Steve's Tech Blog

In 2009 when Sonic the Hedgehog 4 was announced dozens of fans got excited (cautiously) for what everyone hoped would be a triumphant return of the blue-blur in all his 2D glory. In 2010 the game was met to mixed reviews. Some long-time fans were hard on the game, others chose to focus on the good instead of the mediocre and bad… I can’t say I blame the negativity, Sega was pushing the title and teasing that it was the true successor to the 1996 hit Sonic & Knuckles, a bar set very high. In late 2011 a teaser for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II was released, again stirring up high hopes. A short five months later, the game is now released on the Playstation Network for the PS3 and will be released on more consoles and devices in the coming days.

As I checked twitter this morning I realized today was the release date for Sonic 4 on the PS3. My time at the office today seemed to go by slowly just to torment me. But finally when I got home I hopped on the PS3, downloaded Sonic 4, Episode 2 and sat down for a while. I wouldn’t raise from my seat (except for a quick dinner) until I beat the main storyline of the game. I give you, my impressions:

Press Start

Sonic 4 Episode I had a lot of problems, but it wasn’t really a bad game all in all. It was a starting point and I always knew that Episode II would improve upon I greatly. Thankfully this seems to be the case. To start things off right the budget for Episode II is larger and it shows. I mean, wow, does it show! From the title screen to the first introduction and stage the graphics are sharper, crisper, and all with better fluid and fun animation. The music is good as well and compliments the game, I was humming along to some songs while others didn’t tickle my fancy as much, but I can see myself getting to like them more and more. The sounds, some familiar, some new, add a heavy dose of Sonic charm that returning fans will love.

A Zone is a Zone

It’s easy to see that Episode II takes a lot of cues from Sonic 2, but don’t worry it’s done in good taste. The special stage is a variation of Sonic 2′s special stage, but it mixes things up with different obstacles, multiple paths, and some new tricks. Red Star Rings (as seen in Sonic Generations) also make a return in this game. Think of these as extra bonus items that are challenging to get, almost like the 8 Red Coins in Super Mario 64. This adds a nice layer of replay value that was missing in Episode I.

As with the first installment in the series we have 5 main stages. Unlike the first episode where stages seemed to be almost too-closely copied from the previous Genesis games we have some interesting new lands to explore. I always felt that Episode I played it too safe. Most of the stages, obstacles, and enemies were too similar. It was more of a rehash of previous material than new levels. Thankfully Episode II changes this, to a pretty big degree. Yes we’ll have familiar areas, names and obstacles. Yes some familiar badniks will try to stop you whenever they can, but I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of new material. It looks like Sega decided to go all out and explore this time around, and in my opinion it works. There will be times where you’ll recognize an area or stage style from a previous game, but the experience is different overall. Which is a huge plus.

Tails saves the day

Sega obviously has a hard time deciding how far to push Sonic games lately, either they don’t push enough and we get a weak rehash of a game (Episode I) or they push too hard and we get an unplayable mess (Sonic Unleashed), but it seems they found a pretty good mixture this time around. There were several “Wow” moments for me during my first run through which left me with a smile on my face. The addition of Tails really makes all the difference. He’s playable in co-op mode (either online or local) as well, so that adds a lot to the replay value of this Episode. Tails gives you two special moves. The first is his signature flying technique. Like in Sonic 3 you can call upon Tails to lift you out of harms way or to reach new areas, something you’ll be required to do during the game. The second special move, which you will rely on far less, is a kind of double summersault. You combine into a big orange and blue blur and destroy the majority of obstacles in your way. It’s usually pretty obvious when you need to perform these actions, but I was caught off guard once or twice.

How you summon Tails is different from Sonic 3 however, which required a 2nd player helping you out. In the PS3 version you press the Square key to perform the special move at anytime in single player mode. The trick is to fly you need to be in mid-air, and to do the summersault you need to be standing on the ground. I won’t lie, I’ve died a few times when Tails decided to do the opposite of what I was trying to do. But it just takes a bit of practice and most of the time it works fine. The instant ability to call on Tails to fly you out of harms way saved my skin over a dozen times. If you run too fast off a bottomless pit, or realize you missed a critical platform, just be quick to tap the Square button and use your thrusts carefully and you’ll save yourself a life.

Some people may see these special moves this as a negative aspect. We never had special moves before, why add them now? Well I’ll tell you why, because it spices up the gameplay. Sonic needs to evolve a bit, if not it gets old too quick. These moves add some new tricks to the game and gives you a great way to explore new paths and areas. Afterall Episode II is quite challenging. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t cursing at the TV screen or grinding me teeth a few times through the game. A similar reaction to some of the tougher parts toward the end of Sonic & Knuckles. So like it or not, Tails comes in handy.

Metal Sonic is back and he means business!

I’ve always been a fan of Metal Sonic since my Sonic CD days. He was teased at the end of Episode I if you collected all the emeralds. I was hoping they wouldn’t mess up his return like they did in Sonic Heroes, to my surprise, they didn’t screw this up. You battle Sonic’s Metallic copy in a few stages and he’s involved in a good amount of boss battles later on in the game. I won’t spoil anything, but there are some great throwbacks to Sonic CD that gave me a big smile. And if you bought Episode I you get a special ‘Metal Episode’ to play which gives you the background on how he was revived. In this you play levels from the previous Episode as well. The Episode I stages look even better then they did in their original release, and it was a pleasure to play as Metal Sonic. He isn’t just tacked on either, he has his own set of moves, some great special sound effects and animations.

Has the Sonic Cycle been broken?

So a few hours after clicking ‘Buy’ on the Playstation Store I completed the main storyline to the game and collected a handful of emeralds. Overall Episode II was pretty difficult actually. I’m a veteran of the Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis series and I found this to be just as tough as Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles. The boss battles especially, some of the latter ones are pretty unforgiving, clearing out my cache of extra lives pretty quickly. You’ll definitely be giving the TV screen some dirty looks here and there, but like the classic Genesis games the levels become easier with the more practice you have.

In my opinion the Sonic Cycle is broken for this round. Episode II easily surpasses Episode I in both quality and creativity. The new badniks, zones and graphics really make this game shine. It’s easy to see all the love that went into this game, especially with fine touches like the ‘Cool!’ thumbs up banner that returns in the Special Stages. Episode II may not be perfect, but it comes pretty close. It feels much more like a classic Sonic game than Episode I and it left me eager to play Episode III.

In May 2010 I had a dilemma. My brother’s birthday had just passed and I couldn’t think of a gift to get him. After much thought I decided something that he would like. A hard drive. He loves music and even makes his own, so storing it and keeping his machine backed up takes up a lot of disk space. So I went to Newegg.com, having good previous experiences with them, to see what deals on hard drives were on sale. Unfortunately nothing seemed to be in my price range, until I found one item. It was almost too good to be true… and unfortunately that would be the case later on. It was a 1TB Western Digital external hard drive, this drive had a FireWire port, which was great for my brother’s Mac. We are both FireWire fans, so the thought of me buying him a USB external drive was out of the question. For $69 it was a pretty good deal, but here’s the catch, it was refurbished. I would usually stray away from these drives, but Newegg offered a warranty through a company called ServiceNet. I was intrigued, I had never heard of the service before, but since Newegg offered the option for $16.99 for a 2 year replacement warranty. Fearing that a rectified drive would fail before it’s standard warranty I reluctantly bought the ServiceNet warranty. The drive shipped soon after.

Tom loved the gift. He could use the hard drive space badly. But what I thought would be a stress-free gift soon turned out to be a nightmare. In late 2011 Tom complained that the drive was making odd noises and sometimes failing to show itself. Shortly after it started making dreaded clicking noises, the sure telling sign of a failing hard drive. Thankfully the files stored on the drive were backed up elsewhere, so losing the data wasn’t a concern. So I figured things were okay. I bought the ServiceNet replacement warranty, so he would get a replacement drive without issue. Right? Sadly this would not be the case.

I forwarded Tom the information (sales order receipt, etc) so he can call up ServiceNet himself. I was a bit busy at the time and I figured he could handle it himself. Unfortunately they required me to call up directly. I ended up filing the claim online for the hard drive. I would soon be contacted asking to return the hard drive to them, so they can replace the item. “Great!” I thought, this gamble has paid off. Weeks go by and I didn’t receive an updated status about the drive. I was about to call up when I receive a odd email on January 10th, 2012. It’s from Newegg. The subject reads “Newegg.com – Gift Card from Service Net”. So off the bat I’m confused. A gift card? I didn’t request a gif card. I requested a replacement!

Well it turns out that due to the flood in the Thailands Western Digital hard drive prices have skyrocketed. So for the warranty company ServiceNet, they took the cheap route. Refunding me $69.99 instead of paying even a penny or a dollar more to replace the actual item. I forward the email to my brother and tell him that he wasn’t going to get a replacement hard drive. He was discouraged, but thought that if he called up to ServiceNet they would see their mistake and would just replace the drive instead. However this was not the case. They refused to talk to him and wanted to talk to… that’s right. Me again.

At my office things were ramping up for our large yearly meeting. So I was beyond swamped in work to take time to call up and make a case about this. However my brother is obviously more concerned about this then I am, because it’s his hard drive. Finally getting around to it I make a call to ServiceNet in April 2012. I give the automated menu my case ID number and waited for someone to answer the line. A man picks up the phone and asks me for the number again. I comply and give him the information. Right off the bat I can tell this isn’t going to end well.

He points out that I have already received a gift card for the item and asks what I’m calling about. I explain the situation. I bought the hard drive with the extended warranty and expected a replacement product. What I got was a gift card instead. I request if there is a replacement device they could send instead, or if they would cover the $30 or $50 price ($30 for a USB replacement, $50 for a nicer FireWire model replacement) difference to a new replacement hard drive. Immediately he becomes defensive. Pulling out terms of the warranty as if they were common knowledge to everyone, which it obviously was to him. He elaborates that there is a clause in the warranty stating that if the cost of the time fluctuates or increases the ServiceNet company can opt to buy-out your warranty contract. Basically giving you your money back, and taking your item. I understand what they’re doing, but that doesn’t mean I like it. I explain that the reason I bought the “Replacement Extended Warranty” (as it is worded on my receipt) is so that I could replace the item should it fail, which I had a hunch it just might. He sights the warranty clauses again, and asks if I want to ‘dispute’ the terms of the warranty. This time his voice sounds more intimidating. I told him I don’t want to dispute the warranty, I understand the terms, but that in my opinion it was a shady practice to offer a replacement, only to cheap out and refund the cost of the item. I clearly wasn’t getting anywhere, so I ended the call.

So I paid $69.99, plus $16.99 for the ServiceNet “warranty”, plus $4.99 shipping, plus about $5.00 in tax. Totaling around $97.00. All I have now is a $69.99 gift card from Newegg that won’t get me a replacement item. The cheapest 1TB hard drive is $99, but it’s only USB. For $119 there is a Western Digital FireWire 1TB hard drive however. If ServiceNet offered me an extra gift card of $20 or $30 that would have been the end of it. At least it would have lessened the blow of having the hard drive fail.

So they have our broken hard drive and all I have is a gift card that won’t even cover the cost of a replacement hard drive. They mentioned that if they had a comparable model they would replace it, but were vague on their source of such items or if they ever would receive any. They blame Western Digital for raising the prices, and suggest I complain to them. They said they can never make an exception, not for anyone. If they make one exception they would be “opened to lawsuits”. Um okay… I don’t buy that.

So what it boils down to is this. You’re gambling when you buy a warranty, but that isn’t really anything new I suppose. ServiceNet knows that. In fact, they thrive on it. They obviously don’t care, or doesn’t want to care about their customer’s issues. It’s ironic, the company quote showcased on their webpage reads “Our aggressive and focused goal is to provide the most outstanding service to our clients…”. But I think they should update their quote to “No exceptions. Ever.”

I will never buy a ServiceNet warranty ever again. I’d rather take my chances with a product then pay good money for them to find every way possible to weasel out of the original warranty agreement and to screw me out of a replacement product.

So I moved into my apartment complex about 5 months ago in Piscataway, New Jersey to be closer to my office and to finally move out of my parents house. Since then I’ve been without cable TV or satellite TV, I’ve been living with the use of a Slingbox to watch TV, along with streaming content via the internet. Why? I don’t want Cablevision’s TV services. To make a long story short I had them at my parents place for years and I have never liked their quality of service or the products they offer.

My parents switched to DirecTV about a year ago and like them we haven’t looked back or regretted our move from Cablevision. So now that I’m on my own I’d like to subscribe to DirecTV. The problem? Our apartment complex charges an extra fee of $25.00 a month to have a satellite dish installed on the property. I found this odd when we first looked at the place and asked why. The person giving us a tour simply said it’s because if there was no fee everyone would have a dish and it would look ‘ugly’. Even if that was true, it’s a lame response. Why would you want to limit everyone form having one?

Sounds like the cable company had a hand in this if you ask me. I have never even noticed the satellite dishes on the same row of buildings of mine until today when I was walking by. Why? Because they are neatly installed via a pole next to a bush. Hardly ugly. There are no dishes installed on any roofs that I can see. I only spotted 3-4 installed satellite dishes within my view of about 30-40 apartments. But with a $25.00 a monthly fee needed to have a dish in front of your apartment it’s a no brainer why there are so few people with one.

Here is the text copied from the form that I was required to sign before moving in. This text was just one of the bullets on the form, the other bullets cover more standard items such as making sure you have renters insurance and an account from the electric company prior to moving in.

- Satellite Dish (any network) an additional $25 a month Fee will be charged to your account, or you can use Cablevision at no additional charge other than your monthly bill.

So I did some searching online, I was wondering if this was legal or not, my hunch was that something smelled rotten. After all the form that mentions the fee on satellite dishes mentions Cablevision on the next line. Each apartment building is pre-wired for Cablevision’s cable TV & internet services, something that the cable company probably paid the apartment complex to do when they were built (which is common practice apparently). So by charging a $25.00 fee to use another television provider besides Cablevision (like Dish Network or DirecTV), they are more likely to get subscribers to Cablevision. Cablevision is the only cable TV company in the area, so renters either need to pay an extra $25 a month or stick with cable.

It gets worse, in our area of New Jersey you either have a “choice” of Cablevision or Comcast. Now I say “choice” with quotes because there really is no choice, it’s either one or the other. From my knowledge your area is either covered by one or the other, not both. Verizon Fios is also not available in the area, although the representatives at our complex vaguely mentioned they may be expanding the Fios service into the area in a year or two.

I came across an FCC webpage about the laws of restricting the use of TV antennas & satellite dishes. You can read this document here:

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/over-air-reception-devices-rule

One section about restrictions reads:

Q:  What types of restrictions are prohibited?

A:  The rule prohibits restrictions that impair a person’s ability to install, maintain, or use an antenna covered by the rule.  The rule applies to state or local laws or regulations, including zoning, land-use or building regulations, private covenants, homeowners’ association rules, condominium or cooperative association restrictions, lease restrictions, or similar restrictions on property within the exclusive use or control of the antenna user where the user has an ownership or leasehold interest in the property.  A restriction impairs if it: (1) unreasonably delays or prevents use of; (2) unreasonably increases the cost of; or (3) precludes a person from receiving or transmitting an acceptable quality signal from an antenna covered under the rule.  The rule does not prohibit legitimate safety restrictions or restrictions designed to preserve designated or eligible historic or prehistoric properties, provided the restriction is no more burdensome than necessary to accomplish the safety or preservation purpose.

As you can read above “unreasonably increase the cost of” service is prohibited. Now I guess one could argue if the cost is unreasonable or not, but in my opinion any additional fee to have a dish installed is unreasonable. It’s not a safety concern (which is a non-prohibited restriction).

It’s bad enough that the cable companies in the area have a monopoly over the service, giving you one and only “choice” with who you can go with. But to make matters worse they charge a $25.00 fee to have a personal TV satellite dish mounted on a pole outside in the ground. If this isn’t illegal it should be. It’s anticompetitive and it’s wrong. Just because the cable company may have paid the apartment complex a bundle of money for either pre-installing cable sockets or adding this fee into the agreement, it doesn’t mean the renters have to suffer.

I’ve written an email to the FCC to see what their take on this is. I’ll keep you all updated as I find out more.

If you grew up in the early 90′s and you had a computer chances are that you were connected to the world wide web. The internet was very popular, with services like AOL and EarthLink you’d be signed online and you could explore the web – you were only limited by your modem’s speed (and your phone bill). You had a 56k modem if you were lucky and even then things weren’t too ‘quick’.

Web Multimedia was at it’s infancy and it took ages to download anything worth watching. You would need special plug-ins and codecs and unlike today not everything was usually compatible with each other. Especially having a Mac there were a lot of videos and other items that just wouldn’t work. Growing up in this internet age my parents had a Power Macintosh 7500 desktop. It was pretty quick in my eyes and it was the main computer of the house. I vividly remember logging onto AOL 2.7, going to the Games section and looking for downloads. I’d usually choose the downloads where the download time was less than 1 minute. This would included video game midis, south park audio clips, and other small audio files that managed to be uploaded by other users.

I remember once finding a Star Wars site online and downloading a ton of audio clips from the movies. I was devastated when my Dad needed to delete them to make space on our computer. This was before we had our Zip 100 drive which would let us save up to 100MB on each of our own disks. I remember getting one for my birthday, that must have been the geekiest gift ever!

Videos were a whole other story. I remember putting in one of Apple’s Mac OS 8 install discs (either 8.5 or 8.6), it had a Bare Naked Ladies music video on it and I was amazed how the quality could look so good. I remember knowing little about what a DVD was, but later on I tried to install the DVD Player software on our older Non-DVD equipped Mac. Of course that never worked, and I later found out why.

Online videos were mostly streaming, I remember RealPlayer was unfortunately used a lot. It was always hard to track down the free version of RealPlayer too. Especially the Mac version, they always wanted you to download the Gold version. Since I was young I was afraid of anything I had to pay for, I didn’t know how it worked but I assumed money was taken instantly from my Dad’s wallet via magic. I never understood why everyone liked RealPlayer, I hated it, I could never save a movie, we’d have to be online to see it. I remember whenever something was a QuickTime file I’d try and save it with mixed success. I remember my Dad bringing home QuickTime 4 on a CD, that was cool since it had some live “TV” like stations you could watch. Not a lot of them worked, but when they did you felt like you had your own little TV on your computer. There was a TechTV channel and a Weather channel. They were usually either pre-recorded clips or a few minutes of a show that repeated.

Speaking of your own personal TV our Mac 7500 had AV and S-Video input on the back. We had an old VCR hooked up to the machine so we could watch VHS tapes or even watch basic cable. I remember taking screenshots and small video recordings of The Simpsons. I also remember watching Star Wars: Return of the Jedi on our Mac and playing with the figures while doing so. I was fascinated by that, later I would understand how it worked, but back then it was magic.

Today you can download a whole movie or steam a movie from Netflix in a matter of minutes. Video compression is worlds better, and RealPlayer is unheard of. MP3 files have taken over the portable MIDI sound files, and with CD burners built-in to nearly every machine today it’s easy to share multimedia to friends and family. But you can even blast the content over to another machine online, you don’t have to wait to mail a disc to show your relatives who live elsewhere your photos. Just upload them to Flickr to send them an email.

Digital audio and video technology has sure come a long way since I was a kid. And I’m sure glad it has, without their advancements it would be cumbersome and frustrating to share audio and video on the web. Let alone show somebody how to access this file!

First let me say I love NewEgg. I’ve been a happy customer for over 7 years. I’ve ordered anything from cables to a laundry list of parts to built my own computer form them. I’m a tech savvy guy and usually NewEgg has the best selection and prices. So I’m usually very happy to shop with them and I’ve hardly ever had a problem with them before, certainly not a problem that they couldn’t resolve. I’ve recommended countless friends and co-workers to the site. I fix PCs all the time and 9 times out of 10 the parts I order are from Newegg. I’ve even gotten the company I work for to order items from them. So I am a big fan, until now.

But today when I went to take advantage of some of their Black Friday deals I was turned away. They would not let me log in. They suspended my account and even creating a new account with my name didn’t seem to work. Why was I blacklisted? Because they screwed up, and here’s how they did it. (Skip down for a summary if you wish)

On September 12th 2011 I ordered an OCZ brand SSD (solid state hard drive) for my MacBook Pro computer. I was happy to get it when it arrived, but it didn’t work as advertised. It simply id not like the SATA controller in my MacBook. OCZ customer support offered to give me the same size drive, but at a slower speed to resolve this issue. But I paid for the faster model, so I turned them down. I talked to Newegg and explained my situation, unfortunately the return policy for this item was ‘exchange only’ so I would get the same non-working item again and again. Newegg wanted a $15 to 20 restocking fee if I returned the item. So I contacted Chase, my credit card company which I thankfully used when placing the order. They were happy to assist me and credited me $90.94 temporarily until NewEgg paid them back (the amount of my order with shipping & tax). So a day or so goes by and after reading online about other people getting success with Newegg waiving their restocking fee I try the same thing. It works, I get them to refund my item in full and they even gave me a UPS label to mail it back, no restocking fee. So on September 27th I ship the item back to them and cancel my Credit Card dispute because I was satisfied that Newegg would refund me and everything would be fine. It was not.

On October 4th 2011 at 1:53 PM I receive an email that my RMA return was successfully delivered to the RMA warehouse. Then at 2:08 PM on the same day I get an email saying they verified the contents of the package and that a refund will be processed to my account, it should take 3-5 business days. At this point I expect everything to work out. I pay my credit card off each month, but I didn’t notice the $90.94 being credited. I thought maybe it would take a while, so it sat in the back of my mind until November 22nd (Yesterday).

I try to login to Newegg.com and I get a message saying my account is suspended. It says to call Newegg or use the LiveChat web feature. So I chat with the persona online, they say they do not know why the account is suspended. They pause to try and find out. They say they can not figure it out and pass it to the dispute department. They say I’ll have an answer within 24 hours. So I reluctantly accept this feeling that this person can’t help.

But then I have an idea, I create a NewEgg account with another email address and use the same card. Since NewEgg can’t tell me why my account is suspended I figure it could have been hijacked or as simple as trying to log in with an incorrect password one too many times. So I make a new account, use my same Chase credit card and try to buy the same items. Things look like they went through, but they didn’t I get an order cancelation message a few minutes later saying ‘VOID’ and that’s all. I call up NewEgg again, and they again tell me they don’t know what the issue is, but they’ll look into it. I tell them to note the two email addresses / accounts that I used, they say they will. So at 4:36 I get an email from Amy from NewEgg.

Dear Steven,

Upon further evaluation of your account, we have been informed by our verification department; that we are unable to service your account at this time. Additional information has been requested for further review. It appears there is a record of a pending charge back on your account. Please note in order to reinstate your account the charge back would need to be reversed, or if you have already done so please forward me documentation of the sucessful reversal for you.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

So it appears that NewEgg thinks that I tried to start a charge back to get money back. Which is true, they owe me $90.94. So I call up NewEgg once more. They tell me to call up my credit card company. I call Chase and another Amy answers my call and happily assists me. She sees that I started a dispute and then canceled it, but that NewEgg never sent any money back to me. So I explain to her that I have an RMA email with a number stating that they received the item I sent back and that I will get money in 3-4 days. Obviously this never happened. So Amy re-opened the dispute with NewEgg and said they have 60 days to respond.

Not wanting to wait 60 days to figure out what the issue is (or attempt to order something from NewEgg again) I call up NewEgg for call number four. A lady answers the phone and I explain my long, long situation about what is happening. She looks into her records and sees that NewEgg thinks I owe them money! So I ask to speak to a manager and tell her I know it’s not her fault, she thanks me and passes me to Dan. Dan reads my notes and again tells me that NewEgg thinks that I have the OCZ SSD item and $90.94. So we finally got to the problem. NewEgg thinks I have their money and their product!

So I tell Dan this is not true. He may have thought I was making it up, but I give him an RMA number and this stopped him in his tracks. He looks up the RMA and sees the product was indeed received in the warehouse at 9:23 AM on October 4th 2011. He still says they tried to pay me my $90.94 back to my Credit Card and it was successful. I ask him for a transaction ID or something so I can tell this to my Credit Card company. But he fails to find one, he says he’ll forward this to the finance department to take a look. He says they’ll get it this evening and that the earliest I’ll hear something back or be able to use my account again is Friday. I explain to him how frustrated I am, I was planning on buying numerous gifts and items, potentially spending upwards of $500 on NewEgg.com and taking advantage of their Black Friday deals. He says he can’t begin to imagine how frustrating it is, but says that he can’t do anything and that the finance department must unblock my account. He confirms that I can’t use my name, address or credit card on Newegg. I can’t create a new account, I can’t use my Debit Card. Nothing! So until they decide to unblock my account I can’t give them money. I can’t take advantage of their sales, and I can’t get anything ordered ahead of time for the holidays. I didn’t do anything. NewEgg screwed up, and because of this I am the one who is missing out. If it wasn’t for some NewEgg.com specific sales & rebates that aren’t available elsewhere I’d go to Amazon or Frys.com, but for now I’m stuck.

I’m not going to give up, I’m going to keep giving them calls until something happens. Because I am not happy and this is 100% unacceptable and ridiculous. I’ve never had so much trouble trying to give a company money. I know I shouldn’t be doing that after all this, but all I want is to purchase items and get some holiday shopping done ahead of time.

SUMMARY: NewEgg screwed up with my return. They thought I had the returned item and they already refunded me my money. Neither is true, they have the returned item and never refunded me my money. So now my account is on hold, I can’t buy anything or even log into my account to look at my invoices (thankfully I save all my emails). The earliest my account can be unblocked is Friday. So I will miss out on any sales and promotions that I wanted to take advantage of. Basically I want to give them money and I can’t due to their mistake.

I’m imagining all of us who are a bit of a geek are all feeling a bit blue now. Even if you for some reason dislike the company, their products or Steve himself, you have a lot to thank him and admire him for. The fonts on our computers, the touch-screen on your phone, the graphical user interface we use today, saving Pixar and helping to create some of their great films. We have a lot because of Steve, whether you realize it or not.

May you forever rest in peace Steve, you put a dent in the universe we will never, ever forget. 

Thank you Steve.
-Steve

Backing up GameBoy saves to Your PC
(A YouTube video briefly highlighting the process)

If you were a kid growing up in the mid 90′s there was probably a good chance you had a GameBoy from Nintendo. Most early games did not allow you to save your progress, alternatively a password system was used to pickup where you left off. But in 1998 a big game came along that used the save function, and it wouldn’t have been a success without it. That game of course was Pokemon, available originally in the United States in a Red or Blue version this game would go onto break records and hypnotize millions of kids into becoming Pokemon fanatics for life.

Growing up I was always a bit of a geek, so one day I found a device in a store titled the “Mega Memory Card” made by the now defiant company Interact. I just had to have it. This strange shaped yellow device almost looked like a Game Shark, but instead of hacking your games and giving you infinite lives, this device let you backup your game saves. The Mega Memory card had 30 available slots. Meaning I can backup my Pokemon game, erase the save file and let my brother play and restore my original game at anytime. As well as having alternate saves for a variety of games. This was really cool and I loved it. But until recently there was no easy way to get these saves onto your computer or into an emulator to really preserve it forever. There were other devices that were based on the use of the old Parallel port standard, but thankfully those days are behind us.

Enter the GB USB 64m Smart Card. This is basically a blank GameBoy cartridge with internal built-in storage and a USB port. This allows you to copy gamesaves and more from a GameBoy game to your computer! Finally allowing you to really preserve your gamesaves and other data forever. GameBoy games that involve saves run on a battery. Once this battery dies your save file is lost forever. For example most games are losing their saves recently, that’s because these batteries don’t last forever. For example Pokemon Red came out in 1998 and that game is now over 13 years old. Meaning the battery is over 13 years old. While it may still work now, the time is ticking on when the battery will finally fail. Better safe then sorry right? My Pokemon Red game just stopped working, a failure much larger then the battery was the cause I’m afraid. Thankfully years ago I made a backup using my Mega Memory Card. So this really pushed me to finally back these up to a computer once and for all. The save files are small and portable. I backed up over 60 saves to my computer (yes it took a long time), but the .zip file with them was only about 3 MB. So it’s really easy to back these up and keep them somewhere safe forever. Using a Gamil account and emailing them to yourself is a good option…

Anyway, here is how you backup your games. You’ll need all the items pictured at the top which include: The now out-of-print Mega Memory card. A game of your choice you wish to backup (in this case Pokemon Red) and a GM 64m Smart Card which is thankfully available for sale here.

First you need to download the software on the GM 64m Smart Card page (linked above). For 64-bit users of Windows this is a bit of a pain, but it does work. I’ve successfully installed the drivers and software on Windows 7 64-bit and Windows XP (32-bit). Needless to say a 32-bit version of Windows is easier to get this to work on. There are Mac & Linux options, but even though I’m using a Mac I took the shortcut of using Parallels Desktop with Windows instead of attempting the native-Mac route.

Step 1: Using your Mega Memory card to backup the save. Plug the Mega Memory card into your GameBoy system, plug the cartridge you want to backup into the slot on the unit, for this example Pokemon Red. Make sure the switch ont he Mega Memory card is slid into the right side position (with the label facing away from you). So if you look at the purple label the switch should be on the left position). But from the back of the Gameboy it’ll be on the right side.

Step 2: Turn on the Gameboy. If the Memory Card manager screen does not come up clean your game contacts of dust. This is a major factor in making this work smoothly, I have dumped games which did not have a working save, this was due to there not being a secure connection. So try again until the menu comes up. Once you get to the menu select ‘Backup’. You will be given a chance to type a title or name for your save. A screen saying “Working” will let you know it’s backing up the game save. This will only take a few seconds. If you’re backing up a GameBoy camera this will take significantly longer, maybe around 10-20 seconds, but more on the GameBoy camera later.

Step 3: Once the ‘Working’ screen goes away it is safe to shut-off the system. Remove the game you copied the save from (ex. Pokemon Red) from the back of the Memory Card unit. Now plug in the GM 64m Smart Card. Turn on the system again and wait to get to the Memory Card menu. Again if it does not boot up correctly clean the game contacts. Now this time we choose ‘Restore’ since we want to write the save information we just backed up form the Pokemon game. Select the name of the save you created before. A ‘Working’ screen will again come up to let you know it’s working. When it’s done it’ll return to the main menu, this means it’s finished. It’s now safe to turn off the Gameboy.

Step 4: Thanks to the nature of USB you can disconnect the GB 64m Smart Card from the Memory card/ gameboy all together and plug it into your computer via the USB port on the cartridge. Note: If you leave the cartridge plugged into a GameBoy (even if it’s off) it will not be read properly by the computer. So remove the cartridge from any connection before continuing. Start up the GB_USB.exe application in Windows. The screen will indicate it’s loading. The program has two sections, one to save data to the card, and one to read data from the card (the bottom). We’ll be focusing on the bottom section. Game Card Information. Please note there are two 32M Slots/Pages. If you do not see anything listed under ‘Game Name’ you should change the Data page from the drop-down menu on the upper section. Changing this to Page NO. 2 solved the issue for me. You should now see something listed on the bottom section under Card Information. On my screen it reads ‘ADVENTURE’ with a size of 256k. This may vary depending on your game. Now to copy this to your PC. Since we’re copying just game saves and not a ROM, we’ll select the ‘READ SRAM’ button. You will be asked to save your game file somewhere, be sure to add a .sav extension or your GameBoy emulator will not properly read the save file. This will show a progress bar backing up your info. When it’s done it’s safe to close the program and unplug the cartridge from the USB port.

Step 5: Playing your save file on an emulator. First you need the ROM of the original game. I won’t get into the whole legal issues with this, but depending on your country it technically may be illegal to obtain or own these ROMs unless you own them. Google CoolRom to find out some information. Do not ask me where to download them. So now that you have the ROM of the game you downloaded the game save from we’re ready to go. On Windows I used VisualBoy Advance, a pretty good GameBoy emulator which emulates GameBoy, GameBoy Color and GameBoy Advance games very well. Start by selecting ‘File > Open…’ and select the game ROM (for example Pokemon Red). The game will load and start to play, don’t worry about this. Once again go to the File menu, but this time go to ‘Import’ and select ‘Battery file’. The battery file is the save file we downloaded form our USB cartridge. Make sure the file has the extension .sav (for example “MyRedGameSave.sav”). If not the program will not see it as a save file and it may not work. Select your save. The program will warn you that loading the save will cause the current game to reset and lose any unsaved data. This is just fine because we just started the game. Click OK and watch the game reboot… TA-DAH! You now have your gamesave loaded into an emulator. Your game save can be emailed to yourself, backed up, or shared online. It will live on forever!

Note about GameBoy Camera saves. Using the above method I was able to save my GameBoy camera photos. But not without a bit of a struggle. Hopefull the below notes will help you out. First this website was crucial. It follows the same process above but gives you a download link to the GBCameraDump.exe program, without this it’s not possible to view your photos. Especially since most emulators (like VisualBoy Advance) won’t read a GameBoy Camera save file because it can not properly load up the GameBoy Camera ROM file.

So please visit this wonderful site to start the process, but before doing so I have some helpful tips to ensure a smooth operation!

This is the result of a bad dump of a GameBoy Camera save file.

This is the result of a good dump of a GameBoy Camera save file.

Clean the contacts on the GameBoy camera! The camera will not easily slide onto the Mega Memory card. It can work, but it is a bit snug. This causes the game to be extra sensitive, so there’s a higher chance of it not backing up properly. I tried twice and I got gibberish photos (although my Game Face was okay). To fix this I cleaned all cartridges and slots with a Q-Tip (without anything on it, but you can go further, just be careful). Finally on my 3rd try everything worked okay. The key to this is the transfer times. The Mega Memory Card will take it’s sweet time to backup the GameBoy camera save. That is normal. However when ‘Restoring’ this save to the GM 64m Smart Card is where I was having the issue. The Mega Memory card would often take no time to restore the save to the card. And that is when I was getting zero usable pictures when opening the GBCameraDump.exe program. To fix this I formatted the GM 64m Smart Card (using the GB_USB.exe utility) and tried again. This time it worked great. So it may have been a combination of dust and formatting. This time the Mega Memory card took the same amount of time to backup the Camera save as it took to restore it to the USB card. All worked well and GBCameraDump.exe was able to save all of my photos into crisp Black & White .BMP image files. So don’t give up, it’ll work eventually!

I own a few different (and most of) the variations of the Star Wars Trilogy films on VHS and LaserDisc (and even a few other formats too). Some of these releases have cool booklets or flyers attached. My plan is to try and scan in and archive these. So below is what I have so far. I hope to expand this colleciton and share it to those who enjoy it and find it interesting.

Click on the below images for a larger version.

1993 LaserDisc ‘Definitive Collector’s Set’ Booklet Front Cover (booklet scan coming soon!)

1992/1993 VHS ‘Widescreen Collector’s Edition’ – Included inside the box set

A preview of the 2016 re-release of Jedi when Vader is compelled to say “Yes!”

Since the debut of home video releases of theatrical films Star Wars has been one of the ‘must-have’ films to be in everyone’s collection, often touting an impressive entertainment experience for your home. On VHS they offered stereo sound, later on the LaserDisc and VHS releases were properly letterboxed and offered a THX quality experience. In 1997 George Lucas released the ‘Special Editions’ of the films in the theaters, later making it to VHS & LaserDisc for home video viewing. Although the changes and alterations didn’t sit so well with some fans, the films were cleaned up and never had looked better. In 2004 the original Star Wars trilogy finally made its way to DVD. The picture quality was both good and bad (colors were off, some scenes could use work), the bonus features were nice, but a bit lacking. But finally we had Star Wars digitally on DVD, and it was better than nothing. George Lucas would eventually cave to the pressure and release the un-altered versions of the classic Trilogy on DVD as “bonus discs” in 2006, they were just ported LaserDisc versions of the film, but at least they were now on DVD . Fast forward to last year, the Star Wars Saga is announced to be released on Blu-Ray before the year ends, the High Definition format that would let the film shine like never before and included hours and hours of never before seen deleted scenes & bonus features.

This spurs months of discussions and debates from fans. Did they fix the color issues from the DVD release? What will be improved or changed? Are the Blu-Rays getting a new picture transfer? Will George Lucas add anything new? Well with about 2 more weeks to go leaks of the Blu-Rays start appearing online, before this most of what we saw was positive and enticing. Suddenly a great disturbance is felt on the internet, as thousands of fans cry out and refuse to be silenced! So what’s all the fuss about? Well George Lucas has decided to alter a critical moment in the Saga’s final film, ‘Return of the Jedi’. In the famous scene where Darth Vader redeems himself and saves his son by (literally) overthrowing the evil Emporer Palpatine, there has been an audio change. Where Darth Vader used to perform his sacrificing act in silence he now crys “No” twice before doing so.  It’s not as bad as the howling “Nooooooooooo!” scene from Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, but it’s still cringe-worthy. For those who haven’t seen the clip he looks at Luke and says “No…” then he lunges at the Emperor calling “Noooooooo!” once more. You can see it on YouTube here.

Now some people ask my why I’m upset about this, well I have two bones to pick with this. Number 1, the scene works perfectly with Darth Vader silent. The visuals tell you what you need to know, the camera work and subtle movements of the masked dark lord express perfectly what’s going on. The music carries the emotion of the scene and it works great. If the scene was filmed differently it wouldn’t work as well, but it does here, and it’s a great part of the film. There’s a sense of surprise for first-time viewers, and the dramatic element of the scene works perfectly. But now, instead of having the audience enjoy the mood and the thrill of the scene in silence (like it always was for the past 28 years) Vader has to open his big mouth and say what he’s feeling. I feel like it ruins the mood and emotion of the scene. I’ve watched the leaked clip online again and again, and while repeating the clip for the 5th time or so it’s not that bad to hear as it was the first time. (Almost like a punch in the arm isn’t that bad the 5th or 6th time around.) But it still stands out horribly, and it’s 100% unnecessary. I’m just thankful Vader doesn’t break out into song and sings about his emotions for 8 minutes while Luke and Palpatine pause to politely listen before joining him as backup singers.

My second issue is this. Palpatine is shocking the hell out of Luke, he’s going to kill him with his evil lightening powers. Palpatine can easily sense Vader’s thoughts. Sure Vader could be working hard to “keep it to himself”, but blurting it out loud for everyone to hear should have obviously given Palpatine more of a clue of what was about to happen to him. Giving him plenty of time to think “Wait… what, you want some lightening too?” *BAM!*. Vader’s body is mostly machine, a spark from an electrical outlet could take him out of commission for a few minutes, a shock from the Emperor would kill him (and eventually does). This is explained in depth in the novel ‘Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader’, which explains why Vader must always obey his master the Emperor. Palpatine can read his thoughts and can kill him at anytime he pleases and replace him with other goon just as easily. But it didn’t need to be explained in a novel, it’s common sense. This goes along with everything the movie tells you. Vader says it clearly a few scenes before.  ”You don’t know the power of the Dark Side, I must obey my Master.” Which basically means if Vader thinks bad thoughts and trys to kill of Palpatine he’ll see it coming and zap him full of 1.21 gigawatts of regret.

So will I be canceling my pre-order of the Star Wars Complete Saga on Blu-ray like others are? — No.  Will continue to cherish my 2004/2006 DVDs and my VHS & LaserDisc collection of the films? — You’re damn right I will! Because the scene with Vader screaming “No” ruins it for me. I’ll still watch it on Blu-Ray, but I won’t enjoy the change they’ve made. I’ll happily wait for a fan-edit of the Blu-Ray excluding just that audio clip. The rest of the changes (assuming they aren’t as horrible) are easier to stomach.

The force was strong with this one, and now George’s tinkering have gone too far yet again. I can’t wait until the 3D versions to be released where Luke challenges Darth Vader to a lightscycle match to save the lives of Chewie’s extended family on the Eve of Life Day.

If you’re reading this blog chances are you’ve picked up a controller or handheld at least a dozen times in your life to enjoy the fun and excitement that video games have to offer. While new video game consoles have mutli-core processors, 3D capabilities, and HD graphics and sound you can not even begin to appreciate these modern achievements of entertainment without looking back on how it all started.

Below is another a great video about this museum, this one aired on New York’s NY1 News channel. Take a look at this great video for an look at what a cool museum like this could offer:
NY1 Article on the Museum with Video (Flash format)
NY1 Videogame Museum Video (Direct QuickTime MP4 Video Link)

I think the idea of a museum dedicated the history of video games is a fantastic idea. I’ve been to a few museums which may have a computer or video game exhibit going on that has some cool things to offer, but having one open all the time that can constantly add and remove different items is amazing. I have met Joe Santulli who runs the Digital Press video game store in Clifton New Jersey. He’s a great guy and truly has a passion for video games old and new.

There is so much history behind the making of any game or console. Just look on Wikipedia and type in the name of any video game console or video game software. There are different variations, versions, canceled concepts, incomplete projects and other juicy details. A place where all of this information, artifacts, arcades, games, hardware, and promotional items can all be put on display and enjoyed by others is very exciting.

Here is a quote from the Videogame History Museum page to give you a bit more of information:

“The Videogame History Museum is the natural extension of the work started by John Hardie, Sean Kelly and Joe Santulli almost 25 years ago. Individually, each has always seen the importance of the videogame industry and took it upon himself to gather as much information and as many artifacts as possible. Collectively, they have amassed the most comprehensive collection of hardware, software, design documentation and memorabilia ever assembled.”

I will be donating to this cause as much as I can. And even though I may not be able to make it to the $10,000 pledge mark (although lifetime membership is very, very tempting) I know that every donation helps. So if you love video games and you want to preserve their important history in a museum for everyone to visit and enjoy, then you must help support this project. Even a pledge as little was $10 will help, and it gets you a free pass to the museum!! $25 or more gets you a cool limited edition pin, and $100 or more gets you a special limited edition t-shirt plus the previously mentioned pin & admission.

The Videogame History Museum @ KickStarter – only 14 days to go!! Don’t delay!