EricBall

Since your TV has a composite (yellow+red+white RCA) input, any VCR should work. You will get a slight boost in quality if your TV has an S-Video input (mini DIN) and you can find an S-VHS VCR. You may want to consider buying Blu-Rays instead of DVDs. However, you'd also need to upgrade your TV to take advantage of the increased quality. Note: not all movies released on VHS have been re-released on DVD or Blu-Ray. FYI inputs in order of increasing quality 1. coaxial RF - channel 3/4) 2. composite - yellow RCA (video) red+white RCA (L+R audio 3. S-Video - mini-DIN (video), like an old keyboard or mouse connector 4. analog component - red+green+blue RCA (video) 5. DVI - digital video (obsolete) 6. HDMI - digital video & audio

Apparently the big game for early teens in Minecraft - at least according to my 13 year old son. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to partake in the game himself as we still haven't replaced the home computer (when will the Mac mini be upgraded to Haswell Apple, when?), nor can it be installed (even the "classic" version) on his Chromebook. But now the Xbox360 port has been ported to the PS3 - so I downloaded it as an early Christmas present. We originally tried to play the demo (which seems to dump you into the tutorial with no way to save, but is otherwise unrestricted) split-screen, but doing so makes the text & icons difficult to read / distinguish at normal TV distances. So we've dropped back to local single player games. My first game (seed = Daddy 1) started me in the middle of the ocean with one mushroom tree on the top of a mountain. Not a good start when you need wood to build a crafting table in order to craft almost everything else. My second start has worked out better and I have even survived getting lost, a creeper explosion and various other hazards. I'm mining (spiral staircase), exploring, and getting a little bored. Technically, it's impressive. A nearly infinite, procedurally generated, massively modifiable, persistent sandbox world. But as a game it's less impressive. Once you get beyond the first few days in survival mode the challenge of simply surviving drops considerably. Yes, you can work towards entering the Nether and the End Game Dragon, but the game doesn't push you to do so. So the "game" drops back to the grind of mining for resources. Yes, you could spend time creating massive structures, but that's what creative mode is for. (My son likes creative mode because it gives easy access to TNT and blowing things up.) I'm going to still play for a while longer. I want to put a skylight in my mine and explore a nearby cave. But I don't think I'm going to still be playing come the new year.

As per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualshock the DS2 has analog (pressure sensitive) buttons in addition to the analog sticks. Your controller might be a Dualshock instead of a DS2. (Or it might be a clone which is only semi compatible.)

7800 programming is all about building & managing display lists (and sometimes display list lists). IMHO the 7800 is significantly more difficult than the NES for any game which needs less than 64 sprites (especially with background scrolling). See https://sites.google.com/site/atari7800wiki/7800-compared-to-the-nes for some additional commentary & comparisons.

One review I read mentioned Frozen seemed to be designed for a Broadway version.

From Forbes.com (via digg.com): http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/11/30/who-will-buy-a-500-steam-machine/ In summary: A PC gamer doesn't need to spend $500 to play games on the TV, just a graphics card with HDMI output. And who says a PC gamer wants to play using a controller (no matter how leet) instead of mouse & keyboard - and only play games available for Linux on Steam. While $500 might be "cheap" for a PC*, it's the same price as a PS4 or XB1. Yet it doesn't have the AAA games available for those consoles. * I'd even argue it's not much cheaper than a custom built PC using similar components.

I ended up ordering the C720 from Amazon.com and having it delivered to a US PO Box just across the border from where my parents live. They then picked it up and mailed it to me. My son loves it - I'll probably have him do a review in a couple of weeks. I love it because I've set him up as a "supervised user", which means I can see which web sites he visits. (And he knows this.)

Playing through more of the game I am now seeing repetition, both specific enemies (hate that Wood Jester) and general body types (which dictates both attacks and the finishing move). But the bigger crime is the exponential grinding. While I can defeat most of the non-boss enemies, the bosses do enough damage that a couple of hits will kill me - and they have an impossibly high number of hit points themselves (i.e. 10 times what I have). In order to defeat them I have to increase my skill (so I get hit less often) and level up (so I get more health and attack points and can afford / find better equipment).

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/25/5146398/ibuypower-steam-machine-499-radeon-r9-270 $500 for a third party SteamBox (includes controller). Dunno how it compares to the Intel+Nvidia Valve prototypes (or Ben Heck's "Steambox" http://benheck.com/07-11-2013/ben-heck-steam-box-concept-with-amd-apu) but I'm betting on the low end (the R9 270 is slightly better than the GTX 660). However, since it's basically a PC I wonder whether it's significantly cheaper than what you could build yourself (or buy from Dell...).

Congrats! An epidural is a pain-killer injected into the spinal cord. It's a fairly common pain management technique for childbirth. My 3 pieces of advice for a new father: 1. If possible, mommy sleeps when baby sleeps and mommy only worries about baby. You don't have the equipment for 3 AM breast feedings, but you can do the housework :-) (and maybe change a diaper or two). 2. If you haven't already, don't spend any more than necessary on baby. They will grow out of anything you buy faster than you can imagine and they don't care what brand of sleeper they are wearing or how ornate the crib is. 3. Look into cotton diapers. I used a flat-rate diaper service for the first year-ish. No extra charges for each soiled diaper. They'd pick up the dirties every week and leave clean ones. Because cotton isn't as absorbent as Pampers, you change more often (thus the flat rate) and avoid diaper rash. You'll still want Pampers for when Mommy & baby go to the mall (plus a few in the diaper bag).

A few months ago a few iOS games were released for free on the AppStore, Infinity Blade II being one of them. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough space on my iPhone 4S at the time to complete the download. But I recently unchecked the 2012 C3 panel recordings (to add the 2013 Pinball Expo panel recordings) and freed up enough space to complete the install. Ghods it's a pretty game. It looks like a AAA PS3 game. The environment is lush and detailed and the characters are graphically and mechanically impressive (although everyone wears full helmets so you don't get any facial work). And the variety of enemies is astounding. I don't think I've seen a non-boss opponent twice (except when I restart the game). The game itself is fairly simple - you engage in one-on-one sword battles with opponents. In battle you swipe & tap at the screen to attack or defend. There's upgrades and options and different paths to take. But the basic gameplay is battle & defeat your opponent, then select the path to your next opponent. Rinse & repeat. If you are defeated you can either retry the battle or restart the level. You are one of the "Deathless", so you can never truly die. (And when you die, you still keep all of your gold and possessions.) Before I start giving negatives, let me say that I am enjoying playing the game - even with the negatives. There's something ultimately satisfying in making that perfect parry / block / combo; especially on an attack which previously hit (or killed) you. As I mentioned, the gameplay is very repetitive. And while each enemy is graphically unique, their attacks are not. There are also a small number of "finishing moves" your character will automatically execute when you defeat an opponent. Your opponents can also execute attack moves (like a shield swipe / bash) which you cannot. I haven't gotten really comfortable with the controls. I find myself parrying my opponent rather than blocking or dodging as I find it easier to swipe than to tap the correct onscreen button. But there are some attacks which can't be parried, so I'm trying to learn how to do both. Due to the nature of the storyline, you start at the same location when you are "reborn" and travel over much of the same path. (Although each time you defeat a boss more paths open up.) And as you travel along the path you encounter opponents at the same spot (although each time the opponent is different and more powerful). So the world isn't as "big" as in would be in a console game. (But it's pretty. Oh so pretty.) The story is some kind of mis-mash of quest to find & free "the Worker" while defeating "Deathless". It would probably make more sense if I played the first Infinity Blade. But, as with most games, your character moves through the story rather than creating the story. So I'll just have fun fighting each opponent and not worry too much about the story. Of course, all of this wonderful graphics and gameplay comes at a price - the game is hard on batteries. It's the smartphone curse - the more you use the non-phone features the less value it has as an actual phone ('cause the battery is dead).

Valve has decided they will make all of the Steambox controllers (at least initially). Probably not a bad idea on Valve's part - avoiding crap third party controllers (are there any other kind?) making the Steambox experience worse. http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/04/steam-controllers-will-only-be-made-by-valve

On June 22, 1982, The Coca-Cola Company bought Columbia Pictures for $750 million. On December 21, 1987, Coca-Cola spun-off their entertainment holdings and sold it to Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. for $3.1 billion. Companies sometimes get into different markets because they have money in the bank.

IMHO the 7800 was held back by the GPU (Maria) architecture: 1. The GPU blocks the CPU while it is drawing the screen. More sprites means less CPU time to manipulate the sprites! 2. While it allows for a larger number of sprites (both overall and on a single line) the display list is CPU intensive to build & manage. (Which compounds problem #1.) The NES had a separate GPU (PPU) bus and used a table structure for the background tiles & sprites. No bus contention means more CPU for more advanced gameplay (and tricks to work around the limited number of sprites), along with less CPU to manage the GPU.

Hey, if you wanna pay $26 for it, be my guest. That's the best attitude for eBay. Enter your top bid with as little time left as possible. If you win, great; otherwise just watch for the next auction.

I want to get an Acer C720 Chromebook for my son to use at school. (Supporting the school's BYOD & Google docs plans.) Sure the screen & keyboard aren't as nice as the new HP Chromebook 11, but the Haswell Celeron in the C720 will make for a far more pleasant user experience. Unfortunately, the C720 isn't available in Canada. (It probably will be at some point, but there's no indication of when. It will also probably have a international keyboard, which is guaranteed to have quirks.) In the US it can be ordered from Amazon, but is currently out of stock. So I'm waiting. (In theory it's also available from Best Buy, but again it doesn't appear to be in stock.) OTOH, I will probably be going to the US in the future, so maybe at that time it will be in stock. I also want to buy a Mac Mini as a "home computer". But while Apple has upgraded the iMacs to Haswell, they haven't done the same for the Mini yet. And while the rumors included a Haswell Mini announcement as a possibility in the recent iPhone 5s and iPad Air events, that didn't happen. However, the Haswell iMacs were announced separately from the events, so maybe the Mini will be as well. OTOH, two things I'm not planning on acquiring are the PS4 and Xbox One. Between the PS3, Wii U and 3DS I have more than enough "modern" consoles to suck as much free time playing games as I am willing to spend. (Not to mention other free-time projects I could be working on.) I also have more half-finished games than I can count; so I'd rather spend the time playing those than spend money acquiring a new system.

I've told my wife we'll upgrade her MacBook to Mavericks after the first patch. (i.e. next month) I'm waiting for the rumored Hawsell upgrade for the Mini before I pull the trigger to get one (and the 27" monitor) for my "home computer". The iMacs were upgraded outside of the big event, but the rumor sites don't have any new news.

It somewhat depends upon how you are measuring. A TV engineer measures horizontal timing from the start of the hsync pulse (Maria II Screen Layout), but from a programmatic perspective you want to know how many cycles from WSYNC to first pixel (7800 timings). M2 also gives some additional details on what is going on during that HBLANK period. MARIA takes care of all of the horizontal (and vertical, unlike the 2600) sync timings. In the end, the NTSC 7800 has a 7,159,241Hz (2x colorburst) pixel clock for 320 active pixels per line and 136 pixels of HBLANK. (160 modes are handled by displaying each pixel for 2 pixel clocks.) Note, this means a 7800 line is one pixel too long versus the NTSC spec (so the CPU clock is sync'd to the line). Most TVs should handle this, but it would have caused major problems with the "Laserdisc adapter". For the vertical, I'd use the 7800 timings counts. Adding an extra line to your DLL (243 vs 242) will prevent MARIA from running off the end. The 192 "active" lines is more a recommendation than anything enforced by hardware. Modern TVs are able to show 240 lines, but often will stretch the picture vertically to mask off some of the top & bottom anyway. Again, from a programmatic perspective, you can either use the CTRL register to detect VBLANK, or a DLI in your last DLL active entry to set a flag which your main application watches.

Looks fine for me

You also don't quote any sources. I think the best perspective would be from someone on the retail side. Not just a clerk at the store, but the guys who would have handled the accounts payable & receivable and seen the return ratios.

gbatemp.net is your friend, in particular http://gbatemp.net/threads/which-flash-cart-should-i-get.290097/ I have an R4 flashcart. It was cheap (I think I paid $10, including shipping, microSD card & reader) and it still receives occasional firmware updates (via the alternate Wood firmware). It's biggest disadvantages are it's not compatible with either the DSi or 3DS or microSDHC cards (finding a 2GB microSD card these days is annoyingly difficult). An R4 will do you fine, although it's getting tougher to find one. (Also there are a lot of flashcarts which use the R4 name, but aren't compatible. If it says DSi or SDHC compatible it ain't a real R4.) Paypal (and the Canadian government) has also cracked down on flashcart sellers so buying online isn't as easy as it used to be. Start with http://shoptemp.net/ to find sellers.

Hmm.. it seems Valve has made three different systems - high, medium and low. (Although even the low system is a decent PC - they aren't testing integrated graphics or Pentiums.) So part of this trial might be to determine how much difference Steam OS makes versus Windows & Linux.

Ahh, that's why I couldn't find it in the pile... :-)

I also picked up the Zelda Wii U and my son is playing through Wind Waker HD. I need to dig out the DS cartridge 'cause I think the graphics are more "3-D" than I recall.

And even then... the original release of Skeleton+ had a bug in the "You Win" screen.