My Zombie 360

After a very generous friend gave me his RROD Xbox 360, I sat on it for a little while before taking it to a Play n Trade, who fixed it for $50. The $50 investment was well worth it, considering it was a free Xbox 360. Since I had a working system the only logical next step would be to acquire games!

After getting games such as: Grand Theft Auto IV, Fable 2, Saints Row, Project Gotham 4 and a handful of other games I decided it was time to get to playing! After a few weeks of playing I didn't notice any difference, as the guy at Play n Trade told me if its going to fail it usually fails within the months following the repair, and they gave me a return policy to reflect that. After the euphoria of the system wore off I used it off and on, mostly off, for the next 2 years.

When I was going through a lot of heavy anxiety I used my 360 quiet often and I was worried if it was going to fail it would fail then, but it didn't. So I once again packing it away for a few months, trading in the comforts of running people down in fast cars in GTA IV, in favor of the Goodwill Outlet store. Surprisingly enough, these two merged in the fact that I found a few things for the 360 at the Goodwill Outlet store.

The first thing I found was an official 360 controller, white, missing the battery pack. Later I found not only a loose battery pack, with Xbox hologram, but I also later found the charging cable. But those are packed away, so for the purpose of today's post I will be posting the 3 most recent pick ups for the 360 that I've found, including one very important tool that may save my 360's life.

After a while I decided it was time to pull out the 360 and check some of the things I found for it, mainly the controller. So I booted up GTA and went off into the world, when suddenly the screen turned into a rainbow and the system refused to respond. It was dead, again!

Well the 360 once more was packed in the box and put into the closet, fearing I would never use it again I decided to cut back on 360 finds, unless it was stuff I simply couldn't pass up. The first thing I found was a demo copy of MotoGP 2006, it was loose in a sleeve and I figured it wouldn't cost much so I may as well pick it up. I checked to make sure the disc was in good shape, which it was, so from there I just wanted my 360 to function so I could check it out!

A few months passed before I found anything of value for the 360. It was an official Xbox 360 Chatpad, which happened to be black, matching the color of my main 360 controller. At this point I was pretty anxious to get the Xbox 360 running again, or at least hoping it would allow me to test the new stuff I found for it.

All my worries were pushed aside when I finally found what could possibly save the life of my Xbox 360. Hokey gimmick to some, perhaps, but worth picking up at $.79 per pound, in hopes it truly did what it claims. The Nyko Intercooler, supposedly makes your Xbox 360 run cooler, thus avoiding the RROD and overheating problems that plague the mass of original Xbox 360 systems.

With the Intercooler attached I fired the system up, after a few updates and Microsoft hounding me about needing to be more secure I was up and running. The Chatpad works great, it even helped me sign into Xbox Live and confirm the new security measures. MotoGP '06 isn't as good as I thought it would be, lets just say it was a 2005 Xbox 360 game that used the A button to accelerate.

In the past I've found a handful of 360 games at the Goodwill Outlet, most of which turn out to be cracked or scratched beyond repair, otherwise these are the only 360 related items I've found within the bins. So far the Intercooler seems to be doing a good job, its SUPER loud and sucks air through the system like a Hoover. Sadly only time will tell when I will need to pack the system away for it's final rest, which I fear will be very soon, but it has given me at least the $50 investment to have it repaired worth of enjoyment.

Nintendo DS Projects

Within a week or two I happened to find not one, but two Nintendo DS systems at the Goodwill Outlet store. The first one was an original Nintendo DS and the second was a Nintendo DS Lite. Obviously since I found them that means they were left behind by other treasure hunters for one reason or another.

Regardless of others being scared to pick them up and give them a good home, I am someone who is never afraid to bring something home, especially for 79 cents a pound!, and give it a good repair. Both systems were broken at the hinges, ripping the top screen cable, as well as suffering from blown fuses. After some research it seems the latter of which is a frighteningly common issue with the first two inceptions of the DS line.

Since I didn't own a Nintendo DS I wasn't afraid to pick them up knowing very well I would have to pay a little bit to order parts and repair them. But this also gives me a chance to customize them to be my own, by ordering completely new plastic housings. I'm not exactly sure what housing I will be getting for each just yet, but I'm toying with the idea of a red DS Lite and a black DS.

As you can see these things have had rough lives thus far, but I hope that I can get the frustratingly small fuses replaced, keep them from blowing again and get both systems running proudly once more. As a matter of fact, the Goodwill outlet has even yielded some games to play on the DS, although nothing I'm dying to get to play. But even so, I am seriously anxious to get these DS systems back to working order.

And so we begin anew..

Well I had been pondering it for a while and finally decided to kill the youtube channel and start posting more Goodwill outlet finds here on the old neglected blog. Now, the Goodwill outlet store has been going through a slump lately, so I don't know how often I will be updating this, but I will try. So we begin with something I picked up a few months back.

The Goodwill outlet store is rife with treasure hunting goodness, digging through bins without care, dangerous glass everywhere that you could easily slice yourself open with, and I have, and just general wonder of what you will uncover next! A few months ago I found a seemingly untouched metal case, once I opened it up I nearly had a nerdagsm. Inside was a fresh looking Palm TX mobile organizer.

Sure the thing is old, sure its outdated and there are plenty of things on the market that are way further along, have much longer battery life and generally are better devices, but I've always been into older technology, hence the retro video games I adore. It didn't work at the time, so I just sat it in a drawer and waiting to find the charger cable to get this thing up and running. I happened to find a USB cable, but it needed a separate charging cable, still I waited.

Until just yesterday when I happen to find not only the official hotsync cable for the Palm TX, but also a charger that seems to be working quite well! I plugged it in and waited for it to spring to life, which it did. After doing a factory reset, because I'm not an asshole that wants to rummage through someone else's personal files, I did some customizing and continued to let it charge.

My only issue is that it may need a new battery, as the battery life literally drains off this thing by about 10% per minute. Maybe a good long charge will take care of that, or perhaps it was abused as a young PDA and will need a battery replacement. Either way I find it fascinating because its older technology, but it still has utilitarian uses that I can take full advantage of!

Kyser Demo Capo

The Goodwill outlet store has been good to me, but perhaps the most interesting find to date has to be this neon green Kyser Capo. Inscribed on it is "Kyser DEMO ONLY NOT FOR SALE". After a bit of internet sleuthing I have yet to find another in this color, or anything similar.

I already own a capo that I almost never use, but when I saw this I figured the color and the fact that it was guitar related warranted me to pick it up and buy it. It is missing the string rubber, which doesn't prevent it from doing it's job, but even so I still had to own it. After testing it on a few guitars and finding that it still works I've become a bit concerns about the strings scratching off paint from where the rubber should be, so I probably won't use this one all that much either.

Perhaps this is a NAMM promotional item? A custom order? So many options, the origins of which I do not know. I've fired off an email to Kyser to see if they can help me figure it out. Hopefully I'll find out something interesting about it, after all, they don't engrave DEMO ONLY NOT FOR SALE on production models.

Well that escalated quickly!

Ok, ok, ok, OK! Ok? Ok. The majority of my entries here have been thrift related, mostly bashing Goodwill and singing the praises of Salvation Army, although not all posts about the latter have been shining reviews. When shortly after my last entry everything seemed to turn on it's ear, drastically!

I'm in a desperate way in need of finding myself Sega CD games to allow my Sega CD to really do it's job, and to enjoy it. I was willing to use all the thrift stores, and even Disc Replay stores, at my disposal, which turned out to be a major, MAJOR mistake. The Goodwill stores had games I wanted, but the games were fairly cheap and I still decided that I would hold off and wait for this weekend's 50% off sale to see if they're still there, if not no big loss.

But its what happened when I walked into the Salvation Army that shocked me to the point of hypertension and the need to march straight out of the store. They had a Gameboy with a 4 player adapter for, what the chicken scratch deciphered to, $6. Which isn't a bad price at all because it was in great shape, although there was no way to tell if it worked or not.

Next up was a stack of cased Gameboy games ranging in price from $1.99 to $2.99, not bad although I don't see why they put the well known titles at $2.99 and the less known titles at $1.99. This shows the store's desire to wring every cent out of thrifty shoppers. Then there was a stack of Gameboy games, all in cases, taped together so that you couldn't tell what was what, except the top game, for $12 (again chicken scratch so it was probably more!), and again for the maybe 7 to 10 games in the lot it wasn't a bad deal, but I can't see what games were there and I'm NOT going to buy something from them unless it is an absolute steal, because I not longer want to support such an ignorant, money grubbing company.

But until I saw the complete in box Gameboy printer, I was ok with them being complete and utter douchebags, but this was my breaking point. Yes, it was complete, yes it looked like it was in great shape, but they wanted (again chicken scratch!) $20 for it! Ok, NOTHING and I mean NO-THING in a thrift store should be over $9.99, unless its furniture or jewelry.

I'll be honest it shouldn't shock me, the manager or duty was the same asshole who argued with me last year over an SNES that he just couldn't let go for less than the number he pulled out of his ass. This guy is rude, arrogant and his only job is to rape the customer, yet it seems the majority of people who shop at Salvation Army aren't willing to fight for a better price, and most video games go to resellers.

Salvation Army used to give me so many good deals and I wanted to stay loyal to them in favor of the deals I've gotten. Over the matter of 6 months I simply can't stand Salvation Army anymore, and I've grown to despise their employees and their business ethics, or lack there of.

This time last year I would have urged anyone to donate to Salvation Army over Goodwill, but today I have to say if you are going to donate, donate to Goodwill! I see the only people Salvation Army is helping are themself and the resellers who buy up all the over priced shit so they can sell it at even more insane prices. If thrift stores weren't the only option to find things for the retro systems I love, I wouldn't shop at any of them.

How I long for yesterday..

Years ago you would have found it hard to throw me off my game, simple changes wouldn't have impacted my life in the least. These days with a sudden onset of panic disorder and stressful anxiety, shit really gets under my skin and drives me literally insane. Even just the simple matter of fucking up what should be nothing more than a simple drive to a thrift store.

I know I've complained about them in the past, but thrift stores have been an integral part of my self-therapy for dealing with anxiety, as they've been a part of my video game hunting pursuits for the past 2 years. But it seems that fate or perhaps even big business has other plans for my recovery, since they can't seem to keep a thrift store in the same format I'm familiar with anymore.

I've seen so many thrift stores, that I've literally spent hours at, simply shut down for seemingly no reason, relocate to inconvenient locations or even stop carrying bric-a-brac entirely! The only place that stays halfway consistent has been Goodwill, and by that I mean consistently overpriced! I will give Goodwill credit for the outlet store, but even there has changed up the switch out order, making it less of an experience and more of a trial in patience to see if you can give a shit long enough to find anything good.

Goodwill stores have had some good deals lately, but I'm sure its just another rare occasion of the person with the pricing gun not knowing what they're doing. One controller that I want is $.99 while another is $3.99 simply because it has more buttons, what sense does that make?

I've even lost Play n Trade, a place I frequented yet rarely, if ever, bought anything at. It was the only place I could go and see consistent pricing on retro games. Disc Replay's pricing is sometimes cheap, but that is mostly the same games everyone already has 3 of, everything else slowly crawls higher and higher the longer it sits on a shelf, it seems.

Since I got my Sega CD I've been on the prowl to find games to use it with, as I really don't like a system just sitting there doing nothing. I've seen them before and I know I'll see them again, but it just frustrates me to no end knowing most of them are overpriced, but people are all too happy to buy them anyway, giving thrift stores the false sense that those prices are totally acceptable.

Its quickly becoming apparent to me that the market I was so comfortable with, to the point I was using it as therapy, is crumbling beneath me. I'm not scared to adventure out from where I'm comfortable, I just don't think it gets any better on the other side. The prices I see other people bragging about are sometimes even higher than what I already think are too high in my local market.

Whether this is a sign to look deeper, look elsewhere or completely move on from where I am, or whether there is a good change upon the horizon, I don't know. All I know is that my price range will not change, no matter what, I'd rather go home empty handed! But the biggest reality shock is knowing as fucked up as I am with my anxiety, the world around me is so much worse off than I am.

If I plan to plan, I plan to plan on failure.

I'm wanting to change things up for my blog here. I know that I don't get many views, like I, myself, and a poor lost traveler may wander on to this thing on occasion, by accident. But even so, I feel I want to change things up and become more active here.

I'm booked with trying to come up with articles for the vintage gaming website, and I want to devote anything vintage to that site, so that isn't happening here. I do pick up videos on youtube, and much like this blog I only get accidental views. So I feel as though I should take the highlights of my pick ups and show them here.

I see plenty of blogs that show off their pick ups and I know it isn't original, but it is my blog and I'll change it up however I wish. I also know that a long time ago I posted more modern find here, so it really isn't something new, more of a rebirth of that concept. So that is more than likely what I'll be doing!

If you like the blog, feel free to leave a comment! If you've reached this blog in error, please hit the back button until you're in more familiar territory and enjoy your day. If you view this blog regularly, I'm sorry.

Don't know what you've got, until its gone!

I know I've talked shit about the thrift stores I went to for nearly 3 years. Literally hundreds of great deals, between the countless shameful price gouging sessions. But since March I've forgone the traffic jams, gas prices and the very real possibility of wasting time and finding nothing worth buying in favor of the Goodwill outlet, where I rarely leave empty handed.

Today I decided that I wanted to head out to the good old places and see what I could find, most of which were either closed or moved to a different location. Over the time that I've been checking thrift stores I've lost nearly half of them. Strangely enough I've seen more thrift stores close than flea markets.

It hurts to see a place close down, knowing the countless hours I've spent walking the aisles and finding the video game stuff that now clutters my room, instead of the thrift store shelves. The Goodwill outlet seems to be my only source of video games and video game stuff anymore. With the economy being the way it is, thrift stores should be booming, but I see their price gouging has backfired and most of them are shutting down due to their greed and ignorance.

Even though I hated their business practices, for the most part, I have to say that it sucks that I'll never be able to walk down those aisles anymore, looking for good deals. Even though I would often come home empty handed and upset that I couldn't find a deal, at least I was enjoying the wasted time. But once those doors are chained and bolted.. there is nowhere left to go.

How long ago that seems..

About 10 years ago I remember using Launchcast from my Yahoo Messenger panel. That is how I learned about almost every metal band I currently listen to, almost. It would play songs and have you rate them so it would associate what kind of music you liked.

It took me maybe 5 months to finally get it to where it would play 15 metal songs and then on occasion the current top 10 playlist would creep in, but it wasn't bad because I could skip it. It only gave you so many skips and I reserved all those for the crap that it tossed in on purpose. But eventually the whole service went to hell.

It seems that I woke up one day and I couldn't skip enough songs, all it would play was the music I DIDN'T want to listen to. And only on occasion it would play the songs that I did want to hear. Its sad to see a service like that go so commercial.

I'm sure had it stayed the way it was it would still be very useful today. Technology changes in the blink of an eye, but sometimes we still yearn for how it was yesterday. That is why I'm a vintage gamer.

How GTA Vice City nearly killed me!

I had just acquired my first Xbox, because a friend of mine had one that wouldn't read discs anymore, and I figured the best thing to do was to start buying the GTA series because I had always wanted to play them. I didn't have a PS2 yet, because their's was still working (lol), so after fixing the Xbox I went to work on GTA III. After I was bored with GTA III I moved on to Vice City, the map was smaller but the fun was bigger and there seemed to be more things to do than before.

One night I was cruising the streets of Vice City doing what I would normally do, running people over, collecting my business income and using cheat codes to go on rampage killing sprees, when I received a phone call. Now for some reason I'm not a normal human being, or perhaps I am, in the fact that I simply can not sit still while I'm on the phone, I need to be up and walking around, for whatever reason. Part of my habit of walking around while on the phone was looking out the kitchen window and across the horizon, which had quite a surprise in store for me.

As I looked out from the kitchen window the sky hung heavy over the horizon with lightning and darkness looming eerily in the distance. I had been so enveloped in doing my business in Vice City that I was completely unaware that there was a tornado warning issued for my current area! Normally there are storms that would alert me to any impending alarming weather, but that night there wasn't.

I abruptly ended the phone call and went to switch the TV to the local news stations, which confirmed my fears that the weather was about to become extremely and violently severe. No sooner had I changed the channel to the local news and saw the incoming threat, the power went out. Nothing but the sounds of the wind wishing and washing against the trees and windows outside.

Lightning came closer and closer, followed by deafening crackles of thunder. Soon came the rain, as I collected myself and headed into the central bathroom and listened to a local radio station for further news about the storms. The wind and thunder shook the house and the trees started to bend, it seemed as if the roof was going to come off!

For what seemed like forever, but perhaps only lasted 30 minutes, I huddled in the bathroom hoping for my safety, wishing the storm would go away and leave nothing harmed. When the storm finally subsided I walked into the living room and checked all the windows, to make sure nothing was broken, luckily everything was in tact and ok. But without power the house was quickly heating up inside, so I decided to open a few windows and await the return of electricity.

The electric company came and checked for any down lines, blown transformers and power was finally restored in the early morning hours. Later that day I went to check out any possible damage or evidence that a tornado had come through, and as a matter of fact there had been! Many trees were broken, uprooted and the standard of bare without leaves, but not even a mile south there was a clear path of where a tornado had touched down and carved it's way through some trees, luckily it only went through the trees.

I can't blame GTA Vice City for nearly killing me, it was the storms that would have done the damage. But Vice City was so addictive that I played it so inventively that I wasn't even aware there were storms headed my way. A strange story, but something Vice City and I will always share.