Tag: video games

Play PC Games with an Xbox One controller

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest, Games, MinecraftLeave a comment

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Ok so I’ve been struggling for years with PC games and not being able to play them with a game controller. I think that’s why I love my PlayStation 4 so much, because it has a game controller. I bought a game controller many years ago, I think back when I still had Windows 98, and never could figure out how to get it to work. It didn’t work with any of the games I had, and the program it came with didn’t seem to help.

I played EverQuest with a keyboard for 6 or 7 years and got used to it because I didn’t have much of a choice. I hated that I couldn’t use a game controller, but I learned to live with the arrows for moving my character and pressing the Q button to auto attack, I for inventory, and many more buttons and button combinations.

Last year I bought Minecraft after I bought my Xbox One game controller since I figured it would work since Microsoft now owns Minecraft, but apparently that doesn’t matter since it didn’t work. It actually started to piss me off that I wasn’t able to play a simple game with a simple game controller. It’s like why don’t these things go together like Peanut butter and Jelly, or Macaroni and Cheese for crying out loud? You would think they would automatically just work, right? Microsoft Windows… Microsoft owns Xbox and Minecraft… Hello?

Ok so finally today I searched and found Xpadder. It was $10 and I just happened to have $20 in PayPal, so I used that to buy it. I’m broke and that $10 could’ve been a couple items for groceries, but that lasts 5 minutes, this lasts a lifetime. Then again so does the food, am I right?

So you will notice in the image above that I had to make the up arrow down and the down arrow up, and the reason is simple. If I use the right stick to look up, my screen looks at the ground and if I use the right stick to look down, you get the sky. I also bought the Windows 10 version of Minecraft (before I bought it from Mojang) and it looks at the sky if you use the right stick to look up. I don’t know why it doesn’t work right in one but not the other.

XpadderEQ

Here is Xpadder for EverQuest. I’m not sure if these buttons will work for me yet. The Alt 2-4 are the spell gems and I is inventory, Q for auto attack. Ctrl X I believe is camping and Ctrl S is sit/stand. I forget what C is lol. The left stick moves my character and the right stick actually controls the cursor/mouse. I will change Ctrl X to the space bar for jumping since I probably jump more often than I camp out of the game lol. I tried running around in the Plane of Knowledge, and it was a bit tricky because I’m not used to it, but I can see me starting to play EverQuest again now that I can play it with a game controller. And any time I need to change a button to something else, I can just put EQ in windowed mode and change it, then go back to the game. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I feel like Xpadder was well worth the $10 I paid. Sometimes I regret things I buy, but I do not regret this at all. It’s wonderful.

Xbox One Game Controller for Windows

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest, GamesLeave a comment

Xbox One Controller for Windows

I’ve been playing computer games on my Windows PC since the late 90’s using keyboard and mouse with pretty much success. I bought a game controller some time in the late 90’s that never really worked right. I’m sure it worked, I just couldn’t figure out how to make it work for the games I was trying to play.

In 2002 I was reunited with my aunt in Simi Valley after more than a decade of no contact, and my cousin introduced me to a new style of gaming that I wasn’t even aware existed. MMORPG which stands for massively multiplayer online role playing game. This was literally the first time I’d ever played a game where there were other people also playing. Mind blowing! That game was called EverQuest. I tried using the game controller for EverQuest, but I could never get it to work.

So recently I bought a game called Terraria from Steam which I already own on my PS4 and PS Vita, but I bought it on my PC because I wanted to see how it is to play on another format. Playing EverQuest with the keyboard and mouse were easy, but playing Terraria with the keyboard and mouse was difficult. I would place blocks in places I didn’t want to place them, and then when I tried to break them with the pick axe, I would end up breaking the pieces I actually wanted to keep.

I received this awesome Xbox One game controller for Windows that I bought on Amazon and got in the mail 2 days later with Amazon Prime shipping. I can actually place blocks in the place I want them to be, and I can remove blocks I want to remove without breaking blocks I want to keep. It’s so weird that I’m super excited to play a game with a game controller lol.

One of my other options was the Steam controller, but I read the reviews of those, which were terrible. I mean just terrible lol. Yes, it bears repeating. Many people said to just use a Xbox One controller. I wondered what about Xbox 360 controller, and many people said Xbox 360 controller works, but Xbox One controller is better. I don’t have the 360 controller to compare it to the Xbox One controller, so I’ll just have to take their word for it. I tried using my PS4 controller, but it didn’t work at all.

The Xbox One game controller for Windows that I bought came with a wire. There is an option to buy a USB , I’m just gonna say dongle. I don’t know if it’s the right word, but it sounds silly so I’m just gonna say dongle. There was an option to buy a USB dongle (LOL) to play wirelessly, but the Xbox One game controller doesn’t have a rechargeable battery, so you literally have to use 2 AA batteries that aren’t even included. LAME! I don’t care about playing wirelessly, and I’m not going to waste hundreds of dollars on batteries, so I can play with the wire.

The Xbox One game controller works with Minecraft as well as other Windows games. I considered if I bought a Steam controller, would it even work with the Xbox for Windows games? So I’m glad I bought the Xbox One controller. I haven’t tried EverQuest yet, but I would be interested to know if it works. I also used to play a game called Lord of the Rings Online, and I don’t know if it works there, but I’m sure it does. I have The Sims 3, and I tried loading that game, but it crashed after I waited literally for 10 minutes for it to load. I don’t have that much time to sit there wasting on a game to load. I have better things to do, like I don’t know, putting tape on my nose and attaching it to my forehead so I have a piggy nose.

I’m not going to switch over to Windows games because it annoys me how PC games crash all the time and how slow they are to play on my slow ass computer, I just wanted to have the option to play games on my computer with a game controller, and now I have the option.

PS Vita Borderlands 2 Bundle

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS Vita, PS4, PSPLeave a comment

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My partner didn’t know what to get me for Christmas, and I was dropping hints so big, I’m really shocked he didn’t get it lol. He finally did when I just blurted it out. A bit tacky, but whatever.

So he called Best Buy to find out if they had the PS Vita, and they said yes, so we got in the car to go and I told him that if truth be told, I honestly don’t want just the console, I’d rather have a bundle because it’s the same price, and you get a game AND a memory card. Best Buy only had the console, not the bundle. I looked on the Game Stop app and I thought they had the bundle, so we went to the mall and they said they didn’t have the bundle.

They said they just had the blue PS Vita, so we were just going to buy it on Amazon later, but I decided that I didn’t care about the bundle, I just want it, so we went back. They explained that I needed a memory card since the 1GB on board is used for the Vita OS, and it was too much for my partner, so we ordered the bundle to be shipped, and after shipping and the warranty, it came out to the same price lol. Oh well.

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The guy at Game Stop said Borderlands 2 will consume the 8GB memory card that comes in the bundle, so when we came home I bought a 32GB memory card for $62 and change, plus tax, plus shipping, and it will be here on Wednesday. The PS Vita will be here on Friday.

Today I went on the PlayStation app on my phone to see what games I already own that are compatible with the PS Vita, and it turns out I have quite a bit of games that will work. I listed them. I bought 2 extra games that I have many add-ons for that will work with the
PS Vita, so I figured I might as well have those games too. A lot of these games are on my PSP, but some of these games are only available for the PS Vita. I already own them, so now I can actually play them, and some of them I’ve played on my PSP, so I can play them again, but with an extra stick since my PSP only has the one stick on the left, and the PS Vita has the stick on the left and right.

PS Vita game list

I used to make PSP gameplay videos and post them on YouTube, and I was quite proud of them, but I stopped doing it because so many people made fun of the fact that my hands shake (I was born with a tremor in both hands, actually my entire body shakes). One or two people commented on how I was playing a game wrong since I wasn’t properly killing the monsters the way they would have killed the monsters. Talk about picking your battles. Dude, we all play games our own way, you play your way, I play mine. No one plays wrong. One person actually called me a pedophile. As if only children are allowed to play video games, give me a break. That was my deciding factor in quitting.

I discovered a device that you can plug your PSP into that will record your gameplay, which cuts out the need for a camcorder pointing at the screen, so no hands in the way, but I don’t know if it works with the PS Vita. If I can find out what other people use to record gameplay with the Vita, then I may consider doing that because I’d really love to record some videos again. I had so much fun doing that, and I love watching other people playing video games, so I want to do that again. If I need a device then I will buy one, but if you can do it directly from the Vita without the need for extra hardware, then I will do that instead.

So the 32GB memory card comes on Wednesday and the PS Vita comes on Friday. I wanted it so when I am in the living room, I will be able to play Destiny and Star Wars Battlefront using remote play, but I really want to play the other games like Borderlands 2 and some of these games I’ve listed. I will post again when it comes and after I’ve played around with it. Catch you on the flip side!

First Person Shooters

On By Michel McDonaldIn GamesLeave a comment

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The first time I ever heard of a first person shooter game, it was a computer game called Doom where you don’t see a character, all you see is a gun and the enemies that you have to kill. I sucked at it the first time I tried playing a FPS because I could never aim the gun on the person or monster I had to shoot and I would always end up dying. I just thought that FPS games were not for me. I will stick with RPG, adventure games and/or puzzle games.

The second time I saw a FPS game, it was Call of Duty and you weren’t killing NPC’s (non player characters), you were killing PC’s (player characters). In my mind, the PC’s weren’t a computer generated character, they were actual people whom I had to shoot to kill, and I just refused to do that because it made me feel like a bully and a murderer. I realize I am not actually killing a person, just their character, but it still made me feel like I was doing something bad. It was a moral issue for me.

When I got my PlayStation 4 for Christmas last year, I was given the choice of 4 games for free with the console. I didn’t want Little Big Planet because I knew I would get bored with it (I eventually got it for $24 and I did get bored with it, so I know I made the right call now). The other choices were Far Cry 4, and I watched videos on YouTube and I found out that not only was it a FPS, but you had to kill people. I am not sure if they were NPC’s or PC’s, but I just didn’t want to kill people. Then there was NBA2K15. I don’t do sports lol. My final option was Destiny. I watched videos and even though I hated that it was a FPS, it was killing aliens, and it was a space theme, so I figured that was probably more my thing, so I chose Destiny.

When I first started playing Destiny, it probably only took me a few minutes to get used to the controls and aim. My aim still needs to improve after almost a year, but it’s getting better. I actually think it has to do with the weapon because some upgrades to the weapons offer better aim and control. I can aim just fine on my Warlock because my weapons are kick ass, but still have trouble aiming with my lower level Titan and Hunter characters.

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I bought the new Star Wars Battlefront game. I actually have 2 of them for my old PSP, but this one is a lot better. I started just playing by myself, but those missions are hard, even on the easy mode lol. I can’t imagine playing the hard mode. I started playing the multiplayer and it’s actually more fun. I know, I’m doing what I hate, I am not only killing people, but I’m killing people who are playing people.

I think that I have evolved in the sense that I went from hating FPS’s and feeling horrible about killing people’s characters, to actually loving to do both. It’s actually fun. I know I am not hurting anyone’s feelings by killing their character, but that’s exactly what I thought I was doing because I thought it would hurt my feelings if they killed me, but it doesn’t hurt my feelings. I mean, NPC’s kill me all the time and it doesn’t hurt my feelings because I know it’s a game and that’s how the game is played. So why should my feelings be hurt if it’s an actual person playing that character? It’s all psychological. It’s actually stupid if you think about it.

Okay, I have to go kill some storm troopers and/or rebels.

PSP Back In Action

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

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Being disabled and not being able to work has it’s disadvantages, and it’s boring, so when you are bored, you watch TV, read a book and/or play video games.

I bought my PSP back in 2007 and had such a fun time. I compared it to my Nintendo Game Boy and I always wonder how I was ever able to see the Game Boy screen since the PSP screen was so huge.

Why did I ever stop playing my PSP when I have not finished playing 99% of my games? They were either too difficult, or I got bored and moved on to another game. I do believe I managed to complete one game all the way to the end credits. The Lego games were so fun and some were easier than others, yet I still have not finished them all. Some of them are just about finished, but I never finished them 100%.

I wanted to get a PS Vita because that talks with my PS4 and I already have PS Vita games in my library from games that I got for free with my PlayStation Plus membership. But the problem with me buying a new PS Vita is that I haven’t earned it and I still have a perfectly good PSP that I stopped playing, and I have loads of games I never finished.

Yesterday I brought my PSP to the gym with me so I could see if there were any system updates, and there were. I had to bring it with me to the gym because I haven’t been able to get online with it ever since we got our Bright House Wi-Fi box. The security is not compatible with my PSP, so I guess I figured it was too out of date for my Wi-Fi. Last night I Tweeted Bright House and they actually fixed it, so now I can get in the PlayStation store again and do updates and even use Skype, not that I ever would since it’s audio only.

I have 2 Star Wars Battlefront games for my PSP, and I’m anticipating the new Star Wars Battlefront game for my PS4, so I figured I would play the PSP version while I wait. Yeah, I remember why I stopped playing now. The little analog stick on the PSP is so difficult to play games with because it sticks. You will be trying to run to the right, and you end up running to the left. Or you won’t even be touching the analog stick, and your character is running in all directions, and you can’t do anything about it. I also have a bad habit of pressing the power button while I’m playing and it shuts the PSP off. Also, the battery doesn’t keep its charge. It says it’s a 5 1/2 hour battery, but I might get 2 hours, if that. I could buy a battery on Amazon that doubles the power.

So, yeah, I will be playing with my PSP here and there now that I can connect to the Wi-Fi again, but I still would like to buy a PS Vita to be able to play all those free games I’ve gotten this year with my PS+ membership. Also, the Vita has the 2 analog sticks like the PS4 game controller that I am now used to playing with. I don’t want to buy a used one because I’ve had bad luck with used electronics, but I will have to wait until I’ve saved some money in my Amazon account. Until then… I want to try to finish all of my PSP games.

PlayStation Vita

On By Michel McDonaldIn GamesLeave a comment


I have a Nintendo Game Boy that my partner bought for me in 1994 or 1995, I honestly can’t recall when. I was so bored because we didn’t have much in the way of entertainment, other than the TV with 7 channels of course. He used a Sears credit card to buy the Game Boy and he would buy me games every now and then. It took me months to play one game, and if I knew we couldn’t afford a new game, I would just play the game multiple times. Occasionally we needed the money for food, so we had to sell the games to game stores. We only got a fraction of what the games were worth, but desperate times call for desperate measures. It’s sad too because I still have my Game Boy, but I only have 1 game; Tetris.

In 2007 I bought myself a PlayStation Portable Slim aka PSP -2000. I bought many games, and didn’t have to sell any for the money. I played the heck out of that game system, and now it’s tricky just to turn it on. The power button is glitchy, so it’s difficult to turn it on or off. It still works, but it doesn’t connect to our WiFi because the security is different from when I first bought it, so I can’t buy and download games. If I want to buy a new game, it has to be on the UMD format which I can only buy on Amazon and eBay.

Last Christmas my partner bought me a PlayStation 4. My PSP-2000 talks with a PS3, but not a PS4. If I want to play my PS4 games in the living room, I need a PlayStation Vita. I can also download tons of PS Vita games that I have gotten for free over the last year with my PlayStation Plus account.

I know that I don’t deserve to buy a PlayStation Vita because I haven’t worked for it. I know that I would prefer to play the games I own on my HDTV instead of a smaller screen in my hands, but I feel like there are times when I can’t play games on my PS4 because I’m watching tv in the living room with my partner. He stares at his iPad the entire time, that is if he’s awake, and I sit and stare at either my Nook HD+ or my phone. Sometimes I’d prefer playing Minecraft or whatever game I have instead of staring at Facebook. I have Minecraft PE on my phone, but it’s harder to play on a touchscreen because the screen gets too hot, that’s why I prefer to just stare at Facebook on my phone.

I know I’m coming off as the most spoiled brat in the world, and it’s true, I am. That’s why I haven’t bought the PlayStation Vitayet, because I know I don’t need, nor deserve it. I just want it, and that’s not a reason to spend the money I don’t have to buy it. I could put it on a credit card and pay it off over time, but it’s just not right for me to do that. I have this stupid need before greed thing, and I honestly don’t need it, but I would really love to have it lol.

When my hands heal from the recent order of 200 mini DNA keychains that I recently finished, I will start making different kinds of earrings and keychains to put on Amazon Handmade, that is if they approve me. I recently applied, and they don’t have a category for “Accessories” which is what I classified my craft as. I can’t really call keychains jewelry. My earrings and chokers are considered jewelry, but since they don’t actually have jewels in them, are they really jewelry? The earrings are plastic stems with plastic lanyard. The chokers are hemp with wood beads. Not exactly jewelry. I also make the friendship bracelets, which I really need to make more of. They sent me an email telling me I can change my category to jewelry, so I did. I can’t sell keychains as jewelry, but I can sell earrings, chokers and bracelets.

I’m sure I will need a huge inventory for Amazon Homemade, so when I can start working again, I will make a bunch of things and put them in a drawer to have them ready to ship if anyone orders them. If I make any money, I will keep the money in Amazon so I can buy a PS Vita. I could also start buying Amazon gift cards every month and put them in my account. I’m also playing around with Swag Bucks, so I’ll do surveys and watch videos and install useless apps for SB’s so I can get a Amazon gift card. If I do all those things, then I can say I deserve a PlayStation Vita.

By the way, all these links for PlayStation Vita will earn me money if YOU, the reader click them and buy one for yourself.

What I hate about video games

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS4Leave a comment

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First off let me just say that I absolutely LOVE to play video games. I’ve been playing video games since Pong back in the 70’s. My first gaming system was the Atari 2600 and I’ve loved video games since I was a teenager. Video games have dramatically changed since Pong, and so has the thing that I hate the most about them, and that is the price.

First off, the consoles cost a ton of money. My PS4 was $400. I know they put a lot in to making these things and they should cost a lot of money, but come on, $400? I think they can come down to about $250 and still make a huge profit. God forbid you spill coffee on your game controller, that cost $60 to replace.

The thing that I hate the most though is the cost of video games. In 2007 when I had bought my PSP, I was shocked to see that the same games for my PSP was dramatically cheaper than the console version which was about $60 or $70. My PSP games (new) were no more than about $20 to $40 at the time. That’s why I was glad to have the PSP and not a console, but now I have a console and have to pay high prices.

Recently I got a $50 gift card for Amazon and I bought 2 games. They are both $40 or $50 on the PlayStation store, but they were both $19.99 on disc format on Amazon. One of them was Just Dance 2015, which by the way has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that I cannot dance to save my life. I tried one dance and they were so fast, I just couldn’t keep up. I was out of breath. They have all these extra songs you can buy for .99 to $2.99. I mean, they have a lot of songs too. If the game is $50 in the PlayStation Store, how can they charge so much for extras? I checked the extras for the other game I bought Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor and this is what I calculated.

shadows of mordor calculation

Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor cost $39.99 in the PlayStation Store, plus all the add-ons cost $68.83. How in the heck can anyone afford to pay $108.82 just for a video game? Video games are like stories, they eventually end at some point. You can play them again and again, but who wants to do that? Once you finish, you want to play another game, and how much is that game going to cost after you factor in all the add-ons? It’s ridiculous. I think if they are going to charge that much money for add-ons, they should just give you the game for free. It works for DC Universe Online, so why doesn’t it work for other games?

It took me a long time to even want a console, and I only wanted one because I wanted to play video games on a bigger screen, not just my old PSP or my cell phone, or even my Nook HD+ tablet. I wanted to play on the HDTV screen because it was a bigger experience. I know the game companies and the artists go through a lot of trouble and can take years of hard work and they have to pay actors to voice the characters. I know it cost a lot of money, but seriously, $109 for 1 game for 1 person is beyond ridiculous. Even if they gave the game away for free they would still make billions from the $68 worth in add-ons.

I’m just voicing my opinion. I know this is a big business and they aren’t in it to make people happy but to make themselves money, I get that, but come down on the price a bit and you will still be billionaires while your customers have to eat Top Ramen for a month to be able to afford 1 game.

UPDATE:

Ok so just a little  backpedaling lol… I received the game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and bought up all the little .99 cent, $1.99 and $2.99 add-on’s, which left 2 of the $9.99 levels and the $24.99 thing, which turned out to be a season pass that I had no idea would have given me those 2 $9.99 levels for free. I don’t really know if it would have given me anything else, but it did say it gave me 2 other things that didn’t require a download, so I’m just going to assume I paid for those. Darnit! Next time buy the season pass and see what is left. Oh and the season pass was on sale for only $13.71, so that saved me a lot of money. I wasn’t going to buy the season pass or those 2 levels until something was on sale, and I’m glad I waited. Oh and every add-on is totally worth every dime.

My Old Sierra Games

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games2 Comments

Does anyone remember Sierra Online Entertainment?  I certainly do.  How could I ever forget?  They were the very first computer based video games I had ever played, and that was in the 80’s and 90’s.

I played King’s Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella on my old Apple //e that I bought from my brother-in-law in 1989 for $750.  It didn’t have a tower with a motherboard or a hard drive, because it got destroyed before I bought it.  Long story, it was my friends fault lol.  Anyway, I remember that this was the very first game I bought and I had so much fun with it.  I sold the computer a few years later.

In 1997 when I bought my very first Windows-based computer, I wondered if they still sold it, so I looked and found the King’s Quest Collection at a computer store for $20 and I bought it.  I also bought many other Sierra game collections and loved them all.

I have been very hard at work rebuilding my old website to make it new and fresh, and while looking in my CD book for a CD with a backup file, I came across all of my old Sierra games and it occurred to me that maybe I should make a page that showed all of them and mention how much fun I had playing them, so I did.

Shiver’s 2 is one of the games that I couldn’t remember playing.  I have the 2 cd’s, but I just don’t have any memory of playing it.  I tried to install it, but it wouldn’t let me.  Every attempt at installing it resulted in a crash.  I didn’t give up though, I did a Google search looking for Sierra installers and I actually found a website.

New Installers for Sierra Games.  I installed the King’s Quest collection using their installer and it worked.  Although some of the games crashed, not all of them did.  I ran the 4th and 5th game, but the 7th one crashed.  I even had it install Mixed Up Mother Goose and I tried playing it, but it wouldn’t do it.  I think the reason is because it needs to be in 256 colors.  I can only do 16 and 32 bit.  I do remember when I played some of those games in the 90’s that I had to physically change my resolution to 256 colors before I could run the game.  I don’t think I will play them so I uninstalled it.

They had the Shiver’s 2 installer and I was successful in installing it, but here is my issue, when I run the game, it’s mostly video footage and it freezes up on me.  I can hear the sound perfectly, but the video freezes up too much.  It’s basically unplayable with my computer.

There are a few games that I never got to play, like the Police Quest Collection and the Quest for Glory Collection, so I may end up trying to install those and see what happens.  If they play then they play, if they don’t then they don’t.

I did have to install 2 programs for this.  DOSBox and ScummVM.  I’ve heard of DOSBox, but not the ScummVM one.  There is one annoying thing though.  I have avast anti-virus, and every time I tried running one of the games, avast would pop up on my screen saying it had never heard of Sierra, so it was checking it to see if it was a virus.  So I would suggest if you do have these Sierra games and intend to play them and you have avast, you could either wait for it to allow you to run it, or just close avast down.  I mean, you won’t need the internet with these games, usually, so you don’t have to worry about getting a virus.  If it only hassled me once then I’d say let it add that particular game to its list of approved programs, but if it does it every time then it’s annoying, shut it down.

I will try to play those other games and if/when I do, I will update my Sierra page on my website.

New Video Card

On By Michel McDonaldIn ComputerLeave a comment

In 2006 or 2007, now I’m not quite sure when, I got money for helping Darrin and his brother refurbish a house that was left to them by their mother when she past away.  I did a lot of work and didn’t get paid until the house sold.  I believe I got $2000.

When you get $2000 and you have an old computer what do you think you do with that money?  You buy a new computer!  Well, since I build computers I didn’t buy a computer, I bought all of the guts to build a new one.

Well, first I bought the hard drive from Tiger Direct but then when I went to turn my computer on nothing happened.  I think the mother board was too old for that hard drive.  The computer I was trying to install the new hard drive to was one that I built in 2004.  So I figured it was only a few years old, it should work.  But it didn’t because technology had already surpassed that computer.

So, I was forced to buy all new stuff so I just put the old hard drive back in there and gave it to Darrin.  I bought myself a new case, motherboard, cpu (w/heatsink), dvd burner and video card.  New computer!

A week ago we went to San Diego to visit Chips brother for his 50th anniversary party.  My computer did an update (which I could only assume was a Windows update) and suddenly I’m getting these strange blue screens (of death aka BSOD).  I didn’t worry about it because I didn’t want to stress on anything while we were gone so I put it in the back of my mind.  When we came home I was having the same problems.

Someone told me that I might have gotten a virus but I’m not convinced that is true.  I don’t visit websites on my desktop, I only visit websites on my Chromebook, I use the desktop for my Microsoft Money program and playing Lord of the Rings Online.  So there is no way I could have gotten a virus from visiting websites because it never happens.  I don’t even read emails on that computer.  My desktop is strictly for video games and Microsoft money, that’s it.

I got a couple of BSOD and accidentally allowed Microsoft to report the issue.  I have a jerk reaction to click no but for some odd reason I clicked yes.  When the report was sent a browser window popped up explaining to me that the issue was with my video card software or hardware.  Then suddenly another BSOD.

After that last blue screen I was done with being in regular mode so I went into safe mode.  I figure if I could download the driver update I might be ok.  How wrong I was.  I downloaded and installed the update and my monitor didn’t come on.  I plugged my monitor into the chromebook and everything I look at on the chromebook showed up on my monitor.  Ok so it’s not the monitor.  I plugged it back into the desktop and it turned on.  BSOD.  I turned it on again and the monitor wouldn’t even turn on.

So that is where I am at now.  I haven’t had a desktop in a week and I’m starting to go through LOTRO withdrawals lol.

This is my current configuration.  Well, I can’t turn it on so I can’t tell you the full details now can I?  This I do know.  I have:

  • MSI K9N4 Ultra motherboard – AM2, Nforce4 Ultra, 2*DDR2, Gb Lan, 5.1ch Audio, 1.
  • Gigabyte Tech GeForce 7600 GS 512MB DDR2 PCIexpress video card (I dug the boxes out of my closet)
  • Windows XP
  • I’m not sure about my CPU but I think it’s an AMD Sempron, don’t know the speed.
  • 1GB DDR2 memory

So this is what I’m looking for.  Any brand video card with 1GB DDR2 memory, PCIe.  I’m looking at Tiger Direct again for this new card and this is the one I have chosen.

Visiontek Radeon HD 4650 Video Card – 1GB DDR2, PCI Express 2.0, CrossFireX, (2) Dual-Link DVI, S-Video (Refurbished) – it’s $36.99 which is what I can afford.  My other video card was over $100 in 2007 and I just can’t afford to spend that kind of money right now.  I’m going to be paying for shipping which means I really can’t afford to spend any more on it.  So… is it a good one?  I won’t have the money to buy it until August so hopefully it will be on sale by then and they will hopefully still be in stock lol.

I think it’s a good video card but I’m no expert so I would love some feedback.  I’m choosing 1GB because I play Lord of the Rings Online and sometimes I get a lot of lag and I’m hoping that more memory will help that but you tell me, will it?  I would love some feedback on this.

So… until August lol.  By the way, I am not hung up on Tiger Direct so much that I want to wait 7 to 21 days for it to ship to me.  If I have to go to the computer store and pay a few extra $’s then I will.  As long as it’s not over $50 that is.

Lord of the Rings Online

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, MMORPGLeave a comment

I was first introduced to the world of MMORPG video games in late 2001 by my cousin who had played EverQuest since beta.  He wanted to play with me and so he bought me the game at Fry’s Electronics for $10.  I played for 6 years and quit for personal reasons.  Believe me, I didn’t want to quit but things were going on here at home that was a direct result of my neglect thanks to me being on EQ for up top 16 hours per day.

I haven’t played an MMORPG game in about 4 years now and I really miss it.  A friend of mine who was my EQ guild leader introduced me to Lord of the Rings Online ironically in 2007, the same year I quit playing EQ.  I only played it for an hour with him then I never played it again because I was too freaked out that things here were going to go south again.

Since I’m home alone for about 12 hours a day now, I figured it wouldn’t do any harm if I started playing LOTRO.  So without emailing my friend to ask him what server he was on, I just got on and created a character and started playing.  A week later I emailed him and found out that he’s not even on the same server.  So I have a choice, I could either delete my character and all of my progress and create a new character on his server or pay $25 to move my character to his server and that’s what I did.

I had already bought a horse with real life money and I couldn’t justify deleting that character or even playing on 2 regular characters on 2 different servers so I just bit the bullet and transferred.

My character’s name was Rego on the Riddermark server but since that name was already taken on Silverlode, the new server, I had to change the name so I chose Xanapus.  It’s not very original but I couldn’t think of anything else on the spot.  He is a Hobbit Burgler and his trade skills are Crafting Yeoman; Cook, Farmer and Tailor.  And his hobby is fishing.  I figured the fishing and farming would help in cooking, the tailoring is just bonus.

I really love this game because it gives me the feeling of being in the world of The Lord of the Rings.  There are many differences between LOTRO and EQ such as the never-ending zone.  When I was in EQ and went to go from let’s say Butcherblock Mountains to Lesser Faydark, I would have to go through the “zone” which took time to load.  Sometimes fast depending on my computer speed and/or my internet speed.  In LOTRO there is no zoning.  All of a sudden I see words on my screen saying I’m in such and such place.  There is a jolt sometimes when that happens and I tend to spin out of control when it freezes me up but I recover.  The only time I zone is when I go into a building.

Quests are much different in LOTRO too than in EQ in the way that they have a Quest window and a Deed window which allows you to see what quests you have going and what your progress is so you know what you have to do to complete the quest.  I have done quite a few quests and deeds in the shire since my character is a hobbit.  I am only level 13 but I hear when I get to level 15 I can buy a house.  One of my hobbies is Fishing and they have certain fish which are mountable and I have already mounted 10 for the walls of my future house lol.

Yes, I do plan on buying a house in this game because they really aren’t that expensive.  I would have to do a lot of farming and selling what I make to be able to make up the money to buy a house and to keep it up but I’m willing to put in the effort.

I’m having fun in this game and even if that fun wears off I won’t regret playing because I’m doing it because it’s what makes me happy.  Yes I have other things that need attention in my life but my brain needs this too, not just those other things.  I can play this game during the daytime when I’m alone then at night pay attention to Darrin so he doesn’t feel neglected.