Messages

1

Hardware and Tech / Re: Looking for Gaming PC Ideas

« on: April 14, 2021, 06:41:14 pm »

Now is not the time to be building a gaming rig.  GPU scarcity and the resulting prices aren't going to make it worth your while.

I never thought to look. There is nothing even in the manufacturer I use. And looking on Ebay, the video card I currently use is selling on Ebay for more that I paid for it new and it is from 2017. 

  Uh huh...  The GPU I bought for my wife was a MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ventus OC edition.  I gave around $300 for it, new in early 2020.  The only other one I have found since was $800.  The only GPU's I'm finding I'm not willing to pay the price for.
Just going to have to wait it out.

2

Hardware and Tech / Re: Looking for Xbox One Advice.

« on: April 14, 2021, 02:12:43 am »

I would try contacting someone even if it's the police, because sounds like what's happening to you is probably happening to a lot of people, and you got kids so you need to protect them, even if your own house don't burn down one of the other homes in your town might, and that could spread especially if you live near a lot of trees and woods, you are and your entire family are not safe.

If you contact some kind of authorities they should send someone out even if it has to be the FBI, but this is dangerous.

Did you know that the State of California has been burning  for a number of years now? And many people died in their homes and miles have been burning for a number of summers now there.


My town was almost taken over too, I hope you can find safety.

and if your local government don't give a shit apparently, but enough people stand up against them it might make a difference.

Surprisingly enough there have been next to no home fires due to electrical problems.  That said I cannot say the same for flue fires, arson, and meth labs.
We lose more houses to people too lazy to clean their chimney than anything.  The fires in Cali are a different matter entirely.
Contacting the authorities is a nice thought but it's ultimately useless.  Our town has one, maybe two police officers.  Most of the business is handled by the county sheriff and he's a half hour out, in a completely different town.  Even if you do, their go to response is, "get a hold of city hall." "Nothing we can do."

We have a fire department but by the time they mobilize it's already too late.  That's why the mottos of all the surrounding towns is.  (Insert town fire dept here), they haven't lost a basement yet. 
Since we live in town there isn't much in the way of foliage to worry about.  Even then the climate in Missouri differs so much than that of Cali, that while we do have the occasional wildfire they never get to past the point of brush fires.  It's fairly wet and oppressively humid here.  There are days when you cannot even get a grill to burn well enough to do any outdoor cooking, unless it's gas.

That's rural Missouri for you.  You're pretty much on your own.

3

Hardware and Tech / Re: Looking for Xbox One Advice.

« on: April 13, 2021, 06:17:44 pm »

What happen to you should have not EVER  have happened, to your home in the first place, If I were you I'd contact your electric company and report this and show them the damage, otherwise this could happen again or to someone else. That lineman should be fired immediately he does not know what he or she is doing, because that is one hell of a surge or powers spike, you have rights man, and that is vandalism to your private property

AND your paying your electric right? I'm sure you are and you just paid that lineman salary just to have your expensive equipment Beyond destroyed

That's the thing.  The town I live in is a municipality and in the state of Missouri any township with that designation operates by basically it's own rules.  I've been dealing with these kinds of damages for 20 years with no recourse, because the town IS the electric company for the most part.  It buys it's power from a provider out of Arkansas and the city is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance.

For your query about paying the bill, yes I do keep up my part.  lol  Though the average residential rates in Missouri is 10.17¢/kwh, ours is 12.30¢/kwh so in the last four months that's been around $2500.

Usually I do run high end surge protectors on my electronics, and I eat them to the tune of 7-8/year.  I didn't with this because I frankly couldn't afford one, and I've got kids, and I figured that I would be ok until I could get one.   ........yeah.

4

Hardware and Tech / Re: Looking for Xbox One Advice.

« on: April 13, 2021, 01:25:12 am »

I think I've figured it out.  My old power suply went up in flames and I bought a used OEM power brick.  That brick is no good, so I ordered another.  Anywho, pictures are going to follow.  They're big I'm sorry for that.  Both pics are from the fried supply one highlighting the damage, the second is to show what I believe the problem with the other supply to be.

The damage due to the over current.


This cluster of 3 2200uf 16v capacitors in the other supply have domed tops and are leaking.  So I figure that is my problem there.

5

Hardware and Tech / Re: Looking for Gaming PC Ideas

« on: April 13, 2021, 01:15:37 am »

Now is not the time to be building a gaming rig.  GPU scarcity and the resulting prices aren't going to make it worth your while.

6

Classic Video Games / Re: Top (50) PlayStation 2 Games With The Worst Graphics And Why

« on: April 01, 2021, 07:59:08 pm »

While not THE worst, Ephemeral Fantasia is pretty rough in more ways than one.

6:  Ephemeral Fantasia

7

News / Re: VGC-X Winners!

« on: April 01, 2021, 07:44:14 pm »

I would have posted sooner but I procrastinate too much.  I got Ocarina of Time 3D a couple of weekends ago.  Thanks again to everybody, I really appreciate the game.  Thanks to @dashV for the certificate of authenticity too.   

8

Hardware and Tech / Looking for Xbox One Advice.

« on: April 01, 2021, 07:35:57 pm »

I am having a bit of an issue with my Xbox One.  We had some linemen working on the electric pole by our house and we got hit by a massive power spike.  Now the system wasn't in operation but was plugged into the wall.  I do know that the power brick has a surge protector built in, that may not have worked.  It fried the brick, as in it caught fire and melted a hole into the top, inside the unit.

So I bought a new power supply, got it in yesterday got it hooked up, and next to nothing.  Pushing either the eject button or the power button and it will make the correct sounds, but you'll hear a faint whir then the system will power straight down again.
I've tried what fixes I could find online and have turned up nothing.  I figure maybe if somebody here has an idea, maybe I missed something, or maybe it just took the console out.  I don't know.   

9

Hardware and Tech / Re: 3 Way Coax Switcher?

« on: March 30, 2021, 12:33:54 am »

Did they make an A/B/C switch?  You can find A/B all over the place, actually back in the day I just used two of those daisy chained, though signal quality isn't the greatest.   

10

General / Re: Ever Bought a Game with No Plans on Opening it?

« on: March 26, 2021, 05:18:54 pm »

I have games I haven't opened,...yet.

I don't buy just to keep sealed.  Usually I'll take the wrap off even if I know I won't be getting to it for a while.

11

News / Re: VGC-X: Sign up now!

« on: February 14, 2021, 01:01:42 am »

I'll play. lol

12

Classic Video Games / Re: What I don't like about some consoles. [Not serious topic]

« on: January 30, 2021, 03:18:54 am »

Hey this might be fun.  I think I'll chime in with a few too.  Though I won't go through the full list of what I own.  Just a few that stand out off the top of my head.  Some will be paired though.

Nintendo Entertainment System
The zero-force insertion cradle.  Hands down. 

Sega Genesis
That 3 button controller.  An absolute pain to use for fighting games and developers that decided to troll you're child self.  Action games where the jump button was A and the action button was C, or vice versa.

Nintendo 64
I have this nifty thing called memory card and you're going to need it save all those games you're going to be playing.  You bought it, cool.  What do you mean all of the games save to the cart?  Memory card, I have a memory card? 
I swear my young teen self was convinced that I absolutely needed that thing to save these games.   .....Lessons leaned.

Sega Dreamcast
Yeah, it's midnight.  It's also a school night and you want to just get a bit further in that game.  T.V. volume at the barest minimum so you can still hear it without your parents noticing.  Say, how are those VMU batteries?  You realize that just as you press the power button.  You freeze as that shrill warning rings out, did they hear?  Of course they did, the neighbors heard it, and now you're grounded.
Boy were those things hard on batteries.  I swear a roll of Smarties in the hand of a toddler lasted longer than those two 2032s,  and that alarm annoys me to this day.

Original Gameboy Advance
You wanted to what?  To see what you were playing.  All you have to do is stand or sit awkwardly to get optimal viewing angle, full illumination, and little glare.  You can only have two of the three.

Nintendo Wii
Wiggle sticks and shovel ware.  It's still a good console and enjoy it.  Stellar games too, after you wade waist deep through garbage to find those gems.

Playstation
Those dedicated low storage memory cards.  As I was growing up I pretty much spent more than what I did for the base unit, on those little wallet vampires.

Playstation 3/Xbox 360
Well if the launch units weren't melting down.  This generation ushered in two of my biggest peevs.  The unfinished game(Day 1 patch, baby) and micro-transactions. 

Playstation 4/Xbox One
They understand that some of us are still attached to physical media, too bad it's set up in a way that after those servers finally shut down.  You had better hope you weren't intending to buy "retro" PS4 and One games. 

13

Hardware and Tech / Re: Always use a SONY Magic Gate 8mb memory Card For Your PS2, Here's Why

« on: January 30, 2021, 02:25:41 am »

Those memory cards were very unstable (large capacity 3rd party).  The official 8mb were what I always used.  Since the console is dead as far as retail goes I would assume that the 3rd party products haven't improved.  Unless one of those for the love of, dedicated retro groups makes one.  I would avoid the off brands.

This generally held true for most 3rd party Playstation memory cards.  Though I still have an old Performance 2x capacity that I bought in 97 that still works flawlessly.

14

General / Re: VGCollect's Big News

« on: January 26, 2021, 03:47:47 pm »

Wow I've been here almost 10 years.  Let's see what you have in store.

15

Classic Video Games / Re: Collections vs Original Copies

« on: October 30, 2020, 04:47:16 pm »

Either is fine.  I'm known to buy both or if I have the original games I'll still purchase the collections to, 1. Show the publishers I still support these and would like to see future releases.  2. It's convenient especially when a series that spans multiple console generations can be put in one place.

I have purchased collections then gone back and bought the original individually when I find them at a decent price.  I'm kind of bad with money in that regard but I like the real hardware aspect of it.

An aside to this would be the aforementioned Metal Slug Anthology.  I may be bad with money concerning original releases but seeing the AES cart prices, I'm not that bad with it.