Monthly Archive for March, 2003

Just when I thought it was over without anything else going wrong.

Published
by
Benjy
on Monday March 31, 2003
in Apple, March and PowerBooks
. 3 Comments

Of course, it's still March, so I shouldn't be surprised when something else goes wrong. This is actually a continuation of something that happened earlier this month, that I never got around to ranting about here. The short version is I gave my PowerBook a soda bath a week or two before Kevin did the same to his PowerBook. But while his came out mostly unscathed, mine wouldn't boot.

So I took it to the Bay Street Apple Store, and they sent it in for repair, and they called me and told me it was going to cost something like $1000 for parts and labor. What could I do, say no? As it happened, it was they very next day that I went snowboarding and cut my eyebrow and got stitches.

While I was at it, I also took my dead airport base station and dead-battery iPod to the apple store, but they were both more than a year old and hence out of warranty, so I got no repair love there, either.

Anyway, I finally picked up my PowerBook today -- I called them last week and asked "What the fuck?" They said they called on the 12th, but they didn't leave a message... I picked it up, and found out they had replaced the whole motherboard/logicboard, the RAM, and the keyboard. I was particularly happy to hear the keyboard had been replaced, because that meant I wouldn't have to deal with any stickiness issues that plagued my Pismo for long after I gave it a soda bath.

So I got it home and turned it on and was very unhappy to discover that the q key didn't work. Also, the mouse button isn't as clicky as it used to be, and when I'm trying to hold it down, for example, it'll sometimes "let go" even though I'm still pressing on it.

In other words, I'll be heading back to the Apple Store tomorrow. The Proof of Repair says "If your product needs service due to defects in materials or workmanship within 90 days of this repair, AppleCare Service will repair your system free of charge," which means the keyboard should be free (except in the time-is-money sense). I'll see if they'll fix the button for free while they're at it, because I can't afford to pay for anything else, and if they won't fix it, well, it still works, and I could probably adapt to using tap-click on the trackpad.

So yes, I still hate March. This one did nothing to change things.

Maybe I’ll talk myself out of it before they’re back in stock.

Published
by
Benjy
on Sunday March 30, 2003
in Birthday, Nintendo: Game Boy and Spend
. 2 Comments

I decided to buy a Game Boy Advance SP yesterday. This might seem a little strange after my initial comments on the SP, but I've got a number of reasons for making this decision:

  1. I've been playing The Wind Waker, and I wanted to take advantage of its GBA connectivity. The problem is, the chair I sit in when I play games has a really bad light situation, so I can't see my GBA screen without moving to another seat.
  2. I want to play my GBA in bed. The problem is, in bed, I roll around and lie in many different positions, most of which are not conducive to having any light shining on the screen. I put up with this for awhile when I first got my GBA, but lately it's been so irritating that I just haven't been playing it.
  3. I'm out of AA batteries, and I don't want to buy any more. The SP has a built-in rechargeable battery.
  4. In his SP mini-review, the editor of GameFAQs said "it's instantly revitalized my interest in the GBA," which is what I'm looking for.
  5. And what finally tipped the scales was the fact that yesterday was my birthday, and I wanted to buy myself a present.

The problem was, I got to the EB Games on Telegraph about 5 minutes after they closed last night. So today I went back, and they said they only had them in stock for people who pre-ordered. D'oh.

As long as I was out and about, I also went by the EB Games on Shattuck, because hey, as long as there are two of them, I might as well exercise my options. Unfortunately, the clerk there told me that they had sold their last three earlier in the day. Triple d'oh!

But, there's good news to be had from these misadventures! The clerk at Shattuck also mentioned that they'll buy back my old GBA for $30 towards the SP. Sure, I might be able to sell it for a little more on eBay, but by the time I factor in the time-is-money equation, and consider the convenience factor, I think it's definitely worth it to sell my old GBA to EB Games.

Once they have SPs in stock again, of course...

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker tip.

Published
by
Benjy
on Friday March 28, 2003
in Games, Laugh, Nintendo: Gamecube and Zelda
. 6 Comments

I've been playing (and loving) The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, but there was one little issue that was kind of bugging me. But now I've got a tip for those of you who were also bothered by this problem, except I expect that it was probably pretty obvious to everyone else, and I'm the only one who overlooked it... But if you're having the same problem I was, then you'll appreciate this:

When you're using some weapon you picked up from an enemy -- like a stick or a large sword -- press B instead of A to fight with it, because if you press A, it will throw the weapon, and you'll have to pick it back up (which sucks a lot when you're in the middle of a melee). If you press B, you will keep ahold of it and not have to pick it back up!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I was two dungeons in before I figured that one out.

Stew Reviews Super Mario Advance (Super Mario Brothers 2)

Published
by
Benjy
on Friday March 28, 2003
in Games, Mario, Nintendo: Game Boy and Reviews
. 2 Comments

When the Game Boy Advance was released a couple of years ago, Nintendo also released a remake of Super Mario Brothers 2 as Super Mario Advance. They supposedly updated the game some, and I considered buying it at the time, but I ultimately decided against it on account of having already played Mario 2 back in the day, and there being several other GBA games out that I wanted to play.

A little later, I got the opportunity to borrow Super Mario Advance from a friend. So I borrowed it and played it, and beat it in one night. More than 10 years since I played the game, I still remembered where the warps were, and how to beat all the bosses, and more. Sure, I had fun playing it, and it was a nice little nostalgia trip while it lasted, but in the end, I was glad I didn't pay for it myself.

If you've ever played Mario 2 and you're thinking about buying this game, then I'd recommend you think twice. Though it's nice to able to save your progress, and the added dragon coin challenge adds some replay value, there's still just not enough new here to really justify full price. I'd recommend either renting it, or maybe try to find it cheap on eBay.

On the other hand, if you've never played Mario 2, this game is great fun. Of course, the game play is very different from your typical mario game, so if you want a game where you stomp on goombas and kick koopa shells, then you should probably look somewhere else. But it's still a uniquely fun game that has well stood the test of time. Additionally, this game features the first appearance of now classic enemies like shyguys, and features the only appearances of many other enemies with distinct character of their own who I'd like to see again some day.

Of course, I'd recommend the more recent Mario Advance remakes (of Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island) over Mario 2, but if you've already played those games and are thirsting for more Mario, this isn't a bad option. 4/5.

Stew Reviews Luigi’s Mansion

Published
by
Benjy
on Wednesday March 26, 2003
in Games, Mario, Nintendo: Gamecube and Reviews
. 1 Comment

I played Luigi's Mansion way back in December 2001, but I've always wanted to say a few things about it, and I figure since I just wrote about Super Mario Sunshine, now was as good a time as any.

"This'll blow your mind. All your hard work lasted only a single night."
-- Dr. E. Gadd

That quote is from the end of the game, but it's ironic that it directly applied to me, because I played and beat the entire game in one night, and I've never actually played it since. Obviously, then, the length of the game is called into question. It took me somewhere between 4 and 6 hours to beat, by the time I died a few times. It probably would have been better spread out across a couple of evenings, but I was having so much fun that I just didn't want to stop until it was over.

I don't remember not liking the graphics at all, and the only things I remember about the graphics are good things, like nice transparency effects with the ghosts or how nicely the vacuuming the curtain effect was animated. I'd have to go check it out again to be sure, but in my memory, its graphics were at least as good as Super Mario Sunshine's.

I also don't remember a lot about the sound, but once again, what I remember is mostly good. Luigi's humming, screams, and cries for "Mario!" all work very well, and aren't overly intrusive. I do remember the vacuum noise starting to become a droning in some of the later rooms where I was effectively constantly vacuuming for several minutes continuously, but for the most part, it was ignorable. But, on the whole, nothing super offensive.

The basic suck up the ghost with the vacuum gameplay was enhanced with neat variations like the fire and ice vacuum, or just by sucking up a ball to use like a gun. There are only four bosses, but each one requires a moderately different approach to beating. Sometimes more difficult to figure out than how to beat the bosses is how to awaken some of the sleeping portrait ghosts. Once you figure out how to wake up one of those ghosts, however, it's very rewarding to fight him and ultimately capture him. Each ghost sucked in brings with it a small thrill of a job well done. While even more variety of gameplay would have quickly made for a longer game, the variety in the final game was just about right for its length.

I really enjoyed playing this game a lot, but in the end, its length is a pretty solid reason to recommend against buying it. Instead, I highly recommend you rent it some weekend and give Luigi's vacuum a whirl. It doesn't suck. Uh, except for when it's supposed to. 4/5.

Stew Reviews Super Mario Sunshine

Published
by
Benjy
on Tuesday March 25, 2003
in Games, Mario, Nintendo: Gamecube and Reviews
. 2 Comments

I've been playing Super Mario Sunshine since I got it way back in September. Though I haven't quite finished it, I feel like I've played more than enough of it to say my piece.

For starters, the graphics were a fairly mixed bag. While things looked good for the most part, it seemed like I saw all of the good graphics early on (in particular, various water effects) and was left with the discovery of innumerable disappointing graphics for the remainder of the game. In some places it was a bad texture, in some places it was a blocky object, in some places it was strange clipping, and everywhere it was stupid looking islanders. It was a shame that there weren't more amazing graphics to find later in the game, because then I would have gotten something for my hard work.

Unfortunately, the player's introduction to the sounds of Super Mario Sunshine in the game's opening sequence is possibly some of the worst sound in the game. From the horrible airplane engine to various grunts, squeals, and cries from Mario, Princess and Toad, it's just ridiculously bad. I mean, I thought Sonic Adventure had bad sound, but this was worse. The sound situation only improves a little from there. The sound effects are incredibly repetitive throughout the game. Mario grunts and cries his way through all of his maneuvers, while all of the islanders Mario talks to make one of about three different guffaws. And off the top of my head, I can't even think of any of the game's music, because it was all drowned out by the sound effects.

So if the graphics and sound weren't that hot, how was the gameplay? Well, I hate to sound repetitive, but like the sound, the gameplay quickly started to get repetitive. The main problem here was that each level in the 8 or 9 worlds (depending on how you count) is set in the same exact place. There are minor variations between each level -- sometimes a river runs dry or a few platforms are repositioned -- but for the most part, each of the 8 levels in each world is identical. While this does have the advantage of letting players become familiar with navigating the larger areas that are sometimes difficult to make mental maps of, it pretty quickly sucks the novelty out of each world (especially the smaller ones) after about the third or fourth level.

In addition to the overall lack of scenery, many of the tasks also get repeated. It felt like collecting 8 red coins, racing what's 'is name to the finish line, chasing down Shadow Mario, and hosing people and places off, made up more than half of the game. To make matters worse, the camera sometimes felt downright antagonistic. I would position the camera just where I wanted it, and as soon as I moved, the camera would slowly drift to the point where Mario was completely obscured by a wall. Admittedly, where the tasks were unique, I really enjoyed them. For example, the two roller coaster tasks were by far among my favorites.

A few of the tasks involved Yoshi, but I didn't feel like they were really exploiting the game play opportunities Yoshi presented (reference Yoshi's Island). Instead, it felt like the Yoshi tasks involved Yoshi just because they made the task so much significantly harder. I seriously didn't play the game for a couple of months after getting to Ricco Harbor 8, which required spending forever getting the fruit dispenser to give you a certain fruit, and then precisely kicking a soccer ball like fruit to the Yoshi egg without accidentally kicking it into the water, and then precisely jumping Yoshi across small platforms above water. Did I mention that Yoshi disintegrates if he hits water, requiring you to go back and play the stupid fruit game again? Jesus christ that was infuriating.

One other thing that pissed me off to no end was what certain buttons do while Mario is on a fence. If Mario is on a vertical fence, A will cause him to jump away from the fence, while B makes him punch the fence. BUT, if Mario is hanging from a horizontal fence, A will cause him to punch upwards while B makes him fall off. The fallout of this is, if you're on a vertical fence, you hit B to punch a gate and get to the other side of the fence, but if you're hanging from a horizontal fence, you press A to "jump up through" the gate. If you forget and hit the wrong button, in the best case you're going to lose a lot of ground. In the worst case, you'll die. SO FRUSTRATING.

As for the big addition to Mario's Sunshine arsenal, the FLUDD water gun backpack? I felt like it added a moderate amount of variety to the game, and the hover mode took some of the emphasis off of precise jumping (which only made the obstacle courses and yoshi segments that much more frustrating). However, it felt like still more could have or should have been done with FLUDD to expand the game play options further.

It was nice to see the little link between Luigi's Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine in that Dr. E. Gadd made the backpacks that the brothers wear in each of their games, but a little more of a tie between the two would have been a nice bonus for those who actually played Luigi's Mansion.

There are something like 120 Shines to earn in the game, but I'm going to beat the game with around 65, and frankly, I have absolutely zero motivation to go back and try to earn the rest of the Shines, much less do I want to try to find all of the blue coins. Even with the help of gamefaqs that would totally suck. Earning the Shines I've already got was pretty hard, and there were several points where I set the controller down boiling with anger at how close I'd repeatedly come to succeeding, but still ultimately failing. Trying to do some of those obstacle courses with a time limit (among other things) to earn all of the shines would probably actually put me over the edge.

So, in a nutshell, the game is hard. I seriously cannot imagine an 8 year old kid playing this game and getting very far at all.

Have I used the word "unfortunate" 50 times by now? It seems like I have, and if I haven't it's only because I've been trying to check my urge to use the word. But really, "unfortunate" is the first word I that comes to mind when thinking about Super Mario Sunshine. In the end, I can only give Super Mario Sunshine 3.5/5. There just wasn't enough good to make up for its multitudinous annoyances. If you know someone who owns it, borrow it. Otherwise, rent it. But I don't really think it's worth buying unless you're a big mario fan.

With apologies to The Princess Bride.

Published
by
Benjy
on Monday March 24, 2003
in Movies and Snowboarding
. 1 Comment

What follows is a scene from the snowboarding movie that's in my head. The setting is some sort of race or contest between the as of yet unnamed rider, and the rider in black. Assume a long run, with jumps and bumps and drops and trees throughout.

Unnamed Rider: I admit it, you are better than I am.
Rider in Black: Then why are you smiling?
Unnamed Rider: Because I know something you don't know.
Rider in Black: And what is that?
Unnamed Rider: I... do not ride goofy footed!
[Does an ollie 180 and starts to pull ahead. Rider in Black catches back up.]
Rider in Black: You are amazing!
Unnamed Rider: I ought to be, after 20 years.
Rider in Black: Oh, there's something I ought to tell you.
Unnamed Rider: Tell me.
Rider in Black: I'm not goofy footed either.
[Rider in Black switches, and wins.]

So, got any clever names for the as of yet unnamed rider?

Kirkwood, day 14

Published
by
Benjy
on Monday March 24, 2003
in Kirkwood, Snowboarding and Snowboarding 2003
. Closed

Despite what I thought I wanted to do this weekend, no one (including me) was really up for a two day trip and we ended up just going up today. But:

  • Date(s): Sunday, March 23rd.
  • People: Tyler, Nat, me.
  • The Good News: On the way to kirkwood, we ended up calling the kirkwood snow phone (1-877-KIRKWOOD) and we found out there was 6-10 inches of fresh powder overnight, with a little more still falling.
  • The Bad News: We were calling the kirkwood snow phone because we were curious if they'd posted any updates about the status of the clearing of the avalanches on Highway 88. And there wasn't, and we ended up sitting in the car for about 2 hours, less than 10 miles from Kirkwood. We finally got to Kirkwood around noon.
  • So, in the end, we got a little less than 4 hours of riding, but what we did was good. I also did Eagle Bowl, Thunder Saddle, The Drain, one run down straight down The Wall, and Sentinel.
  • The real highlight of the day, however, was the time we spent backside going over the cornice above The Wave, and then going down The Wave and way right through all the trees over there. Of course, I sucked at going over the Cornice, and either bailed and slid on my heel for awhile or ended up tumbling on my head, but it was still fun. I just need to work on my nerve. With all the powder that was everywhere, that was a lot of fun, and if we'd had more time I would have liked to stay over there even longer.
  • The one problem with all that powder was that there were a lot of speed issues, and I kept getting stuck in stupid places and having to unstrap to skate out. Traverses sucked, and so on. I guess it's a price to pay.
  • Visibility was exciting at times near the top of the mountain. The wind coming from the back of the mountain at the top of lift 10 was ridiculous and I thought I was sitting at the mouth of a wind tunnel, but the wind on the face of the mountain was pretty mellow. It wasn't exactly stormy, but snow was lightly falling all day, and there were some cloud issues.
  • I got an old pair of goggles from rick, so today was the first day I wore goggles all season. Contrary to what I said on day 1, sunglasses are simply no replacement for goggles. Goggles provide more coverage and especially more protection from wind, and are less of an issue to clean when you do fall. It was nice not getting snow in my eyes, especially given all the fresh snow. The only real disadvantage I found was that I had to get used to having less peripheral vision again, but Nat said the goggles he had were very good about being open on the sides. Next season I'll have to invest in a brand new pair of goggles, but for now, I'm all over the hand-me-down equipment.
  • A cool thing about powder is falling really pretty much doesn't hurt, and falls happen in slow motion, so you totally know that you're about to do something ridiculous that you can't stop so you might as well start laughing now because it's not going to hurt, either. It was also fun watching other people's ridiculous falls, because it was pretty obvious they were in no pain, either, which makes it much easier to enjoy a fall.
  • And then there was the drive home: thank god I didn't have to drive, because when I did try to watch the road, I had no clue what was going on. Between ridiculous fog/clouds, rain, and dark, there was something like 5 feet of visibility at times. It was borderline terrifying, especially when I would catch glimpses of trees or hills to the side, but not really have any idea what I was actually seeing.
  • But, despite the short day, I'm pretty sure today was one of the best days I've had all season.
  • Quote of the day:
    "Uh, yeah, we're going to be setting off some large explosions..."
    -- The CalTrans guy

Kirkwood, day 13

Published
by
Benjy
on Tuesday March 18, 2003
in Kirkwood, Snowboarding and Snowboarding 2003
. Closed

After last weekend, I just wasn't feeling up to a two day trip, much less did I want to snowboard on the Ides of March. Seriously, my March has already been bad enough without thumbing my nose at fate like that. So I went up for a day trip on Sunday instead.

  • Date(s): Sunday, March 16th.
  • People: Dave, Trisha, Rick, me.
  • While nowhere near the 24 cops we saw a month ago (14 on the second day), we still saw 7 cops.
  • Despite having snowed about a foot on Saturday, they groomed everything so the snow wasn't quite what I hoped it was going to be.
  • After last weekend, I was still really nervous about doing anything too hard, so I basically just did laps on The Reut, and Cornice to Sentinel Bowl, Zachs, or The Drain.
  • It started snowing around lunch, and it snowed the rest of the afternoon, which made visibility kind of exciting. It still didn't pile up in any interesting ways, though.
  • At one point I dropped into a gully under Sentinel and fell and found myself buried in snow. It took me about five minutes to pull myself out because I didn't want to unstrap. That was pretty much the most interesting thing that happened all day.
  • Right now I'm planning on going up for two days this weekend, assuming tyler is going.

Kirkwood, day 11 and 12

Published
by
Benjy
on Friday March 14, 2003
in Kirkwood, Snowboarding and Snowboarding 2003
. Closed

So, last weekend was by far the worst weekend of snowboarding I've ever had. The low-down:

  • Date(s): Saturday March 8th and Sunday March 9th.
  • People: Tyler, Matt, me.
  • I was feeling kinda sick on Thursday and Friday, but I decided to go up anyway.
  • When I took my first few runs, I just didn't feel up to full strength. Turning felt like a lot of work, for example. Accordingly, I decided to stay by lift 7 for the morning and warm up for awhile to see if I would feel any better.
  • As fate would have it, I was only to feel worse: At around 11 am on Saturday, I did a jump in the anemic park, but got turned in the air, landed sideways and tripped on my toe edge, and fell face first into hard ice.
  • I was stunned for a minute, and then looked and realized there was blood on the snow in front of me. I wasn't sure where it was coming from, but I felt fine and nothing felt broken, and my nose and mouth were both obviously intact (those are pretty easy to inspect), so I cruised down the rest of the hill and into the bathroom:
  • I had a 3/4 to 1 inch cut on my left eyebrow. Everyone who saw it as I was wandering around said I should probably get stitches, so I went to the clinic and did, and took a nap on Saturday afternoon. No boarding for me then.
  • Sunday morning, I sat around in the Timber Creek lodge and read.
  • Sunday afternoon, I did some very easy stuff, nice and slow, and avoided any sort of jump. I was downright terrified of hitting my face and reopening my cut.
  • All I have to say is, thank god I had a helmet on.
  • Oh, and I think I'll be sitting this weekend out, despite the predicted powder dumpage, because I'm just not feeling up to snowboarding again yet right now.