Broken Foot, Propcycle Repair, and other Arcade Projects

I just talk about the goings on in my basement arcade.

Why You Shouldn't Buy an LG Refrigerator

I bought an LG refrigerator (model # LRBN22514ST) five years ago, and while the refrigerator (refrigeration) has been very good, the plastics are cheap, brittle and poorly designed. Pretty much every plastic part has broken or has been damaged in the past 5 years. This is from normal use, I am not a savage that destroys my stuff. I have never seen such poorly designed parts! I also bought an LG microwave at the same time. The microwave's plastic parts are brittle and have broken as well. The control panel finally delaminated and became nonfunctional! I replaced with a Whirlpool which is SO much better. The parts that are plastic and broke on the LG are metal on the Whirlpool.

Don't buy Galaga for the T-Mobile Sidekick!

When I got my Sidekick '08 back in June I was surprised that it didn't have Galaga for download. It was ridiculous because they had an excellent Galaga theme. So today when I saw it was released I downloaded it.

Boy was I disappointed:

Graphics

Above: Actual Screenshot

The graphics are the best feature of this conversion, they are pretty much pixel perfect. The color pallet on the other hand is a little off.

Sound

The sound is horrible it sounds nothing like the original arcade game. Also there is no explosion sound! The sidekick can play mp3s, so why didn't they use samples of the original game like you can in MAME?

Gameplay

This is the worst of the three, the game has tons of slowdown, the ship's projectiles move at a rate that is not the same ratio of ship/projectile speed of the original. It makes the game tedious and difficult because in Galaga you can only have 2 shots on the screen at a time. With the slow projectiles it leaves you very vulnerable to alien attack.

Final Thoughts

Overall this game is a disappointment. I am not just saying this as a Galaga fan. If I bought some other game and it was this bad of an arcade conversion I would want my money back. I know that it could have been so much better, The sidekick version of Ms. Pac-Man runs fine, granted it suffers from the same sound issues.

I cannot recommend this game to anyone as it is unplayable. Do not buy. Namco/T-mobile I want my money back!

Time Warner Cable Remote Catches Fire!

My friend Brad recently found the remote to his Scientific Atlantic Explorer 8300 HD DVR cable box smoking on his sofa! When he removed this remote he found that it had gotten so hot that it burned his sofa as well!

He contacted Time-Warner cable several times and has been given the run around. Let's hope that they pay for the damage to his sofa.

Brad's Burnt Sofa!

Ready to Fail: Crutches strapped to the side of your motorcycle!

I really don't know what to say about his guy -- did he already hurt himself -- or is he just ready to do so? I will never know but it sure cracked me up. Thanks to my wife Jenny for filming this dude.

Colonie Center Mall Fail

I took this with my phone back in April:

This is what it looks like in the daytime, same sign different entrance.

Fail: Game Packaging

I saw this at my local Walgreens, I love those cheep Chinese game controllers. They are all loaded with all the same bad games. In case you cannot see the fail, just look at the image above "…OR IN THE CAR". Clearly not in a car at all.