RickR

Ooh!

I'm starting to get the hang of it.  These two knobs turned out really well, with a nice glossy/smooth finish on the top.  

Thought of you today @RickR! Hope Mrs. R's journey has been a safe and productive one and all is going smoothly ☺️

Appreciated. She is on a plane home now. Success, a difficult task almost complete. 

I'm glad it went well! I'm sure you'll be happy to have her home 🙂

Really nice example, Rick! 

I plan on going through all the games on this machine one at a time.

Bad Dudes is a lot of fun!  I really like when you get the nunchucks as it gets easier to take down groups of bad guys.

What I don't like is the dogs!  They are really difficult to deal with and you are guaranteed to lose a few health points.  Plus, I'm not a fan of hitting/killing dogs! 

I played for about an hour last night and really enjoyed it.

Whatcha playing on the GC emu? I bought a GC several years ago and have a small library but haven't played it much. 

It's a harmless hobby really.  They don't take up much room, and only $1 if you find something you like.  I also am one that opens the packaging and puts the cars on the shelf. 

I will open duplicates sometimes.  And I already see an unopened case of HW cars in my future Wife found a 24-car case cheap she's been hounding me about.

I agree about it being a harmless hobby.  When I was working in at a die casting plant making good money I would actually buy a case of HW cars from Wal-Mart with every pay check.  I only had to give a small portion to my grandmother for bills the rest was free game.  I spent more on HW than video games and any duplicates I held on to for trade or selling to other collectors.

I'm once again finding myself hitting the HW section every time I go to Wal-Mart.  We don't have a Target locally so it's either Dollar General, Dollartree, Walgreens (over a $1 per car there, though), or Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart has the biggest pile of course but they also poured them in a metal bin.  Next time we go I'm going to have to take two carts with me.  One to hold the cars we want, the other just to move the other cars out of the way.

Hey, that looks much nicer.  I'm going to use it.  Thanks!

How'd you like the game, Rick?

I literally dusted off the PSP and DSi a few days ago. I had to buy a new battery for the PSP, but otherwise, everything works. I picked up a bunch of DS and PSP games recently. I don't know why, but Sony's recent announcement about the closure of the PS3 and Vita e-shops motivated me to reconnect with my old handhelds (which I rarely used to begin with).

The DSi belonged to my older son, but he never used it and was content with his DS Lite (which he keeps on his desk to this day).

It's fantastic.  It's as good as game #1 in the series (I think there are 3?)  But I haven't made it very far yet.

I have a background in AR/VR and we studied this game in particular in 2005. I think it was one of the strongest titles for Virtual Boy and I agree TOTALLY that it was a very effective use of 3D. Sometimes going back to simple ideas give the best results in new worlds of AR and VR.

I loved the Virtual Boy!  Mario Tennis and Galactic Pinball were my faves.

I think the Virtual Boy and Vectrex are my favorite things in my collection.  Probably because they are so unique and it's not easy to emulate them well.

The very first VB game I ever played was "Nestor's Funky Bowling" at a retro gaming exhibit probably 15+ years ago.  It was at a science museum.  I was so impressed with the 3D effect and the sharpness of the graphics (even though they are only red/black).  I bought a system right away after that and have loved it ever since.  

I have always believed that if Nintendo had named it "3D Boy" instead of "Virtual Boy", they may have found more success.  

I love the SMS.  The NES ruled the roost but Sega was arcade masters and the SMS did not disappoint in that department.  And while some say the sports games on the SMS were not that good I found enjoyment in Great Football.

The SMS was graphically superior to the NES. Granted. But, Sega needed a better marketing campaign for the SMS. That was the problem, I heard.

I think Nintendo was too much of a juggernaut with the NES to ever be challenged by the SMS or 7800.  Love them or hate them, their control of the software was a savvy business move. 

If you guys need any advice converting your analog videos into digital, let me know. I've done that before too.  There are many ways to do it, but I found the easiest for me was to feed the 8mm or VHS output to a MiniDV camcorder.  Record onto MiniDV tape, and then transfer from MiniDV to a computer over firewire.  The quality doing it this way is excellent, but it is time consuming. 

What's cool is that once you get it onto a computer, it's easy enough to edit, chop it up how you like, or add music and star wipes. 

How much did your film scanner cost you? I wouldn't mind doing something like that myself. Someday, anyway.

The movie/film scanners aren't cheap.  New, they are about $300.  Used, well $200 is the most you should pay IMO.  This one was less, but had missing parts.

Most of the conversion companies charge by the foot of film.  That makes it hard to estimate.  Plus shipping film back and forth both ways. 

OH!  And the fitbit smartwatch has also been a huge help.  See?  Old dogs CAN learn new tricks.   

I think I am inspired to get myself a jump rope now!

That's nice WFH became a permanent option. The company I work for has gone back and forth about returning to the office. There was a set date this month but it was cancelled. I am now required to work in the office just one day a week, personally I love WFH so I am happy I only have to go in one day!

Yeah, I'm grateful.  My supervisor is on the other end of the country and essentially says "I don't care where you work as long as you get your work done".   That and the private executive washroom @ WFH. 

@RickR "Cutting that tie?"  How would I ever make it through the day without calling into Atari.io at least once a day?  

I tells ya, life can really slow down if you give up the internet for a week.  I read books, played gameboy, walked a lot, swam, and had very much fun. 

Seriously, I'd suffer from major withdrawal symptoms.  

GO BLUE!

Interesting piece of tech there. Never heard of it either.

Never seen this one before. 16K with a built-in tape drive! Neat stuff.

You think so?  Let me consider that. 

@RickR Absolutely! Maybe even a multi-part blog entry 🙂

One of my favorite games ever! I usually play trough it at least one time a year. 

Yo Rick. I think I might take the AT Games Sega off your hands. Does it use hdmi or just a/v?

Just AV.  I'll private message you. 

Cool Aquarius! That's not the most common thing to have! I hope you do well in your sale @RickR, good luck 🙂

@RickR That might make a cool blog entry one day, what is the Aquarius like? Does it feel that different from an Intellivision?

Maybe I will, that's a good idea.  But AFTER the sale :) 

I used to stay with a former Atari colleague of mine who had a place in Cal-Neva, a cool little resort village right on the state line between California and Nevada. The state line ran right through the swimming pool and the clubhouse. On one side there was gambling, on the other side there was no smoking. Pretty interesting!

Enjoy your trip Rick! ☺️

I have Never been, but Nevada is a place I’d love to visit! It has always interested me. Plus, Vegas would be fun to check out 😄

I don't know what's more blasphemous, it being a Take-n-Bake pizza or the pineapple. Jk.😉

Still coming back to this and thinking this is the perfect night 🕹️🍕

That sounds good! Today (and Monday) are my work from home days now, so once I sign off of work I may do some of the same things. Really need to get caught up on Christmas shopping and decorating!!

That all sounds like a nice day @RickR I hope you have fun today, have a great time decorating, and thank you for sharing a slice of your day with us ☺️

So...is it fun?

It is fun.  It's very reminiscent of the old PC adventure games.  Objects to find and puzzles to solve before you get the next section of the story.  And the choices you make do seem to impact which way the story goes. 

I hear Portland is cold af

Yeah man.  We were in a deep freeze for about a week. 

Absolutely beautiful