FIXED!

Got Donkey Kong fixed after several misfires. Seems that the screen is made up of a polarized cover screen (similar to Polaroid glasses) and if placed incorrectly the screen will be darkened. But when you rotate the plastic cover 180o it magically clears up before your eyes.

 

Also the top screen (where Kong throws down the barrels at you) was not showing all it's LCD displays clearly. So I simply cleaned all the internal contacts with nail polish remover. After some hassles with the controller not functioning (some clown placed a metal round disc in the controller) I had myself a fully working Donkey Kong unit! I might just scrounge eBay for more "not working" Game & Watches and see if I can get more working again!

Finally, DONKEY KONG... but...

After a quick visit to my parents place several hundred Km's away I come back with a new arrival to the Game & Watch collection. Donkey Kong! But it is not working... yet! Seems someone got curious and opened her up. So now the bottom screen is upside down and the middle hinge cord is not connecting 100%.

 

Now the fact that the average beaten up Donkey Kong unit is fetching approx AU$100 I must get this one of mine to work to avoid having to purchase another one. Here's to hoping it works!

Xbox Live is Alive!

Well let's run down my experience in getting connected to Xbox Live. First I wait for the wife to go to sleep! LOL Then I connect all the modem wires up and fire the Xbox up. After diving into the usually unused Xbox Live screen I hit connect.... then ERROR. DOH! I test it and test it but still nothing. I disconnect the modem and reconnect it to the PC (hope Owie gets me that router!) to look up to see if there are any tips online to common errors. Nothing. SO I decide to try the beefier and newer modem I have still in it's shrink wrap waiting for iiNet to release ADSL2 in Kogarah. Well I get the modem to be detected at least but no DNS connection. So a phone call to iiNet later and 30 minutes of hold music comes my way. Finally I speak to some obviously knowledgable fella but he is a bit too point dexterish to tell me in step by step moves to get anywhere. I try again to do what he tells me but no luck. I phone again... ready to lose it by now. Finally I get through to another guy who is more helpful and he talks me right through it after doing some major googling moves to find me the info needed.

 

Turns out you need to specify the IP addresses... the DNS address and some other things too before you can get on board. Nice one Microsoft... so much for "out of the box". But now that I am on board the whole Xbox Live thing I am stoked.

 

First I put the Xbox Live DVD in to make sure I am doing everything the right way. But after saying no to a few crappy pay per download games I grow impatient and shove Halo 2 in. I hit Xbox Live selection and a few updates occur and then... NEW SCREENS! I hit all the OK OK buttons and finally land in the Multiplayer Lounge room. But it takes a while to figure out where to go. But eventually I see more and more entities arrive along side my bcostelloe name and finally I'm in a game... 2 seconds later I get fragged. WHAT THE? Nothing wrong with the game... just the player! You simply get cooked by the Yanks and whatever else that you are playing against. But I did have limited success. You hear some smart arse comments sometimes but it's mostly in good spirits. People saying things like "good move" and warning players "sniper up top!". You hear your players in your mics and if you are near an opponent when they speak you hear it in the TV speakers.

 

I tried Project Gotham Racing 2 but it seems no one was online. I looked at some extra maps (2) which are a pay for download (about $8 each city) but nothing else exciting otherwise. Seems Halo 2 is where the action is till I get NHL 06 that is.

 

Overall I'm happy. The inconvenience was worth it as the end result is killer multi player action whenever I want! Kinda like beer on tap!

iiNet Goes Off Like a Frog in a Sock

Just felt like I should tell the world that my new ISP is 1000 times better then crappy Optus and their stingy 400M/month limit. I pay $10/month more and now I get 20G/month on ADSL2. So all those looking at those cute animal ads wondering how Optus can afford to create those commercials just take a look at what little they offer compared to iiNet. My pages now fly off the screen and I'm not looking at a white loading screen anymore.

 

Sad to see so many suckers keeping Telstra and Optus rich.

Congratulations to Wayne & Dannielle!

Yet another wedding! On 31st October this year Wayne Costelloe and Dannielle Brice exchanged vows and walked the big walk. It was held at Gymea and a gathering of approximately 50 were there to witness the two younglings become adults. I'll be posting all my photo's online soon (when I move onto a new ISP in a few days time) but I have a few pics for now as a teaser.

Just a word of warning to anyone thinking of inviting Owen J Kelly to their wedding. Avoid mud cake as your choice of wedding cake. What he does with it is simply disgusting!

Donkey Kong 2

This time I have gone Donkey Kong mad and recieved two different DK games. One is not truly a G&W game but a keyring version of the original Donkey Kong JR. It's in it's original blister pack and that's where it's staying. But it's tempting to rip it open to have a go of it.

But the more exciting addition this week is Donkey Kong 2. Only thing wrong with this one is the latch is buggered. But it's got it's battery cover and it works 100%. Anyone out there ever remember playing this one in it's day?

GPS

  I haven't mentioned till now the fact that my beloved Palm PDA (Tungsten E) has snuffed it. Well to the point of being unusuable. So I now had to look for a replacement PDA to help with the long dull shifts I sometimes get at work. After some difficult decisions and circumstances where I was offered a second Palm that was "much better than Tungsten E" but turned out to be a prehistoric brick some gay guy wanted to off load onto me as a way to meet me after work, I finally struck pay dirt with what I believe is the best option I could have hoped for. I was showing the smashed screen off to a work mate who suddenly got excited and exclaimed "you can buy mine!" Now after my ordeal with the gay guy the last thing I wanted was yet another old outdated peice of crap loosely dubbed a PDA. But he was adamant that it was not a crap one and that the only reason he wanted to sell it was to get money up to buy a new Walkman mobile phone. Then he said something which really grabbed my attention. "Oh... and it's got GPS too!" he claimed! Really I thought. "So what is wrong with it?" I snapped back. Then he went on to reassure me that he simply wanted to money. Also he told me that he has never even used the damn thing.

 

  Cut a long story short he was right! Daddy bought the iPaq for him to use GPS but he got overwhelmed with the amount of messing around you go through to set it up.

 

  It's an h3630 iPaq Compaq Pocket PC. It originally came with Pocket PC 2000 which sucked ass. Looking around on the internet was almost a waste of time till I hit www.ebay.com.au where I got lucky and found an "unlocker" seller who sells mostlly codes and passes to obtain hard to get software. So through him I was able to get the 40M download to install Pocket PC 2002. That's when new problems arose around the issue of memory. The PDA only has a measly 32M RAM. Hardly enough to go messing with GPS. But the GPS attachment has a  Compact Flash slot. So first day I grabbed a 256M card and whacked her in. But my main drama was in getting software to install onto the card and not the squeezy RAM of the ipaq.

 

  Well after learning more than I cared to learn about iPaq's and their set up I ended up solving my dramas.

 

GPS

 

  I've always known that GPS was a great way to get about as I hire them out as part of my job. What I didn't know before was the way it changed your driving patterns when you owned one. I'm seeing streets in Sydney I've never even seen before. You'll be coasting down the road along what you thought was the quickest way home when you'll get a surprising TURN LEFT announcement for 300M ahead. As you hold your breath you turn placing total faith in a emotionless persona in your PDA. Next thing you know you've just avoided 4 traffic lights and learnt a new short cut! Oh and did I mention how deadly accurate the pick up is of your current location? Scary to say the least. You get into your driveway and the dreary destination announcment rings out. I'm sure I'll be making more entries in relation to my new Navman GPS unit in the not too distant future!

Yet More Game & Watches

I'm beginning to love my letter box! Cos today I got another parcel and this time it's another G&W. This one's Turtle Bridge and for those not in the know I'll explain the game. On the left of the screen is a guy giving you a parcel. You must take it to the right of the screen across a bridge made up of turtles to a guy waiting on the right who randomly appears. The turtles are hunting for fish and submerge for food if they find it. If you happen to jump onto a turtle why it's diving then you go into the drink with it. You get some points for every parcel delivered and bonus points for making it back to pick up a new parcel.

 

Not the most exciting game in the range but still a bit of fun. Unfortunately it didn't come with a battery cover and the stand is a bit crooked but it's in good working order and just gets me one step closer to all 59 G&W's!

Another Day Another Game & Watch

Just got another Game & Watch in the mail today. Last of the first lot for now. It's Squish! A multi screen one that I never have seen before. Not too bad a game but no where near as addictive as the older titles. Battery cover is missing and the back is a little scratched up. But the inner game surface is clean and it works well. Now that's 9 titles and 45 to go...

More Game & Watch

Just got Mario Bros Game & Watch today in the mail. The box is a fair bit tattered but the unit itself is in quite good order except it's missing the serial number! Oh well I guess I should be happy it's got instructions and is playable. I found myself firing it up and playing it. Man for such a simple concept these things were addictive.

Game & Watch Action

Lately I've been bidding like a madman possessed on eBay for Game & Watches. You remember these things right? Kids use to swarm around them in school and if you had a multi-screen G&W you were in the COOL KID CLUB. Kids would offer their lunch money to you for a go! Well this is my collection so far:

 

Fire Attack.jpg Mickey Mouse.jpg Octopus.jpg Parachute.jpg Snoopy Tennis.jpg Super Mario Bros.jpg Boxing.jpg

And I have SQUISH and MARIO BROS on the way as well. With 59 of these suckers to collect I am only just beginning!

 

Halo Action X3

What's one way to make multi player Halo better? Add more players of course. But we've gone one better. Owie got his grubby hands on a Wireless Router. Now we're pretty stupid when it comes to IT. But we've got all this ethernet cable and a router, 3 Xbox's and a TV each. So how hard could it be? So rather than just sitting there thinking about the technical side of things I simply suggested "just plug it all in and see if the bitch fires up!". I may as well add that we've had troubles in the past as there are diffrent types of ethernet cable and not all of them work with Xbox. But on this occasion it worked a treat! So there we were, one Xbox in the loungeroom with the widescreen and 5.1 pissing the neighbours off and the other two in a seperate room. Carnage! Poor Yutang got home and didn't know what to make of it all.

 

But I got to say as fun as it all is (and it is the best game action you can get) my heart is set on getting Xbox Live once I get rid of the dodgy Optus connection I have at the moment. But I've got to convince the other guys to get it as well. Then there's the added complication of the up and coming Xbox 360. Will the guys go Xbox in the next gen console war or will Sony's marketing machine lure them into an over priced "entertainment" unit? Watch this space.

Sick Again...

Always seem to be run down with some kind of virus or bacteria. Not sure why but beginning of Spring is a bad time for me. I am always boud to get sick. But once the Laryngitis is gone and I can talk again I am looking forward to what should be the best summer of cricket in many years with many changes to the Australian line up expected.

 

One things for sure, Yutang is lapping up the temporary silence in the house while I am sick!

Ashes to Ashes

Sorry to bore those not interested in cricket but it is a historical moment. Think about 1989 for a moment. Mobile phones were only in Hollywood movies being used by the drug lords. Laptop computers were but a dream and Internet was something only hard core algarithm munching geeks delved into. But this is the last time England and the Barmy Army were able to lay claim to the Ashes. Allan Border and his men stole it from their shores and have held onto it till now. But an aging Australian side which has had little changes in those 15 years has seen the little urn lost to the dreaded enemy. Mind you the English fought hard to win it. Those Aussies were not going to simply hand it over.

 

So I'm just going to have a quiet drink... reflect on those 15 years and savour the victorious past the Aussies have given us. It shan't be long till we reclaim what was started by the Aussies in the very beginning!

Congratulations to Robert!

On the 31st August my cousin, Robert, became a father as his girlfriend gave birth to a little baby girl named Koda Jade. Just want to say hope that all is well and that the shock of fatherhood hasn't hit too hard! Also congratulations to Frank and Margaret on becoming grand parents! Man life moves fast eh?

You Play Like a Girl

Funny thing happened in Indoor Cricket last Tuesday. We got onto the court to field first and when the other team sent their 2nd batting pair in there was <<gasp>> A FEMALE PLAYER!  So who does the captain give the ball to first? Me of course. Now in 10 years of playing the sport I've only really played against maybe 4 or 5 female players in that whole time. So I figured if she wants to play in a mens competition then I'll bowl normal. After a couple of wides to her partner she finally had to face. First bowl comes out of my hand (a touch slower than the previous 2) and it ends up taking out middle stump! Do I celebrate like normal by punching the air? Do I cheer like normal? No... in fact it was kinda weird. No one said anything! LOL The whole team just kind of... stood there.

 

The last ball they had to face was a strange one too. The guy had to face and he just kind of walked up the pitch with only 1 hand on the bat and got bowled out. He apparently had the shits with us bowling "too fast" to the chick. We huddled around while waiting for the next batting pair to arrive and we asked "what was that about?" and when we found out he protested against our bowling I asked "is there a rule against that?" and the ring in player we had said "no stuff it... this is a Mens Division we bowl like men!" to that we all cheered and agreed!

 

The next day at work I gloated (jokingly) to a workmate "guess what I did the other night in cricket?" to which he normally rolls his eyes "I bowled a chick out!" which made his eyes light up instead. "EXCELLENT!" was the reply!

Missing The "Sega Years"

Every now and then I get all teary eyed and sentimental about having worked in a games company back in the one time in history things were getting interesting. Now that Sega are not producing consoles any more (maybe again one day) and that Sonic is just a memory it scares me to think that all that Mega Drive era is but a memory. I don't want anyone to not know about how excited I use to get buying a copy of Mean Machines or C+VG and drooling over the next lot of console releases. Things like Sonic 2, Streets of Rage 2 and not to mention all the Electronic Art titles that never ceased to amaze us console junkies.

 

I keep getting tempted to create a site that documents and records a page to each game ever released. I know that it would be a tough task to undertake. But so far there is no site that covers these old (and even current) games and I found myself frustrated as I tried to catalogue some of the older (and dodgier) Japanese Mega Drive releases. I am looking at jacking the Mega Drive up to my PC and creating screen shots for the countless titles that have no online record to speak of. I do have close to 500 titles all catalogued so far. Screenshots and covers listed for most of them too. So maybe I may set loose onto the net with a site of my own. Weirder things have happened eh?

 

If there was a site set up that tracked EVERY game it could possibly do and was seen as being reliable, would you bookmark it? Let me know. Also... is there other video game collectors out there like me who scrounge eBay and 2nd hand shops like I do for old golden nuggets?

Cats Gone Funny

Last Thursday when I got home from work that cat of ours was meowing non stop. To even hear anything above the normal little chirping sounds she makes is unusual. But this was full blown roaring meows. She was rolling all over the place at my feet and acting weird. "Oh great!" I thought as I figured she was on heat. So this Monday I've got to take her out of the house for the first time ever and get her operated on. Hope then she'll be back to her normal ol' self!

Gotta Love Getting Sick...

Seems as though every winter that goes by I manage to get myself a case of the flu. What makes it worse is that I may have caused tension with work as I have taken yet another sick day which means I now have a 4 day weekend. I'd love to be happy right now with all that time off... if only I wasn't feeling like a lump of crap right now!

 

Gotta love getting sick...

Things are Up and Also Down

Things are kind of topsy turvy at the moment. Work is suffering with an increase in customer complaints (and of course I'm the one who has to hear them directly from the customers). But work is beginning to show signs of a big change in direction for me personally. Nothing concrete yet but I may be responsible for the Intranet site for work. My challenge is learning how to use a program called MySource. Currently in my Indoor Cricket (www.blackouthouse.com) site I use MS FrontPage 2002. It's easy as it is simply a matter of cut and paste what you want in an easy WYSIWYG format. It also has some plug in programs to do some fancy bells and whistles stuff to impress the visitors to the site. But this MySource looks robust however clunky. No cut and paste here. No no no. If you cut and paste then you'll copy over all the messy coding with it and end up with silly html coding all over your screen. But I've seen sites that use MySource and one thing I've noticed about them. They are clean! No mess on the screen and very tidy looking. Something that impresses me.

 

Bottom line is that I must now look at learning this new software and then impressing my work with my finished product. Maybe (and that's a big FAT maybe) I'll be asked to do it full time!

Congratulations Kimmy!

Have to make this a quick one as my shift's starting time is looming upon me. Got to say congratulations goes to Kim and Scotty on the birth of their baby girl, Faith some time ago now. Sorry I didn't get around to contacting you earlier but weddings, babies and other announcements are in abundance at the moment! Hope you do get to read this and looking forward to seeing the little blue eyed girl soon!

It's Not Over Yet

Just when you thought the commotion of a wedding is behind you another surprise is announced. Wayne (my brother for those not in the know) is to get married on the 31st October 2005 to Dannielle. Seems the bug has bitten these two and that they must now tie the knot as well!

 

They'll be at an advantage over Yutang and I as we went into the whole wedding thing with no big plan. But it got me to thinking. Why must there be a plan? They announced that there'll be a rehersal. I declined to turn up to this on principle alone. A wedding is not something that must be "to plan". The event itself is the plan. The mistakes and mishaps are sometimes what makes up the experience. Surely though you need a rough guide as to what will occur on the day. But to plan who makes a speech, who drives who where, who even SITS where? Well I can't say our wedding was without faults. If I was to do another one I'd make sure that some people are nominated as drivers. I'd also get someone to be prepared to make a speech. But I wouldn't do a "rehersal". Sounds too contrived.

 

The bottom line is that the wedding itself has become too traditionalised. I think that the wedding is just the process you need to go through to announce your commitment and vows to your partner and that your marriage mustn't be overshadowed by "the wedding".

Grand Final Loss

Well just a brief update. Blackout couldn't win in their Grand Final match up which saw a depleted line up of 7 players take on a pumped up Hurricanes outfit. They just were switched on at the right end of the season and were good enough to end our 7 game winning streak. This is de javu for us as we had a Grand Final match against Radmillos in similar conditions (winning streak, depleted line up) and we lost that one too. Well we'll just have to wait till Summer 2005 for our next shot at the title in division 3.

C'mon Aussie C'mon

Glad to see those Poms celebrating too early with the cricket. Because now they feel like real gooses. You never assume you've won the game till the umpire calls stumps! I haven't been able to watch the series with no pay TV. SBS have been televising it on some days but what's the point on a half telecast?

 

In other sports news... glad to see Ice Hockey will get a new season with the NHL and NHLPA finally waking up to their collective selves. Been too long since I watched a match but I might get to follow the NHL more closely this time round. Also hope that EA Sports don't produce a lame arse attempt like NHL 2005 was. Heard that they sacked the guy in charge of that disaster! Since 1991 this was the fisrt year I didn't complete the season in a EA Sports Hockey title. With the Hockey strike on at the moment the timing couldn't be worse for a dud game!

Yet More Wedding Photo's

I promise I'll stop writing about the wedding soon. But there are still pics to go online and I'm still getting over the whole event. Going back to work so soon after festivities is a real reality check but I'm fighting through it. There are still folks out there with some photo's that we need to contact. I'm going to be putting a VCD together to hand out to those who attended with a run down on the day. Also a honeymoon VCD to go with it to fill you all in on how the trip went. So those of you who are bored of hearing about Weddings and Lovey Dove stuff... just tune out till further notice!

Honeymoon Pics Now Online

The Honeymoon is all but a great memory now. It wasn't without it's drama's though with the Gold Coast weather turning on us in a bad way. Coolangatta airport was closed for the first time in approx 30 years due to intense flooding. We had to land in Brisbane as an alternative destination. Upon landing the chaos continued with lost confused passengers panicking as they looked for the ferrying coaches to take us to the Gold Coast. I decided that we weren't going to be a part of that crap and got into a hire car with my friends at Europcar. After a scary 1 hour drive in extreme deluge we made it to the Gold Coast. Finally after finding out that the Hotel had changed it's name since the reservation was made we were able to relax again... AND SLEEP! We were dead tired as we were up partying till late with the wedding party.

 

Hope you like the pics... we had fun taking them anyway!

Honeymoon Pics Coming Soon

Well we got back from the Gold Coast on Sunday night after experiencing a pretty hectic but fun honeymoon in the rain and floods! Seriously it was all OK after the rain stopped but it was a battle getting there with Cooloongatta Airport closing for the first time in 30 years due to flooding.

 

I'm making this a quick entry. There are photo's galore to post. 200 honeymoon pics were taken. But you'll just get to see the clean ones!  Also Wayne and Dannielle have handed their shots in to scan. Once I've gotten around to scanning/ catergorising and dating them all I'll be posting them up on this here site!

Wedding!

Just a quick entry as I am so so tired right now. I have a flight to catch in a few hours time with next to no chance of getting any real sleep! Yutang and myself are finally married! It happened today with a small gathering of close friends. We exchanged vows in Sydney and had a great meal in Woolahra with a great drinking session to end procedings in Kogarah. Take a look at the photo's and remember that there'll be more pics to come. All those who have photo's don't be shy! Send them on in. We want them all up here if possible!

 

From Yutang and myself we'd like to say thank you and look forward to seeing you all as Mr and Mrs Costelloe in the not too distant future!

Halo 2 Madness Continues

With Wednesday's Halo 2 shoot out now but history I can safely say it went all to plan. Except Wayne winning one of the matches that is. We had 3 matches of Slayer and I won the first in a tough fought match. Wayne then took out the second one by ensuring we were unable to locate him easily enough. But the last match was a joke. I won in a slaughter filled 24 deaths in a row with the term "unstoppable" being used by the game! Basically Owie found the sword. After I sneared it from him by ambushing him from a good hiding spot with a shotgun it was all over red rover. Comments like "get that freakin' thing off him!", "try using another weapon" (after which he was stuck with a plasma bomb) and "if you do that to me one more time I'm putting the controller down" were heard from the other room. I don't know which sux more. The fact that they play so crap or lose so bad!

Late Entry to Wedding Guest List

Just an update to the invite list. Weida Guan, Yutang's work buddy from her airport days is now on the illustriuos invite list and we hope to see him there on the "BIG DAY". Now to get those invites out!

Another Game... Another Win!

I just got home tonight from a big win over long time rival team "Grumpy Old Men" in Indoor Cricket. I Played alright but geese my batting is suss right now. I got out 3 times but managed to to hit an unconvincing 6 to make up for it. I got to learn to stop trying to smash lolli pop bowling! I always stuff it up and get out in the process!

Head to www.blackouthouse.com for all the latest on Blackout - Indoor Cricket's Idols!