Not just another NPC - (ds-x2 ver.)

I started my senior year last week on Tuesday, of all days, which just shows how bizarre my school district is. The week started off crappy, got better, got worse, and now slowly evening out by slightly getting better. Unfortunately one major problem looms over all of us this year… they banned electronics! My friends and I were throwing around the idea of a making a wax tube phonograph(analog FTW!) - and I wouldn’t mind going through with it being deprived of music - but I don’t think it’ll ever happen. It seems I’ll just have to run home and cram music into every second I’m at my computer. I should probably get a better amplifier too, I’m currently using an alarm clock as my amp. Speakers would be nice too… I need money.

I spent most of my recently acquired money on this Dreamcast. Totally worth it, but a curse at the same time. If only I had this console before school started. I have no excuses for not turning in homework when I have 15+ hours logged into Grandia 2 already(4 days?)…. and that’s just Grandia 2. I haven’t been posting at DS-X2 either(oh yea I never mentioned that here in the first place, now you know!) and I recently saw all the Level5 stuff on NeoGAF before the internet went crazy with it the next day(thanks to my messed up sleeping pattern). Didn’t feel like posting it and played Dreamcast instead - actually I went to bed, but it influenced the laziness. As my Dreamcast collection grows, so does my homework collection. Here’s what I got with my DC BTW:

-Dreamcast model 2(made in China) - pre October(?) firmware update and speedy samsung(?) GD-rom dirve.(?=not 100% sure)
-Two controllers - Both first party, and with smooth analog sticks in good condition.
-Two VMUs - One regular Grey, the other is transparent green(I love it!)
-Standard AV and power cables.

The real killer is I went out and bought a VGA box so I can play my games in beautiful 480P on my bulky CRT monitor. It looks great and the CRT is easier to flip into tate mode(3:4) than a huge TV. However I noticed some slight screen burning that had apparently been there under my nose the whole time. Not enough to make me get another CRT, in fact my parents already hate my current CRT(Nag: It’s too big! It generates heat! bla bla bla!) so that won’t be happening anytime soon.

Randomness:

Classic.

So maybe you’ve heard me rant about Neo-Geo before on my blog, and it’s kinda funny because I don’t own one nor do I favor them over any other system. On top of that most of my time is spent emulating the games with MAME. Not anymore! - No I didn’t get a Neo -geo, but I got the next best thing - my friend got a Neo-Geo! A Neo-Geo MVS to be exact, carts are much cheaper than AES carts and we can play with some nice HAPP sticks/buttons.

My friend playing around with his MVS… I can’t wait until he gets some good games for it.

The machine came with World Heroes which is pretty bad based off of the 2 minuets I spent with it. Luckily Ebay has a nice light assortment of MVS games for cheap, including games within the Metal Slug and King of Fighter series(which are some of my favorite). Though this is all excluding games with Marquee/cab kits as those run twice the price. A good example of this is Metal slugX, I saw 20 bucks for just the cart in one auction, and about 199 bucks for the whole Kit in another auction.

Funny thing about the MVS carts as well, they’re HUGE. A quarter for comparison:

Another shot of the whole MVS opened up:

My friend bought it from a guy in another city called “Elk grove”, if you live in Northern California you’ve surely heard of it. Apparently the guy said something about a place in Rocklin(where we live) called “Rock around the clock”. The day after my friend got it(today-ish?) he called me up to tell that he had spotted his exact machine on their website(that obviously needed updating). Note the price on this site, he didn’t pay near that much - heck no. The whole store seems overpriced too, but I find it fascinating that we even have a store like this (that I was unaware of!) in the first place. I may just drop by tomorrow and see how they react. Knowing typical Rocklin they might shoo me away or something. I’ll bring my camera.

It may seem like I’m leeching off of him a bit, but if everything goes right tomorrow I’ll be shoveling some cash to him for a Dreamcast. So hey, there’s some commerce between us. Also, if I buy my own cart I’m sure he’ll let me use his MVS and if/when we move apart I’ll probably end up buying a NEO-GEO MVS somewhere down the line to play it on. Somewhere in the future…. but wait! I almost forgot! The Future is now!

(dun dun duuun)

This year, just like last year, I went to Lake Tahoe for two boring days. Enough said about that, I’m going to make sure I avoid getting sucked into doing that again. It’s been a few days since I’ve returned and I haven’t felt like writing or blogging despite having the chance to blog on time for once. Heck, I still don’t feel like blogging, I’m just going to chill this week, totally be lazy while I still can. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll update with something else.

Go read Dennis’s blog for now, he’s much more interesting than me this week.

August is a month of internet landmarks and anniversaries for me. Probably because this is the time of summer where I have the most spare time in the whole year. My friends forum Inanetalk.com is coming upon it’s first year anniversary, and I’ve been moderating it since day one, so that’s a big one for both of us. But also on the Nintendo forums a few members and I have had a miniature community for 2 years now in the “The OFFICIAL Advance Wars: Dual Strike thread“. Maybe you’ve heard me mention Advance wars(AW) briefly before, and because of this thread I’m still a fan, but I was even more of a super-fan around the time of AW2 and the launch of AW:DS. As soon as Nintendo and Intelligent systems announce Advance wars:DS 2 I’ll go back into super-fan mode like a transformer… or… something else that transforms I guess. Speaking of Transformers, I heard the movie was terrible so I saw the Simpsons movie instead -yea ok I was never considering the transformers movie in the first place, I just needed a transition.

The Simpsons movie was highly anticipated by me because I’ve watched the series all my life for as long as I can remember. The Simpsons even reflect my family in a way, not specifically, but as a whole. I think it may have something to do with the writers of the show growing up in the same generation as my parents. Anyways, for anyone who doesn’t examine the Simpsons like a nerd, I have to say some of the best episodes of the Simpsons aren’t all about comedy. In these cases the Simpsons will follow a -comedy, drama, comedy -pattern. It’s the “drama” and even the way the writers transition out of it that truly boast the genius of the Simpsons writers. I won’t give anything away for anyone that hasn’t seen it, but The Simpsons movie does this very well and the time given to the writers in the movie enable them to totally flesh it out. I’m glad they chose this route too instead of an all-out comedy. Many animated comedy pictures(often CG) really make the comedy primary and the story secondary, having you finish the film with this hollow feeling. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, it’s not just that, it’s that the Simpsons also have a unique style of their own - and unique way of transitioning. If you want a good example, look back at episode 9 of Season 8. It shares many elements used in the movie and I couldn’t help thinking of it the whole time I watched it. All in all it’s a great movie, and I name it the best movie of the year, even better than “Sicko” which I thought was great. I highly recommend it! 9.9999999999/10

On a completely unrelated note(except for the title) I’m taking my drivers test this week on the 8th. I’ve been away from my computer periodically practicing my driving(zomg, in the real world!) and getting as familiar with my(parents) car as much as I can. Thanks to California law once I get my drivers license I can… transport myself. Family as well, but no one else for an entire year. At least I can say I have it though.

By the way I’ve added another NES controller to my collection.

No not really, it’s just a box of official Nintendo power mints. I found this in Cost Plus World Market today and I thought it was cool. The mints aren’t half bad either.