darkchylde28

32 minutes ago, B.A. said:

Haha, isn't that funny!  They actually booted me to regular member status for like an hour, then went back and made me a moderator.

I guess it's to avoid the appearance of being as butt-hurt about it as they obviously are?    Seriously, anybody paying any amount of actual attention to what's been going on with the community and what little response there has been from the new owners (since the beginning) should be able to see what's going on without reading too much between the lines.  Sad to see so many faces I recognize seeming to side with the "wrong side" in all of this.  Hopefully said folks will eventually see the light when substantial traffic dries up over there (or the plug gets completely pulled, which is a possibility given the platform it's built on) and migrate over here, even if it's in a "dual citizen" capacity.

Additionally, I do find it kind of funny that they're now putting their foot down about folks talking about or endorsing the new place.  I know it wasn't extremely prevalent in the past, but I recall seeing mentions, references to, and recommendations to other communities provided where appropriate and nobody ever batting an eye over it.  It will be interesting to see if bans on other communities is universal, or just applicable to VGS.  If it's the latter, it'll be very telling, even by those who don't want to see it.

5 minutes ago, ThePhleo said:

In their defense it makes total sense to do that to someone with that much control over the site especially considering that they now call a competitor home.

That does make sense, but they've had how long, now, to take that action against him?  They could have also come out in the open with what they were doing, versus leaving BA or members to notice that it had occurred.  I don't blame that sort of position on their part at all, but the manner in which it was done, and behind closed doors, with zero warning or pre-emptive/on-the-spot explanation just paints a bad picture, even if the intentions were honest.

13 hours ago, B.A. said:

Or they let it go because they were slow to react and the cat was out of the bag.  They would look even worse censoring everything at that point.  Damage control.  That gets my vote. 

I'd go along with that too.  Doesn't help that they suddenly downgraded your access from Admin to Moderator at what appears to be the same time.  Even if you'd already stepped down in any official capacity (which seems less likely, given that you're still showing mod status on the site as of this morning), the timing seems awfully suspect and potentially meant as a quiet statement on their part.

1 hour ago, Andy_Bogomil said:

I get that it's essentially the same chemistry but for whatever reason it seems to work better than using alcohol itself - maybe the lack of moisture?. One thing is, it's easy to control in that format and the chemical balance seems to be just right so that it eats up the marker but doesn't do much, if any, damage to the item. I draw right on top of the permanent marker so there isn't much risk of getting more ink on it if you take your time and just wipe as you're going along. I used to use alcohol with a Q-Tip but it often faded or made the colors run on boxes and manuals as it seemed to penetrate the surface much easier. 

For boxes, labels, manuals, etc., basically anything that's paper and not plastic, you really ought to try out lighter fluid.  It can lift stains, remove stickers, etc., and leave the paper bits untouched afterward, so long as you let it dry out properly.  I can understand the level of control, and the preference in the case of paperwork, but honestly alcohol itself is just as effective on carts (and toys and walls, etc.).

48 minutes ago, WhyNotZoidberg said:

With the dry-erase marker technique there's way less rubbing involved and that's what I like.

I once managed to change the texture of the plastic by scrubbing intensively w/ alcohol once and my cart ended up with a noticeable shiny patch. Not doing that again.

As for using any products on label, one needs to make sure the coating is still intact under the residue you want removed. Wether it's goo gone, alcohol or a dry erase marker, you want none of it on exposed paper fiber.

Honestly, there doesn't have to be a ton of rubbing involved, as in non-label cases you should be able to just apply a little alcohol and let it sit.  Rubbing will make it work faster, but a little patience can do the job too.  Part of the issue with rubbing on a textured surface is folks' tendency to believe (consciously or unconsciously) that applying more pressure means that it'll work better.

27 minutes ago, RH said:

I will say that as much as I stand by the brake fluid method, I've found that it seems to only work well/perfectly with "Sharpie" brand.  If the marker was a cheap knock-off brand, or a different type of marker, it doesn't work as well.

That said, there's something about the DOT-3 oil that breaks down the enzymes in Sharpie ink near-miraculously.  It might take a couple of applications, but it gets the ink 100% off.

I think the same is most likely true with other brands of marker (so long as they haven't permanently stained the plastic), as brake fluid, given enough time, will break down paint, pen, marker, etc.  I'd seen mention of this method on NA a few times but not really taken any stock in it one way or the other until I saw a few toy restoration videos on YouTube where the heavily stained/painted parts left to soak in it (either totally submerged, or just the stained/painted part being under the surface of the fluid).  While it can easily stain labels due to the paper they're made of, I've seen enough videos of pink/peach Action Man and Masters of the Universe toys coming back to life to firmly believe there's no real chance of it doing any damage to the plastic.  While it might take more than one application to remove some really old, stubborn marks, brake fluid still ought to do the job given enough time.  That's not to say that other methods should be used/attempted, but I don't think brake fluid should necessarily be relegated to the bottom of the pile because it's not necessarily convenient--maybe just left as the "big guns" option, the way Brasso is in regard to cleaning pins.

I'm always left scratching my head at the popularity of the dry erase marker method, as it's literally the alcohol in their solution that does the job (which is what keeps the ink in the marker from setting and allows it to be wiped away--most of the time).  With this being the case, why not go whole hog and not take the additional risk of getting more marker dye onto a label or such?  Is it the novelty of it, where it's a self-contained item, whereas with alcohol you've got to have at least a couple of different items present to make it effective?  Honestly curious here, as the chemistry between the two is basically the same (with the markers having additional dye/ink for marking purposes).

I doubt it, at least in my case.  Unless everybody suddenly writes off NES collecting, liquidates their collections at the same time, and all the nostalgia dies, I don't see SE ever coming back down into any range that one could consider "reasonable."

I don't know the answer, but as far as II & III being "rare," I don't think that's the case, at least not in the context of retail.  By the time they had dropped DW4, it makes sense that the previous two entries would be harder to find, as they'd most likely stopped shipping new units for both a decent amount of time prior.  Googling around, it appears that DW2 dropped in North America in 1988, and DW3 appears to have had some limited release in 1991 but not officially dropped until (presumably) early 1992, with DW4 following up in October of 1992.  I can't see any date information on the letter posted, but if it was from 1993-1994 and they'd kept shipping DW4 but not any of the earlier games, their classification of 2 & 3 as "hard to find" would make sense, but wouldn't really make them "rare," just hard to find or not longer available at retail.

Alcohol isn't always the answer.  You're right about the alcohol in dry erase markers being the trick with those.  Sometimes marker/Sharpie has just been dried onto a cart so long that it takes repeated efforts to get it to budge.  As you've discovered, don't apply additional pressure, as doing so can cause the texture to scrub off the cart.

Lighter fluid is another good solution and can be fantastic for getting sticky labels off of things (boxes especially), although you'd need to be careful not to get it near the labels on your carts, as it'll dissolve the adhesive on everything in its path, not just the stuff you don't want.  Another often effective solution, believe it or not, is brake fluid--you've just got to be careful with where it ends up and might need to let it set a little before being able to wipe away the offending marks.

I have to admit, I've been getting a good chuckle out of the Shockmaster bit (which I was previously unaware of) all day.  However, I got a renewed bout after finding THIS!

HAHAHAHAHA!  Apparently this was a SDCC 2016 exclusive, and they actually packaged him like that!  There are apparently a few other releases of the character, but they're packaged upright, like standard figures.  This is totally classic!

Thanks for the heads up.  Sad on both counts, really.  You'd figure the functionality could be ported somewhere else if bunnyboy really wanted to, but I suppose if he's team Wata/GC/etc., I guess there's not really any reason to do so, at least not until NA falls over.  Even then, I'd say it's at the low end of selling points for the AVS these days, so I suppose it wouldn't be a high priority, regardless.  As far as I'm aware, retroUSB was really the only dedicated hardware manufacturer that was embedded in the old site, but I know a lot of software folks were pretty firmly entrenched.  I have a feeling that it'll be a bit yet before we see the end of the "who gets the friend" game that almost always occurs after a "breakup."

Does anybody know what bunnyboy's thoughts on the "separation" are/have been?  I don't recall having seen him crop up in any of the threads that were ongoing on the old site and am curious if he might make the migration as so many have already in the past few days.  I'm also curious as to what the fate of the scoreboard feature on the AVS will be, what with the site it was built to communicate with seemingly entering its death spiral.  I know a lot of folks don't use it, but it would be nice to see that function survive, even if it ends up being somewhere else (preferably here, but open to other venues as well).

11 hours ago, doner24 said:

Book 3 of Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera. It’s great like everything else he does.

Thanks for the reminder about him!  I've not been able to get into his fantasy stuff, but have been chomping at the bit for the next Dresden book to drop for, what...good lord!  We literally haven't had a new Dresden book to read since before my son was born, more than 5 years ago at this point.  That's ridiculous!  (Given his prior propensity to hammer them out every year or so, and the next one being #16)

Thankfully, it appears that he finally finished the book this past July and a release date is forthcoming.  Fingers crossed he'll get back on the horse and get this series done before he leaves it out to pasture again!

If I didn't have them, I'd pick them up regardless of shape (while respecting @MrMark0673's above pass/throw away terms above) and just hang onto them until a better replacement comes along.  If you've got them, you've got them, even if they're no prize to look at, and you can always pick up a better one (and perhaps trade/sell off the worse one) later on.

I don't think this will cause any sort of meteoric rise across the spectrum, but I do see the potential for some price bumps of the lesser known/used systems (Lynx, NGPC) versus what we've seen before.  Honestly, so long as an Everdrive-equivalent exists for any/all systems, I don't see it as as much of an issue personally, as those are systems that I like playing far more than trying to collect for.  If carts skyrocket, it won't break my heart so long as I've got an option to actually play what games are out there already.  And hey, if/when jailbreak firmware arrives, a flash cart probably won't even be necessary!

I'll be straddling both horses until the old one gives out and falls over, presumably sometime within the next few weeks to couple of months.  I figure it can't hurt to type in the URL, see what's up, then move on if nothing's happening.  I know a lot of folks feel a lot more strongly, but as I'm generally more of a lurker and a relative latecomer to the old site, I'm not quite as riled up, although I do understand, support, and love the move to ensure the community can stay together.

Just made the jump myself a little bit ago.  Excited to see this place already hopping!

8 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Oh my god, I signed up on day 2. I can never be one of the OGs now.

Day 4, apparently, as I looked at a couple of folks' profiles and saw them having joined up this past Saturday.  I guess day 2 of "official" opening?