eric_ruck

Another title I picked up off the bargain rack. I can't decide whether I like it, I only messed with it for a half hour. Tuning in to nearby characters with the left stick is pretty neat. Eric

Man, I remember it wasn't that long ago when a whole bunch of Tank Commands surfaced on eBay and drove the price down under $20. I bought a second, but traded it awhile back (sorry). Not really being constructive, just reminiscing. Eric

Or my internet connection was down at home and I didn't have time to visit AA at work...check your PM momentarily. Actually I went to do a full check of everything and couldn't make the phone talk to the base station. Turned out that the manual was actually wrong about how to set it up initially. I figured it out and all is well. I'll probably write a correction on a sticky note or something and stick it in the manual. Eric

Basically new, bought it two years ago, turned out I didn't need it, and never got around to returning it. Pulled from the box to test. I noticed one of the two nicad batteries in the handset were showing corrosions so I tossed both and replaced (they're standard AA NiCad, not those wierd proprietary batteries a lot of phones use). Opened to test. Also throwing in one headset that is used, and the boom mike got detached from the earpiece. Otherwise it works. Feel free to fix or chuck. Anyway, this thing comes complete in the box, instructions, bags, promotional junk, etc. It's a quality phone, made in the USA. Retail value $99...seen around as cheap as about $60. Yours for $20 shipped (remember the new batteries?) or trade. Pretty open about trades. Xbox games (I only have maybe a dozen), still looking for a Game Gear...Saturn, NGPC and Dreamcast games. My primary interest is getting rid of something I don't want taking up space in my office for something I do want, or a little cash. PM me with interest. Eric

Bought for $3.50. Definitely worth it for that price. Slashing Deadites with the chainsaw does get repetitive, if you can believe that, but the not too challenging (so far) puzzle aspects of the game and Bruce Campbell's voiceovers make it worth it so far. Actually the bonus video is probably worth the $3.50 I paid for it. Eric

I have a Zodiac 2 (the one with the big memory). I haven't actually bought any other games for it besides Stuntcar Extreme, which came with it (and its a pretty good game by the way). As far as a PDA goes, it's actually a great system. The positives are that it is impressively small for a Palm with such a large screen and has useable speakers, and the extra controls for the game work for the PDA nicely as well. Bluetooth and 2 SD slots are nice. Can play MP3s in the background while running other Palm applications, or if you play MP3's by themselves the screen is smart enough to go dark to preserve the battery. It's actually nice to use the MP3 alarm clock feature when I'm travelling on business, which has been a lot lately. Downsides as a PDA: the battery life isn't great. I really like the form factor of my other PDA, a Sony Clie, because of the rotatable screen thing sort of makes a self-contained case. Lcoation of the stylus is a bit awkward. I also like the Sony Clie "silk" better. Doesn't have a bash shell like the other other PDA (Zaurus). That said it's the PDA I use everyday. As far as gaming, the biggest drawback is the battery life really sucks. Once you run the speakers and the rumbler you get maybe 90 minutes on a full charge. You're going to want to carry the adapter with you. Oh yeah, and it doesn't play Mr. Driller (well, maybe someone made a traditional Palm version, but I've been carrying my DS around to play this in rare idle moments). Back to the PDA, it is impressive looking as all getout. When I do Palm apps I like doing demonstrations for customers on the Tapwave since the device is unusual enough that most people haven't seen one, and it really does knock your socks off with the great screen and tiny form factor. Eric

14 hours playing Halo multiplayer what it first came out. We started with 4 people and ended with two. Back in the day in (I think) Time Bandits for the Atari ST there were a few places where you could prop the fire button down with a heavy book or something and come back with a zillion points and extra lives. I did that for a few days, playing off and on, then got bored and shut it off. I think I also had playing binges on Missle Command for the Atari 800 and (strangely) Text Twist on Yahoo games -- played for a few hours to 500,000 points before I got bored and knocked off. Eric

I've been out of the 7800 market for awhile (completed my collection a few years ago) but I thought a few of those titles are starting to get rare, and maybe someone does want one or two of those sealed. I thought Ninja Golf was one of them. Also, while Ninja Golf wins points for originality and strangeness, this was never one of my favorites, although a lot of people liked it. Frankly my favorites are some of the most common, including Asteroids and Joust. The not so common Food Fight is also a fantastic game, as is Commando. Eric

Or not a glitch, the owner may have just renewed yesterday. Oh well, not like any of us was going to take it anyway. I just thought it was interesting. Eric

I think the idea is that the name resonates with 30-something consumers who buy electronic gadgets. I was at BJ's the other day and saw a "Sylvania" LCD TV (really cheap by the way, but that's beside the point). I'm thinking, gee, don't they make light bulbs? Then I notice the big lettering on the side, "Sylvania Name Used Under License". So basically this TV has nothing to do with Sylvania except that some Chinese company or importer paid them to use their name. But that makes sense. I'm not going to drop a few hundred bucks on a Moo Shoo brand TV, but Sylvania, sure, I've heard of them. And if the TV sucks, well, I don't much look at the brand names when I buy lightbulbs anyway. Eric

Would they? The new Atari seems to be pretty generous with the community. Now the getting of our asses part...I wish. When my ass isn't firmly planted in front of a work computer (like, um, now) it's up chasing around my children. Eric

Am I the first here with the scoop? U.S. Company Acquires Rights to Commodore (AP, on Yahoo, no registration required) Eric

My Vectrexes have been pretty much no maintenance, unless you cound an occassional dusting. Eric

I dunno, I'm hardly a Nintendo fanboy, I probably have extremely little Nintendo stuff compared to other major game companies. But I'm happy with the DS: Infinitely better screen than the GBA Better for larger adult size hands than the SP So far fantastic battery life, I've only charged mine once since I got it Driller Spirits doesn't much exercize the system, but the Metroid Demo is impressive. I'm treating myself to one of the racing games after I finish this freelance project I'm on, they look impressive. I'm not surprised that demo units get abused, although all the ones I've seen around here seem to be working fine. But so far from the field I've only heard of one with problems out of the box. Waaay better track record than Sony. To each his (or her) own. By the way my extra is now gone. Eric

Songbird modified rapid fire controller, excellent for Raiden. Unfortunately I don't think they've had them in stock for years. Eric

I remember reading somewhere an editorial where a gamer was justifying playing through on the Easy setting. Basically his point is, he doesn't have a lot of time, he wants to enjoy the game, and progress = joyment. So he got his money's worth. Same basically applies to the rapid fire controller. If that's the experience you like, so be it. If you want to brag about finishing in so many hours or with a certain score without specifying that you're playing easy or using a rapid fire controller, well, you're just as likely to lie about it if you didn't, so I don't see the difference. Plus the Songbird Jag rapidfire controller is still my absolute favorite controller of all time. Eric

Depends where you are I think. They're still hard to come by around here. My extra is probably going to a neighbor after all. Technically on hold for two days but still available. Eric

Only if you get caught. Eric

Goofing around online and found that the domain www.atarilabs.com is now available. Since I can't even pretend I have enough time to make a fansite, well, here it is. Do we know the former owner of this domain? Appears to be Japanese or somthing. Eric

Interesting question. I think the oldest I have that I bought new (or a parent bought, depending on how long ago) would either be my Atari 400 or Video Pinball. Since then I still have the Lynx and Jaguar purchased new, then most of the systems from the original grey box Playstation on. Still play the original Lynx and Jaguar. Eric

I was lucky enough to be at Best Buy last week when they were putting out the last of them, I picked one up for myself and one up for a coworker who changed his mind. Anyone? Cash preferred but there are trades I might consider. I can always return it after Xmas and make some anonymous person's day. Eric

Heh, don't you know if you want broken 5200 stuff all you have to do is ask me? I have at least a half dozen of those things that I'll probably never get around to refurbing. E

They're scarce around here but I just scored one by being in the right place at the right time. I needed to swing by Best Buy to buy some PC headsets for the office (we're newly into Skype) and they happened to be putting out their last shipment of DS's for the year. Eric

Driller is fun...my first experience with the series, I'm still getting the hang of the game. Played it for about an hour. Off topic but I thought the Metroid demo was cool too. It looks great and they basically use the touch screen like an extra analog stick as well as a map at the same time, neat idea. Eric

I saw maybe 5 minutes of a movie on HBO a week ago, a kid was lying to his dad over the phone about doing homework, instead he was playing (I think) Ultra Vortek. Definitely playing a fighter and holding a Jaguar controller. The dad was at some kind of convention and worked for something like "Jesus Power Company" which I think as an electrician service. That's all I have. Eric