MeganJoanne

Okay, so playing Skyrim, well, actually just creating characters and then noticed the fan inside the brick was starting to make grinding noises and then a moment later, console shut down, red light on power brick. Well, fuck. And here for hours this morning it was actually working. But now, it was hot again. Ugh. And once again short lived joy turns to sorrow.

Remembers those days what seems like ages ago when I had to fiddle with NES carts to get the console to read them. Wipe contacts with rubbing alcohol, okay clean, now read! Dammit, still not good. Shifts the cart ever so slightly, reset, got it! Always ever been those little pain in the ass issues, quirks to every console.

Well, disk drive perfectly fine and very clean inside, no point showing that. Found my issue with my Skyrim that I thought was in perfect shape, there is a fingernail shaped thick scratch or gash in the inner part close to the spindle hole. Don't understand how it got that. Tried about a dozen times to get it to play, sometimes showed the icon sometimes not, would not recognize the game once I tried to play it though. Except that one time early on when it played for about a minute and then froze, but nothing since then, but that was also prior to me cleaning the power supply. But I decided to try to install instead, several times, 3% then suddenly tells me the disc cannot be read that it was no good, damaged or dirty. Decided to try the toothpaste method that I have read about since many years ago but never actually needed to try, but wasn't sure how that could possibly work, and it didn't, but then maybe I rinsed it too well afterwards. I was going to give up but gave it one more try, this time not rinsing it afterwards, just wiped with a tissue (still left a smear I didn't quite see with my crappy eyes until this picture). Give it yet another try and then suddenly it goes beyond 3%, 4, 5, and so on, holy shit, it might make it. Almost there, 90, 95, 99%... ... 100%... installed. Yes! So now is just a matter of being able to get it to read initially so it knows I own a copy of the game and then just play off of the hard drive. At least I hope that would work fine, would avoid me having to spend more on another disc. So glad that it is not the disc drive, though mystery how the game got damaged there. Damn fragile discs. So, with final issues worked out, hopefully this console will provide me as many long hours as my last one did.

I had the console on for hours, and the whole time after cleaning the brick it never got hot, only warm, not the burning my hand feel it was at before, no red light, no sudden shut down, so I am confident I solved that problem. Okay, so I guess I'm good on the noise from it. My last 360 I had for over 3 years, never heard any noise from it at all, probably because the fan in the brick in that one was clogged too, that if I would have known what I do now, could have saved it. Oh well, took a while but experience level up. Going to take the console apart again later and see about taking a look at the laser. Thank you Jeevan. And probably didn't have to go through the trouble I did. Not only went through all that frustration with the seller and trying to come to a more fair deal for what could have been junk, but had to take everything apart and do a total house cleaning inside (pretty sure given the little 360 sticker on the back that I had to tear to open the console that I was the first to get inside of it) not just the console but the power supply, and my left hand is so sore today from all the screwing I was doing. Guess I wasn't doing it right, didn't have the right tool, but I managed. But I think a used console just wouldn't feel used if one didn't have to put a bit of effort into making them nice and shiny and workable, though one should always pay a fair price for them too. And mine was console and power supply only, for $59, then shipping on top of that and tax, thus came up to $79.02. I already have a generic wired controller which will suffice for now. $30 is much better and fair for me, but yeah, your $7 deal, that was a steal. At least I don't feel like I've been screwed as I felt like I had at the beginning.

I think I might be in good shape. Once my camera was charge, I started recording and plugged xbox 360 back in, turned it on, tested it out with State of Decay. Played that for nearly a half hour and all seems well with the power adapter, the brick never got hot, at most, warm or sorta hottish but not quite that much and that took a bit. Fan is noticable, I can hear it, I suppose that is better than not at all, at least I know it is spinning, so I guess that is good. Okay, so it has been a while since this video and the console is still on, currently waiting for game demos to download (a slow process with wi-fi). The console itself is letting off a lot of heat, but only from the vent and a bit on the right side but so far okay. Only other issue and one I had to start, still having trouble with Skyrim which makes no sense because the game worked perfectly fine when I last played that on my previous 360 and has been in the case since until I got this 360 and has not a single scratch upon it. Only thing I can think of, the disc reader is having issues with some games, because it said it couldn't read the disk the few times it failed to but then one time did though froze just a minute into starting, so I may have to remove that and take it apart also to see what it looks like, could also be dusty given how bad everything else was inside the console.

Ever since one of my NES consoles that I got in 1999 I have taken apart game consoles, and controllers to clean and/or repair them, as well as my laptops, but this was the first power brick thing I took apart. Lacked the proper tool for opening it, but got it opened, got it cleaned out, put back together again (except I did not put the 4 screws back, fuck no, they were hell to remove), now all I have to do is test it out. Just waiting for my camera to charge so I can record and take pictures and then it will either be good news or more of the same bad news. Anyway, for those interested, made some vids of my little project.

So, took apart the fan, used a few makeup brushes to brush away all the dust. Damn that was nasty. Not perfect, usually would wipe down parts with rubbing alcohol or wash anything nonelectrical, still, clean enough, so much better, clear enough that if the dust was the only cause of the overheating, then hopefully it will work properly now.

Okay, so spent some time yesterday trying to find a way into the power brick without the required security screwdriver bit. Hammer and screwdriver, pounding away at the little bump in the center of the 4 screws, then tried one of the asterisk shaped bits I have, the right shape and size, but no hole in the middle to make it fit properly, thus why I was trying to mash those bumps. Managed to get one flat enough that this bit I have actually worked, I was able to remove one of the screws. Yes! But still had 3 more to go. It was getting late, too late to be pounding and making a lot of noise so I tried a combination, flathead screwdriver bit which I tore the hell out of the tip of it and then the star/asterisk shaped one and got the rest of the screws removed. Whew. That was rough work. And of course, the fan was caked with thick yellowish-brown dust. Hopefully the only reason this thing was giving me the red light and those emergency shut offs.

Correction, after partial refund I paid $30, and 2 cents. Which was a much fairer price given the condition of it. But if I can get it working then even better. I thought at first, I give up, I'll just resell as-is, try to get all the money back that I spent, but now thinking, I want to be able to get this working right so maybe I will stick with it since I do have money to spare now. And if it still doesn't work, well learning experience, though that wasn't what I was after, sometimes just happens and can be costly, thus is life.

Have no experience in doing any of that. The 360 is the most modern console I've had so far, but being used to having to take consoles apart to clean dust out or whatever is as far as I've ever done.

Took the console apart, it was extremely dusty as I figured, though because of special screws impossible to remove with any of my screwdrivers, can't open the brick. At least the console is clean now. But console still overheating because brick is probably either clogged with dust, which is most likely, or it is simply just faulty in some other way. It lasted longer though this time, playing for 45 minutes but turned it off before it shone the red light which was close to happening given how hot both console and power brick were becoming, again. Would a new brick solve the issue, I would like to think so, would hope so.

Okay, so several years ago I got a 360 from a friend, had that for a few years up until last year when problems that it started with escalated to the point of being unplayable, mainly overheating which cause games to freeze, the console to abruptly turn off even just a few minutes into a game, controls not responding and all sorts of mess. I took it apart, dusted it out, eventually leaving the casing unscrewed just to easily get at the insides better for regular maintenance. But after a time, nothing I did helped, I ended up too frustrated by it, tossed it, piece of junk. Fast forward, last week ordered another one for myself off of ebay, this from a seller with all positive marks, so thought, okay, plenty of pictures, looks good, had good communication, shipped out right away, though the post office got screwy and this priority mail package came to Austin, then suddenly right back to where it came from, and then back again and finally I get it. It was packaged very well, lots of bubble wrap, very well protected. I take it out, look it over, looks good cosmetically. Needed a little bit of dusting, the console looks great. Though the power supply, the brick, super dusty, on the inside. I used a make up brush as well as a needle to remove a lot of it from the small holes along the sides, felt satisfied, at least that I hope I removed enough of it and the whole thing wasn't filled with it. I plug it all up, turn it on and after a time trying to remember how to set it up and trying to get my games onto it with my account, start up State of Decay and play that for a little bit. All seems well, but felt the console every few moments and it was getting hotter, but not just that, the brick as well. Hmm, only ever had the 360 I had before this and that was used also, and wonder, what are the odds of me getting another one with the same issues? After a short break I try out some more games, first it does not recognize my Skyrim disc, what the fuck? Was okay with Fallout 3 for the handful of minutes I tested it, but then with Oblivion, having gotten too hot, too hot to hold in the hand for even a moment, the power brick gave me a red light and the system was instantly shut off as a result. To Oblivion with this! Really?! After giving it time to cool down I give it another shot, try a few more games, and as with before after a short time of 20 something minutes, got to Just Cause 2, controls were hesitant, sometimes buttons worked, sometimes not, and then suddenly, red light on brick, super hot again, instant shut down. Try again, this time unplugged from power strip, plugged directly into wall outlet (cause I'm grasping at straws). Skyrim finally worked after I unistalled it and read directly from disc only (strange), but then froze up not even but a minute into starting from a save point. Oblivion worked this time though the system hadn't reached full heat intensity yet. Tomb Raider Underworld froze on black screen before anything came up. Castlevania Symphony of the Night seemed fine but that is the least taxing game I have with being an older game and not 3D, played til the first boss duo. Far Cry III, a few minutes, threw a grenade, power brick showed red and the whole thing yet again, kablooey. Okay, so stayed in contact with seller the whole time with what was going on, pictures, a video showing the issue happening. She offered to send me a replacement power brick. I didn't feel too confident in that, because what if that too didn't work, like what if the console itself is fuck also? It was a stressful, very disappointing day, and I felt like I should have just waited until a time I could afford an xbox one instead of trying my luck with old used crap, just because I have games for it that I enjoy the hell out of and miss playing. Eventually end of the night she offers me a deal, I paid $79 for it, she'd give me $45 back and I keep the console. I couldn't imagine her wanting to scam me or anything given her ratings and the trouble she herself was going through with this, because that would put her at risk of a negative mark on her seller status. After much consideration, I took the offer, and she gave me back $49 (extra $4 over what she initial offered), and I can either look at this as losing $30.02 or actually doing okay, that is if, if I can either get a new power supply that could, maybe make this work as it should, that is if the console itself is okay, or resell it as-is for parts or whatever because with that overheating issue impossible for me to know if it is just the power brick (be it still lots of dust inside or just faulty) or both that and the console. I cannot use it currently, risk not only to further damage to the console but also as hot as the power brick thing got, worry about fire hazard with that. I don't want to chance wasting money on another power supply and cord if ultimately it continues to overheat, been through that already with my last 360 and thousands of hours of joy over the course of several years turned into frustration much like I experience with the launch of the very first Playstation and its issues of freezing and troubles with fmv that nearly made me give up on it. I do not want to give up on the 360, I like the games too much for it, but then I could have those same games and more if I upgraded, moved on, but I opted to stay with the 360 for now and well, this is what I got, like I was right back where I was at the end of my last one, but right at the start of this one, the issue of faulty parts, overheating, whatever else could be wrong with it. I could chance opening it up, but it was hard enough getting into my 360 last year to open that without the proper special screwdriver and certainly I am not for wanting to risk health trying to get into the power brick just to try to clear it of all dust and risk electric shock for what could still probably not work right. There are cheapy generic power bricks thingies, brand new, but have no idea of how good those are, and certainly not for trusting something that could fail a short time after getting it and now also even more leary about getting another one used at all. Maybe that is all that is wrong, get one that works as it should, everything okay, got a 360 for $30, but if not, lose $30 and then whatever I pay for another power supply. At a dilemma, and one I should not even be experiencing, but here I am, paid money for something that I can't use unless I can safely get it to work. Fast foward to 23 minutes into video, red light, instant shut down.

Cross-stitch for random drawing I just finished. Was sorta spur of the moment, not planned but wanted to do something for this one since it's been a while since I did any, missed making some for the two of the classics, Donkey Kong and Mario Bros, so stayed up late stitching this and watching an old cheesy, good fun space opera movie, Starcrash.

Gave it about an hour. Furthest I got was to the second snake boss. My highest score so far: 1.133.713

Recca. Played it for about an hour, for the contest this week. I hadn't participated for a while and decided to give this one a shot. It is really intense, a little too much that it is really hard to see much of what is going on when too much is happening at once, it is complete chaos. I did enjoy it for the time I played it but did have to look up what the different power ups were because there were too many letters and two color types and with all the craziness it was hard to tell what was giving me what. Love the shield system and how when not shooting it automatically charges and can block even the deadliest of shots and then you can shoot the shield energy off and then it recharges again during your next long pause without blasting, pretty cool and effective. Still, even after nearly an hour and gradually getting further into the game, I struggle with controlling the too fast moving ship, especially when fighting the second boss, losing more than a few lives to it trying to move lightly but moving too much and crashing multiple times into its blasts. And As I say this, suddenly now it occurs to me to try the select button, duh, like Space Megaforce. So the default speed is fast, actually mid level speed for this ship which has 5 levels of speed. I can't imagine even being able to play this on the fastest, like any other space shmup would just cause me to crash into shit. Okay, so will have to give this another whirl next time with the knowledge that I can adjust the speed of my ship to my liking.

Just finished playing through Willow on the NES. Last time I played this was in 2003, so it was long overdue to be played through again. Like Crystalis which I played through last year it was very enjoyable to play again after so much time. Crystalis when I played that again then, it was even better than my earlier years playing it, loved it, every bit of it. Willow, as well, but as I played I did have some gripes, small one, some items are not spaced out very well, such as getting the Kaiser Sword from Airk in Tir Asleen and using it just to kill the Eborsisk boss and then getting the Wonder Sword just moments later in the same place and then not too long after the Wonder Sword not being much use because the Wing Sword gets an upgrade. The bigger gripe are the bosses, they are lame, mostly lacking any challenge, something I forgot until I studied them for a few moments to realize, they don't do a whole hell of a lot. They can take you down quick damaged wise and you can't use magic when fighting so can't heal, which is odd. The whole boss fight thing doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the game actually. And the final boss Bavmorda, you have to hit her with shots from Cherlindrea's Wand, and every shot has to hit without fail otherwise once out of magic you are screwed, no other way to harm her in the first phase of her attack. Just lame. Another gripe, can't skip or fast forward dialogue, you have to listen to the whole conversation, not so bad really, unless you enter the tavern again and find yourself listening to the same very long conversation you just heard and didn't think would happen again when all you wanted to do was get some rest to restore some HP and MP. The good, excluding the bosses, the action throughout and the world to explore, all good. The music really good, some favorite tunes here that I hum from time to time despite having not played the game in ages. Love how the screen shifts and warps when enemies are attacking, especially with trees shaking and grass swaying. Swords have weight, that if you are too low an experience level your skill with it will be low thus slower slashes with your sword, though my only very small issue with this is that it is tied to your total experience level, thus once high every sword will be easy to use, and leveling up while requiring some grinding doesn't really take that long. I think the whole sword skill thing could have been better done if each sword had to be learned by using it, but then perhaps that would just over complicate it. Only real, and again minor issue I have with the swords is forgetting to switch to the Devil Eye for those ghosts and undead enemies and then forgetting to switch back to another sword to every other type of enemy. Oh, Willow's shields, I like these, they work as they should, blocking most shots and attacks, with a satisfying click each time, and this is important because I hate when games give shields and all they do is give you a status boost to your overall armor level or something, though I never did explore the differences in Willow's shields, and how much better one protected against another one. The game only very loosely follows the movie, sorta like Batman, also for the NES, got the locations, the characters, the plot but changes it up to play out differently and adds in a whole bunch of new stuff, and it's all fine and dandy because it is a game and the best ones don't completely follow the movies exactly. Though with as much as is different, they could have done made it their own completely, come up with their own characters and those few things from the movie that are actually used in the game change those as well as the locations and names and perhaps they could have kept this going into a sequel and actually had something longer lasting. Perhaps, but then nothing else ever really come after Crystalis aside from a few other ports of the same game (no sequels or prequels, nothing else) and that was all original and one of the best overhead action adventure RPGs, so even if Capcom did their own completely instead of using the Willow license, well, guess we will never know whether it would have been enough for it to become a series, after all, aside from Megaman and a few others, most of their early games were one time hits. I always found it odd how in this game Willow, who is a magician uses primarily swords and shields, and that is pretty much how I play him because magic is limited. But by me guess they were making him sorta the Link to the original Zelda game. Though I would have enjoyed using Madmartigan for the fighting and switching characters to use Willow for spells, but then why bother, again, loosely based on the movie, in here Willow is just as competent with sword as he is with magic. And just as the Willow game got inspiration from the first Zelda, Zelda: A Link to the Past took a few ideas from this game, such as Po, the flying creature in this game which acts as fast transport to a handful of visited places, as well as how Willow slashes and stabs with his sword, and even some of the magic spells are sorta the same, and overall sorta has a similar feel, such as I get when in the villages in Willow to that one village Koko... something in Zelda: ALttP, as well as the caves. What Willow though is missing is puzzles, nope, all action here. I think if the game would have had something more besides straight up action (aside from the wandering around trying not to get lost in caves) then it could have been a stronger contender. Still, bosses aside, the game is still a favorite overhead action/adventure/RPG game for me. Recorded my whole gaming session, something I haven't done in a while.

I dunno. But my guess it is just a glitch, same with the damage air-jump thing. Who knows but the ones who made it. But so many games have these kind of glitch trick moves, where you time something just during the right frame and exact location necessary for it to occur, like Castlevania II where when you whip just as you fall from the edge of a block, if timed just right you will fall but keep falling through the ground, or as acromite53 discovered in Mario Bros that if you pause just as you jump to hit the bottom of a floor if timed just right when you unpause you'll jump up through the floor. And then there's one I discovered long ago, is Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th where if you kill him on a path and enter a cabin door just as he is fading he will revive even stronger taking far more hits to kill than before. Oh, and then there is Super Mario Bros, jumping up between blocks and the edge of the screen while ducked and Mario will slide through the wall upon standing again. But then there's that oddity in how to reach the Minus World. I always wonder how glitches are born, how they come into being, especially given ones like these where the condition can be met every time it will always occur. Glitches can be a real pain in the ass, especially those that are game breaking and just random because there was too much shit going on at once or it was just programmed really poorly, but then there are fun and potentially useful ones like Low G Man and these other ones.

Okay, so I got me a decent recording of me trying this pit jump thingy and managed to pull it off several times. Also demonstrate the mid-air jump that happens if you get hit while in the air and time a jump at just the right frame upon recovering. Okay, made a short video showing the mid-air damage jump thing and yes, can do it multiple times without even touching the ground, it's sorta like using enemies as stepping stones without freezing them. Also continued to test that pit jump, on the Industrial stage, but of probably a hundred tries I maybe pulled it off a dozen times. The collision in mid-air-jump is much easier. The timing on that pit jump is about as tough to perform as the falling through the floor glitch in Simon's Quest. Could it save you if you happened to think about it when about to fall to your death, sure, if you just so happen to press the jump button at just precisely the right time.

Tried it, and managed to do it a bunch of times. At first I thought it might be related to being able to jump again after getting hit by an enemy while in mid-jump, but maybe not. It seems for the pit thing you have to time it just right so that just as his foot touches bottom you leap off of the bottom of the screen. You can do a double jump with enemies if timed right too, just as you recover from getting hit in air, press jump and it will give you a boost. Was trying to make some videos of both these but the damn emulator kept lagging, freezing for an instant randomly. Will try some more in a little bit and see if I can better understand the timing needed for that pit jump particularly.

Nice! Am going to try that right now!

Kick ass all about the action, does it awesomely. Very exciting ride.

Enjoyed the first two movies a lot, so one can only hope in this age that it will stay true and be excellent.

Oops, thought it said movie...that's what happens when you go into a topic still half asleep (having just woke up 10 minutes ago) and vote. 9/10 for the movie, don't know about the game. Anyway, killer fucking game... I guess. It was popular so I can only assume it was as great as most claimed it to be.

Would love to see it. Always interesting to find out cool stuff in a game that I didn't know about.

Okay, made a video, hope this helps. Unless you want to watch the whole thing, fast forward to around 7:07. I ran out of time prior to that not paying attention, didn't feel like stopping the recording and starting another so I just kept it rolling. Anyway, starting with no power ups, used only what the stage offers, got through it, though because it has been ages since I played this, took me over a dozen tries to accomplish it. I owned this back in the day and played the hell out of it then so used to be really good at it, so when I saw the question I was like, hmm, could have sworn I got through it multiple times with nothing to start, but I had to be sure, so took up the challenge to find out for sure.