Modern Gaming Set Up

I have wanted to show off this setup for a while now, but the lack of a decent sized TV has prevented me from doing so. Well that has now changed, allow me to present my modern gaming set up.

My modern set up started in 2009 with an Xbox 360, and about 2 years ago I added a Playstation 3. The PS3 isnt visible as it is down in the lounge, doubling as a very expensive Singstar toy for my daughter. Also not shown here is a 2nd Wii console for the kids.
So the TV is an LED 40" television with 3 HDMI ports in, which is impressive for a cheap TV. I have all the consoles on a single 5 HDMI port switcher so I dont have to worry about changing channels. Underneath at the front of the cabinet is basic soundbar to enchance the basic audio.
Not shown or visible in this photo is colour changing LED lights which glow behind the TV, which looks especially nice in the dark.

So on the top of the cabinet (I wish I bought black now to complement the rest of the decor) is my Wii U controller charging on top of the Xbox360. On the other side on the right is my Playstation 4 which I have put a new 2TB hard drive in to replace the tiny 500GB that came with it.

On the shelf below that on the left is the Wii U console itself, and next to that is a 2TB external USB hard drive connected to the Wii U for downloads.

Under the Wii U is my Wii and not showing is the HDD I use for ISO backups.

On the right under the Playstation 4 is my Xbox One. Holding up the side is a Nintendo 3DS in a red case and a Playstation Vita (not shown).

Right now, Im toying with how to store and display my retro gaming collection. I dont see a "need" to display my current and last generation of console games off, but certainly the retro should be ideal. The other display issue is how to show off/display my Amiibo, Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions collections off as well. Dust is an issue, you only need to see the PS4 in the above photo.

My Retro-Set Up December 2015 Edition

Hi all, I've finally gotten my retro gaming set up almost exactly where I wanted it. It has gone through several iterations looking for the best arrangement.

A Bang & Oulfsen 32" television. If you look closely the TV is on a proper B&O stand (its metal and solid wood as it weights a ton).
There is double SCART input, but I have everything running through a SCART switcher.
There are two towers of consoles, each one is covered by a black table placemat to protect from dust, and also from sun bleaching/discolouring.
Power is supplied to the entire set up via a single switch, meaning none of the consoles are left in standby mode.

On the left at the top is my Lego Dimensions base and collection, and is home to my Nintendo console collection.

• Shelf 1 - SNES
• Shelf 2 - Nintendo 64
• Shelf 3 - Gamecube
• Shelf 4 - Modern console controllers

On the right is my Sega console collection, topped of by my Amiibo and Disney Infinity character collection.

• Shelf 1 - Megadrive
• Shelf 2 - Saturn
• Shelf 3 - Dreamcast
• Shelf 4 - Retro console controllers.

Hiding under the TV shelf is a Playstation 2 slim, which doubles as my Playstation 1 console. And beneath that is a very underused Wii Fit board.

My future plan is to put an LED spotlight under each shelf to illuminate the consoles, as well as putting in a much bigger SCART switch that changes SCART channel automatically.

Adventures in Gaming Part 6

ADVENTURES IN GAMING Part 6

Elite on the Commodore 64 was an uniquely special game. Not only was it a brand new genre, but having played lots of wireframe flight simulators on the BBC previously (especially Aviator), I took to Elite easily. Visually it was incredible, with its beautifully simple three dimensional space model that was perfectly functional. Elite was an immense technical achievement, spread across eight huge galaxies, each populated by hundreds of planets, each with their own economic situation. You could literally get lost in the game for months.

I read the introductory novel and also the instruction manual from front to back and began playing.

Flying the Mark IV Cobra and learning how to dock was difficult, but rewarding. It took patience and skill, with rewards coming in the form of more money, better ships and weaponry, and rightly so. There was no story or mission, other than those you created yourself. You decided where you flew and what cargo you bought and sold. Occasionally you would be offered a simple quest. Once you earned enough money you could buy a very expensive docking computer, and I remember the first time I engaged it on the Commodore 64, the docking music from the film 2001 started playing, The Blue Danube. As a side note, the ZX Spectrum never had this music when you engaged the docking computer. When you activated auto land, it jumped you straight to the space station.

There were three downsides to the docking computer. Firstly, while you were waiting for your ship to dock (you could engage the docking computer at any distance from the space station) you could still be attacked by pirates or the police meaning you would have to disengage the docking computer and manually fly and kill your attackers, which once accomplished often left you further from the space station than before. Secondly, it wasn't perfect, and it would sometimes crash your Cobra Mark IV into the space station. And thirdly, by using the docking computer all the time, you got out of practise doing it manually. The music really added to the feeling, and while the combat model wasn't brilliant, the three dimensional radar has been copied many times and worked a treat. Having a fully tooled up ship with military grade weapons on all four viewports was enjoyable. Other essential upgrades included a fuel scoop so you could skim the suns to refuel and recover dropped cargo from destroyed pirates, and a rear mounted mining laser to earn money from asteroids and derelict ships. Because you have four viewpoints, forward, backward, and left and right, you had to arm each view with a weapon. You really did feel you could go anywhere and do anything. The highest rating I achieved in Elite was Deadly, but by that point I had played through all eight galaxies, visited countless planets and built a reputation and ship worthy of the title, Deadly. And finally I came back home to Lave and Diso. I didn't have the passion to continue on, even though I was certain I wasn't far from achieving the Elite status tag. I really did feel like Roy Batty from the film Blade Runner, in that I had been to places and seen things you wouldn't imagine possible. I later found out that your Elite status was based solely on the number of enemies you had killed.

While my brother showed interest in mainly driving games, he did have a talent for numbers and whilst I did all the flying and combat in Elite, he would take over and do all the trading. This was where you made the real easy money by knowing which cargos to run between which planets. I understand the game had a rudimentary economy system meaning you had to spot an opportunity and take advantage of it when it appeared. It didn't take long with his help for me to have a full set of Military Lasers on all four viewpoints.

Elite was originally released on the BBC, and was quickly converted to almost every format of the day. Of all the conversions of the game, the Commodore had the best version. What marvelled most was how they managed to simulate eight huge galaxies in such a tiny memory space. It was at that point that I realised how talented you needed to be to program and get maximum efficiency out of slow computers. It seemed both British and European programmers were the most competent at getting the most out of each computer cycle, whereas the Americans preferred to just come up with faster processors, more memory and more storage.

When you started the game you had two statuses to maintain. One was your legal status and would determine how other pirates, police and independent traders would react to you. Break the law by killing innocent ships or firing upon police and you became a wanted man with a bounty on your head. And the other was the infamous Elite status. You started out as Harmless, but slowly you improved your rating to Mostly Harmless. It was an incredible accolade to earn. But not only could you slowly rise the ranks of Elite status, but also you had to be care with your criminal status too. Indulge in too much piracy and you quickly earned the wrath of the Galactic Police who’d put a bounty on your head and ship, so you not only had to watch your cargo, but also the legal status of the planet to see if they would welcome someone who was a wanted man. Also certain types of cargo attracted the attention of both pirates and police, so if you were going to carry something illegal or desirable, you needed the firepower to defend your ship.

The innovative radar screen that Elite employed would become a staple of the three dimensional space combat games for all time and always left you with no doubt as to where the enemies were attacking your from. Combat was something to be enjoyed in Elite.

Batman Arkham Asylum

Batman Arkham Asylum was a game I really enjoyed. It was a cleverly disguised Metroidvania type game and every element of this game, except the samey boss fights, were exceptionally good. I liked the save system especially when fighting bosses, instead of making you face them from the beginning, you carried on from where you left off, so Rocksteady totally understood rage quits. I didn't complete many of the Riddler side quests (most of the ones I did find were by mostly accident, and could only be found with a fully equipped Batman and going back and playing the game once you had finished), but even so I felt the game was short, perhaps at most ten or twelve solid hours. I am looking forward to Arkham City sequel.

I did go back and replay this recently but gave up while fighting Poison Ivy. I had too many other games to burn through to push this game again.

Xbox 360 Purchase and Dead Space 1 & 2

I finally got enough money together and bought an Xbox 360. I knew a few people who owned the console. I wasn't tempted to get a Playstation 3 as I didn't know anyone who did, and it wasn't exactly flooded with good exclusive games, plus I didn't have remarkable memories of the Playstation 2. The decision to get the Xbox 360 first was easy. It would take the unique game Journey on the Playstation 3 to convince me to buy one.

The Dead Space series of games both 1 and 2 are visually stunning and genuinely scary games. I completed the first game for a second time, but gave up on the second game on the final chapter right near the end as the game had too big of an ask to complete it. I watched a video of someone completing the last two chapters and it was ridiculous. You faced ever increasing number of enemies with no respite, and one persistent monster who you couldn't kill, only temporarily immobilise. I have the third installment which from the various reviews I’ve read isn't a game that should have the Dead Space tag on it. Its less survival horror and more science fiction action shooter. Its strange that while I didn't enjoy the Resident Evil style of games, I took to Dead Space instantly, had I not been lent the game, I doubt I would have tried it myself. The games are relentless and rarely give you time to relax or collect yourself. I enjoy the physics based puzzles that both the stasis module and the gravity module allow you to. I would have liked to have seen more of this puzzle solving.

One element that really got my heart racing in the second game was any scene in which velociraptor like creatures stalked you whilst hiding from the light. These were always tense long battles that were the closest thing to shitting yourself as you could get. I have the third game on Playstation 3 and have heard middling reviews about it. I will give it a good run out.

Recent Purchasing Experience of Gumtree versus eBay

Gumtree versus eBay.

My recent experiences hunting for a R4 cartridge for the Nintendo DS.

I bought a pink old style Nintendo DS console many years ago for my daughters who managed after a while to lose the original stylus and most recently broke one of the hinges. Because my middle daughter did well at school, I promised her a new DS, and bought her a white DSi. I had heard that although it doesn't come with MP3 playback as standard, you can install a third party application which will do called Moonshell, but found out that it required an R4 card to make it work. Disappointed I couldn't install Moonshell without hardware modification, I began to look into the world of the R4 cards and ultimately acquiring one.

The R4 cartridge is a third party cartridge which plugs into the back of the Nintendo DS, DSI or 3DS and allows you to backup games onto a microSD card. Primarily advertised as a way of running homebrew games and software, it was quickly utilised for far more illegal purposes. The upshot of this is that you can play illegally downloaded DS games on the console, as well as run homebrew programs including the MP3 player, movies and other emulators, such as the Super Nintendo (SNES).

The downside is that since 2010 these cards have been made illegal in the UK, courtesy of a lawsuit from Nintendo, which is fair enough. You can however still buy them online from websites branded as .co.uk or .com. If you do a search on all of the domains you quickly discover that they are owned by Chinese companies who manufacture the cards. The problem with buying an illegal device from outside the UK is the lack of buyer protection. Combined with the proliferation of fake cartridges which are R4 cards that are sold at full price but don't work.

I viewed many different websites all purporting to be UK domains, but a quick WHOIS websearch revealed that the domains were always owned by a Chinese or Hong Kong based company, and finding new sites in America and Europe revealed the same lineage back to China. The answer was to buy one from a reputable company, but seeing as they are illegal and would put any games company out of business, this proved impossible.

I did search eBay but this proved fruitless as everyone was selling microSD cards for use in an R4 cartridge as eBay have clamped down on anything that is illegal. I then did a search on Gumtree as I have had some reasonable successes in the past and below is my observations of buying.

I saw three Nintendo DS consoles for sale all of which included the R4 cartridge.

The first was a Pink DS Lite which was in Chatham, about an hour round trip from where I lived and in the opposite direction from where I worked, meaning it would be a real challenge to get there within a time frame. Because my wife doesn't approve greatly of games, justifying purchase of a handheld console which will let me play even more games just wouldn't sit well with her. The price was right, but I wasn't sure about the colour or its usefulness. This would have been my fall back purchase. I already owned a DS for my daughter, and would have swapped her White DSI for this Pink DS Lite, and kept the R4 card for myself. He wanted only £35 for the whole unit.

The next advert I saw was a Black Nintendo DSi with three brain training games and an R4 cartridge. I contacted the seller who would refused to give me their address, instead only giving me their postcode. They asked me to text them once I got to their road and they would then give me their door number. Very bizarre. So I left work early (at their request not mine) and drove thirty minutes to their house, parked up, got their door number and checked the unit over. It was clean and in perfect condition, so was very happy with the way it looked. The trouble was the person couldn't demonstrate the R4 cartridge working. I was annoyed as this was the sole reason for me travelling there. I was doubly upset because (a) they hadn't given me a full address and it could have been a wild goose chase and (b) I had explicitly said I would only be happy to pay the money on the basis that the screens were unmarked and that the R4 worked. Had they known what the R4 card was they would have told me and I'd not have wasted my time. She wanted £45 for the unit.

The third option was a location on my way home from work, so it wouldn't cause too many delays or detours, although the stretch of road I would be using was very busy at rush hour. This auction was for an impressive Nintendo 3DS XL with several games and the R4 card. I contacted him only by email, as that was all he could be contacted with and said I was only really interested in the R4 card. He wanted £150 for the whole lot, and he replied saying he was happy to sell the console and the R4 card on its own for £100. He gave me a full address this time, but no other contact details. I confirmed what time I would be arriving at his flat and set off. I found the location fairly easily. What he had failed to tell me was the door buzzer didn't work to his block of flats, and that I would need to email him to get him to let me in. After many anxious minutes waiting including giving up he answered and took me inside. I saw the R4 unit working, the console was clean and in immaculate condition, so I paid him the money and left. Apparently he was in the shower when I arrived.

What was bizarre in both instances was the reluctance for either people I went to see to give out their addresses or full contact details or make me aware of any shortcomings with regards to how to actually get to knock on their front doors.

Having come from the selling world of eBay where once you have won an item you are given full access to the sellers address or if you have sold an item given the full address of the person who just bought it, I find the walls between you and the seller quite immense. I can understand people being concern about giving away too much, as there is less protection on Gumtree, but little things like not telling me the door buzzer didn't work, just seems odd, or knowing I am coming to visit yet being elsewhere in the shower.

When people have bought stuff from me on eBay and they have come to collect it, I’ve readily provided a full address and my mobile number for easy collection.