[cpd2009]

Tried looking at the 3DS eShop for good deals tonight. It's down at the moment for everyone.

I'll be getting to a Walmart this coming weekend. I plan on getting at least one new 3DS game, maybe two if budget allows. I'm also going to try to get at least one of those cheap AtGames Blast! HDMI dongles.

[huckleberrypie]

Tried looking at the 3DS eShop for good deals tonight. It's down at the moment for everyone.

I'll be getting to a Walmart this coming weekend. I plan on getting at least one new 3DS game, maybe two if budget allows. I'm also going to try to get at least one of those cheap AtGames Blast! HDMI dongles.

Was it just me or is AtGames really that oblivious to whatever negative press they're getting over the years?

[cpd2009]

Tried looking at the 3DS eShop for good deals tonight. It's down at the moment for everyone.

I'll be getting to a Walmart this coming weekend. I plan on getting at least one new 3DS game, maybe two if budget allows. I'm also going to try to get at least one of those cheap AtGames Blast! HDMI dongles.

Was it just me or is AtGames really that oblivious to whatever negative press they're getting over the years?

They are very well aware of the critcism they receive. They choose to ignore it, sadly. Last fall, AtGames sent out review units of the Blast sticks to various YouTube video gaming channels. One in particular, BandaiNamco Blast, was presented as having well emulated arcade ROMs of things like Pac-Mania and Xevious. The retail version shipped with inferior NES home ports, running in a very poor emulator to boot. The gaming community spoke up and criticized AtGames via Twitter, but they decided to block users criticizing them or at the very least, making up excuses as to why the review units were better than the retail ones. To make matters worse, the boxes of the retail BandaiNamco Blast still had screenshots of the arcade ROMs as well as in the UI, making the box/UI false advertising.

Last time I was at Walmart, the Blast dongles became shelfwarmers. An entire section was stocked with these things for $18 each. By now, Walmart should start discounting these things. That would make me more likely to snap a few of these up for my collection.

I may end up just getting one or two 3DS games instead. I know I'm getting Mario Sports Superstars, but the second one? It depends on what I can get for less than $20 that isn't shovelware.

[huckleberrypie]

By that time you'd be compelled to at least improve on your products somewhat, but this company is the definition of "I don't give a damn."

[cpd2009]

I'm making steps towards bringing back my planned Apple II setup. A few years ago, I scored a complete Apple IIgs computer system from a yard sale for free. It came with monitor, keyboard, mouse and two types of disk drives along with a whole box full of old software disks.

It's been in basement storage for over two years. I'm hopeful it still powers on. The entire package was well cared for and even after being in storage, it still looks good cosmetically. If the IIgs works as it should, I will have to keep an eye on any Apple II groups or websites for additional software and general maintenance. I'm not sure if Low End Mac covers old Apple II systems, but it's worth a shot.

I also have a Macintosh Performa that is still in storage as well, but I won't be able to bring that back with me this time. I wouldn't have the space for both systems anyway.

[huckleberrypie]

Kinda' ironic how the Apple II was known for having tons of games yet the Macintosh line that followed it gained a stigma of being a non-gaming platform despite efforts to make it a feasible one e.g. Cider along with porting houses like Feral Interactive and Aspyr. Cider's use of a wrapper with a minimal Wine environment led to a NotTheIntendedUse situation where people "ported" Windows games to Mac just by copying the program files to the Cider .app folder replacing the game that was in it. I think this accounted for why Wineskin was developed as a more legal and open-source alternative to illicitly using Cider wrappers from other games.

[cpd2009]

About a week late, but I was able to get two games from Walmart, with a third game from my mom.

The two Walmart games are Mario Sports Superstars for 3DS, and Cave Story+ for Switch. I think I made a good call on Cave Story+. It was sitting on a clearance rack for $20 and this was the first time I've seen this particular game. I played Cave Story+ on 3DS a few years ago and it's a wonderful indie game done in 8-bit style graphics. The package even came with a neat little manual designed like an old NES manual and a small CD soundtrack. A wonderful little package saved from the clearance racks. As for Mario Sports Superstars, I've only tried Horse Racing, which is intriguing to say the least. It feels like it could be a Mario Kart mode if Nintendo ever wants to flesh out the game more. I haven't tried the other sports long enough to give an opinion. But with Horse Racing being rather good, this particular Mario Sports game could be the casual pick-up-and-play sports game I've been looking for.

The game I got from my mom is another 3DS title, Hey Pikmin. It's been low on my 3DS want list, but a department store was going out of business, and we were able to get the game for about 20% MSRP, which equaled a $10 savings off the original $39.99 price. When I go through that town again towards Memorial Day, I'm hoping the discounts are a bit deeper. They had another 3DS game I want, Metroid - Return of Samus.

Over that same Easter Weekend, I started playing through Cuphead. I'll agree with most other reviewers in saying the game is a masterpiece. Well, they may not have said exactly that, but it's a game that is challenging but fair; a throwback to classic run-and-gun games like Contra, yet done in a Retraux 1930s rubber hose cartoon style. It's great that it came to the Switch, and perhaps other Xbox-exclusive games could be Switch-bound as well.

On a closing note, I have resurrected Timothy, an older Gateway Pentium IV box meant as a replacement for old Jasper. My purpose was to use the box for older 32bit/16bit games, playing DVDs and standard-def videos, and retro console emulation. I haven't used the system since it's initial setup in 2015, and it turned right back on after sitting in a damp, dusty basement for about four years. No visible rust on the outside of the system, though later on, I do plan on opening the case to check the insides.

Later, I will post screenshots of the system and give full specs. I'm curious if the old Pentium IV box could run the bsnes emulator. It's current incarnation, higan, doesn't support XP. I tested Nestopia a bit, and it appears to run fine, but further testing needs to be done.

[cpd2009]

Four images here, showing Timothy's current setup. Right now, a cheapo wireless USB keyboard and mouse set is used for input. Timothy's video output is through my TV's VGA input, along with PC audio. I have my spare FFXIV Online USB gamepad connected as well for use with emulators. As for the PC games, I will have to get a serial joystick. None of the old PC games I tried recognize the USB joypad.

I can get Timothy to output at full HD resolution but all the text becomes super small. I opted for 1360 x 768, which is what many laptop manufacturers consider 720p. The display looks good otherwise.

[huckleberrypie]

Reminds me of the time when I first had a PC which I could call my own. I opted to install a slipstreamed XP distro as it had SP2 built in along with some custom themes, though that one was rather mild compared to the pirate XP distros that has sprung up late in the operating system's life span.

I also find it funny that Microsoft themselves advised people to get a cracked copy of uxtheme.dll after updating Windows XP to SP3 or some other patch, even if they put that signature enforcement thing in the first place.

[cpd2009]

I forgot how I managed to get XP Home Edition on Timothy. I checked the product key, and it is one I recognize. I do have another old student copy of XP Pro stored away at the moment. I was considering just installing that, but the current setup works well as it is. If I ever get a larger HDD for Timothy, installing XP Pro will be the only option.

Speaking of HDD, you might have noticed Timothy has a Hitachi Deskstar drive, a 40GB unit. I know that people lost trust in these particular brand of disks thanks to earlier Deskstar models (made by IBM) having high failure rates, which led to a class-action lawsuit. People nicknamed the drives "Deathstars" because of it. Even Hitachi acquiring the Deskstar brand didn't help repair it's reputation.