The Spam Thread!

[cpd2009]

Thinking about implementing a TV Tropes link tag of some sort here, but I dunno. And I honestly couldn't imagine the Duracell brand being used or licensed for memory cards of all things. It's a bankable brand so I guess it wouldn't hurt to slap the name elsewhere (there was even an energy drink licence which was later found to be a scam or something), though from what I've read Duracell batteries have earned a rather bad rep due to numerous horror stories of leakages and so on.

As of now I am more or less engrossed into this fine sport of rallying (i.e. video games such as Colin McRae/DiRT and more recently Richard Burns), and I kinda' wonder why hasn't the WRC considered the Philippines as a venue for their races. I mean we do have jungles and forests here if that's their thing. Not to mention that RHD vehicles can't be driven here and the bureaucracy involved. Not to hate on them NASCAR fans but I seem to be more or less entertained at these off-road time trials involving a pair of drivers buzzing their way through a stage.

A TVTropes tag would be a fine idea as lurkers or new members would be able to find out why some words are CamelCased.

The Duracell branded memory cards and USB drives are made by a company named Dane-Elec, which in turn is owned by a Taiwanese firm called Gigastone. A nearby department store has brand new Duracell-brand memory along with Gigastone stuff.

Eventually, I do plan on swapping the card out again with a name brand SanDisk card for longevity's sake and do a final redownload of my purchased games before the Wii Shop closes for good. It's a pain, since Wii Mode still appears to be limited to Wireless-B speeds, and you can only redownload your content one at a time. :/ Also, why did they have to choose the Mario animation for the progress bar? It's cute for a while, but if you are redownloading all your stuff to a new card, it gets old and repetitive. I just mute the TV during this phase to block out the repetitive coin sounds.

With the Wii U eShop, they have an actual download manager and a standard progress bar for updates and eShop stuff. But they had to put in the pointless "gift wrap" icons for new games, like the 3DS does. One step forward, two steps back, it seems.

In terms of my current video game trends, I'm into breakout/arkanoid type games at the moment thanks to that Dr Fizzwizzle game. Last evening, I got something called Block Breaker off the Wii Shop. It's made by Gameloft, and it's a more straightforward breakout clone, while also adding in some casino-esque design and a rather nonsensical ExcusePlot. I also have Arkanoid Plus from Taito, which is what the title says it is. I haven't played that much, but hopefully soon. I remember playing Arkanoid in the arcade a very long time ago, and I do wish it was on modern Arcade collections. I read though that because of the game's trackball controls, it makes it hard to emulate properly.

[huckleberrypie]

Gameloft's very much known for their FollowTheLeader slash Mockbuster business model of doing games. Twas a point of criticism due to their lack of originality but there was a silver lining to it, in that they filled the void where top-dollar AAA developers left such as R* or EA who haven't ported or adapted their games to mobile phones at the time. There wasn't a Grand Theft Auto game back in the late 2000s so Gangstar: Crime City filled in. It was a laughable pastiche of the GTA formula, but it worked. They were also known for doing adaptations of Ubisoft franchises from the early 2000s to 2010s, being they were founded by the same people, but did away with that for some reason. The games were loosely adapted and bore a different plot but had otherwise the same premise.

[cpd2009]

Just about done thinning out my game collection, selling off games that I won't likely ever play, or can easily still acquire via Virtual Console or other means. My collecting focus going forward will be rare titles and games that aren't on any digital collection but I really want to play. My first focus is Pocky and Rocky. I managed to score the sequel a few years ago at a costly price, and the first game is just as expensive. Why Natsume never bothered to bring this to VC is beyond me, despite releasing other games on the platform (like Dead Moon for TG-16)

I feel like a hypocrite sometimes since I have always ranted against digital distribution, but like it or not, it will be the way many games will be distributed in the future. Many indie games also go digital only as well. May as well join in and allow other collectors to score some rather good games.

Not only that, but I need to save up for the AtGames HD Genesis flashback system. It has very good emulation based on reviews, and is based on Android, running on a rebranded "Monkey King" Rockchip CPU.

[huckleberrypie]

Just about done thinning out my game collection, selling off games that I won't likely ever play, or can easily still acquire via Virtual Console or other means. My collecting focus going forward will be rare titles and games that aren't on any digital collection but I really want to play. My first focus is Pocky and Rocky. I managed to score the sequel a few years ago at a costly price, and the first game is just as expensive. Why Natsume never bothered to bring this to VC is beyond me, despite releasing other games on the platform (like Dead Moon for TG-16)

I feel like a hypocrite sometimes since I have always ranted against digital distribution, but like it or not, it will be the way many games will be distributed in the future. Many indie games also go digital only as well. May as well join in and allow other collectors to score some rather good games.

Not only that, but I need to save up for the AtGames HD Genesis flashback system. It has very good emulation based on reviews, and is based on Android, running on a rebranded "Monkey King" Rockchip CPU.

Yeah, cost-cutting is one reason why many publishers choose to go for digital distribution, even if ISPs are yet to fully catch up in some areas, not to mention this infamous data cap people are grumbling about, myself included.

As for the HD Genesis, this makes me wonder if there would be some who'd go nuts with converting it to a regular Android set-top box and/or replace the default emulator with a *proper* one. Not to mention that the cartridge port could be used for dumping your legally purchased games as well.

[cpd2009]

Well, I got back to the mall today, and they still had those "FC Pocket" consoles, similar to the one here...
http://bootleggames.wikia.com/wiki/FC_Pocket

The main difference with my unit was the buttons, which are red, not black. This is essentially the "CoolBaby" 600 in 1 but in a portable system. Unlike the CoolBaby, the plastic doesn't feel as sturdy. The games themselves range from stolen licensed NES or Famicom classics to strange ROM hacks and unlicensed homebrew stuff. The unit runs off an aftermarket GBA SP battery and charges via Mini USB. One thing that is great about the FC Pocket is the LCD screen. It's very sharp and colorful, and has a good horizontal viewing angle. The sound is rather good and the speaker is distortion free, but being an NOAC, it's not 100% correct either. Haven't tested the battery life  yet, but it's 700mAH. The most hilarious thing about the FC Pocket is they come with a game "cartridge" that sticks in the top. Looks almost like a GBA cart, but it's likely just a jumper cart. When you turn on the system without the cart, you get a 472-in-1 menu. Insert the "cartridge", you get a different 128-in-1 menu.

But, that CoolBaby console I got last month? It was the older 500 game unit. They stocked the 600 game variant recently. :/ The 600-in-1 unit packs in more pirated NES classics and categorizes the more sought after games, but is otherwise very similar. I don't plan on getting it now, but maybe in the future.

I still dream of getting that Pandora's Box 5S. It's the cost that holds me back.

Despite planning to get classic Nintendo games via VC, I still like collecting these odd pirate NES classic wannabes. The odd and bizarre ROM hacks makes these consoles worth purchasing IMO.

Below is another video by Rerez, a rather good retro gaming YT channel. He reviews yet another variant of the CoolBaby NES classic clone, but with composite AV out instead of RGB. Unlike the RetroCore video, Rerez goes into great detail on just how many extensive ROM hacks can be found on these.

[huckleberrypie]

I do agree, there's a certain kitsch appeal to these clones, especially the rather bizarre ROM hacks like that Flintstones/Mario bootleg where pirates half-heartedly passed off that Taito Flintstones game as the seventh instalment of Super Mario Bros.

And as to why hasn't those pirate firms come up with an actual, 1:1 clone of the NES/SNES Mini is beyond me. The parts used for Nintendo's microconsoles are off the shelf - it shouldn't be that hard for them bootleggers to order a batch of Allwinner SOCs, reproduce the mainboard and possibly dump and/or hack the system software. Now that would be quite perturbing.

[cpd2009]

I do agree, there's a certain kitsch appeal to these clones, especially the rather bizarre ROM hacks like that Flintstones/Mario bootleg where pirates half-heartedly passed off that Taito Flintstones game as the seventh instalment of Super Mario Bros.

And as to why hasn't those pirate firms come up with an actual, 1:1 clone of the NES/SNES Mini is beyond me. The parts used for Nintendo's microconsoles are off the shelf - it shouldn't be that hard for them bootleggers to order a batch of Allwinner SOCs, reproduce the mainboard and possibly dump and/or hack the system software. Now that would be quite perturbing.

I saw a teardown video of one of those NES Classic bootlegs on YouTube, and they appear to run off an Actions CPU, essentially meaning those NES Classic clones are glorified "MP4" players running an NES emulator. I guess the manufacturer of the bootlegs thought the Actions chips were cheaper than the Allwinner SoCs or something?

They even tried their best to mimic the UI, right down to the music. But upon closer view, the menu animations aren't there and the UI music glitches out every now and then.

[huckleberrypie]

AFAIK Actions did design and market a couple or so SoCs that run on Android, but they seem rather uncommon compared to the likes of Allwinner and MTK. And yeah, this seems like a derivative of those MP4/MP5 players being sold in the late 2000s.

[cpd2009]

It just occurred to me that Konami never released the first Contra game for the VC. They did release Super C and Contra III.

I guess that gives bonus points to the FC Pocket, which has Contra along with a handy cheat menu inserted. (though I just play standard with no cheats).

[cpd2009]

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/artic...-batteries

Apple basically admitted that they throttle older iPhones with deteriorating batteries, presumably to prevent the phone from suddenly powering down during periods of high CPU usage, along those lines.

The whole "battery saving" spiel is plausible, but I think it's just a way of Apple doing damage control. This is planned obsolescence, plain and simple. I'm thinking Apple needs to slow down the old phones so their sheep can buy the newer models to stay trendy. It's similar to how newer macOS releases drop perfectly working "legacy" Mac desktops every year.

Understandably, many iPhone users are hoppin' mad about this, and they aren't buying Apple's reasons, either. Luckily, there are third party repair shops that can replace older iPhone batteries with new ones and restoring peak performance.