eric_ruck

It depends on what kind of games you like, or what kind you pine for. I started with the Lynx because I liked the classic arcade ports like Joust, Robotron and Klax. Of course that also got me into the 7800. But I also liked the portable aspect. Eric

Yeah, I have one (machine, not brochure, although it needs repair). I also have the manuals and what not, but no brochure. Ah well. Anyone else? Eric

I actually have a tote bag from it somewhere. My wife used to work for the cable company. I'm actually not certain it ever came out around here though. Eric

I just kind of got the same overall feeling from both games. Sure, I can drive a Banshee in Halo 2, or even better swipe it from an enemy. But I sort of get the same immersive feeling from even the crappiest version of Doom as from Halo 2. The end result is melting hours away playing, and when you stop, realizing that your pulse rate is way over resting. It doesn't necessarily make Halo 2 any less brilliant to be lumped with a relatively ancient game, but in terms of the way I feel when I play it, and even to some degree how I play it, they're surprisingly close. A few days and more hours later, I do find that I rather like Halo lacks the blind scraping along the walls looking for hidden doors, don't miss that. Also the airborn enemies in Halo 2 really does add something to the game. The driving, eh, just one more way to move around. Ok, so the flying part made Halo 2 play more like Descent or Hovermorph or something, eh. Eric PS: Not started to troll. More like an observation that kind of took me by surprise.

I've only been stiffed on rebates once in recent memory, the free XBox arcade stick from Outpost.com well over a year ago now. I definitely got the rebate from the SD card from Outpost. Maybe they get swiped from your mail? Eric

I was thinking more of a coffee house that happened to have a video game collection. Maybe set to free play, maybe not. At least around here coffee houses don't tend to go out of business. If you can turn it into a destination and also find a reason for people to keep spending money if they hang out, you may have yourself a winner. Eric

I just had a wierd experience. I got this 32X for $11 with Doom and its been sitting around in the box for awhile. We have company coming over for Thanksgiving so all the boxes need to be dealt with. So after playing Halo 2 for awhile I plugged in the 32X and played Doom. What a wierd experience. While I quite like Halo 2, it really drives home the fact that the FPS hasn't really changed that much since the original. Also makes what Id came up with that first time appear really special. Eric

Wierd. No place has them around here, absolutely nowhere (Maryland). Anyone have a siting in S. CA? I'll be there next week. I did find one reputable place that still has them online but it's a $300 bundle with stuff I don't want and can't really afford to have laying around right now. Eric

Did Atari ever print a brochure or marketing material for Black Widow? Anyone want to part with one? Eric

Buy.com has great prices on new SD cards. Also check Outpost.com. The last one I bought was a Panasonic 256MB SD at Outpost for $15 after rebate. I think Buy.com had 1G SD for something like $70 after rebate. Eric

Actually I think this is doable. If only I were independently wealthy and didn't have to work for a living. Eric

Ugh, I hated this game, one of many release day disappointments for me for the PS2. Eric

Wireless may be a neat application but I bet it kills the battery performance. If you're using a laptop with a built-in wireless on battery and not at a hotspot, you can save a decent amount of battery but shutting off the wireless. And anyone with a PDA that supports Bluetooth probably already knows what that does to the battery life. It's interesting, I'm planning on not buying a PSP because I'm done with Sony. With exactly one exception, everything I've owned from Sony is crap, with the PS2 being the prime example. (The exception is the surround sound processor in the den.) At that price point I bet the quality is going to be pathetic. Interesting thing, I was hanging around a Gamestop waiting for a carryout sushi order being prepared two doors down. Pretty much the sentiment all around is the same. Some of the announced titles sound enticing, certainly more than the launch lineup for the DS, but nobody wants to be stuck with a $200 piece of crap. Eric

You're #2 in line, shipping price pending. I used to have a guy at work to take all this stuff but he's moved on. Gotta love ex-military electronic techs. Anywho, I'll let you know. Eric

Nobody? This thing is really expensive, even without all the extra handsets. I'm sure it's fixable...most of the handsets are fine. If you happen to live a driveable distance to Ellicott City, MD you can pick them up for nothing. That sound you hear is me walking slowly with the box full of phones towards the trash bin (ok, really the electronics recycling at the local dump)... Eric

Lately Genesis, based on play time, especially Vectorman. Ironically Vectrex would have to be a close second. Eric

Yeah, I realize that most or all of the stuff is free but $10/mo for someone to separate the wheat from the chaff for me and tape a decent magazine to it is worth it in my opinion. Especially since a lot of this stuff is from systems and countries I'm not familiar with (Amiga, Amstrad, Spectrum; UK, Germany, France). Eric

Retro Gamer is well worth the price of admission. I buy it at B&N regularly, gives me an excuse to drop by. Although I think they lowered their US subscription price. The cover disk makes the whole thing worthwhile. Beneath A Steel Sky was definitely worth the price last month, for a good 7-8 hours of entertainment with very British humor. Eric

Broken Siemen SOHO multi extension phone system. Definitely cold solder joints in the main unit plus one or two of the handsets. Also the handsets could use new batteries, but they're standard AA NiCad. If you're handy you can probably fix this. This is one of those systems with a two line corded base set that plugs into an outlet and supports a whole mess of wireless handsets without using up any additional phone jacks. Each of the handset has a charger base so you can plug it in anywhere. I have five or six handsets, not sure. Basically I'm not handy so I replaced it with a Uniden multi-handset that's 5.8 GHz instead of 2.4 like the Siemen's (2.4 *might* mess with 802llb, I find that if the base is too close to my laptop the network connection drops occassionally). Anyway, first person to ante up actual shipping takes it. Send me your address so I can get the actual shipping via US Post Office. I'm guessing around $15 since there's a lot of stuff. Oh, also willing to trade for shipping, although frankly I'm not looking for a lot of stuff right now. PM me with interest. Eric

You can donate games to practically any children's hospital. When the XBox came out my kids just got out of Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital in Baltimore. I saw plenty of video game age kids there that wouldn't be standing in line at midnight to get theirs, so I managed to wrangle an extra XBox from the manager of a Circuit City and donate it on release day. Check your phone books. Eric

CNet News Walmart's Site Eric

Java games are coded in Java. No direct port, and as previously mentioned the Lynx isn't beefy enough to support a J2ME environment. Eric

Holy moley, that is cool. BTW works fine on Moz 1.7 on a pretty beefy WinXP machine and a cable modem. I've done some elaborate stuff in JavaScript but nothing like this...I'm impressed. Eric

I just read a glowing review and Fable seems pretty amazing. I've never been into RPGs before but, I dunno, this one looks like something I could like. Opinions? Eric

So does someone have a nice copy of the latest compiler with the Lynx ports? Perhaps the CC65.org people will host it or at least link it? The link on Bastian's site does not appear to be updated. Hey, what's the deal with Lynxass.exe? Is that an assembler? Are there any sources or docs for that floating around? One of the things I like about the newcc65 package is the source code -- if I have any questions about how something works I can always go to the source. Eric PS: OK, I got busy with work and my game isn't going to make it for this year's minigame competition. There's always next year. I'd still like to find the time to finish a large version by Philly Classic. Maybe my wife will let me take my laptop on vacation this year.