The Spam Thread!

[cpd2009]

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I never knew American Girl had a cute puppy. Aww.

[RAMChYLD]

There were at least 3. Why did you ask?

[cpd2009]

There were at least 3. Why did you ask?

Searching for dog related items on eBay brought up a Coconut plush set. I can't buy one at this point as the money I do have is budgeted towards this weekends rummage sales.

I never really got into AG, thus I didn't know AG had cute plush animals like Coconut. Though honestly, I like the 2D drawn Coconut on the box a bit better than the plushie,. An AG Coconut cartoon could work if they wanted to make an AG-related cartoon I guess. Yet, the magnetic mouth feature of the older plushies is intriguing. I wonder why they removed it from newer plushies?

Just keep her mouth away from floppy disks or compact cassettes!

[huckleberrypie]

I'd say you should go for them puppies, that is, if you have some $$ to spare.

I have some plush pets myself, but they aren't to scale with my Kit apart from an Oreo bear whom Kit plays with on occasion.

[cpd2009]

I'd say you should go for them puppies, that is, if you have some $$ to spare.

I have some plush pets myself, but they aren't to scale with my Kit apart from an Oreo bear whom Kit plays with on occasion.

Well, I just checked the prices on eBay, and I may have to put off Coconut for a while. Coconut is quite affordable, but I don't know if I will have any budgeted money left. It depends on how the rummage sales go. When I do go for a Coconut plushie, I plan on getting the earlier versions with the magnetic mouth. That feature is so cute.

There is a big city-wide sale this weekend, and the things I am looking for are new shirts, video games, home-recorded VHS tapes (stuff recorded off broadcast TV) a VCR for transferring tapes to DVD, and perhaps some kids picture books if I can find any that interest me. There are two kinds of rummage sales in my area.. and probably everywhere else. There are the sales where the prices are reasonable or very cheap, which can make my budget go far, perhaps even giving me a surplus. But, there are the sales that charge rather high prices for used merchandise, like $10 for a used pair of jeans and they are a store brand.

My dream acquisitions are a bunch of old retro games for a bargain basement price, like $10. Such things can happen, especially if the person running the sale didn't look up the value of the games or consoles on eBay before the sale.

[RAMChYLD]

I'm going to stay away from those for the forseeable future. Bad enough that those "Fist of the South Moon" project items have sidetracked me enough, and I don't think those could ever replace Spot. Plus, I'm still scared of history repeating itself. Ergo, I'm going to keel low for a while.

[huckleberrypie]

It's alright dude, to each his own anyway.

[cpd2009]

I have had the GameCom experience for the past three weeks, and I essentially played every game I currently own... some only for a bit, but I need to get around to review those. But, I can give my thoughts on the unit itself.

The GameCom is an oddity of gaming history. Tiger tried to "actively redefine" portable gaming by having PDA features, internet access, and games with well known brands and characters like Duke Nukem 3D and Mortal Kombat. Sounds good on paper, but not in execution. The PDA features are extremely basic, with the Calendar being borderline useless. Internet access required you to be tethered to a bulky modem and phone line, and from what I read, setting up the modem was a nightmare. Many of the big-name games like Batman & Robin are basic and repetitive, while others like Mortal Kombat Trilogy are just plain horrible. The sound, while utilizing sampled instruments, is rather poor and scratchy. Adding insult to injury... the blurry monochrome LCD screen. The updated Pocket Pro revision improves the LCD quality, but by that point, hardly anyone had interest in the system.

Having said that, I don't think the GameCom is the worst portable game system ever made. I believe it could have had potential. The final GameCom releases were mostly adaptations of board games and arcade ports like Frogger. Frogger surprised me as it's a very playable port of the arcade classic with advanced graphics and managed to make a good music track with the otherwise crappy sound system. I saw a video review of Centipede, and it too looks like a good port. There are also a few other decent GameCom games that are overlooked, such as Lights Out and Quiz Wiz Cyber Trivia.

If Tiger would have released the system without the Internet or PDA features, got a better LCD, invested in a beefier CPU and allowing third parties to develop the games, the GameCom may have had a slight chance. Then again, the GameBoy Color would arrive in 1998, no doubt killing any remaining interest in the GameCom if it were successful.

[huckleberrypie]

It was basically a novel step in the wrong direction, so to speak.

[RAMChYLD]

They should've went for an active matrix TFT LCD imo. But then at that time, TFT panels were still quite expensive. Especially since they were only available in color. As for CPU, well, agreed. Then again, they probably saw the Lynx, Game Gear and Nomad failed and were afraid to take the high power path.