Cool, I just imported a bunch of old music from tape onto my Mac. I did this before for a few things, but I have better audio cables now, and I made sure to save the wav files instead of just using the low bitrate MP3s. So now I have Shades Of Green at a much higher quality than before, and some Vesicular Basalt as well. I'm pretty excited about that, and all the importing went well, sounds great (for tape).

Now I should get a bunch of old recordings from home and import them as well. Never know how long tapes will last.

I almost forgot, I got Fire Emblem for my GBA a couple weeks ago. So far it's really good. It's obvious it's done by the same folks who did Advance Wars, because the battles are set up relatively similar. But I do like it better than AW. I like that it doesn't have as much fog of war (though there is some) and that you don't have to create new vehicles, etc, and I like that the characters can gain experience over time. The tactical side is much like Final Fantasy Tactics, though probably not as advanced.

The game is quite linear though, you really don't have a say in much except for the option to do a couple side quests. At first this sorta bugged me, but the story is so good it really doesn't matter. It seems like a very classic 16-bit strategy game. It's gotten me to keep wanting to come back to it, which is a good thing, and it looks nice on my TV through my Gameboy Player. If you like FFT and/or AW, I'd reccomend it.

Click for Cans! Donate a can of Cambell's soup for hunger relief on behalf of NFL teams. Looks like the Packers really like helping feed those in need!

Finally got the arcade back. Seems to be all in once piece, nothing was broke on it, and it still works well. After I got it back I looked at what the most played games were (MAME tallies that info). There were 416 different games played, and the top game was Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. I've heard good things about that game, but never played it. Annette and I played it a bit last night and it's actually really fun once you get the hang of it.

The next most played game was Pac-Man Plus, which at first surprised me, but then I figured it wasn't regular Pac-Man because that's under its Japanese name "Puckman". People probably went looking for Pac-Man and found Pac-Man Plus instead.

The funniest though was the number 3 most played game. Micheal Jackson's Moonwalker. Someone spent a lot of time on it cuz there was some super high score in it. The best part about that game is that the goal is to find these children and rescue them. When you do they say "Thanks Micheal!" It's friggen hilarious.

Otherwise, the main game we've been playing here is a bit of Mr Do! Annette has become as addicted as I and we're trying to outdo each other in high scores. I'm just glad she's cool w/ having the cabinet in the dining room for now. It is quite the beast.

Dave! Help me! What was the name of the arcade we used to go to when we were kids in SB? You know, the one in that strip mall w/ the gas station, up the hill from the old Pamida. Also, do you remember any of the arcade games in it? I'm trying to remember. Ask Tony too if you can. What I remember so far:

Street Figher II
Pit Fighter
Discs of Tron
Mercs
League Bowling/Magician Lord (Neo-Geo 2-slot machine)

I can't remember any others. There might have been a Tetris or an Arkanoid in there too, but I'm not sure.

Went to the Packer/Vikings game last night which was awesome. There were a good mix of Pack/Vikes fans in our section which made it a lot of fun. Of course it was all the more fun since the Packers dominated. Great game.

Also had my little "talk" yesterday which went alright, except when I got there the machine didn't work right. I was really pissed off. I had to give my talk w/ it still not working exactly as it should which was difficult. After the talk I realized that someone must have been playing it a bit hard and one of the buttons was stuck down. That seemed to be what was causing it. Luckly it was an easy fix. I left feeling much better.

After I got home I got an email from Steve (the curator) saying that he's had two serious offers to buy the cabinet outright. That's crazy since the show hasn't even opened yet. He also said he's going to contact the American Museum of the Moving Image about buying a version of it, which would mean building another one. I told him I'd be up for selling it or building another, but only if the price was right. The only way I'm going to give up mine or put in all the work again to build another is if I'm making major bank on it. We'll see how that turns out.

So, remember like 3 weeks ago I ordered Skies of Arcadia from Best Buy? Well I did it online since it was only $10, and had it so I could go pick it up at the store.

The next day (Oct 14) I get an email saying it's at the BB in Maple Grove. So I go there to get it. I stand by the counter for 15 mins before anyone helps me. This is funny I think, because every other time I go there I have 500 people asking me if they can help me w/ anything as soon as I walk into the door, and that day I actually needed something and there's nobody.

So I finally get someone to help me. They look it up and go looking for my game. It's not there. They don't even have any in stock! This of course takes 30 mins of looking to see if they really don't have it in stock. I'm like WTF? The email said you had one reserved for me, they said nope, we have none.

So then I say, well can I just cancel the order then? They say sure, but we'll have to go online to do it, and they can't get online w/ their computers so we had to go over to the computer section to use one of the demo computers(!!). We get online and look to see if we can cancel it (the site is horrible like I said) and you can't cancel an order online!!

So I say, well can you call customer service and have them cancel it for me? She says she can't because that would take too long and she's got other things to do(!!). WTF? So she gives me a number and tells me to call.

So I call, and they say they can send it to my house if I want, free shipping, so I say, ok, just send it. I figured it was all over then, but no! I get an email 2 days later saying the order has been backordered 5 days. Nice. So I wait 5 days. Then I get an email saying it's been backordered again. What?!

I forgot all about the whole thing until today, when I looked online to see when I was going to get this game. It didn't say anything about my order status, so I called them to find out. I asked the dude what was up w/ my order. He said it was canceled! WTF?!?! He said that after a certain amount of time on backorder it just cancels the order. I'm like, I was never told that!

So I ask him if there are any in stock and if they were still $10. Honestly it takes him 20 MINUTES to check to see if they have any and if they indeed are $10. WTF?!??!?! So he asks if I want to order one. So I say sure, just place an order. So he goes through the entire process of trying to set me up with another online account even though I already have one! So he asks me for my CC # and once we get to that stage he says, sorry, I can't accept your card, and thinks that's weird (I'd say!). He is just as confused as I am because on my other account (you know the one he should have been using in the first place) it took the card just fine, and it's the exact same info!

So, then since he can't figure out how to get my card to work, he just says, "Well, you know, if you just go to the store, you can buy one there". WTF?!?!?!?!?!!?! I almost blew a gasket. FUCK BEST BUY!!! I'm NEVER EVER shopping at that piece of shit store EVER AGAIN!!!!!!