Archive for September 2017
Quick High-End Graphics Primer
This will relate to tomorrow’s post on how to decide what high-end gaming setup to pick from. This is not to debate as to whether or not to upgrade from 1080p to 4K, that’s well worn territory for you decide yourself. This is more dispelling myths to prepare for tomorrow piece on how to pick your high-end gaming solution should you upgrade. Trust me, it’s not as easy as, “just get a gaming PC,” even though that’s what people like to say. There are good reasons to specifically pick up an Xbox One X, PS4 Pro, or gaming PC depending on your wants, needs, and budget. Anyway, for those that want to get up to speed with modern display technology without getting too technical, hopefully this will help.
Let’s Build A Raspberry Pi/RetroPie (Part 1): Building and Installing
Description from the video on YouTube:
In this video Fred, who has no experience with a Raspberry Pi, tries to set up a RetroPie on the fly. Within the 60 mins of this video he is able to build it, hook it up, and get roms playing. Sorry for the sound sync issues at the end. Not sure what happened. Part 2 will come soon that is all about setting up the customization for a RetroPie.
Links:
RetroPie: https://retropie.org.uk/
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B at Micro Center: http://www.microcenter.com/product/461129/3_Model_B
Accessories Kit purchased on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Raspberry-Pi-3-Model-B-Retropie-Game-Console-Accessories-with-Gamepad-/192273501334
Accessories Kit Referenced on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073VDNR6X/sr=8-3/qid=1505505595
***Please feel free to shop wherever you want for your hardware, I get no kickbacks from these links or any other shopping site. Just giving people the links to where I shopped.***
Opinion: My Love/Hate With Nintendo Continues
I got a press release this morning, like early this morning, from Nintendo. It wasn’t that long, but still too long for this piece, so I’ll lightly extract the important parts. “Due to incredible demand for the upcoming…Super NES Classic Edition system, Nintendo plans to ship the retro-inspired product into 2018.” Oh, it gets better. The press release then goes on in the third paragraph to say, “Next summer, Nintendo will also bring back the…NES Classic Edition system with new shipments.” I’ve already had some celebratory readers, all of which I believe were unable to snag either console to date, reach out and basically say, “we did it.” I’d like to believe these decisions have to do with our combined outcry or even the handful of petitions available to sign online, and either way these efforts have now seen results. With this news comes new questions, concerns, and potential futures, but for now lets just sip our coffee with a smile on our face. While the NES Classic and SNES Classic may be the focal point of my intro, I’m taking all of Nintendo to task with both the great and terrible moves it has made in the past few years.
Why The Nintendo Hate?
This shortage of consoles is nothing new. I think I’ve been waiting for Nintendo products to come in stock for at least 30 of my 35 years on this earth. In 1987, I was 5, I got an NES for Christmas and wanted to go pick up two games I’d read about in the Nintendo Fun Club newsletter: Castlevania and Mega Man. You see, my birthday is on January 6 so when I would get a new console or portable for Christmas I could usually purchase a game or two immediately following. In January of 1988 it was impossible to get those games, but I can’t tell you whether it was the apparent chip shortage that would plague the holidays in late 1988 or some other factor. This continued with Super Mario Bros. 3 being stealth launched in Summer 1990, frantic shenanigans to get my hands on an N64 (and Mario 64 because the two weren’t always available together) in September of 1996, then similar problems with the GameCube in 2001, and I camped in front of a Best Buy in November 2006 to get a Wii. This doesn’t even account for the waiting for several first party games, terrible customer service on servicing consoles, woes with portables, and so on. I’ve been waiting for Nintendo my entire life and I’ve allowed no other company to treat me this way while still getting my money. To try to make sense of it is an exercise in futility.
