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Offline Adventures With PSVR2

By samson7point1
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The initial announcement of PSVR2 was pretty exciting.  PSVR had been one of the most accessible and curated experiences, and all of the feature improvements seemed poised to make a good thing even better.   As the release date loomed, however, I noticed something odd.  Listings for games were not popping up on Amazon or Best Buy. Then the story came out that PSVR2 was going to be sold exclusively through Sony Direct.  Then someone let most of the air out of the room: none of the best titles announced would be released as physical discs.   Anyone who reads my blog or social media will probably know that I don't participate in the "pay money for games you can't own" machine. Not only is it offensive to me to have someone pretend to sell me something but retain the ability to modify it, disable it, or remove my access to it at will, but this practice of locking games behind a download/login wall is having a destructive effect on preservation.  Once ...
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Transformers: The Movie: The Sticker Album

By samson7point1
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It seems like human nature to often place a higher value on the things we missed out on than the ones we experienced.  At least that's how I try to explain my fixation with the Transformers: The Movie and the things surrounding it.  When I was growing up going to see a movie in the theater, even the drive-in, was a rare treat that we only had at the best of times.  1986 was a particularly tumultuous year. As cathartic as it would be to explain why, I'll spare the reader and just say it wasn't practical for me to see The Transformers: The Movie in the theater.  One thing I did have access to, however, was the Diamond sticker album that told the story in still images.  These were relatively cheap and sold in grocery and convenience stores all over the country. After putting a couple dozen stickers into mine, I lost track of it during one of many subsequent moves, and promptly forgot all about it.  A couple of years ago my memory was jogged when I came across ...
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Pioneer Elite Laserdisc Player CLD-97 Repair, AC-3 RF Out and DNR Mod

By samson7point1
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The CLD-97 is one of the best performing and best looking Laserdisc players I've ever used.  I've been an enthusiast of the format for many years now.  When I first got into it, players were cheap and plentiful, but even with people dumping the format for DVD, the CLD-97 and its follow-up the CLD-99 maintained a high resale price.  It was for that reason that I never planned to own one.  Well, plans change, I guess. Sections Why I Bought A CLD-97 Fixing "No Disc Spin" Fixing The "Button Door" Replacing The Remote AC-3 RF Output Mod Digital NR Mod Answered Questions Why I Bought A CLD-97 My wife is a photographer so visuals are really important to her; she notices everything.  It took a lot of convincing just to get her to watch Laserdiscs with me because, while she doesn't really keep up with the technology, she knew we had Braveheart in 4K so why in the world were we watching this blurry mess instead?   She begrudgingly acclimated to the shortcomings ...
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McWill Game Gear "Full Mod"

By samson7point1
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Nearly every handheld console released between the original Game Boy and the DS has some kind of screen mod available to replace its original LCD technology with a "modern", backlit, high speed LCD. This is mostly because early LCD technology had a lot of shortcomings, from washed out colors, to slow, low contrast LCD cells, to complicated high-voltage fluorescent backlights that severely limited viewing angles. The oldest such modern screen for an old handheld I can recall is the "McWill" LCD mod for the Atari Lynx.  The Lynx "McWill" mod was nigh legendary because it was such a perfect match. The new screen was bright, responsive, exactly (or nearly exactly) the same dimensions, and used perfect integer scaling. It took the Lynx from a blurry washed out screen to a sharp and crystal clear display. Of course the first thing many people wondered after seeing it, was what options might exist for other, more popular handhelds such as the Sega Game Gear.  Aft...
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