Megazone 23 [1985] Part 1

 

Sharon Stone Smokes Camel Lights (Hard Pack)

 

As seen in the movie 'Cold Steel' - 1987, 25:51

The Venerable RTX 2080

I've had this thing forever.

     A little history: I bought my RTX 2080 OC on launch day for $849 from Best Buy. It had been years since I bought a card on launch day, and I wanted the best, and the RTX 2080 was the IT card at the time. I had an aging 1070 that performed perfectly, and is still hard at work in the PC next to me my son uses for school, paired with my old 8700k.. chugging along just fine.

The lineup at the time.

     I had no idea that I would have been better off with the GTX 1080ti. I was told by Nvidia and their marketing department that the card would have ray tracing and 8GB of their new memory would be enough. For $300 less dollars, I could have got the 1080ti, but I wanted the new hot performing card. 

I was lied to.

     The numbers came out no sooner than I got the card home and in my PC. The 1080ti with a mild overclock and a fan on it would easily beat the shit out of the 2080, and later, they added RTX support for the card. It was looking like I was had, and I paid too much. Relegated to my fate, I made the best of it, and overclocked the dogshit out of the poor 2080 for the next 4 years. 

This is a 2080 after 4 years of overclocking.

I gamed on this card like it was my last. If I'm paying $849 for something that was beat by a previous generation, so be it. I started competitive Overwatch in 2018, and went top 500 for almost a year in FFA, and you can imagine what that does to a card. There are chinese bitcoin miner rigs that have less hours on their cards than my poor 2080 does. 

This is for beginners.

     I'm still salty. I've since built several PC's for my gaming family, and upgraded my own PC, and now we have two 30 series GPU's in the house that out perform the 2080, but not in my PC.. no way. I'm stubborn, and this fucking nerd is going to extract every ounce of longevity out of this card; so I did what at PC enthusiast would do, I repasted the die, put new thermal pads on, and replaced the whining dead fans with new OEM ones... then cranked it up to 11. For the next year and a half, I ran the card on the ragged edge, even going so far to buying an after market GPU socket fan to blow even more air on the card, and mounting a high performance fan on the side to hopefully exhaust even more of the hot air away.

New year.. same me.

     Now its the middle of 2024, and I just took my PC apart to clean it, and guess what, the 2080 is still in there, chugging along, overclocked to the moon and screaming during my extended playthrough of the new Robocop game with DLSS on. On epic settings, still over 100fps, fans on 91% of max, sitting at 77c temps under load. I'll be honest, I did not think this card would last 6 full years dialed up to 11. Like I mentioned, I have a slot fan and a blow fan aimed directly at it at all times and have done some work on it to keep it alive, but I never expected this kind of value from a card that no one wanted, and no one should have bought. After years of eSports and every triple A title from the last 6 years, this card has performed amazing, and never left me feeling like I needed to upgrade right away. My son's new PC, which is a 14700k with a 4070ti is light years ahead of my 10700k rig, but I still don't feel like I'm missing anything. I played 80 hours of Baldur's Gate at 100fps on epic settings very recently with zero issues or crashes. I've made up my mind, I'm going to wait until the 50 series drops, and get a 40 series card on sale and move on with my life.. but I wanted to share how my mistake turned into one of the best gaming choices of my adult life. 

Circuit's Edge Theme on an MT32

 

Dark Seed (1993) - An Overlooked H.R. Giger DOS classic

 

Even the box art was ahead of it's time. 

He has a splitting headache. 

     Before we get started, you can play this classic game free in browser online, located here. I highly suggest you get started. Dark Seed is a point and click game, modified from its SCUMM engine roots, and features a robust and dark theme from the very beginning. You visit other worlds that make little sense, aliens are abundant, and the scenes are vast. You play the game through a curtain like you are watching a show, which adds to the tone of the game. 

Forget the door, there is an alien baby here. 

     This game does have it's flaws, but when you mix equal parts H.R. Giger artwork and Michael Cranford of Bard's Tale fame, you are going to land on something special. The music was generic, but haunting in a low budget horror movie way. The game is strangely monotone in color, but advanced in resolution;  Giger himself said he could not work with the pixelated 300x200, and insisted on 640x350, at the sacrifice of the enhanced color pallet. The cover comes from one of Giger's famous art works from 1974, Li II. From the wikipedia article on the production of the game:

"Developers used an Epson flatbed scanner to import selected body parts and landscape fragments in monochrome, then with Deluxe Paint II Enhanced for MS-DOS assembled them into single images. An Amiga and an S-VHS camera digitized actors' poses that Cyberdreams further edited on PCs. After the company decided that the images were inadequate late in the development process, developers hand colored the art for six more months.^[7] The main character, Mike Dawson, is named after the game's designer and producer. He also lent his appearance to the character's sprite."

The NES version is a Famicom oddity, turned real.

     Dark seed is one of the rare games that only comes along every so many years. It has no right to exist and have the budget it has, and was made to work with available resources and technology of the day. I find it very facinating that it's following was so vast that an unknown person created a Japanese port of the game to NES, unlicensed of course. A fan made translation is underway. 

     Dark Seed 2 came out in 1995 with further enhanced graphics and more of that nightmare feel and ambiance. Not nearly the sleeper hit of the first game, Dark Seed 1 and 2 had their fair share of ports, including the Sega Saturn with rare mouse support. Either way, put this game on your radar on any platform, it's really worth it.. and what do you know! You can play the second one online in the browser for free as well. 

My 90's picture made it to the top of Reddit.

The 90's all wrapped up in one image.

My dad was going through some photos at home and stumbled upon a stack of my sister and I, one time when she was visiting Florida. Lot's of pictures from Busch Gardens, Disney World, and random vacation spots around the area. I sent this one to my sister who responded.. "Well that's the 90's in one picture." Click here to view the reddit post in question. This picture really stood out:

     Soooooo naturally I posted it on Reddit for imaginary points that no one cares about. It swiftly made it to the top of Reddit, and the r/90's group, and I've already seen my own picture once in a Tiktok video slideshow of the 90's. Crazy how that works, and how fast it happens. In 24 hours the post had 204k views and 1.9k upvotes. 

Top comments from the post that stood out to me:

• Wicker backed chairs for the win
• Lol caption on the TV
• Quart of Icehouse
• Rocking the JNCO jeans
• I can hear the computer start up in this picture

     This is one of the few pictures I have of my original battle station in High School. As I have talked about many times, I had a Macintosh Performa 636cd, DOS card, and video capture card. This was as close as you could get to having a Quadra 840av for a third of the price. Connetix Color Quickcam, aftermarket Keyboard and mouse, and a Laserwriter printer under the desk. This was cutting edge in the mid-90's! On the screen is AOL 3.0 with OJ's Tool's installed. Using this setup, I was able to create my Legend Website, Hack the Planet, Rip music and video from VHS tapes, and play/tape/document the emulation gaming scene at the time. 

Hack the Planet

I took a little break, and killed the ads.

My PC after only 2 minutes and 12 seconds of viewing Google's auto ads feature

     I'll start off by saying I killed the ads on all my blogs. Yes, they were making me around $10-12 per month, but I could not even stand to look at the page. I know I had to take a break from posting, so I thought.. "Hey, if I don't have to post or look at it for a while, maybe it can at least make me some money...", and it did. Bad move, and I'm sorry. I would have left them up a little longer to be honest, until I had a run-in with the Google Adsense police.

My son's youtube page. Click to view his strange horror related content. 

     My son has a youtube channel (pictured above) that does pretty well, and he qualified to earn on his views. He is really pumped about his sudden popularity, so I made him an Adsense account and got the process started. Within a week, Google demanded I delete my personal Adsense account. My son and I have the same name, and live at the same address, so we must be the same person, so one duplicate account must go. I pleaded with them, asked them several times to review it, but there was zero human element to the choice made and I decided to delete my account, so my son could get his little income stream going. What horseshit, but I'm willing to do it for the dude. 

Why did I take a break? Lot's going on during an event season at work, new responsibilities, and had to spend some time with my wife off the clock. Writing the blog is a hobby for me, but I was spending a little too much time on the computer after work on nothing, so had to reel that in. Hadn't washed the truck or got to my honey-do list for a while. Either way, I'm going to attempt to balance my time better and give the blog a little love over the weekend. 

Cheers!

Classic Game Room (CGR) is back.

      CGR has been around since I graduated high school in 1999. It's the first real game review show I cared about, and easily the best one on the internet for some time. Mark Bussler (pictured) has cancelled the show and revived it more times than I can count, changing the names several times instead of calling them seasons. Each time it comes back you can expect some special features DVD's, merch, and behind the scenes content offered up on Kickstarter for a few years before it's time for the next reincarnation. 

      Very recently I noticed CGR was renamed again back to Classic Game Room, and not one of Mark's other interests- Drawing, making music, reviewing comics and hot wheels cars.. etc. It's been 5 freaking years since a we have seen any retro game content, and his channel starting turning out views in the hundreds, and at one time, I stopping checking in completely. I've bought the merch, have some DVD's- I'm a fan, but let's play to our strengths Mark! We want more Classic Game Room. The fans have spoken, and now we can celebrate a return that I hope lasts more than a short season. 

     Anyways, enjoy the master in his element. 

New L.O.R.D. Tournament Starts Today!

Same deal as last year: The Realm of Serion BBS is hosing another Legend of the Red Dragon tournament with some prizes. Hurry up and get in there!

 

Caravan Palace - Lone Digger

 

Let's not sleep on this fucking banger. No 2023 tour dates scheduled unfortunately. 

80's Vibe Perfection.

 

Credit goes to Diana Darkangel on Youtube. 

How drunk can you get at nerdy events? (A comprehensive guide)

 

Their drinking is measured in gigawatts

It's becoming more socially acceptable to drink at nerdy events, as more and more people associate with the nerd kingdom and cross over to the dark side. It was only a matter of time before people would enter alcohol in the equation, and to be very honest, I'm glad it did. Without the sweet smell of cheap hotel vodka drinks and the balmy perfume of a well timed Smirnoff Ice, these people may not (speaking very generally) develop the courage needed to procreate and make more nerds. We need more nerds! Before we get started, I will say that this is satire. I'm a nerd as well. I will be ranking each situation and event with a basic 1-10 scale. Level 1 = zero alcohol, Level 10 = black out drunk. 

#1 - DragonCon - Level 6

     DragonCon is an event nerds look forward to in Atlanta every year to create memories that no one else cares about. They will create inside jokes, have their own terminology, and pride themselves on getting in the hotel it's hosted at ahead of others. An average DragonCon attendee in their second or more year will be at a conservative Level 6 for the duration of the event. Multiple rooms on each floor have tons of bottles of cheap alcohol to share with their fellow nerds to avoid the extravagant prices of booze on the floor. Everyone is going to spring for the "Limited Edition" beer/mead named after a dragon with glitter in it. $12 each? No problem. The experience DragonCon attendee can slam two of these, stay at a fun-buzzed Level 6 for 3 consecutive nights easily. Time to change your cosplay to meet your favorite late 90's failed TV show starlet? Time to have a quick mimosa with the girls as well. For those who take DragonCon to a Level 8, I say good on you, way to up your game- but it's safe at level 6. Some people will get drunk their first night, and those that are regulars at the Con will look at them with the "First time?" shame that they know all too well. 

#2 - Friday Night Magic - Level 3

     I have never been to a FNM sober. I get a light buzz on to cut through my intolerance of other's BO, and power through. Lately it has been MUCH more acceptable to drink a beer or three at your Local Game Store, which has been going on during Warhammer games for decades. Level 3 is a silent, comfortable, and light buzz that two decent 7% IPA's can afford you. Sneak out to the parking lot for a smoke and a beer to keep it going, laugh with the boys outside and head back in. Anything after 6PM at the LGS is normally fair game if you keep it chill with the owner. There is one exception to this rule: If they LGS owner takes it up to a Level 5-7 and it drunk super late playing Warhammer 40k, they you can 100% take it right up there with him and do some shots. Never should you surpass the Level of the owner, as he can kick your ass and your shitty pauper deck right the fuck out. If you do get kicked out, proceed to drink by your car for another hour for good measure.

#3 Smash Tournaments - Level 4-7

With the advent and lucrative penetration of Barcades in the market, Smash Tournaments in bars has been a huge thing in the last 3-4 years. For the uninitiated, Barcades are exactly like they sound: A bar/arcade, draft beer, and multiple TV's. Typically the tournaments are mostly fun, and it's always on a slower day like a Wednesday. In any case, It's a 100% fact I will drink 3-4 beers and a shot during one of these events just to start, when I'm just watching them. I have no fucking clue what is going on, and why people scream at odd times, and who is favored to win. I need a little alcohol to bring me to the next level so I can enjoy myself. I've found myself drinking somewhere else first, then coming to this kind of event last, as I normally would not. As a spectator, you could easily without shame get to a 7, scream for the right and wrong reasons, and no one would care. As a player, ramp that shit up to a 4. You need to loosen up and feel good and confident, and show your alcoholic dominance against the other Pikachu. Fuck that other Pikachu.

#4 Anime Convention - Level 8

I'm going to look at this from the view of a parent, which I happen to be. I love anime and have been to an anime convention in my younger years. I've lovingly wrote about it for years on this blog in the most romantic and affectionate way. Since I've been to one, I've noticed that the scene has changed, and younger people are dressing up, and there is a ton that I do not know. For these reasons, I would have to be a solid fucking level 8 if you want me to attend one of these. I know friends who go, and they say how cringe it is, the level of BO, the flea market style vendors.. It all just sounds kind of awful to me. My son, as an potential attendee that is young and going with his friends, I would say this would be a great place to have my first drink and make new memories.. and then never talk about it ever again. I joke! Listen- I totally understand why people want to go to these kind of things and have a blast, and I'm sure it is really fun. It's just not for me. Solid 8, possibly a 9 in the right conditions and there is a high level of Yugioh players around me.

#5 Furry Meetup/Con - Level 10

From all that I have heard from these conventions and meetups, is that it's all about just banging with your costumes on in some kind of anonymous Eyes Wide Shut style 4chan gang bang. No one knows who you are, where you are from, your background.. you could be a different person and act out your furry persona. It's 100% safe to get Level 10 blasted as a function like this. Pre-game, post-game shots, beers, cocktails, butt-chugs, you name it. Go nuts! It's hot in there so may I suggest something with ice in it. How do you drink with the costume on? There has to be a way. There is no way these meetups aren't happening with extreme levels of alcohol in the equation. Level 10 all the way. 

Till next time.