Author: jcalvert

Well yesterday morning it finally happened. My trusty iPod fell out of my coat pocket right smack dab on the street. The poor guy did not look worse for the wear, but of course my music was slightly skippy and static filled after the fall.

I never pay for extended warranties or the like because I do not feel they are worth the money. However, since I just spent $399 + tax on this contraption I let the Best Buy sales lady talk me into a replacement plan. Or so I thought. The nice lady told me how it was easier for them (i.e. Best Buy) to just give me a new iPod instead of sending it in for a replacement battery. Same thing went for a busted iPod. It sounded too good to be true, but I guess I was drunk on iPod happiness at the time, so I forked over another $40 for the replacement plan.

Last night I took my iPod into Best Buy and the repair guy informed me that they would ship my iPod off for repairs. When I questioned him “Why? I thought I would get a replacement.” I was told that I actually had a Product Service Plan (PSP) not a Product Replacement Plan (PRP).

Of course my reaction was “What the hell? That was not what I was told at the time of purchase.” I told the guy the sales pitch I received and he said something like “Show me who and I will kick them.” I told him to go kick the person that showed up on the receipt since the register number and clerk were on the print-out. He did not think that was very clever.

Anyway, long story short, at one time Best Buy did PRPs for MP3 players, but I guess they got smart and realized that was not such a good idea for them. So now my iPod is on a trip to the official Apple iPod repair place, in parts unknown, and is not scheduled to show back up until February 3rd.

Sucks for me. The life lesson of the story is to not drop your iPod on the street. And you figured I was going to give some “moral of the story” spill about reading the fine print on product service/replacement plans.

We are about to slip into embarrassing geek territory, but here goes nothing. Last night while watching The Screen Savers (G4TechTV) they had a segment on SLAX, a “live” Linux distribution. By live (I am not sure what the “official” term is) I mean that this distribution of Linux will boot the Linux kernel (or OS) off of a CD or some other device besides your hard disk drive.

A live install is perfect for many users that want to sample Linux without having to worry about setups, disk partitions, etc. No muss, no fuss. Several years ago I ran Red Hat via System Commander, but these days I am not running Linux, which made the Screen Savers show fairly useful. A live Linux distribution would be helpful to me since I am not running Linux at home any more, and because I deal with Solaris daily at work.

Back to the geek thing. So off I went to get SLAX Linux Live; downloaded the ISO CD image from the site. Next I downloaded a few modules such as Foxfire, and then created my SLAX CD. I threw the disk in my old Dell P600 system, rebooted, and a few minutes later I was running a live distribution of Linux. Very nice.

I did not get too deep since it was around a quarter till 5 (as in AM … ouch, got up much too early), but my sound card did not work properly – maybe it is too old for this distribution. There were other things that probably did not work, but most importantly for me, or I should say luckily, Opera fired up right away and a surfing I did go. Very cool!

Next up was my IBM Thinkpad R40 that I use for work; this laptop was the reason the Screen Savers segment caught my attention in the first place. Damn CD would not boot. XP, after XP boot-up sequence, which was really raining on my parade. After much searching on the Internet (have to love this bastion of knowledge) I saw a suggestion that I should try to reduce the write speed when I burn the ISO CD image. I figured that was pretty stupid since my CD-ROM burner was old and topped out at 16x. With nothing to lose, I did another burn at the slowest possible speed – 4x.

This time I was running SLAX on my R40 in no time flat. I am not sure why the ISO CD burn speed mattered, but there you have it – if your ISO CD image works on one machine, but not another, try burning again on a slower speed. The problem probably had something to do with the cheap IBM DVD player crap in my Thinkpad.

OK, so I am now running SLAX on my Thinkpad, which is cool, but the real fun or rather the real problems are just beginning. I cannot get SLAX to recognize my built in wireless adaptor (a Cisco Aironet Wirless 802.11b if you can help me out), so no internet connection for me. That is obviously a major bump in the live Linux road. I also could not figure out how to map my hard disk drive, which I bet is Linux admin ignorance on my part, but definitely another strike against this distribution.

If Linux is to become more mainstream, live distributions are certainly the way to go. The no mess thing should be appealing to almost everyone. With that said, these Linux distributions need to do a much better job of recognizing devices, hard disks, etc. Hey, not having an internet connection will pretty much rule out using this distribution. I feel sure from searching the SLAX forum that I am not the only one in this boat � wireless connectivity (or lack of) seems to be a fairly common problem. This is not so good. Once again, all of this may be user error – will certainly update if I get this junk working.

On the positive side, the KDE interface was simple, easy to use, and seemed fair solid. Not that I have not used KDE and Gnome before, but never via a live distribution. There are plenty of built in applications, including the all too important game category. Doom, available via a free downloadable module! Woo-hoo! The media darling lives on! The SLAX site also has plenty of other useful and very free modules that are ready to plug in and go, which is another nice bonus.

If I can get my wireless connection going, I think I will be pretty pleased with SLAX, but as it stands I need to find a live distribution that will allow me to connect wirelessly to the Internet.

I have a nasty stomach flu bug. When I say nasty, I am talking seriously nasty. I will not go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that I could not manage to make it into the office today. As long as I was stuck at home, I decided to do something useful with the site, so I implemented the Fancy URLs feature. Many of you are saying, “Big deal, and WTF is that?”

Google (and other search engine spiders) does not like to go through CG’s standard URLs that have all sorts of question marks and the like. So now instead of

http://www.calvertgames.com/cgblog/index.php?catid=2&blogid=1

you get

http://www.calvertgames.com/cgblog/category/2/blogid/1

… all thanks to the nifty Fancy URLs feature.

Maybe someone will be impressed, then again …

On an entirely different note, after looking through a lot of my older games, I have become a little sentimental. I have been trying to decide what should stay, and what should go. One of the unfortunate side affects of me closing the door on CG and reopening as a blog, was a lot of lost data. 100+ reviews, plenty of editorials, virtual sports write-ups, and a whole host of other junk lost in one shift of change in site philosophy.

Over the next few days (maybe weeks) I am contemplating bringing back the CG’s previous content in an archive format; something along the lines of Calvert Games Classic. I am biased, but there was a lot of good content that some gamers may actually find useful, or dare I say entertaining.

For those that are interested, I will keep you posted.

This afternoon I was flipping around on the boob tube looking for something interesting while everyone was taking a nap when I came across an interesting show on demolition derby on the Discovery Times Channel. It was fairly interesting and made me realize that it has been three or so years since I played Destruction Derby, which was one of the key reasons I preordered a PlayStation.

Next up was a show on dirt track racing, which was more entertaining than the demolition derby show. We are not talking about top-notch entertainment, but both shows made me realize that I missed my calling in life. I should have been a mechanic by day and a racer on the weekends. My slogan above my store would have read “We only rip you off half as much as the other guys!”

Seriously, as much as I write (or used to write) about cars, racing, tuning, and such, I really am not a gear-head. Maybe I will have to do something about that one day, but like a lot of other things, it will not happen today.

Anyway, watching the two shows about demolition derby and dirt track racing made me realize that Ratbag’s World of Outlaws Sprint Cars 2002 is a great racing game that developed a cult following at sports sites. My understanding is that it is now “rare” on eBay, but the game just never caught on with mainstream gamers. I guess the graphics were not sexy enough, but WoO’s racing action is second to none.

Of course like too many other games, WoO never got the absolute attention that it deserved from this gamer. I always played it in spurts, but never solid balls to the walls gaming sessions that games like Colin McRae Rally 2.0, Gran Turismo, and various F1 games received. I definitely need to give it another spin sometime soon because it would be the perfect racing game to hold me over until GT4 arrives. A paid for game is a much better proposition than spending more money on something that is probably not half as good as WoO.

Saturday Night Speedway (also by Ratbag) is another dirt track game that I need to pop back into the PS2. Unlike WoO, I barely gave Saturday Night Speedway a decent chance. I have no idea what distracted me from the game, but I only played it a handful of times before it was pushed to the back of the library.

Thanks to the Discovery Times Channel I now have 3-4 more titles that once again deserve time in my rotation. We are truly in a special age of gaming – it is amazing that there are so many good “current” games today that deserve our time, but there are still plenty of games released in the last 10 years that deserve just as much attention.

When is an off day from work not really an off day? When mommy is sick and daddy has to pretend to take mommy’s place. And I say “pretend” in the nicest sort of way; I am a pretty poor mom, so kudos to Tonya for doing such a good job of the mommy thing.

Falcons vs. Eagles
OK, nothing to do with video games unless I play this one in Madden 2005 this week. Anyway, I expect this week’s game to be much hard than the Rams game last Saturday, in fact, I expect the Eagles defense to be downright scary vs. Vick. My biggest fear is that the Eagles will just watch some Tampa Bay game tapes from the last couple of years and more or less neutralize Vick.

The early line is Eagles -4.5. Enough worrying about that for now; will write more later in the week.

Tempest X3
Much like Xevious 3D/G+ (see post from last night), Tempest X3 is an updated shooter based on a classic game. In this case, Tempest X3 for the PlayStation pays homage to the Atari classic Tempest. Gamers paying attention to their video game history will best remember Tempest X3 as an updated version of the cult classic Tempest 2000, which was pretty much the only decent game released for the Atari Jaguar. Did that system bomb or what?

When Tempest X3 was released way back in 1996, the game was not very well received, despite being a very good upgrade of the classic Tempest. It is one of those things where gamers were expecting more from the PSX other than a graphically version of a classic title. I expect that Tempest X3 would have done much better if it was released as part of one of the Atari compilation games as an “extra” but no one asked me.

Tempest X3 screams for a knob/paddle controller since it does not have analog support. Even so, the game plays well enough with the standard d-pad, but this sort of game was never intended for a traditional d-pad. The graphics are nice, but pretty much what was already done one the Jaguar. The game’s soundtrack is very good, and the gameplay is pretty much classic Tempest. If you have played Tempest, Tempest X3 is really just the same thing with updated graphics, and a nice soundtrack.

With all that said, is Tempest X3 worth keeping, which is the reason I breaking out some of these older games, or should Tempest X3 be sold? It is a tough call. I have not touched the game in years, so it is just collecting the mythical dust bunnies. Looking at my collection of PSX games, I am really kicking myself because I should have sold Tempest X3 and a whole host of others when they had some value. Right now it looks like I can get $7-10 bucks for the game. I may just hang onto it for a while since it is listed as “rare” in some listings. Hopefully 6-12 months from now someone will really *need* a mint condition copy of Tempest X3. Funny how that works; if the game was really all that rare then it would be worth more than $10 duckets.

Speaking of eBay
I was not getting enough time with NBA Live 2005, so I put it up for sale of eBay. This is really not a damning indictment of the game, but rather it just reflects a lack of time for a basketball game right now. I figured that I better sale it now since the MSRP was already down to $29.99. I pulled in $19.52 for it, which was really nice considering that Wal-Mart has it on sale for $24.99 this week.

Winning Eleven 7 was another game that I decided to sale because I wanted to get some value for it before Winning Eleven 8 is released in 2-3 weeks. I hope WE8 is just as good or better than WE7 or this gamer is going to be mightily disappointed. I can see it now: WE7 goes up in price and becomes “rare” because WE8 is broken. I cleared a fantastic $31.50 for WE7, so I am going to get WE8 for $8.50. Fantastic!

Train Jacking
Spoiler alert; this is the last part of this blog entry, and it deals with GTA:SA. I suggest reading no further if you do not like spoilers. The title sub-title probably gives it away, but so it goes.

Last night I was cruising around the city and finally noticed a train running along the tracks. I have driven many a times on the track, but have never seen a train running until last night. Naturally I figured I would do something interesting like jack a car and place it in front of the train. I did not get the intended boom, so I decided to keep running along the side of the train. At a train station it finally slowed down, and I figured what the heck, “Why not jack the train?”

Holy crap, it actually worked. So I drove a train in GTA:SA, which may be old news to many, but I rarely if ever read strategy guides or look for cheats and spoilers – that is a story for another day.

I love finding little things like this on my own, and GTA:SA has a ton of these hidden elements. This is one reason it takes me so long to finish games like GTA titles and Final Fantasy titles – I just like to keep on digging to see if I can find all the dirty little secrets.

Anyway, I am really digging GTA:SA � it is extremely deep, allows for a ton of creativity, is well-balanced, and has tons and tons of fun things to uncover.

Most of you are thinking, “What the hell?” But yes, there it is; a discussion of Xevious 3D/G+ is taking over the blog.

In an attempt to clean out my gaming library (see previous post) I am throwing some older games in my library into my play rotation to discern what should stay and what should eBay. I did not play Xevious 3D/G+ a ton when it came out (way back in 1996!), but I picked it up right away because I was (still am) a huge Xevious fan. Of course I have always sucked at Xevious, but that is a different story.

When I picked up Xevious 3D/G+ I had Raiden Project in my library. Actually I still have Raiden Project, which is a very under rated shooter and certainly worth its own blog entry, but I digress. I liked Raiden Project better than Xevious 3D/G+, so I never made it more than about half way through the game. Dust it has collected ever more.

Xevious 3D/G+ is basically a 3D version of Xevious. The graphics are very dated by today’s standards, and I expect that the graphics are pretty lame when compared to its contemporary PlayStation titles. The sound is loopy in a strange Japanese shooter sort of way; catchy, but loopy. The gameplay is actually decent; plenty of power-ups, interesting enemies, and an assortment of boss ships. Setting the game on easy is a sure fire way to eat up level after level, but moving to hard is an exercise in frustration for my current (lack there of) skills.

I am not going to do a review as such; instead it is just enough to say that Joshua and I had a good time with the Xevious 3D/G+. Joshua calls almost every space shooter game a “space rangers” game. I have no idea when or how that started. Actually I think he just could not say Slipheed, which was the first shooter that I purchased for him, so we started calling it “space rangers” and thus the shooter alias was born.

The funny thing with our Xevious 3D/G+ experience was that the game does not use the analog stick, just standard d-pad fun. It took Joshua a few minutes to adjust, but after that we had a good time.

My personal opinion is that Xevious 3D/G+ has no significant place in gaming history unless you happen to be a huge Xevious fan, and have to have every game in the series. Not that Xevious 3D/G+ is bad, it is actually average, it is just that the PlayStation had many better shooters such as Gradius Deluxe Pack. Now that is a game that I wish I never sold.

Back Xevious 3D/G+; I think I will hold on to the game a while longer, because it is a cheap (read free) way for me to give Joshua some new gaming experiences.

Most regular readers know that I am a closet RPG fan, most of which is limited to the Final Fantasy series and action type RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, and Champions of Norrath. Like many gamers my age, I cut my teeth on Wizardy, Ultima, Bards Tale, and of course the original SSI Dungeons and Dragons games (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds …), but I rarely if ever play PC RPGs these days.

At any rate, I need to clean out games that are just collecting dust so I am about to throw a lot of old PSX games up on eBay. I figured I would let regular readers know about the shrinkwrap Squaresoft titles that are about to be put on sale � many of these are considered that magical “RARE” word and are difficult to locate in new condition. These are games that I purchased when they were released (no greatest hits day glow covers), back when I figured I would have time to play them (i.e. before the house had two kids).

Chrono Cross, Legends of Mana, Saga Frontier, and Threads of Fate. All are US releases, all are in the factory shrinkwrap, and all are in need of a good home.

Just drop me an email if you are interested. And please, no comments on how I buy games and never play them – something I used to be very bad about, but these days I am much better!

Santa gave Joshua Kirby for Christmas, but dad has spent some time with the game, mostly in two player head-to-head races. There are a nice variety of levels, and the designs are OK – nothing special or different that we have not seen in the various Mario kart games.

The big draw here is that Kirby is perfect for pick up and play goodness, but for me only if I am playing with Joshua. The game is fairly simple. You really only have to move the analog stick, and press the green button. I suppose there is some strategy in what power-ups to get, and what kart to use. The power-ups are standard Kirby fare – swords, tornados, bombs, and the like – while each kart (I think the game calls them stars) controls differently and the variety is nice – boxy karts, uni-wheel karts, winged karts, etc � the assortment is fairly interesting.

The game provides various handicaps, which more or less change the degree of rubber banding, but the racing action is just not interesting to this gamer. Joshua loves it, which is all that matters, and if he happens to beat me, then all the better for him.

In addition to the racing there are is also a City Mode and a Top Ride mode. City Mode allows you to ride around Kirby Town (I have no idea what it is really called) collecting power ups, and eventually battling in a variety of stadiums, most of which have to be unlocked. I don’t know; not really that interesting to me. With that said, something like this could easily be turned into a great online game/mode. Could you imagine several hundred Kirbies (how does one popularize Kirby?) riding around in a city looking to pick fights with each other? If Nintendo ever goes online they need to do something like this; doubt they will send me any sort of kickback for the idea.

Top Ride mode is pretty much what it sounds like – think Micro Machines racing from an eye in the sky perspective. You race around a variety of tracks, picking up items such as bombs, and try to cross the finish line first. I suppose this mode is a nice distraction, but that is really all that it is, a distraction. It may be an interesting party game for four-on-four action.

In short, Kirby is pretty much your standard kart game, which most gamers will either like or avoid. The game is perfect for kids, but I doubt older gamers will find the game very deep. For my money Motor Toon Grand Prix (a classic PSX title) is still the best kart game in town.

NFC Championship game here we come! I have written enough under the last few posts, so no need to recap tonight.

So do Falcons fans pull for the Vikings, so the NFC Championship game can be played in the Dome? Or do we pull for a TO-less Eagles team, and a road game? As dangerous as the Vikings are when Moss is on top of his game, I have to pull for them so Atlanta can have the NFC Championship game at home. Of course that will open up a huge revenge factor for the Vikings (I am sure they are still bitter over 1998).

Before the game (several posts down) I predicted a 27-17 Falcons victory. I got the seventeen part right for the Rams, but I was off by a whopping twenty points for the Falcons. I should be ashamed!

Go Falcons!

Wow – hell of a final (I assume) drive – 14 plays, 9:30 minutes, and almost 60 yards.

Vick is 12-16-2 passing for 80+ yards, but he also has almost 120 yards on 8 (count that 15 yards per rush average) attempts.

Dunn has been equally spectacular with 140 yards on 17 carries, and Ducket has over 60 on 14 carries.

325 on the ground? Damn impressive; simply amazing!

What a wasted signing Peerless Price has been for the Falcons. He has been anything but a number one receiver for Atlanta.

Thankfully he finally caught a pass for a TD; a TD that may actually put the Falcons over the top.

Rams 17 � Atlanta 35 10:05 3rd Qtr

Can I hear a shout out to ATL! Vick is looking good, Dunn is looking great, Ducket is pounding the ball, and Rossum just took a punt back for pay dirt. I thought the Vick fumble was going to prove a disaster, but the defense held and special teams just came up big!

Come on Falcons, make me proud!

I figure that if Vick is allowed to run around and “do his thing” then the Falcons will win 27-17, but if Vick is forced to do the pocket thing, all will be lost. A running Vick, is a dangerous Vick � I think 100+ yards on the ground will result in a victory because some of those will come on designed roll-out plays, but the bulk will come from a gamebreaker type play. Talking about a QB putting up a 100 yards rushing is just plain stupid, but then again we are talking about a crazy balls-out athlete in the one called Vick.

If the Falcons can repeat the defensive trick from week two that resulted in a 34-17 victory over the Rams, the Falcons will be one win away from the Super Bowl. Applying a ton of pressure in the Ram’s backfield will be a key to the Falcons winning. No defensive pressure means a long day, and possibly the end of the season.

Of course not, but when it comes to the Grand Theft Auto series (specifically GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas) Rock Star is raking in the money. There is a reason � not only are the games wide open, do anything themes fun, but the level of emersion into each game’s environment is simply top notch.

Last night I decided to pick up San Andreas after a long hiatus. As much as I love the series, I have never finished GTA III (around 60%) or Vice City (maybe 40%), and San Andreas (no more than 10%) hit during a practically busy time. So with ample beer in hand, and the family in bed, I started San Andreas anew. Four hours later (2:30AM EST for those keeping score at home) I had to call it a night because my youngest son came in the living room. What a site; poor guy – throw-up all over his PJs.

I know that some people hate the concept of a “crime simulator” but this gamer does not really mind. Sure the game is over the top, but that is part of the fun. The game is clearly made for adults, so there should not be any more arguments about shooting cops, f’ing hookers, jacking cars, causing ungodly mayhem, and generally beating the crap out of anyone and everyone because those arguments are non sequitur. San Andreas is a “Mature” rated game, for gamers 17 and older. Period. End of story.

San Andreas is the deepest of the three games, and except for me being more partial to the 80s music in Vice City, everything in San Andreas is bigger, better, and deeper than the previous two games. That said, I still love the music – there is something for everyone, and in most cases the songs just feel right for the game. Of course I have never listened to a song over the air waves that mentions sucking (fill in the blank here in an effort to keep some degree non-shock value), so that particular song caught me by surprise.

I found myself playing a mission, and then causing mayhem. It is a blast just see what there is to do in the city, what you can get a way with, how many mean-muggings you can perform without some gangsters trying to take you out, and what is a safe distance to play “whack a whore” without pissing off the police.

Of course there is some debate about Christians playing this game – can you without totally going against your values? For me the answer is clear, GTA San Andreas is just good (maybe not so clean) entertainment. Hopefully I can keep with the game this time instead of getting distracted.

OK, it is not what you think. Last night I decided to do something a little different. Well, something I have not done in a while. But I am getting ahead of myself, and like I said, it is not what you think.

For whatever reason – growing old, less time to play, family responsibilities, you name it – I typically play a single game in one sitting, and I usually concentrate on that same game for several sessions in a row.

Last night I decided to tackle several games in a two hour block. First up was Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 for the PlayStation 2. Man, that is still a fun arcade racer; maybe still one of the best (if not the best) for the PS2. I never finished the World Tour (or whatever it is called) … so I jumped in and promptly won one of the events. Now I am one away from the fine one where you win the F1. Have to try that one again sometime soon.

Next up was Animal Crossings for the GameCube. I have not booted this one up in 10 months or so. All my animal friends were pissed, and there were a ton of weeds in Toonceville (in honor of Toonces the Driving Cat). I cheated a little and set the clock to December 2, 2004 (my birthday) to see if I would get any sort of neat goodies. I did not, but the snowflakes were pretty. If you want a low stress game, with no blood and gore, time limits and such, that is a good way to waste away time, Animal Crossings is it.

Enough of the cute crap – Champions of Norrath was up next. I have written enough about this game to make many of you puke. I just keep pouring it on. I stopped at the Arena (somewhere in Act IV before pure hate and junk kicks in). Actually I died in the Arena a couple of times before deciding to try something else.

Something else was Katamari Damacy. What a crazy, funky game. I have written a lot about this one lately, so I will not get to out of control with this one right now. Just know that rolling around a ball and picking up stuff is a ton of fun. Give it a try – you will be glad you did.

So there you have it; my Thursday night foursome. It was not what you thought, but hopefully it was still worth a read.

Right now life is good. I am having a cold one (or three), watching G4-Tech TV, blogging, managing my OOTP6 baseball team (the Columbus Kudzu), having adult conversation with my wonderful wife, and getting ready for some more gaming.