Teh_Lurv

I can totally see trading card companies looking at EA loot box mechanics and online collectable auction sites and adopting that system. Log into a sports card website, pay $2.99 to buy/open a virtual card park. Flash of light and glitter and your cards appear on screen. The website will then mail you are cards unless you didn't like what you got, so instead click the "recycle" button to discard those cards for a 5% discount on your next card pack purchase. Get lucky and wind up with a highly sought after rare? You could have the company mail it to you...or you could immediately put it up for resale on their own internal auction marketplace for a modest fee. Scuzziness from the beginning to the end of the collecting pipeline.

It has come to this: Trading card collecting has gotten so feverish Target has decided it's safer to take sports and Pokemon cards off their store shelves. From The Verge: "Target has decided that it’s had enough: the company has officially confirmed to Bleeding Cool that it will halt the sales of Pokémon cards throughout the US, starting Friday, May 14th. The retailer cities “an abundance of caution” for the safety of both guests and store employees and notes that it will still be selling the cards on its site. ... Target has recently started limiting how many packs customers are allowed to purchase, and has even threatened to get law enforcement involved if it found people camping out by its stores for them. There was also an incident at one of the stores where someone pulled a gun during a fight about sports cards — which could explain why the halt also applies to MLB, NFL, and NBA cards as well." https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/12/22433236/target-halts-sale-pokemon-mlb-nba-nfl-trading-cards-may-14

Maybe they're operating under the assumption that import collectors are willing to pay a premium?

This story caught my eye: Legendary Japanese retro-game store Super Potato has finally opened an International eBay shop to sell their merchandise. From what I understand, Super Potato relies heavily on tourist collector dollars so I guess the pandemic has forced them to branch out into online sale. "Described as " a museum as much as a shop ," the flagship store (which is spread across three entire floors) boasts a vast array of video game, anime, and manga products, with a focus on rare Japanese retro games. Now, these products will be offered up to international buyers, although prices aren't cheap; according to eBay, some of the store's featured items are way above average in the price department." https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/04/super_potato_japans_legendary_game_store_opens_its_very_own_international_ebay_shop Super Potato eBay Store Link

True, but I'd bet a lot of those games require a Day 1 patch to get them to a usable state. I think are putting the cart before the horse with the clock battery issue. Sony could always EOL patch out the clock battery requirement or custom firmware hacks could be created.

I think it's easier to think of NFTs in terms of trading cards. If you own a 1-out-of-10 foil card of Pikachu, you don't own the image or have any rights to the IP, but you do own a physical object bearing the image that happens to be limited to 10 copies. NFTs are basically digital trading cards that can encapsulate other digital media. How many NFTs exist for a digital object is up to the person creating and selling them.

Happy Birthday @Pendragonx!

Nope, you don't get the trademark or copyright to the digital item. All you essentially own is the code in a blockchain, but not the actual contents. Really all it serves is a proof of authenticity. An artist could create a unique NFT of digital art, right-click copy the artwork, and spread exact copies of the image all over the Internet. In theory, that NFT of the digital art still has worth because it's "authentic".

I stumbled upon this Twitter thread this morning; a sharp-eared listener noticed buried within a 90 minute interview with Adam Conover (Adam Ruins Everything), he briefly discusses an anecdote of how Nintendo abruptly cancelled the live-action Legend of Zelda Netflix series as well as a Claymation Star Fox series in development by CollegeHumor due to someone at Netflix leaking news about development of the Zelda series. Amazing how deals like this can fall apart so easily. The world was denied (or spared depending on your POV) a live-action Zelda series because someone at Netflix jumped the gun on the hype. Though I am disappointed the fallout ruined that Star Fox series. A series in the style of the Fantastic Mr. Fox would've been cool to see. The Youtube video in question if you want to hear Adam's whole story (starts at 39:06):

A few months ago, a SNES modder by the handle of Gizaha discovered while reverse-engineering the game's source code a convoluted sequence of steps that would unlock a playable version of Shin Akuma. The steps you need to take are: Beat arcade mode on any difficulty and earn enough points to score at the top of the leaderboard Enter the initials KAJ When you return back to the title screen, choose Arcade or Versus mode while holding down L+X+Y+Start on the player 2 controller until the character select screen appears Highlight Akuma at the character select screen, hold down Start, and press a button to choose him. If you did everything right, Akuma's gi will change color to Shin Akuma's color. From what I've read, unlocking Shin Akuma bugs out the arcade mode, so perhaps this is why this secret code was never made public back in the day.

IIRC, Gamestop started selling homebrew and multi-cart games about a year ago.

No word yet that I'm aware of, however I'd expect it by the fall to coincide with holiday shopping.

Walmart is selling a Switch Pro Controller + Digital Download of Super Mario Odyssey for $70: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Nintendo-Switch-Pro-Controller-with-Super-Mario-Odyssey-Full-Game-Download-Code/925436036?irgwc=1&sourceid=imp_zz03HFUJWxyOTIWwUx0Mo38TUkEwaRTVUwOUSs0&veh=aff&wmlspartner=imp_312361&clickid=zz03HFUJWxyOTIWwUx0Mo38TUkEwaRTVUwOUSs0&sharedid=&ad_id=612734&campaign_id=9383

Man I was really hoping Nintendo would learn from the Amiibo and NES Mini fiascos and provide consumers with a normal pre-order process. Instead I was rushing onto Best Buy's website to secure a unit as soon as I woke up this morning. All the while my mood towards Nintendo was pretty much this:

Pretty damn awesome that they're reprinting two of the expansions along with the base game.

Did you skim over my post? Because I never said Top Player's Golf was Big Tournament Golf and I provided the most likely reason why Neo Turf Masters isn't included on this mini-cab.

Augusta National Golf Club objected to the name, as they own the "Masters" trademark. That's why the Hamster port of Neo Turf Masters on the Switch was patched to use the Japanese arcade title. https://www.resetera.com/threads/what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-neo-turf-masters.135837/#post-23730420 I guess they didn't want to put in the time/effort patching the english rom to update the arcade title.

Multiple outlets in the gaming industry are reporting that Nintendo is planning on releasing HD ports of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, & Mario 3D World are getting the Switch HD port treatment. These re-releases are to drum up hype for a new entry in the Paper Mario series.

Yeah, I've been doing similar things. I guess there is a video going around Facebook that has been spreading mis-information about food safety wrt Coronavirus. I came across this Twitter thread by a food microbiologist debunking the assertions made in the video with his own recommendations. If you don't want to read the whole thread, his main recommendations are: Minimize the time you spend in supermarkets Practice social distancing while there Wash/Sanitize your hands after handling groceries/before you eat So not too much more over the standard food cleanliness/preparation people should normally practice. It puts my mind a little at ease.

Yeah, IIRC Cuomo's COVID update yesterday produced a statistic that the stay at home order in NYC is starting to have an effect. The expected growth of hospitalizations went from doubling every 2 days on Sunday to every 4.7 days by Tuesday.

Playboy Magazine is another victim of logistics disruptions caused by the Coronavirus. The print magazine is shutting down for the rest of 2020: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/playboy-magazine-is-closing-down-probably-for-good.html

Who was that guy on NA who posted pics with his N64 copy of Shadow Man? Is he here on VGS? I'm sure he'll be happy with this news: https://www.ign.com/articles/n64-favorite-shadow-man-remaster-announced-for-pc-ps4-xbox-one-and-nintendo-switch

Tom Hanks & his wife announced they contracted CoronaVirus. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/business/media/tom-hanks-coronavirus.html

It's growing increasingly likely E3 will be cancelled this year. With big devs gradually moving away from E3, this might be the death knell for the expo:

Many younger voters sat out on the Super Tuesday primary, contributing to Sander's losses. This is a pretty sobering article. If Sanders can't get the turnout among the demographic most inclined to his message, I can't see how he can be an effective Democratic nominee against Trump.