My new FXF NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB DDR3 (PV-T73A-UDF3) card came last night to replace the burned-out MSI Ti4800 (Ti4600-TD8X) card. Because my motherboard is still AGP, I had to get an AGP card instead of the newer PCI-E and there are fewer and fewer AGP options out there especially if you’re looking for dual-DVI connections. There seems to be more ATI cards that sports dual-dvi, but they tend to cost a lot more and I’ve always liked Nvidia cards.

This is definitely a no frills package that came in a small box with the card, manual, CD, s-video cable, power splitter cable and a DVI-VGA converter. The installation was easy, but don’t expect to get help from the manual which just said insert the card into the AGP slot. It didn’t even take up half a page. Later on, I found that on the CD there were some PDF documents that offered a little more details but only because it included some diagrams.

After putting in the card, I turned on the machine and saw… nothing. The GPU fan was running but I realize that the power cable from the PSU (the card recommends 350W) wasn’t connected properly to the back of the card so it wasn’t getting enough juice to turn on. Once I reconnected the cable, everything worked fine. I downloaded the latest drivers from Nvidia and a reboot later I configured everything as I wanted and the monitors looked very nice with both going to DVI.

Overall, the card is nice. The AGP version was more expensive then the PCI-E version but it was still cheaper then upgrading the whole machine. The card is actually smaller then my previous card and I didn’t notice it being any louder. The latest version of CPU magazine did an article on AGP card and this one got the best review and performance, but is about $30 more then the average price but given that this will hopefully be my last video card for this machine and I want it to last I figure the investment was good.

Last night I suddenly smelled burning plastic. After looking through the house, it turned out that the fan on one of the video cards (MSI Ti4800) stopped working and the heat of the card melted the fan and surrounding plastic. Not being a heavy PC video gamer these days, I don’t buy the super fast video card that could melt a glacier, but I guess most cards these days will generate a decent amount of heat as to require at least a heat sink or fan. What was interesting is that the video card still worked although probably not for much longer, but I still took it out of the computer and put it in the garage because it smelled really bad.

Since no video card essentially means no computer, I figured that I should find one fast, but as I’m not a gamer I haven’t been following the latest in video card technology. Although I’ve heard a lot of good things recently about ATI cards, I’ve been a long time user of Nvidia so I started there. The Ti4800 is no longer made so I’d have to upgrade to a newer GPU and this time I decided I really want one that has dual DVI connectors instead of a 1 DVI and 1 Analog, and since the motherboard is still an AGP mother board, I needed to find an AGP version of the card.

A few generations of GPU has passed me by since I bought the 4800 with the latest-and-greatest being the 8xxx series, but those cards are in the $400+ category and way beyond what I want to spend for an old system. At first I thought that the older 6xxx series such as the XFX GeForce 6600XT would fit my needs exactly as it has dual DVI, AGP and is relatively cheap.

However, the shocker came as I read the various comments that the XT requires a 500W power supply!?! I thought, “is this the norm these days?” Looking around some more, I settled on the XFX Geforce 7600GT which got very good reviews and being that it’s no longer the top-of-the-line from Nvidia the price isn’t at a premium. However, because I had to get the AGP version, it was about $50 more then the PCI-E version. While the 6600XT seemed to require a powerful PSU and the XFX version seemed to be a fairly large card, the 7600GT is less power hungry and is suppose to be more a regular sized card. I’m now waiting for it to arrive and I’ll provide more details of my experience with it.

Hopefully this will be the last upgrade for the computer until the whole system is upgraded.

Having been thinking about getting a game pad for my computer, I decided to pick up the xbox360 controller for windows on impulse. Although somewhat on the expensive side of controller’s, I figure if I ever do get a xbox360, I’d wouldn’t have to spend money on a second controller.

The 360 controller works on both the console and Windows. It seems to be just a USB controller. At the store, there are those labeled for the 360 and Windows. The difference is that the windows version has a CD with the drivers while the 360 ones don’t. The price should be the same for each but some places sells the windows version at a higher price. If so, get the 360 version and download the driver from Microsoft for free.

What I look for in a controller first is the feel. I want something that feels solid in my hand and the 360 controller meets that criteria very well. It feels like it’s designed for frequent use (a console controller afterall) and not a secondary gaming device like many gamepads for the PC. Fortunately, MS seemed to learned from their original mistake and the size of the controller is closer to the “S” type controller of the original xbox. The button layout is similiar and feels responsive.

Setting up the controller meant plugging it in. It is very basic as is the software. In fact, I hesitate to say that it comes with software at all. It comes with the software driver for Windows (MS should say so on their website). There is no ability to macro anything, or do anything other then calibrate it. For the price, I’d expect something beyond just a driver.

The triggers are responsive, but I was baffled that they aren’t considered “buttons” but rather Z-axis movement controls. I’m not sure if this is the same with all gamepads or what but I’d like to use them as buttons in my games. They are comfortable to use but in FFXI, they aren’t used for anything. Without anyway to reprogram the controller, they are essentially useless. The left-and-right shoulder buttons also requires the hands to move a little in order to press them. None of the other button required me to adjust my hold in anyway. There is also a XBOX logo button in the middle of the game pad that does… absolutely nothing. On the xbox it is functional, on the PC not even the software driver recognizes it.

The pad also has a connector for the xbox headset. I don’t know if this works on the PC as I have no headset to test with.

The xbox360 controller for Windows is a very basic 10-button (plus 2 triggers) USB game pad. It is solid in construction and comfortable. The lack of software really hurts it in comparison to other cheaper offerings. For those who might get an xbox360 and want a wired version of the controller and have a PC, this might be worth it.

One of the classic video game series was the old Sierra Online adventure game, King’s Quests. I loved those old adventure games where you solved puzzles as part of the story. Apparently there are a lot of fans out there who don’t want to see these types of game die out so they’ve taken it on themselves to keep the series going. However, the tricky thing is that these groups don’t own the rights to the series or characters and that puts them in dangerous legal waters. For the team working to extend the King’s Quest series, this annoucement is very good news.

It’s been pretty busy lately so I have not had much time to update the blog. Frankly, I haven’t encounter many interesting articles recently to really blog about. There was the contraversay with the “secret sex code” in the latest GTA game. If a game that lets players recharge their “health” through a visit to the corner prostitute didn’t already have an “adult” rating, what’s the big deal that there was a secret code to unlock pixelated acts of sex? The public reaction to this is probably overblown, but I do wonder what the programmers were thinking? Don’t bite the hand that feed you, people. At least just make your own private version to show off to your peers if that’s what it was about.

In related gaming news, the son of a Microsoft manager got his hands on his dad’s Xbox360 and proceeded to take pictures of him with it and posting them on a public forum thereby completely breaking the NDA his father signed. It’s safe to say that the father is no longer employed. What were both father and son thinking?!?

Now that the details are out on the next generation consoles from the top three players let the fight begin! ^^

It looks like modern and slick design is in for the new consoles.

Nintendo’s Revolution:

Sony’s Playstation 3:

Microsoft’s Xbox 360:

Sega’s Dreamcast Xtreme
XXX

Gameboy Micro:

John Dvorak, of PC Magazine fame, has been writing for a long time as a technology industry “insider” and I’m somewhat surprised that he’s still around given how off-the-wall some of his writings are. He recently posted an article where he makes the following statement:

as the Linux community is slowly evolving into a state of mob rule, with the cheerleaders being paranoid crackpot leftovers from the waning days of Amiga

I’m not saying that he’s wrong, but that he’s about 10 years too late in making this observation (actually I think he’s been saying this for 10 years and is just repeating himself). With each OS, editor, whatever, there’s always fanatic advocates so what’s really new?

Another example of how Dvorak tries to keep his relevency is to talk about areas where he obviously have no knowledge of such as video gaming: How the gaming Industry is Killing Itself. I highly doubt that Dvorak plays video games or spends much time in the industry to really know what’s going on.

Screenshots of Dead or Alive 4 leaked out and they look NICE! (Yes, I’m a sucker for the eye candy the DOA girls provide).

Check them out here

Ok, the game itself is not new, but I finally got myself this:

Yep, it’s the Taiko Drum Master game and controller! It’s a really fun game although I do wish they had a better selection of initial songs. I played through a lot of the songs until I noticed that I had a blister and thought maybe I should stop (but I play two more songs anyway).

Jade Empire, a RPG for the XBox, will be released soon. I’m tempted to get it for a couple of reasons. One, there aren’t that many games that uses a chinese setting, so I’m interested in seeing how it is portrayed. If you noticed, game makers tend to use Japan for far-east settings with its Samurais, Ninjas, etc. Granted that many game makers are Japanese, I am still curious why so few games uses Ancient China as a setting.

Just having a game with a particular locale as background is hardly reason to buy it(most likely it’ll be $50-$60), but the makers of Jade Empire, Bioware, have a very good track record of making solid RPGs. Anyway, gonna wait for it to come out and see if there are any sales.