jbanes

My understanding is that Amazon usually does deals by quantity. Once the quantity runs out at a particular price, the deal is over. Sorry if you missed it. BTW, No More Heros is also $15 and that deal is still going on. So anyone looking for that game can get it nice and cheap if they hurry.

Amazon is kicking ass and taking names later with their Black Friday sale. Check out some of these prices: Boom Blox - $20 de Blob - $25 Perfect Shot - $8 Wario Land Shake It - $30 Cooking Momma - $15 Lego Batman - $30 Resident Evil 4 - $10 Mercury Meltdown - $10 Namco Museum Remix - $16 Nights Journey of Dreams - $10 Sonic and the Secret Rings: $12 I managed to limit myself to three titles, but it was HARD. And prices seem to keep dropping. One minute Shake It is $50, the next it's $30. So keep a sharp eye out!

You mean something like this? Yeah. Sometimes nostalgia just doesn't hold up. FWIW, I thought the "Wii would like to play" commercials were brilliant. Of course, their competition was a floating eyeball, so take it for what it's worth...

This is so bad, it wraps back around to good: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/171911.html Reviews from video game characters: "What the heck is this?" --Master Chief "How is this our most dangerous threat?" --Kratos "Yeah, this sucks" --Master Chief "Momma Mia!" --Mario

Go to the Opera Start Page (the O button with the house) and click on "Settings". Set the toolbar to "Auto-hide". That will take care of the problem. As long as you're in there, there are a few more adjustments that you might like: 1. Change "Zoom Type" to "Automatic". This will unzoom when you change pages. 2. Click on "Adjust Display" and uncheck "Enable vertical scroll margin". This will get rid of that irritating gap at the top and bottom of the page. (Weird misfeature, that.) I'll see what I can do.

I'm not aware of any such exception. However, I believe that it might be legally seen as a performance rather than a copy. When that law was written, computers tended to load the entire software into memory before executing. And since there only the transient aspect differentiated disk from RAM (an aspect that did not exist in all computers!), they wrote the law to differentiate copies required for operation vs. long-term archival. (Normally I think the courts would have seen such transient copies as fair-use. but there had been a lawsuit a few years earlier that had somehow prevailed on the legal theory that running maintenance software on a client computer required that a separate license be acquired to load that software into RAM. The support company had till then been operating under the assumption that taking the disks with them from computer to computer was okay since they had properly purchased disks.) In the case of AV equipment however, only pieces of the data are decoded at any particular time. i.e. You're not copying the DVD to your television and then playing it, you are reading each frame of data and displaying it on a device intended to display a frame at a time.

Thanks moycon! I just gave the system a quality boost, and several new channels were added (Tekzilla, Lynda.com Training Videos, DL.TV, Play Value), including a retro gaming show called "Play Value"! I'm not expecting that this feature will necessarily be a huge draw, but I am hoping that it will improve visitor loyalty. i.e. If they decided to take a break from screwing around with the games, they might decide to vegetate for a while by watching some TV. Thus it provides a similar entertainment aspect as something like the Nintendo Channel, but with a wider and more interesting level of content. If you guys have any good suggestions for shows you want added, just let me know. I'd love to carry more classic gaming vodcasts (Video On Demand Podcasts). All I need is an RSS feed that has the videos as enclosures. I'll plug it in and *bam* all ready to go. (*cough*Jess?*cough*)

RAM copies were codified in the extension of Copyright Law that recognized computer programs (TITLE 17 > CHAPTER 1 > § 117) as an explicit exception. Paragraph (a), subparagraph (1) says: Thus you would only get in trouble for the permanent copy of the program. Running the program would not trigger copyright law.

New channels! Superman - Remember those great cartoons from the 1940s? Charlie Chaplin - We're starting at the beginning of his career and moving forward NASACast - See the latest interviews, space launches, and hardware tests Hidden Universe - Learn about the Universe through the eyes of an Infrared Telescope Though has anyone ever noticed that the old cartoons portray Superman as having grown up in an orphanage?

You need to purchase an SD card reader for your computer. External readers that plug into the USB drive are very common and can be had for ~$20. They're very common and can be found at everything from Walmart to Best Buy to your local computer store.

Only in the houses where they smoke money. Once high on green fumes, the fun factor just drains right out.

You can read the actual report here: http://www.nrdc.org/energy/consoles/files/consoles.pdf And the Wii in Standby mode is still more efficient (by far!) than using the 360 and PS3 occasionally. As the report shows, you could leave the Wii on 24x7 and still make the other two consoles look bad.

Thought you might be interested in knowing that WiiCade is two years old today. To celebrate, we whipped up a fun little surprise. Source: http://www.wiimedia.com/news/view/wiicade_...i_based_cinema/ Point your Wii at http://movies.wiicade.com to get started! Screenshots: 7 channels, 450 episodes, and more coming! Everything from world news to cartoons

Nintendo forgot to pay them off.

That has been my opinion as well. I don't mind Disney getting their extended copyright as long as they leave everyone else alone. I figure we should go back to a 14-20 year copyright with a required registration and renewal every 5 years thereafter. If the owner fails to register or renew after their initial copyright period, the material will fall into public domain. It may cause businesses to appear that expend a great deal of effort in maintaining copyrights, but at least the bastards have to work for it! And since they must register the copyright, the materials won't be lost to time. That used to be the case. Not anymore. Many other countries have declined to jump on the Mickey Forever bandwagon. The US was one of the last countries to cave on the Berne Convention. The Berne Convention calls for a minimum of 50 years. Many European countries have far longer copyrights. "Harmonizing" with Europe was Congress's key excuse for extending the copyright for so long. (See: The EU Directive on Harmonizing the Term of Copyright Protection) Stupid.

This is the way that most old software becomes legal. Since current copyright law is Life + 70 years, copyrights are effectively infinite. In result, the current owner must give the software away for it to be legal. "Abandonware" is not legal, though the current owners simply don't care in about 95% of the cases. I am not a lawyer either, but my understanding is that Statue of Limitations is only for crimes. Copyright infringement is a civil suit. While your right to sue may weaken depending on how long it has been since the last infringement occurred, there is (AFAIK) no limit. The only onus is to prove that there is significant, ongoing damage. Current law is 70 years after death. That's a LOOOONNNNGGG time to wait. Surprisingly, the laws are fairly consistent between countries. Since most first-world countries are signatories to the Berne Convention, the difference in protection is often as little as only a few years.

I'm interested. But not until it reaches $20 new. I'm a cheapskate.

It's a decent Tetris game. The graphics are bright and colorful, but nothing as interesting as say, Tetris Worlds. There are a few different game modes, but most of them are just cute. (Though the tunnel game is reminiscent of Conquest of Mars.) Online and local multiplayer is where the game is really at. This works decently well, with block-clearings causing garbage blocks to well up your opponents' screen. There are also items that can be used to fog up an opponent's screen, a timer to lock out their ability to rotate, a speed-up to make it harder for them, an earthquake to shake your screen to a Tetris, and a few other such power-ups. Up to four players can compete in these matches. Annoyingly, the Gamecube controller does not appear to be supported. This is frustrating because I only have two Wii Remotes. Thus at the moment I can only play with one of my kids at a time. Overall, I'd say it's a decent pick if you love Tetris. Nothing incredible, but decent. At 1200 points, I personally think it's a bit overpriced. But they can (unfortunately) get away with it because it's Tetris. I have no comment on the Balance Board functionality as I do not have a Wii Fit.

I considered picking it up since Target has it cheap, but the reviews for it were awful. The tables are artificial (and physically impossible), firmly classifying Dream Pinball as video pinball. Which wouldn't be so bad if the tables weren't supposedly boring and the flippers actually animated. Yes, that's right. The flippers magically go from unflipped to flipped with no in-between. Some of the reviews I read claimed that this occasionally caused the flipper to pass through the ball causing a miss that shouldn't have happened. Purchase at your own risk. (And if you do, let us all know how much you love/hate it. )

Let me just interject that I think this work is incredible! Way to go guys! Especially you roland, and you ZylonBane for getting the music ball rolling. (Random Terrain's last version sounds damn near perfect!)

The Dual Shock came out for the PSX before it became the standard PS2 controller. And even that was preceded by the Dual Analog. So support does exist on the system, but it's on a game by game basis.

1. "Psuedo-3D"? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. The pack-in game should be a clue that it's a "real" 3D console. (Whatever the difference is supposed to be.) Worse, he repeats the claim during the Kasumi Ninja character-select where it's clearly true 3D. 2. "Flimsy" exposed circuity? That's a bleeding edge-connector! You'd think he'd never seen one before. 3. Cartridge mechanisms will get worn out before CD mechanisms? Riiiiggghhhhttt. I have a few Playstations to sell this guy if he believes that. 4. $40 for a Jag + 2 pads + 6 games? Either he got a REALLY good deal or he's yanking our chain. (Or he got soaked on "shipping" costs! ) His $10 suggestion is simply laughable. 5. He keeps repeating the same nonsense "myths" while obviously having no clue about what he's talking about. I've often argued against the "64-bit" designation of the Jaguar, but it's just annoying to listen to this guy pretend like he understands what that means. Worse, "the controller can kill someone"? Seriously? Maybe if you encased it in a lead lunchbox. 6. The "dialing pad"? The fact that he can't figure out what that *might* be used for is frightening. Even without the tiny bit of research necessary to know that they used to be common video-game fixtures pre-NES, the poor labeling and recessed area should be a massive clue-stick that it's intended for overlays. One could even imagine crazy things like, unit commands in RTS games, pilot controls in flight simulators, punching in bloody NUMBERS in code-cracking sequences. I mean, this should be obvious stuff. 7. I don't think his problem with Tempest 2000 is the controls. 8. "Guys kick each other in the nuts". As he shows footage of a woman being beat on. Hmm... very... amusing. Or something. Sorry, this guy gets a D-. It would appear that he only obtains the system to add an air of legitimacy, because it's obvious that he is going to repeat what others have said with no original thought of his own. Maybe he thinks he's funny?

Threshold is Rarity 6 King Kong is Rarity 5 Strawberry Shortcake is Rarity 4 Galactic is a PAL title with an unknown Rarity. (Probably pretty rare, but probably pretty awful.) Space Raid is an Australian PAL title with an unknown Rarity. (Probably pretty rare, but probably pretty awful.) The Year 1999 is an Australian PAL title with an unknown Rarity. (Probably pretty rare, but probably pretty awful.) Super Action Pack is an Australian PAL collection of the following Activision titles: Pitfall, Grand Prix, Laser Blast, Barnstorming. Unknown rarity. I don't know if it's legit or not. "The Arcade Game" is probably "Star Wars: The Arcade Game" with the label positioned funny. Basically, you're seeing things you don't recognize because the owner is from Australia.

Like most internet goers, I find the "Rick Roll" prank to be rather tiresome after its extreme overuse. So imagine my surprise when someone managed to take Rick Rolling to a level I actually cared about. i.e. The 8-bit Rick Roll I'm your host jbanes, and you have just been Rick Rolled!

It's a decent video pinball title. The controls are good, and there are three tables to play. Each table has special targets, traps, and bonus levels. The bad news is that it's typical video pinball. If you've played Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams Collection, you probably have a much greater appreciation for the complexities of classic pinball. Which means you're going to miss having trick shots, table goals, light up bonuses, and other features that are common to pinball tables. If you haven't played Pinball Hall of Fame, then my recommendation is to hold on to your $8, save another $12, and go get a copy of Pinball Hall of Fame. If you already have PHoF and don't mind some mindless ball bouncing, then Alien Crush Returns can be a nice diversion.