The Fine Line Between Junk, and Rare Video Game Consoles

I'm starting to gain a reputation for enquiring/collecting previous gen video games consoles among my friends. Because of that I got the idea to research some really old video game consoles/machines. Using my handy Encyclopedia of Game.Machines, I scoured Ebay for their present day prices, not that I want to buy these junk, but I think it would make for a nice blog entry. Read on.

First up is the Sharp MZ. First introduced in Japan as the MZ-80 in 1979, this was more office equipment, than a video games machine. Among the games produced by this platform were two Mario Bros titles. I've only found one machine, the MZ-700 (1982) for sale on eBay for USD 179.99 (click here)

The next console is probably old as I am. The Commodore C64 debutted in 1982, selling up to 20 million units throughout its lifecycle. You can get one "like new" for a measly USD 49.99 (click here)
The Magnavox Odyssey is touted by the Encyclopedia as the first home videogames system, and I've no reason to believe otherwise, judging that it was introduced way back in 1972 and looked like an oversimplified sewing machine...or something. I found one of these thingamajigs up for auction at USD 142.50 and counting. (click here)

Of all the old junk mentioned so far, I managed to catch this console on TV twice. Actually it was the same documentary. In any case, the Intellivision, produced by Mattel and introduced to the US market in 1980, was competition to the Atari VCS. You can even connect a specially made piano keyboard module to this thing. Prices range from USD 150 to USD 200 for this console, on eBay.

So there you have it, some of the old junk I've been reading up the past few days. And no, there will be no buying of these old junk on my part. But if you are interested to get the Game.Machines Encyclopedia, you can always get it at Play-Asia (click here)

Diablo on the Game Boy?

Apparently there was a version of Diablo on the Game Boy (Advance, I think, since it's in colour and moves rather fast - thus needing the processing power). But enough talk, you can find the video below... and start frothing.

Found out about this while reading Kotaku.

theSun Walk Hunt at Hartamas Shopping Centre

RM 100. That was how much we won at the Walk Hunt event today in conjuction with the Neighbourhood Fun with theSun at the Hartamas Shopping Centre. Our team of 4, Happy Shopper (please don't ask about the name, it's a girl thing - we had 2 female members), took the final prize spot with the Top 20 teams getting cash prizes.

Finishing 20th out of 34 teams doesn't sound so bad, and we got moo-lah for an hour and a half of walking around a shopping centre.

The rules of the walk hunt was simple, make sure you are in the proper sector of the shopping centre, read the questions, decipher the clues in the question and write down the appropriate retail store's name on the answer column.

The funny thing was, we were supposed to write the "entire" name, so if there were a preceding phrase such as "Butik" (Boutique) or "Kedai Kasut" and a tag line following the shop's name, we were to put it all in, otherwise full points were not awarded. We could have done better in this aspect :P.

Aside from the actual walk hunt, the highlights of the entire event are the goodie bag give-away and the unveiling of answers/prize giving ceremony. The goodie bags were excellent, given that we didn't pay a single cent to participate in the Walk Hunt. There were a variety of stuff: can and packet drinks , car stickers featuring ING/Renault (bleh...McLaren Rules!), soft toys from Ikea, AmBank piggy (well..camel) banks, Chipsmore cookies, pens, badges, packets of coffee, a book about an orang utan...

The answers were unveiled Powerpoint style on a projector, with some interesting explanations from one of the organizers. It was actually a revelation! Thinking outside the box and deciphering the clues makes finding the right shop name a less ambiguous process.

And what about the prize giving ceremony? We got RM 100! Enough said :P. Actually, it's hats off to the winners, they got 38 points out of a possible 40. Imagine that.

Paper Mill: The Books That I Read

Getting re-acquainted with J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy by reading the books that I purchased in the previous sales at Borders, makes the movies feel like a travesty. Sure, they are brilliant examples of cinema, but are they brilliant adaptations? No.

If you worship the movies as a definitive guide to all things regarding the trilogy, I'll advise you to go read the books. What you are watching on screen is a water-downed, butchered, diced and cooked (add in a healthy dash of very nice special effects) "re-imagining" of the author's brilliant work. Sure, you may argue that the books are too long to be adapted in the first place. Hence: "re-imaginations".

Now I've said my piece, I'm actually quite pleased with the 3-tier BILLY book shelf I bought from IKEA and yes, I assembled it single-handedly. Nothing does the male ego better than DIY furniture projects eh? However, the book shelf is way easier when compared to the IKEA workstation that I assembled last year.

Fiction occupies the first row, with it being dominated by the LOTR trilogy along side the almost complete collection of Frank Herbert's Dune saga. There's also the almost complete works of Thomas Harris. While I'm still missing Black Sunday and Hannibal Rising, the latter doesn't seem to be a good buy, having read it at the local bookstore.

An attempt to reduce probably the most evil fictional sociopath of all time to a "set of influences"? Thomas Harris, you are being a bit contradictory, shame on you. The movie "adaption" was atrocious as well, so much unlike Silence of the Lambs.

The rest of the shelves are used to store games (both PC and Nintendo DS, boxes, folded bags, so on and so forth). No pictures this time, but I might take pictures of some things sitting on top of the book shelf. Hint: Star Trek.

PSP doesn't (heart) my Dell laptops

This might be an interesting bit of, well, trivia. If you happen to own a Dell laptop, along with a PSP that runs ISO games, do you have difficulty transferring the games from your laptop, to the PSP via a USB cable?

Texan Field Commander says: "Don't go a-judging me now boy, else ah would be opening a can of whoop-a$$ on you."

Now, where did that come from, go back to your hovel, Field Commander. For the record, I've two Dell laptops at home, and both are not able to transfer ISO games to the PSP. And as strange at it seems, my PC is able to do so, and if you think this problem is confined to laptops in general, I've seen a transfer taking place between an Acer notebook and my PSP.

Weird huh?

Notes From a Field Commander - Part 2

" I've been down this road, with no end-sight, and it's painted with mines.
And I've been shot at all the time, coz my tank's so big, I can't hide...
I've been searching for NOD tonight....wanting to blow up their hides sky high, Now that I know that the end is nigh, I might not get to go home tonight "

Hearing them Tank Commanders sing to the tune of that 20th century whats-her-name's song (the one who sang for that skinny feee-male lawyer series, I prefer mah woman with some ass and *censored, *censored, *censored), almost made this hard-as-nail Gee-Dee-Eye Field Commander attempt to shed a tear.

Anyways, while my troops began their 20 day journey to the southeast enemy base, a whole bunch of enemy combatants decided to do an Al-Qaeda on mah base, jumping my boys on the back, of all places! Those sneaky bastards. I'm darn sure that my predecessor, the most famous Texan of them all, Dubya, would be proud of me having fend off wave after wave of Guantanamo candidates, with only the lost of several support structures.

Ah know he's watching up there along with Grandpa. *sniffs.

*Field Commander's Log. Supplemental: I wonder whether I can requisition some of them Scrin motherships, is that what they are called? Those are the largest things I've seen all my life, outside of a Texan BBQ cookout....mmmm....barbeque....*drools....

Back at the southeast enemy base, them Nod boys (damn them all) were giving mah Mammoths some Chi-nese accupunture treatment but I doubt those troopers of theirs can do any harm with their toy guns. Can you smell the freshly brewed destruction courtesy of mah newly minted rail guns, Kane?

That's cold hard Gee-Dee-Eye currency at work, think about it before you decide to show up the front door, or back door, or whatever that is that swings yer baldie-headed way.

The thing about allies is this, they are unpredictable. That's why I had a complement of Mammoths facing his base. But aside from that, I was building my Ion Cannon uplink thingamajig when he decided to let loose his fancy Black Hole (I'm a quaking in my boots, and that sounds really wrong) on the northern enemy base.

Them fools didn't stand a chance but not wanting to miss out on the action, I decided to call in some of mah crack troops to join in the mop-up. What's the next best thing to shooting at troops and vehicles? Trashing power plants....with just guns. Just so you know, we Americans are good with guns, thanks to the lack of, what's that the NRA says is taboo..oh yes, gun control, we got the guns to shoot anything and everything. Boooyahh!

It was pretty much cigar-chomping/legs on top of the table/bring out the beer (but please, no pretzels) kind of time as mah ally proceeded to sweep the floor off the last enemy base. Now, don't go calling me a-lazy, not with those fancy ships of his.

Note to self, I want one, or two dozen of them ships parked by 0800 tomorrow outside my garage. Mammoths and big-fat flying U-EFF-OHHHs that launch smaller U-EFF-OHHHs.... UNSTOPPABLE!

Now, who's up for a race across that Tiberium field over there? Last one to the finish line is a dirty smelly, good-fer-nthing hog.

For Part 1, refer here.

EDGE Presents The Art of Videogames

The closest thing you can get to the I AM 8-BIT exhibition, having missed it, or being stuck where you are, would be to buy the book which costs a pretty penny at USD 44.40. This is of course inclusive of shipping and it does come signed by the author.

I didn't go that way and instead went and purchased EDGE's EDGE Presents The Art of Videogames from a local magazine stand. Although cheaper than the I AM 8-BIT book, this special edition of EDGE magazine is certainly expensive, at RM 57.90.

Featuring art (screenshots, sketches, pre-renders, concepts, etc) from a variety of games along with nifty elaborations from game developers on the ideas behind the works, this special edition also features 15 artworks from the I AM 8-BIT exhibition. I particularly like the one featuring Blanka (Street Fighter II).

More about the games featured in The Art of Videogames. Some worthy mentions that come with really nice art include Devil May Cry, Halo, Virtua On (Temjin) and God of War II. Freak yourself out with the art from Silent Hill and Stalker, I know I did when I first flipped through those pages.

My colleague commented that some of the pictures in the magazine look really real and while the Dead Rising art was nice, the blood splatter did looked a bit like Ribena.

Was it worth the money? Yes. And it's certainly recommended for those who appreciate video game art and design. Give it a few months and you might be able to find this issue with a nice discount to the price tag, usually at book stands with that specialize in back issues.

Hey Advertlets!..By the way it's comparison, not comparision!

I specifically remember that Advertlets did some changes to their homepage and changed the comparison chart to that of a competitive comparison "report". I checked the site earlier, and the "comparision" chart link is back on the front page, note spelling error, but the actual comparison chart page is gone, resulting in a 404 error.

While looking at the following pretty pictures, read about my blog entry on that infamous comparison chart, here.

Ok, so the link is back, but do take note of the spelling error. Comparision, instead of comparison, just in case you didn't notice.

But clicking on it will lead you to an error page....

But if you miss the competitive comparison "report", and you absolutely must read it, don't worry. Click on the nice looking Benefits tab.

And on the left, you'll see the link. Click it and ta-da!

*Note to Advertlets, do fix it.

*Note to Nuffnang, despite this act of altruism, this site is still Nuffnang exclusive, when it comes to local ads.

Pop Goes The Weasel

Currently my workspace covers a portion of the meeting room table, the surrounding floor space, a makeshift server room previously known as MY room, and two large tables (those workstation types you get from Ikea) whereby I do my Dr. Frankenstein work on apparently dead PCs and servers. Talk about being in a crisis mode (refer to previous posts).

And there was another power failure earlier this evening.

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The thing about Puyo Pop Fever (PSP) is that it is very entertaining for a puzzle game, and it's great fun playing the game in near pitch black darkness, which is how my workspace can get whenever there is a power outage. Think Tetris meets Street Fighter.

The AI is no pushover, even at normal difficulty settings and is capable of springing suprises (as in dishing out punishment). I notice that if I fail to beat an AI opponent, the game will dumbdown quite a bit, just to give me a chance at winning. A feature any new player would appreciate.

Having watched a French Open tennis match live on TV, courtesy of Astro, I take back whatever I've said about Virtua Tennis 3 (also for the PSP) and I hereby bestow the title of "Overglorified Game of Pong" to that game.