So I havent posted a new blog in a while, so I decided that I'd take a picture of my Game Gear with the T. V. Tuner playing South Park! I know, I'm a pretty sad individual, but I promise to post a real blog soon. Something that is actually interesting...

There you have it. The most uninteresting thing I have ever posted.

Attention: If you find this blog to be very uninteresting, please reccomend that my profile be banned, and I castrated. Thank you for your continued support and cooperation.

Today started out unlike any other...I got up early! I was up by 7:30...am! I couldn't believe it, but it was true.Now you may be asking yourself what any selfg respecting gamer would be doing up at such an hour, or at least awaking at such an hour, but I had my reasons. The first thing I did was get a Monster Energy Drink. That is most always on the top of my to do list no matter what time I get up. The next thing i did was drive over to the flea market. I love flea markets, and not just because you can find old games cheap there...but because I am a big collector of antiques in general. So I get there, paid the entrance fee, and began my search. I didn't see much at first, and then because a higher power must hate me, it started to rain. Half the people packed up and left, and I was stuck under some vendors canopy. Now I know being stuck under a vendors canopy seems like a bad deal to most of you, but it was actually a great thing. The vendor I happened to be stuck under was the one vendor that specialized in vintage video games! **** yes! So I looked around, as the person had brought a whole bunch of plastic drop cloth to cover their wares in the event of rain, and I spotted a few things that I wanted. Aside from that, right before it started to rain, I had asked the vendor if they had an Intellivision. They said yes, showed it to me, and said that I could have it, and the 41 boxed games they had for it for $40. I almost ruined a pair of shorts, and choked out a yes. I know this isn'ty exactly the deal of the century, but it was still a pretty good deal.

The only problem I had was that I had to take the vendors word that it worked. Surprisingly enough, when I hooked it up right now, it worked flawlessly. I wasn't exactly shocked, but I was a little surprised.

Aside from that I picked up Crash Bandicoot 2 & 3, Bubble Bobble, Monster Party(boxed), and a few misc. instruction booklets. I also got a WWII German service medal...I think we can all translate this without my having to mention any more. It's like straight out of freakin' Wolfenstein!

Disclaimer: This blog should not be read by children, pregnant women, the elderly, or anyone in general. If you have read this blog, call an ambulance or visit an emergency room right away. Do not induce vomiting. In case of accidental ingestion, tie tourniquet around throat to stop the spread of contaminants.

Warning: Do not take the above disclaimer seriously. Doing so could lead to serious injury or death!

Warning: Using your brain could be detrimental to your health!

So I'm at the Thrift Store today, looking at the usual piles of garbage, when I came upon a hidden gem! I'm not talking about real gems or anything like that, but of the Pac-Man card game.

What a cool find indeed. From what I gather, it is nothing more than a simple math game using flash cards that depict our favorite disembodied head. I haven't played it yet, but it should prove to be al least as interesting as the lackluster Atari 2600 Pac-Man port. Now if only I could find a cheap Pac-Man arcade cabinet...that would be my crowning achievement!

While I know I said I was going to post this two days ago, I was unable to because GlitchSpot wouldn't let me upload the pictures for some strange reason. However, without further ado, I give you:

Deconstruction and Reconstruction: Pt IV - The Nintendo DS Lite

This is the first time that I have taken apart anything that is relatively new. The DS Lite is technically a current gen. console, but has been replaced with the Dsi, and Dsi XL. The only reason I decided to take this expensive piece of hardware apart is that this particular DS was my little brothers, and in a fit of rage, my little sister ripped the top off of it while it was still in my brother's hands. It is quite useless now, as it only tries to power on, but stops after a few seconds. I'm not really very worried if I screw it up.

This is the back of the DS Lite (hence forth refered to as the DS). All of the green arrows point to a screw location. You can't see the hole, but right on top, behind the lip, there is a screw. They are all of the tri tip variety, except for the two on the top where the L and R buttons are. Those two are under the rubber feet, and are Phillips head screws. The hole in the battery compartment that the red arrow is pointing to is for one of the screws that holds the "motherboard" to the front of the case. You do not need to remove it at this time.

This is the inside of the back. There was nothing in particular for the camera to focus on, so it came out terribly. There really is not much to point out here either. That white thing is right above where the stylus goes in. I'm not sure what it does at all.

As you can see, there is a lot going on here. This is the back of the touch screen. That big silver thing with 17LV upside down is the DS game card slot. The weird sideways ladder looking thing is the GBA game slot. The red arrow points to the wireless card, and if you look very closely you can see that the yellow arrow points to a little gold thing connected to the black wire. That is where the antenna plugs into the wireless card. The purple arrow points to the hidden gold thing connected to the barely noticeable white wire. That is where the microphone plugs into the motherboard. The two blue arrows point to the two screws that hold the motherboard to the case. The right one was removed when I took the screws out to take the DS apart. Only after I got to this part did I notice that I could have left it in until now. That black thing on the right side of the DS game slot is where the battery connects to the motherboard. Right above that is the charging port. The silver thing on the bottom right is the volume, and the grayish thing on the bottom left is the headphone jack. On the left side, about half an inch below the R button (keep in mind that this is upside down right now) is the power switch.

This is the left side of the touch screen. I had to take this picture as two so that the camera would focus correctly. Here we can see where the touch screen interfaces with the motherboard directly underneath the "down" button. I'm not quite sure what the cable under the "right" button does, but if I had to guess, it would be the power for the backlight. You can also see where the top screen interfaces with the motherboard on the top left. If it wasn't ripped in half, it actually is rolled up and runs through the hinge, which is hollow. The black and white wires also run through the hinge. The black one is for the antenna for the wireless card, and the white one is for the microphone.

This is the right side of the touch screen. You can see where the start and select buttons are on the bottom, and the A, B, X, and Y buttons are on the top. This part is not very interesting.

Now we come to the top screen. If you look at the top screen you can see four little squares in the corners. Those come out, and there are screws underneath. Once you remove the screws, do not try to force the screen open at this point though. What you do is hold the screen side with your thumb, and the back (outer) side with your fingers and slide the screen side down. It will then come apart very easily. It took me ten minutes and almost a broken top screen to figure that out. The screen is glued to the bezel, so be careful pulling it off, lest you crack the screen. The speakers are connected to the ribbon that connects the screen to the motherboard. You can see the solder spots in you look carefully. You can also see that the ribbon is coiled in this picture. That weird white thing on the right side of the bezel is the antenna for the wireless card. All it is, is a little PCB. You can also see where the white wire leads. There is a rubber boot holding the microphone in place.

As usual, the reconstruction is the exact reverse.

This concludes today's episode of Deconstruction and Reconstruction. I hope you enjoyed it, and watch for another in the coming weeks.

I also might do a feature on fixing the DS Lite if I can find a broken one on Craigslist for cheap. I found that I can get all the parts for around $20, but I would still have a broken hinge. Oh well. That is for another day!

Good news Ladies and Gentlemen. Tomorrow, or rather later today, marks the triumphant return of the popular blog series: Deconstruction and Reconstruction. Don't worry, this time I'm not taking apart a mere controller, or even a crappy old Game Boy Color. No, this time will be good! Tune in tonight to find out what I hack apart and then slap back togather this time! I gaurantee that a good time will be had by all!

Disclaimer: A good time may or may not be had by all. What does or does not constitute a good time is purely subjective. This blog is not to be taken orally. Keep out or reach of children. Reading this blog on a computer screen may void your warranty.

The story goes like this. When Nintendo was trying to release the NES in North America, they either didn't make enough 72-pin boards or didn't have any made up in time to release the console in North America, or something. Nobody seems to know for sure what happened, but the result is that some copies of certain early NES games have NES to Famicom converter boards inside. Nintendo apparently wrote the games to 60-pin boards and used these converters to make them compatible with the NES.

I was at the used game store the other day, and happened to pick up a copy of Pinball for the NES. To my surprise it seemed a tad heavier than it should have been, so I picked up another copy and compared them both. It still felt a bit heavier, so I bought it. The $1.99 price tag had a lot to do with it. Right about then I was in a hurry to get home to see if I was right!

To my surprise, well, not really, I took the cart apart and there it was. I now had my very own copy of Pinball with a NES to Famicom converter board. Upon taking the board out, I noticed that the converter board even has the 10-NES chip in it. Other than that, there isn't much else to say.

There are a few ways to tell if there is a converter board inside. The ones with are always the five screw version. The ones with are a bit heavier than the ones without. You can actually feel the weight difference, but it is pretty close. Another way to tell is that the colors on the graphic are a tad bit darker. If you have another copy to compare against, it is pretty easy to tell the difference. I've also found it is true that the ones with have a small tab on the ends of the pins on the right side instead of the middle. I'm not sure if this is true with all, but it is with mine. If you use all of these methods, you can be pretty positive that you will find a converter.

So here we are again. I've got some stupid idea, and I'm going to share it with all of you. I hope this is as informative for you, as I think it may be.

Hi, MtNgranek here, and like you, I've played the Nintendo Entertainment System for years. At first I used that crappy r/f adapter, but soon enough I realized that the NES was capable of so much more! That's when I decided to go for the gold and use the RCA plugs on the side of the system. The video signal is great, and the sound is so much better than that radio frequency garbled monstrosity that you get from the r/f adapter. The only problem is, it only comes out of one speaker! I too was fooled by the NES, but with a little ingenuity, we can overcome any obstacle!

This is where the stereo to mono adapter comes into play. What's that you ask? Why are we using a stereo to mono adapter when we want to go from mono to stereo? That is a great question. It is best explained like this. The RCA cable is nothing more than a glorified piece of wire that connects RCA jacks together. That being said, it is entirely possible to input a mono source to the single male end via a female to female adapter, and then use a set of RCA audio cables to go from the two female ends to your red and white RCA jacks on your TV or stereo receiver!

This setup will effectively turn your crappy old single mono NES into a hi-tech state of the art Double Mono Machine! I personally use this method, and can vouch for it 100%. And if that's not enough for you, we'll even throw in the Core 2 Duo sticker for free! Then your NES will really look impressive!

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Today, instead of trying to play with words in a way that will not get me banned, I will be talking about a game that I just got. I decided to buy it off of ebay because I couldn't seem to find it anywhere else, and at $11.99 it was one of the most expensive games I've bought for the NES. The game in question is none other than Spiritual Warfare by Wisdom Tree, the Christian gaming pseudonym of Color Dreams. I will have to hand it to them though. While this game is a complete rip off of Zelda, and I mean complete, it is quite good.

You are some kid who is trying to do something. As the instruction manual was not included in the auction, I have no idea what is going on. I'll definitely research this a bit when I finally review the game. You start out in a park, and make your way to a city, and then to the slums! What a family friendly place the slums are. I also couldn't help but wonder when the first enemy I encountered was a knife wielding gangbanger. Oh well, at least I had the Pear of Righteousness to kick his *** with! After a while you also get the Apple of Patience, and the Pomegranate of something or another. It's a pretty weird game.

From what I can tell, the whole objective of the game is to collect the pieces of Gods armor…or something. I did find the Belt of Strength, which coincidentally was how I was able to move the rock to get out of the park and into the city. I still haven't found the Jawbone of Samson though. I need that to get the raft. I know what you are thinking, but let me assure you, I have no ****ing idea either. This whole game is very strange, but I like it. It is pretty good, and even throws Bible Quizzes into the mix! Isn't that what you've always wanted to do in a video game? I know it has been my dream for several years to be able to use my vast knowledge of the bible to my advantage in a video game!

Putting all kidding aside though, I could definitely recommend this game without feeling like I had just committed a mortal sin. It is pretty good for what it is, and it definitely deserves a look

The Nintendo Entertainment System. We all know what it is, and we all have invariably played one. If you haven't, I suggest you crawl out from under that rock you've been living under, and go play one! The NES (as it shall now be called) was released in the US on October 18, 1985 in the form of "the gray box" or "toaster" as it has been nick named. This model, which varied significantly from the Japanese model, suffers from one major flaw; the 72-pin connector inevitably wears out.

For those of you who do not know what a 72-pin (as it shall now be called) is, it is the thing at the end of the game slot that the game plugs into. All cartridge based game systems have a card edge connector. Some have more than 72 pins, and some have less. The NES actually has 12 more than the Famicom, which has 60, which it was based off of. Most games, however, are compatible with an adapter.

The 72-pin connector looks like this.

The problem that we run into is this. Only the NES has a card edge connector that is as strangely designed as this. Every other connector is a direct input connector (my own technical term) while the NES uses a ZIF, or Zero Insertion Force, connector (Nintendo's technical term). While this wouldn't have been such a problem, Nintendo decided that the games had to be pushed down, much in the same manner that a VCR "pushes" a VHS tape down to read it. The Video Game Crash of 1983 inspired this design, but that is a different story. The problem this causes is that after repeated pushing's down, the pins bend into a down position, and make very poor contact with the card edge. This in turn leads to games not playing properly.

There are several different methods of fixing this. The first thing you can try is simply replacing the 72-pin. You can either buy one online, which I have done, or buy one at a vintage video game store, which I have also done. I do not recommend buying one online, as you never know what you are getting. I bought one from Nintendorepairshop.com, and it stopped working after six months. I have no idea what was wrong with it, but I will never buy one online again.

Next, I tried buying one from a vintage game store by my house. I would recommend this course of action if you feel like saving time, and do not feel like saving money. They work decently, and you can go yell at the people who work there if something goes wrong.

If, however, you do not have a life, and write crazy blogs for your own amusement, you can try this method. I have found that it works very well indeed. The first thing you must do is find yourself an NES Control Deck Cleaner. It looks like this.

The second thing you need to do is take apart the NES and remove the 72-pin. Don't be afraid, the NES is built like a tank. It can hurt you more than you can it. Next, you need to find a needle or straight pin. After you have done this, you take the 72-pin and look at the part that does not have the "wings" on the sides. This is the part you are fixing. If you look into the slot you will see individual pins. You then use the needle to get under the pin and bend it back upwards. Here is a picture of half the pins bent. You can see that the pins on the right are slightly more angled than the flatter ones on the left.

You do not need to bend it much, so don't go gung-ho on this part. After you have done this to every one of the 36 pins, being careful to not bend them too far, you take that NES Control Deck Cleaner and insert it into the connector. It should now feel very tight, and you can use the cleaner to clean the pins as well. If it does not feel tight, you can repeat the bending process until it does. After you clean this slot, take the cleaner apart (the "wings" keep the assembled cleaner from being inserted into the slot) and insert the cleaning part into the other slot and clean it.

After you have done this, you will have an excellently refurbished 72-pin connector. I have had lots of luck with this method, and recommend it to anybody who is willing to take the time to try it.

Now I know you are all saying that this is not the only reason that the NES doesn't work properly all the time, but that requires a different process that I'm not sure if I can talk about here or not. I will contact a moderator and find out. After I have done this, I will either post another blog, or post an edit to this blog about how I can't post such a blog.

I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did, and hopefully this helps someone!

(As I said I would, I am here to comment back on wether or not I can write about a certain something.

I wrote the Admin this:

"Hi, I noticed that you were an Administrator, and wanted to know whether or not I could get banned for writing a blog about how to (this part has been censored to make sure I dont get banned!), for use in making the system work better.

Thank you very much for your time, and have a great day!"

And the Admin wrote this back:

"Best to avoid that. Technically counts as illegal activities."

As we can see, I have been up to some pretty naughty things as of late!

Amongst other things, I've been playing Pokemon Heart Gold, and I just got done defeating Morty to get the Fog badge. The only reason I'm writing about this is because my Kadabra (who is named Alhazred) decimated that entire gym...

I walked in with Alhazred at level 24, and I walked out with him at level 27. He defeated every single Pokemon in the gym in one move each! I couldn't believe it. It is funny because everybody thinks that Abra, Kadabra, and Alakazam are crappy Pokemon...but I know better. Abra isn't a pain in the *** to raise for nothing.

Just thought I'd share that with everybody.