Blog
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Keeping you up to date with what games I've been playing, what I've fixed (and broken), where I've ran and whatever else I've been up to. There are now photos at the end of each month.
July 2012 - August 2012 Well I've had an extremely busy couple of months and haven't updated anything on here.
I haven't turned my Xbox 360 on for about a month with the exception of watching the odd film. I've been lucky enough to upgrade my phone to the awesome Samsung Galaxy S3. A mini product review will be up soon. I've got hold of a couple of laptops for spares or repairs but haven't had chance to do anything with them yet. I've looked at learning Python and have completed the tasks so far on CodeAcademy. From there I've written a little app and written a little on a new page, here. I've managed to get hold of a half decent mountain bike and have done a lot of cycling over the last month. I've found that it's really helping my hill running. It's given me some stuff to add to my running page (but haven't yet.) I've acquired a Nintendo DS and Pokemon Diamond. Call me a big kid, but I love the Pokemon games! Well, it's short and sweet, I know, but nobody is reading this page and I've just added the Coding and Python pages. I've even included and commented some Example code for you to play with. It's a quarter to one here now and I'm shattered. I'm off to bed! Don't forget you can tweet me @davesabode or get in touch via my Contact page. June 2012 As promised last month, I've got out and taken a few photos. I didn't quite cycle to Wolverhampton, but shot closer to home on the Birmingham canals. There's an image below but you can see more on my new Photography page.
I haven't spent much time looking at those X Box 360s (which I did eventually arrange collection for). One I've looked at was displaying Error 74 on the screen and showing one red light. Pressure on the ANA (or HANA, a small multi-legged chip near the video ports) chip seems to temporary fix it. I've fluxed and resolder the connections and it's still the same. I guess the fault is actually inside the chip. I've tried the penny trick (weighing the chip down), but the fix only works for about an hour (until the chip decompresses). I may try putting heavier pressure on it and heating it up with a heat gun (in theory resoldering inside the chip?). The drive for this xbox had also seen better days. The eject motor isn't spinning. Fuses seem fine, will probably just swap the drive out as long as I can fix the motherboard and extract the drive's firmware. I've managed to acquire a 'broken' laptop power supply from a friend whose computer I fixed for free. The connector was broken, so I'm a connector short of a psu for my project laptop. I've probably got one in my loft, but there's no rush. I've watched a couple of films this month: Rocknrolla: Not a bad film, 7/10. Pursuit of Happiness: Very good! 8/10 Since completing Homefront, I've played a couple of online games of it. I don't have an online code so I can't progress beyond level 5, but I do love the game. Plays and feels so much better than Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 in my opinion. That being said, I haven't played much at all. Just haven't felt like picking the controller up. #Gettingold? May 2012 Last month I had started to push my distance on my runs. Well, I've done another couple of runs of the same distance since and have already seen a huge improvement in how comfortable I've been towards the end of the run.
I did decide to mix up my training a bit and planned a cycle to Wolverhampton and back (32 miles according to Google Earth). I printed the directions straight from Google Earth and set out. That, I'm afraid to say, was a big mistake. The computer generated directions are, at times, impossible to follow due to the roads either not existing or being sign posted as something completely different. Fortunately, my phone has GPS, mapping and navigation built in. Unfortunately however is the fact that these facilities drain the battery like the Niagra Falls drain water! So, after getting lost a few times and booting up the map on my phone I got to Wolverhampton in just under 20 miles. At this point, I was feeling pretty good but my phone battery was near death. I'd decided the directions I had to get home were unsafe so I headed for the canal. I was lucky enough to meet a guy heading in the same direction and he lead the way to Birmingham and I headed home from there. This detour meant that the journey home was 23 miles long and I was late for work! After cycling to work, and back on the night, I'd travelled over 48 miles! More than happy with that despite the pains in my legs and back side! Unfortunately, I never had time to take any photos on my travels, but there were plenty of sites which would have made for some stunning images! I want to build up my kit a bit (a tripod and some inner tubes should be enough) and get back out there on a day off. Pictures definitely to come! Game wise, I've been playing a bit more of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on my Xbox 360. It's hard, but great fun. I've also picked up Homefront which is quite a simple 1st person shooter but the story for the single player mode is amazing. I'm really enjoying playing through it. If you've got it or are planning on getting it, look out for the QR codes on the walls. If you scan them with your phone (using a barcode scanner app), you'll be directed to video clips and extras! Over the last month we've seen new footage of the new Black ops game set for release in November. Although I'm likely to buy it or receive it over Christmas (just because I thought Black Ops was great and had lots to the multiplayer game), I was a bit disappointed with what I saw. Set in the future (things becoming a bit far fetched already) this game looks more like Halo than Black Ops (and,I'm not a Halo fan at all!). information is scarce however and looks can mislead, so I'm pretty confident that it will actually be a good game after all. As I'm writing this I've received an email with information about the upcoming Fifa 13. If you haven't got used to the defence system in Fifa 12, you'd better catch up because it seems as though attacking is about to be overhauled. you will take more control of the first touch of the ball, be planning attacks two passes in advance and using runners to pull defenders out of position. I miss my Super Nintendo! To be fixed this month: Xbox 360 RRoD: Playing with the heatsinks has given it a couple of months of life, but now I'm going to have to attempt a part reflow with a heat gun. Nothing to lose, and I have an idea how I'd like to do it. Xbox 360 RRoD: Bought this from eBay cheap but not getting much contact from the seller. A lot of sellers don't like you picking the item up as they plan to make money on the postage, but they, for some reason, still offer it as an option. Will try the same as the above Xbox. I've been given a flat screen monitor with a damaged VGA cable and no power supply (12v 3A). I've replaced the cable (the replacement wasn't a total match, but I've read that a lot of 'ground's are common, so I've taken a chance) but am unable to test it until I find a power supply. I've picked up a supposedly working 1.5ghz laptop with no hard drive (or cover) and no power supply. It's a job on hold until I spot a bargain and get the required bits. See you in June! April 2012 If you read last month's post you may recall that I was trying to get at least one of two broken XBOX 360s working. One had red ring of death and one had a faulty drive. Despite having the same dimensions and fittings, each drive is paired to the motherboard of it's console and can't simply be swapped out.
The pairing is achieved via a hidden code saved inside the drive. With the correct software and, for one of the drives, a modified power cable, I was able to retrieve the code from the faulty drive. The working drive was a different brand so I had to "Spoof" it which means make it appear to be the same type as the faulty drive. Once set up with the code from the faulty drive I installed it into the non RRoD Xbox and bingo! The joy was short lived as the new drive doesn't read the latest games. Apparently this is to do with the spoofing technique (it ruins the drives ability to read games with certain types of copy protection). It's worth noting that I haven't modified the drive to play copied games. This failure to read modern games is a problem for original games. Well, I still have the original faulty drive, so, should a working identical drive come along, I'll simply swap over the main circuit inside the drive as this carries all of the drive's firmware. I'll then install that drive in place of the spoofed drive. Whilst on the XBOX theme... I managed to pick up another faulty 360 console. The problem with this one is that the drive was jamming shut. This is a common problem caused by the drive belt wearing out. I bought a few replacements and had it fixed in ten minutes. I didn't even have to open the console as it can be accessed via the drive opening if you're careful enough. Trying to sell the console is, however, proving to be more difficult than repairing it! Well, I have barely played any games on my XBOX or PC, but I've been toying with OpenCart and the idea of trading games locally. I'll share more information on that once / if things become more developed. Running wise, I have actually managed to get a bit of a distance session in. On the 25th of April I ran a new route and, at the end of this route, I could either turn right and head home with a finishing distance of six miles, or, turn left and add another nine miles to that distance. Well, the rain was pouring and the tunes were pumping and, despite losing most of the sensation in my arms, hands and fingers, I was really up for the 15 miles. All was good until near the end of my run after a couple of miles of canal running. The footpath was like a sister canal and my trainers had taken on a lot of water. Well, that's the excuse I'm sticking to. After about 13 miles of running I had to walk / stagger for about half a mile. I then squeezed out about another mile of running before finishing in an agonising walk. Despite being painful and exhausting, it's the kind of extreme I need to regularly push myself to in order to improve my times and distance. I'll admit it, I did regret going the extra distance. I regretted going out in the rain. I even regretted ever putting a pair of running shoes on my feet! But, now, two days later, the pain has (almost) gone and I'm still feeling run-fresh. I'm up for doing the same route next week. Maybe it's an illness! March 2012 Well, I've had Mass Effect 2 sat on my shelf for about two months and never really fancied it. A couple of weeks ago I span it up. Wow! I don't know what I did with the last two weeks of my life but my eyes hurt! The game is amazing! Imagine Gears of War mixed in with a bit of Skyrim (the good bit) and topped with Star Wars!
Of course, Mass Effect 3 has just been released and, if I could afford it I'd be 20 hours into it by now. Well, I'm more patient (and skint) than that. You may know that your game saves from previous titles are transferable on to the next title. I'm thinking of hunting down a copy of Mass Effect (the original) and having a complete play through. With that in mind, I don't think I will be renewing my Xbox Live Gold just yet as the best of the game is played offline (remember the days where all games were played offline and still awesome?). I've played a little Battlefield 3 and got a bit better. I've played though the single player game which seemed more like a chore than entertaining (especially compared to playing Mass Effect - last mention, I swear!). I can only enjoy it for a while though. I've managed to pick up a couple of cheap faulty XBox 360s. Both come with a power supply and TV lead (probably worth more than I paid for the bundle) and one came with a dodgy control pad and charge cable. One has RROD. I've tried a heat gun fix but damaged a couple of capacitors (which are on order). The other has a bad laser in the DVD drive. With some effort I should be able to get one working out of the two (the drives are different and it's complicated when swapping drives due to each having a unique key code built in to it). I would however like to get both working at some point. If you have an unwanted Lite On drive lying around, get in touch! I've also set up a bit of an online game store to sell on some of my played to death games. Take a look and see if there's anything you'd like. My Fifa 12 Disc is too scratched to play so, (Handy Tip!) I'm waiting to borrow a copy from a friend so that I can install it to my hard drive and use my game to start it. The rest of the gaming month is looking like MW3 and Fifa 12. My brother has given me a nice flat screen monitor that he's unsuccessfully tried to fix. It powers on and shuts off after a few seconds. I know it used to stay on longer. In my experience, this kind of degrading usually relates to a faulty capacitor. On the main power board there's no visibly damaged capacitors (they'd appear to have leaked or be bulging), but it won't cost a lot to replace them all anyway. I could replace the whole board for £20, but there's always a chance that the fault isn't on the power board. These boards usually have a self shut off is something isn't right. I've ran the board with only the processing circuit attached (no screen or inverters) and got the same result. I interpret that as saying either the power board or the processing board are at fault, but it could be shutting off because the inverters are not connected! Well it's a nice little side project. I'll keep you posted. I've just agreed to buy an Xbox360 (RROD) with all cables, two controllers and four good games for £25. That's a bargain even if I can't fix it! Maybe it'll have the Lite On drive that I'm looking for! If I do find a matching Lite On drive, the simple plan is to pull the main circuit from the drive with the faulty laser and install it into the healthy drive (thus carrying the unique key code with it). To sum up what else I've been up to:
Some of my fishFebruary 2012 At the beginning of the month I found a few bargains at the local Cash Converters. I got Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for £2, Top Spin 2 for £3 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for £5. They're all amazing games and, for £10, my library has doubled it's level of quality.
I've completed the introduction and a few levels of Ghost Recon, but, I've become a bit bored of the game and haven't touched it for a few days. I played a little of Rainbow Six (can't remember the game mode, but kind of like Survival in MW3 where you have to eliminate all of the enemies). It was much harder than MW3 and much more realistic. I recall thinking about how good it was, but I haven't gone back to that yet either. I did a basic "check to see if it's working" of Top Spin 2 and had a couple of games. I found it a bit difficult, but haven't since gone back to that to try to improve either. I haven't even touched Battlefield 3 yet this month, just spent any gaming time on MW3. I've played a lot of Standard: Demolition and a bit of Hardcore: Team Death Match (the latter with a Riot Shield and a Desert Eagle which didn't do my Kill:Death ratio any good but was fun). Ended up going through with my first prestige. I wasn't going to do it and I had to sacrifice all of my toys including my Golden ACR! If I'm going to play the game though, I may as well earn some XP in the process!. What are your thoughts on prestiging? Do you have any tips on gaining XP quickly? I was going to mix it up a bit and have a different game listed each month. There have been two problems with that approach. 1) I can't find a game good enough to pull me away from Modern Warfare 3. Despite its imperfections, it keeps me coming back for more. 2) I'm not spending that much time on my Xbox. I'm probably spending about four to five hours a week on there. It's not through lack of time, I always find 'me' time! It's more about there being more interesting things to be doing (like learning to code on codeacademy.com!). Finally had some snowfall this month which made my usual run to and from work a bit more interesting. It's fun, but, it makes running three miles feel like you've ran six. January 2012 I did manage to acquire Skyrim, but it wasn't my cup of tea so I sold it (for a small profit too!). With that I bought Battlefield 3. Battlefield is a very different game to Modern Warfare 3. I've completed the single player mode (a personal priority for most games) and had a blast at the multiplayer modes.
I was disappointed with some of the attention to detail (like trees falling through walls), but impressed with the map sizes and realism. A major let down for online play was the lack of options between games. By lack of options, I mean there's nothing! Not even an option to quit. So, picture this, you're playing the one after "your last game for the night" (as you do) and decide "it is finally time for bed after this one" only to find that you have to wait for the next map to load before you can quit! The only other way out is to return to the Xbox Dashboard! In comparison, of course, MW3 allows you to customise your loadouts, check your challenges and leave the lobby. Much mor thought through. I think the main put off for me (apart from not being able to fly a jet for more than a few seconds!) was that it's not Modern Warfare. I know that sounds like a fan boy statement, but I'm so used to the game series and the polished appearance that, for me, Battlefield has failed to provide. I will go back to Battlefield, just not yet... December 2011 Still playing this, the first game on my list.
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