• Second Hurricane Play Want Bin (PWBE 7 Oct 2024)

    From Kendrick Kerwin Chua@kendrick@nospam.io-nyc to uk.games.video.misc on Sun Oct 6 23:22:37 2024
    From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc


    It's a good thing that weather is both predictable and recoverable, in
    that we have centuries of reliable data from which to draw scientific conclusions that all reasonable people can agree on.

    Play:
    --=--

    Resurfacing discs (PSX/PS2) - I should really take before and after photographs. Useless coasters I've had sitting around for ages and ages
    have suddenly become valuable artifacts in my games library. The star attraction this weekend was Official Playstation Magazine US disc 93,
    which has as an installable extra a pair of save files that unlock all
    of the secrets in Second Sight and Bloodrayne 2. I need to get more of
    these discs, in whatever condition.

    Raspberry Pi (RPI) - I've finally deployed the old RasPi3b from six
    years ago again, this time as a media player. There are a pile of game
    add-ons I could install on the thing, but for ,now I'm running the
    Youtube plug-in that stopped working on the Xbox build of Kodi because
    that's all I've been using the Series X for lately.

    Want:
    --=--

    Raspberry Pi 5 (RPI) - Oh hey, the RasPi 5 units are back in stock and
    look pretty capable. Of melting whatever case they're put in. This seems
    like a good time to buy another computing device that I'll forget to use
    for another six years.

    Altered Space (GB) - Oh hey, this is Heimdall from the Mega CD and other platforms. Isometric puzzle adventure RPG things were all the rage on
    home computers for a time, and I can't believe I missed out on this. I
    must have it.

    Bin:
    -==-

    The Xbox Series X (XSX) - I'm not selling it or anything, but I am going
    to power it down and disconnect it. My kid now plays primarily on his
    handheld and I have a new primary media player, so there's really no
    point to having the stupid thing ready to go.

    Expenditure:
    -----=-----

    I'm probably not doing this anymore. It was convenient as a way to track
    what I'd bought, but Usenet history being what it is doesn't make it the historical reference that it might once have been. So here's fair
    warning that I may end up dropping the spendy part of the PWB post.

    -KKC, who needs more sleep.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Jaimie Vandenbergh@jaimie@usually.sessile.org to uk.games.video.misc on Mon Oct 7 14:22:02 2024
    From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

    On 7 Oct 2024 at 00:22:37 BST, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"
    <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:


    It's a good thing that weather is both predictable and recoverable, in
    that we have centuries of reliable data from which to draw scientific conclusions that all reasonable people can agree on.

    "Moar hurricanes" is a direct and expected result of anthropogenic
    warming, yep. No matter how often North Carolina passes laws forbidding
    science to be applied to planning of new building locations.

    Play:
    --=--

    Resurfacing discs (PSX/PS2) - I should really take before and after photographs. Useless coasters I've had sitting around for ages and ages
    have suddenly become valuable artifacts in my games library.

    Is there a minimum viable depth of the polycarbonate layer for the laser
    to successfully focus through?

    I've only been playing the new Zelda game. It is a solid 7/10. The game
    itself is pretty fun; the controls I'm still getting wrong in that
    "shoot a guy in the face instead of saying 'howdy'" manner that Read
    Dead 2 was so rich in. The story and almost all the actual writing is
    bland but functional. I have passed the second rift now, heading to the
    castle next.

    Want:
    --=--

    I need to get around to trying half an hour or so of each of the
    unfamiliar DS games I've collated for my niece to make sure they're not training grounds for mobile/f2p gacha crap.

    Bin:
    -==-

    Health stuff, as ever.

    Cheers - Jaimie
    --
    "the first successful time machine will be used to retrieve
    lost Doctor Who episode footage." - KKC, ugvm
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Russell Marks@zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com to uk.games.video.misc on Mon Oct 7 21:11:32 2024
    From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

    Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

    scientific conclusions that all reasonable people can agree on

    Hey, I remember that.

    Play:

    Yakuza^WMinecraft (Linux) - I spotted a large cavern system and
    mineshaft fairly close to my main base, so had a poke about in there.
    And obviously, with this being a low-stress environment easier to deal
    with than endgame stuff, I managed to die repeatedly. Mineshafts tend
    to have fairly mediocre loot (as in this case) and take excessively
    long to fully explore, the cavern didn't have many obvious diamonds,
    and I lost a few items to the deaths. This helpfully avoided
    overburdening my limited inventory slots, which I think is a really underestimated downside to finding decent loot. Item management
    becomes such a pleasurable breeze when it's all worthless tat anyway.

    Want:

    Nothing.

    Raspberry Pi 5 (RPI) - Oh hey, the RasPi 5 units are back in stock and
    look pretty capable. Of melting whatever case they're put in. This seems like a good time to buy another computing device that I'll forget to use
    for another six years.

    It sounds like a Pi 500 is on the way, which makes me wonder if that'd similarly require active cooling (given that the 400 didn't). Not that
    a pseudo-wedge is necessarily going to be everyone's first choice,
    unused or otherwise.

    Bin:

    Not for the first time, but... creepers in Minecraft. The inevitable exploding-right-behind-you instadeath seems so cheap, especially if
    you're playing the game without sound as I usually do. Though I
    suppose this happening a few times did serve as an encouragement to
    finally bother getting full diamond armour.

    I may end up dropping the spendy part of the PWB post.

    I wish I could do the same. Those diamonds don't come cheap, you know.

    -Rus.
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  • From Kendrick Kerwin Chua@kendrick@nospam.io-nyc to uk.games.video.misc on Tue Oct 8 09:02:45 2024
    From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

    In article <lmi94aF8e0mU1@mid.individual.net>,
    Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:
    On 7 Oct 2024 at 00:22:37 BST, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua" ><kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

    Play:
    --=--

    Resurfacing discs (PSX/PS2) - I should really take before and after
    photographs. Useless coasters I've had sitting around for ages and ages
    have suddenly become valuable artifacts in my games library.

    Is there a minimum viable depth of the polycarbonate layer for the laser
    to successfully focus through?


    I think that the plastic over the data layer is protective rather than optical, since the silver bits are meant to reflect. So hypothetically
    there could be no polycarbonate at all and the laser would still work.
    I've been told that you could take an unscratched CD and run the sand/buff/polish cycle ten times without doing any damage, so
    theoretically you won't bump up against any kind of minimum thickness
    problem.

    The issue is with Blu-Ray discs, which are super thin and have multiple
    data layers and are just fragile all around. My first go-round with a
    pile of cheap Bone discs ended up chipping little bits off the edge, or otherwise making the discs less readable. Blu-Rays you're supposed to
    buff only, and not sand or polish at all. They make a different machine
    that's supposed to work better for BD discs but it's essentially the
    same machine that isn't compatible with all of the other tools.

    --
    "the first successful time machine will be used to retrieve
    lost Doctor Who episode footage." - KKC, ugvm

    Hah. I'm still in your .sig library.

    -KKC, who doesn't expect parcel delivery service this week.
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