Talking Classics Neo Geo

He’s done six episodes so far, watch the rest here.

link love 05-29-09

Honestly, I’m just happy to have an excuse to post an I, Robot image for link love.

I’m glad that Jason McIntosh has released a new episode of jmac’s arcade, as I missed the original episodes back in 2007. Each arcade gaming vignette is maybe five minutes, and very much worth a listen. [via GSW]

Also, Jamey Pittman’s pretty amazing Pac-Man Dossier, discovered through Jason and the GSW article above.

Speaking of reading, Well Played 1.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning is out, featuring essays written by all sorts of video gaming and internet folks. Go get it, it’s free (also available in printed book form).

Disneyland control panels.

This is the control panel for Disneyland’s Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage.

Our camera died inexplicably so I was limited to iPhone photography for the day, and unfortunately the rest of the panel images I took were lousy. Still, the control panels are all fascinating, very industrial and archaic, like something out of the Star Trek original series set.

How is there not a web site devoted to these things?

Replacing the battery in an Oral-B Pulsar.

I like the Oral-B Pulsar, it’s a fine enough toothbrush, but half the time the battery runs dead well before the bristles are worn. Rather than using bristle wear as an indicator, I’m sure most folks just toss the brush as soon as the battery is dead and move on to a new one. Throw in the occasional dud battery that only lasts a week or two and brushing your teeth with a Pulsar can end up costing more than a Netflix subscription.

That’s annoying and expensive, and while moving to a new type of toothbrush may be the more practical answer, it’s not nearly as fun.

The internet says that a toothbrush should be replaced every three months, assuming you don’t go to town on your teeth and destroy the bristles early. That’s way longer than a typical Pulsar battery lasts, so what we want to do is replace the battery inside with a rechargeable that’ll last much longer.

First, you’ll need to crack open the toothbrush. While the lower half of the brush does screw off, it’s glued on with an adhesive, so tools will help here.

Once the adhesive is popped, the cap will twist right off.

Carefully bend back the metal prong, and remove the (ahah!) AAA battery.

The Pulsar battery is a somewhat funky Duracell, with a protruding bump on the negative end. My replacement battery (a rechargeable Hybrio, go with those or a Sanyo Eneloop) is completely flat and wouldn’t always make contact with the inner terminal, so I recommend flipping the orientation and tossing in your replacement battery positive side first. Note the shape difference:

The on/off mechanism in the Pulsar is very basic: the Off button simply pushes a bit of plastic between a split inner terminal, breaking the circuit. The problem here is that the pressure on the terminals needs to be just right, too much and the toothbrush won’t ever turn off, too light and it won’t turn on. I experimented with adding washers and tweaking the prong, but the most successful method ending up being the simplest.

Discard the bit of foam at the top of the prong and replace it with a folded piece of electrical tape. Pinch the prong against the tape with pliers to secure the padding, and screw on the cap (mine aligned label side up).

Test it a few times, and once you’re satisfied that the fit is good, go celebrate the financial savings by turning your Blu-Ray access back on at Netflix.

Tracking down the fifth ghost.

Remember the story last year about the haunted Ms. Pac-Man cabinet that was initially offered as a free giveaway on the Boston craigslist, and then re-offered the next day by its new (and supposedly freaked-out) owner?

A friend, intending to purchase a Ms. Pac-Man cabinet anyway, has taken it upon himself to track it down. Scam, hoax, or the real deal, he’s gonna work his way to the bottom of the sordid tale, and hopefully end up with an arcade game in the process.

From what I can tell after a few minutes of cursory browsing, while several Boston-area collectors did attempt to make contact immediately after the ads were posted, none of them heard anything in reply. The story appears to have gone cold from there, so if there’s anything you can fill in from beyond that point, be sure to let him know.

link love 05-18-09

Remember local readers, CineVegas is June 10-15! Wanna stalk me? Here’s my viewing schedule.

Here’s a peak at Zenonia, an RPG heading towards the iPhone anytime now. Really looking forward to playing a game on the platform with some meat on it.

From Crispy Gamer (good stuff lately, guys!), Press Pass: Blogging by the Numbers.

Oh, and my first post on the Jet Set Games blog went up last week: Living in Las Vegas. Come work with us!

Finished: Mirror’s Edge

I really really wanted to love Mirror’s Edge.

I was sold by the original announcement — the pounding footprint EA logo, Lisa Miskovsky’s beautiful Still Alive, the bright colors and parkour-inspired gameplay… Here it was, EA’s big moment of redemption, part of their let’s make something new campaign, an opportunity to show that they could add to the art of video games, that, alongside Dead Space, they weren’t just sitting creatively idle, churning out sequel after sequel.

Unfortunately, the game is a mess.

There’s a core of greatness buried in Mirror’s Edge, and for that alone it’s worth exploring, but the brief moments of awe are surrounded by tedium and frustration. The setting is fantastic — an urban romp through a colorful dystopian landscape — but the joy of exploration falls apart in the level design itself. I’ll accept the forced trial and error gameplay, but when combined with an imperfect contextual control scheme and widely scattered save points, the results were brutal. Many times I’d find myself elated to have crossed some difficult hurdle, only to screw up down the road and be thrown back to well before the tough bits, destroying the pleasure of progress and ratchetting up the aggravation meter. While some of the level layouts simply felt half-baked, thoughtful checkpoint placement might have lessened some of the duress. Yeah, the price would be a reduction in the overall challenge (and already short game length), but for a title that shines brightest when the player is in the flow, leaping over obstacles and along rooftops, it would’ve been a welcome tradeoff.

As I played through the game, I was hoping that the story, penned by Rhianna Pratchett, would be gripping enough to lure me through points of struggle, but the plot was ultimately another mundane enclosure for gameplay requirements, lacking the characterization, unpredictability, and oomph that a well-crafted tale displays.

Particularly mood-breaking were the cutscenes. With such a lush and beautiful in-game environment, why on earth did DICE resort to using a series of Flash-based segments? I’m guessing a lack of cinematic tools or a time crunch led to the decision, but man, was it a bad one.

Anyway, after all this bitching, would it be wrong of me to say that I’m looking forward to the sequel?

Plus/Minus:
+ Overall, a beautiful sense of style & art direction.
+ Novel, sometimes elegant control scheme.
+ Ooh, another great soundtrack.

- Lousy save point distribution leads to seriously frustrating repeats.
- The cut scenes… why?
- Argh, I haven’t played a more frustrating game in years.
- Solidly mediocre story. I was expecting more.

Final grade: C-

Not sure I’d want this on a tree, but…

…I am so buying one of these this year.

link love 05-01-09

Swine flu swine flu, whatcha gonna do…

Collector Steve Hertz hosts the semi-annual SC3 arcade parties at his house in Claremont, California, where attendees get to try their hands at retro consoles, play rare arcade cabinets, and meet other gaming enthusiasts. Here’s his recap of last weekend’s party. Also see COIN-OP TV’s coverage.

Bubbling back up due to the XBLA release, read all about the History of Virtual-On. Downloaded the demo last night, looking forward to some quality time with the game this weekend.

Oh, and to toot our own horn for a moment, Jet Set App’s first app, BottomLine, just went live on the iTunes Store. Games soon, we promise.