News Archives

12.22.2k3

It's a week late, but Episode 29 will be posted tomorrow. This is the "Best of 2003" show. I can sum up the show notes here. #1, we start talking about Tactical Ops. #2. Somehow we forget to talk about it and wind up on FFXI. #3. We come back to Tactical Ops. #4. We talk about the best games of 2003 (HUGE thanks to all who participated!). #5. Some closing comments. Amazing that we have an episode with so few swear words.

12.17.2k3

I must apologize for recent events that are causing the delay of the show. In all honesty it's (for once) not real life issues or circumstances beyond my control. It's freaking FFXI.

As gamers we strive to find games that are good enough for the time being to completely capture our minds (and hands) and encompass our thoughts. We, just like you, need to indulge every once in awhile. Unfortunately we pretend to deliver entertaiment and a little information on a semi-regular basis. This of course puts us under the microscope on a weekly basis. I hate missing a deadline as much as you do I'm sure, but what can I say? I'm actually HAPPY to have found something that I want to play this much. It's a rare occurance to become totally engrossed in a game that you could care less what happens around you in the real world. It's great :) Isn't that what we strive for? And you would see, if you were there, that we are alive and well and kicking ass in Vana'diel. Wether you agree or disagree with us is your own business. Games come and go, some are short lived (E.T. anyone?), some stay around for awhile (FFXI) some last forever (Pac-Man). Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Chocobo to feed.

12.16.2k3

Looks like a delay on Episode 29. Give us a few days and we'll put up the best effort for last show of 2003 that we can. Complain here.

12.15.2k3

PSA: PARENTS! If your children ask for Final Fantasy XI for Christmas PLEASE do NOT buy it for them. Unless you're looking for a full time babysitter and/or you need the kids out of the way and occupied for extended periods of time. Stay away! There should be an age requirement to play something that's more addictive than crack.

Valefor Worldpass anyone? 193.554.6256*.

The FFXI sickness continues, may God help us all.

* = May or may not work by the time you get to it. Don't yell at me if it's expired or all used up. I bought it Friday for a friend to join us.

12.13.2k3

Nice to know Playmore (SNK) has their heads firmly up their ass. Censorship !good.

12.10.2k3

Nvidia's ForceWare 53.03 (WHQL) drivers are out. Great timing too, because when we recorded Ep28 (out soon) they wern't (non-WHQL's have been out for awhile), so of course I happened to mention that. They fixed major issues with bumpmapping for me on a GFFX5900.

And...got twenty bucks? Got a PSOne, PS2, or ePSXe? Need a good RPG? See RPGamer for the news (Square Enix's "new" Greatest Hits releases (aka not sucky Square titles)).

And while we're at it, GAMER #28 is up.

12.09.2k3

Free subscription to EGM.

12.08.2k3

Noooooooooo! Say it isn't so... :(

R.I.P. Black Isle Studios.

12.07.2k3

If you're going to read anything today, let it be this. Cushion laid it down on the SpikeTV Video Game Awards 2003. Read. Learn. Participate. Little. Yellow. Different.

On a side note : 1) Email was down for 3 days this week (How "*" makes it into my hosts email filter I'll never know), so please resend if anything has been sent our way. 2) Having issues with a harddrive up and disappearing from the main box here. Causing it to hard lock very often, not to mention corrupted data everywhere :( We've got backup machines to record with, but just be aware in case of delay.

12.06.2k3

Spetsnaz with the hook up on the info about a Fight Club PlayStation 2 game! How can one not buy this?

12.03.2k3

GAMERadio #27 is up.

12.01.2k3

[RANT ON] It seems a few people have issues with some basic common sense and computing skills. Allow me to clairify. The format of an email goes something like this, "luser@domain.tld". One may, and often does, look similar to "someone@somewhere.com". Sometimes it gets really tricky, and it might be something like, "firstInitial.lastName@my.college.edu".

For some bizarre reason this seems to be very difficult to understand, even with directions implanted in "email harvester proof" addresses. Some common sense and a little luck can go a long way, but they are apparently resources a good many people lack adequate stores of. This is of course not news to me, but Christ, you'd think I invented the idea with the amount of energy I waste with people who can't figure it out. GET OFF TEH INTARWEB.[/RANT OFF]

I swear to god the first person who doesn't "feel me" on this gets shot in the face.

Have a nice day.

(Yes I've been like this all week. Must be 'that time of the month' or something.)

11.26.2k3

You know, it didn't even occur to me that some of you might not know what a .torrent is. My apologies. Take a quick glance at this thread in the forums.

11.25.2k3

There's a neat video on the Zelda Collector's Edition disc called 'The Legend of Zelda : A Retrospective' that's about two minutes long and showcases every Legend of Zelda game across every platform (minus the CDi). It is presented here :

[ DOWNLOAD : Low Quality ]
10.4MB - DivX 5.1.1; 320x240; 32kbps/22kHz mono CBR MP3; "Postage Stamp" version

[DOWNLOAD TORRENT : High Quality ]
51.2MB - DivX 5.1.1; 576x4320; 128kpbs/44.1kHz stereo CBR MP3; "Bandwidth killer" version

11.21.2k3

GAMERadio #26 is up. No show next week, holiday family stuff.

11.19.2k3

Episode 26 is done, but not up yet. I'm going to need a few days. We (Hunter, Wulf, and I) did a two hour long episode because we can't do one next week because I'm going out of town for Thanksgiving related "festivities". This should be more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Actually, I'm really looking forward to showing my sister what 2nd place looks like (but she always kicks my ass at Wave Race no matter how much shit I talk).

Some random asskick : the IRC channel has been obsessed with an IQ Test (Flash required) that is not culture specific. Another one from eMode (free registration req, I gave fake name and stuff, but real email, I get no spam...) that's great fun because it claims to dictate what type of thinker you are. Kasparov tied X3D Fritz. Sword of Mana. EverQuest Radio (holy crap these guys (and gals!) pwn). GeForce FX Go5700. Max Payne 2 DEMO (251MB). Lupine Games (see : Articles). EFX2.com interview with Xbox emulator author.

11.17.2k3

#1. Forum activation removed. Seems there are troubles sending out the registration email, so I just removed it altogether. If you have an acount that needs otp be activated, email me and I'll handle it. From now on new accounts will not need to be verified, they just simply become active immediately.

#2. Bobnino is having trouble with his ISP, so his show mirror has been down. The link to his mirror on the show page has been updated to a web based interface for his FTP.

#3. Had a bad week, sometimes I get a little depressed and start to doubt my existence, the show, the universe and everything. Just kick my ass next time.

11.16.2k3

Connection issues mostly fixed. But that's not what I want to talk about.

After 25 episodes the show is only getting worse. I spent some time today listening to older shows and realized that as disorganized and poor choice of language as they were, they are closer to what the show should be. For quite some time now I've been telling myself the next show will be different. The next will be better... and it's just not happening. I can't stand covering the gaming news as much as we have been. The main reason for that is it's down to one person handling the work for the show. It's easy to pull news and regurgitate it out over the air. That is the last thing that I want the show to be about. Not only is it boring as all hell, everyone has already read/heard it. If you take the time to listen to a show like this, you probably read the same sites we do anyway. It's time to get back to the games. Ideally we could do some "specials" where the episode is all about a certain genre or system, but that's a little in the future. First priority is getting back to a format that is more enjoyable and informative about the games themselves. Forum thread.

11.13.2k3

When you absolutely, positively, have nothing better to do : GAMERadio #25.

My connection is still hosed. Using what little bandwidth I have to spam hate mail to SBC.

It's that time again. Looks like we've hit my 500MB diskspace limit. MP3 archives of the show are going to be deleted from the bottom up. Please use mirrors (one of which seems to have fallen off the face of the planet) for the older shows. HUGE thanks to mirror providers (listed on GAMERadio page)!

While I'm at it, iPowerWeb rocks. They host this site and have always been extremely helpful.

11.12.2k3

The show was recorded the other day. Technical issues have prevented me from being able to upload it. Thank SBC Yahoo! DSL. SBC tech support drone after I explain I don't use IE, "Then how do you get on the internet?". :| I am not amused. I pay for this "service".

11.09.2k3

Oops... I forgot to fix the show notes earlier. Taken care of now. Also the links page has been fixed up a bit.

11.07.2k3

Forum opened up for guest posting. Hopefully this will encourage discussion.

11.04.2k3

Ep24 up. How is it we can run so long and I still miss half my points?

11.01.2k3

Frag.Ops was released early this morning. I camped out on their IRC channel for the release "last night", which should have been at 6PM PST 10/31/2k3. I arrived around 4PM and watched the madness. Eight hours later at midnight I finally gave up waiting and managed to play a little EQ. I woke up this morning to find that it has been released, and that there's plenty of mirrors. Hopefully I'll be playing this for a long time to come. Expect to hear about it on the show this week.

10.31.2k3

Happy Halloween!

Huge thanks to Cushion for hooking us up with a VHS tape of some gaming shows! Of course, we got the mail seconds after we finished recording yesterday, so we didn't get to mention it on this weeks show. Wulf has it in the DivX factory right this minute, and it should be in my hands by Tuesday!

10.30.2k3

Sorry for the huge delay guys, GAMERadio #23 is up.

10.28.2k3

Wulf called in sick for the show today, and I don't think I want to bore everyone with my monotone voice for an hour or so. I haven't rectified the speakerphone situation yet either. I looked at some different software to record directly off my modem, but none of them functioned properly - even after heavy configuration. I'm at a loss for what to do. I'm going to take another stab at a show tomorrow. This sucks, I HATE not being able to record. In the meantime, may I suggest catching up on some EverQuest Radio? It's good fun if you're a role player of any sort, not just EQ or CRPG/MMORPGs.

10.24.2k3

Cushion : I just sent you a pm on the forums as I have been unsuccessful at sending you back an email for a week now. It keeps failing and I'm finally giving up on it. :\ I sure hope you see this...

10.22.2k3

First off, let me start with bad news. We didn't record this week. It was a decision that didn't come lightly, as I'm a big believer in consistency. We simply were not prepared enough to record today. I am not going to post crap just for the sake of having something available. I also don't have the balls to attempt a solo show. I think that would be extremely boring (but we will never know until I try, right?) I plan on trying to bring something forth for the week, but don't hold your breath. It's my birthday this week and I've got plenty to do between now and then (so basically through Friday is shot).

Now with the good stuff. It's a rare article that I read all the way through. Few and far between that appear to have been written with a lot of thought and genuine belief. Most articles tend to be of the mass-media hype/FUD/advertising persuasion. In any case, it's my opinion that this is one of the best articles I've ever read.

10.18.2k3.

Further demonstrating my lack of skillz I messed around with some random number generation, and wound up with 'xdx', a die roller for pen and paper games. I was on a hunt for one and I discovered they all suck. So here's one more that sucks to add to the pile.

10.15.2k3

Episode 22 is up and ready. If you don't listen to the show (and/or read the notes), here's a locally hosted copy of the video showing the Dolphin emulator running LoZelda:Wind Waker that I leeched from Emulation64 (note: the video is sped up).

10.14.2k3

Looks like we'll be recording sometime today. Let's pray to Server everything goes smoothly.

10.10.2k3

I swear to god episode 21 is cursed. Problem after problem trying to get it recorded, we finally just made due with what we seem to be allowed to produce. Hopefully we've appeased whatever anti-game playing spirits wanted us to fail so miserably that we will be allowed a few sucessful technical adventures in future recordings. I've been a bit quiet lately, blame this whole Half-Life 2 saga. It's great. Make some popcorn and hit IRC or a message board near you. It's like daytime soaps for geeks. Finally!

10.07.2k3

While you were not watching CNN because you were compiling it, they did a blurb on the Half-Life 2 source leak. While I'm bringing up bad news, Wulf and I won't be able to record on Tuesday this week (as per usual), it'll be Thursday night.

10.02.2k3

Well, well, well. I knew this would blow up in my face again one day. The current release of Audacity hosed the show we recorded Tuesday night. It's totally unrepairable. :( I've no way to put together any replacemment audio yet either (still working on the speakerphone problem).

09.29.2k3

Added the Trip to the Archives page.

09.26.2k3

w00w00w00t! Slackware Linux 9.1 is out!
Ready for Release Week speeds of <1kBps? Not this time!
Torrents can be located HERE.
BitTorrent tracker information for these torrents can be located HERE.
alphageek's monster list of mirrors available HERE.
Spread the word, /. seems to be ignoring this...

09.24.2k3

Episode 20 escaped. Heavy on the cheese. Buy a GCN yet? Huh? Huh? Didja? Didja?

09.18.2k3

Episode 19 is here. A little light on the topics because we had a short timeframe between shows.

09.15.2k3

A "leaked Wal*Mart ad" from October 7th, 2003? If it's true, good things to come - $99 Cubes! If you can't wait, it seems the Temple of Consumerism is selling (EXPIRED ~09/20) a Platinum Cube with GB Player for $150.

09.14.2k3

Episode 18 has landed. Also, due to recent issues with a certain IRC network, I've picked up and left my home of 4 years or so, and moved to Esper. You'll find me in #GAMER and Radio FreeK America's #RFA on irc.Esper.net.

09.11.2k3

Oh my sweet lord. In the name of all that is holy and right with the world, log on to the Lineage II ftp server and download "OpenBetaShowMovie.zip" (80MB, very fast). If that game is half as fun as it looks, I'm sold. Just the shot of the mountain ranges (01m01s into the video) was worth the 10 minutes download time for me. Now... if you can actually walk there nobody will hear from me ever again.

Did a round of forum updates too. Should be easier to navigate.

09.10.2k3

Oh no! No show! We wern't able to record on Tuesday night like we planned to, but we're going to do so Friday. Wulf has eye surgery and I'm supposed to drive him around. However, he expects to be fully operational by Friday. We've been tooling around with a forum also.

GAMER Forum [ beta 1 :) ]

09.08.2k3

Well I did it. Around five o'clock this morning I put Liquid Snake to rest. That was one hell of a great game! As you may remember, I picked up MGS2 : Sons of Liberty [PS2, $20] already. I wanted to be prepared in case of nuclear fallout... or something. Well, after beating MGS something happened that I'll have to mention in this weeks show - something that caused me to GO OUT AND PURCHASE MGS2 : Substance [PS2, $40] just now. 'What the hell?' you're probably asking yourself... yeah, so am I.

09.07.2k3

Mirror hosted by modem tuh is online! Thank you very much!

[06:03] I'll spare the details for this week's show, but to give you an idea of how hooked I am, read this : I was determined to play some MGS today if it killed me. I set .hack//INFECTION aside, I nearly uninstalled Tactical Ops, I logged off my IM client, and I ignored IRC. I turned the phone ringer off, and I locked the door. Lights out, 2-liter bottle of Dr.Pepper in hand, I sprawled out across two beanbags and turned on the fan in my controller. The last thing I did on IRC was change my nickname to C4[MGS], at 17:12. It is now 05:44. I didn't quite make it as far as I probably should have, I got stuck in a few places (Sniper Wolf (*rawr!*), and the Medi Room... I was tortured five times until I "got out"). I finally had to quit playing because a) I'm tired of trying to make it to the top of the comm tower, and b) the sun is be coming up soon. Don't expect to hear from me until at least noon today. :)

09.06.2k3
There now, that wasn't so bad, was it? Site may still be down for some of you, my DNSs are updated, some aren't. I couldn't receive email for a awhile too, but never fear, I've got it now, and no, this isn't the end. :) Far from it, as we're hosted by iPowerWeb now. Check out the sweet deal they've got (no I don't get paid for this, I just think they're lightyears beyond our previous host). With my newfound storage, I was able to put all the old episodes back online again!

Also, I received my copy ("SONY PLAYSTATION GAMES METAL GEAR SOLID MINT") of MGS today. Maybe my definition of the word "mint" is a little different than the seller, "art_world". Apparently his definition is "there's a slim possibility this scracthed plastic disc that once was a PSX game may operate in a PSX/2." Asshole.

I also got my hands on MGS : Sons of Liberty for $20 (Not the 'Greatest Hits' version either!) at CompUSA. Substance is $20 more for features I probably won't use anyway.

09.05.2k3

I am changing hosts. Expect a few days of downtime. This should allow the storage necessary to host ALL our episodes locally! Schweet.

By the way, quite a few of you are infected with SoBig.F. Fix that shit. I've received 45 (final count for the day) emails today with our little friend in it. I am NOT infected, so if you see an email from "me" with the worm, think again.
Oh, and one more thing. If you're into Final Fantasy Tactics Advance at all, Nintendo is offering a great bundle deal. I ordered mine.

09.04.2k3

Managed to put up yesterday's episode up. We really dropped the ball and forgot to mention Freddy vs Jason. There's also two audio cd's I've been meaning to mention. Weird Al's Poodle Hat and AFI's Sing the Sorrow. Very good stuff.
And it seems DivX 5.1 was released!

09.01.2k3

hacnslash's Gaming. How many times have you been pissed enough to intentionally cause something like that to a game related item? Put me down for a half dozen controllers and a TV. Yes, I know I need help.

08.31.2k3

Score. Sniped a copy of MGS (MSG MINT PS1 NR!!!!!1) for $12.50. NOWHERE in town has it. Pointless post, it's 3am and I was bored... This brings my backlog of games to something like 17. I'm screwed.

08.30.2k3

I was schooled today on MGS2, which isn't quite what I thought I heard from Super Joe. In any case, I figured I wouldn't play MGS, I'd just play MGS2... so I left it with Flip and Super Joe. I've been told MGS is much better than MGS2, so naturally I want to get my hands on MGS... No place had it locally, so I turned to eBay. This is just a little much for my budget...

08.27.2k3

Wow, it took three months (to the day!), but it looks like GAMER is alive and well. Episode 16 is ready for your enjoyment. I'll have you know I sat here all day and didn't play Soul Calibur II for more than 20 minutes - just so I could edit the show. Sacrifices... :)

On a side note, it occurs ot me that somewhere I have a digital camera with a few pics from the trip on it... but I can't find the camera. When I do I'll post them on the Trip page.

08.25.2k3

Woohoo! Hot shit today people. Looks like Wulf and I will be recording tomorrow night (Tuesday night) - and we have something very big to announce for the show. Hopefully it will be a weekly thing and be enjoyed by all. Now you just have to listen to find out wtf I'm talking about, don'tcha?

08.24.2k3

I take it back... the audio seems to sound fine. Seems the new 1.2.0-pre1 release of Audacity kicks more ass than I thought.

Sweet Jesus I'm an idiot. It's going to be complaint city if you listen to the 3rd part of the trip audio I posted last night (actually, this morning at like 3am). I intended to check it for quality (it's going to *pop* a lot... keep your speakers low if you dare listen), and ended up totally forgetting about it after I installed the necessary encoding software. I was pretty tired and just space it out. I suggest not listening to it until I go over it and upload new stuff. I'll post here when I do (later tonight).

08.23.2k3

It's Hunter's birthday everyone! Let's all make plenty of old age jokes and play some games in his honor.

I fixed up a few things on Bitrape, my pathetic DivX calculator. Since I can't program worth a damn I get bored every so often and just like playing with the Microsoft controls.

I also updated The Trip page, probably for the last time...

08.18.2k3

Be sure and check out Blow On This Radio! BOTR can be downloaded here. A great gaming show hosted by djmollusk and RXtasy.

08.17.2k3

I'm back. Got an apartment in Reno, and hopefully GAMER should commence regularly within a week!

07.27.2k3

Someone make my day and tell me Unlimited Saga and the new Arc the Lad game kickass (Wulf I know you got Arc the Lad). I haven't been enjoying Golden Sun 2 as much as I should be, and I'm dying for a good RPG. Since I'm too stubborn to just give up and quit playing GS2, I haven't touched Lufia or Lunar (we're talking GBA here folks. If you didn't know that maybe you need to play more games :P).

07.24.2k3

I'm dying to do an episode of GAMER. So much to talk about, nobody to talk about it with. I really don't have much of an internet connection out here, so my news is few and far between. I haven't picked up any magazines either. I have subscriptions to them all, and I know they'll be sitting at my post office box when I return, so no sense in paying $5+ for them again. However, every so often I manage some network access and read as much gaming news as possible. It holds back the game withdrawl symptoms. GBA is not enough.

07.17.2k3

I'm having a hell of a time without a solid network connection out here. I'm still in New London/Groton, CT. Nobody has any access for me. I've found a few interersting WAP's around the different neighbourhoods, but nothing with a decent connection. Either I can't stay connected long or they're routing a modem through it and trying to play some kind of traffic intensive game whilst I try to pull down a page or two from the street below. However, beyond here I should have solid connections most of the rest of the way, except possibly Montanta (I only mail packages out from my shack in the woods there).

07.10.2k3

Man does not having a reliable internet connection suck. Hopefully I get this uploaded today, assuming wardriving pays off.

07.01.2k3

Welcome .net and .org! Any idea how long I had to stalk those...

Anyway, I've been asked 'what is HWHQ?' and I don't think I've ever explained. Yes, I am just insane, but there is a story behind it.

Way back in highschool Wulf and I played a little game called Solar Realms Elite. Then we got into Barren Realms Elite (superior to SRE). The school had a BBS, and there were two local BBS's nearby. We played obsessively. Then it got worse. The beauty of [S|B]RE was that you were only allowed so many turns (turn == 1 game day) per (real) day. This of course meant that you wanted to aim for being first to play your turns that day. As you can imagine everyone tried to dial in at midnight for their fix.

The games were wargames where one controls an empire that has to maintain a healthy government. You have to keep your people happy while maintaining a very strong military. Easier said than done. Other realms attack yours in hopes of stealing your land (or planets) so they can grow. More land meant more income. You could house more people, collect more taxes, mine, produce military units, and other forms of income.

You had to name your empire and that seemed to be a big deal for us. I distinctly remember when I was first told of this game. I was in algebra thinking over my empire when I came up with the name 'Hurricane Force Elite' for my empire. Wulf went with 'Golden Phoenix'. I've always had some kind of weird fascination with hurricanes and I thought the name perfect. Wulf got his off a box of cookies. :)

HFE and GP dominated local boards for months. When multi-BBS play was introduced, and the Leagues, it got very competitive. There is not very many technical people where we lived, so our board was at a disadvantage (we probably had eight real players at most, other boards were easily maxed at twenty-five). Cheating (multiple accounts) was not uncommon on the other boards, and to remain even remotely competitive we had to run a few empires. With my overactive imagination fed by fantasy books, D&D, and videogames I dreamed up this hierarchy that became known as Hurricane World Headquarters.
Each empire had their own Emperor, which I split into areas of specialization. Military, money, food, and wealth. My well oiled machine was a powerhouse and our board typically fared very well. We were lucky to have some incredible players that, on top of being excellent on their own, functioned outstanding as a team. A rare find.

Other games (Falcon's Eye comes to mind) came and went, but nothing hooked us like BRE did. Games similar to SRE and BRE exist today. Earth2025 and Utopia come to mind, but even though they are created by the same people, they lack the magic of BRE. Something about having to dial up on your 2400 baud modem at midnight every day added to the whole experience. Thinking about what you are going to do with your turns that night, while trying to handle algebra class (the only class where the clock seemed to run backwards), kept the game in the forefront of our minds.

These BBS door games were the very first PC games I ever paid for. I had a 386 SX/20 and that's all I needed. No graphics, no Windows (or any GUI for that matter), no mouse. I even set up my own BBS to practice on. That was nine or ten years ago. Gaming was better back then. I hope some day I find something that good again.

06.25.2k3

Awesome, I'm down here at Jenner's place, and thanks to vvx's help I got my wifi card to behave. Maybe now I'll have more network access on my trip.

06.23.2k3

How awesome is this. I'm just short of my Austin, TX destination when I couldn't drive anymore. Stopped at this Motel6 and noticed an RJ45 port just behind the TV... lo and behold! :)

06.22.2k3

Finally got some audio together. I'm at dual's pad right now uploading the goods.

06.19.2k3

(0130am) w00motherfucking00t! I have to give mad props to my friends Nire and amrit, who got my lame ass back in the game BY GETTING MY MICROPHONE TO WORK. I can't shake this stupid grin. I don't know how many of you experience the thrill of fighting a computer (be it software or hardware) to make it do what you want it to, then to finally win it over, but it's marvelous. I have fond memories from a few years ago of waking up the entire apartment complex by screaming like a damn fool at 3am when I first got my SBLive! card to work in linux (v0.01 'drivers' that were not even alpha at best). Now if I could just get a moments peace I can get something together to share. I'm unbelievably grateful. Good timing too, as the trip just gaining speed from it's slow start. You can expect real updates from here on out. Server providing, of course

(0200am) Ain't this a bitch. This place got raided by it's drunk occupants in the middle of my site update (they went to the bar, I opted for the more entertaining route - obviously), and I managed to b0rk the site for awhile. Some pages were fine, some were totally jacked. Apologies. Hopefully these people will pass out and I can sneak my way back to the ether... 06.15.2k3
Oh man did I screw that up. I drew my driving line on an old picture of the map, which was missing some dots and had some in slightly wrong locations. The worst part is I don't have access from here so I can't change it. On the plus side I'm unable to recieve all the nasty email from my friends that have their dots all screwed up now. By the time this gets uploaded I should have been able to fix it.

06.14.2k3

Holy crap he's alive!

06.05.2k3

I regret to inform everyone that there is no show this week. It could not be pulled together with the amount of real actual work that I have been doing. However, this is not the end. I'm about ready to leave for the trip, and the next few days are slated for packing, moving, and other such mundane details. Check the trip page for more info.

This is not the end of GAMER, but as most of you know I have to put the show on somewhat of a hiatus. This is quite bad timing, what with the large number of listeners we've attracted (ok, so a lot of you are from RGR) recently. However, this is not to say there won't be a few episodes "from the road". The problem is that I just don't know. I can't be sure of dates and times and even locations at this point. A lot of help I am, eh?

What I do have is a bit of email that I must share. Since there is no show I wanted to post these here.

cydo totally hooked up the linkage with this and this link to the parachute game mentioned in episode 15 on the iPod.
And modem tuh with the great news about something I really wanted to talk about, video games as art and the Constitution. Don't forget to read the PDF from the Court of Appeals.

05.30.2k3

The Mac Gaming Special, Episode 15 with Bob Nino is up!

05.23.2k3

If you've been listening you'd know about my trip. I've added a section to the site to document the voyage.

05.22.2k3

I present thee with Episode 14. Don't shoot me.

05.20.2k3

Hell just froze over. I just intentionally clicked on the second banner ad in my internet career. I have never heard of this company before, and have not seen any reviews, but it might be worth checking out. I would do so myself if I wasn't leaving soon. I've been a member of Netflix for about a year now, and have loved it. Well, someone wisened up and made the Netflix equivalent for games! I wish I could check this out.

05.15.2k3

That was a close one. Nothing like having Audacity suck up all your diskspace and stop saving your work. Thank Server that all was not lost. And so I present to thee, GAMER #12, The Oldskool Gaming Special with StankDawg!

05.12.2k3

How awesome is this! Dedicated gamer Bob Nino put up an archive FTP for us! Now you can get all the back episodes that are disappearing from the site because my broke ass can't afford the extra space right now. Thank this man!

05.11.2k3

It's heeeeerrrrreeeeee. Sorry 56kers, it's two hours long. Twice the content, twice the size.

05.10.2k3

Never fear, Ode and I put together a great episode that I feel makes up for the long delay. Unfortunately, it's 3am (on the 11th) now, and I just can't muster the energy to get it together for digestion. It is priority #1 when I wake up tomorrow (which will likely be noon PST). Yay!

05.09.2k3

What a great day. My car is thrashed, and the mechanics say after I put the $1000 into it that it needs, it still won't go the distance. I guess it's time to look into another car. Kind of difficult with virtually no money. I'm sure I'll figure something out. The real bitch of the day is that there is still no show. We slacked this week. Something I promised myself I would not let happen. Not only do I love doing the show, it's amazing the number of cool people out there that listen, and who even want to help us out! The people that I let down. I feel like shit about this, and I'm not through yet. We never had a set time and date for the show, but it's generally been Tuesday or Wednesdays. Well, it's Friday morning now, and I'm going to make every effort to round up a troop or two and deliver. I'm personally slammed with "life" stuff, and I put the show low on the priority list, so I place the blame on myself. While we do have an hour's worth of content, it's weak, and I can't see me putting up garbage for the sake of putting something up. And god knows I'm not going to put anyone through listening to me solo for an hour. :) I assure you next week's show will be a whopper though, as we have a very special host and great topic.

05.08.2k3

Well godamnit, it appears higher powers are at work. The audio from yesterday with Hooks is unlistenable, so I might grab Hunter tomorrow to punch out a show. At this rate I don't think it's going to happen.

05.07.2k3

Show had been delayed (read: not cancelled) this week. Having logistic problems. Give us another day or two. This will not effect next weeks showtime.

05.05.2k3

A shot of where I spend most of my time :

05.04.2k3

It sure is a lot harder to adjust back to a normal sleep cycle than I thought. But thankfully, we have all been watching a lot of movies this week. A lot of new and good movies. This of course comes with the tradeoff that few games are being played. I tried to call Wulf early this morning but he didn't answer. I'll try again tonight. Today I have been occupied with the latest Gordian Knot build. After spending a few minutes with it, I'm lovin' it. If only XviD was a little faster...

05.03.2k3

Well, that was it. I'm officially unemployed. I'm a bum. I've been unemployed for 2 hours and 40 minutes now, and I'm already smashed. I don't even know how I wound up at the bar.

05.02.2k3

Well shit. I guess I spoke too soon. When I arrived home from work this morning I received an email from Wulf. The subject read "I am fucked!!!". The email read (direct quote btw), "Airline canceled my fly, and i got stuck in china for one more week!!!". What the hell am I supposed to say about that. On the bright side, maybe I can get his ass to do another show from the Empire. :)

05.01.2k3

Episode #10 is available. Wulf should be back today...

04.28.2k3

Goddamn this place is starting to sound like a fucking blog. Not only do I hate that word, I dislike the idea. However, this being a special case, maybe someone else can benefit from my mental trials.

Nevertheless, there is actual information that pertains to interesting things (ie, not my pathetic personal life). I spoke to Wulf briefly this morning, and he will be in-flight during the next show. He was unable to secure modchips, but I bet he brings me back a nice case of SARS. We discussed the future of the show and we are pretty sure that we will be able to maintain GAMER during the voyage. I likely will have a side "show" online about the voyage itself. I think that way everyone will be happy. I don't want to stop the show the way it is currently. Oh yeah, and I finally got off my lazy ass and fired up Xenosaga again. I'm at the last fight. Hopefully I'll play today and finish it.

BTW, you guys are awesome. I've received quite a few emails that have made my day. You know who you are. Thank you all.

04.26.2k3

eBay is so fucking funny. There you are flying through auctions like mad trying to find the perfect item for you. Invariably you find three or four (I mean, come on, it's eBay) which suit your fancy. Of course they all end around the same time, so you pick one or two to stalk.

The problem here young grasshopper, is that you and every other idiot out there has the same idea. "I'll put my bid in at the last 20 seconds." Well chief, you wern't prepared for the likes of me and my army today were you?

I have learned through experience (and missing out on a sweet Gateway Solo laptop yesterday) that using a Windows box with VisualStudio 6 installed is no good. You can't click and type fast enough when you're battling the masses if VS continually annoys you with three fucking Runtime Errors (holy hell, visiting that page with VS installed pops like 6 RE's. I did not do that on purpose.) per listing page and one or two after you bid or are trying to go back a page to bid higher.

So, I ratcheted back my BitTorrent upstream speed (you need every drop of bandwidth you can get when you're doing battle in the eBay arena) and used the desktop box (WinXP) to monitor the auction (F5, F5, F5, F5...), while I had Moz poised and waiting on the server (Slackware box) ready and waiting at the "Place Your Bid" screen. All fields filled out, everything ready to go. "On my mark, unleash hell!". I gave them what for, and we emerged victorious on the battlefield. It was a moment of celebration and relief for the troops and I (um, "we" would be myself and my IRC homies).

Not bad for what I'm considering a "beater" rig (compare that to the $3600 laptop I had before). The intention of this laptop is not for games. Had that been the case I would have had to rob a casino for the amount of money required to make sure a purchase. The idea behind this box is to be my only companion on the upcoming journey. A hearty squire that won't disappoint, yet won't be sorely missed if lost in the trek. Now to pick myself up a nice wireless card. With cash. Since listening to RFA #60's "worst case scenario" section (which was great fun by the way) I have resorted to wearing my tin-foil hats and not speaking to anyone. You're all spies!

04.24.2k3

ThinkGeek has the VGS reviewed by dual for only $22.99. Get your oldskool on.

04.23.2k3

(1300) In some kind of cruel twist of fate, I am still alive. Little did I know one could drink for 20 of the last 42 hours and live. The last 3 days have been incredibly fun, which further complicates things. After listening to this weeks show (it's not up yet, check later) you'll know why it sucks to have fun now. Ironic how it has sucked here for years, and suddenly now I'm enjoying myself... it's almost not fair. So, until the new episode gets finished, go enjoy 2's new rant, "Commercials".

(1715) Aiight, Episode #9 is ready for the taking.

Liz you party too hard. Be careful.

04.20.2k3

Major lack of updates this week. Life's been way too ridiculous to spend any quality time doing anything I actually like doing. I've also been feeling a bit under the weather (nervousness, not illness) lately. I have some big changes happening real soon and I don't know what's going to happen, or how it's going to affect the show. We will probably discuss this on this week's show. The only good day in the last week was today. I was able to hang out with someone I'll be badly missing in the near future. Take care Jessica.

Hunter and I (with what little game time I've had) have been playing Postal 2 this week. Grab the demo and see for yourself.

04.15.2k3

Episode #8 is in the hizzy. We've got dual parallel's (of Radio FreeK America fame) review of the oldskool and we've got Wulf in China! What more could you ask for (other than not having to put up listening to me of course).

04.14.2k3

New episode will be up tomorrow. It's already recorded and just needs a bit of lovin'. Hope you like the sound of my voice.

04.12.2k3

How's this for the hype machine : Spoke to Wulf and he says he should be good to go for a show this Monday night! I can't wait for the pirate report from inside China! :) And, to push the next episode over the top, we have a very special videogame product review by the man, dual parallel. Get yourself educated (and if you want to hear what good radio sounds like) by listening to his show, Radio FreeK America. I'm looking so forward to this week's show I want to do it now!

04.11.2k3

I knew I forgot to do something important yesterday. Apologies, I'll try to not let that happen again. Finally, Episode #7 is up and ready for consumption.

BTW, if anyone knows how to access this site from China, let me know. Wulf can't get the show!

04.09.2k3

Never fear, the new episode has been recorded, it's just in need of some serious lovin'. I got Ode from Cyberslackers.net on the horn, and sometimes he's a little hard to hear. And being the genius I am I continue to use the Audacity beta that crashes on me a lot when I least expect it. I'll be able to put the time into preparation sometime tomorrow, so look for Episode #7 then.

You should also be aware that the older episodes are taking up too much space, and I'm going to have to start cutting back a little. I'm going to start removing the MP3 versions, oldest first. We all should be using OGG (Speex anyone?) anyway.

04.07.2k3

I hate trying to make a post off four hours of sleep. Thie following jumble of words that will pour forth makes sense in my head right now, but of course I'm still picking crusty stuff from my eyes and trying to type. So check it out, today is the day where I'm leaving town for my days off. Of course I can't get ahold of anyone where I'm going, so now I'm questioning even heading out. Wulf made it to China, he called to tell me how great it was. Nice of him to rub it in. And Hooks is settling into his new apartment about 40 miles away. So, what of the show this week? I don't know yet. Hopefully I can wake Hunter from his hibernation when I return, or maybe, if we're good boys and girls, I can get Ode Rainwalker back on. We're definetly going to have something for you, and it's not for lack of material, I assure you. Big thanks to 'JG' for dropping some sweet ideas for the show. Once we get our shit reassembled we're going to have some very cool shows.

04.03.2k3

Not sure if this article has shit to do with anything, but it's interesting (and short, so go ahead and read it). According to the article (which is wonderfully titled "Lower income=more video games") "hard-core gamers buy six or more games per year" Just how high does this scale go? What about >6 per month?

04.01.2k3

It appears that we've decided to not do anymore shows. It's way too much work to sit around all week and play games, watch movies, and then TALK about them. We're not machines. It was fun while it lasted.

I noticed our good buddy Ode, over at Cyberslackers.net, trashed Xenosaga yesterday, and gave it a nudge today. We're thinking of assembling a five man hit-squad to take him out. Funny how if it was a recent Final Fantasy game I would have cheered him on. Recent Final Fantasy games have nothing on Xenosaga.

In totally unrelated, useless news, I decided to not leave town tomorrow. Looks like snow, and I don't want to have to drive through that crap on my way back. Maybe next week.

[ Just kidding about not doing the show anymore. It *is* April 1st after all... :) ]
[ ......And to prove our worth, Episode #6 is up! We're not going anywhere...... ]

03.30.2k3

People never cease to amaze me. Due to a bug in the 007 Agent Under Fire save game, a hacker claims to be able to run unsigned code on an Xbox, without a mod chip, using a buffer overflow method! Verification at this point seems to be sketchy, but a few of the forums and websites are already verifying it. I bet Microsoft's lawyers were not happy being woken up so early this morning. Let's hope this is for real, and not an early April Fool's Day gag. A little dose of Linux this morning, anyone?

03.28.2k3

Let me bring this to your attention. I love hearing about weird pirate stuff. I'd like to hear about more current consoles pirate crap too. Let me know.
As far as next week's show is concerned, I believe we're going to save the day. "The show must go on" and all that. In fact, based on the material I already have, it might not suck. :) I only really need to be away for one day, and if we do the show before I take off I could have it up a day or two later. I'd say 'keep your fingers crossed', but I know you're using them to play games right now.

03.27.2k3

(0215) I knew something bad was going to happen. It was all too easy editing the show today, and sure enough, it got corrupted. I was using the latest beta of Audacity (1.3.1), and the tail end (last 15 minutes or so) of the show disappeared. I'll get on this soon. Look for it sometime today.

(1310) Ok, let's try this again. I uploaded the new show and it appears to be ok.

03.26.2k3

Episode 05 is up. While you're downloading it, let me take this time to apologize for not bringing a lot of material to the table for the show today. Next show we should have much better coverage - as in actual information and topics. Tonights show was a little rough around the edges and a little more freeform. Nevertheless, we had a good time recording it, and we hope you enjoy listening.
On to the scary topic of next week. Wulf will be in China for THE WHOLE MONTH of April. Hooks is moving about 30-40 miles from here, and I have been planning a trip to the Chico area to visit my dad. Next week seems unlikely for a show. HOWEVER, Hooks thinks he will be around, and Hunter isn't going anywhere. If we time it right, we could do a show before I leave. If not, I'll try to work on something to listen to. I just don't know what yet.

03.25.2k3

New show should be up late tomorrow night. I hope our listener (that's singular on purpose) enjoys. It's next week I'm worried about. Stay tuned, we'll probably mention on tomorrow's show what's up.

03.23.2k3

In my online misadventures today I ran across this test. What Video Game System Are You? Apparently I'm an NEC Turbo Grafx-16. I loved that system.

Before I head out to work tonight, I want to say hi to Mark (who pimps IBM Linux wares), whom I met last night at work. He gave up going to a party in his hometown to drive five hours to get here, to stay in a (corporate owned?) condo, and to spend the day skiing. Instead, he was locked out of his place, had to stay at a crappy hotel, eat their shitty hotel cafe food, and pay way too much for his room. I don't think he had the energy to ski today. Hopefully he's back home now enjoying Morrowind or Dungeon Siege. I rarely run into cool people while at work. It refreshing to meet someone who's clued in. Maybe it's the thin air up here.

03.22.2k3

As much as I hate IGN you would think I would have heard of Phuck IGN before. They seem to have a good thing going over there.

03.19.2k3

How did manage to miss out on such big news? Slackware 9.0! Of course, www.slackware.com doesn't have the front page updated yet, but ftp.slackware.com and #slackware (irc.freenode.net and irc.oftc.net) think differently. Want the best list of mirrors around? Thanks alphageek!

I pulled myself together and got the show up. Lets hope I don't die at work tonight.

03.18.2k3

The fourth episode has been recorded - don't wet yourself yet, I got really ill after the show, and couldn't manage to get it fit or human consumption. Ode Rainwalker is finally on the show, but we misjudged the power of Wulf's speakerphone, and there are occasionally a lot of popping and other bad-for-your-speakers sounds when Ode speaks. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the energy to remedy this as best I can. I think we just need to run the show through an anti-suck filter.

03.14.2k3

Ok, this totally fucking kicks ass. Some of these (free!) games here show more creativity than the last few efforts from the big names. You have to check these out.

Also, go grab yourself a slice of CyberSlackers. A great comic updated five days a week. Let's hope they can keep up the good work!

No, I haven't started Xenosaga yet. I had to get some sleep yesterday, and today I've been occupied with working on my resume (I hate my job) and dicking around the internet. It's been a long time since I have just sat down with my favourite beverage and surfed blindly. You wouldn't believe some of the shit you can find.

03.12.2k3

As you know (had you listened to the 3rd episode)I'm having a hell of a time with Suikoden III. I've since wiped Sarah off the face of the planet, but now I'm stuck with some kind of huge crystal looking dragon that has the True Runes floating around it. If it wasn't for that damn True Water I'd beat it's ass. Any suggestions?

LATER : Well at long last I was able to beat it! Thank god. All it took was a few more levels and a little bit of luck. Now I get to dive into Xenosaga. So don't expect to hear from me for awhile.

03.11.2k3

Get yourself a little action with the latest show. God knows your not getting any anywhere else!