Next generation Gaming Rig

This spring in anticipation of aquiring an XBox 360 I began researching and assembling the pieces of my next generation gaming rig. I previously played on a nice Sony Triniton 27" SDTV. The first addition to the rig was the aquisition of a 5.1 Surround sound system in January. Not having a home theater reciever I was looking for a stand alone unit and came across some excellent reviews for the XBox branded Spherex 5.1 System. Once finalizing my decision on this system I began researching vendors for it and the lowest price I found was Amazon @$380 + $50 shipping. Being a bit more than what I was willing to pay I turned to eBay and was able to purchase an "open return" item from a retailer's clearing house for a little more than $100. I basically stole this item since the "open return" was in fact never opened and still factory sealed! The second one I picked up for about the same price wasn't either! Now having a killer sound system I began focusing my attention to a display. I did a lot of homework on this and had settled on a 30" widescreen Sony HDTV which was retailing for $875 in March. I was waiting for after CES for the new models to come out and pick one of these up on the cheap. Unfortunatly, Sony decided to cancel this line of TV's and my local Best Buy's did not have many in stock and were not planning on parting with them for less than $800. About this time I contacted the resident Old Man Mafia Home Theater Guru Extroidenair...WallyBR for some additional advice. He directed me towards a LCD HD projector system for a bit more than the TV's I was considering, but the $$/ inch of screen was much cheaper. After handholding me through the tough decision and answering every question I had (their were A LOT trust me), I made my purchase of the projector from an online vendor Wally reccomended, sight unseen. That's the one thing about projectors, most physical vendors do no have a lot of display models due to the high inventory cost/ low turnover rate. I got the full system set up by mid March with some addtional cables from MonoPrice . For the technical specs: the viewing distance is 12.5 ft with a projection distance of 13 ft, maximum screen is 105" along the diagonal. I project onto a fairly smooth wall that is painted a light beige.  Since I still live in an apartment hanging a screen wasn't currently an option.

I typically play GRAW, PGR3 and COD on the full screen, but have to play Halo on the smallest possible screen (60") or else I get really bad motion sickness. I can definately achieve full imersion into a game due to the perspective being very close to life size, sitting in a darkened room and with the 5.1 surround sound kicking. This is extremly cool for COD, PRG3, and GRAW. COD2 on Veteran was phenominal with my setup! Conversely, Condemed scared the living Be-Jesus out of me! For those of you that have played Condemned you know what I'm talking about. That 5.1 soundtrack is uber accurate and scary, and much of the game you are wondering around with a flashlight and people tend to attack you from nowhere. Anyway, below are some links and pictures of my stuff. I now hope everybody gets an idea of what a 100" screen looks like. Also, for the record I would like to state that I am not compensating for anything with my big screen!

Panasonic AE900U
Spherex 5.1


100" of gaming goodness (NOTE: the TV in the left corner of the picture is a 27" and the wall the screen is projecting on is 8ft wide)

my "little" 60 inch screen for Halo2

100" screen and me for reference (I'm 5'9")

my "typical" gaming perspective (dependent on your monitor size get your face about 8-10 inches away from the screen to achieve my normal view)



Posted by bunsen27 @ 11:21 pm EDT | Permalink | 14 Comments

Death and Ressurection of an XBox

So last night I was in the mood to play some Halo2 on Old Man Mafia clan night. I know as radical and unbelieving as it sounds I actually WANTED to play Halo2 and not COD2 last night (several members of my clans jaws have just hit their keyboards ) ;; ;; So I switch over my network and 5.1 cables from my 360 to my newly skinned Xbox hit the power button walk away for a minute to get a frosty adult beverage and come back to the XBox main menu....strange because I swore my Halo2 disc was in there. ;; No problem pop open the tray...oh it is in there?! ;; Close tray wait for Halo2 to load...nothing still at main menu. ;; Repeat about 10 times..doesnt sound like the disc is spinning up. ;; WTF...I baby this thing its sat on a shelf 99% of its life! ;; A ;; mild panic sets in....I purchased my Xbox in Feb 2004, any implied or stated warranty is long gone. ;; This is the same situation many of us are in with original XBoxs: warranty long gone and a nice little game collection amassed that either isnt backwards compatible or if it is has major issues (Halo2). ;; So its at this point where you start considering options: 1. replace with new or used Xbox 2. send for repairs to MS 3. be adventerous and try to repair it yourself ;;! ;; In case you havent noticed lately (like me) you can no longer purchase a new Xbox at any of the major chain stores online or instore unless its left over stock. ;; ;; ;; Refurbished/used system are about $100 at Eb/Gamestop, not really an appealing option for a console I play a few times monthly. ;; I called MS support and they informed me that its $80 for repairs, and the repaired system only comes with a 90day warranty. ;; Not a good option either, although replacing from EB/Gamestop is looking more appealing because I know I can get an instore or extended warranty. ;; Not satisfied with either option 1 or 2 I start googling "xbox DVD drive issues". ;; I found a really good sight that has some nice step by step tutorials on trouble shooting XBox issues and sell replacement parts, ;; llammas (yes- they also do sell mod chips and do modding , but they are one of the few vendors that sell replacement parts). ;; ;; The first thing I noticed was that a replacement drive is $60 and that they are very easy to install. ;; I knew the issue was the DVD drive because I could hear it try to spin the disk, but it wouldnt. ;; So this is the point where there is no turning back...go and buy a new system or remove the stickers, crack that case open and void my system from resale or MS repair....Being a bit computer savvy I decided to take the road less traveled...I opened the case!  Now one warning here this really does eliminate your console from resale on eBay, to EB/Gamestop and kicks in the really high priced service plan from MS.

Once open it looks just like any old computer and I quickly had the DVD drive out and disassembled. ;; No obvious defects ie; dust loose parts. ;; So I reassemble the DVD drive with the top cover off, plug in the system and start tinkering. ;; Everything appears to be working except for that initial spin to get it going up to speed. ;; Start tinkering with the drive wheel while its trying to spin up. ;; After about 5 min its starting to do half spins, I just keep slowly rotating the wheel in the proper direction while popping a disc in and out to see if it spins. ;; A few moments later it sputters then starts whipping that baby around at full speed...ITS ALIVE!!! ;; Anxiously watch TV screen to see if its actually reading and VIOLA!! I am greated by that all to familar guitar wail that signals Halo2 is loading. ;; I have a warm fuzzy feeling and briefly shed a tear of joy as my XBox ressurects itself from the dead. ;; Everything works perfectly, I honestly have no idea what the issue was. ;; Im not sure if the spin motor just got stuck or the last time I took it to a LAN it got bumped and knocked something off kilter. ;; either way as long as it works and I can continue to play some of XBox games when I get nostalgia I dont care. ;; Id forgotten how cool Crimson Skies is!

Posted by bunsen27 @ 3:02 pm EDT | Permalink | 4 Comments

How to be the coolest kid at the next LAN

If you are an XBox 360 owner the one thing you notice very quickly about the system is that its plain white (or beige for you more artistic folks), and can easily be mistaken for some non-descript techno gadget. ;; Not the awesome gaming/media center that it is. ;; Ms and third party venders offer additional faceplates for $20 to help you customize your 360, but the top and bottom are still white (or beige). ;; Now you can get a replacement case, but for 99% of us this isnt a road we are willing to travel since it voids that lovely MS warranty we all love, cherish, and hope we never have to use but probably will. ;; The only other viable option is to use a vinyl skin to customize your 360. ;; Codemonkey recently detailed his experience with a vendor MyTego (article). ;; I also happened to very recently do the same thing, but with a different vendor, DecalGirl . ;; I did not do a custom faceplate at this time, but opted for an existing design. ;; The install process was very simple and took me about 10 min for the faceplate and 3 min for the top skin. ;; Below are the pictures of the finished product. ;; Overall I would rate the quality very high and am extremely pleased with my purchase. I would reccomend that if you plan on doing a darker colored skin that you opt for the black faceplate, because no matter how good you are at applying the skin some edges of the faceplate will show through around the memory slots and USB door. I also decide to jazz up my originnal XBox with some chrome trim and a jewel decal.

The order: one 360 full skin ($25), XBox 4 piece kit ($10), jewel cover ($4), black XBox 360 faceplate (FREE; $13 value)

Having a BLACK Xbox 360 (as it should be!) : Priceless

Clicky

Faceplate

Top Skin

Finished 360

Plain Old Xbox

Finished Xbox

Posted by bunsen27 @ 10:31 pm EDT | Permalink | 5 Comments

This rant sponsered by the IRS and Turbo Tax

Oh yes it is that lovely time of the year again where we must all subject ourselves to one of the two life guarentees.  Im actually quite fortunate in that I probably have the simplest possible tax scenerio around; single, no dependents, one source of income.  An H&R Block agents wet dream!  20-30 minutes work for whatever the hell they are charging these days.  Which is precisely why I prepare my own taxes.  For 3 years I have used Turbo Tax with no difficulties.  Last year I encountered an automatic updating issue that I was able to resolve in ~30 min through their online tech support.  So this year when I encountered a similar issue I wasnt too  concerned.  Went to the online support found the exact error message I was getting performed the prescribed fix and....it didnt bloddy work?!  Uninstalled reinstalled program, reperformed patch...nada.  Booted in safe mode..nada.  Basically, 6 hours later after performing every trick I know the program still refused to install the updates because it was getting hungup and timing out due to some programing glitch.

Thank God the IRS has online PDFs that you can fill in and print, so thats what I did.  That and I owe this year so I definately feel like mailing it in at the last possible minute.  Whats pathetic is that Turbo Tax did precisely what it was supposed to do and calculated everything correctly, but due to some poor programming or unforseen software conflict would not perform the install to update the finalized forms and therefore would not e-file my taxes.  Actually, I really couldnt even print it out and mail the form in either because it had overlaid in BOLD letters "FORM NOT FINAL: DO NOT MAIL".  Oh well I do hate prepairing taxes, and refuse to pay someone else to do mine since I have such a simple case.  I just wished the whole damn system was a lot more streamlined.  Uhgh, just wasted a beautiful saturday afternoon.

Posted by bunsen27 @ 8:55 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Whiners Disease

Recentlly reading Webmonkes post about TiDs has prompted me to write about another rare and more fatal disorder: Whiners Disease (WD).

A friend of mine suffers greatly from this affliction. Whats truly sad is that he is the person that got me into Halo and online gaming, but I can no longer tolerate his rants and have subsequently had to remove him from my friends list.

Since he nuptuals a year ago he only gets to play online occasionally and his skill level has dramatically dropped off. Considering that he was only a decent player at best; he really sucks now! Unfortunately in his mind he is still an "awesome" player and if someone beats him "they cheated". Hes usually good for about 1-4 games but slowly he will slip into full blown WD and eventually become totally unbearable. At one time or another he has accused every member of our local LAN gatherings of cheating. He will rant on an on about how he "unloaded two full clips into you, administered three beatdowns, and we turn around fire one shot and kill him!", then sarcastically ask us how did we kill him? On several occasions I have watched his screen during a LAN and he is nowhere near target, and not landing any melees. Ive also mid game switched places with him and played on his setup and almost doubled his score! Myself and several other members have tried to politely inform him that his skills have dropped off and he needs to play more and quit whining. This typically infurates him more and increases his accusations and rants.

Unfortunately we no longer have our 6-8 week LAN parties soley because of him, and nobody who host has the balls to have one and not invite him. This past Friday was the pervervial "straw that broke the camels back" when he was in full WD: I had to leave mid game with no explanation offered other than a brief VM to the party host apologizing if I gave them blue screen, and deleted him from my FR. Im very sad for the loss of comradery we used to have at our LANs, but now only exists as fond memories of days gone by.

I sympathise with anyone else who has suffered a loss from this horrible disorder.


Posted by bunsen27 @ 9:44 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments