The Good Old Days

When I was a kid we had a thing called Video City.

My friend Roger inadvertently shared this with me.

And I like it (in a sad yet nostalgic-totally-on-point kinda way).

Blockbuster

– via Neatorama

When I was a kid we had a thing called Video City. I remember renting things like The Never Ending Story, They Live, and Transformers: The Movie. When Blockbuster opened in my home town it was like all my Christmases had come at once; not only could you rent videos but you could get video games as well!

Weekends would never be the same again.

Bodger will remember these great days. Tony will too.

Tecmo World Wrestling for the NES.

Mortal Kombat for the MegaDrive.

The good old days.

 

“What Wii did on Sunday…”

First official ‘proper’ post of the new blog site, AHOY!

How to make a Minority Report-esque interface using your Nintendo Wii!
(by yours truly and geekyouup aka Richie Hyndman of Mippin fame)

🙂

Now, this all happened thanks to the awesome social media world of the internet, how?

Well the thing is, I (along with a few others) like to organise Mario Kart Wii competitions over Twitter.
So far so Nintendo Geek…

But ‘Wadds‘ – aka Stephen Waddington, Managing Director of Rainer PR – spotted this regular occurrence and decided to share that he’d given up playing games on his Wii and how he now is all about creating something like this.

“Wow, cool!”

I took that link, threw it at Richie and he came straight back to me and said:

“Come over Sunday, let’s do it!”

ROCK. ON.

So – Big love to Johnny Chung Lee for showing us the way – and also bonus props to Stephen for giving us some blog love first thing this morning!

Nice work all round,
Cheers.

🙂

8 Random Things About Me – Blogtag!

My dear friend Helen – aka Technokitten – has just taken my Blogtag cherry… I say ‘just’…

Helen actually gave me a shout back in July, but I’ve been so sodding busy I just haven’t round to doing it…

However! As I’m off on my hols this week and I’m desperately trying to do anything BUT pack – I thought I might actually give this a go…

But first – here are the rules:

  • We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
  • Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
  • People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So – without further a do – here we go!

  1. I am a Hugger. A Free Hugger in fact. I own two ‘Free Hugs’ T-shirts, a ‘Free Hugs’ hat and I even have a few ‘Free Hugs’ badges that I give out on occasion. I bought my first shirt on a whim earlier this year and now wear it quite regularly – in fact – I even set up the facebook group – ‘Huggers Unite‘ – where I organise the odd ‘Free Hugs’ event around the streets of London… Why not join the group and come to the next one? I believe a hug can make you feel so much better. The first event we ever did in Covent Garden was only supposed to go on for an hour – but we were there the whole afternoon – one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done.
  2. I’m a geek. No really. Not in the mobile sense like you’re all thinking right now. But in the “I-own-comic-books-and-I-collect-the-figures-and-sometimes-I-don’t-even-take-them-out-of-their-boxes” kind of way. There. I said it. Ahem.
  3. I once fasted for seven days. That’s right. SEVEN DAYS. Not a single morsel passed my lips for a week. Detoxing in Thailand at the Spa they have on Koh Samui. Changed my entire life. Everyone should do this at least once… It sorted my head out, put my career on track and as and an added bonus – I lost about two stone in weight!
  4. I used to be an accountant. Say. No. More.
  5. I studied at Drama School, (see above).
  6. I’m a gamer. I love Nintendo through and through and have owned pretty much every system they’ve produced at some point or another in their patchy history… I bought a Wii on day of release and people are STILL struggling to get their hands on them… This fact I like a lot. :o)
  7. I can dance like a Cossack. Like.. properly. Strange old family tradition. We can all do it. Are we Russian at all? No. But if you’re REALLY special and if I like you an AWFUL lot – then I may consider wheeling it out for you at your next party… for example – the wedding I went to at the weekend… my thighs are killing me now… aargh! Yeah – so don’t ever let me get involved in a dance off – (it’s been known to happen before).
  8. I’m a married man. Got hitched in June 2005 and it was all over by March 2006. The best part of it all? I wouldn’t change a single thing. Without it, I would not be person I am today… and anyone who knows me knows that I am one happy fella!

So who do I tag?

Well – I think eight random things about the following people would make a good read:

  1. My good friend (and new blogger) Will,
  2. Fellow Nintendo fan Neil,
  3. My Jaiku/Vox Nokian buddy Carol,
  4. New friend Melissa,
  5. Taptu demon Vero,
  6. Founder of Refresh Mobile – Scott Beaumont – link as soon as I have it (I know you’ve got a blog somewhere Scott), EDIT – Thanks Scott
  7. Good buddy and ex colleague of mine – Prash
  8. Aaaaaaaaand… last and by every means least – Mobile9 King: Abul. ;o)

By the way – the photo on this post? It’s a pic of eight random things that are closest to my desk!
A prize for the person that can name all eight…

EDIT – Scott came back with his link – it can be found here: http://scottbeau.blogspot.com and also – as for the picture prize competition – name as many as you can…

Prize goes to the person that gets the most right…

Major Wii Firmware Update – V 3.0

Good morning folks,

Just a quick note to say to all you fellow Wii owners out there… Keep a look out for that little blue light today.
That there means that there’s an update waiting to be downloaded…

Go on…
Go get it…

A lot of stuff has been written about this already – most of which I’m about to repeat – HOWEVER!

Stay ’til the end and I’ll exclusively reveal something that has yet to be reported that a few gamers that I know stumbled across this very morning…

Ok – here’s the lowdown,

The rest is as follows…

Main Menu Revisions

  • Clock Display
  • The Disc turns 180-degrees on the Disc Channel icon
  • News Channel icon displays headlines
  • Forecast Channel icon now displays the weather without entering the channel
  • Faster loading times when changing channels/leaving channels (Up for debate)
  • Move contacts on Address Book
  • Calendar no longer displays envelopes for the amount of time you played, only messages
  • Light bar goes on when disk is inserted or removed
  • Able to navigate Wii Settings with + and – (Man that always pissed us off)
  • Scrolling through messages has a new sound, and scrolling with B now displays an arrow similar to the Internet Channel

Wii Shop Channel Revisions

  • New Welcome screen detailing 4 Recommended Titles and the points they cost
  • Titles You’ve Downloaded was moved to the main shop menu
  • New ways to browse
  • Popular Titles (not only based on recent info)
  • Newest Additions remains the same
  • Search for a title which can use partial names
  • Search by Category
  • System shows the different systems and how many titles have been released under each
  • Publisher showing different publishers and amount of titles released
  • Genres listed

Warning: Do not install this update if you have modded your Wii!

Ok…

So finally – and annoyingly enough – this story is now being picked up around the gaming journos.
I’ve just emailed the guys over at SPOnG to let them know…

But yes – what’s the big secret Whatley?!
Well – everywhere I’ve read about V 3.0 of the Nintendo Wii firmware I am yet to read one little thing…

That is – V3 actually allows Full USB Keyboard Integration.
That’s right – Wii-Mail & Internet Browsing will never be the same again!

Wooooooooooo!
lol – at the time of writing I’ve just had an email back from the guys at SPOnG saying:

“In fact… it even works with an ancient Mac keyboard!
Cheers!”

Rock.

Koh Samui – Day One Cont…

Afternoon all,

Its 17:33 here and I just had my first Colema!

What an experience that was.

This american guy explained it all to us before hand and then he set one up as a demo (thank the Lord he used my room – i didn’t have to set it up).
Basically – you hang this bucket on a hook and with a tube coming out of it. In the bucket is coffee, water and vinegar – guess where the other end of the tube goes.. Yup. In there. They give you your own KY and everythin’.. Hmm Hmmmmmmmmm!

Anywhoo – the first one is apparently quite traumatic as it’s ‘real proper poo’ as some girl described it to me… and seriously – EVERYONE talks about their poo here – its hilarious..

But it wasn’t so bad – Just laid back and listened to some MP3s.. (Ministry of Sound – Chillout, if you were wondering)

Think I did it right..

So yeah – I took some footage afterwards (after I’d cleaned up) and tomorrow I’ll get some before hand too so you can see what I have to do..
Then I’ll see if I can upload it on here – I know you’re all DYING to see it!

lol

On the regimented strict regime side of things.. its cool –

The detox drinks can be made up to take away with you.. and the supplements are given to you first thing so you carry those around with you all day.

Me and and this bloke I’ve met, Steve, got a cab into Chaweng earlier – did a bit of shopping.. got me a cool Diesel belt which does up like an old school airline belt.. its wicked.. that was like three quid..
..Got a new Diesel bag too – my other stripey one got torn on my through
Heathrow.. I’m gettin the hang of this barterin malarky too – I got quoted 1800BHT for my bag and I got her down to 850!

Crazy…

Yeah.. Got some flowery soapy things for the ladies in my life as gifts and also… last…. but NOT least..

THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY NINTENDO DS CHARGERS!

But clever old me remembered that SPs share the same charger as a DS.
So I got me an SP charger for like two quid.
My DS is charging as we speak.

Tomorrow – I’ll be playing Metroid while having my sphincter cleaned.

I bet there’s not many people who’s said that before!

lol

Anyway – must dash – there’s some veggie broth and coconut milk over there with my name on..

Speak soon..

( oh and there’s a TV room thats currently showing ‘Corpse Bride’ behind me – apparently they show reruns of ‘Celebrity Detox’ too – which was filmed here! Dunno if you know it – had Kim Wilde and Richard Blackwood on it – but yeah – that’s the place… )