VT-Vincent

He was about 18 pounds.

I actually don't have a problem with the iPhone pricing... I paid $99 for mine (refurbed, subsidized) and I pay about $72/mo after all of the taxes and BS charges. I previously had a Palm Treo which cost me $300 for the phone subsidized and over $80/mo for voice + data. The iPhone ended up being 1/3rd the cost upfront and was even cheaper monthly since my employer has an AT&T accommodation.

I can't really say I have... out of curiosity, what was the device in question?

If you're looking for an interesting diversion, Wild Woody (it's about a pencil, you pervert) is kind interesting. It's basically just a D-grade platformer with some humorous video cut scenes. It was one of the last games to be released for the Sega CD and it's actually pretty rare.

He was obese when I picked him up and I did actually have him on special food. Unfortunately, he just couldn't seem to loose it... even when he went outside to play, he would just walk over to the neighbor's porch and sleep for 3-4 hours. I actually remember the first day I had him, he chased up the stairs after me and was wheezing when he reached the top.

My cat, Shadow, was extremely obese. He was actually homeless for a year before I took him in and strangely he never lost any weight during that time. When I had him, he gained slightly more weight and eventually came down with diabetes. I had to have him put to sleep a few months ago.

If I'm not mistaken, isn't our Sun supposed to burn out before then and take most of our solar system with it?

Actually, I thought the Andromeda galaxy is supposed to collide with ours in a few billion years. Not sure if it's going to be the end of the world, but it should be one hell of a fireworks show.

That's a tough one. The risk is a little lower for games on systems with a harder to pirate medium, but honestly there's a risk of getting a counterfeit no matter what console you're purchasing for. As far as the actual merchant is concerned, if you have an organization such as the BBB (Better Business Bureau) you can use them to check out any previous customer complaints and get a pretty good idea of their track record. A direct phone number for any online business is also a plus, you can even call them and ask a few questions about the product just to get some idea of how they conduct their customer service (or if they do at all). Also, if the price seems too good to be a true (for example, a first-party title that was published last week selling for well under 50% of it's original price) it probably is. Last but not least, I would always recommend doing any online purchases using a credit card. Most cards have far more consumer protections than a standard debit card and some even go the extra mile and add things such as return guarantees. In my experience at least, I've also had pretty good luck with eBay. A lot of reputable sellers have games much cheaper than you'll find in-store and most of them are still factory sealed. You have to be particularly cautious of bootlegs on eBay, but usually if a seller is putting them out they will have a trail of negative feedback.

I did nothing this New Year's... I've been sick all week.

I've used Ubuntu in the past on virtual machines, but not actual hardware. It makes a good virus-proof OS when you need one.

Ootake, a Turbo Grafx 16 emulator for Windows was updated today. Below is a list of changes in this release: "CD FullInstall" was added to "CD-ROM" menu. The all(data & audio) track of CD-ROM game is installed as a file in the hard disk drive. As a result, the access is sped up, and made tranquil. "CD-ROM->Play Full Install" menu was added to "CD-ROM" menu. FullInstalled CD-Game by "CD-ROM->CD FullInstall" menu is started. As a result, there is no time when the CD board is replaced. * Please use "Image File(CUE+ISO+WAV)" carefully. Because distributing "Image File(CUE+ISO+WAV)" is illegal. Please avoid direct sunshine and moisture, and keep "Mastering CD-ROM" importantly. "Play Installed CD" button (shortcut key 'P') was added to the start screen. The version of installer (Inno Setup) was newly updated. When Windows of a Japanese environment is used, it displays it in Japanese. The size of the file has become small. Moreover, the installation with Windows7/Vista is smoothly done in more environments. * I think that I can do the multilingualization of the menu and the message of the main body of Ootake during next year (2010). Processing of ADPCM played was brought close to the movement of a real machine. In "AYA", the problem that the voice occasionally became interrupted was solved. The access processing part of the video chip has been improved. In "Princess Maker 2", when the rest command of the schedule was selected, the problem that the display has fallen into disorder (generated from v1.61) was solved. When "Mirai Shounen Conan" is started, the speed of the CD access was slowed down at the real machine level. The problem that had occasionally stopped when the stage began was solved. When it returns from full-screen to desktop, the problem that the window of other applications occasionally moved was solved. Additionally, a detailed part has been improved and corrected. Project Page: http://www.ouma.jp/ootake/ Source: http://www.vtemulation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=463

Just about everyone I know celebrates Christmas in some way or another. It's a day (or two if you're lucky) off from work and some presents, what's not to like?

Yabause Wii, a port of the Sega Saturn emulator, Yabause to the Nintendo Wii has been updated today. Below is a list of changes in this release: support USB storage sort game list alphabetically Source: http://www.wiibrew.org Project Page: http://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/Yabause

FCE Ultra GX, a port of the NES emulator FCE Ultra to the Nintendo Wii was updated yesterday. Here is a list of what's new in this release: Fixed major file loading issue, more games load now File browser now scrolls down to the last game when returning to browser Auto update for those using USB now works Fixed scrollbar up/down buttons Fixed zapper Updates from FCEUX Minor optimizations Author's Site: http://code.google.com/p/fceugc/ Source: http://www.vtemulation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=460

SNES 9x GX, a port of the Super Nintendo emulator SNES 9x to the Nintendo Wii was updated yesterday. Here is a list of what's new in this release: Changed default folders to snes9xgx/roms and snes9xgx/saves. Old folders will be automatically moved to the new location File browser now scrolls down to the last game when returning to browser Auto update for those using USB now works Fixed scrollbar up/down buttons Minor optimizations Author's Site: http://code.google.com/p/snes9x-gx/ Source: http://www.vtemulation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=459

VisualBoy Advance GX, a port of the GameBoy Advance emulator VisualBoy Advance to the Nintendo Wii was updated yesterday. Here is a list of what's new in this release: Numerous core optimizations (thanks dancinninjac!) File browser now scrolls down to the last game when returning to browser Auto update for those using USB now works Fixed scrollbar up/down buttons Minor optimizations Author's Site: http://code.google.com/p/vba-wii/ Source: http://www.vtemulation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=458

Despite being discontinued in 2004, a new (and possibly final) version of GEST was released today. GEST is a GameBoy emulator for Windows. Currently, only the binary release has been updated. The latest source code is from v0.85. Below is a list of changes in this release: Source: http://www.vtemulation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=456 Author's Homepage: http://koti.mbnet.fi/gest_emu/

bsnes, a popular Super Nintendo emulator for Windows was updated today. Here's a list of what's new in this release: Source: http://www.vtemulation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=453 Author's Homepage: http://byuu.org/bsnes/

Now why would you want to do that? You don't like the constant quiz, farmville, mafia wars and fish tank notifications?

The official system requirements are actually quite low, it only needs a processor with SSE2 and 512MB of DDR memory. Last night I had it running at full speed with bi-linear filtering turned on easily with the following specs: Core 2 Duo E6300 2GB of RAM GeForce 7900GS 256MB While the few games I threw at it ran quite well, compatibility is bound to be hit-or-miss due to how complex the platform was and the fact a few components are still not fully emulated. I saw minor glitching on the background in Bug! and Saturn Bomberman actually managed to crash the emulator. On the plus side though, the games that did run correctly were excellent.

Yeah, I thought the whole idea of trying to put the thing online was bizarre. As I recall, it only supported their official modem as well as ancient v14.4k modems as well (which even by that time, were far, far behind the curve) via a parallel connection to their dial up kit. If you could manage to get the thing online, you could look forward to text-based browsing and extremely crippled email. I remember the biggest disappointment I had with it though was the screen - the used the cheapest calculator screen they could which had an awful refresh rate. In retrospect though, it's kind of interesting to see that all of the Game.Com's ideas did eventually come to fruition. To the best of my knowledge, it was the first online-capable touchscreen portable. Now, we have the Nintendo DS doing exactly what Tiger tried except in a much more refined form. I actually liked Wario Land 1 (Super Mario Land 3) a lot as well as the GBA Wario Land 4, but for some reason I could never really get into 2 and 3. The Virtual Boy game was really one of my highlights for the platform though, if I were to buy one back I think that is the one game I'd look forward to the most.

Updated the original post - I have to admit, I'm very impressed with this release and I'm glad to see that things are finally shaping up for the Saturn. I was toying with it last night and I actually snagged some gameplay footage of this version in action: - Bug! - - - -

SSF has been updated to version v0.11 Alpha R2. Below is a translation of the change log: Author's Homepage: http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~phantasy/ssf/index.html Source: http://www.vtemulation.net/forums/index.ph...entry2188

Honestly, it's more for the novelty than anything else... but I do have to say, Wario Land on the VB is one of the better side-scrolling platforms I've played. I would love the chance to go back and play it again. Just thinking of that era though... isn't it amazing how many failures hit the market at about that same time? The VB had an embarrassingly small game library but so did Tiger's ill-fated Game.Com (I actually used to own one) and the 32X (owned that too).