Monthly Archive for January, 2005

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Nintendo DS Questions & Answers

One of my sister’s friends just asked me about the DS. These are all good questions, so I figured I’d post the answers here. (By the way, to access all posts in this topic, use the filtering links at the bottom of the post, next to the house.)

Q. Do GBA games stick out of the system oddly or anything? Like how the GBC games stuck out of the back of the GBA terribly?
A. Not at all, they fit in flush and look quite swish. I leave Super Mario DS and Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls both in the machine all the time. This works even for transporting the machine; nothing sticks out to get caught on pockets or get broken.

Q. Does it feel like cheapish and plasticky? Or does it have a nice quality feel to it?
A. It feels like a very solid, high-quality piece of equipment. Once it’s closed, I don’t even worry much about getting scratches on the case. When it’s open, the hinges and buttons seem quite durable. The screens also seem to be quite scratch resistant.

Q. Last question, does the touch screen feel or seem like it would wear out easily?
A. Nope. I have used it (with the included styli and thumb nubbin) for weeks, and when I clean off the screen, you can’t tell it’s been used. I use it gently but firmly. It’s very responsive to a firm touch, and you don’t have to squeeze or press hard. I’m not sure how they get scratched up so badly in Best Buy’s display units. Martian death rays, probably. Or…. KIDS.

This apparently sold him. I’m pretty sure you can’t be disappointed with it, especially if you have reasonable expectations. His are apparently that he “wants a game system that will play his GBA games and not suck”. I mean, I haven’t yet figured out how to make it julienne fries, and there aren’t a whole lot of compelling DSN games out yet, but it’s a killer handheld, and plays GBA games far better than the GBA ever did.

The Headcrab Speaks! — New Video Card Part V

Mein Gott! The Water Effects!

All is well now. HL2 is re-cached, and I’m allowing Steam to cache everything else at its leisure. Meanwhile, Half-Life 2 has never looked so good. Currently, I’m running it with everything cranked, and at 1152×864+4xAA. I determined that the game will run at 1600×1200+4xAA, but I’m not yet sure that I need that kind of resolution on a 19″ monitor when the anti-aliasing already makes it look so good. Having a DX9 card is also really helping here.

K likes the card. It runs the Animusic “Pipe Dreams” demo, and she is simply infatuated with it. I like it, too.

The bottom line is that I am quite happy. Now to figure out how and where Steam is keeping all of its information so that I can restore my partial GCF files from before the crash.

update 2005.01.16 @16:15
Recovered the GCF files, and the remainder of the caching went smoothly while I slept last night. I’m back in business!

The Headcrab Speaks! — New Video Card Part IV

Okay!

I now have the OS, core software, and all the drivers loaded and tested. From the looks of the ATI Demos and various 3DMark tests, it looks as though I’m going to be having a real good time…

…as soon as my Steam cache reloads. See, my Steam cache was damaged in the carnage last night that destroyed the OS, so I’m downloading gigabytes of information from Valve. It stinks, but this is the price I pay for not keeping disc backups of my install files. Also, since everything is downloadable, nothing is lost (since I have my save games backed up). All that needs to be done is waiting.

On the bright side, this means I’m getting the full ATI experience in miniature: buy a hoss card to play Half-Life 2, work hard to upgrade your system and get it in prime gaming shape, and then wait for the game to arrive!

(And until it gets here, I’ll play other games or hang out with K.)

The Headcrab Speaks! — New Video Card Part III

Ouch!

I got a Micro Center gift certificate in the mail when I got home last night, and that put a shiny ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB right into my price range. Hooray for my favorite little sister!* I popped over to Micro Center right away and exchanged the cards. (And off to Fry’s for a bigger power supply!)

It’s now almost 18 hours later, and I finally seem to have the system stable enough to re-install my OS. Oh, I hadn’t planned to re-install the OS, but the Radeon (how shall I say this?) brought to light some of the shortcomings of my hardware configuration that (how shall I say this?) made the system a little bit unstable. After a few (dozen) BSODs, caused by these problems as I tried to hunt them down, the system was no longer even remotely stable. I’m lucky to have gotten my HL2 savegames onto my file server at all — and I’m still not 100% sure they’re not corrupted.

Oh, and about re-installing Windows 2000: When you are getting BSODs during the install process, (how shall I say this?) buckle up, because it may get a bit rough.

However, there are a few reasons why this series of events irritates me, rather than making me livid.

  • My gaming system has needed a re-install for months.
  • Canthros and Pedant were hanging around online to soothe my rage.
  • I have a professional IT staffer living here full-time. (Me, of course.)
  • I’m still looking forward to sweet, sweet pixels.

Oh, and one more advantage: now K and I won’t have to buy a new video card for her computer. She can play The Sims 2 on my old GeForce 4!

*Of course, since I only have one sister, she gets this title by default. But it’s very nice that she puts in the effort despite her hereditary privelege.

The Headcrab Speaks! — New Video Card Part II

Over lunch, I grabbed a VisionTek Xtasy 9600 XT 128MB. I ultimately decided on this model because, once I send in the $30 rebate, the cost comes out to $109.99. Also, Pedant bought the same card a few days ago, and has nary a complaint.

$110 is not bad for blowing my old $400 card away — and if it doesn’t, I’ll return the card for something beefier.