RIP-Felix

Yup, it's best to leave for a couple of hours when you think it may be stuck. Thoes progress bars can be madining. GameEx too when you update MAME list will get stuck at like 55%, but eventually finish. Patience is key, but shizz goes wrong so often what do they expect us to do. My biggest gripe with M$ is they keep filling up the windows update folder (WinSXS). It gets so large over time that windows then complains my hard drive space is running out and to try using their cleaner. Then when I do it only saves like 200MB. What a crock of $hizz, M$ filled my perfectly large enough SSD with useless update information and then has the gall to blame me. I read somewhere how you can safely delete some of these without it screwing up your computer (Some are old and unnecessary, but huge. Others are needed and will brick your installation). I did it and it worked, cleared like 15GB of worthless update bloat, but I don't remember how anymore.

Yeah, I've run into that a few times. It's frustrating when an update process is supposed to automate the whole update just to restart to a BSOD. It's ushally an issue with the BIOS/UEFI not correctly assigning the boot drive, or when M$ funks around with AHCI drivers, which my setup relies upon not changing. It got a bunch more complicated when I installed my M.2 SSD, which required a very specific procedure to use as the boot device. So, now that everything is working I dread the day that I ever have to muck around with reinstalling win10. Especially since I upgraded free from 7. That's why I made and keep an ISO of my boot drive using acronis. I can reload a working image from that if I need to. Truth be told, however, I haven't remade an image in a long time and never fully utilized acronis (Just image backups, not the automatic incremental backups it's capable of). #livingDangerously

Yup, both L/R 1&2 are there. You can also see two little buttons, one below the d-pad (Star button) and another below the colored buttons (Home button). These sit flush against the surface. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but the instructions say that if you hold any button and press the Star button, the one you held becomes turbo. The home LED will blink rapidly when the turbo button is pressed to confirm it's turbo. I like that feature! For the retroarch hotkey, I just use Select + Down. Seems to work well. I prefer having a combo instead of a dedicated button, because it's easier to screw something up if you can figure out how to access a hidden menu. I have guests over and don't want them messing with retroarch settings. Besides they don't care about that stuff anyway and ask how to get out when they find menus like these. I'm debating on changing the retroarch combo to something even harder to stumble across, for that reason.

My 8Bitdo SF30 pro finally came in! I've had it pre-ordered for 2 months. I just got back from vacation and it's always nice to have a present like this to welcome you back. BTW: Thoes are Mario, Sonic and Pac-Man tins I got from a vintage candy store. I thought they were cool. I haven't figured out what to use the Mario Tin for yet, but I use the Sonic one for SD cards. Pac-Man holds about $13 in quarters. I call it a "1 Pac-Man" budget, for arcades. I brought it on vacation with me just to find their "arcade room" doesn't take quarters, you have to purchase a game card and swipe it at each machine... Rant:

Just picked it up. Thanks!

Sighted in the Wild I just saw three SNES classics at Walmart today. Since I got one on launch day, I didn't get another. I was surprised to see them however. I have been checking each time I go just to see if Nintendo is living up to their promise of making more of them. Maybe I got lucky, but there were alot of people shopping for the holidays. They surly won't last long, but the fact I was able to see them in the display case is proof that they are out there to be had. Nintendo is quietly stocking them for the holidays and the scalper price is currently around $120. I could have scalped them, but I want to give the local community a chance to gift them. Some kid will be very happy I didn't!

It's my goto ever since I learned that Chrome and Edge track the shibusiness out of you. Firefox has IMO been the most committed to user privacy and safety. Combined with Ghostery ad/tracking cookie blocker and DuckDuckGo.com (Search engine that doesn't track your searches) I've been very happy with browsing experience. Ads, when they do load are not relevant at all! Just the way I like it!

I'd say Echoes was the most tedious in the 3D franchise. Super Metroid sucked me in and I played it from start to finish in 2 days, even though I loose interest in side scrolling games very quickly. They need something to suck me in, Super metroid did. The only other one that kept my interest as much was Sonic 2, which says a lot about super metroid. But for me, top dog is Metoid Prime. Super Metroid was a very close second, but ultimately my decision is based first on which I'd rather play from the start right now, and second the one I've replayed the most. That's MP. I like the series, but Echoes is defiantly the most tedious. Corruption is very good though. But I prefer the GC controller vs the Motion controls. I did get the Trilogy on wii so I could play all three with the motion controls, but I've since reverted to my preference for the controller. It's still fun to play with the motion controls though. So it's cool to have options to replay the games with a different and satisfying control scheme. Regarding Other M, I actually liked the fusion of side scrolling and third person view with 3D graphics. It was enjoyable and kept me entertained the whole game through. However, I never played it a second time. I've been meaning to though, as I think it gets a bad rap. I don't remember it being that bad. Then again I don't remember it being that amazing either. It was just a unique and enjoyable addition to the franchise, which makes it special. I intend to give it another look soon.

Wow, nice turn around! That's actually what I paid for my new 970 last year...lol. They've really held their value since the 10 series came out. Worked out great for you.

I just bought a GTX 780Ti for $140 on e-bay a couple weeks ago, other wise I'd take you up. Overclocked it performs just shy of a GTX 970. GTX 970s are going for around $195, so if you list on e-bay with a reserve at $170, you might get more for it. Or you could sell it quick at a buy it now price of $170. I'd pay that, but I'm not in the market for a card just yet. Still that's a tempting offer.

I second that!!! Same here, I'd be all over that too if I didn't already have one. My dad and I stood in line on launch day to pick up the one sitting on my shelf. Still love to play me some SEGA Bass Fishing, with the reel controller of course...lol. I would've liked to see where that console could have gone had it done better. Too bad, but man did SEGA go out with a bang! Dreamcast is my favorite SEGA console. Stupidly underrated console.

I think it's pretty cool that microsoft wrote a program to "emulate?" the x-box. From what I've read x-box had too few exclusive titles to warrant a serious effort to emulate it. That's why there is no good x-box emulator available on pc. The serious devs focus on more beloved consoles (PS1/2, NES/SNES, Sega Genesis/Dreamcast, and of course Arcades). There are a lot of other niche emulators too, but the X-Box always got snubbed. There was a real void there. Unless you mod your original x-box to play ripped games, there really wasn't a good way to play those exclusive titles. I think it's cool of microsoft to step up to the challenge and add them to it's flagship console. That's how you retain fans and maybe resell few classics! Hell, there ain't nothing wrong with that. I terrorized the crimson skies back in the day on x-box live. I like Fable and Psychonauts too. I'm not sure if they remade these for other platforms, but I just play them on my original x-box. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Splinter cell, although available on other platforms, was best played on x-box. Then there is Conker: Live and Reloaded, Dino Crysis 3, Jet Set Radio: Future, and Ninja Gaiden, which are/were exclusive. I actually would prefer Dino crysis 3 were a PS2 game so all the dino crysis games would've been playable on the same controller. Oh well.

cool

Go back and watch the original trilogy and poke holes in it, you can if you're looking to. I knew there were going to be scenes/characters in 7 I wouldn't like, but there is still enough there to like. After reading the book, I appreciate the film more. It's more compelling a story when you know the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Film doesn't always capture the full sense. In this case the movie and book complement one another. Force Awakens wasn't that bad, it just hits a younger demographic - in an unappetizing, prequel trilogy, kind of way. Given that debacle, we were primed to hate anything short of an R rated Star wars movie, which Rogue One filled (albeit a few cuss words short of the R rating). It's a war movie that filled in a reference from the original trilogy. So yeah, it was going to be harder to screw up. The main saga, however, needs to appeal to kids. Jar-Jar's successor therefore is BB-8. A droid is a better choice for comedic relief. There have to be more breaks in the action and lovable/loatheworthy characters. Yeah, they followed the original's plot line as a template, but so what. It spawned a whole new generation of Star Wars! That alone is a science fiction fans dream scenario. I was starting to feel a bit starved of star wars. I'll take sick of it for awhile. Hopefully there won't be any Jar-Jar or Pre-Teen Love Sap. If they just stick to the Force Awakens amount of childishness, then I'm okay with it. Besides, we get the side movies to fill in the more adult themes. Hopefully the Young Han Solo movie will be the best star wars yet! Huge potential for a stinker though. That one makes me nervous.

Not fun for the passengers!

Okay, so here's a little update... SNEStalgia!!! Okay, so it's just a SNES classic edition. Or is it? Well, yes it's a SNES classic edition. But it's been...altered...to play more games than the 21 it came with! I limited myself to 30-40 games per system, because there is a cursor that points to boxart on screen, just below the larger scrolling boxart you select. This signifies where you are in the list. It's useful because when you add multiple systems it's nice to have folders with games from each system inside. The Icons for the folders are easy to change to whatever you want. So when I first turn it on, I'm greeted with Super Nintendo, Nintendo, Genesis, Atari 2600, GameBoy, and GameBoy Advance. When you enter one there are your games and a "Back folder". If you select the Back it will take you to the previous screen (it works like a button and you can change the image to whatever you like). Anyway, the point is, It's nice to be able to see where you currently are in relation to whole list of games and that back button. This list just gets bigger as you add games until it disappears outside the visible area of the screen. The number of games you can add without the cursor disappearing beyond the edge of the screen 30-40 per page, depending on the type of boxart (SNES is 30, NES/Atari 2600/Genesis is 40, GameBoy is somewhere in between). You can add sub-folders but I hate doing that. Having Icons for A-C games, D-G, and so on is just not fun IMO. So I'm limiting each system to the best 30-40 games I want to play. In practice this has been great. Finding a great game to play is easier and I am enjoying the system more as a result. The best thing about the alteration is that all the save states still work. So functionality of the SNES classic is intact. The only thing missing are the Nintendo bezels for games that Retroarch cores are emulating. I'm sure I can fix this by simply adding them to retroarch, but I haven't done so yet. Nintendo's interface is quite awesome! I love the simple layout, the retro theme, and music. Best of all is the case. Injection molding at it's finest! 1st party all the way! This...alteration...was so easy to do and perfect that I have lost interest in printing my own SNESmini! I love my SNES Classic Edition and it's now my preferred way to play the 8/16 -bit era. This is because of simplicity and ease of use. Retropie has retroachievments, which I like better, but it also has more options and ways to get all screwed up. You can't really screw up the SNES classic. Well you can get stuck in the retroarch screen, but you can change the button combo to something no-one will stumble across accidentally. It's just a simpler device that does what it does. Also, Nintendo's SNES emulator (Canoe) is impressive. Most of the SNES games you add will play with it, so everything just works. If not, retroarch does the job. All buttons are automagically mapped, so No rummaging through Retroarch screens! This is as easy to do as plugging it into my computer via USB. It takes less than 30 minuets. I spent more time getting the right boxart, making game lists, and custom folder structure, but once that's done you just sync the games. It's really easy. The fatal flaw. It only has 300MB to work with!!! So for 30-40 games per system, that's plenty. It doesn't handle N64 emulation well (Super Mario 64 is supposed to be an exception) and has too little space for Playstation 1, even though it handles it well. There is a mod that allows a SD reader to be soldered onto the board to expand the file system, but it's still preliminary. I'll wait for it to be safe before attempting. I guess NEStalgia will remain king for PS1 emulation for the time being. What about the cartridges? Well yeah I kinda miss the nostalgia of that, but actually I find not having this makes me focus more on the games. So I don't really miss it. Besides, that's what I have NEStalgia for! Speaking of NEStalgia, I picked up a composite cable and am currently testing it on my CRT. I'm hoping to clear up the lag issue! My biggest hurtle is getting the resolution right. Everything was setup for my HDTV, so it's too big to fit on my CRT and the bezels are still there. I don't want to loose all that work, but I also want to be able to plug into My CRT. I wonder if there is a way to make a profile for each that automatically loads depending on which out put is connected. I still need to look into that...

epileptic seizure warning! I felt like I was going to have one if I continued watching it, not that I ever have.

Here is one with just Nvidia and data labels. The regression line signifies the Value of the card. Any card above that line is a great value, a good compromise between price and performance. You can see where your GTX 770 stacks up. It's right on the low end of that line, which means it's nearly out of the High end card category, but still a good value. It's a great mid range cart now. I updated the prices with the best listings I could find on e-bay and Newegg for decent looking listings (used, but working, or new where the price was competitive with used). This GTX 780 is a good buy! It gets you back in the high end curve. Not quite, but close to doubling your 770's performance. It would be cheap if you sold your 770. A great value upgrade, probably another year or 2 of gaming for like $20-30 difference! I found a GTX 980 (used) for $235, seller sounds legit. This would be a nice upgrade from a 770, but you take a chance buying used off ebay. If you're cool with it, then this is the best value IMO, because you'll get another 6mo - 1 yr more out of it vs. the 780. So around 2-3 years of relevance overall. It's one hell of a steal. Comparable in value to the GTX 970 I got last January for $200. There is this: GTX 980 Ti for $400. Performance is slightly better than the GTX 1070 for a little more. That looks to be a nice trade off, but I'd do some research on how the tech behind the 1070 compares to the 980 Ti (there may be features that make the 1070 a better card, despite the difference in Passmark score). Also through e-bay you can get a new GTX 1080 from newegg (yes newegg purchase through e-bay) for $469 instead of $499. Still, the best value for a new card is the 3GB version of the GTX 1060. Great price, respectable performance. It gets you back on the High End card curve for the least amount of money (New). That's the safest choice IMO. If you want to take a chance on a Used card, then I'd jump on that GTX 980 ASAP! If you really want in that upper echelon, then do some research on the GTX 980 Ti and 1070. Get the 1070 new to be safe or the 980 Ti used for just a little more and a decent performance boost. Otherwise the 1080 is king. It's competitively priced and Tops the performance chart, a decent value card, but pricey. The Ti version is just too rich. That's only if you don't care about the cost, and must have the best. It's price is too high for the performance boost you get. It's the best performer, sure, but not the best value. When it's price drops $100 ($650 vs $750), it would be a better value. I did find a 780Ti for $140, but I snatched it up. It has a broken fan bearing, but that can be easily fixed for $19. So for $172 (shipped) I got a card that should outperform my GTX 970 and any 1060. I could sell my 970 for $195 and net $22, but I think I'll put it in my arcade cabinet. That should handle anything I could ever want on it. If it doesn't outperform my 970 (it should), then I'll put it in the arcade. We'll see. If it doesn't work at all, then e-bay guarantees a refund (since it was described as working, but with a noisy fan). So I feel relatively safe with the purchase. Sorry, I snatched it out from underneath you however. It was too good to pass up. Besides, it sounds like you're going with the 1070 anyway. That's defiantly a smart buy. You may want to think about the 980 Ti however. Food for thought. ***EDIT*** The EVGA GTX 780 Ti, Kingpin Classified reference edition, came in and I put it through its paces. It fell far short of the median passmark performance for 780Ti's on default settings (G3D = 7800), but after a little overclocking (+220MHz core, +200Mem, +10%power, no overvoltage) I got it closer to the chipset average (G3D = 8600 vs. the 8880 avg.), about a 10% increase over stock. It didn't quite meet the performance of My Gigabyte Windforce GTX 970 on stock (G3D = 8900), but it's closer to the GTX 1060s instead. It also doesn't support VR (that's what it says in the Nvidia settings, I haven't actually tried though). All in all, it's a great card! It was only $140 and I'm getting GTX 1060 performance out of it! A new 1060 starts a $220 as of writing this. They support resolutions of 8K, so there is real value added there, and newer tech that optimizes application performance. So, I feel the 1060 is competitively priced and worth it over a 780 ti. Since I got it at $140 and it's going in my arcade cab, I feel it was a good buy. Now the fan bearing is annoying, it's not that loud but it's a rattling fan noise that won't go away. So I think I will get the replacement fan, bringing the total cost to $172. Still that's very decent for this card. GTX 780 ti (OC) GTX 780 ti (Stock) GTX 970 (Stock) ***EDIT***

I actually went ahead and created a new graph from current data. It is taken from here. The 1060 is comparable to the 970 in performance. That's where I feel the best value is. Performance wise, I don't feel anything above 1070 is worth the added expense (especially given the fact that a 2 year old GTX 970 still hold it's own). I'd feel confident saying that a GTX 1070 in two years will be what the GTX 970 is now, and that by next January (2019) you'll be able to pick it up at $250-300. I figure the high end cards (Nvidia 70 and 80 series) depreciate $100/year for the first 2 years, but still perform well for at least 3-4 years. I'd pick up a GTX 1070 this Black Friday or cyber Monday. Alternatively, you can wait until January and get one open box or refurbished for ~$50 less. That's what I'd look for. That's why I waited until January of the following year to buy my GTX 970. It's first year premium wore off and I got it for $100 less, but still got 3 years of relevance for it. I traded 1 year for $100. If you buy the GTX 1070 this year you can expect to get 4 years of relevance, but pay $100 more to get it now.

IMO, I feel that video cards scale well. The more you pay the longer they stay relevant, up to around $300. Above $300 the price vs. performance drops off. January before last my GTX 970 was $300, this last January it was 200 (Until now, for some reason they're spiking). It still crushes everything I throw at it and it does so quietly! My advice would be to sell the other card and get the best one you can afford. Price vs performance is pretty linear (I actually plotted this a year ago). let me see if I can find those graphs...Yup! They're dated but you can see how AMD compares to Nvidia and how performance drops off above $300. I also linked my Intel vs. AMD CPU comparison for the sake of it. This is how I decided on a i7-4790K and a GTX 970.

From a quick look at Newegg, $150 budget would put you squarely in the GTX 1050 range, but for $200 you get into the GTX 1060 range. Sucks, but I guess I pulled the trigger on my GTX 970 just in the nick of time! You can hardly find them anymore and people want 250+ for them. E-bay may do better, but then you get into used territory. I originally bought one for $300, then refunded it for fan problems and decided to wait. Got it a year later for $200. That was back in January. I wonder what happened to make them so much more expensive all of a sudden. Scarcity? It's held up to the games and the test of time well!

That and people are too sensitive... Rant warning: Don't give much credence to the rant above. It's just me putting random thoughts into written form. They mean little more than my attempts to draw coherent connections between random facts to make sense of the crazy complex world we live in. One of the byproducts of that process is talking yourself into conspiracy theories, then realizing your just improving on the narrative. The world is just too stupid and inept to have actually planned it. It just worked out that way...because the world is in the hand's of the wicked one...erg...I mean...it's because of random chance...erg...it's because of greedy power mongers...I mean... Well, people. Yeah that's the one (right?) People Fu@k the world up, and write disparaging articals of my favorite books. Here's a conspiracy theory (actual spoiler contained in this one).

I think it's complete garbage! Total troll bait.

I think this guy sums it up pretty well... ...and this guy too: Now this guy is just funny (He grew up in PAL land!):

So remember when I first started this thread a year ago with a video of Daftmikes original miniNES, then shortly after selling a few kits he dropped off the face of the planet? Apparently he's not dead. Apparently he's been busy (besides not selling kits and refunding those he promised). There has been a Daftmike sighting, and it's glorious: I like both. However, it's the Super Gameboy's that get me pumped. His posts/videos are few and far between, but the results speak for themselves. The antenna solution for the NFC reader is genius! That problem has been holding up the Facebook SNES development for a while now. It's a simple solution too. If only we could get Daftmike to join the Facebook group and contribute. He obviously has some skills.