The Spam Thread!

[huckleberrypie]

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ICjn/claritin-fe...video-game

Just spotted this on TV tonight. It's an ad for an anti-allergy medicine called Claritin, but it features a mom sharing a very old, dusty retro game with her son.

The most interesting thing? It appears the producers recolored a Hyperkin Retron1 HD to act as the stand in for an actual NES. The "console" has a corner that is flat like a triangle, which is colored blue in the ad. This spot on the Retron1 HD is normally a glowing Hyperkin logo when powered on. The "game" is also made up, appearing to use a modded Famicom cart.

I will say this. While it's fun for a retro gamer like me to pick apart this ad, it's also cool that retro games are being given a nod in prime-time TV advertising. It would have been better if Nintendo or even Sega licensed an actual likeness of their systems.

Maybe they didn't want to pay royalties to Nintendo for their use of the Big N's trade dress hence why they settled for a clone instead. Or maybe they simply didn't want to imply endorsement of a particular video game console manufacturer.

[cpd2009]

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ICjn/claritin-fe...video-game

Just spotted this on TV tonight. It's an ad for an anti-allergy medicine called Claritin, but it features a mom sharing a very old, dusty retro game with her son.

The most interesting thing? It appears the producers recolored a Hyperkin Retron1 HD to act as the stand in for an actual NES. The "console" has a corner that is flat like a triangle, which is colored blue in the ad. This spot on the Retron1 HD is normally a glowing Hyperkin logo when powered on. The "game" is also made up, appearing to use a modded Famicom cart.

I will say this. While it's fun for a retro gamer like me to pick apart this ad, it's also cool that retro games are being given a nod in prime-time TV advertising. It would have been better if Nintendo or even Sega licensed an actual likeness of their systems.

Maybe they didn't want to pay royalties to Nintendo for their use of the Big N's trade dress hence why they settled for a clone instead. Or maybe they simply didn't want to imply endorsement of a particular video game console manufacturer.

I'd vouch for the latter since it was a pharmaceutical commercial. I doubt video game companies want their names tied directly to medicines.

[cpd2009]

Woo hoo! Looks like this Nintendo/MS partnership is bearing fruit. Big announcement today saying Cuphead is coming to the Switch in April. Even if it's an eShop only title, I'm going to get it.

Konami also announced they are bringing various collections to the major game systems featuring classics like Castlevania, Contra, and some of their earlier arcade hits.

[huckleberrypie]

Woo hoo! Looks like this Nintendo/MS partnership is bearing fruit. Big announcement today saying Cuphead is coming to the Switch in April. Even if it's an eShop only title, I'm going to get it.

Konami also announced they are bringing various collections to the major game systems featuring classics like Castlevania, Contra, and some of their earlier arcade hits.

inb4 Microsoft buying a chunk of Nintendo stock. Doubt that they'd gobble up the company outright though; the best they could do to get a foothold on the Japanese market so far is to partner with the Big N in lieu of being able to get Japanese people to buy an Xbox.

Speaking of Xbox not appealing well with Japanese audiences, I think the provincialism speculation is a little questionable considering how they do appreciate all things foreign like jazz music, baseball and whatnot. One biker club even went so far as to cosplaying as the California Highway Patrol, uniforms, Electra Glides and all.

[cpd2009]

Two things I'll do this weekend.

I'll be able to go to Walmart. I'm going to do some game hunting in the bargain bins, with emphasis on DS/3DS and Wii/Wii U games. Sometimes you find something worthwhile in a literal mountain of shovelware. I'm also going to consider one game for the Switch. Which one depends on what's available.

Secondly, I'm going to try running Pearl with the integrated Intel IGP. With Cuphead coming to Switch, and with all my pinball sim needs taken care of, I figured I may as well go ahead and see if switching to the IGP will bring improved video capture performance from the Vidbox. Gaming performance will be gimped for sure, but for the remaining casual fare, the Intel IGP will do fine enough. If it doesn't really improve the minor frame drops in video capture, I will go back to the GeForce card.

[cpd2009]

And I'll have to scrap the previous plan I had for Pearl.

Walmart had a 2-disc DVD version of Super Lucky's Tale on sale for around $9 USD. I decided to get that instead.

I also have acquired a WD Blue 250GB laptop SSD for Greta. I'll work on that this evening and get Win10 installed.

[cpd2009]

Looks like I'll have to get an Xbox 360 Wireless adapter for Pearl to enjoy Super Lucky's Tale. :/

I can use the keyboard, but the game is meant for an Xbox controller. I tried connecting my 360 pad to Pearl via USB, but found out it still needs the wireless adapter as the cable just charges a battery pack.

I tried my Final Fantasy USB controller, which is designed like a DualShock 2, but the game doesn't recognize it.

[cpd2009]

The SSD installation is successful.

Greta can now run Windows 10 without slowdown. I'm amazed at just how an SSD can improve an older PC's performance.

I'm a bit curious as how the SSD will affect battery life, whether it would improve it or drain the battery faster. I'll have to test that tomorrow.

[huckleberrypie]

So I applied for a trial VPS at DigitalOcean and decided to build ROMs from there. Sure is quite tedious from what I can attest, and I dunno if it would even boot at all.

[cpd2009]

Forum is getting stale again, but not much exciting is happening for me.

I guess I can mention I bought a newer version of AtGames' Atari Flashback consoles, but I have a small tale about deceptive packaging.

The current generation of the Atari Flashback is version 9, and most of the online reviews you will find mention it's 720P HD output. However, I found out the hard way that a nearly identical variant of the Flashback 9 exists that only supports composite AV output and still runs AtGames' older 2600 emulation software (which in all due respect seems perfectly fine and not horrid like their older Sega consoles). The only way to know if your Flashback 9 supports HD output is to look for a small HDMI icon with "720P HD Output" in the lower left corner on the front of the box. My Flashback 9 doesn't have that icon, yet the box design is nearly identical to the HDMI variants.

I'm keeping my Flashback 9 because I was able to get one for $20 off retail price, and the fact I have a rather awesome standard def LCD TV now, a Sylvania 6620LE, that handles composite/component things very well. The game selection is the same and as I stated earlier, the emulation seems fine. Then again, I never owned a real 2600 in my life, so I have no idea how the emulation truly is.

Oh, and AtGames took a hint from Nintendo. They didn't include a USB adapter... just the micro-USB cable. :/