The IGN Boards update…
I seriously have no one to share this with that I actually know… you know… in real life. But after being on the IGN boards for eight years… this is honestly one of the funniest things I’ve seen in MONTHS!
I know no one gets it. I wish I knew someone that did so we could laugh together. I seriously had to wipe the tears from my eyes.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwY8VFNc5hw]
Here’s the “new” radio all finished and in action!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_DO2up764s]
09.1.09Behind the Scenes: Old Junk
Here’s the “new” radio in action. I re-soldered the connections on the repaired capacitors, and cleaned up controls a little bit. Below are the results. I just love the tubes in these old radios, and even the sound of the power selector. The volume isn’t “volume”, it’s “LOUDNESS” Check it out!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOoELOOQaeI]
08.30.09Radio innards.
Well I got the new radio the other day and I figured I’d take a look inside and see if I could make any improvements. The source selector/power switch is kinda finicky and causes the right hand speaker to cut out at times. And the FM reception could be a bit better. If you’ve never seen inside of one of these old things, check this out.
Pressboard covering removed from the back.
It looks like the amplifier has been repaired at one point. It looks like whoever fixed it knew what they were doing, but didn’t repair it very well. They replaced some capacitors, but there is no labeling of wires, and the capacitors are simply taped together and then tied to the bottom with some thin wire. Because they aren’t secure, they’ve wobbled around and some of the wires are starting to break free of their connections.
Amplifier
Previous repair.
Tuner
08.27.09
Score of the day!
Well since I took my old radio to my office at work, people had been commenting on it. So everybody pretty much figured out I “like that kind of stuff.” Well today one of the gals up front said somebody was selling an old radio phonograph that supposedly worked and they were only asking $20. That’s all I knew about it, but I figured I’d take a look. I mean it’s not like I buy something old and cheap all the time, even if I don’t need it. Oh wait.
Well here it is. Not too bad for $20 I guess. And the basement needed better tunes that the little boombox I had.
Fold down phonograph.
The tone arm is bent, but I think it's fixable.
FM, baby. Welcome to the friggin' future!
All in all it works pretty well. The turn table does spin, but the tone arm needs fixed. The tuner works, but the volume and balance controls are a little scratchy. But it works!
06.22.09Purely for nostalgia.
Well I’ve been wanting to build a nostalgia machine for a while. I don’t really have all the pieces I need, so I created a virtual install of Windows 98. (I wanted to install Windows 95, but I couldn’t find an install disc anywhere!) It’s not QUITE the same. I mean with the LCD monitor and the laser mouse and all. Nothing really is ever going to bring back the experience of chatting in ICQ or the Excite chat rooms. Or seeing “This site is best viewed in Internet Explorer 4. 600×800 resolution.” Those days are long lost, left only to my somewhat blurry memory.
The Wayback Machine has been helpful to some extent, but I wish there was a way to route all traffic through archived sites. That sounds like more work than I’m willing to put forth.
Sweet! I can get 40 free hours of AOL!
It has been fairly nostalgic though flipping through all the old built in wallpaper patterns. Enjoying the retro screen savers like 3-D maze, and 3-D pipes. If it was 3-D it was friggin’ awesome! I might have to install my copy of Unreal Tournament to really relive the experience. Software rendering FTW!
03.23.09Thanks, Belinda!
Now this is cool. I always talked about having one, but never really thought I’d have a chance to buy one other than eBay. These are big, old, and quite fragile! I spotted this at Andrea’s mom’s house a few months ago and fell in love with it. It’s a 1920 Victrola. I’m still not sure what she was thinking… but she just gave it to us. It’s now definitely the oldest thing I own (except maybe the rocks from Oregon beach, hehe).
Waiting for a good table to rest on.
It's 90 years old! What do you expect?
It’s not incredibly valuable and it does need a little freshening up. The motor squeaks a bit and doesn’t quite last a whole play, the turntable is a little wobbly but after all these years, it’s pretty amazing that it still works! I recorded a sound clip HERE that you can listen if you want. If that doesn’t make you feel like you’re in a different era, nothing will!
I’m going to see if I can clean it up mechanically, but I don’t have the tools or the skills to restore the cabinet like it should be. I’d just end up doing more harm than good. But I’ll clean it up nice and it should make for quite the conversation piece. I just think it’s too darn cool.
A look back: Top Gear Overdrive
There was certainly no shortage of racing games on the Nintendo 64. While this one probably seemed just like one of many to everyone else, I had actually been anticipating it for quite some time. As a big fan of its predecessor Top Gear Rally, I was anxious for an update. In reality Top Gear Overdrive turned out to be a completely different name, sharing very little with the one that came before it. It was a mixed bag, but a decent game in its own right.
This was another of many games that I was at the store early to pick up on day one. The pre-release impressions of the game on IGN64.com were favorable. Excellent graphics, unlockables, and a much anticipated “hi-res” mode. Cars were more detailed than any other game on the N64 up to that point. They featured a “glossy” look to them. While the reflections on the paint and glass weren’t true reflections of the surroundings, they worked well enough to really make the cars seem a bit more realistic. The tracks were as well designed, even a bit more detailed than Top Gear Rally’s.
Infact at the time, the game’s only real shortcoming was its length. I remember bringing the game home and a friend of mine, Bef, came over. We sat down and had a blast with the game. But in the course of that very night we had already beaten the entire game and unlocked everything save for the “hidden” cars. It was a bit disappointing that $70 didn’t provide more than a few hours of gameplay. There wasn’t even a time trials mode to sink time into. Just rinse and repeat the entire experience to earn some hidden cars. Not my idea of “replay value”.
I have to be honest though, when I plugged this back in today, I was far from impressed. This game really highlights how far video game technology has come in the past 10 years. The sound is horrible. Music tracks are actual recordings from a band named “Grindstone”. Screaming guitars, that sort of thing. But due to the space constraints of the N64 cartridge, they were so compressed they sounded absolutely awful. You probably wouldn’t notice it through a three inch paper speaker on your TV, but through any kind of sound system, it really grates on the ears. MIDI tracks would have been a better choice, and that’s saying something. Like most of these games, the graphics take a little time to adjust to and all in all, they haven’t aged well. I had high hopes for the “High Res” mode, but to be honest. I couldn’t even tell a difference between the two.
The most annoying part of this game for me now, is the controls. The cars feel like they weigh just a scoop heavier than two bags of dog food. The slightest twitch of the control stick can send your car careening into the wall. Investing some money in “handling” serves to make the controls even more sensitive. Unfortunately as you progress through the game, the speeds become so insane, you need insane cornering ability just to get through the track. If you do happen to twitch at the wrong time, you’re likely to either go literally FLYING off the course and burst into a ball of…orange fuzz. Or just smack a wall and do the same. It’s a very frustrating task unless you’ve memorized the tracks. Which sadly, I have forgotten.
I tried to give the game a chance, but after about 45 minutes I’d had enough. Really expected to have more fun with the game, but it wasn’t in the cards. There are so many better racing games even just on the N64. At the time, all the game really had going for it was some fairly impressive eye candy. Now that I’ve been spoiled by today’s games that doesn’t leave much left to appreciate on this one.
11.5.08A Look Back: Cruis’n World
Cruisin’ World really was a mixed bag for me. Against popular opinion, I was a big fan of the first game: Cruisin’ USA. Dated it was, but it was plain, simple, fun. My first and most impressionable experience with this game was in its arcade form. I remember they had a full arcade cabinet in the Dodge City mall movie theater. Any time we happened to end up there I pumped that thing full of quarters. Something about it was just too fun. Maybe it was the way the wheel jumped around and pushed back against you in the corners, or double tapping the gas pedal to do some sweet jumps.
Wouldn't mind having one of those in my basement!
My anticipation for the N64 version was long and drawn out. I enjoyed the game at the mall, but longed for my own copy I could pick up and play whenever I wanted. Putting Cruis’n World on a cartridge seemed like a no brainer to me, but business executives must have seen it differently. I couldn’t tell you how long it was, but it seemed like years from when I first sat in that hard plastic chair in the arcade, to the day I read Cruisin’ World was to be released on the N64.
Unfortunately the long wait for the game had somewhat diluted my fanaticism for the game. I’d already played it quite thoroughly. That didn’t stop me though from being at the store the day it was released to pick it up. Rather than delirious excitement, I felt more relieved that it was finally out, and I finally had it. The kind of relief you get when you loan a game to a friend and finally get it back after asking for it for months.
When I plugged this one back into the Nintendo 64 today, all the cheezy 20 second loops of music came back like it’d been a couple days since I last played. At least the music was of much better quality than Cruis’n USA in just about every way music can be quantified. The car models (which weren’t too impressive, even at the time) are reminiscent of the kinds of cars you cut out of the side of a Happy Meal box and fold together. Given the “not serious at all” attitude of the game though, they’re easily dismissed. The learning curve is very gentle. Maybe two races in, I was pulling off all the turboslides and jumps without much difficulty. I’d forgotten a lot, but it’s all so close to the surface, it doesn’t take long to discover it again. Considering the nature of the game was to be played maybe 5 minutes a day in an arcade, it’s not too surprising that there isn’t much depth here.
It seems easier to compare Cruis’n World and USA more objectively now. World is far and away a better game in just about every aspect. Better graphics, sound, and controls. But a few of the things that were definitive to the series I noticed were missing. Namely extremely low resolution scantly clad women. No bikini waving flag girls. No double D breasted small t-shirt wearing ladies. Not that those five frame animated females do anything for me, but it’s just one of those over the top cheezy touches that really completes the Cruis’n experience.
As much as my anticipation had waned over the months of waiting, I could tell by the data still saved on the cartridge, that I still put a relevant amount of time into this game. All the cars were unlocked and some reasonably impressive times were posted. I can’t imagine now spending much more than a good 30 minutes with this game…but looking at the release dates for the time, Cruisin’ World came out during a pretty good gaming drought. From Top Gear Rally in October 1997 until Zelda over a year later, there wasn’t much new worth playing. For lack of anything better to play, I must have poured a decent amount of free time into this. While it was fun to sit down and cruise the world…I don’t see myself seriously picking up this game for quite some time again.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLsKgxGPZDY]
10.21.08A look back: Yoshi’s Story
This installment will be a bit different in that I’m unable to go back and play this game. Yoshi’s Story for the Nintendo 64 holds a place of distinction as the only game I’ve ever had that I brought myself to sell out of my collection. It’s not that I didn’t give the game a chance, I most certainly did. My disappointment simply left me with no attachment to the game.
By 1998 I was becoming deeply entrenched in my gaming hobby. I looked forward to my monthly Tips & Tricks magazine, and drooled over the previews and screenshots. My Nintendo promotional stuff continued to arrive in the mail. Lately all the buzz was about the new Yoshi’s Story. I soaked up every bit of information I could before the game was out. And come release day I was on my way to the store to pick up my copy.
To understand my disappointment with the game you should understand its heritage. Yoshi’s Story is a direct sequel to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island which as implied in the title, is a direct sequel to Super Mario World itself. With roots so deep in the Mario series like that, you would expect to see all the fun and challenge you’d get from a traditional 2-D Mario game. While succeeding in being cute and artistic, it falls short of being a truly memorable experience. I should have known the instant I heard the annoying title screen music…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ijs6jDqp3A]
In all honesty I put a considerable amount of time into this game. I never beat the game, but progressed far enough to obtain, most (if not all) the different colored Yoshi’s. So many previews predicted a grand resurgence of 2-d platforming, now with the hardware muscle to make ANYTHING possible. It was actually being touted ad 2 1/2-D! I tried everything I could to force myself to like this game. It felt like an obligation to enjoy it because so much had been promised. But no matter what, it just wasn’t compelling. Nothing hooked you in and made you wonder what’s around the next corner. It was a well polished game lacking challenge and innovation. Much ado was made amongst nerds like myself about Mario creator Shiguru Miyamoto’s lack of involvement in the title.
One day I put the game on the shelf, and never picked it up again. Until a younger kid down the street came over. He was about 10 years old or so, and saw the game as he was sifting through my collection and asked if he could play it. I told him sure, and he sat down and genuinely was having a good time. He wanted to know if he could borrow it…and I said, “For $20 you can borrow it forever!” Like a good kid he ran home to ask his mom. A while later he came back with a $20 bill and that’s the last I ever saw of Yoshi’s Story.