Update on my asteroids, stupid diode.

Read my earlier blog to catch up ont he status of my asteroids cabinet.

Well, I finally worked on it.  But when i went to solder the diode one of the leads on the diode snapped off.  WTF?!?  So I should be getting another by the end of the week.  I have an idea for insulating it.  I am just going to put gobs of hot melt glue on it.  If that doesnt work I am not sure what to do.  Maybe find some really think rubber stoppers and drill them out.

Posted by SirPoonga @ 5:40 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

My 360 froze twice this weekend

First time it froze.  One was due to a bug the other not sure, possible over heating as I had the power supply right being the box.

So, I was playing MLB 2k6 at a friends.  He almost hit a homer but just missed the foul pole.  My player climbed the wall for  the out.  however since it was right at the corner when the player came down from the wall he ended up on the other side of the wall.  When I tried to through the ball the game froze.

The other time it froze was in GRAW.  Not sure what happen.  We were playing co-op firefight.  When the console froze I looked down and my controller was flashing.  The sync button ont he 360 still worked.  I hit that and the ring of lights did its thing.  But my controler didnt sync up.  I replaced the batterys and reset everything.

Posted by SirPoonga @ 1:25 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Wow! My laptop runs Counter Strike Source!

Im pretty stoked at this.  Granted I have to run with everything turned down, at least i am forced to view at 1280x800.

Its a Compaq Presario V5102NR
AMD Sempron 3000 (1.8Ghz I believe)
512meg mem
ATI Radeon 200M mobility w/128meg shared
I also picked up a wireless mouse today for it for gaming.

i plan to pop another mem stick in it sometime since the vid shares it.

Why did I get this laptop.  Some of you might shit a brick when I tell you why.  To replace my 486 laptop.  Yep, you read that correctly, 486.
It could only run Win95,  Because of that it could only run IE 3 which no website supports anymore.  The only other thing it was good for, which is why I kept it, is AIM and IRC.  But the graphics driver recently took a crap and the only way to get info on it is download form internet or floppy.  It is the only computer I have that has a floppy.  So, its officially retired.

UK2k4 also runs on it with min settings.  I probably am not going to put anything else on it unless its old school.  Like bf1942, starcraft, etc..  I put Moonbase Commander on.  That takes abit to get use to since the screen has to be stretched to 16:10.

Its not a gaming machine and thats not why I got it.  But since it can run some of this stuff why not   Though most of the time you will find me playing on my desktop.  I might get  USB headset so I dont have to transfer the mic between the two computers.

Posted by SirPoonga @ 10:59 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

MLB 2k6 for 360

I have a semi-review on the forum of this.  I had to return it  
Quick summary:
I am going to buy this game.  Its a solid baseball game.  I has a great presentation, along with good pitching and batting controls.  The graphics are a little lacking but gameplay in a sports title is much more important.  Heck, I still play NHL 93/94 for the genesis.

The problem with baseball games is they are constantly coming up with something new that usually sucks.  There have been many pitching and batting schemes through out the history of baseball video games.  With this installment of MLB they added a new physics engine - Pure Motion Physics.  It effects everything in the game and for the most part is pretty good.  However it seriously lacks in fielding.

The problem with fielding is the physics to change direction are horribly slow.  Say you are running but want to change direction by 90 degrees.  In real life you plant your foot and pivot.  In the game you do a sweeping turn, which in some cases will sweep you around where the baseball is going to land.  Ive had two ground rule doubles happen because of that when it should have been an out.  This is a huge problem when fielding a fly that is going to land betweent he infield and outfield.  The computer will have an infielder selected.  So you are running back.  But then the computer decides the outfielder is the better choice ans switches you.  Well, now since you are push back you bring the outfielder to a halt.  The animation for this and to speed back up is very slow.

Diving is also wierd.  You can dive for a ball, you player will be in the circle where the ball is going to land, but it will bounce off the players back.  Ouch!  You really have to time your dives perfectly in order make a catch.  You can not even be off by an arms length.


Posted by SirPoonga @ 2:54 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Microsoft Support...

If you havent heard Ive been dealing with Microsoft support for the last three weeks about a problem with a 12+1 month gold subscritpion card.

I bought the card at Best Buy using some reward points I had left (on a sunday).  When I get home I scratch off the coating, but some of the numbers came off with it.  I didnt sratch it that hard, just with a quarter.  So, I run back to Best Buy the next day.  They said htey dont take returns on cards (gift cards, etc...).  So I call Xbox support.  As soon as I explained my problem the support guy said I scratched too hard and to take it back to the retailer.  I told him the retailer wouldnt do anything.  So he had me fax the card and some info to the support center and that someone would call me back.  I asked if they can look if the card has been activated, he said no.

By friday I didnt hear anything so I call.  Support said they didnt receive any fax.  However, this time I was talking to the other support center so they had me fax it to their number too.  This was after being put on hold twice and the guy talking to his manager.

The next Thursday I still didnt hear anything and called them back.  The guy I talked to seemed pretty helpful, like he wanted to be able to do something.  I was put on hold several times again, the guy talked to the other support center, his manager, etc...  He said the same thing as the others, I will just have to wait.

Last friday (almost 3 business weeks), I call Xbox support again.  This time, after the support guy said I scratched too hard (as they all did) and me explaining the situation he said there is nothing he can do -  "its a he said she said type of situation."  He was not helpful at all, he didnt even try to do anything like the others.  He also said something like since I didnt give Microsoft the money and the cards go through a vendor it isnt their responsibility.

Well, now thoroughly pissed I decide to go back to Best Buy (at least it was a nice day and a nice motorcycle ride).  I knew Id have trouble with it being three weeks later.  I figure if worse comes to worse I can have Best Buy call microsoft with my service request ID and verify that the card has not been activated and it was legit.  After about 40 minutes of discussion the situation with a the managers of Best Buy they decided to give me a replacement.

This time when I got home I found a piece of soft plastic (my jump drive cap has rounded corners) to scratch off the back.  It took awhile as the substance is two layers.  The cap took off the top layer pretty easily, thats the layer with the squiggle graphic.  Then it took abit of pressure to scratch off the glue layer.  I tried over the area that says "Subscription Code" first to make sure it would work.

So, warning to others, be VERY careful with subscription and point cards, you can scratch off the ink.

Now Ive had my gold subcription for 4 days and love it

Posted by SirPoonga @ 4:40 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments