RIP-Felix

Agreed, but they hold the right to Mario, Zelda, Starfox, Metroid...Dam you Nintendo!!! Please please me too, not just the 5-12 year old! I WANT TO LOVE YOU!!! I'M REALLY TRYING.

I'm still driving a 2000 Toyota Camry, never had any issues (except fender benders) and normal maintenance. The Transmission is starting to slip and I'm thinking about a new car myself. 17 years so far, and probably a few more before the tranny goes is pretty good. I had a 1996 Buick century before that, it's transmission did the same thing and died on me in 2008. So we got 12 years total out of it. Since 2000 my family's had 4x Toyota's (2005 Avalon, 2007 Prius, 2005 Carolla, and my 2000 Camry) and none of them had issues in their first 10 years. Actually, I'm very impressed with Toyota engineering. My dad's Ford "aurus" (It was a Taurus before the T fell off) had the AC seize up and burn up the fan belt. My Camry used 2 belts in a triangle pattern with the alternator on top. It's extremely easy to replace the alternator and belt, just loosen a tension bolt and take both out. The "aurus" uses a bolt you have to wrench on and hold against the force of the tension spring while you snake the common belt around everything in a pattern you have to look up. It's cramped and can't be easily done. Moreover, his door seals leaks and the passenger seat gets wet when it rains. He's had other expensive issues throughout the life of the car, about every 2 years. I think he just paid it off, and now it's nearing the end of it's life. Don't buy a Ford Taurus, it is by far the worst car we've owned. In fair disclosure the Prius is being serviced for an electrical issue today that was quoted between $150 - $600, depending on the source of the issue. The dashboard lights will refuse to come on (includes the speedometer!) until you cycle the ignition sequence a few times. It could be a defective component that costs $600, which Toyota was replacing for free until 2015. I'm pissed they didn't tell us about it, but I guess they don't have to unless it's recalled. Or it could be a 12V batt that costs $150. We'll see what it actually is later today. Otherwise the Prius has been awesome. The savings in Gas is way more than this issue, and this is it's only offense so far. That's pretty good IMO. We have numerous friends with Prius' and the story is the same, very little maintenance. So I'm convinced that the 2000 extra parts is not a major issue. I though it might be, but 10 year later, It has proved otherwise. My grandpa owned a lot of American cars throughout the years, but bought the Avalon after my mom proved Toyota to him. While he had trouble with his Ford, Dodge and Chrysler, the Toyota's never had anything, until today really. He was always doing something on those (he did a lot of the work himself), but mentioned he's never needed to open the hood on the Avalon. He was converted too. So I endorse Toyota. I've never owned a Toyota truck, but you still see old Toyota beaters on the road, so I figure they must live up to the same standard as their sedans. That's my 2c.

True enough. In terms of the space required, these little systems don't require much and that appeals to me. I'd probably get an HDMI switch for the retro consoles (Be nice to find one I with CEC so it automatically switches to the active component. Or IR for control with my harmony remote). It's really the nostalgic diminutive case design that appeals to me. I'll admit it's an impulse buy, not something I need. Getting back to the SNES classic ed. Novelty requires inventory, so people can impulse buy when they see it instead of loosing interest during the many months it takes to track one down. Nintendo is dropping the ball and missing the opportunity. Even if they overproduce, the inventory will eventually sell. There's a constant conveyor belt of kids reaching the age these products make a coveted gift. So even if they don't sell out in the 4th quarter, they'll sell throughout the following year. Marketers employ statisticians to predict the Mean number of units that will sell in a quarter, and they are very good at their jobs. The decision to under produce (to completely sell out immediately) vs. over produce (to provide more than enough to meet Christmas demand) is negligent, especially if they "underestimate" the demand again. If that happens, we will know they are doing it on purpose. To what end? To drive kids crazy, to make headlines, to generate buzz, to bait and and sell the Switch - Which did not release with a virtual console, but Nintendo has confirmed it's coming. So, that may be their endgame for selling these short. Plus it creates a collectable market, which Nintendo is infamous for...so there's that too.

I wonder if the ship has sailed on that one. I agree it would be in keeping with hollywood's current trend of bait and switch revivals (independence day - resurgence anyone?...anyone?). Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown) is elderly at 78 and Michael J. Fox is deteriorating with Parkinson's. Desperately desired though it may be, BTTF has the 3 film trifecta and needs no encore. Besides, it's not worth doing if you can't get both Lloyd or Fox to participate in some fashion. And I think it's unreasonable to ask them to. They should feel proud to have inspired such a fan following with their work, but enjoy the time they have left with their families. ...but yes, I would go see it!

I'm kinda partial to thoes vecor graphics. Reminds me of asteroids. I've had a lot of fun with this one:

I'd buy the NES, SNES, and N64 classic editions if I could get my hands on them. But then again, I have NES and N64 original editions sitting right in front of me as I type this.

I think what I like about it is the open world without linear level design. You have to decide how to play it, it does not force you down a path. I like the slower pace, epic scenery and audio, the replayability with different specializations and abilities. That may also be what makes it "boring". Sometimes I will find a great waterfall, or mountain view, and just stop to take in the scenery and serene audio. I find it "relaxing". Yes, I go sightseeing in a video game. In short, I find this relaxation between questing and dungeon raids refreshing. But, yes...The elder scrolls games are slower pace. EDIT: I used to load up HALO2 (Sanctuary, a multiplayer level) and stand in the water to listen to the stream while doing homework or reading. I really appreciate a great soundtrack in video games. Kudos to devs who place high priority on audioscapes. PS: I played the Homefront demo on PS3 and was actually scared by the concussion and directionality of the gun shot audio! I had great headphones at the time, they broke and I haven't found anything since that comes close. I guess the difference between $300 and $50 headphones really makes a difference. I should pony up, that was epic and games have only gotten better since.

Lol...a "neon lightshow of Galaga on crack". Made me snicker. Interesting Idea, not sure it would be enough to sell me. I need more of a hook than just a galaga clone set to my music.

The UK is down wind of America right? Well then...

I think it would be cool to convert a family member's portrate or family reunion picture to a 2 tone for laser etching on a tree wood clock.

Nascar? BTW, why hasn't America adopted the meat pie yet? Those things are great!

in all modern glory, but yes...same genre

It saddens me that's even a thing. Considering the time and money that went into my rig, if someone did that to me...yeah, I'm in beat down town. Seems like this is the type of thing only serious jerks with an anarchist bend would consider, or someone looking for revenge. It's defiantly in the destruction of property criminal realm, and I hope it never happens to me.

You're welcome. Link A friend just introduced me to this game and I've got sucked into buying the Awesome Max Edition on PS4 for $40. Then I saw this deal and my jaw dropped. Seriously, that's a lot of fun for $13.59! I think it's worth the $40 I spent on PS store, but this is a steal.

blasphemy.

That's not the word I was thinking... Horrible works

I wonder if there's an electronic version of hoarders? My friend, you may need an intervention.

Acronyms can be pitfalls. I too run into the VGA nonsense from time to time, at work with IT pros who remember an analog world and use the acronym VGA daily in connection with VGA cords that refuse to be replaced with DVI and HDMI. I sorta came into computers during the transition period. Analog has it's advantages and was an engineering feat these digital guys don't understand nor appreciate. Nowadays they think using computers to tell a pixle to be yellow is hard. Let them try calculating the necessary voltage to send an electromagnet to bends an electron beam to excite a specific phosphor on a CRT! It's amazing to me those guys figured that stuff out with slide rules! New tech, new rules. I like both, but I'm sad to see the analog era die. The retro gamer in me saved an old CRT so I can continue playing my analog consoles without the lag and the way they were meant to look. The digital gamer in me bought a 55inch 4k for skyrim. I feel so confused!

I don't think that guy got paid by the devs for endorsing their product, if that's what you can call it. It's more like sarcastic disparagement. He's really enjoying life!!! I think I'd value the disk space more than the game costs, even free. Like a penny on a sidewalk, is it even worth the energy to pick up? Then think about the time you can never have back. I could be playing Skyrim...nah, lets play they came from the moon! Like Pink Floyd said, it'll just put you "one day closer to death." Let's face it, who's playing that longer than one day? (kids maybe, but then they have no sense of wasting time - they have an unlimited supply afterall).

The two are often used interchangeably. The GPU is the actual chip (Processor) on the Video Graphics Adapter (Graphics card). I don't really care, it's just semantics. Call it what you will, it amounts to the same thing - the hunk of pure lightning you plug into a PC to make games dazzle and amaze. Array is something different I imagine.

I just had a gander at newegg. After a quick reup on the currently available hardware, I wouldn't upgrade from your current specs. The trade off is not worth it (Cost vs. performance increase) IMO. I find VGA and Primary drive are the most influential factors in Gaming performance and best general user experience. My recommendations are: M.2 Gen 3x4 primary drive: I have a Samsung M.2 (2.2GB/s read, 1.3GB/s write). This has been the best single upgrade I've made, noticeable even over SSD (550MB/s read, 500MB/s write). However, it uses up 4x PCIe lanes instead of the SATA interface. This allows it to get around the SATA3 interface's throughput limit of ~550MB/s, but it requires you to consider your CPU's Max number of PCIe lanes. Think about SLI/Crossfire! You'll need to make sure you motherboard supports x16 on the second PCIe slot and that your CPU has at least 36 PCI express lanes. If it doesn't, then it will limit SLI performance. Don't bank on being able to double your performance with SLI later, unless you match motherboard with CPU correctly to begin with (and it'll cost you more). So, think carefully about what you want. If you don't plan to SLI, then you're not likely to reach a PCIe lane limit. This is one reason it's important to get the best standalone VGA you can. If you go the SLI route, then when you need more performance a year or two down the line you can get another VGA for cheap. This will extend the life of your machine until the available technology advances enough for an upgrade to be significant and minimally expensive. However, I have read that the new GTX10 series don't benefit as much from SLI. Moreover, CPU's with enough PCIe lanes cost more. So it may be advisable to get the single best card you can afford and forego SLI (Depending on your needs, if gaming is not one of them, then VGA is not that important). IMO, SLI/crossfire is not worth the added expense and headache. CPU: More physical cores is better for video encoding and other tasks that can take advantage of them. Games and other software are starting to take advantage, but higher frequency is better for legacy software and games that can't take advantage. I Prioritize higher frequency, then physical cores, for emulation. Remember, Games benefit more from primary graphics card more than the CPU. To dispel the marketing, I'll repeat that again. CPU considerations are secondary to VGA for gaming! Spend the money on a good graphics card first. Most people forget this next bit. For full scaling performance of 2 video cards, your CPU needs enough PCIe lanes! To support 16 (VGA 1) + 16 (VGA 2) + 4 (M.2) = 36x Max PCI express lanes. This necessary bit of information is not the easiest to find when comparing processors. And most affordable processors don't have enough lanes to take full advantage of 2 or more cards at x16. That's why you see affordable motherboards often list the second VGA port at x8. Memory: 8-16GB 1600MHz DDR4 is perfectly fine and affordable. The added MHz of 2400 is not that big of a gaming boost and it's expensive to get it to work. You need to carefully pair Motherboard, CPU, and Memory Modules to get speed above 1600MHz and it usually makes overclocking more unstable. I'm not a fan of spending that much more money for such a small performance boost, especially if it makes my overclocks unstable. Overclocking has a better potential performance boost than memory anyway. So what's the point of having high price memory, if I can't overclock and keep the higher frequency! I recommend just getting a solid brand of 1600 with tight timings.

Sweet rig! I assume you mean CMP (ClrMamePro)? Mame requires changes to both Mame itself and Roms, so you have to get rom update packs and use a rom manager like CMP to update your romset to the new version of mame. You can get away with older romsets, since most roms don't change between versions, but the changes pile up over time and the number of unplayable roms increases. This is a useful guide. Good hunting.

Yeah my rig is down currently and I've been putting off the headache. So I feel yr pain Oh, BTW I put together a MAME tutorial a while back that you may find useful. Kinda basic, but a good refresher. As for CLRMamePro, god that kicked my butt for years until I finally figured it out. Trick with that is to get the official clean copy of mame from the mame dev team and build the database from that exe. I was trying from other builds and it always failed - it drove me bat disease (rabies) crazy.

No, that would be done using "Merge Sets" in the "Advanced Emulator Config" section in GameEX. The main list will just show a list games, then when you enter that game you will choose the disc to start. It originally was designed to keep clones, hacks, and related versions under one listing, but works for this purpose too. EDIT: to be clear, you want all your *.LNK shortcuts in one folder without subfolders for simplicity. Then use Merge Sets to clean them up. The best way for this to work is to keep the ROM nomenclature (Goodmerge for example). GameEX knows this nomenclature and will correctly map the games into the correct listings (with other cool stuff too, like automatic artwork downloads if you have emumovies, icons, descriptions, and etc.) I used to rename my rom...It was a bad idea.

Yeah, every physical disc will need a separate link made in ePSXeCutor and placed into a shortcuts folder that you will point GameEX to (From GE's point of view, they are the games). So, for example, you will need to make 5x *.LNK shortcuts for the five disc of Riven, 4x for Final Fantasy VIII, and so on. This only applies to ePSXe, switchdisk can be used for other multi-disk systems too, but ePSXe needed the above work around. Tip: it's very important to think about where you want to keep your ROMs (ISO, BIN, etc.). If ever you want to move them or the ePSXe root folders, you'll have to remake all those shortcuts. If you have a large library of PS1 games, that will take a long time. So get it right the first time.