82-T/A

I already took the poll a while back and left my comments... but I don't remember what they were... however, really thinking about this, I am curious... For one... I think that for a child to be violent and / or screwed up really has to do with two things: 1 - Upbringing / parenting 2 - Mental disorder Obviously, if someone has something wrong with them, or a pre-disposition where there's some kind of chemical imbalance, you can't blame the parents... otherwise, it's the parents responsibility to ensure that the children are being raised to a certain level of normalcy. As far as games go... they're meant for entertainment. In most games... there's a goal, an understanding. In the older Call of Duty games... you're fighting NAZIs... it's understood that they are bad, and you're fighting for a common good. In Doom, or whatever else... it's the same thing. They're gorey... but I don't see how that can possibly encourage people to want to go out and kill innocent children. Honestly... we've all been bullied at one time or another. The overwhelming vast majority of us on here are huge nerds anyway, so we've had our share of scuffles. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've always been relatively tall my whole life... so nothing ever got physical for me. By the time I was in middle school, if someone was being intentially mean to me, I'd just beat them up. So I don't know what it would be like to be weak, and dorky... (I just know the nerdy part). But I can't imagine anything that could have happened that warrants those kids in Columbine HS shooting those innocent kids. They simply shot at anyone and everyone. I think it's fair to say these children were just flat out disturbed... and the parents did a God aweful job of staying in tune with what their children were doing. Look, if your child is dressing like a goth, and / or wearing trench coats every day... and you see that OTHER kids are not doing it... then chances are it's not a phase... "there's something wrong". Find out what's wrong... All of that said... I do have to question something... what exactly is the point of movies like SAW or Hostel? The first SAW was kind of entertaining because it seemed to have some sort of plot... and it was also scary when the guy (who appeared to be dead) got up from the floor in the middle of the room at the end. But what is the point of the rest of them? And the movie Hostel??? Other than the naked scenes... I could think of no possible reason to watch it. Why WOULD someone want to watch movies with torture and violence? I am NUMB to violence. I'm not exactly hard-core... but living in South Florida... I've witnessed several car accidents and people literally getting run over by cars. After a while, it's not "shocking" anymore. But I don't understand the desire for people to watch stuff like this? Is it that people are scared / curious and they want to overcome their fears? I dunno... Movies like Aliens and Predator and stuff like that... that s**t is cool... they have plots... but SAW 2-8... what's the point??? Anyway... I don't think you can blame games... nor do I think they necessarily incite people to want to commit crimes. HOWEVER... I guess if you grow up playing them, and your parents never tell you that this isn't right... your perception of reality on issues like this might not be as solid as someone who clearly knows it's wrong. EDIT: Bottom line... if everyone spent their time playing the Ultima games instead of bringing knives and guns to school... this world would be a much better place.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that I played System Shock mostly the same way I played SS2. I used the directinal keys on the keyboard with my left hand, and then did everything else with the mouse in my right hand. I'd turn and move using the keyboard, but looked, fought, retrieved items, etc... with the mouse. System Shock 1 wasn't a very long game.. I should try to play it again. I've got a Pentium II that I have set up just for old games. It's running DOS 5.0, a Sound Blaster 16-ASP, a Roland SCC-1/MT-32, etc... Honestly though... I haven't used it in at least a year. I don't even have speakers to use it on. Since I switched to my laptop, I can't find any kind of KVM switch that'll work right... so I have to change everything manually...

Oh dude, tell me about it. People also horrendously misuse the words "THEN" and "THAN"... that really gets me.

Yeah, that's what I kind of thought. Looking at that picture you posted above too kind of gives me that impression. Although, I DISTINCTLY remember a version of System Shock 1 that I played originally, perhaps the floppy disk version, which did NOT have this kind of shading. I remember very clearly that the first time I played the game, everything was bright, and there was absolutely no shading or lighting at all. I don't think it is. I have a CD copy of it because I was so taken by the game head over heels... it shouldn't be hard to find it on eBay though... Hey, I'm just curious... when I played the game last time, everything you're saying that it provided was something that was always available to me? I was always able to change resolutions, look around with the mouse, and configure my keys. That's right from the CD install...? Could it be that the CD edition already comes with that? Or is there something else maybe that it comes with??? One of these days, I'd still like to get a VR helmet and play System Shock with it...

You probably know better than I do... but they had effects in the game which helped provide an "aura" of lighting... for example, if you went into a room that was supposed to have a light that was shot out... they would have several "shades" of the same wall tiles with different contrasts on them. This would create a room of basically darkness. If you look at the first picture I posted, you can see what i mean in the very back there.

Hah, honestly though, it's well worth it to play System Shock 1 before you play 2. System Shock 1 I would guess, probably uses the same engine as Ultima Underworld II (you HAVE played that game too... right?). The graphics are decent... (there's also VR helmet support, and the resolution goes up to 1024x768)

DUDE!!! No, this just isn't right... what? You've never played System Shock or System Shock II? Holy crap... I know we're all busy in life and stuff... I've got a newborn, (well... she's 14 months already... hah), I'm going to school, busy at work, and honestly... haven't played a game in over 6 months (I say that every 6 months so maybe it's more like a couple years now...) but you've GOT to find some time in your life to play System Shock 1 and 2. The graphics in 2 are superior to those of 1, but 1 is still decent enough that it's fun to play. You MUST get the "CD" version though as it has the FMV and the audio track for all the e-mails and voice mails. You have to do it. If you promise to play those, I'll promise to find the time to play Ultima III on the PC instead of on the Nintendo...

20 pages and a year or three ago somebody wanted a poster so I faked up a poster. So just for this necromancy on the thread, I've faked up your T-Shirt. Though slapping an image of an E.T. cart over an image of the "I Want To Believe" poster isn't that hard and you COULD have that made into an iron-on if you really want. Damn, that's actually a pretty cool shirt... Only if you show me proof of millions of Atari carts buried will you change my mind in regards to the landfill myth Random. So no you haven't changed my mind. If you show me proof that Atari buried a bunch of crap in a landfill, it has nothing to do with the myth. Not sure how to make it any clearer to you. Uh oh!!! Someone's grouchy!!!

Wow, you're totally right. I just watched the intro for Ultima IV on the Sega Master System and it totally looks good. It actually brings back memories because I seem to recall now that I had actually played Ultima-IV although I don't think I ever made any real progress. Certainly, those older games really didn't have any kind of sound upport. I've got a Roland MT-32 for those older games that use MIDI, but this didn't even use an Adlib... so the fact that it's on a console like the NES or the SMS makes it much more enjoyable. Honestly, I like the Dragon Warrior / Final Fantasy look of games... and for a console, I often thing that's the best way to represent these kinds of games. I'll probably play Ultima 3 on the NES, and then IV on the SMS, and then I'll try U5 on the computer and see how it goes...

I've done my fair share of writing boring software, including for the medical and insurance industries (even had the pleasure of learning a horrid language by the name of MUMPS, later renamed to "M"). You're never too old to start writing games. Yes, the "Through the Looking Glass" site is still around, and they have a very active forum: http://www.ttlg.com/ ..Al HAH! Holy crap... MUMPS. Yeah... I program in mumps. I worked for a few MUMPS "shops". Infomed / Simeone Central / CareCentric, AmeriPath / Quest Diagnostics, Team Health... wow... MUMPS is a pretty awesome interpreted language. Piece and Extract are such awesome simple functions. $P, $E... man... it's been at least 6 years since I've even looked at MUMPS code, but it's one of those languages that's easy to learn, but takes forever to master. Yeah! That's the website... As far as the old games go... I have my 2600 and play a LOT of them. That's what I grew up with (I'm 31). I just have a hard time getting into games that are THAT archaic (like, the Adventures of Zork, text adventures). I need to clarify though... if I played them "back in the day" when they were decent, and I got to play them... I liked them. So I don't mind playing them again. Like REDBARON.EXE or BABY3.EXE or PTROOPER.EXE (all of which I'm sure you're familiar with), hahah... but I have a really hard time giving the old old games a chance that I've just never played before. Honestly though, the newest games I actually played were System Shock II and Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed. I think I played Wolf 3D (the new one) when it came out, but I haven't really played anything except maybe my Jag...

I've thought about it... one of the things that I've noticed though is that when you try to go back and play OLD OLD games... if they are SO FAR behind the times, and you never really played them to begin with, it's really tough to get into them. I've thought about playing them straight to finish... but the graphics and game-play are so not what I'm used to. The plot in 3 and 4 are apparently pretty good. Growing up, I also played Dragon Warrior 1 and 2 on the Nintendo, and as I later learned, Ultima 3, 4 and 5 are all on the NES as well. I don't know what kind of "engine" they use, but 4 and 5 look almost identical to Dragon Warrior... either that, or Dragon Warrior looks almost identical to that of the Ultima games. But, the way they look on the NES is more "80s Dragon Warrior / Final Fantasy cartoony" looking. I'd really like to play them, so I think I'll probably start with 3 and play them on the Nintendo, and then when I get to 6, I'll play that on the computer since it's what I'm used to. For what it's worth though, I also have Ultima 6 and 7 on Super Nintendo! haha... They're both awesome. Underworld II of course has slightly better graphics, and the engine is improved, but it's still playable. The adventure seems to be easier too since every level is basically one step closer to the end. I suppose you could say it's like UU2 with the stone and the gems going from plane to plane... but I don't remember ever having to "return" to previous levels. But then again, I never beat it. Nor did I beat UU2... but I definitely plan on it. I'm actually really glad you told me the sequence because I'm definitely going to play them in that order. Wow, I'm so envious... there was a time where I wanted nothing more than to write game software. I was in the medical indstry writing medical software for 10+ years, and now I'm in the entertainment industry (NFL). I'd still love to write games, but that seems to have passed me by... I remember they had a website "Through the looking glass". I wonder if they still have it... Let me just say, if they ever came out with a System Shock III and it was AS good as 1 and 2, I would happily pay $500 for it. Seriously. Those two games were so significant when I was younger. System Shock 1 was always awesome... but you could essentially "sneak up" on a monster or baddie, in most cases. The cortex reaver was the guy at the end, right? You had to kill him before you could essentially kill shodan? I seem to recall it was a monster with crazy spider legs that was like 30 times bigger than you, but it basically had a lifeless body hanging from it (since it was using it's brain or something???). In System Shock II though... I remember at the time... I think I had a pretty decent system. I had a Sound Blaster 16-ASP, it was running on a Pentium III 733Mhz, a fancy graphics card that could do everything it needed to (shading, smoke, all that stuff), and then I had a full stereo hooked up to it with dual subwoofers on the bottom. I'd play it in my apartment with a 19" monitor (which at the time was huge) and distinctly remember going around a corner at some point early in the game, and something SHRIEKED at me andstarted pummeling me... I nearly had a heart attack at the age of 23 or something... my girlfriend didn't see me for an entire month except at work. Damn that game was awesome... I literally walked around (in the game) scared to crap... and then on some deck of teh ship there was a ghost or something which scared the crap out of me again... I can't even IMAGINE that game with a full 3D VR goggles and full motion... I'd honestly probably die of a heart attack, it was that scary... Damn... such an awesome game. I knew about BioShock... but I've just been reluctant to buy it. I'm worried that it's going to suck and since it's not inline of the other System Shocks... it's kind of like the Last Indiana Jones movie... I just don't want it to ruin all the others for me... If it sucked... it would be like me finding out that Mr. Rogers was the anti-Christ... (which I know he's totally not). Hey Christopher, there are a couple of "Ultima collection CDs". I have the following (and as I understand are basically all of them): Ultima Underworld 1 / Ultima Underworld II - Collection CD Ultima I-VI Series CD - Came out by Origin in 1996 Ultima Collection CD - Contains 1 through 8, was released in 2007 Ultima 8 CD Edition The Complete Ultima 7 - Has 7 and 7p2 with the addon for 7 and 7p2. If you bought the CD and it came with U2 on it, I don't mind at all copying it off my CD, zipping it, and sending it to you. Out of the two CDs that I have which include it, one of them has to work. The Ultima Collection CD as Aklabeth on it too... (sucked... hahah) EDIT: Ok, I just popped in the Ultima 1-6 Collection CD which came out in 1996. The ENTIRE CD was less than 9megs, and I compressed the ENTIRE CD into a single ZIP file of 4.5 megs. Let me know if you need it. This CD is older than the one you have which probably has it all on there. It's not illegal for me to give it to you since you ALREADY have it.

OMG! This is like the best thread to be posted in here since I can ever remember. I don't know if I've done it on here too... but I have "the Avatar" as my avatar... (lame joke, I know). I think it's from Ultima IV (or maybe it's 6?). Anyway, yeah... the Ultima games are pretty awesome. I first played Ultima 6... (although never really got too far). I nearly completed 7, and 7 part II, and the add-ons too... but to be honest, I don't think I ever completed a single Ultima game? Have you guys ever played Ultima Underworld I and II? Those games are also equally as good. Never beat those either... damn I suck... I've beaten the other Origin games... Wing Commander 1-4, and then the System Shock 1 and 2 from the same company that made Ultima Underworld 1 and 2. Great games.... EDIT: I just remembered that there were some OTHER Ultima games that never really hit it big. I think one was called Ultima Origins 1 and 2 or something? It was like the Avatar was stuck in some kind of tropical jungle?!?! It seemed to use the Ultima 6 engine... I have the Ultimate Ultima CD which comes with 1-8, and then also the Ultima Compilation which comes with 1-6, and then also the Ultima Underworld Deluxe collection (1 and 2 with add-on. And then the "Complete Ultima 7" which came with 7 and 7p2 with the add-ons... but until now, I completely forgot about Ultima Origins... anyone remember those? By the way... in System Shock II... you can actually find "games" for your neuro system and actually play Wing Commander and Ultima in a tiny screen while playing System Shock II... yeah... I know, totally nerdy, but how cool!

I used to make several lists in notepad. I'd even break them up by rarity and whatnot. I'd write down serial numbers and everything too. That was like 10 years ago. Now I'm selling all of it... I haven't played a single game in GOD knows how long... all it was doing was taking up tons of space in my closet. I'm keeping a few things... like my Atari Jaguar, a couple of 2600s with all my 2600 games. MAYBE my 7800, an NES, my Super Nintendo... a Sega Saturn, and maybe my Dreamcast (still seems like a LOT of stuff), but everything else is going. I've already sold a CIB NES 8-Bit Power Set with the pad and all that stuff. A NIB Game Boy, an Odyssey 2. Honestly... I've sold at least 15-20 systems in the past 6 months. The funny thing is, I can't even remember all that I sold, so it must not have meant as much to me as I thought I did. I've got an immaculate CIB Atari XEGM system up on eBay right now... I never played it... I've had it for at least a decade in my closet. I hope I'm not bringing anyone down in this thread! hahaha... I'm just soo happy to have all this "stuff" off my shoulders (yeah, I just had a kid...) I'm keeping all the stuff that I actually used to play, and then getting rid of all the unnecessary stuff that I never played anyway. I've got two complete in box Atari 5200s also... a 4-Port and a 2-Port... but I never play those either. They're SOOO massive that I just don't know where I would set it up. Maybe I'll keep one, but I doubt it...

Hey guys, I'm selling my complete in box Atari XEGM system. It's imaculate... looks just like it did when Miami Vice was still on the air. eBay Auction -- Item Number: 270529675795 Thanks!!!

I say we all charter busses from our various locations, and we can all meet there and start digging. I own some land in Deming, so we can set up camp there. Ok, I'm not serious.... but seriously...

You have no idea how many times I've told myself this... The time I thought I'd have, never comes up... and the time I do have, becomes increasingly smaller every year. I've also noticed the years go by faster. I'm not sure when I'll ever have the time to play all the games I thought I was going to play. I've got at least a dozen games from the 8088 days that I thought I'd play and finally finish.

With no real intention to sell it...

Anyone that's hoarding anything (unless it's big breasted women or lots of cash), needs help...

Wow, she must be incredibly smart Hahah...

We just want to help you, because we've all been there. Some of us can pull ourselves out and lead normal excellent lives, others end up on Hoarders, some end up dying alone or divorced with a house full of cats. Which way do you want to end up?

Once. I went into an apartment that the tenant had cleaned but left a couple piece of furniture in. Clean as it was, she had left mothballs everywhere. I could stand the smell for only a few minutes tops. She'd tied tiny a bag of trash to a doorknob. Amongst the discarded items I found a Genesis 3 and a Sega 6 button controller. I brought the console home and hardwired a replacement for the A/V cable, then plugged in a power supply. It works well. I'm going to pull the A/V jack since it's not needed and then drop the unit off at a thrift shop. I found a PS2 memory card another time. It was a third party one, so I traded for $7.50 store credit at Game X Change. I found the book to Spec Ops (I think) on the PS1 and the case to Liberty City Stories for the PS2. I lost count of the number of broken UMD shells I've found. Hah, Liberty City Stories??? That's a city that's like 20 minutes from here... damn, the place must really be a s**thole if they made a game after it... I mean, if it's called Liberty City Dreaming, or Liberty City Nights, you'd think... wow, must be an exciting game... but no... Liberty City Stories makes you think, damn, must be about people getting shot for coke busts gone bad.

Hey guys, I have a Saturn too, what does it mean to have it "modded". Is it simply a reflash of the BIOS that allows it to read import games or something???

My advice??? Sell almost all of it, and keep only 4 systems that you actually play. You'll have a lot of money, you can pay off debt, or start some other huge hobby. I was like this for a while... I had tons of video games, pretty much every system from pong units up to and including the Dreamcast. I was even like this with cars. I had 10 cars of varying years. A Porsche, classic Olds Cutlass, a Bandit TransAm, a brand new Solstice... all this stuff. After a while, I just felt so burdened by having soo many things. My life felt "complicated". I'm down to 5 cars, my Explorer, my Crown Vic, the Patriot, VW Bus, and my first car, a Pontiac Fiero... And I'm selling almost all my video games except maybe 4 or 5 systems. I'm taking my time... but you know what? I don't miss ANY of it... I do miss my Porsche 944 a bit, but I don't miss any of the games or systems I'm selling. I feel free... I can actually put stuff in the spare bedroom closet. I've already got the first year of college paid for my daughter, and she's only 11 months old. Do it man... pick a few systems, set them up somewhere, and sell the rest... do it! You'll feel soo much better. EDIT: I'd like to amend to my comments because after reading some of the others, I just want to add a few other things in there. I see this going very badly. You don't really know what your wife is thinking. I remember after moving into our house, I told my wife I was going to a car show. She didn't have a problem with it (even though we should have been unpacking). When I came back, she gave me an attitude and then I asked her what the big deal was... she said to me : "I didn't know then, that I would be mad now!!!" haha... But seriously... PLEASE decide what's more important... your family, or your games? Under no logical scenario will you ever need more than 2 copies of the same system, and even at that, it's excessive. I know the hope / plan is that one day, when you retire... you'll have TONS of time to play all the games you never had time to, and that when you die, Obama's descendatns themselves will magically come to your estate sale, buy up all the video games and create an amazing museum known as "GoldenAxe's National Museum of Video Games" built in the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. with a massive bronze statue of you (in your best shape) right out in front of the mall for all visiting dignitaries to visit. However, it's not going to happen. Chances are, when your kids grow up, you'll be more concerned with having fun playing with your grandchildren. If you don't have a substantial amount of money saved up for them to go to college, then you're really putting them at a disadvantage. I've been exactly where you have been, a couple of times. I really, REALLY, REALLY encourage you to think really hard what these games actually mean to you... what kind of life you can really lead when you don't have these complications in your life. The fact that so much of your life is consumed by these video games?! Thinking about it gives me the shakes. Do your kids play sports? Are any of them playing soccer? I only have one child and I can't find the time to sit down and play a single game in a 6 month period... and my wife does almost ALL of the child care work. I think I've changed only one poop diaper in the past 30 days. Please think of your children... the life your leading now is what your children will eventually emulate... or they'll rebel and resent you for it. I think this was called the "American Dream" before it was portrayed in the Sims game... just sayin'... hahah... We just had a post on this... where we talked about "Hoarders". I mean this in the nicest way possible, but if you ever end up on Hoarders, PLEASE let us all know... I will be taping it.

After seeing these places I wouldn't want anything out of these places I don't care if they were bathed in the strongest cleaning solution known to man. After seeing those videos I'm starting to wonder if any of my systems or games have ever been sitting in a pile of rotten food, cockroaches, and cat feces. Yeah, that's why I said these shows are so motivational. I've CERTAINLY never been a trash hoarder. But there was a time when I had 9 cars (and a golf cart). I also had every game system (except Fairchild and Vectrex) from pong to the DreamCast. I didn't collect anything else... except maybe computer stuff too, and maybe stereo stuff... and then I just started to say, enough... I mean, my house was ALWAYS clean... I never had trash around, never had piles of stuff... but I had a lot of boxes in the garage, and the closet in my third bedroom was PACKED with video game stuff. When I started to go back to school, I realized that I just had too much stuff and distractions. I didn't need 10 computers... I didn't need every damn game system in the world, especially since I hadn't even played A game for over a year. So I got rid of every computer I had except one for my wife, one for me, a laptop for the house, and then my first computer (an 8088 in a box, in the office closet). I also went through the house and anything I hadn't used in 6 months, I got rid of. I sold a ton of car parts too. When my wife was pregnant, I went through another phase. I immediately decided I wanted to prioritize my life so I sold 4 cars. A few months ago, I finally decided to start unloading my video games (I've been selling a bunch on here and eBay). I finally realized that I only need to really keep the games that I actually play... truth be told, I haven't played a system in over a year... and it's not likely to happen any time soon either. But I don't play my Coleco Vision, I don't play my Intellivision, I don't play my pong units, or the C380 Pinball Atari... so why do I need it? Sold all those... I'll never play my XEGM, I'll never need 5 NES systems (most of them boxed)... I just don't want STUFF!!! My house is like that of a minimalist. In my family room, I think I have like 4 pieces of furniture (which includes the TV), and that's it...

I finally saw the latest episode of Hoarders, you were right, it was REALLY REALLY bad... The piles of trash they shovled out had begun to decompose into dirt. The house had deteriorated so badly, that I honestly think the best thing to have done would have been to bulldoze the entire house. They found a dead dog (or cat?) that was hidden under a 10 year old pile of trash. The arm chair in the family room had begun to decompose because it had been layered in trash for up to 10 years that it literally began to rot. The toilet broke 10 years ago, and the lady continued to use it... the cleaning crew even refused to go in there... I was pale faced the entire time I watched it...