The Stupid Gamer

Every once in a while gamers have to take things into their own hands if they want to get the most out of their hobby. Timoe, of the BYOAC forums, is creating custom made arcade sticks for consoles, using only the highest quality authentic arcade hardware. In addition to quality components, Tim sports some solid construction and amazing style in his builds. You honestly aren’t going to find a better arcade stick out there.

You’ll have to contact Tim directly for a pricing quote as things are handled on a project by project basis. If you order more than one stick, I’m sure he’ll be willing to work out special pricing as well.

So far Tim has created sticks for the PC, PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. I personally am thinking of getting an Xbox 360 one built so I can finally stop screaming at my d-pad during Pac-Man: CE rounds. Also, a 360 compatible stick could be used on the PC via USB. See the pictures below for a look at his work:

To contact Tim, register at the BYOAC forums (http://arcadecontrols.com) and shoot him a PM. He’s pretty quick at responding, and he’s easy to work with. I’ve worked with him in the past when building arcade control panels.

Stephen is back on the show this week, but instead of a guest he’s co-hosting. The show is a bit earlier than planned, but we had to celebrate Atari’s 35th anniversary. So, what better way than with a amatuerish podcast? We discuss Atari’s past and present and even share some fun stories about the company. There’s more in the podcast than just Atari, so check it out. Here’s a quick rundown:

• No response question again (sorry again)
• Short rundown of the foundation of Atari
• A discussion of the advent of home gaming and arcades
• How has game design changed since Atari’s glory days?
• Longest show yet at just over 48 minutes
• How the Wii is a sort of reincarnation of the 2600 (sorta kinda)

Download the show here, or listen to it in your browser. Right click to save, left click for a new window: The Stupid Gamer Podcast #4

Ok, so the anniversary was yesterday, but I couldn’t get around to posting. I did, however, co-host a podcast with Stephen Smith last night, so either later today or tomorrow you can check it out. We talk about Atari, the shift in game design philosophy from Atari’s time unitl now, and we even share some fun stories about Atari and the early days of retail gaming. In honor of Atari, I invite all of you to pull out those old 2600 systems and fire up some classics.

It’s a shame that Atari is pretty much a shell of what they once were. Us gamers owe a huge part of our love of games to the pioneering efforts of Atari in both home gaming and in the arcades.

European console repair company Micromart has halted taking repair orders for the Xbox 360 and has posted the following message on their web site:

XBOX 360 - Micromart has now withdrawn from offering a Repair Service for the dreaded 3 Red Lights fault.

This problem is endemic on the XBox 360 console and the volume has made this repair non-viable.

Other repairs to the XBox 360 are still being supported.

This comes the same day that 1up posted a story of a gamer that has provided proof that he’s had to send 11 (yes, 11) 360s back in for repair. How much longer does this have to go on before Microsoft makes it right? These consoles are dying at an extremely high rate. I’ve been affected by it (twice), and I have friends who have too. Come on, Microsoft, you have the best game lineup right now, but the hardware is crap.

Mircomart homepage: http://www.micromartltd.co.uk/

Note: Image was taken from NeoGAF, but I wasn’t able to determine the artist.

This is exactly what I need for the Xbox 360, but I guess it’s good to have it coming on the Wii as well. I personally feel that the classic controller is doing a great job handling classic content for the Wii, but this upcoming arcade stick from Hori might be useful down the line when Neo Geo games hit. I guess there are a few VC titles like Street Fighter II that could make good use of the stick. Depending on price, it might be a pretty cool accessory. Hori’s products are usually high quality. Here’s a pic from Play-Asia’s store:

Commonly referred to as the Pinewood Princess, Melissa Jones is creating custom wood carvings and castings of videogame characters, sports mascots, logos, or anything else you want. Melissa’s work started out as a hobby and in a very small scale as she took on a handful of projects for the BYOAC (http://arcadecontrols.com) community to help them dress up their arcade game rooms. After the word got out about the quality of work and the nice turnaround time, work began to flood in. To satisfy those “me too” types of buyers, Melissa and her husband began to make plastic castings of past projects to offer at a reduced rate.

Did I mention that each casting and carving is hand painted? In addition to highly detailed handiwork, each project is hand painted. The end result is a killer conversation piece and a charming wall, desk, or floor decoration. I personally have my eye on some of the Donkey Kong and Pac-Man work, but Melissa can create just about anything as long as you can provide a picture of what you’re looking for.

Here’s the gallery on the official web site: http://nicecarvings.com/html/gallery.html

Examples:

Scans from Play have showed up online showing new screens for Metroid Prime 3. There’s not much to say here except for that the game looks gorgeous. Take a look:

Apart from having new screens, Play is saying that Prime 3 could bring about a revolution in FPS games as large as the one Halo caused when it released on the Xbox.

We have a guest this week! Stephen Smith, of Advanced Media Network, joins me as we each hand out a retro pick. We’re hoping to have Stephen as a regular part of the show and keep the retro picks going. The show, while getting a bit better, is still pretty rough. You can (I hope) see where I’m starting to take this…I just need a bit more practice to get things down right. So, here are the notes for this week’s show:

• No response question (sorry)
• Thoughts on Manhunt 2
• Patrick Klepack of 1up’s report on David Jaffe’s new studio
• Stephen and I each pick a retro title to spotlight
• More promises of improvement
• I’m still popping my P words…sorry
• Just over 27 minutes in length, mp3 format

Stolen from NeoGAF, here are the Japanese hardware numbers for the past week. Once again, and probably from here on out, Nintendo completely stomped the rest.

Hardware - This Week |    Last Week |   Year Total |       Lifetime
1. NDS  -       118,684 |       117,228 |    3,650,120 |   17,655,799
2. WII   -          65,521 |         64,529 |    1,815,351 |     2,734,994
3. PSP   -          33,359 |         24,711 |    1,011,858 |     5,543,987
4. PS2   -          11,974 |         11,097 |       392,095 |   20,546,954
5. PS3   -            9,481 |           8,776 |       471,436 |        928,994
6. 360   -             7,583 |          2,533 |       112,060 |        376,762
7. GBA   -                867 |            799 |         39,818 |    15,337,897
8. GCN   -                223 |            167 |           8,226 |     4,177,694

According to a listing on Gamestop’s web site, the Rock Band pricing will be as follows:

Rock Band Bundle (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) - $199.99

Rock Band Wireless Fender Guitar Controller (Xbox 360) $79.99 

Wow, that’s quite a bit of cash. I’m really hoping that the price on the 360 guitar is a typo. There’s no reason why it should be $20 more than the PS3 counterpart. It’s pretty expensive, but if you have buddies that are only interested in one instrument, you could avoid going for the full bundle. I won’t be caught dead singing, that’s a guarantee.