Why I'm No Longer An Early Adopter

 

Are you experiencing FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), or console envy when you look at all of the shiny new consoles that have been coming out in recent years? I have moments when I am, but then I remember a few things. A friend of mine recently asked what he was doing editing a magazine about the Colecovision when the Sony Playstation 5 was coming out. My answer to him follows. I think it’s good advice to many of us, including myself.

“You are having fun and saving a ton of money. Everything about the newer generations of consoles is expensive. And really, other than fancy graphics, what does the PS5 or the XBox One X have to offer that's any different from what has come before in terms of a game play experience?

 

The most recent unique game play experience that I've had with a home console was the Nintendo DS's dual screens back in 2004. That was a total game-changer making all sorts of games possible for the first time. The bottom screen is a pressure sensitive touch screen, letting you use your finger or any sort of stylus you want to interact with it. The top screen is a little bigger and shows the main action while the bottom screen is available for other things that used to take you out of the action by covering it up such as maps, character inventory, puzzles, etc. In some games, it even gets used for touch controls, some of which go beyond just tapping and require you to swipe, write or even draw in order to achieve the game’s goals. It wasn’t until this year (2020) that smart phones might just possibly be able to offer an experience like this and the ones with the ‘foldable’ screen are going to cost a small fortune. 

 

The WiiU did it one better by making your TV the top screen and your main controller the touch sensitive second screen and by being compatible with most of the Wii's motion control games. Then, the DS one upped it as well with the 3DS's glasses free 3D, another huge game-changer that along with Augmented Reality (which was sadly never really fully utilized by game designers) should have completely revolutionized video gaming again. It would have if people hadn't become infatuated with Google's silly Glass concept and now the equally silly idea of strapping your smartphone to your face and calling that Virtual Reality. Augmented reality in glasses free 3D games is truly amazing and something that I’m disappointed to see no other new console even attempting.    

 

Microsoft and Sony tried to copy the Wii's motion control concept for a little while, but now they are back to just giving you faster performance and prettier graphics while you are back to sitting like a lump on the couch twitching buttons again. You are no longer being encouraged to get up on your feet to actually burn a few calories in the process of winning the games with this latest generation of consoles.  

 

Even Nintendo has abandoned motion control and dual screens with their 'new' Switch which is nothing more than a tablet dedicated to gaming that has detachable, tiny controllers and that you can stick in a cradle to put the graphics on the TV. A total step backwards from the WiiU other than a faster processor and fancier video card.

 

Yes, you could take the massive rectangle that is the Switch with you and play it portable, or you could just play on your Android or Apple tablet that you already have.

 

Even Nintendo realized this and came out with the Switch Lite which is a tablet with built in joysticks and buttons. Now, you can leave your original Switch in its cradle where it belongs and take the Switch Lite with you. 

 

 But by going with the Switches, you've also given up the second screen and the glasses free 3D of the 3DS for prettier graphics, which is a poor trade if you ask me.

 

No, you are better off sticking with the classic consoles, really. I used to be one of those early adopter, gadget gurus, but I got tired of it along about the time that Nintendo gave up on the WiiU and the 3DS too soon without really innovating with the next console. I think that the New 3DSXL may be the last console that I ever buy brand new.

 

I find that my interests are turning back to all of the many, many games that I've yet to play on the consoles that are in the generations predating the 2000’s. The library of games for those systems is gigantic in some cases. I think I could spend the rest of my life playing their games without finding a burning desire to try another ‘brand new’ game console.”

Retiring my Childhood Atari 2600 and Using a Retron 77

 

I decided to retire my beloved Atari 2600 which, after over 40 years of gaming on it, has started having issues with audio and video that are just beyond me to fix. The final straw came when I was cleaning it a couple of weeks ago and accidentally knocked a little bracket off the plastic housing for the left joystick port. It's getting so brittle that working on it and cleaning it is becoming a little risky. I've thought of replacing the RF Modulator, which is its biggest problem, with a different one, but I'm not sure if I want to tackle soldering on it.

 I researched for a while and decided to get a Hyperkin Retron77. This thing is amazing! It plays all of the game cartridges that I own for the 2600, even one called Solaris that won't run in color on my original 2600 but will on the Retron77. I think it is because the cartridge is PAL format while my console is NTSC (It's hard to tell with Atari cartridges).

 

The joystick it came with is a little wonky right out of the box and is not as precise as my original controllers. Now, I did succeed in replacing the guts of my original joysticks a few years ago, so that's partly why they are quite precise, but you'd think Hyperkin could give us a better controller than this. It's cool that it has two fire buttons, but the joystick itself has way too much 'throw' which makes you have to move the stick quite a bit before the thing you're controlling on the screen moves. It's fine with games like Space Invaders, but will get you killed in games like Gravitar.

 

Turns out Hyperkin did make a better joystick than that - it's called the Ranger gamepad. I picked one up a couple of days after getting the Retron77. The joystick aspect of it is one of the best controllers I've ever used. So responsive and solidly built.

 

You can also switch how you hold the gamepad with a little switch on the side. Flipping it will reorientate the thumbstick so that you can operate it with either your left or right hand. You can even flip the power/data cord on the controller to a new position so that it's out of the way if you turn the gamepad around. That's quite the clever feature that most other gamepads don't have. Just make sure that your console is turned off Before you flip the switch though, or it'll mess the system up and you'll get a black screen. If you get that, remove the micro SD card in the back, download a new image of the operating system for it from AtariAge's website, install it with a program such as USbit (you can't just copy and paste the new OS image into the microSD card), and you're good to go.

 

You should do this regardless since the new OS has improvements over the old one such as optional scan lines and slight glow effects that make the graphics look more like they did on old CRT TVs when the Atari 2600 was new, extra game save slots - yes you can save your game progress on this thing which is possibly the very best thing about it!, and being able to set difficulty switch settings once and not have to reset them each time you play.

 

You'll also find that on AtariAge and AtariMania's websites, you can download and install roms of every Atari 2600 game ever made, even some of the prototypes, for free. Installing them on the microSD card is easy as copy and paste into a 'games' folder that you should make on the microSD card when you upgrade the OS. I highly recommend that you get out another microSD card other than the one that comes with the console and make your changes to that, just in case you mess up the one that came with the console. Almost any microSD card will work provided that it is small enough capacity. I tried one of my 1GB sized ones and the console wouldn't read it even though my PC verified that the right files were on it. I guess the console is limited in how big of a card it can read. I bought a 128 MB card for it, which is the size of the one it comes with, and it works perfectly. Even if you install every game rom for the 2600 from AtariMania's website, the games themselves will still only use up 10MB of space. So, with the OS and the games, you'll find that 128 MB is plenty big. Amazing huh?

 

I still use the cartridges that I own and have picked up a couple more of them, with this system, even if I have the roms for them on the microSD card. I enjoy the cartridges' artwork and just the physical aspect of handling them and putting them in the slot. I read that the Retron77 downloads the rom from your cartridge and temporarily saves it while you are playing it anyway, rather than constantly reading from the cartridge.

 

It's worth getting for sure. The only caveat I'd give is that you shouldn't leave little kids, or irresponsible people alone with this console as they could rather easily mess it up, especially the microSD card and slot.

 

It's cool that this same Ranger controller can also act as a paddle controller with the flip of a switch on the side, but the precision on it is only a little better than the original paddles. The original paddles were so wonky to start with and only got worse with age. My original paddles are a real challenge to use today, even after I opened them up and cleaned the contacts inside. The Ranger's scroll wheel at least stops the things you are controlling on the screen from jittering all over the place, even if you still have quite the dead zone and other precision problems with them. Works perfectly with games like Casino and BlackJack at least.

Disciples III is Worthy of a Turn-Based Strategy Gamer's Time

 

I'm a huge fan of turn based games, both on the table-top and in video game form.  I've been playing them most of my life. There aren't very many of them, so when I find a new one, I've just got to try it. There are even fewer really, really good ones.  One of those is Disciples: Sacred Lands.   I loved the hand-painted look of everything. It was like an animated painting of an amazing medieval fantasy world. The game mechanic of gradually building up your empire as you planted rods and defeated enemies to expand your lands intrigued me. Especially the way that you were visually transforming the land around you into your faction's type of style, not merely planting flags.  This was especially visually arresting if you played the Legions of the Damned and gradually engulfed and burned the world to turn it into your own personal hell.  I enjoyed playing as the Mountain Clans though as I really like Vikings and they reminded me of them.   

 

The factions were very different looking, yet fairly balanced, each with a few unique abilities, but none being set up where they would always win.  The best part was the level editor that let you create your own game complete with timed events, victory conditions and dialog boxes. It was super easy to use with drag and drop interface that made game development seem as easy as painting on your own canvas. 

The sequel Disciples II Dark Prophecy was very similar only it improved the resolution and detail of the painted graphics and had somewhat different artwork.  It also advanced the fairly basic fantasy plot of powerful enemies trying to overthrow each other with even more entertaining plot points popping up between turns.   Both games manage to look fantastic without 3D rendered graphics and can be played on any Windows running computer, even older laptops without fancy graphics cards.

Now, we have Disciples III Renaissance.  So far, in my play of it, Kalypso Media seems to be staying faithful to Strategy First's (a game dev I've played many a strategy game from) tried and true game mechanics and plays enough like the previous two to that veterans of the Disciples franchise will be off and running immediately.  You can still play as the Empire (who has adopted a few new fashions over the years and have a new look) or the Legions of the Damned (still in their heavy metal band album cover glory but with some new artwork). Now you can play as the Elven Alliance rather than the Mountain Clans. The elves get some neat abilities that the dwarves didn’t have.  

The games have always had a very user friendly interface to begin with, so the manuals, while nicely done, are not really necessary unless you aren’t sure what the icons stand for.  This version does have a nice tutorial with little videos to show you how to play.  The almost stop motion animations of the previous versions have been replaced by more fluid ones and there is nice variation in the different attack animations . 

The only complaint I have about it so far, is that the hand-painted look that I love is gone in favor of a 3D rendered look that is not as unique as what the series is famous for.  They try to make the graphics look painted, but the illusion falls down if you move perspective.  Some of the 3D map elements get in the way of seeing the action requiring you to use the mouse to rotate the camera view. 

This game still has the great development tree that directs how both your capital and individual heroes level up and improve in the game.  You get several choices at each development tree branch that vary depending on which faction you are playing and on which focus your empire has.  You can focus on being more martial, more of a merchant or more of a magical realm with repercussions (both positive and negative) for each. 

If this game is your introduction to the Disciples series, you'll love it!  I highly recommend it to Steam players looking for something different from platformers and shooters.  If you are looking for more of the beautiful, hand painted art style the series is famous for, you'll be disappointed.  

I also highly recommend the first two games which can be found on websites such as Good Old Games.com.  You may find them on CD-ROM, but don't be surprised if those versions don't play nice with Windows 8 or 10. They may work, then again, they may not.  That is one beauty of these digital versions of older games: most of them have been modified to work with the newest OS's.

An Affordable Mechanical Keyboard

 

       Tired of computer keyboards that feel mushy, flimsy and imprecise?  Thinking of getting one of those mechanical gaming keyboards, but you're worried about the high price?  There are inexpensive options out there that are still built well and that still have several of the clever gaming hardware functions. The Logitech G413 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard is one of them. 

It comes in either 'Carbon' or 'Silver' models, but both have almost the same physical specifications otherwise. The Silver model has a shinier, lighter colored aircraft aluminum plate on the top of the keyboard body than the Carbon model does and the backlight on the Carbon is red while it is white on the Silver model, so which one you choose is a matter of aesthetics.  I chose the Carbon because I figured that the darker, brushed metal textured plate would show fingerprints less than the glossy, silver one would. I don't mind that the backlight is red, even though the lights in my self-built Antec Nine Hundred ATX computer tower (excellent case by the way - other than the front plate being a pain to take apart and clean, so if you come across one, it's a good one to get) are all blue.  It's too bad that you can't change the color of the backlight on the G413 model. If I could, I would probably change it to blue, though the red is growing on me. It sort of matches the purple trackball in my Perixx Permice 520 mouse which I've reviewed here.  Spoiler alert... it's an excellent mouse.

While the top plate of the keyboard body is aluminum, the rest of the body is black plastic.  It does seem to be a very durable sort of plastic at least.  It is quite rigid and doesn't bend when I place it on my lap for long typing or gaming sessions. I find that putting my keyboard on my lap is the best positon for ergonomics and keeps my wrists from getting sore.

Another reason why the G413 is good for using on your lap is because it is quite long, 17.5 inches to be exact, so it goes clear across your lap.  It's also 5.1 inches wide, giving plenty of room for all of the keys to be plenty big. They are the size of those on a standard typewriter. It has every key that a full keyboard should have, including a number pad that has plenty of space around it so that you don't accidentally hit a neighboring key while doing rapid number entry.

It's also 1.4 inches thick, which isn't as thick as keyboards used to be in the early 90's, but much thicker than some of the newest ones are.  On top of that, it's rather heavy, weighing in at 39 ounces (about twice as heavy as a typical can of green peas). This is a good thing in terms of having the keyboard stay still on your lap (or desk if you prefer) while you type very quickly.  Maybe not a good thing if you are planning on taking this with you in your laptop bag so that you can have a full sized keyboard for long typing sessions.

The keys themselves are the main reason to get a keyboard like the G413, so let's talk a bit more about them.  They are Omron 'Romer-G' mechanical keys, which are generally held in high regard among the gaming community for their durability, quietness and for being easy to replace.  Unlike membrane based keys which have a stem that presses a dome on a rubbery membrane which then touches a contact on a circuit board to complete the circuit that tells your computer that you pressed the key, mechanical keyboards have a spring-loaded stem that pushes two metal contacts within the key's body together as you press down on the key completing the circuit. This is more precise and lasts much longer. 

I can type on this keyboard for a couple of hours straight without my fingers feeling tired. That's partly because the springs in these keys do not require a lot of force to press down, but enough that you don't complete the circuit by just barely touching the key (which is a major problem for touch screen keyboards which use a capacitive technology that's far more sensitive than what is in mechanical keyboards). It's also because the keys only have to be pressed down 1.5 millimeters before they complete the circuit, as opposed to older mechanical keyboards that had actuation distances of over 3mm.  The old mechanical keyboards on manual typewriters had actuation distances that were even further, so far that your fingers would get very tired until you trained the muscles in your hands to hold up to it.

The keys last a long time, but like any mechanical thing, they can wear out. When they do, they can be removed with a little key pulling tool and can be replaced for a couple of dollars per key that you can buy on Ebay.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/174278220524?hash=item2893ca9aec:g:vJUAAOSwx5pfCitz

The key caps, rubber feet and tilt legs can be replaced direct from Logitech as well. https://support.logi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025903194--Spare-Parts  I don't foresee having to replace parts right away as everything seems fairly durable and I don't treat my keyboards roughly.

There are a couple of other rather cool things about the G413 too. One is that you can plug a USB-A device (or USB-C with an adapter) into a plug on the upper right corner of the keyboard. That could be handy if you wanted to plug your mouse, flash drive, etc. into it. Another is that this keyboard has a 'Gamer Mode' that can be activated by holding the function key (FN), and then hitting the F8 key. By default, this turns off the 'Windows' key between the left control key (CTRL) and left alternate (ALT) keys so that you don't crash your game by accidentally hitting the Windows key,bringing up the Windows Start Menu.

You can also use the Logitech G HUB from their website https://support.logi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024689354--Downloads-G413-Carbon-Silver-Mechanical-Gaming-Keyboard, to customize the settings of your keyboard to change what keys the Gamer Mode disables. It will also let you customize the backlight settings such as brightness, whether it glows steady, fades in and out, etc., but not the color of it.  You can also adjust the brightness by holding down the FN key and hitting F7 until you get the brightness you want. I prefer it on full brightness, but you can adjust it from that to four levels of before it shuts the light off. In the G HUB, you can also customize the function keys F9 through F12 to do a wide variety of things. By default, they do special things already to control playback of videos.  I played around with this software for a while, but eventually decided that I didn't need it and uninstalled it. The keyboard's default settings are perfectly fine with me.

I really enjoy using the G413 keyboard in almost every way. There are only a couple of things that keep me from giving it full stars.  One is that the number lock on the number pad shuts off every time you turn your computer off. The next time you start your computer, you have to turn the number lock back on in order to use the number pad. This is an issue especially if you are using the PIN number system to log into your computer (which you can do with an update on Windows 8.1 and on Windows 10). The keyboard has indicator lights for Gamer Mode and Caps Lock, but not for Number Lock, so you can't tell at a glance if your Number Lock is turned on or not.

The other issue I have with this keyboard is that while the USB cable for it is nice and long, six feet long to be exact, it is so stiff and thick that it doesn't flex out of your way very well when you move the keyboard around.  This might make the cable more durable, but it's annoying nonetheless.  The USB cable has two USB-A plugs on it. One is for the actual keyboard while the other is for the USB-A port on the keyboard. It isn't clearly marked on the plugs, so if you don't want to plug both USB plugs in, you really have to look closely at these black plugs to see the tiny markings etched into them to tell the two apart. 

The G413 Carbon Mechanical Gaming Keyboard's regular price from some stores and websites is over $100, but I only paid $56 for mine at Walmart a couple of months ago as of this writing.   https://www.walmart.com/ip/Logitech-G413-Backlit-Mechanical-Gaming-Keyboard/583007950

I've also seen it go for that price on Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Backlit-Mechanical-Keyboard-Passthrough/dp/B06XR5MWGM/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Logitech+G413+romer-g+switches&qid=1620948360&sr=8-2

as well as Ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/373572880666?epid=12015059590&hash=item56faadc91a:g:8PcAAOSwHBNglsV8 though on Ebay, when looking at all the different sales offered for it, you need to check to see if it is new or 'refurbished'.  Maybe the person who did the refurbishing did a good job, maybe they didn't.

While $56 may seem like a lot for a wired computer keyboard, compared to other keyboards marketed for gaming, it's not bad at all.  The brands often considered the 'top of the line' keyboards on the gaming magazine websites such as Corsair, Razer, SteelSeries, and Roccat are all over $100. Some are even over $200. It's not that Logitech's gaming keyboards aren't very good either. They often score in the top ten of such '10 best' articles on gaming websites. This specific model doesn't anymore, but that's because Logitech has released several models since the G413 was released in 2017.  Logitech still supports it with drivers, so it's far from being obsolete.

If you spend a lot of time typing on your desktop or laptop computer and/or spend a lot of time playing computer games, you owe it to yourself to get a good quality keyboard like this one.