For those who have been living in a hole / cave / maximum security jail cell OR otherwise been living offline for about decade & the first place you visited in my little black hole call NESlog... YOU'VE SERIOUSLY MISSED OUT ON SOME GREAT GAMING! Bejewled was created by Pop Cap as a match-3 game that game all the rage in the early 2000. Following their success, they released Bejeweled 2 in 2004 that expanded on the original by adding power gems. It was later succeeded by Bejeweled Twist (2008) & Bejeweled Blitz (2010).

The gameplay of Bejeweled 2 is very simple. Just select a gem & swap it with a nearby one in the cardinal 4 directions to make a line of 3 or more gems to clear them from the board. Clearing 4 in a row (or clearing in an L or T-shape) makes a power gem that explodes & destroys all nearby gems when cleared. Clearing 5 in a row makes a hypercube that allows you to destroy all the gems that you swap with the hypercube. You pretty much just keep playing until you run out of moves. Bejeweled 2 comes with 4 game modes: Classic (untimed), Action (timed), Puzzle & Endless (great for those who want to relax). UNFORTUNATELY, Pop Cap decided to cut corners with their WiiWare development by dropping all the unlockable (like Hyper & Twilight) & hidden (like the original Bejeweled) game modes that made the PC version great! I know that the unlockable game modes are missing since I've surpassed the unlocking thresholds for them.

Graphics are a clean as ever. While usage of the Mii's are a nice touch, it's nothing more than a novelty thing. Music is very good, but has been modified a bit from the PC original. The controls are excellent & HIGHLY FLEXIBLE as you can switch between control styles on the fly, but you'll most likely want to stick with the Wiimote only options as the vertical orientation is the most user-friendly option with the point-n-click controlls. However, whenever your arm gets tired, you can easily flip to horizontal orientation & use the control pad to move the on-screen cursor that appears & use 2 to make your swaps without having to pause the game. The only complaint I have with the controls is that they can periodically be a little too sensitive & cause some bad moves, which can hurt you in action mode. However, this is only a minor complaint as I sometimes get ahead of the game while the gems are falling.

FINAL VERDICT: Buy with SERIOUS Reservations -- While it's like THE puzzle game of the 2000's (like Tetris was THE puzzle game of the 1990's), it's available on practically EVERY GAMING PLATFORM AVAILABLE! Pop Cap made a fashionably late entrance with the WiiWare version, you may not be inclined to buy this version when you have the PC, DS, DSiWare, iPod, iTouch/iPhone, iPad, XBox 360, Plug-n-Play TV &/or Mobile versions. The other major reservation is the lack of the unlockable extras, which made the PC version even better, which gives you a basic "light" version of the game. If the price was set to $5 (DSiWare price) instead of $10 (PC price), it would have countered my reservations. HOWEVER, if your a fan of the game, you're going to buy it regardless of my recommendation.

In short, if already have another version of the game... you can probably resist the temptation here. Otherwise, go ahead & buy it so you won't have to fight others (Friends, Siblings, Parents, or even your Grandparents) to play the game.

Posted by TStodden at 6:33 PM CDT

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It's roughly 1:24 AM CDT & it's time once again for Too Damn Late!

WARNING: Too Damn Late is not written in front of a live studio audience. Since it's written after midnight, the contents in here are uncensored by anybody as an act of first amendment rights. Therefore, if you are easily offended by swear words or outrageous thoughts, STOP READING THIS BLOG ENTRY NOW!!! I don't want to hear any complaints from anybody because you read this with ample warning. I don't like writing these warnings, but I do so to protect myself here. By reading beyond this warning, you hereby consent to such adult content. VIEWER DESCRETION IS ADVISED!

Despite the storms that have past through a few hours ago (when this was written) that have now died down, there's one thing that I'm finding totally ridiculous here: Microsoft advertising Internet Explorer 8 on TV.

Microsoft is advertising IE on TV with a "Fake Bank" ad where people are giving away practically every piece of their personal information to a rediculous level (would anybody actually care if you're wearing boxers or briefs? Unless your a girlfriend or a wife... I'm guessing the interest level is practically 0.000%) to open an account which they give you $500. While I am aware that Microsoft is trying to bring a parallel of scams from online to the real world here, but really... do they really need to?

First of all, anybody with HALF A BRAIN would be perfectly aware that you can't get free money without some type of string attached to it. Pay Pal originally gave away $5 with new accounts, but you had to deposit $50 into your account. If all you had to do in order to score $500 is to fill out some paperwork, the bank would be going into the red so fast that it probably would qualify for a federal bailout. The other issue is the rediculous level of information requested in the fake bank's paperwork. Most banks & credit unions only ask for your name, address, social security number (for tax reasons) & a minimum deposit (usually between $5 & $100 for savings). They wouldn't ask for your pet's name, undergarment choices or a hair sample (for DNA). The same thing tends to be standard for online banking. The only exception is Pay Pal as they don't require any deposits, but they want you to link a bank account (or a credit card) to your account for transfers. Pretty much anybody who had any common sense would catch on to the obvious scams.

Second of all, nearly ALL BROWSERS have some type of anti-scam measures in place. Usually these are in-place by default when you install them. Most browsers except for IE utilize Google's "Blacklist" to protect & warn users about questionable websites. Microsoft does it's own thing & doesn't utilize public blacklists, so they're doing things the hard way. It could be protecting you, but it could be doing better. I know that Firefox gives you a big-ass warning page with a big red box with a warning message on a black (or heavily darkened) background. HOWEVER, this protective measure can be disabled by true idiots (those born without a brain stem, which I know a good number of... a couple, I had to rescue their sorry asses from their own idiotic actions)... & trust me, I know a few idiots that would be dumb enough to do this (as well as go online without an anti-virus program).

Third, Internet Explorer doesn't have the add-on support that other browsers have... especially where security is concerned. Firefox & Chrome allow you to pick up add-ons like NoScript (which prevents sites running scripts on your browser WITHOUT your permission, which can help prevent hackers from attacking you) & Ad Block Plus (which blocks ads from websites, which doesn't necessarily prevent hacker attacks, but block spyware tracking ad servers) which adds a "Paranoia Level" of protection. Explorer doesn't have this... or at least to the point I'm willing to cough up $20 for such support (at the last time I actually bothered to check). Even if I have to work on a computer without an anti-virus program (which I'd work quickly to remedy & seriously give the computer owner a talking to in the process), NoScript would give me some protection against the unknown. Even if the site that I was visiting included a poisoned script from an outside server, NoScript would protect me as it wouldn't have permission to run.

Finally, NO BROWSERS ADVERTISE OFFLINE!!! Firefox doesn't advertise offline, except for some public stunts done by people... but they have practically no advertising budget, yet they get people through word-of-mouth advertising. Chrome, while created by Google, does no offline advertising either. However, Google does a lot of shameless plugs on their network & sites, but their browser is pretty solid & a bit open-ended (not fully open-source like Firefox, but it gives users & developers a lot of freedom). Even Opera, one of the few ancient (by today's standards, originally released around 1995) & originally commercial browsers (it's now available freely for computers, but they may charge for special mobile versions) doesn't advertise offline either... or at least in the US (as it's origins are in Europe... around the Norway / Finland area). While I must note that Netscape (Firefox's spiritual predicessor) did advertise offline, but they were promoting their ISP services & throwing in their browser... or at least until AOL (who owns Netscape) officially killed the browser to leave it's spiritual successor, Firefox (as both were originally created by Mozilla) to live on. Apple doesn't even advertise it's own browser Safari offline, or at least without an iPod, iPhone, iPad or iMac running it. While they're showing Safari, they're mainly advertising their hardware & NOT the software.

This kind of advertising idiocy tends to be Microsoft's Standard policy to problems: Throw money at the problem & hope it goes away. Problems with Windows ME? Throw Money at it! Problems with XBox 360's dying? Throw Money at it (by replacing people's systems)! Bad Press with Vista? Throw Money at it with advertising instead of dedicating that money towards improving Vista (or expediting the development of Windows 7). It's just an obvious thing that Microsoft does that even Apple made a jab at it with one of their "PC-Mac" commercials. If practically everybody is dissing your product, trying to generate buzz with advertising isn't really going to work... or at least with the reasonable smart people (those who generally don't get themselves into trouble with scams & phishing attacks). If it's a flop, you're just better off improving the product OR JUST LET THE THING DIE!

If Microsoft worked a bit harder on quality instead of market share, a fair number of people (mostly Mac & Linux users) wouldn't be dissing them on a near-daily basis. Until Apple gets off their pretentious asses & permit other computer makers to run their OS (& therefore, make Mac OS X more accessible to people) & until Linux gets relaxes their security measures a bit to increase user-friendliness (to the point that you don't need a degree in rocket surgery to install a simple outside application), I'm begrudgingly forced to use MS Windows to fire off my rants. I know you may brand me a hypocrite for using a MS product to diss MS themselves... but until something truely better as an OS comes up, I'm stuck here.

It's now 2:55 AM... I'm off to bed.

Posted by TStodden at 12:01 AM CDT

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It's been 15 years since the Mega Man series departed from the NES era, but Capcom for some reason decided to return to it's 8-bit roots it 21st anniversary in 2008 with Mega Man 9! While the game is available for all modern platforms, I reviewing the WiiWare version... just because I have a Wii.

While it's been about 20 years since I last played one of the original Mega Man games (the last one I remember playing was Mega Man III), I can say this: Capcom has NOT lost their touch when they made this contraversial decision to go totally retro on practically all aspects of the game! The only "new" things added to the classic formula are save files (since the turn of the millenium & replaced the old password system), online support & Premium Downloadable Content.

For those who've played any of the old Mega Man games on the NES, then prepare to relive your childhood for a bit. The guy's at Penny Arcade perfectly sumerize the experience with their strip "Kid Games". The experience is that strong! I will warn you that Capcom holds no punches & will use nearly EVERY CHEAP SHOT known to frustrate you. So you'll either need to be a masochistic or a VERY PERSISTENT gamer (however, being both doesn't hurt).

For those who are new to the ORIGINAL Mega Man series or haven't kept up, here's the gist... The futuristic world (sometime in the 21st century), there are robots that are designed to handle nearly every job so that humans can be safer & live better lives. The most famous robot designer is Dr. Thomas Light, who created two special robots to be companions: a male robot named Rock & a female robot named Roll. HOWEVER, around a rival designer named Dr. Wiley has more sinster aspirations... namely World Domination. In order to defeat Dr. Wiley & save the world, Dr. Light has modified Rock to become a defender who would be known as "Mega Man". In Mega Man 9, some of the Robots that Dr. Light designed has suddenly turned against human. Dr. Wiley leaks a report to the press WITH a bit of video tape that villanize Dr. Light. Dr. Wiley claims that he can save the world from these revolting robots & the plans of Dr. Light with the donations of the public to his Swiss Bank account. Mega Man decides to investigate into the matter himself as he doesn't buy into Dr. Wiley's outrageous claims, considering his past track record, & tries to clear Dr. Light's good name.

When you actually start the game (by selecting "start game" from the game menu), you'll be presented with stage select screen with 8 different robots that you must defeat. While you can choose the order in which you attempt the stages, the secret is trying to find the optimum order since each robot you defeat gives you a special weapon & each robot has different strengths & weaknesses. Each stage themselves have different obstacles that you have to face as well. As you complete the stages, the storyline will unfold. Once you defeate all 8 robots, you'll open up the final stage, which is comprised of 4 stage parts. As already warned you before, all the old school cheap shots are unleashed upon a new generation of unexpecting gamers. Cheap shots like enemies coming out of the hole that you were planning to jump over for starters. Tricky jumps & those annoying block-jumping patterns over a cavernous void or a pit of insta-death spikes that the series is famous for inflicting upon players. There are also a few new cheap shots added, just to keep you on your guard.

Mega Man 9 does take a step back by removing the slide move (introduced in Mega Man 3) & Mega Buster Charger (introduced in Mega Man 4), but they added an item shop. Players now collect screws while they play through the stages that they can exchange for helpful items like Energy Tanks & single-use,anti-insta-death items that can help players get through some of the frustratingly difficult areas. While obtaining screws isn't easy, they do carry over from stage to stage & from game to game (assuming you save). While hardcore Mega Man players may scoff at the item shop, lesser experienced players will want to utilize it to help make the game a little more bearable to play.

The graphics & the music, while totally 8-bit old school, is practically perfect for the game. Capcom has even included the "legacy graphics" option, which truely emulates the original NES by having some of graphics flicker as the system tried to keep up with the action. While it's a nice idea, I prefer to keep it disabled just because it's a legacy of a bygone era that will likely annoy more modern gamers as the game isn't taxing the system's processor. Gameplay is SPOT ON to a fault. While you'll need to hold onto the Wiimote like a NES controller, the controls are responsive just like the old NES games. However, this can be a drawback in some situations where you need to be precise with your movements... but that's normal for the Mega Man series & you'll pay dearly for your mistakes.

The gameplay is the same quality & difficulty of the NES Era games. What the main game lacks in quantity (with only 13 stages), it makes up for with challenging difficulty that gamers use to pay $30-$50 for. However, the premium DLC helps extends the game for very reasonable prices. There's Hero (Hard) & Super Hero (Very Hard) modes that are guarenteed to serve your ass on a silver platter in half the time. There's Endless & Time Attack modes for those who like to see how far they can go or how fast they can complete a challenge. However, the best buy for DLC is Proto Man mode, where you get to play the game as Proto Man. The main difference between the normal game & Proto Man mode is that Proto Man has a shield (which he used while he jumps) & slide, but Proto Man takes more damage than Mega Man & you don't have the item shop to help you. Since this is a "modern" game release, it wouldn't be totally complete (or at least for XBox 360 users) if it didn't have an achievements list to keep players coming back. I know it's a cheap trick to extend gameplay, but there are some achievement whores out there that will try to obtain every single achievement in the game for bragging rights.

FINAL VERDICT: BUY IT!!! -- If it was released during the NES era, people would be spending $50 on this game that you can buy for only $10! While the overall price would be closer to $20 after buying all the premium DLC, but that's still a great value for a game that will challenge practically everybody! This is as about as close as kids will get to the games that their parents grew up with WITHOUT actually pulling out the old consoles (or buying the Virtual Console version).

Posted by TStodden at 5:09 PM CDT

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For those who actually FOLLOWS my blog (the whole 2 of you that I haven't actually alienated), I do apologize for my the lapse in blog entries. I could explain how life kept me too busy to actually keep writing blogs, but I'm not going to give you the whole song & dance BS that typically follows with such relaunches.

Here's what you missed in my life since my last update...

1) Visited the dentist... have to schedule to get my wisdom teeth (& $1500 from my wallet) removed. yea! (//end sarcasm)

2) I got into an an elite community during their open invite period (as the owner was trying to raise activity on his site). It's pretty unique as it utilizes more of a command-line interface than the traditional GUI interface that most people are familiar with. The owner isn't that bad, but he DEFINATELY has issues with Explorer (by actually preventing users from getting on the boards through it).

3) Blew a small fortune on WiiWare & Virtual Console titles for my birthday. I got a good collection of titles (with a few POS purchases due to family-forced purchases) clogging up my SD card. -- It'll help generate some blog entries.

4) My older brother got married about 2 weeks ago (NOT on my birthday), mostly to get it out of the way before he gets shipped out. While it's his 2nd marriage, he's really found a great lady to be with that's in tune with him.

5) I just picked up a Google Voice number (with the assistance of a fellow user, who kindly sent me an invite). Now, I can reduce my phone costs... once I get a good cell plan (it maybe time to change carriers, something with a calling circle that I can exploit).

That should get you up-to-date here...

For the WiiWare & Virtual Console reviews, I'll be using a simple "Buy / Skip" system... mostly because that's what you're mostly likely ready the reviews for: a recommendation. There's only 3 verdicts you'll see:

* BUY IT! -- The game being reviewed is a solid choice that the majority of gamers will enjoy. There may be a few issues, but no deal breakers.

* Buy it with Reservations -- The game being reviewed is pretty good, but there's some issues (potential deal breakers) with the game or something that a fair number of gamers may not enjoy.

* SKIP IT! -- The game being reviewed is probably something that you'll want to pass on as there's usually some major issues with it (likely deal breakers) or it caters to a small group of gamers. Unless it's something that may interest you, save your money for other stuff.

It may not be a perfect system, but it's pretty good on a "human level" that some rating systems (like the 5-point or even the standard 10-point system) tends to lose some subjective appeal for objectivity.

That's all I have for now... stick around for more...

Posted by TStodden at 5:09 PM CDT

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With all the stuff online, there are just some times when you want to play a game on your computer without having spending an arm & a leg OR having to deal with DRM restrictions that are worse than a jail sentence. Here's a list of games that I've found online that you can enjoy on your computer without having to whip out your wallet or comply with DRM crap.

Please be aware that this is only a TASTE of what's out there & what's listed here are consider gems amongst the usual crap that most people tend to find without resorting to questionable methods. Any strings that may be attached to such downloads on this list are fully disclosed

1) Grand Theft Auto / 2
Website: www.RockStarGames.com/classics
Download Size: ~350 MB's each
Valid E-mail Address Required!

About 10 years after the release of Grand Theft Auto & Grand Theft Auto 2 for PC, Rockstar decided to allow the fans of their game (with the success of the Grand Theft Auto 3 series) to enjoy their original hits. Grand Theft Auto & Grand Theft Auto 2 have been updated to work in Windows XP without a disc (hence the large download size). They're complete with a manual (PDF format) & can be enjoyed without you spending a dime.

There is a catch to getting your hands on these titles. You'll need to fill out their forum WITH a valid e-mail address for two reasons. First, to ensure that you're at least 18 or older to download these games (as they're still rated "M" by the ESRB). Second, download links are tied to your e-mail address to restrict unauthorized downloads so that other websites can't overload their server. Despite this one string, it's still pretty painless for free commerical games & Rockstar Games will not spam you, so there's no headaches here.

2) King's Quest I / II
Website: www.AGDInteractive.com
Download Size: ~102 / ~321 MB's respectively

King's Quest series originated back in 1984 (that's 26 years ago) that was a challenging, but interesting game. Years later, A group of gamers started to remake the game back in 2001 under a fan license by Sierra Online. The remake where professionally done updated graphics, sounds & make it playable on current systems while maintaining the spirit of the game.

King's Quest I remake now features a "No Dead-Ends" option (as of version 4.0), which is better suited for newer players as it prevents players from running into dead-ends & making the game impossible to complete. This option was added mostly to make the game enjoyable for everybody as some players can get so frustrated that they can't finish the game because they pushed a boulder the wrong direction roughly 2 hours ago (for example). Purists can still play the game with this option disabled, so everybody can enjoy the game.

King's Quest II remake has similar updates, but doesn't feature the "No Dead-Ends" option (as of version 3.0). However, you'll most likely want to complete King's Quest I before starting King's Quest II for storyline continuity.

These games are available freely for download from the developer's website.

3) Maniac Mansion Deluxe
Website: None Available...
Download Size: ~6.5 MB's

Yes, it's another fan-remake of an old game, but the people who made it took care in updating the game. The game graphics mostly received a new coat of paint (mostly touch-ups from NES-era), updated music & sounds & a new game engine that'll work on modern systems. Other than that, the game works about the same as the original.

This isn't as professional than other fan remakes, but it's still one game that you can enjoy considering this one has multiple endings... which is a bit unusual for an old game.

4) Good Old Games -- Free Titles
Website: www.GOG.com
User Registration Required
Available Titles:

• Beneath a Steel Sky -- ~72 MB's Download
• Lure of the Temptress -- ~12 MB's Download
• Teen Agent -- ~8 MB's Download

Good Old Games is primarily a commercial game site that sells old PC games that have been updated to work on current systems without the disc. They vary their update support from basic workarounds (like using DOS Box with the original files) to more elaborate methods, but they guarentee that you can play the games on your system. While they normally charge around $3 to $10 per title, the three games listed are free to download & enjoy.

As Good Old Games is a commercial site, you will need to register an account & technically "Purchase" these titles to your account before you can download them. This is considered a minor issue as Good Old Games does occasionally send e-mails about sales they're having (which you can opt out of in your account), but you're getting the games for free & WITHOUT ANY DRM CRAP! The only catch is that you'll need to login to their site to download the games & any extra related content (manuals, guides, ect), but you can download any purchased titles as many times as you like from any computer.

5) SCUMM VM -- Free Titles
Website: www.SCUMMVM.com
Download Size: 3.5 MB for Core, plus titles
Available Titles:

• Flight of the Amazon Queen -- ~50 MB's Download
• Drascula: The Vampire Strikes Back -- ~32 MB's Download

SCUMM VM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion Virtual Machine) is a specialized emulator that allows you to run various point-n-click adventures that ran practically on the same engine (SCUMM). SCUMM VM uses the original game files, but runs the updated core so you can enjoy them on your system.

The developers of SCUMM VM have managed to secure the rights to 2 games that their program supports. While SCUMM VM & the game titles are a separate download, it's fairly easy to set up & run.

6) NetHack
Website: www.NetHack.org
Download Size: ~2 MB's + 0.2 MB's for Tile Pack

It's old, it's small & one of the most frustratingly difficult games of all times... but it's ABSOLUTELY FREE!

NetHack is an old Rogue-like RPG that slowly evolved over the years while remaining true to it's roots. While there's many variations & styles of this game, this is the hardcore game for hardcore gamers. It should take you about 2 years to properly finish the game, if you want to take that challenge.

For those who don't like the ASCII graphics should pick up the tile pack, which is a separate download, but makes the game much easier to view if you don't have a good imagination.

7) Secret Maryo Chronicles
Website: www.secretmaryo.com
Download Size: ~54 MB's + ~35 MB's for optional music

This is an open-source clone of Super Mario Brothers series, but the character names & artwork have been modified to comply with copyright laws. There's really no time limits to the stages, so you can take your time to explore each state. It includes it's own level editor, so you can make your stages (or recreate classic SMB stages) to enjoy.

The Music package is optional, but helps improve the experience of the game.

While I know that there's Super Tux out there, Super Tux is a bit more Linux flavor & doesn't seem to have the quality or options that Secret Maryo Chronicles tends to offer.

8) Simon Tatham's Puzzle Collection
Website: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/
Download Size: ~2.2 MB's for the entire collection or 0.15 MB's a piece

Simon Tatham's Puzzle Collection is a group of puzzle games that are designed to make you think a bit. While the interface is plain & simple, the challenges presented can be frustrating hard. All the puzzles are available freely & you can choose to download them separately or go with the entire group WITH the help file.

Popular puzzles like Black Box, Sudoku, Picross (called Patterns) & Mastermind (called Guess) are available. They're small in size, but big on entertainment & anti-productivity.

9) Atomic Tanks
Website: atanks.sourceforge.net
Download Size: ~3.2 MB's

Atomic Tanks is the open-source clone of Scorched Earth. It has many of the features of Scorched Earth, but it's updated to work on modern systems.

10) Scorched Earth 3D
Website: www.scorched3d.co.uk
Download Size: ~47 MB's

Scorched Earth 3D is the 3D version the classic game Scorched Earth. It has many of the options of Scorched Earth, but now in 3D! There's also mods that you can pick up to add more variety to the game. Online multiplayer support is included, but you'll either have to provide your own server or find a server to connect to.

11) Cave Story
Website: www.gameflaws.com/cavestory
Download Size: ~1.5 MB's for Basic, ~42 MB's for Deluxe
NOTE: Website listed is a Tribute site & NOT the official website, but it's easier to navigate than the original.

Cave Story is one game that actually made the jump from Cult PC hit to an actual WiiWare title. While you can spend the $12 (1200 NP's) on the WiiWare version, you can enjoy the original PC version of the game for free!

Before you balk at the difference in the download size, please note that the Basic package is just the game & the english patch while the Deluxe package contains the game (pre-patched) as well as other extras that are related to the game. While the extras may not be necessary, it does help flesh it out & gives you some icons to make it easy to play the game (as the basic package doesn't give you those... you have to make them yourself).

12) Stepmania
Website: www.stepmania.com
Download Size: ~10 MB's for core, extras downloads required... available separately

For those who love Dance Dance Revolution or In The Groove most likely have heard of it's Open Source cousin. Stepmania is THE PC simulator for the DDR / ITG series as you can play all the original songs (assuming you can find a place to download them) as well as try out some more independant songs created by others.

You'll need a pretty good computer to utilize all the bells & whistles as well as a few DDR pads (or modified PC controllers) for maximum enjoyment, but it's hard to find something that's free & has a community to keep content flowing.

13) Frets On Fire
Website: FretsOnFire.sourceforge.net
Download Size: ~33 MB's for core, extras downloads required... available separately

For those who prefer to rock instead of dance, we have you covered with the open source version of Guitar Hero called Frets on Fire. Frets on Fire does include a song importer utility program so you can pull the songs from the PS2 versions of Guitar Hero & import them into Frets on Fire (may want to do this overnight for each disc, as it's pretty time consuming), however, you may find it easier just to download the songs. The core program does include a tutorial & 3 unique songs to get started. You can find official Guitar Hero & Rock Band songs to download online, if you want to go that route, but there are some unique songs that can challenge you as well.

While you'll most likely need to get a Guitar Hero controller OR a gaming-quality keyboard (to support multiple key-presses, especially with 3-fret cords) & there's more manual work involved installing new songs, but it's still a very good game to enjoy!

14) PokerTH
Website: www.pokerth.net
Download Size: ~17 MB's

PokerTH is a Texas Hold 'em program for those who don't want to register on those Poker sites or prefer to play more privately with friends (or by yourself). The game supports up to 10 players, but only 7 online (at last check), table bankrolls up to $1,000,000 & is completely free to use without having to register for anything. The makers of the game designed it to work with Netbook screens (1024 x 600) so you can enjoy it practically where you want.

You may not play with the professional poker players through PokerTH, but you never have to worry about spam in your inbox or having to worry about procuring an in-network bankroll that the more professional sites tends to enforce in order to keep the newer (& weaker) players from joining. Just sit down at a table & play.

This should keep you gaming without having to spend a single cent on them... except for your internet connection, which you're already paying for. Anyways, I hope you enjoy these!

Posted by TStodden at 3:52 PM CDT

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It's another saturday & it's time once again for another Weekly Grounds.

Probably the best phrase to sum up this week would be "Brain Rot" with the mix of mind-numbing productivity & the fun, addicting anti-productivity that's occurred this week. My Sister-in-Law scored a copy of Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii) left it with me to enjoy. I'm also borrowing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii) from my brother to play when I can't really do anything in City Folk. Just to top off my gaming plate, Pop Cap just HAD to release the PC version of Bejeweled Blitz to top the cake.

Work is going reasonably well... the mountain of submissions that originally sat on my desk roughly 2-3 feet tall is now down to 1 DVD & 2 VHS tapes. Despite the slow decrease in submissions to verify, there's a growing backlog of submissions to post. The main reason behind this is that I'm not online as much as I probably should & the majority of the posting backlog are manual submissions in a game that has around 300 variations, so it takes about 1-2 minutes to scan through the list (sometimes up to 4 times) to find the right variation on it. Not only does it hurt the eyes, it really drags down any person's mood. Keep it up & I might have to look for employment with the Vogons (trust me, that's NOT a good thing). This is probably why I'm resorting to the games, as an escape from the tedium.

The biggest escape would be Bejeweled Blitz as it's practically the gaming version of crack... maybe not crack, but like a big bowl of Skittles or your preferred type of bite-size candy. Each game is only 1 minute long (hence the "Blitz"), BUT it's so addictive that you'll likely play 3, 5 or 100 times (on the extreme side) with the running mentality, "Just one more game, it's only a minute!" It's that logical pitfall that tends to eat up so much time & drives the gameplay average to roughly a million per day... or roughly 2 collected human years wasted play this game worldwide (NOTE: 525,600 minutes = 1 standard year... so 1,051,200 game plays = 2 years)! Bejeweled Blitz has been available with Bejeweled 2 on iPhone / iTouch & they just got around to making the offline version for PC & Mac. The PC version is just as addictive, but full screen & no annoying Facebook ads (assuming you're not blocking them). Just make sure that you meet the system requirements to enjoy the game. Otherwise, you'll suffer from framerate issues as I've tried the game out on a system that only has 66% of the requirements. If there was more RAM on the computer, it could likely power through it on minimum settings, like it does with Bejeweled Twist.

Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii) is a pleasant blend of it's predicessors. While it's mostly a remix of the other games, it has taken a lot of the positive aspects for each game to make it enjoyable. If you haven't played any of it's predecessors, you'll definately enjoy this. If you've played the original, you may have some objections with this version. If you've played Wild World, you'll probably welcome the changes... namely the return of the holidays that were lacking in the DS version.

On the D&D side, I did finally get the rough draft work done on my "Bard's Battle Axe". While it is a good idea in theory... the item is pretty much cost prohibited as the initial item cost of it is currently 8,720.00 GP. While it's running about DOUBLE the cost of a basic weapon with special materials (like Adamantite), but running in-line with magically enhanced items. The only downside is that the Bard will have to become profient with martial weapons or specialize in battle axes to avoid the -2 net attack penalty with it (as it has a +2 net attack enhancement due to contruction to offset the -4 penalty). Pretty much when you deal with spells, ESPECIALLY departing from the book becomes REALLY EXPENSIVE, REALLY FAST. Roughly 75% of the cost of the item are from the spells (where Permamency takes half the total cost).

That's all I have for this week...

Posted by TStodden at 3:16 PM CDT

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It's Midnight CDT & it's time once again for Too Damn Late!

WARNING: Too Damn Late is not written in front of a live studio audience. Since it's written after midnight, the contents in here are uncensored by anybody as an act of first ammendment rights. Therefore, if you are easily offended by swear words or outrageous thoughts, STOP READING THIS BLOG ENTRY NOW!!! I don't want to hear any complaints from anybody because you read this with ample warning. I don't writing these warnings, but I do so to protect myself here. By reading beyond this warning, you hereby consent to such adult content. VIEWER DESCRETION IS ADVISED!

As you may (or may not) be aware of, an Appeals Court has ruled against the FCC on the issue of Comcast throttling speeds of BitTorrent users. This causes a blow to Net Neutrality movement & places us one step closer to monopolistic anarchy. HOWEVER, before I start spouting off my beliefs... let's take a look at both sides of the issue.

Essentially, "Net Neutrality" is the idea that all traffic going through a specific network is treated equally, regardless of data, protocol or distance required in the transmission. Your e-mail is treated just the same as your neighbor's music download, your friend's online gameplay or your kid's video stream. Despite the different destinations for each piece of data, they're all processed in a timely fashion at the best speed available from both sides of the transmission. While ISP's still controls how fast you can upload & download data (& charging you as specified), everything is given equal attention by them. It's up to you on how to utilize your internet connection & it's up to you to decide if some programs should get more attention & bandwidth than others. Most routers now have a "Quality of Service" (QoS) setting that allows you to throttle the various transmissions on your side. This is mostly designed to allow stuff like VOIP activities (like Skype & Vonage) to take up more bandwidth on your connection & throttle your file downloads.

Those who are against Net Neutrality (like Comcast) are essentially taking away your right to manage your own connection by throttling connection speeds for a given service or protocol (like BitTorrent). While they're doing it more to balance their network loads, it also means that you can't fully utilize your connection for a service they're throttling. Their arguement is that they built the infrastructure & they want the right to manage their network however they please.

My arguement for "Net Neutrality" is that allow ISP's to throttle the connections of their customers on specific services become an extremely slipperly slope. While it may start with throttling some services like BitTorrent to balance network loads, it could later move onto throttling other services that are competing against other services that the ISP may provide. Using Comcast as an example here, they could start throttling video-on-demand services like Hulu, YouTube or Netflix in order to push their own video-on-demand service through cable. Next, if you want to use services OTHER than what they provide, they could start charging you a premium to access such services that were originally free or subscription based. Then, even if you're not on their network, if you're accessing a website that uses their network, they could charge you a fee just for visiting said site. You could get raped for $100 / month instead of the original $50 / month you pay for... on top of your online subscriptions (like XBox Live & Netflix) to fully utilize your connection. To make this even sleazier, the ISP's could charge websites like eBay, Amazon or Apple's iTunes Store to PREVENT them from throttling connections to their sites... now where did I hear something like this happening... Ah, Yes... THE MOB RUNNING A PROTECTION RACKETEERING RING! They're charging you to get unthrottled access to a website on your connection & charging the website for unthrottled access for customers on that ISP.

While I don't necessarily hate Comcast, while they do run some cable networks/channels (like G4) that I like, it's just their ISP service that is getting all the crap because they're doing stuff that seems very underhanded towards their own subscribers. With Net Neutrality, you can go anywhere & do whatever you want with your internet connection & get charged a flat rate (assuming there's no usage limit for your service, as some ISP's are metering usage... which totally bites). Without that on the books as a law, your ISP can tell you where & where you can't go online. For example, if you wanted to buy some books, they force you to use Barnes & Noble instead of Amazon & so on.

The one biggest loser in an non-neutral internet would be all the cloud services, like Google's office suite, GrooveShark (for music), BOINC (distributed processing, like SETI@HOME), YouTube, OnLive (gaming) & so on... These services can only exist on neutral internet because the data is not located in a central location. If the service relies on servers located elsewhere to store your data, you'll likely get screwed over if your ISP has control over how fast you can connect to the service... if you can connect to that service at all.

Net Neutrality is NOT Government censorship or Government control over services. It's just a measure of regulation to level the playing field for everybody from the largest corporation to the tiniest start-up. For those who state that "the Internet is just a luxury"... let's nit-pick at the framework here on a level that would seriously hurt you: ATM's & Debit / Credit Cards. They run on the same framework as the internet, while there's only a small amount of data getting transfer (say 1 KB), the ATM network has to be "net neutral" in order for transactions to reach their destinations without any problems. While the bank running the ATM & your bank may charge you a fee on the transaction, you can use any ATM in the world without having to worry about who runs the network. The same can be said with Debit & Credit Cards, but the fees are usually placed upon the company that takes the transaction instead of the person using it. If those networks were neutral, you'd likely get knocked up with fees for every network you cross. This could cost you around $5 & $10 per transaction! While this could be exaggerated a bit, it's just one example how a non-neutral network can royally screw you over.

I just believe that the internet, much like information, should be open & free. A kid using a computer at a library should have the right to access anything they want online (within reason) that a Multi-Trillionaire (say, Bill Gates or Warren Buffet... for example) can access. Websites can still charge a premium for their content if they want, but it's their choice.

That's all I have for this episode... I may right more if feel light tonight.

Posted by TStodden at 12:01 AM CDT

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Another Saturday & it's time for the weekly grounds.

Spring has FINALLY appeared around me as temperatures are between the 60's & 80's (getting up to the mid-80's on April Fool's Day). There's still traces of snow around as it's just the piles that were moved with all the sand crap that was used to deice the streets or in specifically isolated areas that are fairly well-shaded. However, it's nice that I can finally put the winter jacket away until October / November... but I'm just being optimistic that there won't be a freak blizzard striking.

As far as work is going, I'm still liquidating my brains on submissions on a daily basis. I still have 8.5 pages in my old workbook (comprising of 198 submissions) to burn through. It's not exactly the content of the submissions that are brain-numbing, it's the repetition involved as the variations submitted have an ABSOLUTE NO PAUSING rule on them. So if the player pauses during the attempt, it's automatically disqualfied until the player retries it... hence the repetition. I totally understand why the players are repeating themselves, having the same desire for perfection on certain games. It's just having to sift through 15 minutes of crap to reach the 3 minutes of gold.

As this week also had April Fool's Day, it was time to face the inevitable barrage of April Fool's Jokes. I actually ran into a few before April Fool's Day with the You Don't Know Jack series as I had to re-make all my Game Jackal profiles after a disasterous upgrade attempt. The YDKJ games ALWAYS checks your system's clock to give you a timely opener the first time you play it today as a way to keep the gameplay experience fresh. Multiply that about 7 or 8 times in one night & the joke tends to get a bit old.

This year's April Fool's Day Jokes online were a bit amusing. Think Geek's joke items were mostly professional, but a few were a little on the weak side. However, with Think Geek's track record, one of those joke items will actually become a reality. My bets would be "My First Bacon" plushie, a kiddie-toy that's geek-inspired by the bacon crazy, & the Screaming Knife, which is a knife that plays a recorded scream (or one of several pre-recorded screams, like cows, pigs & chickens). The Screaming Knife is more of a novelty thing that would fit part of their macabre subculture with the Psycho shower curtain, "The Ex" Knife holder & the "Dead Fred" pen holder. I'm actually placing the safe bet on "My First Bacon" as it likely carries more appeal.

Google got into the April Fool's Festivities by temporarily changing their name to "Topeka" for some strange reason. On YouTube, they provided "TEXTp" as a video resolution, which rendered the videos in moving, colored ASCII-art. While it was done totally as a joke, it was one that scored points for artistic design. While actual live videos didn't look flattering as ASCII-art, some videogame clips came out surprisingly FANTASTIC. While I'm not a fan of ASCII-art, mostly because where I run into it does nothing but wastes space, I can appreciate a work of art when I see it.

There were of course some late April Fool's crap... but I'm not going to bother blogging about it. To go Kotaku to find all that crap out.

The website is still a standstill as I don't have a lot of free time to develop the webpages, only the blog at this time. However, I'm toying with an idea of creating a "Bard's Battle Axe" for Dungeons & Dragons, which would be a musical instrument AND a weapon. Designed as a masterwork lute (or guitar-like instrument) that's made of ironwood (to increase strength of the instrument without losing the warmth of wood) that has a retractable blade (or two) so they can be hidden in a civil setting, but can surprise an attacker.

HOWEVER, upon doing a little quick research in the DnD books, the creation aspect is plagued with some technical pitfalls. First of all, it would have to be made out of darkwood to cut the weight of the instrument. Second, it would have to get a Druid to cast the Ironwood spell (to give it the strength of steel, but also adds to the weight), followed by a Wizard / Sorcerer to cast the Permamancy Spell on it. Then the masterwork creator would have to slip in a secret axe blade (or blades) to complete the item. It's just an idea I'm toying with, but I'll try to overcome the problems before publicizing the exact details.

On a final note, I'm pleasantly surprised that the person (or people) working on GamePro's twitter feed actually started following me. While I'm not a reader of their magazine nor their website (as I usually get my gaming information from IGN & Kotaku), I added them to my following list as a mutual measure of professional courtesy. Pretty much the main reason why I haven't keep up with GamePro is mostly due to some bad press I heard as a teen with their magazine during the Pre-Internet era. I'll likely check them out when I have some free time, but it'll just take time to patch up things.

That's all for this week's Weekly Grounds... unless there's something interesting that come up later, see you next Saturday!

Posted by TStodden at 2:58 PM CDT

Updated: Saturday, 10 April 2010 3:14 PM CDT

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For those who are wondering WTF is this bar at the bottom of the blog pages, it my newly added Meebo Bar.

Meebo is a web-based multi-IM program, so you can access all the major IM networks, a fair amount of minor IM networks & even Facebook through it.

I'm tweaking some of the features, so it's a bit basic at the moment, but will get a bit more tailored as things progress.

Feel free to check it out & see if you like it.

Posted by TStodden at 4:11 PM CDT

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I've been reading the latest issue of PC World & they mentioned some 3D desktop utility programs & I decided to give them a spin to see if they're really worth the download.

360 Desktop
Download Size: ~6.15 MB

Desktop 360 practically places your desktop in a cylinder (ring or whatnot) by using a panoramic (widescreen) desktop image. All the programs you open are attached to the cylinder, but your taskbar remains the same. You can spin around the the desktop image to keep various windows open (even maximized) without having to layer stuff.

The upside with 360 Desktop is that it gives you more desktop space, but you can only view a part of the total space that you've primarily set as your screen resolution. So if you have a lot of apps running, you'll likely be spin around a fair amount. The other downside, that annoyed the hell out of me, is that screen-docks app tend not to play well visually when you're rotating the desktop. Once you're done rotating, the app will reappear on the docked side when you place your cursor on that section.

If you don't run programs in a true full screen (like most games do by default) & don't mind rotating your desktop around, you'll probably enjoy using this.

DeskHedron
Download Size: ~150 KB

DeskHedron is a small 3D Virtual Desktop Utility that allows you to create up to 9 virtual desktops (it generates 2 by default). DeskHedron sits in your system's tray & quietly sits there until you need to use it. When you click on the DeskHedron icon (or hit Ctrl + Shift + Z), you'll pull into the 3D preview. You either use the left / right arrows or your mouse's scroll wheel to rotate through all the various virtual desktops you have. Just click or hit enter to swap to that desktop. You can right-click on the DeskHedron icon to add or remove virtual desktops (as needed) as well do a quick swap to a nearby desktop.

The upside is that this utility program is small (~340 KB), but fairly resource-friendly in small amounts (~32 MB's of RAM needed per virtual desktop). The Desktop preview & swapping effects are pretty cool effects (something like Mac OS X would do). HOWEVER, there are a few downsides I have to address. First, there's no unique icon for DeskHedron so all you see is a butt-ugly window icon in your tray. Second, only critical stuff is replicated, like wallpaper, desktop icons & any critical apps in the systems tray (namely, Volume control, USB eject, DeskHedron & surprisingly, Windowblinds). Everything else remains on the desktop it was launched on. This can be considered a mixed bag as programs that you're dependent on (like an anti-virus) must be done on your primary desktop (as those were launched at start-up). Since most programs prevent you from having multiple occurences running, you won't be able to get them on your other desktops. HOWEVER, DeskHedron can be used to secretly hide programs & other stuff that you don't want others to see... say while you're viewing your porn collection or viewing your secret documents for world domination. If it's stashed on a virtual desktop, you could just swap the desktop to hide it when other people are around & nobody would necessarily be any wiser because your desktop would look nearly identical (some things would be missing to those who look hard, depending on the amount of customization you've done). The final downside is that the desktop previews are a static image. When you go into the switcher, it takes a snapshot of your active desktop & runs with that until you select the desktop you want. So if you're putting some babysitting stuff another desktop, you'll occasionally have to visit that to refresh the information there.

For those who don't have a lot of RAM, I don't suggest running a lot of virtual desktops with this as it adds an extra instances of Explorer, which can take up between 16-32 MB's of RAM per desktop created. You won't get that RAM back until you log out or reboot your computer, since DeskHedron doesn't kill the unused instances of your desktop when you're done with them.

While this program is very rough around the edges, it's a pretty cool utility program. I just wished the makers of it would make some improvements to make it even better.

T3 Desk
Download Size: ~790 KB

T3 Desk is one utility that doesn't create virtual desktops, but actually turns your desktop into a virtual 3D space. When active, you can throw a window into the 3rd dimension when you minimize it. It says somewhat visible on the desktop, but it's not as intrusive.

While this utility does seem cool in theory, in practice, it fails. When it creates the 3D look, it takes a snapshot of the application before twisting it to the 3D look. This can cause problems with dynamic programs (like media players) as it tends to visually mess up those interfaces. The other issue is that the program messes with how Windows handles minimize requests & can actuall break traditional support while it's running... even if you tell the program NOT to go 3D with that program when you minimize it. You can try it if you want, but don't get your hopes up.

Posted by TStodden at 4:04 PM CDT

Updated: Monday, 29 March 2010 4:12 PM CDT

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It's Saturday & time once again for the Weekly Grounds.

There's one word that sums things up: BACKLOG

Earlier this week, I finally started tackling one massive stack of submissions when another massive stack came in the mail. At the moment, I'm looking at 4 weeks here, taking roughly 3 hours a day to view submissions & still squeezing in roughly 30 minutes of portable gaming before bed... assuming my backlog doesn't get worse. Pretty much I have one international player & one national player that socked me for about 100+ submissions each

It's not that I haven't been socked with a large number of submissions before, but just tends to be a drag as it tends to seriously cut into my gaming time. HOWEVER, if I didn't have such a passion for Ludology at the street level... I wouldn't have taken the job back then. This is just one of those unfortunate hazards of the job that I have to deal with. The only new twist is that these submissions aren't long enough for me to do some multi-tasking & seriously tackle my tape queue at double-speed. It's not like I COULDN'T try, but I'd probably be hitting pause & rewind the video to catch stuff that I need to note, but missed.

If there's one thing that I like to do when possible is multi-task since I can be more productive juggling two tasks than doing just one thing. While I will admit that I do have some limits to my multi-tasking abilities (typically 2-3 active items & 2 lesser items), I try to work within my abilities to prevent loss of productivity. If I can verify a video while doing some writing, I'll do it. When I'm online, except for major gaming, I'm multitasking a lot. Keeping track of tweets, IM's, listening to music (when not loading / watching a video), keeping tabs on e-mails & weather in addition to web surfing... where I have multiple tabs going in my browser. Pratically everything listed in the previous sentence is considered minor/lesser items. E-mail & weather checks are on auto-pilot thanks to add-ons, so the 2 lesser items are Tweets/IM's (combined as one task, since I check them together with Pidgin) & streaming music.

Enough about my personal life... onward to more site stuff.

There's essentially a stand-still mostly due to the partial crushing that life is giving me. The only thing I've toying on the D&D stuff is the ideal of a "Moral / Judgement" scale to use in place of the standard alignment scale in Edition 3.5 (as 4th Edition is a bit too simplistic for such ideas). In short, instead of giving a hard alignment, the scale gives you more of a gradient on both axis. It also allows the DM & players to "grow" into their ideal alignment.

Each alignment axis (Good / Evil & Law / Chaos) run on 200-point scale (+100 to -100) so you have an idea where your character lies. If you moral score is in positive territory, you have good tendencies (as negative = evil). If your judgement score is in positive territory, you tend to live a bit more lawfully (as negative = more chaotic). However, there would be a "neutral zone" on both scales in order to maintain the 3-type system. The ideal zone would be +33 to -33, but it could be somewhere around that mark... so +35 to -35 as well as +30 to -30 would work just as well.

For new characters, the starting points would be +50 for Good & Lawful alignments, -50 for Evil & Chaotic alignments, with neutral perfectly at 0. Then as players progress through quests & campaigns, the DM could give or take moral or judgement points based on the actions of the players.

• Take out an evil demon? +20 Moral
• Give to the poor? +2 Moral, +2 Judgement
• Kill a Villager with a high-level spell? -30 Moral, -10 Judgement
• Steal from a bystandard? -5 Moral, -1 Judgement
• Have sex in the throne room, in front of the King? -5 Moral, -50 Judgement
• Kill the royal nanny & turn her dead body into jerky? -65 Moral

While these are theoretical happenings (especially that last two), there's types of actions that a DM could encourage or discourage such actions with a character... depending on the quest / campaign. If a player wants to stay in the neutral range, they'll have to play the balancing act while those on an extreme wouldn't necessarily have to worry as much.

This system could also be used to polarizing spells like the "Protection from ..." where the moral / judgement score could place a character on one side or the other for the effect. For example, if a "Protection from Evil" was cast on something, anybody with a negative moral score would be consider evil this spell even if they're in the neutral range. However, anybody with a moral / judgement score that's EXACTLY at 0 would still be considered neutral & would not be affected by any bonuses or penalties that would come with such spells UNTIL that score changes in either direction.

While it's not a perfect system, it does give you a bit more leadway with moral & judgement dilemmas & allow you to award players with good decisions or thoughts & vice versa.

That's all I have for this week... It's not some great, but it's at least something.

Posted by TStodden at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 29 March 2010 4:12 PM CDT

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For anybody that actually bothers to read my blog (the whole 3 of you at this point... assuming you haven't ditched me due to lack of updates or move onto Facebook or Twitter), I'm back & still living! 2010 has been a bit chaotic for me & things have just started to get back to normal. I've comfortably settled into my new place now (No more boxes cluttering places... although, I still have one tub filled with random technical junk at one end of my desk). While I still haven't fully implimented plans with NESpresso, I have a few things that I'll be doing with both NESpresso & NESlog.

For NESlog, to keep things a bit more a bit more up-to-date, I'm planning on doing the following:

1) Force myself to make a blog entry at least ONCE a week
While "Daily Drip" sounds more of a daily thing. It's just easier to just make one post per week & call it the "Weekly Grounds" (in staying with the site's theme). I've set my computer to give me a reminder to write a blog entry to be posted the next day. The computer that I'm writing on is offline to avoid any unnecessary interruptions or distractions.

Please be aware that this doesn't mean that I won't post more than a once a week, as other things may warrant a post. It's just that less important stuff will probably get crammed into the Weekly Grounds.

2) Stop embedding flash-crap in my blog entries
While it was originally a good idea when started doing it, it quickly became a pitfall that I want to clean up. While having one or two embedded flash stuff in a group of 20 blog entries is OK, it starts dragging down the blog when you're pulling large flash files from various sites.

While I won't stop posting flash stuff on my blog, it'll just a quick link to the actual location of the item OR I'll create a quick-n-dirty pop-up page. This way, those who want to waste their time & bandwidth on the flash stuff can do so while those who just want to read what I actually have to say can do so without getting slowed down by that crap.

There may be a few rare occasions where I'll ignore it, but it'll mostly be music related through Grooveshark.

3) Possibly starting up a new blog series.
As much as the "Too Damn Late" series is one of the creative ways to for me to blow off steam & be more of myself, it's not the only series that I can do.

I'm planning on writing some blog entry (or fragments) of something similar to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"... but without all the copyright infringement crap & would be something that people who are interested (ie Urbanites & Yuppies) in some guidance for a certain area. It'll be racist, it'll be offensive to some people, it could some legal buttons... but above all, it'll be an HONEST LOOK (even if it's a bit incorrect) at a subject.

You can probably see a couple of entries in the next few weeks... so I'll keep it under wraps for now.

On the NESpresso side, it's mostly just trying to get new content posted & parsed into the site. No, it's not because I'm overhauling the site again (that's more when I move the site off Tripod & to a private server), it's just that I'm too lazy to fire up DreamWeaver (which I use to design my webpages) to make the pages at this time & I have other projects I'm working on (like re-writing my old Runescape guide with updated information & whatnot).

That's all for this "Weekly Grounds"... Later!

Posted by TStodden at 2:34 PM CDT

Updated: Saturday, 20 March 2010 2:36 PM CDT

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As 2009 comes to a close, it seems to customary to reflect on what has happened over the previous year. For me, 2009 will be forever dubbed as "The Year of Change" for me as things has forever changed my life. I'll break the year down into more managable chunks.

The Spring of Disaster
Nothing sums up spring more than "disaster" as some devistating things occurred. First was when my aunt & grandmother were medically sent to the local nursing home. While it wasn't a major shock for my family & my relatives nearby (within 5 miles), it was the death knell to my father's side of the family. It was the last time I ever saw my grandmother alive before they took to the nursing home. While there were opportunities to visit her, my parents suggested not to visit her as she saw slowly slipping away... accusing my parents & my uncle terrible things, which she didn't really mean due to her condition... but I was greatful that I never had to experience first hand or it would have been more painful for me.

The other disaster was that my father had a stroke. I only heard about it as I was housesitting for my older brother at the time. Thankfully my mother was with him & was the voice of reason to quickly get him to the hospital. It was a bit emotional as it rocked my family a bit, but we all muscled through it.

The Summer of Emotion
This was more of a national deal than personal, but it still fits all the same. On the national scale, a lot of celebrities (Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes & Michael Jackson... to make a few) just seemed to suddenly die for some strange reason. On a personal side, it was an emotional roller coaster of highs & lows.

The first emotional event was the death of my grandmother, which occurred about 2 weeks before my younger bro's wedding. It was a sad time for everybody, but I was strangely detached from the grief a bit... mostly because I haven't seen her in months & it would have tarnished my perspective of her if I did. After her death, a small schism occurred over her estate... mostly between those who knew what they were getting & those who wanted more than what was mentioned. While my grandmother's will practically screwed over the entire family, as she left practically everything to my aunt, who is now a ward of the state (& cannot keep everything). My parents inherited her car, which my grandmother did to help take care of my aunt... or at least that was her plan before my other aunt attempted a "power move" by taking "Power of Attorney" over my aunt (which is a bit of a blessing in disguise at the time, as she relieved my parents the responsiblity), mostly in an attempt to get her hands on my aunt's money. My uncle took full control over the family farm, but had to pay the other family members their portion of the estate.

Next was my younger bro's wedding, which was in the works for at least 5 years. It would have been a joyous time, but it came bittersweet as his employer laid him off a week before the wedding... nice wedding present, "Congratulations on your marriage... now get out!" They took thing slow enough & my sister-in-law is well liked.

Near the end of summer was the International Video Game Hall of Fame (IVGHoF) launch party in Ottumwa, IA. While the roads were a lot to be desired (running in 9 spots of road construction going down & about 3 on the return... but it was a nightmare around Des Moines that night), it was one event that I just couldn't miss! Despite my shyness, I manage to meet Walter Day (founder of Twin Galaxies, who I worked with for 6 years now) & some of the original & modern Video Game iconic players like Tim McVey (1st Billion-Plus Holder on Nibbler), Billy Mitchell (Reigning Donkey Kong WR Holder of King of Kong fame), Todd Rodgers (Dragster WR Holder) & Isaiah "Triforce" Johnson of Empire Arcadia. It was a lot of fun & I even managed to get into the one picture on Walter's request (which was a bit of a shocker & an honor). It was a lot better than the local & state fairs, which were going on at the same time.

While I won't make it to Funspot in 2010 (due to a wedding), I will try my best to make it back to Ottumwa again.

Summer was when I FINALLY evolved to "Web 2.0" standards by joining Facebook. Before then, I was living in "Web 1.5" standards... if you want to call it that. I was still doing some things the old fashioned way with bulletin boards & chat rooms that were managed by a friend or a trusted member of the community. While I did make a few consessions by having my own blog (which you're reading now on my SECOND EDITION of my blog) & Twitter, I still avoided the social networking sites like MySpace & Facebook. While I was a late adopter of social networking sites (which is a bit off for me as I have a tendency to get ahead of some trends), it was ultimately a wise decision since MySpace's reputation is a bit tarnished (mostly by the excessive customization done by users, which ultimately destroy the functionality of the site. Honestly, who would visit a person's page that violates all the rules of web design & decency?). I've managed to revive some old connections through it with a few people that I haven't talked to in years... in addition to reconnecting with old classmates.

The Autumn of Discontent
Fall came down a bit hard as few more emotional distresses occurred. The one was so devistating that it still bring tears to my eyes when I think about it. The death of my beloved cat Butterscotch hit me hard & quick as it happen suddenly. I placed him outside (on a leash, per local ordinances) while I was doing my running in town & he was gone when I returned. I had him since he was only a few days old & he was a beloved member of the family who was with us for at least 12 years (I can't properly remember when we got him). He was so energenic that it his death came as a shock to the family. He was laid to rest on the family farm, which he would have been happy.

The other thing was that my father formally fired (although the issue is still unresolved) because they forced him to stay on disability, even though the DOT said he was OK to return to work. As previously stated, things are still a bit unresolved with his employer... so there's not much I can comment on. However, from what I've been hearing from others still working there... The executives are running the company into the ground, after selling off their milk division (which they claimed was making any money, but the rival company they sold to is doing good with) & slowly whittling away the benefits & pay of their hourly workers... Rumors are going around that executives are just taking & taking more while giving their employees less & less. Most likely the company will likely fold up & sell the remains to their rival company.

The last thing was the final settlement of my grandmother's estate... which my aunt delayed the auction so that her family members would be able to be there more than getting a good crowd. Because my aunt purposely delayed & didn't get the auction announcement in the advertisers in adequate time, the bidding group was very small. I know it seems petty & malicious for me to point & laugh at the train wreck the auction became, but it was my aunt's fault for inadequate planning & she got what she deserved.

The Winter of Renewal
With the auction of my grandmother's estate came the deed to her house. Under estate settlement laws, the family had first shot at the house & buy it at the appraised value. My father, with some fiancial assistance from my uncle, managed to secure the deed as we knew there would be some fierce competition from a few potential buyers if it was placed on the market because the main floor is handicap accessible.

After the auction was over, the move from the old house began. My Aunt & uncle did assist in the move, but they didn't fully succeed in assistance as they were the ones pushing the pace of the move faster than what my mother desired (as my father, in the presense of my uncle, tends not to have a brain for himself). It was yet another bittersweet moment as we were leaving a house we lived in for 28 years for the house that my grandmother (figuratively) built. The earliest memories of my grandmother's house was a small house with only steps out front & a detached garage. The deck was the first addition to the front of the house, followed by the addition of the back room & an attached garage (which properly enclosed the basement) & finally a fully furnished upstairs, complete with bathroom. While the garage was the only major addition to the house, things just slowly (& naturally) evolved.

While the house isn't completely new, it's a new place for my family to live & feels like a renewal of things to come in 2010.

//Cue attached song...

When it strikes 12:00 AM on New Year's Day, raise a glass to 2009... Thank God it's over! Hopefully 2010 will bring many more brighter days!

Posted by TStodden at 6:06 PM CST

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For anybody that's bothering to read this blog on a semi-regular basis may be disappointed at the infrequency I update here...

This is mostly because of Facebook & other stuff keeping people up to date.  I'll try to get some updates coming on a semi-regular basis, even if it's crap.

Posted by TStodden at 7:24 PM CST

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I got my first hands-on impression of Windows 7 after working on my aunt's new computer (moving some games over from her old computer). After a few minutes orientating myself with the new interface, I started to feel very natural & was whipping around with little issues.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be aware that your experience with Windows 7 will vary based on the computer you're using. A poorly configured computer can make an OS a pain to deal with. For disclosure purposes, the specs of the computer I used are...

• Windows 7: Home Premium (64-bit)
• 2.60 Ghz Intel Dual-core 64-bit processor
• 4.0 GB's RAM
• 256 MB intergrated video card

On the visual side, if you've used Windows Vista's Aero theme (or something similar with WindowBlinds), you'll likely overlook the windows. The most disorienting part, which took the most time to get use to, was the taskbar. It's about 1.5 - 2 times thicker than XP or Vista's taskbar. The other part is that you only have an icon instead of a little bar with an icon & text to denote the active items. If you have any active program that you pinned to the taskbar (similar to the "Quick Bar" in XP / Vista), they'll be noted with a box around the icon. The boxes turn into a stack when you have multiple. This can be a little disorienting, but you'll quickly get over it.

Microsoft did a "+2" with the thumbnail of the apps that was done in Vista. First, hovering your cursor over an icon pulls up a thumbnail of every window (& tab, for browsers) open for that app. Second, if you hover your cursor over the thumbnail, you'll trigger Aero Peak. Aero Peak turns all of the other windows (except the window associated with the thumbnail) to turn transparent so you can actually see the actual window without distrupting any other windows. This was one feature that I quickly fell in love with.

The core of Windows 7 is, for some stupid reason, Vista. While it's not totally a great idea from Microsoft, they did manage to salvage the figurative disaster that Vista was into something that people would want to use. The User Account Control (UAC) with Vista was either on or off. Win 7 now has 4 settings: All On, Default, Minimal & Off. The Default setting may be a bit too annoying for power users, but Minimal may be too relaxed for less experienced... so you'll likely need to adjust it to a level that works for you, but at least you now HAVE a choice. The System Tray (the icons next to the clock), which use to pack more frustration per square inch of viewing space, is now finally tamed as all those icons are hidden in a "holding pen" & cannot bother you unless YOU decide to pull them out of the pen. Now you can dedicate space on your taskbar for the icons that are critical for you.

The only frustration I had with Windows 7 is how it handles all open windows on the taskbar. If you have a program pinned to the taskbar, all those windows stick around that icon. It came annoying when I was trying to move files around as all the windows were catagorized under the "Libraries" icon. HOWEVER, this is only a minor frustration that would eventually die down with prolonged use.

If your computer is running Windows Vista, MAKE THE SWITCH AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! I know it'll cost you at least $100 to upgrade, but Windows 7 has the same requirements as Vista & it's a lot less annoying to use. For XP users, you may want to consider upgrading to Windows 7 if your system can support it as it has the same spirit of a "new Windows experience" from Windows 98/ME to XP. For those who are considering buying a new computer with Windows 7, GO FOR THE 64-BIT COMPUTER WITH THE 64-BIT VERSION OF WINDOWS 7! The 32-bit computing era is ending & you'll be happier with a 64-bit computer & OS in the long run, specially for gamers & power users. You'll still be able to use the majority of your old 32-bit programs, so there's very few issues you'll like run across by upgrading.

You'll likely enjoy Windows 7 after you get past the transitional phase.

Posted by TStodden at 4:20 PM CST

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It was 1990 when I picked up my first Game Boy, which is the original "Brick Type" Game Boy. Before the Game Boy, the only portable form of video games were the basic LCD games... the types where all the possible types of actions were mapped to the screen, like the Game & Watch series. The biggest draw with the Game Boy is that was a dynamic screen & the swappable game packs.

While the first generation games suffered some ghosting problems, most predominate with Super Mario Land, later game releases (like Super Mario Land 2) solved this issue by increasing the size of the sprites & the game worlds. Still, Nintendo was in the place where it could do no wrong as they practically had no direct competition here. The old LCD games were still in the majority around me, I was on the edge of change with electronic entertainment.

My old Game Boy was well enjoyed as I was able to take it along with me on long trips without getting bored... or at least while there was a good amount of lighting. The one downside with the Game Boy was that it had no backlight, while I understand on the technical side (as LED backlighting was properly developed), it wasn't something I was concerned about when I was young. However, as I grew up, it came a bit of a concern. Nintendo released the Game Boy Pocket, a smaller version of the original, but I remained with the old Game Boy. Around 1995, I received a little heat from fellow classmates for sticking with the Game Boy when the Sega Game Gear, Nintendo's first major competition in the portable market. The Game Gear games were in color with a small TV screen, which was fairly nice visually. However, I saw a couple of pitfalls that eventually killed Sega's attempt in the portables. First was the battery consumption. Granted the Game Boy was using 4 AA's for about 10 hours, the Game Gear was using 6 AA's for only about 5 hours of use. Second was the lack of desirable games. Sonic may have been Sega's mascot, but I never felt the urge to fly through the stages & I really didn't hear a lot of Game Gear games.

It was around 1995 when I was getting some grief by my fellow classmates in the console wars, but that's for another chapter.

As my Game Boy aged & pretty much started failing due to years of use & abuse. It was until 1998 that I officially retired my old Game Boy (GBY) with the release of it's true successor: Game Boy Color (GBC). It was a smaller, more powerful system that now featured a color screen (over the old 4-shade greyscale system) that ran at least 10 hour with only 2 AA's. It still ran the old Game Boy games, but now colorized them to breathe some new life into the old games. The old games are still only 4-colors, but it was enough to give some variety to make those games a bit more interesting.

It was later supplemented with the Game Boy Advance (GBA). More power (32-bit) & more controls, but it still had the same issue of no backlight. It had the additional issue of a darker screen, which made proper light more important. While Nintendo fixed these issues with the Game Boy Advance SP (with a backlight & smaller design), I stayed with the old GBA until it's successor game alone, the Nintendo DS. Having being burnt with the GBA, I waited until the second generation of the DS was released, which was the DS Lite. It perfected all the issues that the original DS had, but retained nearly all the options that the GBA had. The only concession made is that the DS's GBA support loses multiplayer capabilities.

While I picked up each system, I did not get rid of their predicessors as each system did not complete everything that I wanted with a system. The GBA did not have the same graphical qualities for the old GBY games that the GBC. The DS, while supports GBA, wasn't able to support multiplayer & could not connect to the Gamecube. I know that I could retire the GBC & GBA with the GBA SP, but I really don't have a major reason to spend money for a better version of the GBA.

Now, Nintendo has released the minor successor with the DSi 6 months ago & now have plans to release the DSi XL, which is just a minor redesign of the DSi... which was another redesign of the DS Lite... which was a redesign of the DS. The DSi has two digital cameras, digital downloadable content & SD card support, it's nothing more than what the GBC is to the GBY. It does the basics, but has a few new features that still yet to get publicly supported by the gaming industry. While I'm still happy with my old DS Lite, I have struggled with the though of "upgrading" to the DSi & now the upcoming DSi XL.

I'll go into more details with some of the joys & issues I have with the DS series, but that's for another chapter.

Coming Soon... Chapter 3: The Rise & Fall of Nintendo's Domination -- The SNES & N64 Eras

Posted by TStodden at 7:03 PM CST

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As many of us have heard that the planets will be in alignment on December 21, 2012. There's also people foretelling disaster on that date, including a movie about what would likely happen on that date. While I was interested in seeing the event, I remained a bit skeptical about what would happen. So, I actually bother to take a figurative look into the future.

Using Stellarium (www.stellarium.org) & Sioux City, Iowa as my reference point, I jumped the clock to Midnight CST of December 21, 2012 in order to see things for myself. Since the majority of the "Good Stuff" is under the horizon, I disabled the ground option (in effect, make the Earth transparent) to get a better view.

(Click on the images for a full-scale view)

As you can see in these first pictures (line added to the right for greater visibility) that the planets in the inner solar system (Sun to Mars) are practically in a straight line. HOWEVER, if you flattened out the image compared to the azimuthal grid, it wouldn't be perfectly straight.

(Click on the images for a full-scale view)

When pulling it out to the extreme (going to a 235 degree field of view), adjusting the position to get all the planets in view & placing a marker on Pluto (I still call it a planet), as it's not visible from Earth. Again, adding a line to the right picture (actually 3) to play "Connect the Planets"... granted I accidentally used the moon instead of Uranus, which would have given a straighter line between Jupiter & Pluto. Compared to the smaller view above, this line is "straighter" in a 3-D sense.

If you want to repeat my findings, feel free to pick up Stellarium yourself, set its clock to Midnight on December 21, 2012 (Stellarium has it's own clock, so DON'T MESS WITH YOUR COMPUTER'S CLOCK) & observing point to Sioux City, Iowa (it's a preset) as well as removing the ground & you'll see the planets at these azimuthal locations:

• Mercury -- Az +27° 2' 15" / Alt -67° 42' 56"
• Venus -- Az +41° 54' 36" / Alt -20° 15' 45"
• Earth -- NOT APPLICABLE (as you're on it, stupid)
• Mars -- Az +294° 19' 3" / Alt -54° 38' 29"
• Jupiter -- Az +217° 57' 27" / Alt +64° 28' 37"
• Saturn -- Az +67° 25' 47" / Alt -12° 11' 40"
• Uranus -- Az +263° 35' 52" / Alt +8° 40' 59"
• Neptune -- Az +275° 14' 48" / Alt -23° 9' 50"
• Pluto -- Az +324° 57' 43" / Alt -63° 44' 4"

Just so you're aware... Azimuth is the compass location, where 0° (& 360°) is North, 90° is East, 180° is South & 270° is West. Altitude is the viewing angle in relation to the horizon, where +90° is straight up, +45° is half-way up, 0° is on the horizon & the negatives are below the horizon.

Based on these figures, you should be able to see Jupiter in the SW & Uranus (& the Moon) just above the horizon in the west at midnight while everything else is below the horizon.

While it may look cool from Earth, it's a bit disappointing in my opinion as I was more expecting to see all the planets & the sun to be stacked on top of each other in relation to Earth. While my view wouldn't be as visually pleasing from Earth, but it would be one of the greatest chain eclipse in the solar system (as it would be an extremely rare event). However, it would require a crap load of mathematical calculations through a space simulator like Celestia to get the exact date & times that we would most likely never see in roughly 10 or even 100 generations... & by then, the human race would most likely be traveling through space to care about it.

Even though people are using the Inca calendar as a reference to "The End of the World", I chalking this garbage up to the same type of panic from the Y2K bug. If the Inca civilization was still alive today, they would most likely have made a new "5th World" calendar that would run beyond December 21, 2012. The Inca's most likely went as far as felt was necessary to cover the major their needs at the time (much like the computer programs did by using only 2-digit years instead of 4-digits in the 80's & early 90's) & would take care of the issue when it got closer.

So when December 21, 2012 comes, feel free to enjoy the visual event... but don't get wrapped up in all the fear-mongering crap that the world's going to end.

Posted by TStodden at 3:55 PM CST

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It's Midnight CST & it's time once again for Too Damn Late!

WARNING: Too Damn Late is not written in front of a live studio audience. Since it's written after midnight, the contents in here are uncensored by anybody as an act of first ammendment rights. Therefore, if you are easily offended by swear words or outrageous thoughts, STOP READING THIS BLOG ENTRY NOW!!! I don't want to hear any complaints from anybody because you read this with ample warning. I don't writing these warnings, but I do so to protect myself here. By reading beyond this warning, you hereby consent to such adult content. VIEWER DESCRETION IS ADVISED!

Everybody who actually has a brain knows that you need a good anti-virus & firewall to keep all the viruses & malware off your system, but for those who "slacked off" (to put it in "nice" terms)... here's two horrors that should scare you into getting your systems up to date.

Like other malware, it looks for a way to slip onto your computer. However, once it gets inside your system, it silently goes to work & downloads child pornography onto your computer while "phoning home" to the virus maker that you're now part of their "Cloud Porn Network". With this cloud network, the virus maker can secretly view the child porn their virus downloaded to your computer anytime they want without getting caught. To make things worse, if they want to be an evil jerk... they could anonymously tip off your local authorities about those pictures & arrest you.

Even though you're innocent, the malware author has perfectly framed you with little room to appeal the alledged crime. Even if you manage to successfully appeal the criminal charge, it could take months to clear your name & by then, the damage the accusation is already done. One victim of this took 12 months to prove that it was a virus that was downloading the child pornography (by showing it wasn't humanly possible to acquire that much in such little time) & by then, it destroyed his family, his career & his life. Pretty much the main reason it took so long is that "It's not me, it's a virus doing it" has been beaten to death by actual pedophiles in the courts... so it tends to fall on deafened ears when it's actually the case.

anti-virus makers are flagging it as virus because of it's destructive nature as it could destroy a system-critical file. Despite the warning, there are some "players" (if you want to call the idiots who play the dangerous game) who've destroyed nearly 6,000 aliens in the game... which means that their computers are 6,000 files lighter.

To put this in perspective, my computer has roughly 193,000 files covering 68.2 GB's of HD space. If I played "Lose/Lose" & got a score of 6,000, that would mean that 3.11% of all the files on my system would be deleted. Assuming that none of the files of my file recovery program that I have installed were destroyed, I COULD be able to undo the damage... but it would be too much of a risk to personally deal with. However, since Windows XP's core is comprised of 10% of all the files (but only 5% of HD space, excluding virtual memory), the game could either miss XP's core altogether or nail it hard depending on how "random" the file deletion is.

While this isn't necessarily a "new" idea, as I've actually thought of a similar sinister idea at least a decade ago, it IS the first time this idea has been publicly displayed. This idea is particularly sinister as it hides the true destructive natures in a game. While it would be devastating to a well known game publisher, much like an extremely restrictive anti-piracy measures, a lesser known publisher or an indie game maker could do unknown harm to your system under this idea. If they really want to hide this destructive deal, they could place this on a delay (like 100 games) so that it wouldn't wreck a person's computer for a short test deal. Slip this into a game similar to Pop Cap's catalog (like Bejeweled 2) & it would become a silent epidemic.

If you have a WELL KNOWN anti-virus program & firewall (something that's been checked out by PC World or PC Magazine) that are up-to-date, you shouldn't have to worry too much except the unknown. However, it doesn't protect you from your idiotic actions from the newly created viruses. There's bound to be other horror stories, but that's all I have for now.

Posted by TStodden at 1:07 AM CST

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Mood:  not sure

As I near my 13th anniversary online, I've started to take a look back at my gaming experience then & now with the company that I fell in love with nearly 25 years ago. Is it possible for me to remain with a company that has slowly turned its back on those who used to come together & figuratively worship them? While the honeymoon has long since ended, should I try to make this failing relationship work OR is it time to break this off & look for happiness elsewhere?

While time will tell what my decision will eventually be (or get prodded by friends & others), I feel best that I write out everything during this time so that when the decision comes, I'll have something to look back on. Now, let's get to the beginning of things.

I was originally introduced to video games at the early age of three. My parents picked up an Atari 2600 some time ago. The only game we had at the time was Pac-Man & my parents were very restrictive with playtime. It wasn't until 1985 that I was introduced to the game company that I would have fall in love with: Nintendo. My cousins were the first to get the NES & they brought it to my grandparent's house when we came to visit one day. Once I Super Mario Bros., it was pretty much love at first sight. The graphics were outstanding with intricate details, controls were superior & the gameplay was nothing that I never previously seen. While it would be a few years until I would have a NES of my own, I enjoyed playing the NES at my grandparents (who got a NES of their own so that their grandkids, including myself, would be able to enjoy the games without having to lug the system). We slowly learned the games & eventually got better at them.

From 1985 to 1988, the "extended family" game library started out small & gradually increased as all three families bought & freely swapped NES games amongst us. The only gaming news that came our way was the "Nintendo Fun Club" newsletters that my grandparents received very few months. However, when the "Nintendo Fun Club" was coming to a close, they received an invitation to subscribe to Nintendo Power near the end of 1989. Once they agreed to take up the subscription, my love with Nintendo grew as I would now be able to read up on newer games every two months (which later became every month). My love with Nintendo would grow even further when Nintendo Power gave away the "Complete Gamer's" package of Dragon Warrior with new subscriptions. With this promotion, my cousins & I would have our own subscription to read up on the latest games WITH a new game to boot! While it took a few months to get through Dragon Warrior the first time, it was a hard time to believe that Nintendo could do no wrong.

Coming Soon... Chapter 2: "...and baby makes three!" -- Enter the Game Boy.

Posted by TStodden at 5:03 PM CST

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It's roughly 12:00 AM CDT & it's time once again for Too Damn Late!

WARNING: Too Damn Late is not written in front of a live studio audience. Since it's written after midnight, the contents in here are uncensored by anybody as an act of first ammendment rights. Therefore, if you are easily offended by swear words or outrageous thoughts, STOP READING THIS BLOG ENTRY NOW!!! I don't want to hear any complaints from anybody because you read this with ample warning. I don't writing these warnings, but I do so to protect myself here. By reading beyond this warning, you hereby consent to such adult content. VIEWER DESCRETION IS ADVISED!

In Episode 11.0, I mentioned what Nintendo SHOULD do & learn from the Homebrewers. However, Nintendo modified the boot section of the Wii with Wii Menu System 4.2 & started causing problems themselves. While Nintendo is trying to prevent the modders (& homebrewers) from hacking the Wii, but Nintendo should put in some safeguards to prevent themselves from fucking up their own product. Even the computer motherboard makers put in some safeguards when dealing with BIOS upgrades so if something bad should happen (like a power outage), there's an emergency recovery option so your little screw up doesn't turn your multi-thousand dollar baby of a computer into a goddamn large & expensive paperweight.

Here's how Nintendo SHOULD handle their boot section on the Wii. I will warn you that this does contain some programming pseudo-code, so don't go bitching to me if you can't understand this!

• System ON
• Launch Boot #0 [Read Only, Write Protected]
• Launch Boot #1 [Mostly Protected, only Checksum is modifiable]
• Do Checksum check on Boot #2
• Compare Checksum with Checksum stored in Boot #1
• Is Boot #2 Checksum OK?
  • If Yes, Launch Boot #2
  • If No, Launch Boot Recovery [Read Only, Write Protected]

Under this set-up, there's only 2 places in the Boot Sector that can be modified. Boot #2 & the checksum in Boot #1. Boot #0 & Boot Recovery are protected & cannot be modified. The main reason is that if the main boot sector (Boot #2) gets corrupted in some way, there's an emergency back-up system (Boot Recovery) to keep the system running. However, the Recovery system would be more bare bones & set up to fix (or reinstall) Boot #2 as soon as possible. If the system can't immediately do a recovery for some reason, the Recovery system should keep the system partially operational. You may not be able to do everything you want under the back-up system, but it should at least keep you from bitching out Customer Support to fix your system due to THEIR mistake.

While I don't have the exact "Technical Details" for implimentation, but it's a bare-bones idea that somebody could build on... Before any legal assholes bitch "We can't do this because you could sue us." excuse, here's a few things to consider.

First of all, this idea is a bit too general to hold water in a court of law. Second, I'm not patenting this idea because the US patent office is a bit too sluggish to capitalize on the idea & it's likely covered by some other patent (which I'm not going to bother researching). Third, if I did take any credit for this idea, I'd like use a Creative Commons "By Attribution" license so anybody can use it & charge for it (as they're doing the core work) as long as they give me credit for the work... but I wouldn't be too offended if they forget.

I'm taking a small page out of the computer's boot system. Under most computer BIOS, the order of execution is:

1. Optical Drive (CD / DVD / Blu-Ray Drive)
2. Primary Hard Drive
   • Primary OS (or Bootloader)
   • Secondary OS
   • Trimary OS, ect.
3. Secondary Hard Drive
4. External USB Storage
5. Floppy Drive

While this isn't THE EXACT boot order, as most computer BIOSes can be reordered to a personal tastes & some options may not be available due to BIOS offerings or physical limitations (as Floppy Drives have been retired for quite some time now & External USB Storage is still a bit new as an option), but it permits multiple layers of back-up options should something go wrong. By including removable storage options (optical drive, USB, floppies), should the hard drives die on you for whatever goddamn reason may be, you'll still have a way to recover some functionality of your computer without having to bitch out some outsourced Customer Service idiot. The repairs may cost more than just time (like $100-$250 for a new hard drive & possibly $200-$300 for a new copy of Windows, if you choose to use it), but you don't have to cough up a fucking lung for a brand new computer... if you don't want to.

What I propose if a bit more protected than a PC, it allows Nintendo to modify the boot sector of the Wii without all the risks of turning their game system into a brick & pissing off everybody that's affected, including the Stickenbaums. I know it won't fully prevent modders from hacking the Wii, but it can make it harder for them.

That's all I have for tonight. It's about 2:00 AM & I'm heading to bed.

Posted by TStodden at 2:04 AM CDT

Updated: Friday, 9 October 2009 4:07 PM CDT

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