MBJ

Hey everyone, I just got myself a Nintendo DS today along with a copy of Mario Kart DS and I am itching to play against someone online. My friends either do not have a DS or do not have WiFi. I have been playing against some othe the other random people online but I would love to challenge some fellow retromags users. I'm still figuring out the detils of how this online matchup thing works but my friend code is: 034427 157894 If you are able and willing, PM or IM me with a time and/or friend code and we'll get our Kart on!

Sorry, My wife has been playing the latest Sims 2 Expansion Pack on the PC that I use for seeding and she tends to shut all of my stuff down. I'll make sure that they are all seeding overnight tonight.

This guy built a fully functioning gyroscopic mouse into an NES Zapper! If only I had that much talent and free time! http://www.zerosign.net/index.php/2006/03/...es-zapper-mouse

Any progress on the PC probs Philly? Hope things are going better this week than last!

I'm in for $10. Looking forward to broadening our horizons and getting some more Nintendo power up.

I don't exactly know what an eBook is but I use Adobe PDF like mad. Just about all of my readings for school are downloadable PDFs and I usually print everything to PDF since I don't have a printer that is easily accessible.

I think that the Gameboy line is definitely worth a nod too. All competitors have fallen by the wayside (Game Gear, Lynx, etc). We'll see what happens with the PSP but if history is any indicator, technical superiority and a higher price point is no way to beat Nintendo's handhelds. I have heard that Nintendo plans to keep the Gameboy and DS both in production but considering the rapid increase in popularity of the DS and the fact that it is backwards compatible with GBA games, I am wondering how much longer it will be until nintendo goes all DS on their handheld front. If only it were backwards compatible with the earliest Gameboy games and multiplayer capable with GBA games... I just think it's awesome that Nintendo is still manufacturing a system that will play carts from 1989. I challenge anyone to find better backwards compatibility in the history of computing or video games. I am surprised to see a couple of votes for Dreamcast as best system. My impression was that that system was esentially a flop.

I heard about this a while back. I never had a Tivo (I just download better than broadcast quality DivX copies of any show I missed) but I always thought that if I got one the lifetime service plan would be the way to go. Lame !

I played some Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart DS with a friend that I was staying with on vacation the other day. I have really got to get myself a DS as that is an excellent version of Mario Kart. I just bought some classic gameboy games on ebay to play on my GBA SP: Tetris (the original), Super Mario Land, and Solar Striker. Gotta love that backwards compatibility.

Hope you get to feeling better as soon as possible man. That sounds quite miserable.

If it's going to be a problem, feel free to take my "" comment down, I'd hate to do anything that might interfere with the funding for the site.

In defiance of the forum's language filter changing one of my arcade score comments, I'd just like to say that Bowser kicked my !

Fans like that are what make me consider installing a water cooling system in my next machine. Is it at least relatively quiet? Or is noise not a concern?

There's an article up over at IGN.com on the evolution of game consoles. Only part 1 of 3 is up right now but I thought that you Retromags readers might find it interesting. Here's the link.

Here's a link to Sony's official Bluray site if anyone is interested in the list of release titles. It's mostly the usual guy fare (sci-fi & action) as that is their target early adopter demographic. I am personally looking forward to seeing how computer animated films like Pixar's work looks on these new formats. I can only imagine how cool The Incredibles would look in hi-def. I am also curious as to how older TV shows will look. I am guessing that there won't be a huge step up in quality due to the constraints of the source materials. I don't think I'll have the resources to buy all of the Star Trek TNG and Voyager seasons again...

This is actually a pretty interesting article from the NewsBot. You don't often hear about these types of features amidst the Microsoft marketing blitz. I am a bit less skeptical of the forthcoming OS after reading this article. It's definitely worth a look if you are a Windows user. One of my biggest concerns, legacy software support, has kstill not been addressed much in the information that I have come across about Vista thus far. Has anyone heard anything on this issue?

I have been looking for a good analog controller to use wih emulated N64 Games for some time as I can't stand the inaccuracy of the digital pad with those games. Can anyone recommend a good controller? Even though a USB modded original controller would be ideal, I wouldn't mind just getting another kind since it sounds like there are some complications with the conversion process.

Cool. That should be interesting to see. I have never heard of that particular magazine. It's funny to see the differences between the products that are released in Europe or Japan and the ones that are released in the US. Maybe the NES with the black power and reset buttons in that old Zelda commercial was a British model?

My own dual monitor setup is actually pretty ghetto. I have one nice 17" LCD monitor as the main screen and an older smaller dimmer CRT monitor as my secondary screen. I usually just have Azureus running on my second monitor so that I can glance over and see when people are downloading the retromags releases. I had the monitor sitting around and my video card was capable so I figured that it might be kind of cool...and it is.

I have been reading a lot lately about how HD-DVD and Bluray will be incompatible with most early HDTV sets. The gist of it is that the movie studios are worried about protecting their hi-def content so they are making it so that players of these new discs will only output the highest quality signal through an HDMI connection. Early HS sets had only component video input for HD quality. This means that millions of early adopters of HDTV are getting screwed over since HDMI connections are only a couple of years old and the component outputs from HD-DVD/Bluray will only carry a lower resolution signal. I don't have an HDTV myself, nor do I plan to buy one until this whole mess works itself out. I am however, curious as to the thoughts of other Retromags users. Are you getting screwed over? Here's a link with some more detailed info on the issue.

There was also relatively little competition for the NES. For most of it's life the only video game alternatives were on PC or arcades. PC games were not as sophisticated back then and you had to play them on a tiny monitor. Arcade games were just harder to come by and you needed quarters in your pocket to play. Now there's competition from PC games, Sony's Playstation, and Microsoft's X-Box.

This is an interesting development. I imagine that in the not too distant future, free citywide WiFi internet access may become commonplace. The different speed tiers that seem to be developing makes sense to me too. Free wireless internet access for everyone but if you want a high speed connection, you have to pay for a premium service. This would ensure better web access for low income families and those people who want a connection with 8 Mbps download can just pay extra.

I drive a vintage 1982 Mercedes Benz 300 SD. It has a beautiful 5 cylinder diesel engine with almost 200,000 miles on it. In fact, the engine is the only part of the car that isn't falling apart. Fortunately for me however, it's the most important part too. Here's a blurry picture from about 8 years ago:

I would say that about 1/3 of the newsbot posts are interesting. But I wouldn't do away with it as it helps to stimulate discussion. Perhaps newsbot posts with no replies should be deleted after 2 weeks to keep it from cluttering the current events thread.

That is VERY cool news. I am guessing that there will be a lot of copyright issues that pop up though. It will be interesting to see how this works itself out. Any move toward free availability of any type of information like this makes me smile.