Khromak

I don't think the issue is any individual action, but the sum total of them. It's not illegal as a guy who grades video games to make public statements that games are worth 25 billion dollars. It's also not illegal to sell your friend a video game. It's not illegal to sell a graded video game, or to have delayed services when your company is backlogged. If you combine all this together though, it's really suspicious and (IANAL) could be illegal. Employees of grading company and auction house company colluding together to "sell" a game to generate hype. Not actually selling the game, but going all over the news to talk about how much you "sold" it for. Going on TV to talk about how it could be worth 10x as much, when your services are based on a % of the value of a game. Advertising to customers that they can get their products back in a week, while actually taking months/years. Meanwhile, your employees are mysteriously selling tons of games their own company graded. If you're seen as an authority (grading company, auction house) on a thing, your word carries a whole lot more weight. @Code Monkey in your example...if you were a realtor who was listing houses, and you went on the news to tell people that you've been a realtor for 30 years and have tons of experience and that houses are skyrocketing in price and going to be 10x their value next month, so that you could earn a higher commission on the sales of houses, and then you fabricated a fake "sale" of your house to your friend, while retaining control/ownership of it, and took interviews with reporters telling them about the record-breaking sale of your house, oh and your friend just so happens to be a real estate appraiser...it might be a little bit of a problem. I think this situation is really easy to boil down to a single issue and ignore all the context, but taken together I do not understand how anyone can see this as not problematic. Sure, people could've done better due diligence to not buy an item for $1m when it was $50k a month prior...even though the EXPERTS IN THE FIELD were saying it's going to the moon. Also consider the others harmed through this: People who paid exorbitant fees to WATA to "insure" their graded games based on the inflated estimates. People who paid for extra-fast service, cleaning, sticker removal, etc. so they could rush their SMB1/SM64 to market to cash in on the hype. They did these things based on the information being put out there by companies/employees/advisors who were deliberately taking actions to enrich themselves on the backs of these people. Again, I'm not a lawyer but..."wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain." looks an awful lot like exactly what has been described here.

I'm on world 5 of the third loop (17) of Boulder Dash now and taking a break for a bit. This game makes me feel like every controller I own is broken. It feels like the controller inputs are only checked once every 3 seconds. I'm sure my strategies are a bit crude, which is requiring more tight maneuvers than I really NEED to do, but I'm rather enjoying the puzzle aspect of the game and coming up with strats, I just DESPISE trying to actually execute them in real-time because of the endlessly frustrating controls. @T-Pac I recommend playing one loop of this and calling it a day. Playing all 4 loops will drive you insane, even with save states.

I've gotten through the first loop and about half of the second loop of Boulder Dash. Definitely seems like the increased difficulty from the progression of stages is more significant than the difficulty from the loop, since the re-dos of 1, 2, and 3 were not particularly challenging. I imagine the stacking effect of them will make the second, third, and fourth versions of worlds 5 and 6 will suuuuck though. I'll be doing more of it tomorrow throughout the day, but might take some breaks so I don't get too angry

I posted some of my thoughts above but this game feels like StarTropics to me: the game expects you to make quick, precise movements and timings, but has controls like a Dragon Warrior game. It's fun and has some interesting mechanics, but it can be stressful to try to pull off tight timed moves or maneuver around enemies/things falling on you with controls like that. The other tricky part is that the levels come in groups of 4, so you have to execute 4 tricky levels in a row to be able to move on to the next "world". This won't be a problem with save state abuse though. I've been enjoying it thus far, but there are some frustrating parts for sure. Having infinite continues is nice!

Oh interesting! I didn't see that the "24 levels" are just the same 6 levels, but with more difficulty added. That should be...interesting...I'll bet some of these levels will be really challenging with the reduced time/increased crystals, as I already found them tough as-is. That said, I think I can take this one down, given enough time & practice.

I've started Boulder Dash, I'm finished with the first 4 worlds (of 24) so a long ways to go, but so far it's...alright. The controls aren't nearly good enough for some of the tricks they expect you to pull off, IMO. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I think most likely I'll just have to repeat levels A LOT to get them all in one go. That's been my experience thus far at least, and I imagine the challenge only gets much tougher.

Looking forward to the T-Pac arcade episodes

Ultimately there isn't a very compelling practical reason to collect carts if we're being honest with ourselves. I have a pretty decent collection of various systems but other than nostalgia or cover art, there's no reason to have those physical products haha. I agree though, despite having flash carts, I still prefer to play on the original cart any time I can. I will say it is nice to use save states, to practice games in sections or to "save" your game between play sessions

Funny you mention it twiz, because I think the charged up shot basically ruined all the future entries, because you're constantly holding the button and then almost anything in the game dies to a single shot, including usually multiple enemies in a single shot. It totally eliminates any skill from previous games, especially since the charged shot is like 10x the size of a regular buster shot. No need to aim, mash, or prioritize targets, just blast absolutely everything away with charged shots. Plus listening to the charge sound for hours straight.

I'm sure I can't be the only one who experiences this but TBH, I can't remember the bosses for MM4-6. I could list off a handful of them, maybe a dozen or more, but I couldn't identify which of the 3 games they came from. I remember bits and pieces of the mechanics, like the Rush options, but very little else. I can't remember almost any of the music. MM2 & 3 will always be my favorites. I know all the bosses, their weaknesses, all the songs, all the places where you use all the special items, where the e tanks are, everything. I'd have to say MM3 -> MM2 -> MM -> The rest. I'd probably say 5 -> 6 -> 4, but TBH it's been too long since I played them to say that definitively.

I feel you on this one. I own all the games on the list and several flash cartridges, but I've never beaten any of the games left on the list at this point, except games that other people are currently working on. If you want to take the rest of the year off, no problem I keep going back through the list and trying to pick out games I want to try to beat. I've got a decent list now, but they're all pretty tricky. I'm sure I'll crack a few of them eventually, though my progress will definitely be significantly slowed down based on the list we have and my lack of experience with them.

Bard's tale is done, and our party was more badass than any of my previous parties. Got a lot of exp and awesome items diving the final dungeon, including TWO staves offering in and out of combat heals, which I'd never seen before. Turns out they eventually break though... had a lot of charges or a low chance to break.

Well, some good news on my end, I got my CRT back up and running with fresh capacitors! In the end, the culprit might've just been an unplugged cable, but for only like 30 bucks i got some insurance against future problems with 55 new capacitors. Still have to fix my NES though so for now I'm still doing my NES gaming on the flat screen. The bard's tale is going great, I'm around level 21 and working on grinding levels and new gear while making my way through the final dungeon. Should be done tonight or tomorrow at the latest

Requirements say loops after level 10, so I guess beat level 10?

I got my metaphors mixed sometimes, but then I guess the question comes back to you: why would you be excited to pay for your rent in a currency that has gone up by 3x in the last 6 months? You're paying (relative to all other currencies on the planet) 3x the rent you were paying last year. If you think BTC is going to go up, you should never sign any long-term agreement to pay for anything. The problem is that it's a commodity that people primarily trade to try to make more money. And due to the nature of the coin themselves, this is all it can ever be. There are a limited number of them, and the price varies based on what someone is willing to pay for them. The price for everything on the whole planet will need to fluctuate in real time based on what everyone is willing to pay for everything else. Also governments would lose the ability to control their economies (prevent recessions, depressions, control inflation or deflation, etc.) because they can't set monetary policy on a currency that nobody has control over. I already talked about this in the previous post. It's not about USD, it's about the price relative to every other valuable item on the planet. Sure, if every country in the entire world suddenly decided tomorrow that they were all going to use exclusively BTC for their economies, you could consider it *solely* on the value of BTC itself, but unless you have a genie or magic powers, that's not going to happen. There will always be other currencies, and we will always be able to exchange them for each other. People today always consider the value of their currency by comparing it to other currencies. Even in a crypto-only world, people will compare the price of BTC to other crypto, so the value will always be fluctuating. Sure, but that "fraction of the price" is the same price you pay to send your friend $1.50 for the bus fare, or to buy a bottle of water at your corner store and it's currently about...7-10 dollars if I understand correctly? I think the number of people buying toilet paper and twinkies at their grocery store is greater than the number of people sending money from USA to Vietnam. Also, the transaction fee changes every minute, hour, and day. Here's a hilarious snippet from the top Google result, which shows how absurd this system is: Bitcoin Average Transaction Fee is at a current level of 7.979, down from 11.65 yesterday and up from 1.981 one year ago. This is a change of -31.50% from yesterday and 302.8% from one year ago. I'm aware of currency markets, but that's not the primary use of modern currencies, and people who are doing this are making TINY gains, because the fluctuations are absolutely miniscule. More importantly, that's not the primary purpose of those currencies, so it doesn't cause the price to fluctuate because someone got interested in it and bought in.

Also on point 3: I didn't just say insured, I also said regulated. There are tons of cryptocurrencies where the people running the currency said they were "burning" coins and instead kept them for themselves. They manage the "liquidity pools" and control all kinds of rules about how the currencies work. There are hundreds of stories of people doing "rug pulls" and screwing people over. There are tons of instances of crypto exchanges stealing/mishandling customer funds. No government institution in the world is checking their books to make sure they can cover the "returns" they offer people. Nobody is checking these liquidity pools to make sure they can afford to hand out the "more stable" crypto their BS crypto is based on. It's rife with problems, incestuous relationships, and a lack of regulation. In fact, lack of regulation and control has always been a perk for these things...but I don't think those are good things for a currency. People, and especially companies, need stability in order to use something as a currency, they don't need freedom. I think crypto is a solution in search of a problem. What are the problems with government-backed currencies that crypto is seeking to solve? I have never had a problem with using the existing financial systems, but maybe I'm missing something? It introduces a hundred new problems into the mix, but solves none(ish)

I'm sure you'd be happy to pay rent in BTC because it's doubled in the last year. I wonder how your landlord would feel about the fact that the BTC they're getting in rent is worth half as much today as it was when they signed your rental agreement. These are comparisons against all other currencies. BTC costs twice as much yen, canadian, australian, or USD. Anything you use to buy BTC today is worth half as much BTC as it was last year. If someone were selling you bananas using BTC, you would get twice as many bananas today as you got last year, for the same BTC. Imagine you're a mortgage company giving someone a 30 year loan in BTC now. Maybe you'll make a profit, or maybe you'll lose absolutely everything. Depends whether or not Jake Paul has tweeted about buying BTC recently. How would your employer feel about the fact that all of their labor costs doubled in the last year, compared to the price they pay for materials? USD compared to Euro, in the last 5 years, has fluctuated between a low of .82 to a high of 1.02. USD to Yuan has fluctuated between 6.3-7.3. I'd call that pretty stable compared to 2.5x fluctuation in 6 months.

Also worth noting that with blockchain technologies there's absolutely no privacy. If you give someone your wallet information so they can send you $5 for lunch, they can then look at all other transactions you've ever made with anyone. Oh, what's that? You donated to XYZ charity? Why were you sending money to this drug dealer? Oh, I see you sent $20 to Putin, what gives with that? I know you can like...launder your money through 100 wallets or whatever, but that's still public and traceable, and that's also 100x more work than Joe Schmoe wants to do with their bank account. If I send money to my friend, or write a check to my landlord, absolutely nobody knows that except myself and my bank, and the bank has loads of business, legal, and reputational reasons to ensure that nobody else gets a full sheet of my transaction history, or my balance.

I haven't been following this conversation so maybe I'm missing some context here but... The value of a dollar is EXTREMELY stable. If I go to get a haircut for $20, it costs the same every week, every month, and every year. Bitcoin has over doubled in value in the last year. Dollars are a commonly accepted currency in this country, and in most of the world. Bank accounts are regulated and insured. If someone charges my account incorrectly, I can get the money back. If the bank crashes and burns, the government will give me my money back. Banks can't lie about their assets and they're routinely audited by the government to make sure they have the capital to cover their deposits (within margins) Dollars (especially digital ones) don't have a limited supply, so their value is determined mostly by the strength of the US government, not based on supply/demand. A commodity makes a terrible currency because daily (hourly, secondly) fluctuations can mean your paycheck on Friday will be vastly different from the cost of bread the next day. Imagine writing a rent contract for bitcoin... I could go on, but bitcoins are absolutely nothing like dollars. If you send someone 1k bitcoin because you lost your password or someone hacked your account, scammed you, or whatever, you're absolutely fucked. You will absolutely never get a penny of that back. Every cryptocurrency I've ever heard of is a speculative tool, not a currency. Things with supply/demand aren't stable enough to be currencies, period. Never will be. They're fun speculative nonsense that can be extremely lucrative, but they're still just stocks without the actual productive entities (businesses) behind them. They're all just greater fool theories, buying a $0.01 coin, hoping some guy will pay you $0.05 for it in a little while because he's hoping someone will pay him $0.10 for it in the future. Nobody does that with dollars. You know what people do with dollars? Buy and sell things, give loans, provide work in exchange for them, etc. It's a currency.

I've never taken any serious attempts at it with a controller, but my understanding is it's basically impossible with one. Even with the vaus controller I still find it obscenely hard, but I've not really put in enough time to really practice. Side note I looked at TMR's video for inspiration and saw him pause buffering and moving the paddle while paused (you can do this with the vaus, though you can't see where it is). I feel you though, it's one of the white whales of the system and definitely one I'm dreading trying to actually beat. One day I'll have to actually buckle down and beat some of these really hard games...

The proper position to be in depends on which mode you're doing. Definitely take advantage of some heavy cheating (sitting in chair, using hands, etc.). I think it looked more like playing Twister half the time rather than actually doing what the game told me to. The pad (or mine at least) can be really sensitive and the game thinks you're pressing buttons you're not, or that you're not holding things long enough, it can turn into almost a rhythm game, trying to predict how long before the next pose or whatever. At least one of the modes has passwords which mean you can take it in segments. Others like the simon says mode are fairly straightforward. Definitely recommend keeping play sessions relatively short, because it can be quite physically exhausting.

I messed around with bases loaded for a little bit, but the batters were hitting my "perfect pitches" about 25% of the time, so I think I wasn't doing it quite right. I also couldn't get a single run in like 4 innings so it seems I suck at batting. I'll probably come back to it later, but for now, I started up my bard's tale party, naming them after the top 6 in the current standings. Funny enough, the wizard ended up being a wizard, and guitar ended up being a Bard.

Related to my earlier post, checked with some other consoles and it seems the colors are just off on my TV, so that's fun! Took off the shell to put together a list of capacitors and noticed a wire was loose. Decided I'm going to do the cap kit anyway so the TV is out of commission for a while. I'll probably still try to make progress on either The Bard's Tale or Bases Loaded using my flat panel for the time being. I can't catch a break this year!

Faxanadu is done! I remembered I have a NES to famicom converter so I played on my twin famicom, but the colors seemed slightly off. Played fine though and I'm back on CRT baby! Anyway there's not much to say about this one, I've done it a few times before, it's alright. The key mechanics would make a blind play quite frustrating I think, but I don't really enjoy blind plays anyway so no skin off my nose

I've always enjoyed Imgur for image hosting online, could try that. It might not help with the embedded images on VGS, but people can hop out to Imgur if they want the full-size images and/or to download them. Worth a try at least.