The Recycle Bin

Gamers Grow Up

Eurogamer posted an interesting summary article showing that games are no longer just for kids. As if we didn’t know that already …

A new study by research firm NPD has found that the average age of gamers is now 32.

The report, titled Gamer Segmentation 2010, is based on an online survey completed by nearly 19,000 people. It found that the oldest gamers, with an average age of 42, fit into the Avid PC Gamers and Offline PC Gamers categories.

In total, 4 per cent of respondents were classified as Extreme Gamers. They are said to spend 48.5 hours per week playing games. Overall, the average time spent playing games per week is 13 hours.

Of course if there was an online survey, I wonder how many kids had a chance (or even bothered) to fill it out. I know my 11 and 9 year-old boys would not be allowed to fill out some random survey.

My average time gaming per week has dwindled over the years. Nowhere near 13 hours a week these days.

Madden 11 – Yes, Another Yearly Pre-Order

Oops, I did it again. Over the weekend I put Madden 10 on eBay, and pre-ordered Madden 11 to take advantage of a $20 off/credit promotion.

Order Madden NFL 11 for the Wii, PS3, or Xbox 360 and get $20 off a future video game purchase. The promotion code will be applied directly to your Amazon.com account up to two (2) business days after your product ships. This offer will be extended to all existing pre-orders. Amazon reserves the right to change or terminate this promotion at any time. Offer valid for one purchase per customer.

Couple the credit with free release day delivery (for Tuesday, August 10, 2010) shipping, and Madden 11 was just too attractive to pass up.

As if I never seriously considered Madden 11 not being a day one purchase. There was a brief (must have been fleeting too) moment earlier this year during my Madden Ultimate Team foray, where I considered that maybe I would just stick with Madden 10 for two years running. Crazier things have happened; for the first time in the history of the series I did not pick up the newest NCAA Football release.

So I am football less for the next 10-11 weeks. Maybe it is time to go retro with Tecmo Bowl Throwback.

PS3 Catching Up? Next Gen Months Or Years Away?

I was catching up on some videogame related reading over the weekend and found brief mention of this article at Industry Gamers via the Official PlayStation Blog.

Overall, the global games market is facing “major uncertainties” for the rest of 2010, Strategy Analytics said, including the “extent and pace of the Wii’s decline,” and the impact of the upcoming motion devices for PS3 and 360. The research firm believes that total global home games console sales will fall by 9% in 2010.

Of course Sony referenced this one to show that the PS3 was in front of the 360 this year, and was closing the global gap of 4.4 million or so quickly. Kittens and roses for Sony until you compare numbers to the Wii.

You will notice the part of the article I quoted is a digression from who is in front. This has me thinking about the next hardware generation, which will not come in the immediate future due to the overall economic climate.

Nintendo may be in position to be first out of the gate, however I would be shocked if even a minor Nintendo Wii HD upgrade was available in time Christmas 2010. I think 2011 is the earliest we will see any new hardware.

Sony’s introduction of the Slim has slowly helped turn around their fortunes, and while Sony loves to say they built their console for the future, did they? In the hands of committed developers, and strong middleware and various toolkits, the PS3 probably does have plenty of life left. How much is plenty?

Remember the PSX and PS2 had a good five years in them before the next console came along. PS2 started slowly and helped mass adoption of DVD. PS3 started even slower and helped Blu-ray win the HD format war. Something tells me that 2011 may be too early for Sony launch a new system.

I am not sure about Microsoft; they are the wild card. If Microsoft wants to keep an advantage over Sony they have to release early, which means 2011, however they have to bring something to the table that is a significant upgrade over the 360 and more exciting than anything PS3 has in the works.

The motion control stuff just does not interest me. I could change my mind once these new devices are out along with some killer games. Same for 3D. Something has to be damn impressive if I am going to commit to a new 3D HDTV. Right now these ideas seem like little more than gimmicks to bridge the gap between today and the launch of the next generation systems.

We need next generation hardware to reinvigorate console gaming, but in the current economic climate I just do not see it happening before spring 2011. And I think it will take a minor miracle for Nintendo to do anything more that a HD Wii.

I hope I am wrong on all accounts.

PS3 Protection Plan – Thanks Sony. Appreciate the Support.

I meant to post this last weekend when I was doing my YLoD project. Sony is now considerate enough to let us consumers buy an extended warranty for Sony’s PS3 and PSP systems. According to IGN

The PS3 protection plans start at $44.99 for an additional year and jump to $59.99 for two years. A year of extra coverage on the PSP costs $29.99 while two years will set you back $39.99. Want the Accidental Damage plan, which includes the standard PSP protection plan? That’s $39.99 for a year or $49.99 for two years.

Interesting that Sony is taking this tactic after the original (non-slim) models are no longer available in retail. The assumption that I have to make is that the Slim models are reliable or Sony would not make this sort of move. I cannot recall hearing or reading about PSP/PSP Go failures.

Bottom line is that extended warranties are usually a waste of time and effort. Sony would not go out on a limb for $45 if they thought the Slim would run into Blu-ray, YLoD, or any of the other common ailments that have plagued the original PS3 systems. Sony knows that issues like YLoD are a serious problem, but instead of facing the issue head-on, many consumers were left holding a bag of crap. But guess what? If you “upgrade” to a Slim, not only do you get a striped down PS3 system lacking many of the original PS3 bells and whistles including PS2 hardware compatibility, you can buy some additional protection for a system that is probably not at all prone to failure. Smart move Sony.

First Place – Who cares if June is still a day away?

The Braves just took care of the Phillies 9-3, to improve their record to 29-22, and more importantly Atlanta is now in sole possession of first place, .5 up on Philadelphia.

Troy Glaus has been crazy good in May, and Chipper is finally starting to come around. This team seems like they want to do something special. When was the last time the Braves were in first place this deep in the season? It seems like ages ago.

Quick Edit. Just read this on ESPN:

Improving to 16-4 since May 10, the Braves have made up 7 1/2 games in the NL East since May 17, when they were in last place. Atlanta hasn’t held first place in the NL East this late in a season since they won the last of 14 straight division titles in 2005.

The run has been impressive, but it is amazing that it has been this long since the Braves were on top in the NL East!

Videogame Magazines on the cheap @ Amazon

Last year I ordered my boys Nintendo Power when Amazon had a deal for a $9.99 subscription. The subscription is coming to an end, and I decided not to renewal for the low, low price of $19.99. Sure the boys love it, and it encourages reading; I just figured I would hold out for a better deal.

Today the deal has arrived. This morning I noticed a N4G article that showed Nintendo Power for $5, so I just renewed the boys’ subscription. There was much rejoicing.

For $5 I even picked up PlayStation: The Official Magazine. It has been a while since I subscribed to a videogame magazine. Call me Captain Obvious; these days videogame magazines are normally just not worth the money, they are not current, they are really more or less a collection of advertisements, the reviews are lacking, and of course there is better, timelier material available on various videogame sites. Videogame magazines are a relic from the younger days of gaming.

If nothing else, this $5 for the PlayStation magazine will give me more variety in the bathroom besides National Geographic, Racer, and whatever magazines my wife happens to have lying around.

Braves Torrid Streak Continues

Thanks to last night’s 6-3 victory over the Pirates, the Braves are 1.5 games back of the Phillies. Atlanta has won 9 of their last 11 games, and is 18-8 in the month of May. Then again, the schedule has been fairly soft of late (Pittsburgh, Florida, and Cincinnati in the last 10 games) so you would expect the Braves to take care of business if they are a serious contender.

The favorable schedule does gets harder in the first half of June. This is good because it means the Braves will have a shot at overtaking the Phillies at home before traveling out West for a difficult road trip that includes the Dodgers, Diamonbacks, and Twins. The Braves have been ridiculously bad on the road, so this trip will really be their chance to turn things around. If the Braves are going to push forward, they will have to play at least .500 ball on the road.

Interleague play will continue at home with Tampa Bay, but the second half of June lightens up a bit with KC at home, followed by a road trip to take on the Chicago White Sox. The Braves close out June with home dates against Detroit and Washington.

If Atlanta hangs tough in June (I am still not sure why I am projecting things this far forward) I think they will make or break their season in the first part of July. Closing out the first half of the season, Atlanta hosts Florida, followed by a road trip to Philadelphia and New York. By the time those nine games are over, the Braves should know if they are a buyer or seller coming out of the All-Star Break.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the Braves are actually remain in playoff contention headed into the second half of the season!

Turkish GP (Spoilers) – Thrills, Spills, Excellent

The Istanbul race has to be the best F1 race I have watched in recent years. Red Bulls and McLarens racing hard. Teammates actually going wheel-to-wheel, and in the case of Webber and Vettel, foolishly spoiling a Red Bull shot at one-two glory.

Seeing Schumacher up front, although not really anywhere near being a serious contender for a podium challenge, was nice. After the RBR clash, I thought that Schumacher would at least have a sniff at a the third step on the podium, however being 35 seconds back on the front runners was just too much of a gap to overcome. Given a stronger and faster Mercedes, Schumacher is showing he is not too old and washed up for a legitimate second crack at glory. Just not this year.

The Ferraris of Massa and Alonso never really played a factor, however Alonso did well to salvage some points, and it was entertaining watching Alonso do his work to charge up into the points.

McLarens short on fuel with only 8 or so laps to run and an on-going threat of rain with light sprinkles kept things dramatic until the last lap.

In the end a McLaren one-two for Hamilton and Button, while Webber salvaged a third place finish after Vettel’s punt. Schumacher’s fourth spot is the highest of his comeback, and the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso got as much as they could from their seventh and eighth spots.

Great kickoff of the racing weekend!

Memorial Day Weekend – Racing Trifecta

I love the Sunday before Memorial Day; F1, Indy, and NASCAR racing all in a single glorious race filled day. The last few years F1 kicked things off with the Monaco GP, but this year we are going to be treated with the Turkish GP, Istanbul style, which as I write this post, starts in about 50 of so minutes.

I always enjoy watching the Indy 500, and while I am sure that the race has lost much of its luster compared to the “good ol’ days” it is still an exciting display of racing. I wonder how many Danica Patrick “pouts” will be on display. The TVs love following her, which I guess is OK if this type of coverage brings in viewers, but until she starts willing, who really cares? It is not as if she looks that good that there should be so much damn coverage of her.

Wrapping up the evening (and headed late into the night) is the 600 at Charlotte. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Jeff Gordon can finally put it all together, from start to finish, and win his first race of the year. He has been crazy good at times, but seems to run into really poor luck (those damn restarts get him ever time) at the end.

By the end of the night, I should be sick of racing, but hopefully not sick from too many adult beverages.

Random Falcons (Pre Preseason) Notes

Things will probably be quiet on the NFL front until the June cuts (almost here) and training camp opens later this summer. Come to think of it, we do not have that much of a long haul before the Falcons host the Chiefs August 13 at the Georgia Dome in the opening preseason game!

I thought these quotes from the NFC South Chat (over at ESPN) interesting.

Roddy White says Matt Ryan would be a Pro Bowler this year and throw 30TD’s. *IF* he has a healthy and effective Turner and Douglas for the whole season and nothing else obscure happens to his other two favorites would you take the over or under on 30?

Pat Yasinskas (1:02 PM)
I’d take the over — IF those guys all stay healthy.

That would be fantastic, but honestly I cannot even imagine the Falcons running this type of high flying offense. I do agree that Turner being healthy is a key just to get defenses to respect the play-action pass. A healthy Douglas would spread the defense; speed kills. 30+ TDs would get the Falcons deep into the playoffs if the defense is even moderately improved.

Do you think the Falcons will be able to do anything with Jamaal Anderson ?

Pat Yasinskas (1:12 PM)
May rotate him between DE and DT again. But I also see a scenario where they just cut him if he doesn’t have a good training camp and other guys are stepping up on the rest of the DL.

Anderson is a complete bust. Maybe not along the lines of Aundray Bruce bad; however Jamaal is certainly up there with some of the poor first-rounders in the 90s.

YLoD Repair – Part III (Sumbitch Actually Works)

So the tag line pretty much is a dead giveaway that my PS3 has recovered from my “Yellow Light of Death” (YLoD) operation …

I plugged in the power supply, hooked up the HDMI cable, and then powered on the sumbitch. Much to my surprise, after a couple of seconds I was greeted with the date/time setup screen. After putting in the correct date and time, the PS3 presents yours truly with a message along the following lines: “You did not properly turn off your PS3 system. Next time please [blah, blah, jerk off, blah, blah]”. No shit? Thanks Bob. I really thought that having no control over powering off my PS3 due to YLoD was considered part of Sony’s standard educational material for those of us with an original PS3.

The PS3 informed me that a new firmware update was available (maybe required), so I decided to do the needful. After applying the “you cannot use another OS” update, I quickly backed up my saved data.

Everything seems to be working correctly. The one thing I did notice was that the fan seemed to always be engaged on a high setting; loud as pile of monkey nuts. I normally have the PS3 sitting in a horizontal position, but decided to stand it up vertically. After a while I put it back in a horizontal position, and the fan immediately went back to low. I’ll have to experiment some and see if I can figure out a pattern.

I will probably do a full back up today, although I really do not know what the hell for because if something catastrophic happens to this PS3, transferring data to a new PS3 is somewhat of a tempest in a teapot.

I haven’t checked out all possible media yet – PS2, PSX, and DVDs need to be tested. Same for the various media input slots on the front left control panel. I have confirmed that the Blu-ray drive, at least one USB port, and Bluetooh board all work correctly. Color me surprised; I really did not feel confident going into this project that I could get some additional life out of my PS3.

I am not about to quit my day job. JC – PS3 repairman, and all around YLoD fix-it-up-chappie.

YLoD Repair – Part II

This is my attempt to document my “do it yourself” attempt to repair my PS3, which is suffering from the dreaded Yellow Light of Death (YLoD). See this YLoD repair guide for reference.

When I got home from work, I was surprised to see a couple of packages from Amazon. Part II began in as soon as I had a few minutes to read and prepare for the upcoming steps. Cleaning, followed by reflow via the new Wagner heat gun.

Cleaning was simple enough, and to be honest the reflowing was simple enough. Since this is all new to me, I have zero confidence, or confirmation, that I am reflowing correctly. Did I allow the heat gun to warm up enough? Am I heating all the areas correctly? Am I heating them long enough? I am letting the motherboard cool (Step 32); however I do not hear any sort of popping noises (Step 33).

So now the waiting begins. In a little while I will continue onward and eventually (hopefully) manage to put the PS3 back together again. It is a long haul just to see if this will work and be time well spent.

Now repeat for the other side of the motherboard (Steps 34-37). As I am waiting for the motherboard to cool, I have to mention that all those damn pieces, parts, screws, and other assortment of plates and whatnot are the obvious reason why the PS3 is so expensive. I have never seen such!

Step 43 is complete, so now I can begin the reverse order assemble project. Two minor points, which could turn into issues later. First, I did not have any replacement rubber pads for the two chips on the underside of the motherboard. Second, while I removed some thermal paste from the heat sinks on the fan, the instructions did not call for a new application.

Oops. Reverse Step 13. As I was getting ready to reattach the on/off eject panel back on, I noticed that the ribbon was under the plate. Not a huge setback. I just reversed steps again, corrected, and continued onwards.

Finished putting the PS3 back together, did a final cleaning, and off to the living room to see if this puppy works.

The suspense is killing you, no?

Braves Back In The Hunt?

Are the Braves really only 1.5 out of first place, with a 25-22 record? The way things started, I thought the Braves were going to be in for a long, miserable farewell season for Cox. If Atlanta could just figure out how to win on the road (13-6 home vs. 12-16 road record), they may actually be a contender past the All-Star break.

The hitting has been miserable at best; thanks to some timely hits, and the emergence of soon to be Rookie of the Year Jason Heyward, Atlanta has been able to scratch out a few unlikely wins. If the pitching can hold up, and really if Derek Lowe can get into a quality form, I think this team just may be able to pull off something special.

Of course it is way early days to be talking playoffs and such, but it is encouraging to wake up on the eve of Memorial Day weekend and see the Braves well within striking distance of first in the NL East!

YLoD Repair – Part I

This is my attempt to document my “do it yourself” attempt to repair my PS3, which is suffering from the dreaded Yellow Light of Death (YLoD). See this YLoD repair guide for reference.

Keeping my fingers crossed, I setup a card table and started the project.

Step 4 – I noticed that a screw is missing; front screw (front left, second row for lack of a better description). To me this is a sign that Sony is sloppy at best; original out of warranty repair was a bunch of bunk!

Step 6 – I ran into issues removing the ribbon cable, which connects to the front port for memory media. I was not sure how to remove the “black” locking tab on the ribbon without breaking the ribbon, so I just disengaged the memory port from the case. Hopefully I can continue on with the project and work around this early issue.

Step 7 – Sh*t! More f’ing ribbon cables. At first I attempted to pry the connector out, which would have been a disaster. A very small piece (1 mm at the most on the right edge) of plastic breaking was a dead giveaway that this was not the right way. My only thought was that I must be in over my head. Screw it – I am all in now, so I pulled on the ribbon and it gave way. Son of a bit&^. End game at Step 7? Nope, the ribbon cable was not broken (thank goodness) and I now understand how the ribbon connectors work. This is probably obvious to the author of the PDF, but for those of us that do not play around with the electronic internals of various consumer devices, this is almost rocket science.

I decided to go back and correct Step 6. I am such an expert with ribbon cables. It will be a miracle if this PS3 ever powers on again!

About 60 minutes later, I made it clear through Step 20 without (hopefully) further complications. Reading ahead, I noticed that the PS3 in the guide is extremely dirty (Step 24); mine is nowhere near as bad. I would almost say it is almost immaculate. I also do not notice any burn marks (Step 26). Maybe that was because I ended up with a refurbished unit less than a year ago when I sent in my PS3 to Sony for repairs. Or maybe it is because my YLoD is really due to some other issue. Hopefully I did not misdiagnose my PS3. Either way, the SOB no longer works.

Continuing to play this project forward, I am not sure what to do with the processor rubber pads (image after Step 37). They do not look like they can easily be removed and salvaged. Not sure where to buy replacements locally.

This is a good stopping point for tonight. I may look at the rubber pads tomorrow (maybe stop by the local Radio Shack) and see what I can clean, but the real fun begins Saturday when the heat gun and thermal compound arrives from Amazon.

I may cry if I spend all this time and effort trying to fix my PS3 without success. If nothing else, I guess I will have a few spare parts like a perfectly good PS3 Blu-ray player. Wonder how much spare parts go for on eBay?

YLoD – The Calvert Games Do It Yourself Project

I decided to try a do it yourself YLoD repair. I am going to follow this YLoD guide over the next couple of days to disassemble and clean my PS3. Today I ordered a heat gun and thermal compound kit. With any luck, I may have my PS3 up and running again sometime Saturday or Sunday.

On the lowest setting, the heat gun is probably twice as hot as I need, and I probably do not need all the extra cleaning gunk in the kit. I figure if this does not work, then I am out about $40, which for a do it yourself project does not seem like too big a loss.

More to come later. Wish me luck!

If I get the PS3 up and running, I will quickly backup my game save data files, and then consider next steps. I want (let’s be honest and call it need) a Blu-ray player, and the PS3 is about the best one out there from a feature price standpoint. The PS3 is also future proof, providing easy firmware upgrade options, not to mention the ability to play games.

On a side note, Amazon is out of PS3 units. With E3 on the way, I wonder if that pretty much confirms that a new SKU or two should be released soon. According to PLayStation Life Style, there is a new PS3 SKU on the way, and while I already have MLB 10: The Show, this is really my next option if I cannot get my original 60GB ‘fat’ (CECHA01) up and running. I can always eBay MLB 10 for a little cash (to make up for my YLoD project). It just sucks that the newer models lack so many of the features found in the original modules. Usually subsequent release of hardware get new and improved features not stripped down versions of their former glory. I understand all the cost cutting measures, but the stripped down features of the slim compared to the original systems is borderline ridiculous. Removing PS2 backwards compatibility is a sin on the part of Sony, but I guess that is the sort of thing that happens when you start hemorrhaging money in the middle of a piss poor economy.