The impossible has happened…
Yes, that is correct, it’s a Centipede arcade game in Marie & I’s bedroom. And Marie was the one that suggested it. How friggen cool is that?!?! I think my arcade collecting obsession is starting to rub off on her.
Oh yeah, that black blob on the right is our dog Hailey.
iphone.debaser.net
Ever since Steve Jobs showed off the iPhone at the MacWorld keynote, I’ve been obsessed with getting one. When it finally came out, I decided to hold off for a bit to see if it lived up to the hype. Other than a few minor issues, everything I read about it, including talking with a good friend who bought one, gave it the big thumbs up. Unfortunately I was locked into a contract with Verizon for just under another year. Lucky for me, Marie was with Verizon but was not under a contract. After a little coaxing, I was able to get her to take over my phone and contract (thanks babe!), even tho she would lose her current cell phone number. So last week Friday, I went to Woodland Mall on my lunch break and picked up the 8GB iPhone. Speaking of the Apple store, I hope there is no reason for me to have to go back there anytime soon. Apple might have their shit together when it comes to user interfaces but they fall flat on their ass when it comes to customer service. I had to wait in line for over 15 minutes just to make a simple, no questions asked purchase.
The price tag was a bit much to shallow but after I sell off my 30GB iPod and my Missle Command cocktail arcade game, that will just about cover it. It’s a small price to pay for such a great device. The first time I held one was when I removed mine from the box. The display on this thing is amazing and the touchscreen responds very well. It feels really good in my pocket compared to my LG VX8100 phone. It’s a bit longer but it’s alot thinner and because of this, most of the time I can’t tell it’s even in my pocket. It’s so nice to have a device this portable that can receive phone calls, check your email, browse the web and listen to your mp3’s. After using this thing for 5 days, I’m completely hooked.
I do have a few complaints tho. For some stupid reason, Apple decided to recess the stereo mini jack, which prevents you from using almost all of your stereo mini male cables on the iPhone, without using a $19 adapter. And for some reason they couldn’t offer a flexible stereo mini femaile to male cable. I guess they figured everyone would want a big adapter sticking out the top of their iPhone. Another thing is the camera doesn’t record video, which would have been a nice feature (considering most cell phones have this now). The visual voicemail is a really nice feature, as it downloads the messages directly to your phone which allows you to listen to them even when you don’t have a signal. The problem is the audio quality on voicemails is poor. You can make out everything but the recordings sound really tinny. Hopefully they will up the bit rate for voice mail playback to fix this. Another minor issue is that you cannot send a text message to more than one person at a time. I’m sure this will be changed in a software update tho. Speaking of updates, the first iPod software update was released on Tuesday but it’s just fixes some security issues. No new features yet.
I installed a new theme for my blog tonight. It’s a temporary change as I was getting really sick of the old look and haven’t finished setting up the theme I really want to use. If I was better with coding PHP it would go alot faster but alas I’m not a programmer.
Too many projects
I took 5 days off from work the week of the 16th to work on one of my many projects - the game room. The dumbass we bought the house from decided that she would paint over the stain on the knotty pine, first with a layer of white primer and then a couple coats of light brown paint. After doing that she must not of been happy with it as she then put drywall over the walls. The bathroom was even worse. She put white textured paint all of the walls in there, two of which are knotty pine. Needless to say, after removing the drywall, I spent 3 days of my vacation just sanding the knotty pine walls to the bare wood. I never inhaled so much sawdust and paint in my life. The hardest part was the small inch deep pieces between each section of knotty pine. All that had to be done manually, which made for some really raw fingertips. Also, you had to get every little inch as that white paint sticks out like a sore thumb if you don’t. I did it the best I could but I still couldn’t get all of it. I don’t think you will even notice unless you really look for it. I wasn’t as picky this time around as I was when I refinished the walls in the family room. My fingertips couldn’t take the abuse.
I also spent some time during my vacation cramming for the A+ certification exams, which I took mid vacation and passed with flying colors. I hadn’t taken an exam since high school (15 years now!) so I was a little nervous. The next certification I would like to go for is Network+. Now I just need to find some good study materials for it.
I’ve also been taking on a few video game projects the past couple of weeks. I managed to get my Afterburner cockpit up and running with a new board set I picked up off ebay around Christmas time. The motion even worked too! It was so much fun playing this game again, with the entire cab moving up and down and the seat moving side to side. Unfortunately it was shorted lived as the pitching motor started running non-stop and blowing the fuse in my power strip. It looks like the triacs that control that motor are bad. I did find a guy who had a source for NOS (new old stock) triacs so I picked up a few from him. Before I replace those and fire it up again, the cab needs a complete cleaning. The motors are just covered with dirt and dust. Just cleaning up that cab will be an all day project. I did check all the motor brushes and thankfully they are all in good shape. I did manage to find a guy that has NOS brushes, which I will be picking up in case I need some in the future.
Another project game I recently got up and running is my Atari Quantum that I picked up from the Kalamazoo warehouse in July 2003. I had to purchase a new flyback as the original red was all chewed up (darn mice) and probably dead anyways. Just when I decided to buy a new flyback, Wintron decided to quit making them. This was probably a blessing as Mark over at Cinelabs started working on building a replacement transformer that would be a drop in replacement, unlike the Wintron. It was also quite a bit cheaper. After installing the new flyback and rebuilding both the deflection board and the HV board, Quantum was alive after setting in storage since October 10th, 1988, when the monitor died (according to a note written on masking tape across the top of the machine). This was short lived as when I attempted to adjust the X size on the deflection board, two resistors went up in flames - and took out about $12 worth of parts with them. So after replacing all these parts and putting in new size pots on the deflection board, it was up and running again. I’ve been playing this game like crazy lately and it’s very addicting! My high score so far is just over 122,000. You can really rack up some points by continuing to circle the particles again and again. I rebuilt the trackball unit with new bearings, rollers and a shiny new trackball. This makes it very easy to circle those particles. I’m making it a personal goal to get at least the second highest score on Twin Galaxies. Since this is such a rare game, I don’t have alot of competition. And with my current high score, that already puts me in fourth place.
I also picked up two Outrun upright cabs for $100 from an ad I saw in the local paper. One was complete and the other was mostly empty, tho it is the nicer of the two cabs. The guy I bought it from didn’t have a board set in either cab but included one he had laying around (apparently he had five of these cabs at one time). So when I got home I mounted it in the complete cab and plugged in the board set. I didn’t get any sound and the monitor wasn’t coming up, but the game did seem to play and the shaker motor is working too, which is a good sign. The monitor probably has a bad HOT or flyback. Hopefully the no sound issue is just a bad amp and not something on the game board itself. Another summer project to add to the list.
Last week Saturday I had my fellow arcade collecting buddies James & Pete over to my house for a night of gaming. Pinball at the Zoo was going on that day, where James & I met up with Pete. They had a good selection of pins along with a ton of vids this year, which was a nice surprise. Some of the highlights were Joust pinball and two Dragons Lair’s. It’s a shame Joust pinball is so rare as it’s a riot to play and would be a great game to add to the collection. Super Auctions was doing there thing also and I was really surprised at the number of classic games. You gotta wonder where all these machines turn up from. I would think all of the warehouses have been picked thru by now but I guess that’s not the case. The prices were very reasonable but I told myself I wasn’t buying anything else until I get my projects in the garage finished up. For the record, that’s 5 projects: Afterburner cockpit, Outrun, Donkey Kong, Solar Quest and a Pac cab that will be my Multicade machine.
This week after I tack rag the knotty pine walls in the game room and bathroom, I’ll be staining them and calling it good. Then it’s drywall time. The west wall in the game room along with the south wall and ceiling in the basement need to be drywalled. My brother in law has offered to help me do this as I have no idea how to hang drywall, let alone mud it and make it look good. Hopefully between the two of us we can get this done and looking good.
Wish me luck.
Weekend with the boys
My good friend James invited myself and Pete up to his place this weekend for our quarterly get together where we stay up late playing arcade games, pinball, watching This Old Pinball videos and shooting the shit. This time we added a new collector to mix by the name of Richard. Richard’s from Illinois and for only being into the hobby since ‘04, he has managed to acquire a collection of 43 games! His collection includes some rare cabs such as Q-bert Qubes and Food Fight. I’d say he’s off to a good start.
I brought my Wii over so James could get a chance to check it out. We had alot of fun playing each other in the various Wii Sports games. I stayed up until about 3:30am Saturday night playing Twilight Princess. It’s getting really interesting now and you never know what’s going to happen next.
Speaking of the Wii, the first official modchip, called Wiinja, has been released that allows you to play Wii & Gamecube backups along with Gamecube imports. It requires you to open up your Wii and solder 5 wires to it. I’ll definitely be waiting awhile before using any mod chips on my Wii, especially since there is no way to update the Wiinja. Seeing as updates for the Wii are released frequently, it’s very possible that Nintendo might start blacklisting Wii’s who have modchips connected to them. That’s not something I’m willing to risk.
I was hoping to do my taxes this weekend but then realized that my bank still hasn’t sent me my 1098 yet. The plan this year with our return is to pay off the credit cards and then use the rest to put towards materials for finishing the basement, starting with the gameroom and the full bath off from it. We’ll be starting with the bathroom which needs a shower insert, drywall for the ceiling and for boxing off the return air vents, wall coverings and floor tile. I need all the help I can get…
Ethan has been doing the cutest thing lately which is he wraps his arms around your neck and gives you the biggest hug. I’ll be holding him and he’ll just give me 3 hugs in a row. The first time he did it I about had tears in my eyes. It was too damn tender. Tonight he managed to slam his fingers into our bedroom door. He cried for 5 minutes straight and kept shaking his hand but was fine after that. Poor guy.
Wii’ing
I gotta say, the Wii was worth the fuss! I’ve put 4+ hours on it so far and it’s been alot of fun. It comes with Wii Sports, a collection of 5 different games - Tennis, Bowling, Baseball, Golf & Boxing. The games do a great job of getting you accustomed to using the motion-sensing wireless controller. My father-in-law was over tonight and I had him try it out. He ended up playing it for half an hour and had a riot. I’ve got it hooked up to my wireless network which allows you to send email, surf the web with the Opera browser and purchase games to play on your Wii from the NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis & TurboGraphix 16. At $5-$10/game, I won’t be buying them anytime soon.
The Wii uses a SD memory card slot which allows you to save games, pictures and downloads. I did a little Google searching and there are instructions for running homebrew code on the Wii off an SD card. Will have to check that out soon.
If you get an opportunity to pickup a Wii, I highly recommend it. If you do, send me your Wii code and I’ll add you to my list.