socrates63

Personal update — I’ve been dealing with back pain for more than a year. Late Monday, I went to the ER and Tuesday morning, I underwent a surgery for a herniated disc. It was diagnosed as a medical emergency. Surgery went well, but I will be in the hospital for another week. I’ve lost some function of my left leg and will be rehabbing in the hospital, and after I’m discharged, I will be returning for more intensive rehab. I am expected to make a full recovery.

In the meantime, should I be worried about my 7800 Asteroids score in the high score challenge? 😂 Game on 🕹️

Personal update — I’ve been dealing with back pain for more than a year. Late Monday, I went to the ER and Tuesday morning, I underwent a surgery for a herniated disc. It was diagnosed as a medical emergency. Surgery went well, but I will be in the hospital for another week. I’ve lost some function of my left leg and will be rehabbing in the hospital, and after I’m discharged, I will be returning for more intensive rehab. I am expected to make a full recovery.

In the meantime, should I be worried about my 7800 Asteroids score in the high score challenge? 😂 Game on 🕹️

Dog sitting -- week one is done and there's three more to go.

Son 2's girlfriend's family left for Taiwan a week ago to visit extended family. We agreed to dog sit Mochi for four weeks.

Having heard from my son, I knew Mochi was not well socialized with people and animals. He was distant from us and only opened up to my son. For such a dog, I expected him to be a bit traumatized having been left in an unknown place with mostly unknown people. When my son went to work, Mochi would lie on his bed in the bedroom and spend hours there. My wife and I were getting a little worried.

After one week, I think we may have turned the corner. He came up to me looking like he wanted something. We ended up playing chase around the house. Eventually he got tired and I got tired, and we sat on the floor. I approached him slowly and gave him some space and started petting him. I think I was stroking him for half an hour and Mochi shifted his body and leaned up against me. I continued to stroke him for a while longer and he fell asleep.

He still doesn't approach too close and maintains his distance, but I think he'll be ok. We were seriously worried for his mental health.

I've made poor retro gaming choices.  I have only have two classic platforms, an Atari 5200 and a Texas Instruments 99/4A.  Both topic areas are like ghost towns... sigh.

The MLB All-Star game returned to Seattle for only the second time (first time in 2001). I took the family to the fan fest, and while on our way to the stadium, we passed through Pioneer Square area which is adjacent to the stadium. In the middle of the square, there was an arcade set up, and it was free to play. We stopped and spent a bit of time playing the various games.

Check out my score on Missile Command. Is that a decent score? The shooting reticle (x) was slow to move so it got difficult in later stages. That Asteroids was hard! I couldn't even crack 10k. The joystick on Burger Time was horrible. My wife and kids had fun with Galaga.

The MLB All-Star game returned to Seattle for only the second time (first time in 2001). I took the family to the fan fest, and while on our way to the stadium, we passed through Pioneer Square area which is adjacent to the stadium. In the middle of the square, there was an arcade set up, and it was free to play. We stopped and spent a bit of time playing the various games.

Check out my score on Missile Command. Is that a decent score? The shooting reticle (x) was slow to move so it got difficult in later stages. That Asteroids was hard! I couldn't even crack 10k. The joystick on Burger Time was horrible. My wife and kids had fun with Galaga.

The MLB All-Star game returned to Seattle for only the second time (first time in 2001). I took the family to the fan fest, and while on our way to the stadium, we passed through Pioneer Square area which is adjacent to the stadium. In the middle of the square, there was an arcade set up, and it was free to play. We stopped and spent a bit of time playing the various games.

Check out my score on Missile Command. Is that a decent score? The shooting reticle (x) was slow to move so it got difficult in later stages. That Asteroids was hard! I couldn't even crack 10k. The joystick on Burger Time was horrible. My wife and kids had fun with Galaga.

The MLB All-Star game returned to Seattle for only the second time (first time in 2001). I took the family to the fan fest, and while on our way to the stadium, we passed through Pioneer Square area which is adjacent to the stadium. In the middle of the square, there was an arcade set up, and it was free to play. We stopped and spent a bit of time playing the various games.

Check out my score on Missile Command. Is that a decent score? The shooting reticle (x) was slow to move so it got difficult in later stages. That Asteroids was hard! I couldn't even crack 10k. The joystick on Burger Time was horrible. My wife and kids had fun with Galaga.

The MLB All-Star game returned to Seattle for only the second time (first time in 2001). I took the family to the fan fest, and while on our way to the stadium, we passed through Pioneer Square area which is adjacent to the stadium. In the middle of the square, there was an arcade set up, and it was free to play. We stopped and spent a bit of time playing the various games.

Check out my score on Missile Command. Is that a decent score? The shooting reticle (x) was slow to move so it got difficult in later stages. That Asteroids was hard! I couldn't even crack 10k. The joystick on Burger Time was horrible. My wife and kids had fun with Galaga.

ICYMI: Polymega and Atari are collaborating on a 2600/7800 module that will be compatible with the VCS. They are also bringing the full functionality of Polymega to the VCS.

Discuss in ClubVCS!

Atari50 is on sale now on Steam.  Highly recommended.

 

PSA: AtariAge "last chance" sale. Get 'em while you can.

Took this shot just now from our balcony 😎🤷🏼‍♂️

Garuda Linux on the DELL laptop, I really like the look of it. 😎

A tale from the suburbs

My wife and I were driving to church yesterday for early morning prayer. We saw a group of crows on road which is not an uncommon scene. As we approached them, all flew away as expected except for one. I'm not sure if it was eating something on the road, but at the last minute after all its buddies had already fled, it raised its head and saw us.

Maybe I've watched too many Looney Tunes, but I swear it's expression was like, "What's going on? Where did everybody go? Oh!" BAM! I heard a loud thunk as we passed over the spot where the crow was. I looked back and saw the crow looking plastered on the road with one wing up twitching. Another crow came back and was like "Are you ok, bruh?"

When we returned to the scene three hours later, there was nothing on the road. The crow must have survived somehow and flew away. It was hit very hard if the sound of the impact was any indicator, so it was shocking to see that it must have survived.

My wife was a bit shaken as she was the driver, and it was the first time that she had run into an animal. Suffice to say, she also survived and is doing well.

I've heard that crows are very intelligent birds. But of course, there's always an exception to any rule. 

Time just flies by. I can't believe it's already been a week since my birthday. This year, I celebrated it with gifts, family dinner, and lunch with former coworkers. It was a fun one, so I wanted to share.

Family dinner at the restaurant of my choosing. Son 2's girlfriend joined us.

My wife forgot to bring the cake to the dinner, so we had it when we returned home 😂 My family isn't much into cakes, so that's why it's small.

My former co-workers from my Amazon days. Mathias' (guy on the far left) birthday is in a couple of weeks. We had this thing going for a few years where I bought him lunch on his birthday and he bought me lunch on my birthday. This year, we broke tradition. Although he wanted to pay, I beat him to the machine with my card. It's been a few years since we got together, so I wanted to buy. He's going to buy me lunch later this month. These guys were my engineers when I managed the Fire tablet localization.

Gift from my son and his girlfriend. My son was very surprised when I told him that I didn't have the NES. Well, I fixed that a few days later. I bought a NES top loader. It's been sent to get the RGB mod, so I'll show it off when I get it back in a few weeks.

Home-made candles were gifted to me from a church friend. I don't think my photo does it justice--it's very beautiful and very fragrant.

Time just flies by. I can't believe it's already been a week since my birthday. This year, I celebrated it with gifts, family dinner, and lunch with former coworkers. It was a fun one, so I wanted to share.

Family dinner at the restaurant of my choosing. Son 2's girlfriend joined us.

My wife forgot to bring the cake to the dinner, so we had it when we returned home 😂 My family isn't much into cakes, so that's why it's small.

My former co-workers from my Amazon days. Mathias' (guy on the far left) birthday is in a couple of weeks. We had this thing going for a few years where I bought him lunch on his birthday and he bought me lunch on my birthday. This year, we broke tradition. Although he wanted to pay, I beat him to the machine with my card. It's been a few years since we got together, so I wanted to buy. He's going to buy me lunch later this month. These guys were my engineers when I managed the Fire tablet localization.

Gift from my son and his girlfriend. My son was very surprised when I told him that I didn't have the NES. Well, I fixed that a few days later. I bought a NES top loader. It's been sent to get the RGB mod, so I'll show it off when I get it back in a few weeks.

Home-made candles were gifted to me from a church friend. I don't think my photo does it justice--it's very beautiful and very fragrant.

Time just flies by. I can't believe it's already been a week since my birthday. This year, I celebrated it with gifts, family dinner, and lunch with former coworkers. It was a fun one, so I wanted to share.

Family dinner at the restaurant of my choosing. Son 2's girlfriend joined us.

My wife forgot to bring the cake to the dinner, so we had it when we returned home 😂 My family isn't much into cakes, so that's why it's small.

My former co-workers from my Amazon days. Mathias' (guy on the far left) birthday is in a couple of weeks. We had this thing going for a few years where I bought him lunch on his birthday and he bought me lunch on my birthday. This year, we broke tradition. Although he wanted to pay, I beat him to the machine with my card. It's been a few years since we got together, so I wanted to buy. He's going to buy me lunch later this month. These guys were my engineers when I managed the Fire tablet localization.

Gift from my son and his girlfriend. My son was very surprised when I told him that I didn't have the NES. Well, I fixed that a few days later. I bought a NES top loader. It's been sent to get the RGB mod, so I'll show it off when I get it back in a few weeks.

Home-made candles were gifted to me from a church friend. I don't think my photo does it justice--it's very beautiful and very fragrant.

Some guy came into work after we closed and started filming me 😞

Some guy came into work after we closed and started filming me 😞

It's been a busy stretch outside of gaming; I'm fortunate to have submitted for the Squad Challenge. Tonight's show has been postponed to next Wednesday, April 19.

I just finished watching the first episode of The Sandman on Netflix, and my reaction is simply 😮 

I’ve heard of the greatness that is Neil Gaiman and his work The Sandman. However, the descriptions of it being some sort of horror was off putting as I’m not a fan of the horror genre.  As I looked at the thumbnail in Netflix though, it looked more like a dark fantasy in a dream setting more so than horror. Still even then, I’m not a big fan of dream settings, and I prefer something more tangibly grounded.

Nevertheless, something compelled me to give it a try tonight, and OMG this is amazing. The premise and the story are absolutely brilliant. The first episode moved at a rapid pace to set up the world and the characters. The characters and the scenes looked beautiful. It was simply a delight and I look forward to the remaining ten episodes.

🤔 Idk about you but I can’t remember the last time I animated a .gif

OG Doom, how I have missed thee ❤️ 

I recently picked up Doom from the eShop because it was on sale, and I’ve been playing it the past couple of days. I have the various Doom releases on multi-gen Xbox and Playstation consoles, but it was this release for the Switch that got me to play the original Doom once more. I hadn’t touched it since I played it during my college days thirty years ago (with the lights on, of course).

Still fun as I remembered it. Still gets me once in a while with a jump scare 😂 It feels a little weird playing with the Hori split pad pro on the Switch. I think it’s the thumb sticks being so far apart. Maybe I should open the Pro controller still in the box. I heard recently that the Switch now supports keyboard and mouse? I probably won’t go that far to replicate the original controller experience, but it was just a passing thought.

Graphics look good with none of the slow downs like when I played on my Northgate 386/33 and later the Cassiopeia Pocket PC. Sound effects sound right, but the music? Maybe it’s just my memory or I’m confusing the music from later Doom games.

No matter — hail to the King, baby! Oops, wrong game, but this is The One that got us super stoked about graphic card upgrades and defined a whole new genre of games called FPS.

Hear me out, Santa deniers: if Santa isn’t real, why do the presents you get on Christmas say “From: Santa” on them? It just doesn’t add up…