darkchylde28

Honestly, if you don't want kids, don't have them, and don't let anybody make you feel bad about that decision. I got married knowing that I didn't want kids and being clear about that, even though my wife did eventually want some. Then, one day, out of the blue, I woke up and just had the feeling that I would be ok having one, and let my wife know. She stopped birth control, and as long as it took to exit her system later, we had a baby on the way. All of my friends and the people I knew were just flabbergasted, going, "You?! What?!" But, I just knew it was time when it was time. You might get to that point, you might not. Either way, don't worry so much about it and don't take any guff or guilt off of anyone who wants to coerce you into seeing things differently. My dad passed away before I had my first kid. And a couple of regrets that I have are that he never lived to see his first grandchild, as well as the fact that my kids came into this world and have grown up not having a grandfather. At the same time, as sad as the thought makes me, I don't feel guilty about it because I know that I absolutely did not want children at that point in my life, and if I had, I'd have been an awful, shitty parent, and would in no way, shape, or form want to have inflicted that upon either of my kids. You may very well end up in the same sort of situation, so think about it this way, if it helps. Right now you don't have kids, and you don't want kids. But if you did have kids, and didn't want them, think about how much worse that would be for everybody. It might even get some folks off your back about it.

I saw that, but sadly it's not guaranteed a solution to the stated problem, although it does apparently fix the couple of codes specifically being shown in the thumbnail (which only show up if the system isn't completely bricked due to nand corruption). Here's hoping he gets his hands on a system that truly has had nand corruption/failure so that further actual research can be done on this issue.

Here's my submission. I went ahead and sent it both as an in-game screenshot as well as a photo of my screen showing my username as per the first post, just in case. Anyone else seriously hate Kells and love Tralee?

It really can, though, as there can be games in a genre that are so good that they suck in even those folks who don't care for the genre. I don't hate the genre that these guys tend to live in, but for me personally, none of what they've done as an established company (meaning the Konami stuff I did try doesn't count, and really shouldn't, since that company didn't exist and they weren't the only ones working on those games) piqued my interest enough to make me buy or sit down and play any of it. They likely should be highly celebrated within that small circle that their games live in. But all the people who shout from the rooftops about how great they are in general, which is many, are just flat-out wrong, because they just don't have mass appeal beyond their niche. Which, to me, makes them overrated. Probably spot on within their niche, but overrated overall. You agreed with @goldenpp72 who basically said the same thing--comparing games of different genres against each other isn't going to give you a balanced comparison. As such, wildly proclaiming the greatness of this team outside of the niche they've carved out makes them overrated beyond those borders since they lack mass, general appeal.

So, last night I took it upon myself to install the RGB mod I'd picked up from Voultar earlier in the week. I cracked the package when it arrived just to make sure I had gotten what I'd ordered and couldn't believe how small the thing was. Thanks goes out to @SNESNESCUBE64 who helped me determine that yes, my NS2 serialized system could, in fact, use the simple RGB mod since it not only had the correct video chip (VDC-NUS A) but also one of the correct board revisions (NUS-CPU-04). No thanks to Voultar, though, as I reached out via the contact section of his website to ask whether the serial # mattered since my board had the correct video chip and got ghosted for a couple of weeks before finding the correct answer. I read through the instructions from Voultar's site, watched through the video where he installed it (mostly to determine whether the single component present in the csync area of my board needed to be removed--it didn't), and then got to work. After minimally stripping the board to get to what I needed (removing 14 screws to release the system from the bottom case and drop off the lower RF shield), I got to work. I can't describe how satisfying it was when the tiny mod board dropped right into place over top of the pins from the multi-out that stuck out from the bottom of the board. I quickly discovered that Voultar apparently either used low-melt solder or had his soldering iron cranked to the moon, as whatever material had been used to make the rings around the vias on the mod board simply did not want to take solder no matter how long I held heat on them or how much flux I applied. I adjusted my iron temperature up from ~400C to ~500C and had a lot more success, although there was still one via that was stubborn and ended up taking solder and then freezing it up immediately, as if I had been trying to remove old solder (there wasn't any) and the joint had gone totally cold (it wasn't). After finally getting the last via to take solder and make a proper, if ugly joint, I very easily tinned the pads at the bottom of the mod meant to receive the RGB and csync signals and moved on to the wires. The instructions stated not to strip or insert the wires any further than 3mm so as to not hit or short with the video chip above the vias they were to be inserted in, so I very carefully measured and stripped out 2mm on each wire. Then I fought with each one for roughly 5 minutes each, as while Voultar's video described the wire as braided, it wasn't--it was basic stranded wire that when stripped, wanted to fan out and go everywhere. Being as tiny as it was, it was quite a chore to twist the exposed bit of each wire enough so that they would fit through the tiny vias in the board. After finally getting each one twisted enough to fit, I dropped the wires into the holes as instructed, lightly tacked them, then cable back with flux and solder ("standard" 60/40 rosin-core leaded) to solder them each properly into place. I had similar issues with the other ends of each wire, but quickly enough got them soldered in place on the mod board, then moved on to the separate csync wire and repeated the process. Now came the time to test. Per a different video from RetroRGB which showed basically the same operation (same type of mod but different mod board), I skipped putting the system back together to any degree before testing it, just in case something wasn't quite right. I gingerly plugged everything necessary up, gently wiggled the power brick onto the bare power plug, and inserted my RAD2X cable into the multi-out before flipping on the power. The power light turned on, the red light on the RAD2X cable came on, then after a few long moments, the light flipped over to purple, indicating that it was receiving an RGB signal. Then, a test pattern appeared on the screen. RetroRGB had talked about how when he'd had installs go wrong, he would see a black screen, but then again, he was using standard AV cables, and a test pattern is what the RetroTink2X (what the RAD2X is built off of) will show when it's transmitting signal but not receiving anything to pass through. Failure. So, I carefully unplugged and then re-plugged everything, and powered back up. Purple light, test pattern. Figuring I'd just made some simple mistake like a solder bridge or something wasn't soldered properly (even though I'd checked before testing), I took everything off the board again and put it back on the bench. I went over everything with a magnifier and couldn't see any shorts or bad joints, so I hit everything with flux, reflowed everything with my iron (making everything look as good as or better than the first time) and even went back over all the joints at the top of the mod board before hooking everything back up and testing it again. Purple light, test pattern. Ok, still a failure, but per RetroRGB's video, the only time he'd seen this board "fail" had been when he'd inserted the wires too deep and made contact with the video chip underneath. Even though I'd measured out less length than Voultar had specified, maybe that was the issue? So I heated up each wire and backed them ~50% out of each via and then allowed the solder to resolidify. I hooked everything back up, and... Purple light, test pattern. Dammit! At this point I was starting to inwardly panic a little, fearing that I'd fried the board somehow, even though I'd followed Voultar's installation video to a T and even used less exposed wire than he'd specified specifically to prevent the issue he and RetroRGB had talked about with the video chip. But the RAD2X cable was showing it was receiving an RGB signal every time--what was going on? So, I desoldered and pulled all the wires out of their respective vias on the bottom of the board and bent them out of the way to the side, hooked everything back up, and...purple light, test pattern. So, Voultar's mod board would tell a RAD2X cable that it was receiving an RGB signal even if no signal was coming through. I realized that the issue had to be coming down to either a connection issue between the mod board and the N64, or an issue with the wires going through the vias. Being pretty much done with it by this point, I cranked the temperature on my iron up well above where I'd normally go (I just cranked the knob and saw it ended up around ~720C when I looked back at it), fluxed the daylights out of the pins going to the multi-out, then re-flowed them again. This time, there was no argument from Voultar's board, and my standard rosin flux and 60/40 rosin-core leaded solder wicked down onto each via, even the stubborn one, instantaneously, making beautiful joints on every one. Since the vias for the wires had become filled where I'd just pulled the wires out, I decided I would try soldering each wire to the vias instead of through the vias, since there seemed to be something going on there that wasn't being addressed by me using less length than the creator specified was necessary to prevent shorting out the circuit. What I ended up with wasn't as pretty as a through-hole joint would have been, but they were solid, and not shorted to anything else, so I very carefully hooked everything back up to the system, crossed my fingers, and flipped the power switch. Power light, red light on the RAD2X...then purple light...no test pattern...then Everdrive menu! Success! All the colors appeared to be there, but it had been suggested by RetroRGB that modded systems be tested with Super Mario 64, since all the colors were visible on the startup screen and any issues should be immediately visible. So, I powered off the system, hooked up a controller, and restarted the system. Success again! I navigated to Super Mario 64 in the menu, hit start, watched the loading bar pop for a moment, disappear, and...nothing beyond a popup on the TV stating "480P HDMI" on top of a black screen. I turned off the system, made sure everything was seated properly, then turned it back on. All the lights on the system came on as per normal, the RAD2X went from red to purple...then the TV popped up a black screen saying "480P HDMI" and nothing else. What the heck?! I pulled everything off of the system, then put it back on, making sure everything was seated properly, and flicked the power again to the same result. Then tried pulling the SD card out of my Everdrive, starting it up without it, then putting it back in and starting it again, all with the same result. Maybe I'd accidentally broken one of the connections on the bottom of the board, since they were simply soldered to the tops of the vias instead of through them? So I disassembled again, desoldered each wire, then soldered each back into place, reassembled everything, and powered on to try again. Black screen, "480P HDMI." My heart sunk. I figured either my Everdrive had crapped out, or the system had gone funky with something potentially broken. I started keeping my solder gear at my brother's house due to my kids being too curious when I was working on things, so I'd been working at his place. As such, in my "brilliant" overconfidence, I didn't think to bring a different cartridge or AV cable to test the system with and, with it being past midnight, I didn't want to spend half an hour driving home and back to get something else. Then a thought occurred to me based on some information I'd randomly heard in some GameCube videos I'd watched earlier in the week. What if his TV had freaked out and lost signal when the resolution changed and had just failed to resync it? So, I flipped the TV to a different input, waited until it synced and showed output from the computer connected to that one, then flipped it back over to the input the N64 was on and hit the console's power switch. Power light, red light on the RAD2X, then purple, and...Everdrive menu! Not quite out of the woods yet, I started a different game, figuring that perhaps there was something weird going on with the Super Mario 64 ROM on the cart. Goldeneye popped up and started playing immediately and looked ok, although I admitted that I'd not seen enough of it in decades to really know whether it looked right or not. So, I reset the system and fired up Conker's Bad Fur Day instead. Bingo! Everything looked correct, the graphics a little sharper, and as far as I could tell, the colors did seem to "pop" a bit more, although I would really need to see it on my TV at home to know for sure, since that's where I'd been playing it. I reset the system again and figured I'd run it through one final test to make sure it was running correctly, and fired up Super Mario 64 again. Success! The loading bar disappeared, then the game's logo showed up in all its multicolored glory, followed immediately by Mario's big head and the RGB "Press Start" in the corner. Whatever had gone sideways at the end had gone away, and it just needed to be buttoned up. So, I took a look at RetroRGB's install video quickly to determine how he had bent part of the lower RF shield to clear the mod board (since Voultar never mentioned this necessary step in his video), crimped the offending flap down into the shield as flat as I could, then put electrical tape over the board and exposed solder points to prevent shorts, as well as a bit over the center of the wires to hold them down, and buttoned it up. After I got the system back into the lower shell, I hooked it up and tested it again, finding everything working the way it had a couple of minutes prior. I then proceeded to button it up completely, reinstalled the Expansion Pak and its cover, then hooked the system back up one more time to test it out. Everything worked as expected, and I ran through the first couple of areas of Conker just to make sure it wasn't going to work fine at startup, then show a problem later on. I'm happy to report that it came through with flying colors, looking much better than composite had (slightly sharper, better colors, and everything being much brighter overall), and in the end being worth all the headache. I'm still not sure what was going on with the lack of video signal with the wires inserted in the vias (unless the maximum length had been misreported), but I'm happy with the result, even if the soldered-on wires aren't as neat and pretty as soldered-in ones would have been. Function before form. (Note that the screenshot of Super Mario 64 is taken on my TV that all of my other screenshots have been taken on. Should anyone want a comparison between composite and RGB on the RAD2X, just let me know, as I have a second, unmodded N64 that I can use to provide comparison photos.)

It can also casually mean "no," so, I mean...so what? The various abbreviations and acronyms that are recognized by the system are video game based, much like the site. If you use an abbreviation commonly used in video game circles in a different manner (such as NA for North America as you mentioned), I'm fairly certain that 99% of people reading your post will pick up what you mean via context. If you wrote about how between the 1500s and 1800s millions of people immigrated to NA, I doubt anyone will think you're talking about NintendoAge.

I would say for me, personally, yes, because I've never bothered to pick up anything they've made, nor wanted to beyond two Konami titles (Castlevania IV and The Simpsons arcade game). Honestly, the Konami stuff shouldn't count because it wasn't Treasure that built those games, it was some people who went on to form Treasure and a bunch of other people also working at Konami, so no team credit for something they didn't exclusively produce.

I mean, if it's not a requirement, it's not a requirement, period. If you feel strongly about this, begin petitioning eBay to make it a requirement. I would wager that the vast majority of people who send "smelly" items honestly don't realize that they are, and are not terribly argumentative when it comes to buyers who request a return because of such (and which eBay would certainly grant). Generally speaking, I'm only on eBay to buy stuff if I can't find it anywhere else, so despite the fact that I'm not a fan of the smell of smoke, I won't raise a stink over it due to getting whatever rare part/collectible/etc. at a good price, I'll just clean and deodorize it. If you're that sensitive to the smell, ask before buying if it's not already volunteered until some sort of requirement is put into place by eBay to make every seller volunteer that information. As it is, generally only people seeking a premium for their stuff are volunteering that information on every listing, so as to set themselves apart from the rest, even though the vast majority of the rest are also scent-free, from smoke-free homes.

And here's another new addition! This showed up this past Wednesday, but I didn't want to say anything about it until I actually did something with it. For those that aren't familiar, that tiny board is a simple RGB mod designed for the N64. You solder it in place to the bottom side of the multi-out, then run 3 wires from the red, green, and blue signals over to it, then a separate 4th wire for csync, then button it back up. I'll be posting in the details of this chip's adventure in the mod/repair board.

I knew what I was getting into, but was knocked out by it anyway. The disc image dumper being available for the GameCube as well as the Wii really surprised and tickled me, as did the discovery that there's a plethora of emulators for other systems available (NES, SNES, Genesis, Neo Geo, Colecovision, etc.). To tell the truth, I'm still tickled every time the Smash Bros exploit boots the system simply due to how clever a hack it is and how unexpected it was to me after thinking of the GameCube as just a game console for decades.

New additions! The memory card came yesterday, and the SD2SP2 finally arrived today. I learned about being able to do various homebrew/jailbreak things with the GameCube through a couple of random videos that got suggested to me and autoplayed while I was watching YouTube last year. The first thing that intrigued me was the idea of using Game Boy Interface to run the Game Boy Player and avoiding the hassle of paying $200+ for a disc that only booted up the hardware and did a worse job of it than the homebrew did. Then I learned about Swiss, a homebrew utility that basically acts like a combination file and settings manager and decided that I was all in if/when my kids wanted to start playing with the old system. Well, my son started asking about it, I pointed out that I had one, and sometime last week I managed to figure out where I'd stored my GameCube and get it back into service. Then, a couple of days later, I found the cache of GameCube games, controllers, and Wii component cables that a coworker friend had given me some years back when her kids had gotten tired of their Wii and she'd sold it. Tuesday I put in the order for a memory card and SD2SP2 for the system, then went to a local game store and picked up a couple of spare memory cards and a game that could be exploited (Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow) that I knew for certain would boot up. I discovered that the shop had a machine that could reliably resurface GameCube games without ruining them, so when I got home, I went through the effort of testing all the super scratched up discs my friend had given me, determining that only Pokemon Colosseium, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, and Super Smash Bros didn't work. So, I went back out the place and had them polish up each one. Sonic actually tried to start up, would show the opening animation, then lock up when you started to play. Pokemon started up normally and played for 10-15 minutes of testing without issue. Smash Bros now booted, would play through the opening animation, and get to the menus, but lock up when you tried to start up the game proper. I suppose the guy felt bad for me, and charged me $1 a disc for the resurfacing instead of the normal $2 I'd been quoted that morning. I was thrilled, though, as the most valuable game now worked, and the other pricey one would make a fantastic exploit booter if it would go far enough into the menu system. So, I went home, hooked up my Wii, and proceeded to put the relevant game exploits, Swiss, and Game Cube Interface onto my two memory cards via GameCube Memory Manager. Then, I unhooked everything, hooked up the GameCube, threw in my first memory card and Pandora Tomorrow and hoped. I laughed as it came up, as the save game I'd loaded had been named "Exploit" by the creator and showed up that way in the in-game menus. Upon loading the save game, the system immediately seized, and then I was left looking at Swiss! Success! From there I threw Smash Bros into the system and swapped memory cards to see if it would work properly. I discovered that while the opening animation would play all the way through, if I let it, then hit start to go to the menu, the game would throw a disc error message. So, I rebooted the system, then pounded start the moment HAL Laboratory logo showed up, and hit start again just as quickly to get into the menu. Select Vs. Mode. Jump down to Name Entry and hit A...and the system locked. Then, the Game Boy Interface showed up! Success! Knowing that both exploits worked reliably, I copied each one to the other memory card so that I'd have the option for either program (the exploits will only boot a single program upon crashing their respective game), then went back to playing with the Game Boy Player since I didn't have anything else to do with it yet. This morning, I ended up thinking about the package and looking up the tracking just as Amazon's site showed the driver next to my house and opened the front door just as they were reaching it, so I was actually handed my package. I'd done some backups via the Wii the day prior, so I went ahead and loaded those onto the memory card, installed it in the SD2SP2, then installed the little board in the bottom of my GameCube before locking the Game Cube Player back down. Smash Bros continued to boot like a champ, then crash back to Swiss without issue. I didn't realize it when I'd loaded it to my memory card, but the newest version automatically goes to the SD2SP2 if there's one installed, so as soon as Swiss booted, I was looking at the folders for the games and applications I'd loaded to the SD card. It took some Googling to determine why I couldn't save my Swiss settings (it will only save to an SD card and had defaulted to the memory card which it booted from), but after I did, I went through and customized a couple of things--defaulting gameplay output to 240p (making the upscaled composite from my RAD2X cable sharper) and adding a button combo to allow rebooting the system from within any backup. I tested out the backups, and they work beautifully! They run just as fast, if not faster, than they would via the disc drive, and all without putting wear and tear on either it or the discs. Apparently Swiss does some sort of patching before the image loads so that everything points back to the SD card, enabling even multi-disc games, should you have any. The reboot function works fantastic as well, actually allowing me to see the full GameCube startup animation (the RAD2X only manages to kick in by the time the full logo is there and solid), then Smash Bros launch for the ~10 seconds it takes me to launch the exploit and get back into Swiss. For anyone interested, the SD2SP2 cards can be had for $5-10 shipped on Amazon, depending on the manufacturer and style. There was another type I considered for $10 that had the SD card on a board shaped just like the Serial Port 2 slot and attached perpendicular to the main board, allowing you to access the SD from the side of the GameCube while the Game Boy Player is still attached, but I decided I preferred not having to keep track of another plastic insert from the bottom of the system. As it is, I'm thrilled at how cheap it was to essentially add an Everdrive to my GameCube and prevent my kids from beating the crap out of what were once common but are now fairly expensive little discs. There are apparently a bunch of emulators for other consoles for the system, so I may have to pull my SD card back out and try some of those later. The idea of running Neo Geo or Colecovision games from a GameCube does put a bit of a smirk on my face.

Oh yeah, it's been a while, but I've seen that clip/episode. There's the occasional win for the public when some cops lose their "qualified immunity" and face either civil or criminal charges, but it's few and far between, and generally the cops have to have done something completely egregious before it gets to that point. Honestly, with as bad as things have gotten, they really ought to be treating cops like doctors in regard to what they do and how well they do it--each one should be responsible for paying for their own equivalent of "malpractice" insurance, with no qualified immunity in place. If they fuck up, it's up to a jury to decide whether they're responsible or not, not their magic "get out of court free" card that they all seem to carry. And if you lose a case, your insurance goes up until you either can't afford it or no one will insure you, at which point you can't work in that job anymore because you don't have insurance. All the bad apples would weed themselves out fairly quickly.

@ProtonX reached out to me for my address info so he could calculate shipping, but if you're wanting to experiment a bit, I'll bow out of the way. I was just going to piece it back together so it would look as close to new and original as possible (and maybe get my best friend's artist girlfriend to repaint any/all bits that didn't look factory), so I'm fine with you taking it to test out new techniques on. Be aware, though, that it's an anniversary edition, so if things go awry there's one less in the world. Just let me know if you go forward with it or not, @RH.

Well, technically if you're outright fired as a cop, without having the opportunity to resign beforehand, you're not supposed to be eligible to work for law enforcement anywhere else in the country again. Not all departments follow that rule, sadly. I have been hearing about something called "The Brady List" recently that seems to be more legally mandated the previously mentioned tradition/policy, but haven't found a lot about it yet. What I have found has been from local/regional web pages which seem to indicate that cops put on the list are unhireable, but they're only supposed to be put on the list for reasons involving a prosecutor being able to bring charges against them.

I understand what you're saying, but in this situation it simply doesn't apply. People going in to law enforcement have it drilled into them what can and sometimes will ultimately be expected of them. If you aren't willing to put your life in danger to save others, don't sign up--period. The fact that the entire police force reacted in your theorized "nobody knows how they'll react until it happens" manner, and all with cowardice (except for waving guns at parents who arrived on-scene who wanted to rush other parts of the building and get their kids out) proves my original statement about how all of these people need to be fired from the police force and disqualified from any future service. They've now been in that situation and have proved that they're not up the to task. Additionally, some of the cops who arrived on-scene had kids in that school, and they ran in, grabbed their own children, ran out, and only then prevented other, non-police force parents from doing the same. All the while not bothering to enter the school and attempt to save anyone else's children, let alone whatever staff was in the building. So in the end, some of those officers were certainly willing to risk their lives in the face of danger, but only for their own family, and not any other members of the public that they swore to protect and serve. The fact that an off duty member of the border patrol armed with a civilian weapon had to blow past the entire police force, storm the school on his own, and find and then gun down the madman inside when THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY SIX armed, body armored members of law enforcement failed to even attempt to do so and instead sat around doing nothing, while actively preventing anyone else from trying to intervene. If they couldn't do the job, they wouldn't have been hired. If they wouldn't do the job (which is what is shown here), they needed to decline the job or quit the moment they realized they weren't up to the task. Anyone who was involved who remained on the payroll afterward should be summarily fired due to gross negligence of duty and made ineligible for employment in any similar position going forward.

Something similar happened with Nox Archaist, although they owned it right from the start and gave people the option of them shipping everything they had right then or allowing backers to wait until they'd overcome their issues. In that situation, there was some bug with the game that cropped up when using physical discs but not in an emulator, so they were willing to ship everything including blank disks and a then-current digital copy, then ship the final version to those people later on and advise them how to write it to their disks on their own or just ask for folks' patience and ship everything completed when they figured it out. I opted for the latter, and luckily only had to wait a couple of extra weeks.

Edit: I voted and answered without looking at Reed's first post, so my brain thought "Journey" versus Destiny. I had a fair amount of fun with the original Destiny, although I think it went a bit too far at times with the lack of opacity with certain puzzles and mechanics required to even get through the mission you were on for my taste. I think the hardest part about the game was coming up with a group of people to consistently play with, as a lot of the later content pretty much requires a team to do it, even if a handful of amazing gamers have somehow managed it solo. The game definitely had a lot of interesting lore, and generally did a good job fleshing it out via various expansions, updates, etc. I never did graduate to the second game, though, as it seemed to have much less of an adventure-y feel than the first and felt much more about running and gunning and competing with stuff like Halo than remaining immersed in its own universe.

If so, I think you might have been a little on the harsh side. If you'd been able to smell it through the packaging and it coming from a smoker's residence or been previously owned by a smoker not being mentioned, yes, absolutely go for the negative. However, if it only became apparent once the box and/or packing materials were opened, that's much less severe, and I'd have said to go with neutral at worst for the oversight. I've received eBay purchases in both conditions, so I know how severe the difference between the two are, with those smelling through the box needing active odor removal while those only stinking up the inside of the box usually being okay after being left out in the open on a shelf somewhere after a day or two (and some sort of quick wipedown with a wet wipe, Lysol wipe, etc., if the material will allow for it). I think a lot of it may come down to just how sensitive a person is to it--do you just not like the smell, or are you actively allergic or made ill by it? If it's the former, it's annoying, but if it's the latter, it's something that should be asked about every time, just like folks with allergies do at restaurants.

Unless the whole thing you backed was specifically to get a Famicom version made, it might have come down to them not having enough Famicom backers to make it cost effective to do right at the start and then just back-burnering it until they forgot about it. This isn't to say that doing so is right or to apologize for such delays happening, but more just to try to put a face on how it happened so that future similar occurrences could be avoided. If you were one of a literal handful of Famicom backers, I'd go with my theory, then avoid any projects in the future that had similar numbers for the Famicom category just in case.

I think he's talking about the lengths non-smokers and/or those sensitive to smoke have to go through to eliminate the odors. Honestly, leaving whatever it is alone for a while in an open area can and will eliminate the odor just through time. Regardless of how sensitive someone is to smoke, after enough time passes, the odor will dissipate on its own. Going the route with dryer sheets, newspaper, baking soda, etc., will just expedite the process.

Several family members are or were law enforcement, military, or both, so while I don't have direct first-hand experience, I've learned enough over the years through discussions with them as well as direct discussions about this situation to know that my thoughts on the subject are not off-base with what those with direct experience think. Thankfully, no one I've been related to has believed in the blue wall of silence over actual justice and responsibility. And cops are almost always some of the highest paid standard jobs in an area. If they're not willing to do all that's asked of them for the wage that they're offered (especially after all the significant perks and protections they get because of their unions), they shouldn't accept the job. Period. As with all the other places complaining about not being able to get people to work for them these days, if the salary was the issue, there wouldn't be asses in seats in law enforcement, as more and more people aren't willing to take on jobs they feel aren't compensating them properly, regardless of what it is.

I think either will work, but keeping it enclosed with the baking soda seems to be the part of the method that makes it work the best, regardless of whether you're putting the item in direct contact with the odor absorbing material or not. I would think that putting the item/items in direct contact would provide a better result for the smell, but could also lead to other issues related to being able to get the odor absorbing material back off completely, and without damaging what you're de-stinking. If you're ok with having to go through every page and crevice of a book/manual and carefully wipe away the powder, as well as being willing to accept any and all scratches either the wiping or the material leaves on the pages while being removed, then go for direct contact, otherwise just put in several small containers with the material in them, swap them out and turn the pages in any books/magazines regularly for best and safest effect.

This is absolutely the case, and can be for non-smokers as well if they're exposed to it on a consistent enough basis. Everyone in my house growing up smoked (including my brother, once he was of age) except me, and I honestly didn't notice it or realize how obnoxious it was until a while after I moved out. To this day, if I'm visiting a smoker's house, I'll notice at first, then fairly quickly become nose blind again, and continue to be so until a few hours after I've left or I've completely changed my clothes and then come back to what I was wearing. Until eBay makes "Smoke Free Home/Environment" a required checkbox for description, stuff like this will happen unless it's volunteered by the seller or asked about by the buyer.

Nope, neither. And I'm a reasonable supporter of the original idea of "defund the police" (back when it was about removing excess funds that they were using to buy things like tanks and extra armored vehicles and front-line military gear versus extra officers as needed, better and more training, etc.). In this case, the entire police force involved failed, and did so very badly, and very publicly. And yet the blue wall of silence prevails, with everybody refusing to say anything more than what's required to cover the ass of anyone else involved. They're paid to put themselves into harm's way for the sake and safety of the public, even if it comes to them having to make the ultimate sacrifice. If they're not able or willing to make that sacrifice when the call comes (which might have been the day this tragedy happened), they never should have put on the uniform and picked up the badge.

I've had good luck with the one I've backed (Wasteland 2, Pinball Aracde - Addams Family, Haunted Halloween '86, Full Quiet, Trogdoor!! The Board Game, Nox Archaist, NEScape!, Doodle World, and most recently Save the Kuin). Then again, nearly everything I've backed has also had game development pretty much completed by the time the Kickstarter went up, with that money primarily being requested to get the physical copies out the door. The only one that I've really been on the hook for was Full Quiet, which took a little over 5 years to ship, but they were an established group who provided constant updates, responded quickly when folks reached out directly, and had multiple physical game store locations they ran where you could personally go find them if worse came to worse, so I never lost faith. For the most part, I like the Kickstarter model, but am really only comfortable putting out decent sums of money if the product is pretty much out the door already.