The Stupid Gamer

Andy Hofle has going what he calls the Arcade Ambiance Project. Basically he drags audio recording equipment around to arcades, finds classic games, and gets to recording them. Later he mixes these sounds, including stuff like coin door returns, to make audio tracks that sound like an arcade would have during it glory days. There are a few tracks available on the his website and worth checking out if you’re a fan of the once lively arcade scene.

See the Arcade Ambiance Project here: http://arcade.hofle.com/

UPDATE: Apparently Avril Lavigne has take notice of the project herself. Her new video uses a sample from Andy’s 1983 track at the opening of her video. See it, ugh, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M095u4YQfGY

On March 28th and 29th Video Games Live will be playing shows here in Salt Lake City, Utah. I’ve never gone, but this year I might have to. The venue is the same place I went to when Jerry Seinfeld performed, and it’s a really nice place to see a performance. It’s too bad that Koji Kondo will only be performing at one of their shows on the tour, but I’m sure the show will still be plenty of fun.
I’m looking forward to it!

Instructables has an amazing guide for wiring LEDs for beginners. Check it out if you’re planning on doing any case mods, LED swaps, or are just curious about how those guys are adding all those nice little lights to their PCs and consoles.

The arcade scene is dead and for the most part gone here in the United States and it’s a sad thing to see. There are tons of things that can be credited for destroying the coin-op industry, but I’d rather not go into it here. Instead, I’m going to list 30 arcade games that I enjoyed the most through the 80s and 90s. These aren’t necessarily the best arcade games of all time, or even my favorite arcade games of all time, but simply the ones that I dropped the most quarters into.

Coming up soon I’ll post what I feel are the best arcade games ever made, but for now, enjoy my little list of the ones that robbed me of the most quarters. The list is found after the jump.
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A while back I purchased and restored a dedicated Street Fighter II cabinet and I spent countless hours inside my garage perfecting my skills before moving the cabinet into my office at work. Ever since moving the cabinet out of my home, I have had an itch to get arcade gaming back into my home life. That itch led me to start building a MAME cabinet, but I didn’t get too far before I was sidetracked by work, school, other hobbies, and some personal medical issues. Things are a bit different now, however. I’m done with school, work is settling down a bit, and I’m over my medical problems. I’m ready to build again.

Hopefully by this weekend I’ll be able to pull out what I’ve done so far and get going again. I’ll post pictures along the way and keep a good log of my work so others can see if it’s a project they might be interested in themselves. To think that thousands of arcade games are only a few saw cuts, wiring projects, paint jobs, and computer hacks away…it makes my skin all tingly.

I’m writing a brief, yet hopefully useful, HDTV buying guide for all of you out there that are interested in buying a new set sometime soon. For me, buying a new HDTV took hours upon hours of research and education before I was ready to buy. I hope this guide will give you some direction and focus in your own search. The guide is split into two parts, with part one being available now.

Click here to check it out: HDTV Buying Guide

Well, the excuse for a lack of updates this time around is a pretty good one. Just as I was finally starting to get back to normal from my deviated septum surgery, I had to have my tonisils removed. I’m still struggling through that recovery (spitting blood into a bucket, throwing up, struggling to swallow water), but at least I have some good company. Last week I had my brand spankin’ new TV, a Samsung HL-S6187W, delivered just in time for the Super Bowl and plenty of post-op gaming.

The TV set is 61 inches of 1080p beauty and makes games like Gears of War truly spectacular. I’ll get some good pics of it up soon, but for now I’m still caught up in the awe of my new toy.

Regular updates will start again soon once I’m back on my feet.