Everyone else is doing it. So why not? Here we go!

• Sega CD Model 2 (Genesis Model 2 was pre-existing) - $4x.00. These 2 systems completed my selection. I got the Sega CD from a local retro game store here in the Greater Toronto Area. At first it did not work despite me trying it at the store. Seems my Genesis was the culprit. The Contacts were badly messed up on the expansion slot even after scrubbing with alcohol/VCR head cleaner and using the white eraser trick. My Buddy traded me one of his many spares which had a much newer looking port and now it works perfectly!
• Neo Geo AES (Japanese Version) with 2 joysticks + 2 games - $16x.xx. The Neo Geo AES is the crown jewel in my collection. This system completed a 16 year dream of owning every console I wanted when I Was a kid. In Canada we used to have this mail-in catalog ordering place called

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So I checked my iphone today to discover woot had a sale on M-Audio keystudio49 and Recording studio equipment. With Glee and joy I ordered for the first time from woot. I register and make sure they accept me since I am in Canada and place my shipping address as so. I go through the checkout and everything is fine I get an email. Now, they let me enter my province upon checkout and what not but not my postal code despite teh fact that is says "Enter postal code/zip code" so I do and it continues to tell me it's wrong so I put in 90210 and in the 2nd address field put my actual one. I then do the right thing and email customer service advising them to correct it. I get an email back a few hours later telling me (Rudely) that they don't ship to non domestic US addresses unless it's their shitty t-shirts. So this was my face:



So I thought to myself "Then why the would you let me Not...

Welcome to the second part of my Geraldo Rivera style expose (lol). So. First of all, we covered the topics here on mine (and Hbomb5's) podcast over at http://crossbordergaming.com/?p=84 if you want to hear an audio version of what I found.

First of all, kittypryde87 gave some more additional info on her experiences via message on Xbox live that said the following:

Quote: I don't know if this would help you but probably the worst one of the messages said, 'Women gamers are such a joke, the only blood you shed is during your period. ' Also, i got a lot of naked pictures.

Wait what?!?! Guys are sending her Junk shots here cause she was the featured gamer.. WTF????!!!! I know this is funny at first but just think about you opening up ur messages on XBL and see someone's cock as the first thing.

Quote: But E*Master you incontinent prick, it's different when a guy received pics of women

*I would expect to hear this actually if I did not...

I much like most CAGs was extremely shocked by the responses Wombat got in his inbox regarding being in the Gamer Spotlight on XBLA. Sure, some of them were funny at first but they got right down scary and shocking. I then decided with the help of CAG yukine, who was so kind to provide me with a link of all the people who were in the Gamer Spotlight, to message 5 random users who were featured. I simply told them who I was and that I was interested in knowing what their post spotlight feature experience was like.

Why am I doing this? Because I want to know, like some CAGs if other featured members on XBL were treated the same way after being featured. Why should I care? Simple. In order to send and receive messages to ppl who are not on your friends list on XBL you have to be a gold member. You also have to be a gold member of XBL in order to be featured in the Gamer Spotlight. The impression I am getting is that when you are in the Gamer Spotlight it creates...

So I need to vent. Read if you do, if not, move on. Currently the highest temperature we have had in Toronto is 29C (84F) and that was just ONE DAY. Most days this "summer" have been around 20c-22c (68F-72F) which is cold compared how they usually are. We have NOT hit anything above the 29c we've had. Now. I understand having lived here for 20 years that Canada is supposed to be cold but this is ridiculous. It hasn't even been humid or anything. Yeah one day maybe. I have never had to wear a light Jacket in Toronto in the evening at the end of July!!! EVER! I am not sure how Ottawa and Montreal are doing but this sucks.

Last summer was rained out. It rained 90% of weekends of the summer. Which was also bullshit. I am starting to get SADs from all this crap and really can't stand 7 months of heavy jacket wearing anymore considering I am at one of the most southern parts of canada. Basically what I am saying is I would like to know where this Global...

Thanks again for reading first of all. As an aspiring bedroom DJ myself (aspiring lol) I ahve been looking at the DJ hero gameplay vids on youtube as well as the peripherals for both DJ Hero and Scratch: The ultimate DJ (That title makes me laugh). To me that's like naming a game "Trasher: The ultimate hyper mega Death Metal Jesus". As cool as I do find the concept of these two game titles (along with their dramatic and entertaining legal battles) I must think.. how much is thing going to cost? What Genres of music are there gonna be? DLC? etc.

Let's first of all look at cost. DJ Hero's peripheral

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/...pictureid=7301

You can see a pic of the peripheral with the fader over at dj hero's website

Looks pretty small but wider than a traditional GH guitar. Gamestop lists the package of the game with the peripheral at $119.99US. Considering that even if you...

Hey folks! Fellow CAG Hbomb5 and I have decided to to run a podcast together which originated out of an idea to run a bootleg CAGcast when one would not appear here but instead we have opted to do our own and here it is! First two episodes are kinda long I will have to warn you but the audio quality and content are awesome (as we use the same technique Cheapy and Wombat use which is us both recording our audio track and me editing it together). So far we only have two episodes as we have only been doing this for about two weeks. We are trying to have one show per week at least. In the latest episode we have our each individual impressions of the DSi as well as my previous (and most successful blog entry) regarding what games cost in the early 90s and now. Anyhoo, give it a shot if you want. It can be found on iTunes on the link below. Keep in mind we are still just in the beginning stages of the cast so be gentle ;-) Enjoy!

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In a series of blog posts that people will actually like I ahve decided to coninue this trend and cease my ranting... for now... :P

I found a forum that collects retro video game magazines and decided I would download a few digital copies of EGM that I used to own back in the day when I was 12. This was when EGM was half the size of the yellow pages and sported an average of 250-350 pages a month and Sushi X was awesome.

One of the things that startled me was the EB (before they were EB Games>Gamestop) advertisement at page 44 of their Super Star wars issue from November of 1992. Now, I recall CheapyD and Wombat mentioning that games were too expensive at the retail sales level. If you actually look at the ad below.. think again:



Now... these days a new game costs between $49.99...

The Video speaks for itself... please have a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bySvfJ-SZBE

"Come On Toshi!" ROFL

I was never really much into the DQ series until IV came out last year and a half ago. Which had one of the best and addictive stories I have ever played along with it's extremely happy ending.

Since I dished out the money for the last one I figured I would for this one as well. I'm going to keep this short and simple. The Game is awesome but story wise not as good as it predecessor.

The story is great but is more of an emotional roller coaster than the previous one. The ending is cool but not nearly as good as that of IV. But still good. The gameplay is EXACTLY the same as IV and so are the character and enemy sprites. It even sports the same sound effects. I sometimes wonder if this game was made at the same time as IV or if Squenix made an engine where they can just easily insert sprites they already drew from the previous game and basically generated this...

I was encouraged, almost inspired to write this post thanks to Renaissance 2K's post about game piracy. He made an excellent point about how Piracy is not about being rebellious but rather about getting "it" for free. I agree with this but I will also not be a hypocrite and say that it's not just wrong but those who perform game piracy should be <Insert derogative comments here>.

Fact of the matter is Those who decry Game piracy are nothing but a bunch of Hypocrites. Oh why? Because I will bet my last dollar that person doesn't have Hundreds of Megabytes (or EVEN Giga or Terra Bytes) of data that was acquired illegally. I am not just talking games but Movies, TV shows, Music Videos, MP3s (or whatever audio format you fancy), images, Porn (oh god each and everyone of them positively has this), ebooks, applications. I don't give a shit what these ppl say who decry Piracy (here or anywhere else) but EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM has performed an act of...

I would like to first of all apologize to shipwreck for biting his style. But it's awesome the way you did it up. Anyhoo here goes:

Favorite Multi-Platform Game

I own both the 360 version and PS3 version (both special editions... Duffel bag makes for a great Bong bag BTW). I thought the controls were pretty good but not great. Story wise...it's a GTA game I mean, you either love it or hate it. That is pretty much how I have seen ppl's reaction to it. Although by many specualted as overhyped I would tend to disagree with the fact that Halo 3 set a good example of what overhyped is and GTA IV was nowhere near that. I Love this game as it was fun, car controls were pretty much the same as any racing game and the auto aim system I found to be better than it's predecessors (however still not perfect) but better than "some" gta clone I have played and owned this year....

Here we go again! I think I will dedicate this whole post on the EDM style known as trance which these days has been intrepreted as the modern "Techno" to the disgust of my collegues in Detroit who will tell you otherwise. What I do notice these days with the little time I spend on the radio the generic term by the uneducated public "Techno" is now being replaced with "Trance" as being the generic term of EDM. At least in Canada.

I started listening to trance in the early 2k's so don't take my knowledge on teh history too seriously. I know somehwere down the line some of the first trance songs were made in 1996 or so and was a branch off of the Original techno at the time. Again, I do not know that for a fact but at least listening to songs of that era at the time that's what it sounds like to me. The earliest trance that I can think of I heard was this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIJG_...eature=related
Now this is from...

For years I have been reading this on various websites and blogs and I just want to set the record straight. People around the world and the World Wide Web (do they even call it that still? Anyways) call ANYTHING with a synthesizer or an something with a 4-on-the-floor beat (meaning umm tss umm tss umm tss umm-umm-umm) loop Techno. Real Techno sounds very very very very different and in my opinion is kinda hard on the ears (at least for me but many fans can't be wrong). So, let me break it down for you guys (with Video) each style of dance music to the best of my abilities. After this you should just be calling it EDM or Electronic Dance Music as this is a more politically correct way to name it rather than just "Techno". Lots of assholes on Youtube get it wrong as well. So here goes. We'll go with the game related stuff first:

Euro Dance Music (Circa 1990-1999)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8TfcVTT8uA
I'm going to try to refer to some of the ones...

My name is E*Master, I'm a German living in Canada and I am a Grand Theft Auto Addict. Although I have never been encouraged to have the urge to perform what is displayed in these games in real life, I have however dedicated a great deal of time to the Game.

It all started in College back in 2000 when I was stressed out. Where most ppl would use Pot or other recreational drugs, I instead decided to try this game that a friend lent me for the PC which was Grand Theft Auto 2. The very first time I car jacked someone and heard them say in a nerdy voice "huh??" I laughed my balls off as well as other such classic phrases as "He's gotta gun!" plus the other various screaming of the innocent pedestrians that I found strengely amusing. Of course I knew that all this was made for the personaly amusement of the player but it was this that started my addiction to this game. I could swear I failed math because of it but I didn't care. Scroll ahead 2 years...

Ok, some, probably none, recall my post about how Canadian boxing day sucked compaired to the much superior Black Friday in the USA. Seems that Now Canadian retailers are toying with the Idea of bringing Black Friday to Canada to cash in on the extra retail sales and possible mayhem that can incur. On Black Friday I was walking through the Eaton Centre (Toronto's most recognized and tourist enthused downtown mall) and saw that Best Buy, Futureshop and Old navy were all having crazy one day sales on Black Friday... My face grinned as I rubbed my hands thinking... "Can it be?' Keep in mind this was a few days after my above rant. Seems that Best buy has some cool deals on TV, not nearly as cool as Black Friday but definitely better than Boxing day in terms that they actually had stock. Old navy did a one day 30% off everything sale which did create a little bit of frenzy inside the store but I thought "maybe this can take off".

Seems that some online bargain...

Well, Black Friday is upon you guys. I say "You" because we don't have BF in Canada. Our version of BF is called Boxing Day or BD from hereon. Now the diff is yours is after US Thanksgiving and ours is after Christmas day. Now other than the fact that yours comes sooner there are many more reasons why BF is better than BD and why I wish I lived in the states for this day.

Boxing day comes later, as I mentioned, but also has much much MUCH shittier deals. BD sale specials are garbage and laughable. There is no way a retailer would sell a wii with a few games and an extra controler for insanely discounted prices. No friggin way. Plus it's after Christmas, so any stock they may have had is all gone due to the Crazy Christmas shoppers.

On top of that when and IF what they advertise here is available at any big box store it's not only gone within minutes but seldom even available at your nearest location. Sometimes they even but a * by the ad that says...

So the rumors were true. The thing is I have a hardcore Nintendo fanboy friend (fanboy of over 25 years) predicted this months ago since this is Nintendo's trackplan for the past 10 years as far as handhelds go. Now the only thing he ws wrong about was the fact that this would be a brand new console which it isn't. It still plays DS games and not a different generation of games. I personally think this "redesign" (as that's all this is) is uneccessary.

Firs of all the Camera is supposed to be VGA resolution. So pretty much the same camera EVERYONE has on their cellphone. Does it have a flash? Nope. See, having a flash is something that can come in very handy when adding a camera to a device. Seems that Nintendo couldn't think of that. The inner camera can come in handy for those who want to take facebook angle pics of themselves and that is about it. Oh and for face trainer maybe. Other than that it's a piece of shit and seriously not necessary.
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If your like me you may work 12 hour work days in an office that is poorly ventalated which also requires you a great distance to travel to. Thus possibly allowing you an average of 5-2 hours of sleep a night depending on whether you make the sad mistake of turning on your console gmae console after work. As well, as you get older towards your very alte 20s (like me) you notice you can't pull those awesome all nighters like you used to.

So what do you do to maximize your attentions span and cause yourself not to fall asleep at work? Drugs? Alcohol? Vitamins? that! I came up with th perfect solution.

Now this only works given you work unsupervised for 99.9% of your day.

Since I get up at 3:30 AM to go to work I decided to move my breakfast to 4 AM this allowing me to have lunch around 9 AM. Leaving my actual lunch for a nice and legal nap. this is usually done around 1 PM. Now this only works if you have a comfy office chair that is not leather...

I know there isn't a lot of Toronto CAGs on this board but I can definitely tell that a lot here at CAG have experienced this as well in their towns.

Funland Arcade was Toronto, Ontario Canada's oldest arcade located near Yonge and Dundas Square across the legendary Sam the Record man. After 46 years the place decides to close to put a teenie bopper clothing store in it. Not only does this make me sick but sad at the same time.

I have been going to Funland arcades since 1993 when I was only 13. The thing I loved about the place was he fact that up to 15 years later the place NEVER EVER changed with the exception of the games. But there was always the solid classics that never left like Defender, Mario Bros/Dr Mario and the Pacman series that were always there. I never thought that when I went there last in the middle of June that my last game of Ms Pacman would indeed become my last game of Ms Pacman...

As I said before the place in general...