Mike Tyson's Punchout

   I can't believe that I am this far into my blog and I completely forgot about Mike Tyson's Punchout! What the heck was I thinking? Someone should slap me!

   Just kidding, although, MTPO is a freaking fantastic game and definitely one of the classics. It was almost impossible to beat without the use of a game genie.I am proud to report that I have managed to beat it without having to cheat! Your character (Little Mac), had to fight his way through several opponents that got progressively more difficult until you reached the end where you got to fight Mike Tyson. All of the characters had their own special moves that became more intricate as the game carried on, except for Tyson who just flat out pounded you in the final fight.

   The game was widely popular when it was released, however, Mike Tyson's personal indiscretions forced Nintendo to drop him as the sponsor and delete his character. Mike Tyson's Punch Out was changed to Punch Out! Featuring Mr. Dream, it was exact same game but with a different final character to beat, and yet, this was a far inferior version than it's predecessor. 

Other Punch-Out! games were made for later version Nintendo systems (like the SNES), but they weren't nearly as popular as the original.

A Shameless Plug

I must admit, when I found out that no one knew who Big Nose the Caveman was, I was a little bummed. I thought at least one of my followers would know this game, but this was not the case. After some soul searching (which appropriately equals 900 mL of J&B), I realized most of my brethren are actually college students. Which means I've got at least...well, some years on most of you.

So, I've decided to use this particular blog post to make it up to the community. This post has nothing to do with video games, rather, it deals with the pain that is your college or work network. The network that you are forced to use for the majority of your day does not allow you to go to most of your beloved websites. The network you're chained to blocks such sites as Facebook, My Space, Twitter, and anything else not work related. Should you bow down to these restrictions??? HELL NO! And why not? Because YOU DO NOT HAVE TO!

I am providing a free proxy server for all my followers...(and the rest of the world). If you need to get around a firewall to browse sites that have been banned by your IT department, or just don't want your IP logged by any website that you visit, please feel free to use the proxy site that I've created: http://freesurf.from-mi.com, go ahead and use it at your will. Please $upport it, and tell your friends.

Free Surf is a project that I just started today, I'd like to place a different proxy server in each of the 50 states in the US. I feel that it would be a great value to be able to pick where your proxy is located.  Please spread the word so that I can make this goal happen quickly! Thanks!

Also, for those of you looking for one of my usual posts, don't worry. I'll have another great video-game related post up sometime tomorrow!

Who Knows Big Nose?

Alright everyone, at the risk of boring everyone with a game I feel was not popular at all back in the day I must ask, does anyone know "Big Nose the Caveman"?

Despite the ridiculous cover art, the game play was kinda fun. You essentially run around killing dinosaurs, although I can't much remember why...I think they took your food or something. You also had to collect bones, which you could then use to by some massive upgrades! This game had fun little cut scenes in between levels which showed you what was coming up in the next level which, for a 5 year old, were absolutely hilarious. A real downside to the game was the inability to save, if you died you'd go all the way back to start. Bignose was incredibly frustrating, but a lot of fun.

Another weird thing about the game was that the game itself was not the original Nintendo Gray, but instead, a shiny "gold" that you only ever see on a few other games. I would love to show you a picture, but none of the google ones do the game any justice and I'm too lazy to go grab my camera and take a picture of the game. So instead, I'll offer some video of the gameplay!

Pokemon...

Sorry about my small hiatus everyone. For those of you who are interested, the computer repair company that my friends and I started landed an account to move a construction company into a new office. This past week has been incredibly busy with some really long days (I forgot that there was a 5:45am to wake up to). In any case, I believe that things have calmed down for a bit now and I will be able to continue my blog!

Pokemon...probably not the best game to come back on after my small hiatus, but I have to give this franchise its  respect. I was a Pokemaniac for a short while right after the game came out, however, I was right on the cusp of the age limit. Since it became a lot easier to notice boobs instead of Bulbasaur, I just kinda stopped playing (but not before  I beat the elite 4 and captured all 150 kinds of Pokemon the game had to offer).

I recently played an emulated version of one of the newer games, Fire Red, which is really just a remake of the originals. It was crazy how much the game had advanced and was now much more playable without wasting as much time as I used to. 

I even played the Silver version of the game briefly when it originally came out but this one I didn't finish, or at least can't remember finishing it. While I found it ridiculous that they added more Pokemon, I liked some of the other features that the game had to offer. New things like breeding, allowing your Pokemon to hold items that they can use in battle, and a brand new story line made the game more entertaining. 

Unfortunately, that was it for me, I was Poke'd out after the Silver version. Now that they've released the Black and White editions, I had my curiosity sparked. Although I won't be playing any of the newer games, I simply had to break out some nostalgia about the PKMN.

Still Here!

I know it's been a while since my last post. This is just a quick little blurb that I'll have a new detailed post out tomorrow. I've just been caught up at work, so it's been difficult to day dream about some sweet video game stuff!

The Saga of Kirby

It doesn't cease to amaze me how many people don't know who Kirby is. If you owned any Nintendo system since the original NES, you should know who this pink puffball is, because he is a total badass.

Most of the Kirby games (or at least the early ones) involve this little guy running through levels to reach the end.  Kirby has the ability to float for short periods of time, and his special power is probably the best available, because it's every power in the game. As the cover of Kirby's Adventure shows Kirby likes to inhale things, including the bad guys, which gives him their powers that you can then use to dole out the pain.

Kirby's got his own franchise of video games over all Nintendo systems including the newest addition Kirby's Yarn for the Nintend Wii. Kirby's also makes appearances in other video games including the Super Smash Brothers series. If you haven't played this game, I suggest you find a way to get a copy of any one of the Kirby video games and have a go!

100 Followers!

Today's post is a simple thank you to everyone supporting this blog. As of yesterday I have reached 100  followers!  It's been incredibly fun thus far and I'm looking forward to making more posts and growing the blog. I am going to stay the righteous path and continue to talk about my experiences with different video games and console modification. I'm also going to look for other fun electronic projects in general that I can write about. If you guys have any friends that may be interested in what I have to say, please let them know!

Thank you for remaining loyal and for checking back with me regularly.

One Lazy Post - COD Black Ops

I'm having a hard time thinking of a topic to write about today, so I'm going to be a little lazy. I got to play Call of Duty Black Ops for the XBOX 360 last night for the first time. I was actually quite surprised, I had heard that this game was kind of a disappointment, but rather enjoyed it. I'm not a COD junkie, so I'm not sure what most people were looking for in this game when they said it wasn't as good as MW2. All I know is that Black Ops looked great scenery-wise and I had a good time playing it.  Here's one of the trailers:

Remember Sega Game Gear?

Of course you do, It was freaking sweet! Back in the day the handheld video game world was ruled by the Gameboy who's only limitation was the fact that it did not have a color screen. Sega decided it was time to release colored screen handheld device and started development on the Game Gear in 1989. The system made it's way into the US in 1992 and was a definite success, if only for a short while.

The major problem's with the game gear was that it was expensive to own and operate. Game Gear cost $149.99 compared to the Gameboys measly $89.99 price tag, but the Game Gear also require 6 AA batteries to work vs. the Gameboys battery requirement of 4 AA. Possibly the biggest reason why the Game Gear never over took the Nintendo Gameboy, was the lack of games; Sega never managed to get enough developers on board for the console.

It's a real shame that the Game Gear never reached (in my opinion) its full potential, although it did have some awesome accessories that you could buy, one of which was a TV tuner. Imagine today's technology with the unlimited access to endless media that we have, then think of yesterday's equipment where people were excited if a device was considered "Mobile". The ability to watch TV on a hand held device that also played video games must have been ridiculous.

On a final thought for this post, don't ever go into nostalgia mode when drunk, you might just go on eBay and start buying up all of this cool shit.

On one other final thought, I've decided to buy every video game console released in the US (from 1980 on [but also maybe even later than that]).

The Two Dumbest Ways to "Fix" Your XBOX 360

Don't Forget to Check Out My Other Posts!
Good morning, thanks for stopping by my blog for another one of my articles, how refreshing it is to have you! Please feel free to view some other pages on this site, just in case you missed something cool! Now, onto the article.


For anyone who doesn't know this, I repair computers for a living. I love ripping things apart, applying a fix, and then putting everything back together. In my quest for repair knowledge, I was bound to come across the XBOX 360 as an opponent.  In it's early days the XBOX 360 was a wreck, the poor interior design combined with Microsoft's cheaply lined pockets proved to create a device that was a ticking time bomb for most consumers. I'm referencing of course, about the red ring of death.

It was a nightmare trying to find  a solution to this problem on the internet. It seems like everyone trying to gain immediate website traffic would put up a section of their website that explained how to fix the issue. All of these supposed "fixes" came with one disclaimer, "This does not permanently fix your xbox!". Well sure, nothing lasts forever, but these sites were talking about adding another 3-6 months onto your toy that was barely a year old and cost (at the time) around $300.  I've perused over every fix imaginable and, while I've tried most of them, these are two "fixes" that I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.

1. The "Towel" Trick


You know you're a redneck when the got-dang vidya game box stops working and you try to fix it by turning it on and wrapping it in 5 or more towels. That's right, the instructions for this fix include finding the fluffiest towels that you can and wrapping your XBOX in there until its so hot that the internal chips renew their bond with the motherboard.

To be a little fair, this trick supposedly worked for many people. However, this trick is one of the most unsafe things you can do to all the internal components of your XBOX.

2. Dipping Your XBOX in A Tub Of Water

Ok, so the name is kind of long, but the only other thing I can think to call it is "stupidity". The premise of this fix includes dunking your XBOX in a bath of water and vinegar. You then pull the XBOX out, let it drip a little bit, and plug the damn thing in and it magically starts to work again.

This fix is actually a hoax more than anything. But you'd be surprised how many people tried this, supposedly some kid died performing this stunt. That just goes to show, you can't trust everything out on the internet!

That's it for now, I'll have another awesome post up tomorrow.

X-Men for the Sega Genesis

I realized last night that I've been doing mostly Nintendo and next gen console games. But I want to keep my blogging fair, so I started to think about some of the older Sega Genesis games I used to play. It didn't take me more than 2 seconds before I remembered this classic X-Men game!

I never actually owned a Sega Genesis growing up, my family's mostly been about Nintendo. I remember a time when I was probably no older than 7 or 8, I went and visited my cousin who owned this game. I was blown away by how freaking sweet this game was. 

As soon as I got home I begged my parents to take me to blockbuster (hah, blockbuster) so we could rent the game for my Nintendo. What I returned home with was not the same game, it was some incredibly crappy, half aborted fetus of an X-Men game. It was that day that I realized the difference between 8 and 16 bit gaming.

About 5 years ago, I was at a Gamestop and saw this game sitting on their rack of old school games, I had to have it. I asked the guy there if they had a system available for purchase...I was in luck! I walked out with a Sega Genesis, two controllers, and some games (including my beloved X-Men) for right around $17.

Why This Game Was/Is Sweet

First off, you get to choose from all of your favorite X-Men good guys (how good they are is arguable by what series of the comic you refer to, but I'm not getting into that): Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Gambit, and Cyclops. Each X-Men had the use of their powers of course, but this wasn't just some little laser blast or regular teleportation power. You had advance options such as holding down the fire button for a more powerful blast or the ability to transport a friend with you (if you were playing 2 player mode). Sure using the more power attacks used up your mutant abilities faster, but they regenerated eventually, and you felt like a total bad ass one-shotting some of the tougher bad guys so all was good!  

You also had the ability to switch between all four of the X-Men (or two if you were playing co op), plus there were a couple of the supporting characters that you could use once a level, they'd come in and beat down whatever was on the screen.

The second reason why this game is sweet is that it was one of the first games (at least that I can remember) that broke the fourth wall. For those of you who don't know, the fourth wall refers to the imaginable barrier between an audience and it's target. For example, if you go and see a play, there's a fourth wall between the audience and the play being performed. The actors don't reference the fact that they're being watched, or ask the audience to participate in what's going on, doing so would break the fourth wall. 

This game breaks the fourth wall once you're getting close to the end. Professor X tells the X-Men that in order to fix the issues going on with the danger room, the master computer must be reset after beating a simulation. So you play one more level, once you beat it, you need to gently reset your Sega Genesis in order to gain access to the final level where you can defeat Magneto and win the game! If you didn't get the subtle hint, you're doomed to play the same level over and over again.

C'mon, how freaking cool is that?! 

Sorry this post is a little longer than most, I became enthralled with the X-Men's awesomeness!

PS3 "Laptop" Mod

Pretty cool mod here, it's a PS3 that is inside a new case with an LCD screen.

It's a "portable" PS3 system, neat-o in and of itself, but wait there's more! See that keyboard on there? That's right, it's a Playstation laptop. "But how can that be?" some of you may ask, well remember that all video game consoles are just computers that are normally made for only a few select tasks (playing video games, movies and music).

The next question would be does this thing run Windows? Well to my knowledge it does not, or at least, it cannot boot to Windows as soon as you turn it on; that would require some pretty advanced hacking. However, some of the PS3 models have (or at least had) the ability to run certain Linux-based operating systems. It was actually very cool as this feature was not a hack at all, Sony actually built that functionality into the PS3 but then later released an update to disable the feature in March 2010.

In any case, you can hack around that update to install Linux. Once you have Linux installed, you can then install your favorite Virtual OS software of choice and then follow up with Windows. Kind of a lengthy process, but if you really wanted to use Windows, it could definitely be done. Personally I would just stick with Linux, it offers all the features you'll ever need for a PS3 computer.

Sorry got a little off track from the actual mod itself, but the idea of having a portable device that legitimately plays PS3 games and can also double as a fully functional laptop makes my pants tighten ever so slightly. Anyway, cool setup don't you think?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)

Before I get started with my little rambling about a sweet video game, I just want to apologize for the past couple days. I have not been able to be as active as I normally am. My reasons are good, but I don't like that I had to leave all my followers out in the cold. I appreciate the support that I get from you guys and the rest of the blogging community. Thanks for sticking with me. Now, on to some sweet video game action!

Thinking back nostalgically about old Nintendo games, I remembered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II the Arcade game. TMNT II was without a doubt, a fantastic co-op experience to take out some foot soldiers. After some thought, I remembered that there was a lesser known Ninja Turtles game, the first one. How many people are with me on this?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released in 1989 for the NES as part of the growing wave of Ninja Turtles empire. This 1p game was not quite as fun as its successor (Turtles II the Arcade Game), however, it did incorporate some fantastic options in the game play including the ability to switch between turtles whenever you felt like it. Navigating the different levels of the game also allowed you to use the Turtle Van for a short while, we all know how cool that is!

Despite all the hours that I've logged playing that game as a kid,  I've never actually beaten this game (I used to get lost in one of the levels). I might have to fix the old NES up so I can try this game out again and hopefully finish it this time!

Kinect Hack - Recording 3D

    As you very well know the Kinect is a camera device that you connect to your XBOX 360 and start jumping around in front of, the Kinect records your movements in real time and sends them to the XBOX which then takes those movements and uses them in game play. Aside from proving that most people will always act like an idiot when a camera is pointed at them, the Kinect also doubles as a really good time with some super supremely neat-o capabilities. Of course the second that the Kinect hit the store shelves there were already people attempting to hack into it to expand its uses.

   This particular hack doesn't appear to be entirely useful as of right now, but is pretty dang cool. This hack utilizes the two 3D Depth sensors, and one RGB Camera that the Kinect has built onto it. Go ahead and watch the video to see how it works (I know it looks kinda weird at first, but stick with it, it gets better).

What To Do With Your Broken Game Console Case

Picture the scenario:
You're at home playing some video games when your favorite game console breaks. You call up Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo and let them know what happened so you can get it fixed, only to find out that you are outside their precious warranty, effectively barring them from any responsibility.

At this point you have two choices:

1. Send the console back to the manufacturer and have them fix it at the cost of 75% of its current value and two to three weeks of your life.
2. Go out and buy yourself a new console.

Since Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo's crazy and can't seriously expect you to go 2-3 weeks off of handheld devices alone, you decide that you're just going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new console. So that day you go to your favorite retailer and buy a new video game system. You then take your new console home with you, swoon it a little bit by telling it how good it looks, and how much you enjoy its accessories. You then play late into the night and wake up the next morning feeling great, worn out, yet ready for more. You've never been more satisfied and you (and your new console) live happily ever after.

But there's still some unfinished business, what are you going to do with your old console? You can't just throw it on the curb or give it away, this console gave you the best year of it's life. Well thankfully, you don't have to chuck your video game system, rather, you can send it off to a nice early retirement by finding some other use for it. Here's a couple of people who did just that!

PS3 grill

XBOX 360 Tissue dispenser/alarm clock

NES PC (I know that I've already mentioned this one before, but it's just so damned cool!)

I guess I don't have one for the Wii...what can I say? That little mofo just won't break. What would your guys turn your Wii into?