Terrible Analogies

Alright, after many months of storage I finally have my MAME arcade machine up and running again.  I have a carefully collected library of nearly 600 games courtesy of Usenet, but I just received a new updated shipment of MAME games this afternoon, so I’m anxious to refresh my ROM folder.  Unfortunately my MAME-dedicated computer doesn’t have a DVD reader on it.  In fact, this particular computer hasn’t been on the internet since 2001, is running a first generation unpatched version of WinXP Home, and is incapable of reading my external hard drives.

Yanking the computer from my arcade cabinet and hauling it upstairs to update it, I’m actually surprised to discover that this ancient hunk of metal has an Ethernet port.  I was fully expecting to have to update it using a complicated series of smoke signals, pantomimes, and sea shanties.

My ancient computer is incapable of seeing external hard drives, which is a pity because as everyone knows, I'm a backup fiend...

Yes, you're reading that right. 108 updates required. This computer was rockin' it old school

As so, instead of a quick update, I’m now relegated to hours of work, then I’ll be occupied with copying my MAME DVDs to an external hard drive, then from the HD to my relic of a PC.

My arcade machine looks so sad without a brain to drive it.  No lights, no sound, and no games.  Poor thing.

Don’t worry, little buddy.  I’ll soon have you up and running once again with Robotron, Metal Slug, and Dragon’s Lair before you can say “quarter haven”…

Happy Friday everyone!

…or is it Merry Memorial Day?  I can’t remember.  

Anyway, being a veteran myself (U.S. Air Force) I’m taking this unexpected free time to get my MAME arcade machine back up and running (thanks go out to House Of Husar for rekindling my long-smoldering classic arcade game obsession).  Its been in pieces ever since we moved into the new home, and lately I’ve been itchin’ to get in a few sessions of Robotron and Gauntlet 2.  

Usually I draw the short straw at work and am forced to put in a few hours on Memorial Day, so it’s nice to have these few fleeting days off of work

I love games.  Board games, video games, puzzles, crosswords, cryptograms…I love them all.  As it happens, my favorite magazine is Games magazine.  I’ve been reading this publication since high school, and Karin ensures that my subscription is kept up to date.  During the weekends one of the things I most look forward to is lounging in the backyard, feet up on the patio table, a tall glass of soda slow dripping with condensation by my side, and a Games magazine opened to the current month’s The World’s Most Ornery Crossword puzzle.  Hard clues, thankyouverymuch.

My current puzzle obsession, something that’s taking up far too much of my time as of late, is a Nintendo DS game called Picross.  Now, this puzzle shows up in Games under the moniker Paint By Numbers, but I’ve never really paid it much mind.  I always dismissed it as a simple time waster, but this DS incarnation has shown me how addicting this puzzle really is.  

The objective of Picross is to determine which blank squares within a matrix are to be filled in, with the ultimate goal of revealing an image.  Squares to be filled in are identified using numbers that have been placed along the outside of the grid.  These numbers tell you, in order, how many squares are to be filled in, how they are sequentially laid out, and how many spaces there are between sets of shaded squares.  With each incorrect move the game penalizes you a set amount of time which eats into the 60 minute time limit you have to complete each puzzle.

The obsessive compulsive part of me is fascinated with this game.  It makes for a nice break between Rubik’s Cube sessions and memorizing movie monologues.

You’ll have to forgive me if I seem a bit distracted today.  Ya see, a couple of weeks ago I ordered an R4 Revolution for my DS for strictly…*ahem*, backup purposes.

After many days of impatiently waiting the UPS guy finally delivered this gem to my front door this afternoon.  Gleefully tearing open the small shipping box, I held in my hands what felt like the keys to the kingdom.  Instead of carrying around multiple game carts I could now centralize my games to one location.  Brilliant!

So please, understand if this particular post seems a bit rushed.  I’m busy playing Elite Beat Agents, Zelda, Castlevania, and Ninjatown.  Ya know…from my backups.

…many, many left to go.

Call it a side effect of the economy or a lack of dedication on my part, but I’ve finally removed World Of Warcraft from both my Mac and my PC.  It was a somber, yet empowering moment when I deleted this time sink from my life.  The way I look at it, on one hand I wiped away all of the accomplishments that at one time I thought were so important, but on the other hand I freed up quite a bit of precious hard drive space.

Now, affording the monthly rate wasn’t a burden.  I think I finally grew bored with a game that seemed more like work than fun.  I found myself wishing I had more time to do other things in life.  Squeezing in my daily blog post wasn’t cutting it for me.  I felt I needed to do more.  I think I’ll pick up writing where I left off on my main book (Abbey and Hal have been stuck in that diner long enough), and finish up another short story I’ve been working on (dig that Frank and his crazy hidden deformities).  I also need to step it up on my running in preparation for my Mt. Whitney assault in September.

And so, this is how it ends.  Not with a bang, but rather with a “meh”.  And before you even ask…no, you can’t have my stuff.