Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@ThanosReXXX Naw, the didgeridoo don't work, I don't play it so good. But me and Sally (that's muh shotgun) and the banjo and muh hawg Betsy like to just go play sum nice musics fer the locals in the trusty '78 truck. She may be a bit rusty but she's reliable! I hear them apartments gots them some fire pits in 'em which is great, I got some of this here wood scrap needs burnin'.

I think it's going to take a LOT of Xanex for me to be happy in their shiny happy world.... It's so funny. they think they're so different from the 80's excesses and materialism. Instead they just get disposable materialism and consumable image instead of materialism they can keep or sell.

And these new redesigns of things "creating walkable living communities" - yes, for the 500 people that live on site. But they still have to leave it traditionally anyway, odds are the office there isn't the office they work in. For everyone else it's just yet one MORE obstacle to work around where something useful once was. It's the horrifying Epcot construct. They want to create "cities" for tiny groups of people at a time without all that pesky noise and crime and you know, poor and working class people that a real city has. And no hot dog carts and taco trucks....just a built-in Jamba Juice and Starbucks. It's just a miniature simulacrum of a city, just for their apartment block, in a "safe space" protected by the modern equivalent of mall security.....basically a perpetual college campus. I despise those things too. And they vet who's in there to make sure everyone is exactly the same kind of social outgoing community focused person with the same interests living basically the same life. It's like a more exclusive Jim Crow, except instead of a racial litmus, one must pass an economic and cultural litmus test. I could, maybe, pretend, just long enough to slip poison into their organic grass fed well water. Not sure I could keep myself from going all Jack Torrance trying to live in their world any longer than that.

Chit chatters... i haven't been on much this week since work was crazy and being at a training. Hope everyone is doing well.

@NEStalgia - Are you practicing your regional dialect for when you move to Indianer? You come around here talkin like that, mentioning shotguns, and you’ll have friends right quick. Mine is named Doom Stick I. He’s a little feller. He’s sawn off, so he ain’t for animals so much as he is for people.

@NintendoByNature - Hey yo. Temporarily gone, but not forgotten. Hope you’re learning a lot and finding some time for Luigi. The rest of his crew aren’t going to get themselves out of those picture frames.

@bimmy-lee thankfully, i rolled back into town last night around 6-630. Ended up going to sleep at 8pm which never happens, so i was even too drained to play some lm3. But, I did so during lunch today for 30 min 😆. Going back to training. Went to Madison Wisconsin. I gotta say, the restaurants out there are top notch in the downtown area. I was actually blown away. Wouldn't mind going back for a mini vaca one day

@bimmy-lee LOL. Aw, don' worry, Doom Stick will get plenny o use when you come here for ta visit in about 15 or 20 years. Once the hipsters done run outta money in the next resess-shun an' abandon their multi-thosuand-buck rents we's can go join the gang shootings when the crack houses open!

@bimmy-lee You know, because of you quoting me, it seriously just dawned on me why Seaman is even more of a perfect match for the Switch than you and me already seem to think: they're both hybrids!

As for a few minutes every day: ha! no such luck, weird as the game was, it always drew me in completely, or maybe exactly because of that, but it sometimes took quite a bit of goading and bribing to get him to say something, but once he started talking... oh, boy... pretty tough to stay under an hour...

@NEStalgia While trying to complete the mental picture of what you're witnessing and experiencing every day,
I somehow came to the conclusion that all that was still missing for now, is pastel-tinted clothing, with a lot of those T-shirt and blazer combos like in Miami Vice, back in the day... (queue Jan Hammer music, except there probably isn't any large body of water anywhere near you or in sight)

Also, come to think of it, let's replace that mocha-chocolate latte that I mentioned earlier, with a tofu-lemongrass latte (soy milk, obviously). That sounds much more up the street of them there people...

@NintendoByNature - Nice, that makes workplace education much easier. I’ve heard the same about Madison. My cousin lives in Appleton, and he does weekend getaways in Madison quite a bit. What was your stand out meal?

@NEStalgia - I was under the impression that Peloton bikes and avocado toast are recession proof. At any rate, ole Doomy is always ready.

@ThanosReXXX - That’s an excellent point! The more we discuss Seaman, the more I’m tempted to do a couple searches on eBay. I don’t like buying stuff that way though. Man, it just sounds so fun! Reading about you goading and bribing him to talk just tickles me to no end. My friend told me he’s kind of a lovable jerk.

@bimmy-lee the one night we went to a place called eno vino. It was a tapas restaurant that served up cheese, salami, ceviche and plaintain chips for cocktail hour and dinner was braised spare ribs, mini pork tacos, lamb meatballs, Thai chicken flatbread, spicy calamari, peanut sauce green beans, bruschetta( 4 different styles), and crispy lobster bites. It was all truly delectable. Then throw in quite a few( or more) beverages of choice, and i was in heaven.

@NintendoByNature - Wow, that all sounds outstanding! I’ve been super hungry all day and have a while to go before dinner. My stomach was growling reading all of that. I think I’d plunk down $100 if all that could be teleported in front of me right now!

@bimmy-lee yea for sure. I didn't see the bill, but with a good 20 people at dinner, including drinks, I wouldn't be surprised if it was close to 2k..maybe more. It was a really nice place to take us all to.

Me walking to work: The sun is so bright, you'd think it was a giant ball of nuclear fusion or something...

At this time of year, where I live, it works out that walking to work, the sun shines straight in my eyes if I look forward, then on the way home in the evening, repeat.

@bimmy-lee Yeah, it was fun sometimes, but other times also annoying, and it STILL kept me hooked. Just imagine this scenario: fish-man in tank, face towards the back of the tank, completely ignoring you.

And you throwing in food pellets or rearranging the furniture (plant, rocks) in the tank, in hopes of pleasing the little bugger, and initially uttering some friendly "hey you's" into the mic, only to be ignored even more, to the point where you're actually shouting into the microphone, and trying to come up with some smart insult, in his own style, in hopes that this will FINALLY make him turn around, face you and say something funny or equally insulting back... (edit: and then feeling SO happy and/or satisfied if it finally actually works)

So, yeah, lovable jerk is probably the most apt description of him that I could think of, so your friend hit the nail square on the head there. As for looking for or buying a Dreamcast: no retro game shops in your area somewhere? I'd look for those first. Always better than buying from a private owner, and more than likely more chance of a decent warranty as well. Mind you: unless there's a considerable amount of games and/or add-ons coming with it, a second-hand/refurbished Dreamcast shouldn't set you back more than $60 - $65 max, so you might wanna keep that in mind...

@bimmy-lee Took a bit of a stroll on the web to see what's available in your area, and besides quite a few GameStop stores, there's also these:

• https://anything-gaming.business.site
• http://www.discreplay.com/index.php
• http://gameworldindiana.com/#/
• https://www.theexchange.com/
• http://www.videopalacehobart.com/

Here's the entire list:
https://www.google.nl/search?newwindow=1&tbm=lcl&ei=C...

EDIT:

Because NLife's text formatting keeps screwing up the web address, I couldn't post it as a clickable link, but if you just copy/paste that into a new window or tab, it'll go to the right page anyway.

As you'll be able to see, if you scroll down on the left, the Disc Replay and Game World stores also have multiple locations in your area, so there should be one closest to you, probably.

I'd look into these first, long before I'd ever consider buying off of eBay or something like that.

@ThanosReXXX - I would pay good money to watch you start out trying to sweet talk a digital fish man into acknowledging you, only to slip into angry insults as he continues to ignore you, and then back into blissful happiness and sense of accomplishment when he decides to grace you with his creepy gaze and insult you back. It’s comedy gold.

I appreciate the research. There are three places I know about within 10-15 minutes of home, but I don’t do a lot of shopping there. Sometimes. Part of my issue is that I’m not sure what things are supposed to cost, so I appreciate the base range for the console itself, but I always feel they’re a bit steep price wise. I guess that’s the beauty of supply and demand though. They all tend to be a bit Sony centric, which isn’t interesting to me. I may have to hit them up though just to see what a Dreamcast, microphone, and a copy of Seaman would cost me.

I haven’t purchased much game related from eBay, but many years ago, I found a jungle green N64 with a matching controller for $50 and just instantly pulled the trigger, assuming it was worth the risk. It turned out to be like new condition including the controller. The console had the expansion pack inserted, and the controller had a rumble pack, neither of which were advertised. I was ecstatic.

@bimmy-lee Oh, don't get me wrong: not saying that eBay is all bad, just that it would kind of be my last resort, if I wouldn't be able to find an item in any other way. And going to a shop at the very least enables you to get a better idea of the state of an item, and often times, retro game shops will allow you to test stuff on site, so you're sure you're not going to buy a fancy paper weight...

As for those prices: I have to admit that I kinda mistranslated euros for dollars, so that 60 - 65 is in euros, which would mean about 70-ish in dollars. And if it's in a really good state, possibly a bit more. If shops also do console repairs, chances are that you might run into a refurbished console, which might have a new motherboard or GD-ROM drive in it. (GD-ROMS are the custom discs used in the Dreamcast. It simply stands for Gigabyte Disc ROM, because the max capacity of the discs is 1GB)

Anyway, I'd be glad to help out with helping you establish if items are sold for good prices or not. I've bought my fair share of Dreamcast stuff, and I always keep one eye out for offers or deals, so I think I could make a good estimate of what you should say yes or no to, price-wise.

First order of business, if you've decided to go for it, or if you're curious about the various shops, is to make some calls and ask them if they actually have Dreamcasts in stock, and what they're asking price is. That way, you can probably already cross some off the list, although obviously, there's still the game too, so if there's shops that don't sell consoles, but do sell games, you could of course still keep them in mind.

From the choices available, far as I could see from their online presentation, it would seem to me that the Video Palace place has the largest assortment of consoles and games, but seeing as the other brands have several stores, their total stock might be just as big. So, the first impression is good, but you should probably make some calls to make sure...

P.S.

That microphone shouldn't cost more than $10 - $15, if complete (with the foam cover on top), because all it is, is a simple, low cost microphone, built into a memory card case, so that you can slot it into the controller.

What the current rate for the Seaman game is, is anyone's guess, but I'll do some looking around on that as well, so I'll give you an update when I got something to report where that is concerned.

@bimmy-lee Well, whaddaya know? It would seem that I actually wasn't off with my pricing for the console.
I guess that different States carry different prices.

This is my go to web shop, whenever I purchase something from the US. You may have seen me mentioning them before: https://www.lukiegames.com/sega-dreamcast
Although as you can see, it obviously does depend on whether you'd be okay with a slightly scratched/damaged console, or want a mint condition one, which they also offer, for almost double the price, as you can see.

But in general, their prices are fair, and the service and warranty are also pretty darn good. And I'm gonna assume that when ordering from within the US, you won't have to wait as long for items to be delivered as I had to...

Oh, and as for the game itself, here you go:
https://www.lukiegames.com/Seaman-Dreamcast-Game

I love the Dreamcast, but I wouldn’t pay more than $40 for one anymore. Those lenses get finicky. However, I’d pay $70 for a unit with controller, vmu, broadband adapter, and mic.

I've had a weird, crazy work day. Definitely have some stuff to chew over. Maybe I should stop procrastinating with the internet. XD Or just relax for the evening. Not sure which.

@ThanosReXXX Don't get me wrong, I do intend to try the series at some point; I've nearly jumped on Animal Crossing: New Leaf more than once. I'm indeed nervous about whatever AC game I end up with (tentatively the Switch entry at this point) being a huge timesink. Your words up there are reassuring (as is Anti's advice) at any rate! It's really a matter of when at this point.

@HobbitGamer Good luck getting a fully functioning one for that price. That's not realistic to expect anymore nowadays. When I bought mine many years ago, including cables, one controller and one memory card, it was already 60 in euros, so that's the absolute bare minimum that you're gonna have to expect for getting a refurbished and cleaned one from a shop. You might be able to scalp one off of eBay for 40, but you'd never really know what kinda condition it's in.

Oh, and apparently, those mics have become quite rare, so having one included for that low a price probably also isn't a realistic expectation. It might take someone who isn't aware of the worth of what he or she owns, to sell it for you at a lower price. Maybe a garage sale or something like that.

As for those lenses: both true and depending on. Mine is still functioning perfectly, and I never had any problems with it. When I bought it, they had already refurbished and cleaned it, and possibly replaced some parts, but even these replacement parts aren't new, so you could probably get some idea of how old it is by now.

The thing with these older consoles is that you just need to keep them hooked up, allowing current to run through its circuits, and also boot them up every once and a while. I have a second, smaller TV in my living room, to which I've hooked up both the Dreamcast and the GameCube, and every other Saturday night, I alternate between letting the Dreamcast run for a couple of hours, and the next week, I'll boot up the GameCube. On both, I've got Soul Calibur games inserted, simply because these also have a nice and intensive attract mode, which is also beneficial for the hardware. (volume turned down low, because I don't want it to distract me from any movie I'm watching, or other game that I'm playing on any of my newer consoles)

I don't play the games on these consoles anymore, also because I now play GameCube games on my modded Wii, but I do stick to this regime faithfully, unless I'm not at home for whatever reason, obviously, and so far, that has seemed to work just fine for me.

@Tyranexx Well, I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy it. They're fun, relaxing games, and personally, I've always appreciated them for offering something completely different than any other game. Especially the not having to do anything specifically, if you don't want to, is what makes it so relaxing. You can just wander around, go fishing, gather fruits or chop wood, decorate your house, make clothing, whatever. So much to do, but practically none of it obligatory, so even if it can be a time sink at times, you probably won't even mind, once you're playing it.

@ThanosReXXX Great thing about where I live is there’s plenty of folks that are generations behind, or keep lots of hand-me-downs.
Another lens trick is to ever so slightly turn the mechanism