The way retro gamers do online gaming

It’s easy, you buy a actual console, go online via WLAN, plug in your wireless headset, also a usb camera, and you are ready to play online with your friends from all around the world. Too easy for real retro gamers.

Today we played Champions of Norrath on the PS2 with 3-4 people. My setup:

1) Turn on the PS3, invite Player 2, later chat via the PS3 with him

2) Switch the monitor to the PS2, setup Champions of Norrath.

3) Setup a Skype confernce with Player 3 and Player 4 (had no copy of CoN, ordered it in the conference)

So while playing I had to switch 2 headsets to speak with all players, and I had 2 consoles running and 1 PC.

But it worked, a lot of Orks aren’t with us any more.

The end of an era is a begine of a new epoche?

Today I ordered a PS3. So when it arrives I could delete the word “retro” from my definition of myself called “retro gamer”. Then I’m a real gamer The PS3 is mainstream and not retro at all (at least until the PS4 arrives, but I wanted to participate in the mainstream to see something new. We will see what will happen. I saw Demon Souls some weeks aga at a friend of mine, so this is my first game I ordered. Interesting will be to do other things with these multimedia machine like Emulators and Videos. Also interesting will be to see what’s going on in Sony Network.

Hail the mainstream

New high in Turbo Cup: 2’36’4

Finally I was able to be Dal’s great score of 2’38’0 at Many Cours. I started with a 1’20’4 in the Quali. That meant 2nd at the start. Top speed into curve on and I entered the pole. Only made one mistake and alsways stayed on top. Finally after 2’36’4 I finished first.

Won the track in Turbo Cup (STOT #4/12)

After a hard fight, car by car in the last curve and until we crossed the line, I finally won the “Magny Cours” track. My time was 2’43’2. Not bad. Found out, that driving at the edge of the track does not slow me down and It saves time in the curves.

Der mit dem Sega tanzt: HomeCon #12

Friday I had a good night Kick Off and a good movie called “Legion” at Franks place in Mannheim. We also used the time to coordinate the dates for the upcoming Summer tournaments in the near of Gummersbach and in Frankfurt. So it looks good for a nice Kick Off summer all over Europe.

At the HomeCon there was no Kick Off station ready, so first I bought a used copy of “The Bard’s tale” for the C64. I do not own a C64, but I like to have a original box of the classic at home.

In the meantime the organizers of the Sega Championship arrived and started to build up their stuff. Hessi (HomeCon organizer) had build out the seats of his van an so we had 4 nice seats for the players.

And finaly Newalix arrived and we could play Kick Off. In the end we had a nice little tournament. Horst become really efficient with his 45 degree shots, so we had some close matches.

Thorsten B – Frank F 2-2, 1-3:
Another draw. But I want’s a victory next time I’m so close.
Thorsten B – Horst L 4-2,2-1:
Both times Horst scores first, but my better Midfield saved the games.
Thorsten B – Jan K 5:1,4:1
Jan was not as good as in the last tournaments. Easy wins in the end.

Between the games we also participated in the Sega Tournament:

Round 1: Bomber Man
I played against Oerg and he won 3-2. Again won 2 rounds in this game. Not bad. In the Sega Megadrive version you could get a dino to ride on it. This is a second live, so if you die, only your dino is dead. So if your opponement have a dino and you not, that is a disadvantage I learned in the final match.

Round 2: Micro Machines 2
Great game. I lost against Neewalix, but we had some funny fights. Loved to let him die on the sponge. Hope to play that game more often

Round 3: Columns
Cause I did not knew that with button C you could give some lines to your opponement, the game was not that funny for me Well a game that is not one of my favorites.

Round 4: Sonic 2
A must for sega fans, but not a game for newbies.

Round 5: Super Kick Off
The sega version of Kick off is really the opposite of fun. But at least I was able to do the first “Day Trick”. That was the only positive thing. A shame for the Kick Off line.

It was nice to meet the enthusiastic Sega people and we had some fun playing different games. To improve a Tournament with people who do not regular play all these games and also not regular use a game pad, it would be nice to have a short explaination of the games before you play.

During the tournament I also had time to talk and play a little bit around. Played G.Radius on the PS1. A great game. Also thanks to Ebby that he thought on my Mega ST2. I bought G.Radius on my RCM trip two weeks ago, so I will have a shooting soon on my PS2.

Now it was time to go home. The nice weekend tripp was finished by meal at KFC and some 3 Kick Off games.

Write local, aggregate global

Some years ago I got in touch with a local Chaos Computer Club section from Heidelberg. I liked their way to aggregate all the blogs of the member to one site, so that you could see what’s going on in this section.

Because of the software they use or what ever the reason was, it is called planet. Such a planet exist also for a lot of other groups.

What I liked most on it is the fact that everybody has it’s own blog and so everybody controls what he like to share with the rest of the word. Then in the next step, these blogs could (but not need to) be aggregated to some group news sites. They even could aggregated to more then one site, that’s the good think, but it’s only a summary of the blog entry, the blog itself is still under control of the owner.

Some days ago I spoke with Hessi, the maintainer of the HomeCon.net site. I suggest to do such a planet, and 2 hours later my blogs (Videospielkrieger, RMKO, STOT, WGL) are now aggregated into a planet HomeCon. Great. Many thanks Hessi for doing the work to setup and integrate the software.

This is a step forward for my blogs, but other steps should follow.
Get more people add their blog to the planet.
Find other regional retro meetings and get them to have such a planet as well
Do another aggregation of all the retro meeting planets

That sound easy, technically no problem, but it will take years from my experiences. But I keep my fingers cross, that there will be some more steps forward

79500 points in Torvak the Warrior (STOT)

Torvak the warrior the new STOT game (#4/5)

This round we play Torvak the Warrior. It’s a misspelled ThorN the Warrior but that’s another story You are a barbaric warrior with a huge axe and you jump and run through some levels, thats the game.

My first score: 49200

Stuff I bought at the eJagFest 2010

It’s a while ago, but here is the Stuff I bouhgt at the eJagFest 2010

eJagFest 2010 stuff

New STOT round: Mrs. Munchie

This time we play a PD classic from 1992. The game was done by Robert Dytmire and the graphics are by Dave Munsie.

My first score: 160’200