The Recycle Bin

Overall yesterday was a great day for racing. As I indicated in previous posts (and comments), I immensely enjoyed the European GP, and the Indy 500 was a blast as well. I am not sure what to make of the Coca-Cola 600; it was so damn long (5+ hours) with so many cautions (22) that at times it was too hard to watch because there was no flow to the action. Let me run that by everyone again – 22 cautions (a Cup record), or better said, 25% of the laps were run under a yellow flag (103 of 400 laps). Amazing!

Don’t get me wrong; there was plenty of drama (Budweiser taking out Napa Auto … sorry, hard to resist), Vickers taking out damn near anyone he could hit, and of course the Labonte/Johnson dual through the final turn. I was pulling hard for my fellow Corpus Christi, TX native to pull it off, but unfortunately Bobby could not hold off Jimmy.

Bobby Labonte said it best:

“To finish second really isn’t all that bad, but to finish second kind of stinks, too.”

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!

The 6th or 3rd Star Wars moving (depending on your view point) has already kicked some serious ass in the box office, and continues to do well with $15.9 million in earnings yesterday. Revenge of the Sith pulled in $108 million during its opening weekend, including $50 million on its opening day. Very, very impressive. Total US gross to date is $215.9 million, which means that someone is making some serious coin if you consider that the production budget is listed at $115 million. [Source: The Numbers, supershadow.com]

Geoff Pinello (geoffp) from the former Elder Gamer site (Chris’ old blog) is now part of the Recycle Bin! I met Geoff as part of Chris’ OOTP IOSBL, and am delighted that Geoff is going to contribute to the Recycle Bin. I will let Geoff do his own introduction, but I expect Geoff to write about this, that, and the other with his takes on racing, and PC gaming among other topics.

Welcome Geoff!

I never have considered myself a bandwagon jumper or a fair-weather fan, but I have always enjoyed watching Sam Hornish Jr. race, which is the main reason I am pulling for him in tomorrow’s race. I am not really sure why I latched onto Sam; I guess it is just one of those things where he was winning when I started watching the IRL, and winners get lots of exposure, so I was able to focus on Sam. In much the same way I latched onto Jacques Villenueve when I started watching F1 even though Damon Hill was the eventual Champion, so I have to think I am not all about bandwagons. The same goes for Jeff Gordon – he was winning when I started watching racing in 1995, so he was getting tons of press, plus I had to pull for someone that was close to my age when all the other Winston Cup mainstays were closer to my uncle’s age.

Anyway, I am going to be pulling for Hornish and the Penske team tomorrow, but all eyes will be focused on Danica Patrick, who starts on the 2nd row (4th position). Admit it – you are pulling for Danica to do well. If she does well, then the face of racing forever changes.

I do not follow the IRL enough – when I watch races, I always enjoy them, but I do not find anything compelling enough to make me *want* to watch the events. Shame on me? Maybe, but a few years ago I argued that the IRL needed to become more like NASCAR and really put an emphasis on the personality of its drivers in order for the IRL to capture the public’s imagination. I still feel that way; besides the occasional article on Hornish, and now all the focus on Patrick, the IRL continues to fail to fly the banner for its drivers. NASCAR may rule the roost, but so many of NASCAR’s top drivers have come from open wheel racing that the IRL has to learn to market its product better.

For the last several years I have watched the Indy 500, as I will tomorrow (God willing), and as I have for the last few years (except for Michael Andretti’s last 500) I will pull for Hornish. Regardless of who wins, I hope for dry weather, an exciting race, a photo finish, and for the IRL media types to finally capitalize on the personalities behind the wheel.

If you own a PSP by now you are painfully aware that the screen is super sensitive and scratches every time you sneeze, or you are about to come to the realization that you are going to scratch up the surface of your PSP any day. Either way, the PSP’s screen is made out of fragile stuff. I have done nothing but the kids’ gloves thing with my system, but it still has a stray mark or two. Sony should either improve the screen to make it more scratch resistant or supply these stupid little screen covers (clear plastic overlay type of thing) that I have been hunting high and low (A-Ha reference for those keeping score at home) for the last few weeks.

I am not sure why, but these plastic covers are almost impossible to find. Either demand is extremely high or the accessory companies did not anticipate demand so they only produced the covers in limited quantities. I am going to assume that demand is high because PSP owners left and right are scratching up their pretty little screens. I have looked for the overlays at all the usual suspects (online and retail stores), but everyone has been sold out. I finally found the Pelican Screen Guard at the Panama City, FL Wal-Mart. The store had 75 or more of these things, all retailing for under $9.

What do you get for $9? Not one, but two screen guards! Hooray! I am not sure why two are included, but I suppose two screen protectors are better than one. The screen supposedly guards against surface scratches, and provides glare protection. As I mentioned in my previous post, I could not see squat when playing my PSP on the beach, and the Pelican Screen Guard’s built in glare protection did not help the cause.

I think the Screen Guard plastic is made out of that plastic stuff that sticks to windows (think of oil change windshield stickers or parking stickers that go on the inside of your windshield), and is easily applied to the surface of the screen. You start by pealing away the back cover, carefully line up with the PSP’s screen, and gently apply; pretty straightforward stuff. My Screen Guard went on very easily, and once I pushed a few air bubbles to the side of the screen, I was good to go.

I was going to write, “But wait! There is more!” but that made this entry feel sort of cheap, so I am going to restrain myself from getting too crazy with this write-up. Moving along … a “bonus” system polish cloth (just an eyeglasses cleaning cloth) is also included. So for $9 you get two Screen Guards (in case the first one gets scratched?) a polish cloth, and the entire package is backed by Pelican’s 3-year product warranty. Seems like a good deal to me, and I can only imagine all the scratches that have been prevented by Pelican’s new PSP Screen Guard. My PSP is protected at last!

I enjoy the Sporting News because each week I get straight sports talk without the crap that goes for sports in Sports Illustrated. I could go on and on with a SN vs. SI rant, but I have done that in the past. As it stands, SN gives me great NFL, NCAA Football, NASCAR, and MLB (yes, I am slowly, at long last, getting over the last labor dispute) coverage week after week. I would love to see them cover soccer (at a minimum the MLS and US National team), but I could only dream.

The May 27, 2005 issue had a couple of “Speed Reads” that I wanted to tackle. First, in the NFL coverage Dan Pompei said the following:

“Why are so many people up in arms because the NFL won’t allow Mike Nolan to wear a suit on the sideline? Don’t these people have a baseball game to watch? A barbecue to attend? Personally, I do not see this as Armageddon. And I understand completely that the NFL has to abide by its contract with Reebok and have all coaches wear Reebok attire.”

I too understand contracts, but the NFL (and Reebok) should show some class and allow Mike Nolan some sort of exception. A coat and tie would bring some much-needed class to the sideline – maybe I am too nostalgic, but there is something dignified about seeing a coach in a suit on the sidelines. Sports are just too damned commercialized when a coach has to wear Reebok (or any other brand) of sporting apparel instead of a coat and tie.

In the College Football “Speed Reads” Matt Hayes said the following:

“Someone please tell me what I’m missing here. Georgia defensive tackle Darrius Swain was sentenced to 45 days in jail – JAIL – after driving for a third time with a suspended license, and Bulldogs coach Mark Richt says Swain’s punishment will be his time in lockup. Here’s a thought: Any college athlete who spends time in jail never should be allowed to play again. Period.”

I admit that I am biased, being a Georgia football fan, but I do not agree with Hayes. As far as I can tell, Richt runs a pretty tight ship, and the current administration is very willing to suspend players as deemed necessary. I think I would throw in a couple of game suspensions on top of the jail time, as a deterrent to other players, but I would not kick a player off the time for driving with a suspended license.

I made it back from the Gulf Coast today! Nothing like a trip to the Redneck Riviera to get my batteries recharged! Fun in the sun, good food, great weather, beer (lots of it), baby sitters (thanks mom!), quality time with the wife and kids, and more beer (really, lots of it). Wow, life is good!

It always sucks to get back from vacation and find a mailbox full of spam and other unwanted junk mail. I dread checking the email at work, so I think I will not think about that for a few days.

Looks like the bots have been spamming the site again – sorry about that. I just spent 30 or so minutes cleaning up the mess. I guess it is about time that I upgrade the site again to try to get a more sophisticated spam bot killer. Maybe in the next day or two … maybe.

While spending some quality shopping time at the Panama City Beach Wal-Mart I noticed that many of the PSP value pack add-ins (power adaptor, cloth cover, head phones, etc) where for sale. That should give us a strong indicator that Sony is getting ready to push out a batch of non-value pack PSP units; I would guess a MSRP of $199, but I guess they could still push the envelope a little higher and see what they can get for the hardware.

Speaking of the PSP, I finally got a screen cover at the PC Wal-Mart. More on this later this weekend. I also leaned that unlike the GBA, which looks great in bright sunlight, the PSP sucks in the sun. I was very disappointed that I could not play my PSP more in the bright FL sunshine.

For those of you still reading, I plan to post more in the next few days, so stay tuned for actual updates. As shocking as it sounds, I am ready to write again. Finally!

I will end this post by thanking all those who have defended our great country by serving in the US armed forced – a special Memorial Day thank you from your humble host!

In my quest for the perfect PSP protection I decided to pick up Pelican’s product for $9.99. What do you get? A block glossy finished plastic cover that screws into the back side of your PSP. The inside of the cover has a felt cover to protect your precious PSP screen. You also get 4 plastic covers/cases for your UMD disk.

The plastic cover looks nice, but feels flimsy around the hinges. In addition, the two screws make the PSP two wide to comfortably fit into the cloth stock PSP carry case.

Ultimately I paid $9.99 for something that will not truly protect the screen � it just covers the screen when I am not playing. I think I need to get some sort of plastic screen cover for protection, but they are sold out everyone in town. If I do not find anything better, then I guess this will have to do, but I imagine that it will be included with an extra with a PSP game on eBay at some point in the future.

I will not spoil it for anyone; not now, but maybe in a week or two. I got to see the move Thursday night, and despite mixed reviews from friends, fan sites, and message boards, I really enjoyed the move. In short (with no spoilers) – Revenge of the Sith was much better than the previous two installments, but of as expected it did not top The Empire Strikes Back, which is the best of the six movies.

I have not had time to sink my teeth into all the new console announcements, but I find it interesting that predictions are rolling out the door:

“In 2004, Sony’s older PlayStation 2 led the U.S. console wars with 43 percent of the market, according to Jupiter Research. The original Xbox was a distant No. 2 with 19 percent, followed by Nintendo’s GameCube at 14 percent. The remainder included handheld game systems.

But by 2010, Xbox 360 would grab the lead with 38 percent of the market, followed by Sony with 32 percent and Nintendo with 22 percent, Jupiter forecasts.”

I am not sure how Jupiter Research came to this conclusion, but it is interesting to see a prediction that Sony will lose 11% percent of the market, Microsoft will gain 19% of the market, and somehow Nintendo will even gain another 8% market share.

Microsoft certainly has a chance to gain market share with their new system, but I wonder how companies such as Jupiter Research make these sort of forecasts, and more importantly to us gamers, how often are these predictions on the mark?

Star Wars 6 … err, rather Star Wars 3 is almost here, and as I wait for the goodness to arrive, a friend of mine tipped me off to Star Wars Revelations, which is an independent effort from Panic Struck Productions. I will let you decide the merits of this 40 min file, but you have to give an A for effort.

Oddly enough, Gamespy has posted a preview of Eastside Hockey Manager 2005. Kudos to Gamespy for covering these “obscure” text games!

There is more information about the game on the Sports Interactive site. I am not so thrilled about the 2D “snapshot” view, but otherwise a solid game gets better. There’s a gold demo avaible for downnload.

Many of you know that I am moving across the country in a couple of weeks. The chaos surrounding packing up offices and a house made me forget to post about a couple of text gaming news events.

There’s a new Diamond Mind Baseball newsletter out. The full text is available on their site, but anyone can subscribe and get the newsletter via email. There’s always something interesting to read, even if you don’t own the product.

Grey Dog Software announced a new college football game called Bowl Bound. The game looks very interesting on paper, but we have a history here. Arlie Rahn’s products are notoriously bug filled upon initial release, so I would approach this title with great caution. Grey Dog Software will hopefully have better quality control than .400 Software Studios.

Suddenly, I am interested in purchasing a PSP. Sports Interactive announced that FM 2006 will be available as a PSP game. No word on a US release.

April sure was a down month for the blog – only three days of posts. Hopefully May will be a little better, but the last few weeks have been pretty challenging with the usual suspects of work, family life, work, trying to buy and renovate my grandmother’s 102 year-old house. Still, life is good.

Some of Chris’ comments yesterday (see Bah Humbug!) really hit home. I bet if Kevin reads this he will start laughing because we frequently had this same sort of conversation.

The funny thing for me is that in the end, I think my love for videogames is being passed by my love for the good old days. The bigger issue is that I no longer feel inspired to write about games because I have less time to play them these days. When I do have time to play them, I do not want to worry about spending my free time writing, and I certainly do not want to spend my free time looking for issues (i.e. game flaws and bugs) that I have yet to discover.

So much has changed, but as I recently said in a previous post, and as Chris hinted at yesterday, maybe this has a lot to do with finally growing up. Maybe we are at the point where our innocence is long gone. Internet life and the gaming scene in general were so different in the mid to late 90s. It is almost impossible to explain if you were not “into” it back then, but if you were, you almost surely know what I am referring to and you almost certainly are feeling the same jaded frustrations.

The independent gamer of the past has faded away into obscurity; just look at this site’s history for an example, and look at what Chris is saying to understand that something extremely important and significant is going on in the gaming community. Many of us old bastards are becoming mainstream. The CG staff laughed at me a couple of years ago when I said as much about myself, but it is all too true, and Chris’ comments just confirm my belief that many of the stalwarts (if I can be so bold as to lump myself into that category) are passing the baton on to a new generation of gamers. What sort of nitch will they carve out? What will be their legacy? What will happen when the gaming community no longer gives a flying crap? Scary stuff; the torch really is passing … to where, I know not.

I am not saying that the mega sites do not have their place (I use them for video and images and the like), but the days of the individual contributor seem long gone. Who do you turn to when you want to find relevant gaming info? As guys like Chris fade out of gaming world (i.e. no longer covering games) so much is lost. It is really a damn shame, and from a selfish standpoint, I hate to see Chris and others get so jaded that they no longer feel passionate writing about games. I guess it is inevitable. Hopefully as Chris hinted, the world of the blog will open new doors and avenues so that the old bastards will continue to contribute in meaningful ways.

As for me, I will just try to keep on keeping on, but obviously the days of 4000+ word reviews are so far gone that no one seems to remember why we did that sort of stuff in the first place. The glory days of Usenet seem so far away …

To all you old bastards reading this blog, to past and current contributors, thanks for all the memories. You guys made (and hopefully will continue to make) gaming an entertaining endeavor.