... I have a new capture card. I kind of didn't know my PC had a PCI-E slot so I'd been looking at boxes which frankly didn't do everything I wanted considering how damned much they cost. $100 for component-only, $200 for one that can do component, composite and s-video... urrrgh. Having a slot, however, opened up the opportunity to get this little monster.

It can't do realtime previews and I don't have a passthrough solution so anything I capture with the HDMI or component is going to amount to drunken staggering but if it can get something THIS pretty from the s-video feed it's worth blind shambling... granted, shortly thereafter I kinda fell off of a parapet into some lava, but eh, that'll happen.

It's a shame I use what little power I have for utterly pointless shenaniganry. The setup for capturing images and video from systems using s-video is working nicely... so what do I use it for? Do I break out Christmas NiGHTs and get some clearer caps of that? Maybe some nice images of Super Tempo? Hell, maybe Deep Fear for the fans of obscure survival horror?..

Nope.

Battle Monsters. A relic from the era of digitized fighters, Battle Monsters is an unbalanced and unredeemable game whose roster includes a claymation demon that may be made of brown clay, twin cave-clown-people-things, a ghost that looks to be wearing a baseball cap backwards and a perky neon green ballerina type who honks "HI!" upon victory. Truly, it is a thing to be remembered.

Also, the Japanese version calls the clay devil 'Strawbelly Jam'. Yep.

I'm waiting for an s-video splitter to come in the mail because I really want to do direct captures from the array's Saturn. I could gank the spare but that'd only garner me composite images and removing the cable itself would be an absolute pain. Culdcept images will have to wait for a few more days. I've been mussing with the N64 again as evidenced in the uploads. I've also been fussing with Virtual Dub in an attempt to clear some interlacing issues which result in about 80% of my captured images being discarded. AMCap is just limited in its abilities. I'm pleased with the results so far- some snaps of Terminator turned out just dandy!.. although why anyone would really want less than pixel-perfect screenshots of Terminator for the Genesis escapes me. A guinea pig is a guinea pig!

... Nah, not really. I do, however, have two loverly pictures of the United Earth President person from an old Playstation shooter named Disruputor. Whyfor? I wanted to get the ol' capture device set up so I can get some new images before I get accused of stealing images from myself. I took the damned things so I figure that provided nobody's reaping financial benefits from them they can be posted wherever. Still, new stuff, shinier stuff, s-video stuff!

Not that it matters, but I generally do horrible while capturing screenshots. This is because I have to do everything myself and operating a smushed-in Playstation d-pad and a mouse at the same time is... difficult. I was able to beat a robot to death with a pipe, though. I'm not totally incapable, only mostly :D !

I am an idiot. This much is not a secret. I also like old stuff. This is also not a secret. That my CRT's general well being has been in question... that is not a secret, but falls more into the category of 'who gives a damn'.

Why do I have one at all? Light gun games. Try getting a Zapper or a Justifier working on an LCD or plasma set. I'm sure with heavy modification, enough blood, sweat, tears and maybe a goat/orphan sacrifice or two it could be done but I'm not that ambitious. Having a tv heavy enough to squash said orphan is much, much easier.

I'm not really sure how many years I've been using the Sharp for. What I do know is that it's been rolled down the stairs at least once when I was moving and later suffered a nasty drop which cracked the outer rim of the casing. It's a survivor but eventually even survivors die...

So, duder was ditching a TV and offered to let me have the thing out of the goodness of his heart- more likely he just didn't want to drag it all the way to the dumpster, and hey, it's technically recycling, right?

It is the cutest damned thing. I'm a sucker for woodgrain and the stylings of years passed by. I really don't think anyone would like my old-ass radio, either, but I love it even if it's a mono-only monster with poor reception.

The TV's been sitting in my room for about a month. I've dreaded turning it on for fear that it wouldn't turn on, or the picture would be incredibly wonky or something that would necessitate getting rid of it. Not knowing allowed it to have the potential of being useful without actually having to prove that it was. Today, however, it was time.

DUEL OF THE TELEVISIONS. On the left, the 'newcomer', a Sony Triniton with a manufacturing date of 1985. It's noticeably smaller, has poorer black quality than the Sharp but seems so much brighter. What's really impressive, however, is the sound. This thing has an impressive set of internal speakers and the means to tamper with them. We have the means to control its treble from a conveniently-located panel secreted in the front. The only real drawback apart from its smaller screen size is the question of its durability- ain't no way nobody rolling this one down the stairs unscathed.

The Sharp... ugh. All of its higher functions were tied to the remote (which I lost) so I'd need to find some sort of universal remote to even try and fix the colors which may not even be possible. Its picture has rapidly gotten darker so I'm more suspicious that the unit is just dying.

Part of me feels kind of silly replacing a TV from 1998 with a unit that's a year younger than I am. But... how can I really argue with results like this?..

Collecting games is a major hobby of mine so I kind of have a lot of different formats. Different formats require different consoles and sometimes you can't have them all in one place so they get split up into little groups.

These are the arrays. It's just the stupid name I gave to my two groups of idiot consoles. They are not orbital laser cannons, which is a shame, because that would be much, much cooler. 'Fire hazard' would have also been a good name for them if not for the network of power strips that keep most of the systems off at any given time.

The main array is all of that which is stuck to the LCD TV. It contains; Atari 2600 (mini), NES, SNES, Genesis CD 32x (model 2/2), Mega Drive/CD (JP, model 1/2), PCE Duo, N64, Saturn, PS, 3D0, Jaguar, N64, PS2, PS2 (JP), XBox, GC, Wii, 360, PS3

The secondary array is mostly for lightgun use and houses some spare systems. It has; Atari 2600 (light 6), Odessey 2, NES, Master System, SNES, Genesis (model 1), Saturn, DC, N64, PS, PS2

It is... excessive. Keep in mind, though, that less than a third were purchased new. Most are scavenged deals, like the 2600 mini that came in a box with like twenty games for twelve bucks. Hell, my 3D0 was less than fifty. So, I'm not completely crazy...

Heh heh heh...