All" is your battery's friend.<br />
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I don't use the phone to listen to music, so no info on Beats Audio, sorry. Unless 64GB microSDHC cards come down in cost, I'll keep using my iPod for music. The phone just won't hold enough music for my liking as is. Anyway, on to the goods. The screen is awesome. I can't really say anything bad about it. 720p. Angry Birds has never looked so good. Videos look amazing. The OS is Gingerbread w/ Sense 3.5 on top. I've customized it significantly, and I like it. Others hate on it. Whatever. I find it to be snappy and responsive. I added the slideIT keyboard so I can swype instead of type. Still getting used to it, but very cool. Haven't used GPS yet as such. I'd like to get a car dash mount first. There is some unremovable crapware like "Let's Golf 2," but that's only a minor annoyance. The phone itself has a beautiful black and red motif with nice rounded corners and a sturdy plastic shell. It's a little heavy (~6 oz.), but not bothersome. Call quality and reliability have been great. Internet browsing is cable modem-fast. People bitch about the volume and power buttons being flush with the unit. I don't really feel it do be an issue. If they were a little more raised, it would be nice, but no biggie. <br />
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Overall, I'd say that I made a damn fine choice for my first smartphone. I like just about everything about this phone. Once Ice Cream Sandwich is available for it (Jan.?), it'll be the phone to have. It does everything I want it to do and, once customized, nothing I don't. If you want a fast, beautiful phone, and have some money saved, get a Rezound.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-7848934299554969572011-11-11T10:15:00.000-05:002012-05-01T20:27:53.723-04:00Dreamcast Battery Swap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you own a Sega Dreamcast, chances are, every time you turn it on, you get prompted to enter the current date/time. This is because your internal battery that powers the chip that stores this data is dead. I grew tired of doing this and decided to do something about it. A Google search for a solution brought me <a href="http://www.retrogamecave.com/dreamcast-battery-replacement.html">here</a>. I bought a new OEM battery and followed the installation instructions on the site. I learned how to desolder using a "solder-sucker" from one of my co-workers. The whole thing took 10 minutes. I'm very pleased with the outcome. Hopefully I won't have to enter another date for 8-10 years.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-15908243888517133982011-11-09T19:21:00.002-05:002011-11-09T19:36:46.300-05:00Game Room Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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I made a few tweaks to the game room that I thought I'd share. I added a Sega Genesis to the mix. I gave away the Sony TV I had because I was never thrilled with its performance. In its place is a Sony PVM-3230 pro monitor. It's a 185lb. beast of a display, and difficult to calibrate, but the picture is damn nice. It's capable of running games at 15KHz low resolution RGB, which is basically the best picture quality for any video game system. I have several of these Sony PVM's in various sizes, and they're the best thing to ever happen to retrogaming. The consoles are attached to the monitor via SCART cables, which is a European standard not available in the US. The SCART cables attach to a special adapter that is used with the Analog RGB input of the monitor. I have SCART cables for the Xbox, Genesis, Dreamcast and PS2. They all look magnificent on this set. The NES runs composite and N64 runs S-Video, both same as before, because RGB is not an option for these. I also got rid of the receiver because the monitor has speaker hookups. The cable box is gone because I didn't ever watch TV in here. <br />
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Next post will be about my attempt to <a href="http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/_ctq-A">Retrobright</a> my Dreamcast to remove the yellow, and to change its battery.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0nZD5zvaxOQ/TrsU5ymN1AI/AAAAAAAAB1k/tYMPxDCQDdQ/s1600/IMG_3301.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" ida="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0nZD5zvaxOQ/TrsU5ymN1AI/AAAAAAAAB1k/tYMPxDCQDdQ/s320/IMG_3301.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-67232091861216047682011-09-06T19:49:00.001-04:002011-11-18T15:20:29.536-05:00My Game Room<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEQaHKdWNjHoWCXimiuzLt6zuPNTSsxcWU6aShVoOaPh-fusQu-QQTnyWva_1d1h8NrS02YAhnHAIjXWmqnj1RXL7uv3hnbbq_pHhiQDL4V1cnPIui0JtAvtq0dTu_xAKHoEeZ9v7zKuiW/s1600/IMG_3186.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEQaHKdWNjHoWCXimiuzLt6zuPNTSsxcWU6aShVoOaPh-fusQu-QQTnyWva_1d1h8NrS02YAhnHAIjXWmqnj1RXL7uv3hnbbq_pHhiQDL4V1cnPIui0JtAvtq0dTu_xAKHoEeZ9v7zKuiW/s320/IMG_3186.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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For the first time in my life, I have a room dedicated to gaming. I finished setting it up this weekend. Just enough room for all my gaming hardware. Nothing on the walls yet, but I have plans to hang some arcade cabinet marquees and vintage game ads and posters, once I buy them, of course. My actual game collection is not really that substantial yet, but it's growing all the time. I have about a few dozen games for each system. Quite a few controllers as well. But what I lack in physical games, I make up for in emulation. Mostly due to the Xbox emulators, I have about 10,000 playable games total in this room. Not bad. Many good times will be had in this room.<br />
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<u>Game Room Inventory</u><br />
Neo Geo MVS Bartop (M.A.M.E.)<br />
X-Men Vs. Street Fighter "Big Blue" Cabinet<br />
Sony Wega 32" TV<br />
Yamaha Receiver<br />
Aiwa Speakers<br />
Sega Dreamcast<br />
Sony Playstation 2<br />
Microsoft Xbox (w/ XBMC)<br />
Nintendo NES<br />
Nintendo 64<br />
Motorola Cable Box<br />
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For years now, I've been using XBMC on my Xbox (original, not 360) to listen to music in my living room. I also use it to watch standard definition videos, stream web-based video, and occasionally to look at picture slide shows, not to mention play thousands of emulated video games from over a dozen old-school consoles and arcade titles. I'd say that my Xbox has gotten more use than any other device in my living room. <br />
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XBMC over the years has been great, but not without its quirks. Certain things became either wonky or outright broken over time. Playing videos, watching movie trailers, random play for music, all needed work after a while. A few years ago, the developers of XBMC, citing the Xbox's obsolesence, and a need to focus on development for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms, ceased Xbox development. A few Xbox diehard developers decided to carry the torch under the moniker <a href="http://www.xbmc4xbox.org/">XBMC4XBOX</a>. Up until recently, there hadn't been any major releases of the software. May 2011 brought XBMC4XBOX v3.0.1 stable. Hooray! Utilizing Confluence, the beautiful default skin for the other XBMC platforms, a modern build of XBMC is now optimized for the Xbox hardware, with added features and bugfixes. <br />
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Having used it since its release, I can easily say that this is the definitive release of XBMC for the Xbox. It's flawless. The software looks gorgeous. I customized it with black backrounds, giving it a sharp, clean, easy-on-the-eyes look, which I love. All of my former gripes have been addressed. "Party Mode", a.k.a. random, actually plays random tracks from my music library every time, not just one of five or six "random" playlists. Apple Movie Trailers works wonderfully. All of my downloaded video files play flawlessly, regardless of file type. All of the Internet-based TV "channels" of streaming video that I'm interested in, like Revision3, have built-in support. <br />
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If you're looking for a way to watch videos and listen to music in your living room/bedroom/game room, especially if you're into retro gaming, then do yourself a favor and pick up and old Xbox from a garage sale or eBay, look up how to "softmod" it (Hint: it's not tough. Youtube is your friend.), and install XBMC4XBOX 3.0.1. You can get a remote for it for cheap as well if you don't like using a controller. I prefer a remote myself, especially since I use a universal remote. It's cheap, does 720p HD over component, supports digital audio, is networkable, runs video game emulators, and it does everything more expensive set-top boxes do and more, except HD video. If you can live without that, get an Xbox. You'll be glad you did.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-61360530365581113122011-06-29T16:15:00.008-04:002012-10-23T10:29:05.149-04:00Update to Neo Geo Bartop: Perfection<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'd like to follow up on a project I "finished" last year. Read about it <a href="http://amoddinghomecompanion.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-fall-project-neo-geo-bartop-arcade.html">here</a>. After its initial completion, two things kept my beloved Neo Geo MVS Bartop from being the perfect Neo Geo emulation machine: finding the correct software configuration for 100% arcade-perfect emulation, and keeping the PC from overheating under heavy use. <br />
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Regarding the heat issue: My original PC setup inside the cabinet was an old AMD-based Socket A chip. It got way too hot way too quickly and would often overheat and shut down the system after only an hour of use or less. Even the 5 cooling fans inside the cabinet could not keep the temperature low enough. I replaced it first with an Intel Celeron D-based setup with a ASRock board. This ran much cooler, but the board and chip did not get along very well. The CPU was not officially supported by the motherboard and would sometimes reset 10 seconds into boot-up, then boot normally. This was a minor inconvenience that I put up with until I realized my second issue, which I'll explain next. For now, I had the machine running well enough for me and everyone else that played it. <br />
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Regarding the software issue: After a few months of play, I noticed that there was some screen tearing going on in certain games where full-screen scrolling occurs, i.e. Captain Tomaday, Twinkle Star Sprites, and Blazing Star. This annoyed the hell out of me. I inquired several places (message boards, emailing vendors) as to why this was happening. The answer I found was that the Neo Geo has an odd vertical refresh rate of ~58.185Hz, which tears when set to the standard 60Hz refresh rate. Long story short, I had to buy the newest version of the ArcadeVGA video card that supported custom vertical refresh rates (via the ArcadePerfect utility), which also required a new motherboard and RAM, since I had an AGP card, but needed PCIe. A positive side effect of getting a new board was that the rebooting issue above has disappeared. Anyway, getting new hardware almost did the trick. It got my video looking perfect, but now the audio in M.A.M.E. was out of sync. It would skip every 5 seconds or so. The standard install of M.A.M.E. doesn't have a "soundsync" feature. Luckily, a custom build called GroovyMAME does. After a few false starts, GroovyMAME got my audio synced with my now 100% accurate video emulation and all is well. Setting "triplebuffer" and "soundsync" in the mame.ini file was the key. There is zero perceptible video issues on any Neo Geo games I've tried.<br />
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If you're looking to emulate Neo Geo MVS games in M.A.M.E. with 100% accuracy, the only way to do it, to my knowledge, is to do it with the combination of hardware and software that I have currently running. I'd be happy to answer any questions about my setup. Just email me or comment below.<br />
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I've gotten so much joy out of building, configuring, and playing this Neo Geo cabinet. I don't think I can ever get rid of it. Now I just need to get a real MVS.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-90226505708439426692011-04-14T16:57:00.003-04:002011-11-18T15:28:06.270-05:00Review: OCZ Vertex2 60GB SSD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Technology-Vertex-2-5-Inch-OCZSSD22VTXE60G/dp/B003NE5JCE?ie=UTF8&tag=amodhomcom-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="OCZ Technology 60 GB Vertex 2 Series SATA II 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD22VTXE60G" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B003NE5JCE&tag=amodhomcom-20" /></a></div><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=amodhomcom-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003NE5JCE" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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After having played with my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Seashell-1215N-PU17-BK-12-1-Inch-Netbook-Battery/dp/B0041G5XFQ?ie=UTF8&tag=amodhomcom-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Asus Eee PC 1215N</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=amodhomcom-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0041G5XFQ" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /> for about a week or so and determining that it should be faster, I bought an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Technology-Vertex-2-5-Inch-OCZSSD22VTXE60G/dp/B003NE5JCE?ie=UTF8&tag=amodhomcom-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">OCZ Vertex2 60G SSD</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=amodhomcom-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003NE5JCE" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /> for it. After some initial headaches (my netbook wouldn't recognize it), I finally got it to install after upgrading the firmware. I made a mistake that would come back to bite me, though. After using a 2nd PC to upgrade the drive, I formatted it as well. This, I found out later, caused the drive to be "misaligned," which I still don't completely understand, but it has something to do with the block size matching the flash memory sectors. So, upon running a benchmark after my initial install of Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit, I saw that my write speeds were less than half of the advertised rate of 275MB/s (read speeds were as advertised). My actual write speeds were about 120MB/s max using ATTO, the recommended benchmark. After I found out about the misalignment from the OCZ forums, I wiped the drive and reinstalled Windows, letting the Windows installer do the formatting. This yielded an aligned drive (info via <a href="http://www.alex-is.de/PHP/fusion/downloads.php?cat_id=4">AS SSD</a>). However, my write speeds as of now are no higher than 180MB/s. This is much better than before, but I still feel cheated. Maybe there's a limitation from the system I'm using, but I doubt it. Other people with my model netbook are posting higher write speeds than me. Oh well, it was cheap and it's still way faster than the stock drive. The only other bit of advice is that if you can avoid installing the Intel Matrix Storage drivers for your chipset, do so. Using the stock Microsoft AHCI increased my write speed performance drastically. To summarize, buy this drive if 280MB/s read and 180MB/s writes are good enough for you.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-26351749922453709402011-03-31T16:30:00.002-04:002011-11-18T15:28:18.720-05:00The Quiet Man on Laserdisc<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWHTuR0ArICCVEfQcpn-0g6MpOuC1-4-CE8iCjseJ_WnkGftdG6FVHq3C801Ga8AkgmsG_ewT3TwC7Cw7WnLqY31GoLiOaXZc9dzELGzUj2xpQeG-PBA-IoIWykTnV6kvdfDHYQATDS63/s1600/qm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWHTuR0ArICCVEfQcpn-0g6MpOuC1-4-CE8iCjseJ_WnkGftdG6FVHq3C801Ga8AkgmsG_ewT3TwC7Cw7WnLqY31GoLiOaXZc9dzELGzUj2xpQeG-PBA-IoIWykTnV6kvdfDHYQATDS63/s1600/qm.jpg" /></a></div><br />
As I've discussed before, <a href="http://amoddinghomecompanion.blogspot.com/2011/03/request-for-blu-ray-quiet-man-1952.html">I like The Quiet Man</a>. It's well documented on the Internet that all of the consumer releases of the film, in a word, stink. This is because the various rights holders saw fit to use the same dirty, degraded film source to produce all of the various VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD releases of the film. The result is that the worst release is actually the most recent, the "Collector's Edition" DVD from 2002. This makes sense, since the origianl source material has been degrading all this time and has never been properly remastered. But which release is the best? <br />
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To answer this question, I took a gamble a few weeks ago. I decided to purchase the only version I don't already own: the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Laserdisc-Maureen-Victor-McLaglen-Fitzgerald/dp/B0019O4VV0?ie=UTF8&tag=amodhomcom-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">1992 40th Anniversary Laserdisc.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=amodhomcom-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0019O4VV0" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /> I tracked down a new sealed copy for about $10 shipped. But I had no Laserdisc player to play the discs, so I had to find one somewhere. After a week of searching, I found someone on Craigslist willing to part with a basic one for $15. Perfect. For a $25 investment, I was going to put my theory of Laserdisc supremacy to the test.<br />
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To test it out, I loaded up both the DVD and Laserdisc, hit play, and switched back and forth on my receiver. Sure enough, after a few minutes of scrutiny, it became clear that the Laserdisc had a better picture. The colors were more natural and not washed out like the DVD. There were no compression artifacts on the LD due to the fact that the video is not compressed like on the DVD. There is also notably less film dirt and damage, probably due to the fact that the transfer happened a decade earlier. I didn't compare the sound, but we're talking about a mono source here, and mostly just dialogue thoughout, so nothing really to scream about to begin with. The audio on the LD was fine, though.<br />
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If you want the best version of The Quiet Man that is commercially available, get the Laserdisc. New copies can still be had on the cheap. Even if you don't have a player, chances are someone in your neighborhood has one that they'd part with for a song. After all, it's a dead format.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-69972351247143875212011-03-22T09:23:00.003-04:002011-11-18T15:28:31.267-05:00My New Toy: X-Men Vs. Street Fighter Arcade Cabinet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKJfBFYUbg6hWrwPmd0wuh-oMinS_QHZ6HwTwxwGKCpHyax7EO66RPX0FV1e-u3tOrhm24zhc-o9FoP5BkDCmIisNbWtGcGxdv6OAc17uF1mABXtGZk8-rNwdVlQhecFCPa6O12HPgefMM/s1600/IMG_2796.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKJfBFYUbg6hWrwPmd0wuh-oMinS_QHZ6HwTwxwGKCpHyax7EO66RPX0FV1e-u3tOrhm24zhc-o9FoP5BkDCmIisNbWtGcGxdv6OAc17uF1mABXtGZk8-rNwdVlQhecFCPa6O12HPgefMM/s320/IMG_2796.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
On Saturday, a friend and I went to the PA Farm Show Complex to attend an Arcade Auction organized by a company called Auction Game Sales. This company travels the east coast of the US, auctioning off coin-op games, jukeboxes, and the like. I had attended a similar event in December, but left empty handed. Leading up to Saturday, I had chosen 3 types of arcade cabinets that I was in the market for: a Neo Geo, a Capcom "big blue" fighter cab, or a Ms. Pacman cabinet. This time, I wouldn't be denied. <br />
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We got there at 9am to discover that there would also be a "South Eastern Beef Classic" (read: cattle sale) going on at the same time. Which made for a really wonderful mix of people and smells. Lots of morbid obesity, dirty overalls, braided rat-tails, and mullets, all with the odor of unwashed cattle wofting through the air. Anyway, the auction didn't start until 10:30a. This gave me time to inspect the machines I was interested in, numbering 6 or so. After the auction started, I could see it was going to be a long day. By some cruel twist of fate, they didn't auction off ANY of the 6 machines I wanted until 2:30pm, so we were waiting around that whole time. I felt bad for my buddy, who was an innocent bystander to all this mess. <br />
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So around 3:30pm, my moment came. After having been outbid for a piece of crap Capcom cab the I shouldn't have bought anyway, it was time for them to auction off an X-Men Vs. Street Fighter "big blue" cabinet. This was the one cabinet that I HAD to have, if I was going to leave with anything. I won the auction at a very reasonable price considering age and condition. I was elated. My friend and I both had places to be that night, so we had to go. Plus, I couldn't afford another cab. We couldn't leave until 5:30p though, due to congestion and lines that seemed to never end. We did make it out in one piece, though, with our prize intact. A very long and tiring day it was.<br />
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Regarding my score: X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is one of my favorite fighting games. I played it a lot in high school. The cabinet itself is in great shape. Everything works. It's fully playable. It does need some minor work though. The monitor's colors needs adjusting, the joysticks and buttons need to be replaced, I need locks for the coin doors, the stereo amp for sound is missing (mono sound only at the moment), and an overall cleaning is in order. It currently resides in another friend's garage until this summer, when I hopefully move into a bigger living space, and that's OK. I can wait. Hell, I've waited my whole life for my own full-size arcade cabinet, but now I have one.<br />
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The architecture of the Capcom Play System 2, of which this game is included, allows me to swap out similar games with this one very easily, meaning I can collect other Capcom arcade games from the 90's and simply open up the back and pop in a different game. Fun stuff. All in all, I'm thrilled with my new purchase. When it's fully restored and in place this summer, I'll post an update.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-72168211201722943682011-03-03T15:07:00.009-05:002013-02-11T08:35:12.691-05:00Request for Blu-ray: The Quiet Man (1952)<div class="separator" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
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<strong>UPDATE: It's finally happened. Purchase the film on Blu-ray </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Anniversary-Special-Edition-Blu-ray/dp/B009YX8LO6"><strong>here</strong></a><strong>.</strong><br />
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An Open Letter to the Executives at Paramount Pictures:<br />
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It is my understanding that the UCLA Film and Television Archive is in possession of the master (or best available print) of John Ford's 1952 masterpiece <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Man-Collectors-John-Wayne/dp/B00006JMRD?ie=UTF8&tag=amodhomcom-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Quiet Man</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=amodhomcom-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B00006JMRD" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=widgetsamazon-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B00006JMRD" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" />. As this is the month of March and St. Patrick's Day is upon us, it would be a great gift to not only Irish Americans and John Wayne fans, but to film lovers the world over to know that Paramount/UCLA are dedicated to working to release a proper high-definition Blu-ray transfer of this magnificent and beautiful film. Fans of the movie, such as myself, have been limited to watching sub-standard and hastily-transferred DVD and VHS editions of this movie since its initial home release about 30 years ago. Washed out colors, dirt spots, and a host of other issues plauge just about every release of the film, regardless of medium. Other John Wayne pictures of the period have received beautiful restorations and been released on Blu-ray to be enjoyed in their original glory, yet "The Quiet Man" remains just that. Of all the older films that would benefit from a restoration, "The Quiet Man" would arguably have the most to gain. The lush, green, rolling hills of the Irish countryside deserve to been seen as Ford saw and captured them. Please give the film the respect and treatment it deserves, and help to release it in HD. If another commercial release of the movie is impossible for whatever reason, might I suggest releasing an unmodified digital print of the film to a site like <a href="http://www.archive.org/">Archive.org</a> so that fans of the film with professional video editing tools and experience can perform the necessary restoration tasks and share the results with the world. <br />
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Regardless of whether or not my request is feasible, perhaps a special screening of the film at UCLA is in order. March 17, 2011 appears free on their calendar as of now. <br />
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On behalf of all lovers of this wonderful film, please seriously consider this request for an HD transfer, restoration, and release of "The Quiet Man."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-30924092417680414972011-02-16T11:17:00.005-05:002011-11-18T15:29:23.909-05:00Review: Asus Eee PC 1215N<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Seashell-1215N-PU17-BK-12-1-Inch-Netbook-Battery/dp/B0041G5XFQ?ie=UTF8&tag=amodhomcom-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" style="cssfloat: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_LCfp7OkUHrJvv0AR1eGYjodQgNEEZWwrlsHg-goB3wJCWKWBJt9Nh946Drn_iAgiRJf66Wd72jLPZTpF44UfbRewJ-Z4lS-LiR4CkfSiwx3Sbp__pWViPzK_1A5zUPshLxjz3sTL64Eq/s320/1215n.bmp" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I treated myself to a new netbook recently. I picked up an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Seashell-1215N-PU17-BK-12-1-Inch-Netbook-Battery/dp/B0041G5XFQ?ie=UTF8&tag=amodhomcom-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Asus Eee PC 1215N</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=amodhomcom-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0041G5XFQ" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /> from Amazon. After having played with one at CES this year, I decided that it was the netbook for me. I also grabbed a few accessories: a KWorld USB TV Tuner, a carrying case, and a Windows Media Center remote. My reason for upgrading from my beloved Eee PC 901 is that the 901 doesn't do HD video. I wanted something that I could take on the road that was a little faster than the 901 and could function as a mobile media center for airplanes and hotel rooms. <br />
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The first thing I did when it arrived was wipe Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit that came with it and install my copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. The 64-bit OS proved to lag the machine a bit much for my liking, so I moved to Ultimate 32-bit. I also had a lot of trouble with reinstalling the video drivers. This machine has the Nvidia Optimus system, where if you're watching HD video, it uses the Nvidia Ion chip instead of the default Intel 3150 video drivers for better performance. The latest official Nvidia Ion drivers do not work on this machine. Neither do Asus' Intel drivers. So I needed the following driver configuration, in this order: Intel's 3150 drivers, then Asus' Nvidia Ion drivers. Any other configuration borked either the resolution or HD video or both.<br />
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The machine's stock hard drive was a bit noisy for my liking, and the RAM at 2GB is a bit low to run Windows 7 at full speed, so I purchased 4GB of RAM and an OCZ Vertex 2 solid state drive (SSD). I finished installing both last night, and I have to say that this little bugger is humming along very nicely. It boots to completion in under 30 seconds, which for a machine with an Atom CPU, is very impressive. All app and network stuff I do is very responsive, even when multitasking. Media Center has minimal menu and app lag.<br />
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My only major complaint thus far is watching Live TV with my tuner stick via Windows Media Center. Even after the upgrades, HD and SD TV stutters every 8-10 seconds. This is definely not due to the graphics card, hard drive, or RAM. It's either caused by the CPU (prob not), video drivers, mpeg decoders, or my tuner stick. I'll be running some experiments this week to find the root of the issue. The picture does look great, though. Some people have knocked the keyboard for flexing, but it's not that bad, though it does flex a little while typing. <strong><u>UPDATE:</u></strong> Turns out the TV stuttering issues was a result of the cheap KWorld tuner, and not my PC. I tested with a Hauppauge HVR-850, and Live TV was smooth and beautiful. <br />
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<strong>PROS:</strong><br />
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Nice screen size and resolution<br />
Fast (after upgrades)<br />
Attractive case<br />
Lightweight<br />
Good battery life<br />
Good feature set<br />
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<strong>CONS:</strong><br />
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Shows fingerprints badly<br />
Minor keyboard flexUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-58710394211427108742011-01-11T22:55:00.006-05:002011-11-18T15:30:41.422-05:00CES 2011 Wrap-Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2W_7mCMq2yQ/TSzrkwmKj9I/AAAAAAAABxo/Hkzfk9gT0HA/s1600/IMG_2621.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" ida="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2W_7mCMq2yQ/TSzrkwmKj9I/AAAAAAAABxo/Hkzfk9gT0HA/s320/IMG_2621.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Well, folks, I just flew in from Las Vegas and, boy, are my arms tired. (rimshot) </div><br />
But seriously, CES 2011 was incredible. My first ever trade show. I first decided that I had to go to CES after reading about it in Nintendo Power magazine at age 9. This was the first time in my life that I had the means to go. I had a ball. This was a solo mission. The event was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which is the size of about 14 football fields, and that's not even the whole show. The Venetian Hotel houses the spill-over, which is mostly high-end audio. CES is not open to the public as such. You have to be "in the industry." I went as the CEO of my own non-existant computer consulting firm, Panoptic Solutions, Ltd. Little did I know that lying was unnecessary, as I could have gone as the IT buyer of the company I actually work for, for whom I actually am the tech buyer, and which would have been totally legit. Oh well, no harm or foul. The CEA (governing body of CES) has my $100 entrance fee, so whatever.<br />
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I basically spent all day this past Thursday and Friday walking, playing with gadgets, looking at new technologies, and bullshitting with vendors. The LVCC portion of CES was divided into 3 halls: North, Central and South. North had video game stuff and automotive stuff. Cars and car stereos. Central was mostly A/V. South, twice as big as North and Central combined, was mostly phones and computer stuff.<br />
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There were no show-stopping devices or technologies this year. There was, however, 120,000 attendees, which is a "holy shit" number for everyone involved. The 3 recurring themes of this year's show were: tablet PC's, 3D TV's, and electric cars. I only saw a couple electric cars, but I saw tons of 3D and tablets. Tablet computing seems to be the new laptop. People must really like touchscreen typing. I don't, but whatever. There are definitely applications for this type of thing, like <a href="http://amoddinghomecompanion.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-touchscreen-jukebox.html">touchscreen jukeboxes</a>, but give me a laptop or netbook any day over these, at least until the software side matures a bit.<br />
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I had a long discussion with a Panasonic rep about electronics recycling. They made a big deal out of the fact that they are really pushing to use non-toxic and recyclable materials in their electronics. They're also pushing out a recycling program for all their old stuff, like tube TV's. This is promising, but I told him he NEEDS to have his superiors approve marketing these eco-friendly programs, and if it's not bullshit, meaning they actually are doing something, then that can translate in to real dollars in their pockets by tapping into the hippie market. I'm not holding my breath.<br />
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Disappointment #1: No Oppo, Nintendo, Apple, or HTC. Oppo, my favorite DVD/Blu-ray player vendor, may have been there, but I couldn't find them. HTC didn't need to be there because all of the cell carriers and phone OS-makers were already showing off their stuff for them. Nintendo holds its own show in Japan the same week as CES. Apple basically says "F-you" to everyone. Side note: Apple actually stole the show by allowing Verizon to "announce" during CES a special press conference, held today, which everyone knew was going to be to annouce the Verizon iPhone, which they did.<br />
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Disappointment #2: 3D is not ready yet. I tried every TV makers' 3D TV's. I tried active glasses, passive glasses, and even glasses-free technologies. Bottom line: it sucks for everything except still imagery. The colors are dull, the backgrounds are blurry, you see double most of the time, and the images are juddery. The exception to this, besides still images, might be video games. Might. Since I'm not a gamer, I could care less, but some people might dig it for first-person shooters, etc. You won't catch me watching any 3D movies any time soon. Avatar in 2D looks beautiful.<br />
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<a href="http://amoddinghomecompanion.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-top-5-gadgets-of-ces-2011.html">See my Top 5 CES gadgets here.</a><br />
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Also, I have a new crush. I saw this video playing in an elaborate living room home theater setup on the show floor. I was so enthralled with this woman, Diana Krall, and her music that I actually started clapping after the song was over, completely forgetting that I was not at a concert. Seriously, she's unbelievable.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Even though I had a great time, I'm not going alone again. I need a partner in crime for something of this magnitude. A kindred spirit. A fellow geek. If I can find someone like-minded for a future show, then it's on.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You can view my full CES 2011 photostream <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/cicalese/CES2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIKonsvDiralFg&feat=directlink">here</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-44140440844203165942011-01-11T22:25:00.004-05:002011-11-18T15:31:49.430-05:00My Top 5 Gadgets of CES 2011As part of my <a href="http://amoddinghomecompanion.blogspot.com/2011/01/ces-2011-wrap-up.html">CES Wrap-Up</a>, here's my picks for Best of CES 2011, in no particular order:<br />
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<strong>2012 Ford Focus</strong><br />
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Plug-in electric car from an American carmaker. 'Nuff said.<br />
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<strong>Panasonic VT30 Series Plasma TV's</strong><br />
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I picked this series of TV out of all of them because I believe this to be the best <strong>2D</strong> TV on the market, not for its 3D performance or features. 3D is not ready for prime time, as I mentioned previously. Panasonic has the best plasmas on the market, which I enjoy more than LCD/LED sets. These TV's represent the best of display technology, with super dark, inky blacks, bright whites, accurate colors, and few motion issues, if any. I wish I could afford one.<br />
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<strong>Asus Transformer</strong><br />
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I'm really not interested in a tablet PC for myself. I just don't see a use for it, personally. Having said that, the Asus Transformer blends tablet and netbook in a way I can definitely get down with. If its performance is up to snuff, and we won't know for sure until probably this summer, then I may get one.<br />
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<strong>Motorola Atrix</strong><br />
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This phone is closer to a PC than anything before it. You travel with it, bring it home, dock it, and use it as a light PC, and maybe even watch a movie on it. It has the CPU and RAM to do it as well. Wow. <br />
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<strong>XI3 Modular Computer</strong><br />
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</div>For a guy like me that digs lightweight PC's, this was very interesting. From what I understand, you can swap out a bunch of little daughterboards, and upgrade them as new hardware comes out. You can also use 1 as a centrally located system, and have a few others around the house as thin clients or dumb terminals. I'm keeping my eyes on these guys for sure.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-82546790298956649732011-01-01T10:18:00.002-05:002011-01-05T12:18:18.629-05:00My Top 10 Favorite Neo Geo GamesIn the wake of the completion of my <a href="http://amoddinghomecompanion.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-fall-project-neo-geo-bartop-arcade.html">Neo Geo Bartop</a>, I've had a chance to play most of the games for the Neo Geo. Here's a list of my favorite games as of now:<br />
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</div><strong>10. Blazing Star</strong><br />
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There are several shmups (shoot 'em ups) for the Neo Geo. Most are pretty good, but this is my favorite. The game looks great, with rich, detailed levels and smooth game play. Not too easy or too hard. Fun power-ups and weapons. <br />
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<strong>9. Magical Drop III</strong><br />
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I started playing this puzzle game recently. It's pretty addictive. Much more fun with 2 players than 1, but great nonetheless. I still haven't figured out a foolproof strategy. Sort of similar to Columns, but with a top-down push/pull instead of just push.<br />
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<strong>8. Garou: Mark of the Wolves</strong><br />
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There must be 50 fighting games for the Neo Geo. Many are terrible. Garou is an exception. Great graphics, solid physics, and a character named Butt. What more do you need? Yes, there's the King of Fighters series, which has a few decent titles, but Garou just feels better to me. I have to admit that I only like a couple of Neo Geo fighters. I'm much more into Capcom's fighters, but SNK has a few winners, including this one.<br />
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<strong>7. Nightmare in the Dark</strong><br />
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If you like zombies, and you like Bubble Bobble, then you'll love Nightmare. Plays almost exactly the same as BB, but with huge boss characters every few levels. In the game, you're a graveyard caretaker that lights zombies and mummies on fire. Awesome.<br />
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<strong>6. League Bowling </strong><br />
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It's no Wii Bowling, but it's a stripped down, fun as hell bowling game with goofy animations. One of the first Neo games, and one of the best.<br />
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<strong>5. Neo Mr. Do! </strong><br />
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A remake of the original 80's arcade hit, <em>Mr. Do!</em>. The original can't hold a candle to this one, though. The game is the same, but the feel is far more smooth, and the graphics are cartoony, crisp and colorful. The cut scenes are goofy, but well done. I'm actually getting pretty good at this one, which should tell you how often I've been playing it. Overall, a beautiful and fun puzzle/action game.<br />
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<strong>4. Neo Turf Masters</strong><br />
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Greatest golf game ever, hands down. Golden Tee and Tiger Woods got nothing on Turf Masters, as far as I'm concerned. The simplicity of the game play is what makes it so great. The courses are well designed, and frankly, quite difficult. If you can stay under par for a round on hard difficulty level, that's an accomplishment. If you like golf games, you'll love this one.<br />
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<strong>3. Metal Slug 3</strong><br />
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Any game where you can turn into a zombie and puke blood on your enemies is going to make it into my top 10. I love this game. Like the other MS games, it's basically a run 'n gun (i.e. Contra) on steroids. This one is unique, however. You can play though it a total of about 72 different ways because of all the possible paths available, which makes for huge replay value. The graphics, bosses, gameplay, and overall fun are all way up there. <br />
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<strong>2. Baseball Stars 2</strong><br />
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Best baseball game ever. Basically an updated RBI Baseball. Great graphics and gameplay. The power-ups in this one are unique to baseball games, at least that I've played. Neo Geo isn't necessarily known for its sports games, but this one is a winner.<br />
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<strong>1. Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move</strong><br />
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The funnest puzzle game since Tetris. The game is really simple, but really tough to master. Match the colors, that's it. There are many sequels to this one, with powerups and other bells and whistles, but the stripped-down original is the best. My girlfriend and I have an ongoing competition to set the high score on this one. She's way better than me.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-56353744081169015662010-11-26T14:21:00.006-05:002012-10-23T10:28:05.060-04:00My Fall Project: Neo Geo Bartop Arcade Cabinet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A dream of mine has always been to own an arcade cabinet. Ever since the days of playing games in arcades, bowling alleys, and diners as a boy, I've wondered what it would be like to be able to play an arcade game for free whenever I wanted. This summer, as I was wrapping up my <a href="http://amoddinghomecompanion.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-touchscreen-jukebox.html">touchscreen jukebox</a> project, I was considering what my next project should be. In September, just for grins, I priced out a cabinet with the options I wanted. While it seemed economically out of reach at first, I decided that I could make a few financial sacrifices to make it work. And there it began.<br />
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I decided to build a Neo Geo Bartop for several reasons. (For those unfamiliar with Neo Geo, see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Geo_(console)">here</a> for background info.) Mainly, it was because I love the games. I first read about Neo Geo and its prohibitively expensive home console and games in an early issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly circa 1990. I never played Neo Geo console or arcade games as a kid, but rather got into them in my 20's when I learned how to mod the Xbox and play emulated games on it. I had noticed the amazing graphics, sound, and overall fun of many of the Neo Geo games. When deciding what arcade game to build, I looked for "the most bang for the buck." The system should be PC-based, since I already had an old PC laying around. This is a much more versatile solution than using an actual arcade board, which would yield only one game, or a handful at most. The fact that there are 150 Neo Geo games, many of which are great, all with the same controls sealed the deal. Simple and attractive artwork, with a ROM set that is easy to emulate on an old PC helped, too. I chose to build the cabinet from a pre-fab kit since I lack most of the tools and skills required to cut my own. I chose a bartop (a.k.a. tabletop) kit as opposed to a full-size cabinet so that it wouldn't take up as much room in my rapidly shrinking apartment. I decided to build a 1-player cabinet, but there's a USB port on the front panel so that an optional 2nd controller can be added for 2-player games. I could envision a finished product made of 100% authentic arcade parts, most importantly a CRT (tube) arcade monitor, that would net a hyper-realistic arcade experience for a fraction of the cost and space requirements of a full-size system. It took over 2 months to build, and now it's done.<br />
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After having played with it for a few days, I can honestly say I love it. The games look and feel great. The controls are spot on. I'd go so far as I like it better than an actual Neo Geo cabinet, but I'm biased. This was not only the most difficult and expensive, but also the funnest project I've ever worked on by far. Planning it and building it was just as fun as playing it. It was well worth all the (minor) injuries I sustained during construction. The biggest obstacles to completion were sufficently cooling the PC and getting the bezel (black area around the screen) painted and mounted. Cooling the PC required 5 cooling fans: 2 in's and 3 out's. Quite a pain to set up, but seems to be running OK. The bezel, consisting of plexiglass and a plastic frame, had to be spray painted and velcro-ed, respectively. Very difficult to set up because it has to be just right since that's what people who play the thing are looking at 95% of the time.<br />
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As this is my first arcade cabinet build, I'd like to thank the following people, in no particular order, without whom this project would have never been completed: My friends Joe and John at BCG, Andy at <a href="http://www.ultimarc.com/">Ultimarc</a>, Dom, Elton, and Bill at my work, Gerry at <a href="http://www.mameroom.com/home.asp">NorthCoast Custom Arcades</a>, Todd at <a href="http://www.arcadeoverlays.com/">ArcadeOverlays</a>, <a href="http://www.happcontrols.com/">Suzo Happ</a>, and the forum mods and contributors at <a href="http://www.racketboy.com/">Racketboy</a>, <a href="http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/">BYOAC</a>, <a href="http://www.neo-geo.com/forums">Neo-Geo.com</a>, and <a href="http://forums.arcade-museum.com/">KLOV</a>.<br />
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Parts list:<br />
<table cellpadding="10"><tbody>
<tr><td><br />
<b><u>Part</u></b> <br />
Cabinet Kit (Ultimate Bartop I)<br />
Monitor (Wells Gardner D7700 13") <br />
VGA Breakout Cable <br />
T-molding <br />
ArcadeVGA (AGP) Video Card <br />
Logitech Desktop Speakers <br />
White Cold Cathode Light <br />
Competition Joystick <br />
Ultimate Pushbuttons <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Strip-SCG4-Autoswitching-Technology/dp/B000L9A7ZS?ie=UTF8&tag=amodhomcom-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Smart Strip Surge Protector</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=amodhomcom-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000L9A7ZS" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <br />
I-Pac2 <br />
Wire + Cable Ties <br />
Custom Sideart, Marquee, and CPO <br />
Control Panel Plexiglass <br />
Marquee Mirror <br />
Misc. Screws <br />
PC (Mobo, CPU, PSU, HDD, RAM)<br />
Black Spray Paint <br />
Matte Board <br />
Case Fans<br />
Velcro<br />
USB Extender </td><td><br />
<b><u>Vendor</u></b> <br />
NorthCoast Custom Arcades<br />
Suzo Happ<br />
Ultimarc<br />
NorthCoast Custom Arcades<br />
Ultimarc<br />
Newegg<br />
Newegg<br />
Suzo Happ<br />
Suzo Happ<br />
Amazon<br />
Ultimarc<br />
Radio Shack<br />
ArcadeOverlays<br />
BCG<br />
BCG <br />
Lowes <br />
(already had)<br />
Lowes<br />
AC Moore<br />
Best Buy/Newegg<br />
Lowes<br />
(already had)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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PC Parts list:<br />
<table cellpadding="10"><tbody>
<tr><td><br />
<b><u>Part</u></b><br />
Motherboard<br />
CPU<br />
Hard Drive<br />
RAM<br />
Power Supply<br />
OS<br />
Frontend<br />
MAME</td><td><br />
<b><u>Model</u></b><br />
AsRock K7S41GX<br />
AMD Sempron 2500+ (1.66GHz)<br />
Seagate 250GB (IDE)<br />
1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR 400<br />
Generic 300W<br />
Windows XP Professional SP3<br />
Maximus Arcade 2.10<br />
0.139</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Build pics:<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-39944814537606344492010-10-11T14:07:00.000-04:002010-10-11T14:07:48.148-04:00I'm going to CES 2011!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLJiZsstMBYzIAWvHsH84LtrkcSwNVMtxa7HIwULCfBO-88Sh9RPxmKLIHdt0xZnfu1NgB1mX64SLpekSeHsqLhqKwKkQUEIH1OfaksYXHQb8SeBLz4JfcIZBkkNpAvEoxqI_Ak26fDq5k/s1600/ces_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLJiZsstMBYzIAWvHsH84LtrkcSwNVMtxa7HIwULCfBO-88Sh9RPxmKLIHdt0xZnfu1NgB1mX64SLpekSeHsqLhqKwKkQUEIH1OfaksYXHQb8SeBLz4JfcIZBkkNpAvEoxqI_Ak26fDq5k/s320/ces_logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>That's right. Another lifelong endeavor will come to fruition in January. I've wanted to go to the Consumer Electronics Show ever since I read about it Nintendo Power magazine when I was 9 years old. I read about it every year in tech blogs, and every year I say, "Damn, I need to go next year." Well, my time has come. A friend hooked me up with free registration, and I just booked my flight and hotel. I'm planning on reviewing/photographing/documenting anything that I deem interesting. So, expect multiple CES installments on this here blog the in mid-January.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-26424813422469284182010-09-14T10:42:00.001-04:002010-09-14T10:49:13.270-04:00Growing Up Geek<em>As an homage of sorts to Engadget’s <a href="http://www.engadget.com/tag/GrowingUpGeek/">Growing Up Geek</a> series, where their staff and other tech personalities discuss their technological upbringing, I present to you my own installment. Enjoy.</em><br />
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There are 2 kinds of geeks in this world. Some are born into geekdom, others find their own way. I fall squarely in the latter realm. To understand this, one should examine my childhood. Growing up, my parents were the opposite of what we’d now call “early adopters.” Nothing against them, but at every technological turn, they were late to the game. This assumes that they ever found out there was a game being played. Technology was usually thrust upon them, and at times, against their will. No one in my immediate family is what I would consider a geek, nerd, or technophile. I have 2 uncles who were 80’s and 90’s technology “users” (read: they owned computers and camcorders), but tech did not consume their lives as it surely does mine. If being a geek means that one’s intelligence and social awkwardness, combined with a love of things like gadgets and video games, causes isolation and alienation, then I was surely a geek. In a small Catholic school class, if I wasn’t the smartest boy and one of the top 3 students overall, I was damn close. The other kids in your class usually resent this, especially when you’re cocky and arrogant about it like I was. Defense mechanisms are a bitch. But I digress.<br />
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My earliest childhood memories of technology revolved around 2 subsets of tech that I still enjoy to this day: TV and video games. My parents bought me an Atari 2600 Jr. for Christmas circa 1987. I think they told me some time later that it cost $50, which was big money in those days of single-income households. I remember many fun hours playing Missile Command and Asteroids. Before Nintendo’s monstrously successful Game Boy dominated handheld gaming, there were 1000 different handheld video games from 100 different manufacturers, one of the more popular being made by Tiger Electronics. Some were crude, some were cool. I had a similar knock-off, called Jumpman, which was a trichrome version of Donkey Kong made by Tandy (Radio Shack). I loved it. I brought the bulky, day glow-orange unit everywhere my family went. My mom was taking college courses around this time, requiring digital calculators and tape recorders, which my young sister and I “played with” and rendered unusable. I also remember when my Aunt Mae bought my parents their first VCR, which was around 1985. It was the neatest thing. You could <strong>record TV</strong>! What a concept! I had no idea how it worked, but it did, usually. Looking back, I’m especially grateful that my aunt bought us VHS instead of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotape_format_war">BetaMax</a>. I have no idea what the VCR cost her, but it must have been a fortune. Years later, I took the thing apart to get a stuck tape out, and saw first hand how many individual assemblies and parts the thing had. Production costs for that type of unit must have been astronomical. And this was a Mono, 2-head VCR. We had a library of tapes, with a few dozen in steady rotation for my sister and me. <br />
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I should also mention that music and technology were not totally separate from one another in my upbringing. At some point around 1988, my mom bought me a generic-branded candy apple red Walkman from Kmart, and my first tape, Bon Jovi’s <em>New Jersey</em>. I wouldn’t listen to that album now if you gave me $20. Unlistenable. My first tape would’ve been Guns N’ Roses’ <em>Appetite For Destruction</em> if I’d had my way, but my mom didn’t like the cursing on it. I eventually amassed a collection of a couple dozen tapes and listened to the Walkman constantly, even though the headphones were cheap and hurt my ears. Eventually I got a cheap hand-me-down boombox for listening to tapes in my room. <br />
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My grandparents bought me a 13” TV and an NES for Christmas and my birthday, respectively, in 1990 I believe. (That’s one good thing about January birthdays: It’s like double Christmas.) Let me tell about the countless joyful hours I spent playing Nintendo by myself and with my friends. When I wasn’t playing, I was reading Nintendo Power magazine, usually on the toilet. My mom and dad could be heard at our house around that time yelling, “Are you STILL in there?!?!” Back then, my brain was a sponge. I could damn near memorize a whole issue of NP in a couple days. For example, in Super Mario Brothers 3, I memorized all 8 configurations of 16 flip cards in the flip card mini-game. Those of you who’ve played it know what I’m talking about. What can I say? I was obsessed. I was one of the few kids I knew with my own TV, and even without cable, it still ruled! I felt less special when my sister got one the following year, but whatever. And I really don’t know what I would have done without my NES. Being the geek that I was, my social life in the early 90’s was less that stellar. Let’s just say that video games, in general, got me and countless other youths of my generation through many a sad and lonely day. <br />
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I got my first CD player for Christmas around 1992. My first 3 CD’s, were <em>Nevemind</em> by Nirvana, MC Hammer’s <em>Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em</em>, and <em>Music For The People</em> by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. I’ll admit that I couldn’t listen to the last 20 seconds of <u>Territorial Pissings</u> from <em>Nevermind</em> because it scared me. I thought it sounded like Kurt Cobain was being choked to death. Anyway, I traded in my NES to a local game store for cash so I could go halves with my parents on a Super Nintendo (SNES) around 1994. This brought Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, and Street Fighter II, among other games, into my room. Awesome! The graphics and sound were incredible, and the games were just as fun as NES, if not more. It was also around this time that my Mom bought the family a Word Processor. For the uninitiated, imagine a typewriter with a monochrome LCD screen less than the size of an iPhone that, when printing a document, sounded like a jackhammer. “Frustrating to use” is being kind.<br />
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The pivotal moment in my geek evolution came in January 1997 when I went with my mom to the Gateway Country Store in Upper Dublin, PA to buy our first PC, a Gateway 2000 Pentium II running Windows 95 at a whopping 233MHz. Of course, we didn’t leave the store with a PC. Noooooo, we had to wait 2 weeks for it to arrive via mail, in the then oh-so-envious cowprint box. Even though I didn’t know how to use it save for opening Word, typing and printing, I loved it. There was a fun motorcycle game called Redline Racer that came with it, which actually ran on our PC’s meager hardware. We got AOL at some point, just like 90% of computer-owning Americans. I began to realize then just how powerful the Internet could be, crude as it was then. I’m in high school at this time, and I’m beginning to develop an interest in the machines available to me and computer courses offered. One such course that I took was Computer-based Media, or something similar. It was taught by (let’s call him) Mr. D, a kindred spirit and fellow geek. I owe much of my success in life to this man. Mr. D took time to help me understand the fundamentals of PC and Mac multimedia. He allowed me to stay after school on his time to help me complete my projects and to even go so far as to let me use his personal internet dialup account (either CompuServe or Prodigy) unsupervised. Let me stress that last bit: <strong>unsupervised</strong>. This type of freedom and access is unheard of today. He trusted me, and in return, I never abused the privilege. Rather, I learned how to use a search engine (Altavista) and move files between computing platforms, among other things. His trust and tutelage made it clear that computing was for me as a career. This led directly to my choosing computer engineering as a college major, which of course led to my current standing in life. I’m extremely grateful to Mr. D for all that he did for me as a tech-curious teenager.<br />
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Rather than delve into my college years, where my geekdom became official, at least on paper, I think I’ll wrap this up. Technology has had an effect on my life, to varying degrees, since early childhood. From video games and VCR’s to PC’s and, currently, home theater, I feel like my life has been bettered at every turn because of technology. Many of the things in my life that I enjoy have come from the Internet. I hope that the first generation of kids who don’t know what dial-up Internet is realize how good they have it, technologically speaking.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-48975517286960565152010-08-30T19:03:00.002-04:002011-11-18T15:31:59.854-05:00My Touchscreen Jukebox<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHsMVjeM5BVuQpt3d2Buvflr7dRtCrlamY2yMIMO44Yyt7yfV2TPPSw4GXccHsG_z_lBN0nD4ZHEAG2KP9HdstdYvHHzyPzRvvqJyAAPMTKCRF7IHajuWkgviqSYmscT_k6fXeH3Y6w0iP/s1600/IMG_2164.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHsMVjeM5BVuQpt3d2Buvflr7dRtCrlamY2yMIMO44Yyt7yfV2TPPSw4GXccHsG_z_lBN0nD4ZHEAG2KP9HdstdYvHHzyPzRvvqJyAAPMTKCRF7IHajuWkgviqSYmscT_k6fXeH3Y6w0iP/s320/IMG_2164.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ever since I first started listening to music as a child, I wondered what it would be like to have a jukebox. Something that me, my friends and family could use at parties and other gatherings to easily and conveniently listen to music. I've had the idea for quite a while. Ever since I starting going to bars at the ripe old age of 18 and saw the cool touchscreen jukeboxes that they had hanging on the walls, I knew I had to have one. If one was to buy a jukebox from a vendor, one would surely need deep pockets because jukeboxes, touchscreen or otherwise, ain't cheap. So, I decided to "roll my own."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My first thought was to buy one of the recently made all-in-one touchscreen PCs from a vendor like Asus. These, however, are still in the $400-range for a used item. Too much $$$. My next thought was to use my existing desktop, and add a touchscreen as a 2nd monitor. Touchscreens are in the hundreds of dollars for a new unit, so I had to go used. Enter my old friend eBay. I found an ELO 15" USB/VGA touchscreen pulled from a kiosk somewhere in Texas for $75 shipped. Score! I added a Monoprice vesa mount so that I could hang it on the wall, and some conduit for neatness of cabling. I mounted it next to my PC at shoulder height. So far so good. The monitor works exactly as advertised. But what about software? This is the key to any good jukebox system, so I had to choose carefully. Enter <a href="http://www.freeboxjukebox.com/">E-Touch/Freebox</a>. After many, many hours of research, I found this suite to be by far the best and most authentic jukebox experience of any software on the Internet. It's skinnable and customizable. It supports FLAC files after some plugin installs. It supports my existing cover art (cover.jpg) and tags. It's very responsive with my touchscreen. I'm running the final version 5 (the actual number escapes me). While not perfect, it's the closest thing to perfect touchscreen jukebox software that you'll find. Highly recommended.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I haven't had a full scale test of this unit yet (read: drunk people using it), but that will be coming soon I hope. In the mean time, I'll continue tinkering with it and will post my findings as needed. I may update to the recently released Version 6.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-114806469084608928.post-84168109024834921152010-05-10T18:56:00.001-04:002010-05-11T08:25:18.342-04:00Revo Review: Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXfPmTac_o7ZReQVojW1bmeBbnBKCmlTnfQKmwP7lXunbrfePqmNRyobWBQ7cr_Wn06SI5NpdGF75F2kxbw0V07xyXP2-MFP3nEGPlbzUr7lU7KZ4Znm7r3RCtXTtN9Vo60bsZPb2yAaTB/s1600/acer-aspire-revo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXfPmTac_o7ZReQVojW1bmeBbnBKCmlTnfQKmwP7lXunbrfePqmNRyobWBQ7cr_Wn06SI5NpdGF75F2kxbw0V07xyXP2-MFP3nEGPlbzUr7lU7KZ4Znm7r3RCtXTtN9Vo60bsZPb2yAaTB/s320/acer-aspire-revo.jpg" tt="true" /></a></div><br />
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Well, I've decided to keep the Revo. Reason being: I found a way to get Hulu Desktop to run smoothly. The answer: Overclock it. I read some forum posts over at <a href="http://www.revouser.com/">Revouser</a>, and I found that you can actually use the Asrock Ion utility called OCTuner. It's an app that runs in the background. I have the Revo running stable at 1.98GHz, a 20% CPU increase. Not bad. Anything higher will crash, though. Someone modified one of the .inf files to work with the Revo, and guess what: I got the Revo playing flash videos of all quality levels smoothly at 1080p. Almost no skips/jitters. I also bought a cheap Chinavision remote so that I could use Windows Media Center, et al, without a keyboard and mouse. It works great. Overall, I'm pretty happy. Next up: the elusive homebrew touchscreen jukebox.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1