distracting games
Last Friday, I went over to the Tate's Gaming Satellite with Chris to go play some Magic: The Gathering. It was mostly out of impulse since I was driving around planning on going to the movies or even loitering at the mall or something, but the night still proved fruitful.
We met up with some guys there and ended up playing a few multiplayer games. The people there were really cool. and despite the fact I haven't played regularly for a long time, I still held my ground in a few games. We were all planning on buying a booster box and playing a Draft game, but that plan never came to be since the store was supposed to close shortly afterward. Ah well. I'll definitely be showing up for Friday Night Magic when they start it at the shop.
After that, Chris & I traveled just one mile away to go to OffWorld, my sporadic hang-out whenever I'm in the area. Most of the time just consisted of playing Naruto: Narutimett Hero 3, Tekken 5, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike on the PS2 there. The Naruto game has only made me want to mod my PS2 so much more, and my reputation as a grappler extended over to Tekken.
That night led me to the conclusion that I absolutely needed to buy Street Fighter III: Third Strike, so I could show those people at OffWorld a thing or two about 2D fighters. My skills have waned since the days I was addicted to X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The next day I bought the Street Fighter: Anniversary Edition for my PS2 and invited whoever I could to just come over and play video games. A good time was had by all. Those who made it included Tony, Jessica, Chris, Stefen, Felipe, Ryan, and Khris. Tony spoke of it in his last post.
This week mostly consisted of practicing Street Fighter and starting off on Metal Gear Solid 2 again after hearing so much about everyone's love for Snake Eater & Subsistence; much the same way I began playing Morrowind as everyone became excited over Oblivion. I just enjoy playing catch-up with all my video games, makes my hobby far cheaper when I go over to the bargain bin.
Yesterday, I picked up a used Street Fighter Anniversary Gamepad at GameStop for around 7 bucks. I miss my old Genesis controllers with 6 face buttons and realized just how much superior they are to the incredibly uncomfortable PS2 controller for fighting games. I plugged it in and tried it out, the gamepad is an absolute dream. I don't get blisters from the unorthodox, yet comfortable way I do hold my controller (placing my middle finger under the buttons for support), and the buttons are incredibly responsive. It's also great for my MAME & Sega Genesis emulation on my computer since I possess a PSX controller converter. Well worth it.
This afternoon, I hung out with Felipe after school and wanted to challenge him to a game of Street Fighter. Being impressed with my previous purchase, I stopped over at the nearest GameStop and looked around for a similar controller. Little did I know that my friend Matt literally cleared the store of their entire inventory in his effort to collect all the characters. I found this fact out later on.
So I perused the shop, only to find something else catch my eye. It was a slick, wireless arcade controller for the PS2 named the Ultimate Fighting Stick. The controller was 30 bucks. I was very wary about it and asked the store clerk if he could recommend it. Regardless of whether or not I could trust the GameStop employee, I figured that I had a receipt if anything went wrong.
So I went over to Felipe's house and we struggled with trying to get it to work on my PSX-to-USB converter on his computer. No luck. The connection light kept blinking never really registering it was there. I was about to discredit it for shit, but I decided to try it out on his PS2. I am so glad I didn't return it right then and there. This arcade stick is godly. I started playing some games on his PS2 and never expected it to be so responsive and comfortable to play on. Trying it out in SFIII when I got home only proved its great worth to me. Best purchase I've made in a while.
I'm a little bummed I don't have it working on my computer through the converter. It seems that the USB converter I have doesn't transfer enough power to the wireless receiver. The power light blinks repeatedly when connected to my computer, but stays still when connected to my PS2. I'm probably going to try another converter, and if that doesn't work, I'll go buy a PSX extension cable and splice it open to feed in external power to the controller. I have great incentive to do this, nearly perfect emulation of my MAME ROMs, hell yeah.
This weekend I'm going over to Atlanta for the "Connect with Tech" program where I stay with a student over at Georgia Tech and generally see how it's like up there. I'm pretty excited, Atlanta's a cool city. I'll be back around Wednesday, so I'll still be down here in Florida for a good half of my Spring Break, call me up if you have any plans then or just want to talk. I'm really considering going to the OffWorld Lock-in next Saturday, those are always fun.
I haven't shaven for the past week and I haven't had my hair cut for nearly two months. Before I felt that I should get a haircut, but today I'm really enjoying my Afro-Wolverine look. It's a real shame I'm being forced to get it cut now.
I'll be off to practice more Street Fighter.
We met up with some guys there and ended up playing a few multiplayer games. The people there were really cool. and despite the fact I haven't played regularly for a long time, I still held my ground in a few games. We were all planning on buying a booster box and playing a Draft game, but that plan never came to be since the store was supposed to close shortly afterward. Ah well. I'll definitely be showing up for Friday Night Magic when they start it at the shop.
After that, Chris & I traveled just one mile away to go to OffWorld, my sporadic hang-out whenever I'm in the area. Most of the time just consisted of playing Naruto: Narutimett Hero 3, Tekken 5, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike on the PS2 there. The Naruto game has only made me want to mod my PS2 so much more, and my reputation as a grappler extended over to Tekken.
That night led me to the conclusion that I absolutely needed to buy Street Fighter III: Third Strike, so I could show those people at OffWorld a thing or two about 2D fighters. My skills have waned since the days I was addicted to X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The next day I bought the Street Fighter: Anniversary Edition for my PS2 and invited whoever I could to just come over and play video games. A good time was had by all. Those who made it included Tony, Jessica, Chris, Stefen, Felipe, Ryan, and Khris. Tony spoke of it in his last post.
This week mostly consisted of practicing Street Fighter and starting off on Metal Gear Solid 2 again after hearing so much about everyone's love for Snake Eater & Subsistence; much the same way I began playing Morrowind as everyone became excited over Oblivion. I just enjoy playing catch-up with all my video games, makes my hobby far cheaper when I go over to the bargain bin.
Yesterday, I picked up a used Street Fighter Anniversary Gamepad at GameStop for around 7 bucks. I miss my old Genesis controllers with 6 face buttons and realized just how much superior they are to the incredibly uncomfortable PS2 controller for fighting games. I plugged it in and tried it out, the gamepad is an absolute dream. I don't get blisters from the unorthodox, yet comfortable way I do hold my controller (placing my middle finger under the buttons for support), and the buttons are incredibly responsive. It's also great for my MAME & Sega Genesis emulation on my computer since I possess a PSX controller converter. Well worth it.
This afternoon, I hung out with Felipe after school and wanted to challenge him to a game of Street Fighter. Being impressed with my previous purchase, I stopped over at the nearest GameStop and looked around for a similar controller. Little did I know that my friend Matt literally cleared the store of their entire inventory in his effort to collect all the characters. I found this fact out later on.
So I perused the shop, only to find something else catch my eye. It was a slick, wireless arcade controller for the PS2 named the Ultimate Fighting Stick. The controller was 30 bucks. I was very wary about it and asked the store clerk if he could recommend it. Regardless of whether or not I could trust the GameStop employee, I figured that I had a receipt if anything went wrong.
So I went over to Felipe's house and we struggled with trying to get it to work on my PSX-to-USB converter on his computer. No luck. The connection light kept blinking never really registering it was there. I was about to discredit it for shit, but I decided to try it out on his PS2. I am so glad I didn't return it right then and there. This arcade stick is godly. I started playing some games on his PS2 and never expected it to be so responsive and comfortable to play on. Trying it out in SFIII when I got home only proved its great worth to me. Best purchase I've made in a while.
I'm a little bummed I don't have it working on my computer through the converter. It seems that the USB converter I have doesn't transfer enough power to the wireless receiver. The power light blinks repeatedly when connected to my computer, but stays still when connected to my PS2. I'm probably going to try another converter, and if that doesn't work, I'll go buy a PSX extension cable and splice it open to feed in external power to the controller. I have great incentive to do this, nearly perfect emulation of my MAME ROMs, hell yeah.
This weekend I'm going over to Atlanta for the "Connect with Tech" program where I stay with a student over at Georgia Tech and generally see how it's like up there. I'm pretty excited, Atlanta's a cool city. I'll be back around Wednesday, so I'll still be down here in Florida for a good half of my Spring Break, call me up if you have any plans then or just want to talk. I'm really considering going to the OffWorld Lock-in next Saturday, those are always fun.
I haven't shaven for the past week and I haven't had my hair cut for nearly two months. Before I felt that I should get a haircut, but today I'm really enjoying my Afro-Wolverine look. It's a real shame I'm being forced to get it cut now.
I'll be off to practice more Street Fighter.