My Xbox has Died

It is a sad day today. I feel really bad, little things going awry and the last straw was my Elite going 3 Red rings on me.  Maybe i have been so busy carting it around from my bedroom workplace to the living room of late. Maybe i am asking too much for you to power my Kinect as well, i just don't know.

I do know that it will cost me a whopping 99 bucks to get it looked at by MS. Boo!

But the thing is, it can be amazing how unlucky a single decision can make stuff. Let me explain....

Today i went out to Walmart and Gamestop. I wanted to by Lips for my Xbox so we can have some loud Karaoke to go along with the raucous Kinect fun. Walmart did not have it so, off we go to Gamestop. Yes, they have it, woohoo! Now while i was out i had also sort of decided that i really should be a more dedicated Xbox for the living room area. So i wouldn't have to keep moving my Xbox around etc. I decided not to buy it at gamestop cos i wanted to check prices online, were there any good deals etc..

Well as it happend as soon as i got home i grabbed my Xbox, which had been left on in the bedroom running A Shooter as a server for my high score sharing. So i turned it off and unplugged it, as i walked out of the bedroom with it there was a clank as the power cord hit the side of the Xbox. Ouch i thought, but it'll be ok. It seems i was wrong and that clang was a fatal touch of Red Ringiness.

So i have since got a little annoyed cos i could have bought the Xbox Slim while i was out. Then i would not have even unplugged mine from the bedroom, and as you can tell. Everything would have worked out great, haha!

So now i really need the new Xbox to play Lips and Kinect on.

I have found this whole scenario very depressing, and i feel like an old friend has decided to unfriend me from facebook or something. My life is now not as complete as it was.

Still.....

At least i can buy a new friend tomorrow, and the new one is gonna be slimmer ;)

Laters

Demo station

I have been busy going ahead and building the demo station, even though i did not get financed by Kickstarter. It was already half built anyway. Today i hope to get my Xbox inside it and maybe the top connected to the bottom.

So the new news, and why i am writing this post is that i chatted with the manager of my local Gamestop today. He was very nice as always and was trying to be helpful. However his hands are tied in respect to my wishes. So he kindly gave me a couple of phone numbers to contact the corporate offices of Media and store operations. I hope that phoning them this week will allow me to get in store asap. We shall see.

The game is nearly ready for playtest again, what i hope will be my final playtest, but one never knows. The only real issue i have currently is that the intro video has decided to start playing at 1/4 screen, very very odd. It never did this before, and it makes the rest of the screen green for some odd reason. Most weird. ahh well...

Laters

Been playing Games all day

It is amazing. The day seems to have gone too fast. It is not very often i play games for too long nowadays. so much to write and design and market etc. Anyone readin this blog will know i am busy on all these fronts. However today i got my wow account restored. so i spent a good while dealing with that. Then moaning about how they did not sort out my sons linked account. To be done i am sure.

So anyway, i sort that for a bit, and try to play some wow with me friend Jeff. We just got into an instance when he was cut off. Then he was unable to sign back in. This bummed me out for a bit, but figured his internet will be sorted once more this coming weekend. We can have soem happy trails then i am sure.

Well i was also playing my new Indie games, apple jack, and Murphid. Both very nice games. Both well put together with nary a hint of being rushed to market (my usual complaint of course for Xblig games!). These are both great games. One is more up my alley than the other and that would be Apple Jack, right from the first jump ya know this game is aok. Murphid is good but not being a match 3 puzzle kinda guy i bought it for the wife and then proceeded to play for like 30 minutes myself, haha! I had to kill myself so i could go fetch my son.

Then.. it was the good stuff..
Me and Lucas went off to one of the Gamestops near where i collected him, well we went after getting some Taco Bell grub. This was my first foray into the Tapo Rd Gamestop. They had 3 staff and no customers. i was in there browsing for 10 minutes and only 1 lady came in to collect Bioshock for her son. I never found the game i was after for me Xbox and so left. Intrigued. .. Is it usually that dead on a Sunday at 12:30pm.
Then me and Lucas headed off to the other Gamestop in Simi valley. This one is in the Simi mall, and i like the manager there. He has helped me market my game Pellmell in the past. This place was quite busy, in about a 10 minute span they must have had a dozen customers and i also found the game i was looking for 'Sonic's Ultmiate Genesis Collection'. As a bonus i also found that Lego 'Indiana Jones 2' was only 20 bicks. SCORE!! So of course i bought them both.
This journey was of course to scout out Sundays as possible days for me to Demo my game. Get feedback and the works. Talking to the managers will be happening very soon i think.

The only issue was.. when i got home, i got to enjoy a bunch of the game from the Genesis and also i started playing with both my children on Lego Indiana 2.. ARGH! then the day was gone...

Finally ended the night watching the last episode of 'Spartacus of Blood and Sand' on netflix on me Xbox. This has been one epic series. One of the most enjoyable mature level series i have ever witnessed.  the story was fabulous, and there was lots of nudity and violence for anyone to be sated. Mind it is very graphic, and i am sure some will not get past the boobs to appreciate the story that unfolds.

Tha last thing i can say tonight is that the base to my stand is not ready. Hopefully a picture tomorrow will prove this.. It is BIG, about 4 inches higher than i expected, as i had forgotten to add in the size of the monitor stand, bah!

G'night