[huckleberrypie]

Look... Sears and Kmart...

I don't mind Black Friday sales, but what you are planning to do for Thanksgiving 2013 is truly insane!

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/on/kmart-thanksgiving-day-6am-opening-black-friday/">http://www.dailyfinance.com/on/kmart-th ... ck-friday/</a><!-- m -->

The TL;DR version: Kmart is opening on Thanksgiving morning at 6am and staying open for 41 straight hours through Black Friday itself!

Black Friday should remain on Friday... not expand to include the Thanksgiving holiday itself. Give those employees a chance to spend Thanksgiving with their families and friends rather than toiling inside a likely crowded retail environment.

So much for hard labour...

[cpd2009]

Ahh, Black Friday.. the day when American Consumerism rears it's ugly head, and I happen to take part in it. No, we don't camp out days before the big day, no do we become rabid animals trying to grab the last Monster High doll or flat screen TV. We arrive later on after the crazies have gone and it just becomes a matter of waiting in line at the register.

And, the Menards BF ad leaked early this year.

Wahoo.


Yeah... Menards seems to be ho-hum this year in regards to electronic gadgets. No Chinese region-free DVD players or off-brand MP3 players... just an Android HDMI stick being the only item I'm interested in.



This Android-based Chromecast clone only has a 1.5ghz processor, but it would be a nice gadget to toy around with, and a good way to watch YouTube rips on Anna-Lena.

[cpd2009]

Breaking the silence yet again... with Golden Axe.

Fun Sega game, but wow, it's difficult towards the end of the game, even the Master System version. At least I can get to Death=Adder's castle in both versions. Those skeletons though....

I think I can get the arcade version for the Wii Virtual Console, but it's probably going to be even more difficult than the home ports. I must get it sometime though.

Speaking of the Wii VC, it seems that it never lived up to the potential it had. Most of the games are just the popular titles like Super Mario World or Metroid or Sonic. Many other great games never appeared, like Cool Spot, The Lion King, the Capcom Disney Games, and more.

[huckleberrypie]

Yeah, I noticed that Golden Axe looks decent for an 8-bit game. Kinda' bites that the Sega Master System didn't make it big in North America as Nintendo practically buried them off the charts. The Genesis did make up for it, but their business model of expansion peripherals, coupled with rehashes of existing games and FMV titles that offered little interaction backfired them.

[cpd2009]

Yeah, I noticed that Golden Axe looks decent for an 8-bit game. Kinda' bites that the Sega Master System didn't make it big in North America as Nintendo practically buried them off the charts. The Genesis did make up for it, but their business model of expansion peripherals, coupled with rehashes of existing games and FMV titles that offered little interaction backfired them.

I'm in a Golden Axe phase, so to speak, thanks to my purchase of that portable SMS emulator system. I'm doing my best to master it, but once I get bored with it, I move on to Astro Warrior or Gain Ground.

Around my area, it's likely that many people never even heard of the SMS since I live in a small town and the only department store likely carried the most popular system, the NES. The SMS probably did appear in those mail-order catalogs from Sears or JCPenney that used to go around, but because they didn't have Mario, they probably passed the SMS over and just got their kids the NES.

The SMS really had a lot of potential, and if Nintendo wasn't so draconian with their third-party licensing back then, the SMS could have been a popular competitor to the NES. The graphics could be a lot more colorful than an NES, and even though the SMS had somewhat inferior sound capability, it can put out excellent chiptunes and sound effects like in Gain Ground and Golden Axe.

If I ever plan on getting a real SMS, I will get a Sega Genesis and one of those Power Base Converters and make a two-in-one.

[huckleberrypie]

The SMS really had a lot of potential, and if Nintendo wasn't so draconian with their third-party licensing back then, the SMS could have been a popular competitor to the NES. The graphics could be a lot more colorful than an NES, and even though the SMS had somewhat inferior sound capability, it can put out excellent chiptunes and sound effects like in Gain Ground and Golden Axe.

If I ever plan on getting a real SMS, I will get a Sega Genesis and one of those Power Base Converters and make a two-in-one.

Agreed. It could do with some DRM/copy protection since Chinese bootleggers like NTDEC have been churning out "over 9000-in-one" multicarts with hundreds of variations of Mario, Road Fighter or some other game they threw in even up to this day (although they've been moving on to 16-bit Wii lookalikes or Android consoles with Allwinner, Rockchip, VIA or Mediatek SoCs). NTDEC did end up getting hammered in a lawsuit, mostly since NTD in their name stood for, well, NinTenDo, besides the also-obvious bootlegging schemes.

While their restriction for licensed games did keep smaller companies from coding too many poorly-made software (and thus prevent the likes of Mystique from inducing Rule 34), they did shoot themselves in the foot somewhat for relying way too much on that business model. I mean, it's a mixed bag, they can get away with granting licenses to those who deserve it without being draconian, rather than end up like in the Wii where pretty much everyone's making games regardless of artistic/gameplay merit or quality.

[cpd2009]

While their restriction for licensed games did keep smaller companies from coding too many poorly-made software (and thus prevent the likes of Mystique from inducing Rule 34), they did shoot themselves in the foot somewhat for relying way too much on that business model. I mean, it's a mixed bag, they can get away with granting licenses to those who deserve it without being draconian, rather than end up like in the Wii where pretty much everyone's making games regardless of artistic/gameplay merit or quality.

The Wii really did have a lot of shovelware and just plain crap games like Ninjabread Man and Chicken Shoot. In fact, I bought Chicken Shoot so I could experience how bad it is myself. It's an old Flash game ported to the Wii with tacked on point and shoot control. It's just as bad as you think it is.

[cpd2009]

Polaroid... a once trusted name in consumer photography. Nowadays, just a name that other companies throw on otherwise generic Chinese-made electronics, such as this...



$99 for a Polaroid 32'' LED HDTV on Black Friday? Yes, if you don't mind getting a TV that will probably only last about a year or two.

If one wants a TV, go name brand like Sony Bravia or Toshiba. LG would normally be good but their input lag is a drag.

[huckleberrypie]

Polaroid... a once trusted name in consumer photography. Nowadays, just a name that other companies throw on otherwise generic Chinese-made electronics, such as this...



$99 for a Polaroid 32'' LED HDTV on Black Friday? Yes, if you don't mind getting a TV that will probably only last about a year or two.

If one wants a TV, go name brand like Sony Bravia or Toshiba. LG would normally be good but their input lag is a drag.

Yep, true. Although they did use the Polaroid IP on devices similar to the ones they're known for.

[Stella Grapes]

Popping in to say hi.