A Trip to Vienna (and back) Pt 2

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This is part 2 of a 3 part series of gaming and entertainment on the go.

So last time I talked about flights and decision process for a hand held entertainment system. I didn't talk much about the system I settled on. So let's run down the features:

• MP3 Player
• Voice Note Recorder
• Text File Reader (with text to speech)
• FM Radio
• Picture Viewer
• Video Player
• Native Apps
• Emulators
  

You read that correctly, this little device emulates systems like:

• Nintendo
  
• Super Nintendo
• Gameboy Color
• Gameboy Advanced
• Genesis
  
• Neo Geo
• CPS 1/2

While there are legal questions around ROMs, it certainly can serve as a cheap way to entertain yourself.

Did I mention this little device also has TV out? It can do NTSC and PAL (too bad my TV here doesn't have any RCA ports) so it should work just about anywhere in the world.

As for the video, I use MythTV to create iPod compatible videos. Those videos are completely compatible with the A320. This turns out be quite useful when sitting alone at a bar in a foreign country.

So the device has 4 gigabytes of internal storage and SDHC support so up to 64 gigabytes of extra storage. I happen to have an eight gigabyte SD card in it meaning a total of 12 gigabytes of storage. I was able to put on before leaving 17+ hrs of TV (all on the internal storage) and movies for another 20+ hrs of entertainment. I actually ran out of videos to add rather than space. As I said this is a powerful device.

I'll be finishing up this series of posts once I get back.

A Trip to Vienna (and back) Pt 1

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Note: This is part 1 of a 2 or 3 part series on gaming while on the go.

So I had over 20 hours of waiting, flying and layover time to kill when going to Vienna. On the way back, I'll have at least an extra hour.

First and foremost, do not fly Austrian Air international. I was in economy, near the back, and sitting back in my seat, my knees touched the seat in front of me. The have no order to their boarding, they just do all the rows at once, and worst of all, no personal air controls. I didn't know that was possible on a 767. On the plus side, the food was actually quite good.

So with this long flight in mind, I started looking at portable gaming devices. I mean I have my iPod and it is great, but ultimately with an iPod video, your gaming choices are limited. Not only that, but the games eat the battery.

So, I started my search with the Nintendo DS(i/lite/XL/etc.) Even at Walmart you're looking at $129 before games. Justifying $200+ on a new gaming system to the wife wasn't going to cut it. Besides, the battery life was too short and I couldn't find out if it charged via USB, so I started looking at a PSP.

I figured Sony has a reasonable console, and they extend via the PSP, maybe that's the ticket. What I found shocked me. The PSP with UMD $170. The PSP Go (which would be much cheaper for Sony to make) $250. And again the battery life just didn't stack up. I continued my hunt.

Looking at the iPod touch seemed promising, I could game on it, play music, play videos and finally upgrade this older iPod. But there is the issue that some of my docks, such as the wireless headphones or car integration kit may stop working. Besides, to cover all my music I was looking at a 64 GB device, so $400. Crap, that's even worse and I have to buy the games on top of that. Well, maybe an iPad. $700?!? I forgot they were that expensive.

So @thinkgeek announced a coupon and I went hunting on their site. I came up with two choices as a media solution, the A320 and the GP2X. Both can emulate older game systems, so if you look for the game images you can play older games, but there's a difference in price of ~$80. This appears to be a result of the touch screen and better CPU making the GP2X slightly more expensive. @ $100 I started looking real close at the A320.

At the time, if you read the descriptions it clearly stated the A320 came with a wall charger while the GP2X charged via USB. But the A320 had 8 hrs of battery life (big plus) and I downloaded the manual to see what they said about charging via USB. I was shocked to find out the manual said that the device didn't have a port for power, it always charged via USB. It seemed like too big of an oversight for ThinkGeek, they always make sure to get those kind of specs. So I asked @thinkgeek via twitter. Unfortunately, their A320 guy was out sick, so I just went for it. I bought the device with that hanging question.

Turns out the manual was correct, the device only charges via USB.

So in the two weeks since I got it I've played with it a lot, and then sent it though the ringer yesterday. So let's start with the good:

• 4 GB of internal Storage
• SDHC support via SD Mini (or SD Micro and a penny adapter from Amazon.)
• Supports iPod video out of the box (at least the iPod videos I've made via MythTv, I highly recommend this weekend project to any and all geeks out there.)

The bad:

• USB Charging Implementation
• If the USB connection isn't just power, but includes D+ and D-, the device becomes a light and doesn't allow you to play.
• There is one exception to this I've found. If you plug in after launching an emulator the emulator will keep going without causing any issues.
• If you're not using an emulator, plugging in a USB connection will drop you out of your movie, e-book, etc.
  
• Reset button
• You need to use a paperclip to reset the device (which happens rarely).
  

The device held up well over the trip, and using my laptop's always on USB power port, I never ran out of juice. That said, if I had the right cable, the Air Canada flight could have charged it, there was a USB port on the touch screen entertainment system (for a keyboard) that would have worked perfectly.

I'll be adding scores and such to the last of these reviews.

DLC - What a Rip Off

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So this editorial is going to generalize and while it is not true in every case, for the most part downloadable content is a rip off.

The Past

Let's start with a little history, back in the bad old days game publishers had to really test their games. If they released a game with a flaw, that was it. You wanted an extra level? Hold up the release or it is left on the cutting room floor. No second chances.

Then came the internet, and eventually it migrated to the last generation of consoles. (Except for Nintendo.) At first is was only for gamers to play against each other, but as the current generation of consoles came around the console makers added storage space. This gave the publishers the ability to patch a game (making up for incomplete testing) and fixing issues on the fly.

The Present

And then someone got the bright idea:
You know that game level we had to leave out? Let's put it back in, but make people pay for it.
Thus was born, downloadable content or DLC. Not only do publishers no longer need to test as completely, but they can continue to charge for the game long after it becomes part of the bargain rack at the local game shop. Yes, this allows publishers to get games out on time, but some companies have so embraced the model that they no longer publish full games.

I mean what publisher wouldn't want you to lay out $100+ dollars for the game, controllers and then charge you $2 for each song you could play? And they rationalize it by saying "Oh that's what gamers want, they don't want to pay for content they won't use."

Since there's no way to resell content you didn't really like, and the only place to get it is from the console maker's store, they've created a monopoly. There really isn't any competition to drive prices down, and this gets to the heart of things. Storage space is cheap, and it costs the company nothing to make extra copies of DLC for you. Thus the profit margins are much higher any time you use the store to download a game or content. Do they pass along some savings to you? No. If 10,000 people download something and they've paid the developers off, does the producer lower the price? There's no incentive to price things reasonably, they control all the sources.

The Future

And here's the really scary portion. How long until someone get's the idea to start charging for patches? Haven't you seen the writing on the Sony blog? "This update is offered free of charge!" What happens when your online game suddenly needs an update you have to pay for to continue playing? As if producers needed an more ways to take money from us.

Of course, there's the argument "You don't have to play." That is true. And going down that rabbit hole will end badly for the game/console makers.

Heavy's Thought on Gaming

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As a Full time Automotive technician, Father and husband I don't have a
great deal of time to play games. My time at home is very precious to me
(Que: Golim saying that word). I run a Warhawk Server every week
(MAXIMUMSOAP -9pm ET Monday's) because I know that is a game that
I enjoy very much.

I may be jumping the gun a little here .. let's back up and go with a bit of history

I have been playing video games for as long as I can remember,
Atari 2600 .. to Coleco Vision ... a Nintendo or two ... Sega's systems
(genesis w/32x and CD) ... Orig. Playstation, Xbox, Playstation 2,
playstation 3, Xbox 360 and lets not forget the Wii .... Had a bunch
of systems and hundreds upon hundreds if not thousands
of games. Playing games was a Big part of my childhood and is
still a part of my life as an adult. I have two wonderful children
(13yr & 9yr) a very awesome wife , couple dogs snake and they
are the bulk of my existence. So when it comes to playing a game
I can't afford to put in hours upon hours just to be disappointed
or dislike games.

I have a luxury at work that my shop has WiFi and I own a computer
that I can surf on at my toolbox. In the past year or more I have had
moments when work has been very slow and I can watch gaming
vids, or talk to stalkers on twitter, troll through forums... but these
times are not a given. I have made purchasing mistakes in gaming
as I'm sure everyone has. Years ago I would have looked at a Sucky
Game purchase as a possible trade to a friend or maybe someday
I'll play it again. ... Now this same Sucky game purchase is lost Money
the same feeling I get with Bad service and food at a restaurant, or a
broken new in Box item from a Store... the restaurant can sometime
be salvaged with a discount, or the fact that you don't tip as well ..
Haha Mr. Sucky waiter - Take that. The broken item can sometimes
be exchanged or maybe returned to buy something else. the Game
on the other hand, retuning it is like a cop out... it's feels like saying
this Game beat me ..it feels Dirty .. it feels kinda wrong ...

Basically what I'm sorta Saying is as i get Older and the Games get
better at looking good in trailers and game play vids. It becomes
harder for me to go out and purchase a Game brand new on release day.

Sometimes I think .. why not just rent it first, or wait a Month or two
and read some reviews maybe buy it used for half price ???

Gaming in these times becomes, for me, a lot less about the New
and improved and A lot more about -

My time is worth a lot -
Can this "Game" meet my GOML


Anyone that has a different view should feel free to tell me how "Wrong" I am