Simon Dingle » Gaming

90s Gaming Nomad

Simon — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 12:58:26 +0000

As a kid I had a burning desire to own a portable gaming console as awesome as my Sega Mega Drive (called ‘Genesis’ in the US). There was something enormously appealing to me about being able to move around unhindered, with the ability to express my infatuation for gaming wherever I was. Sega played to this desire with a product it launched in 1995 called the Nomad. Not only was it the coolest thing I bought in the 90s, but in my opinion remains the most awesome portable gaming platform ever invented. The Nintendos and Sonys of the world would do well to consider what made the Nomad great – because, frankly, it kicks the DS and PSP for unmitigated awesomeness.

Firstly, the Nomad played the same game cartridges used by the Mega Drive or Genesis. That’s right – imagine having a PSP that played your PS3 games. It was that awesome.

The Nomad also had a controller slot on it, so that you could plug in a second Genesis gamepad and have two players on the same Nomad. Rad doesn’t even begin to describe this feature… think two-player Mortal Kombat anywhere.

It also had a standard power port, so you could buy any generic power or even car-lighter adapter and use it to power the Nomad. It came with a cable to connect it to a TV, so it really was like having a full-fledged Genesis with you anywhere. Proprietary ports are the work of the devil and I wish today’s console manufacturers would support standards more widely than just HDMI.

The Nomad’s battery pack clipped off and you could buy spares. The pack held six standard AA batteries so you could pick up batteries anywhere or carry a few loaded packs with you. Batteries, however, were the only down-side of this device as you would only get a few hours game time out of six AAs. I used to use rechargeable batteries with the device. Unfortunately we were a few years away from decent batteries in 1995.

I picked up a Nomad in 1996 while visiting my girlfriend of the time in the USA. The exchange rate was R4.40 back then and I paid around $160 for it – so roughly R700. I brought it back to South Africa and was instantly promoted to legendary status with my friends. I still have it. I throw out things all the time, but the Nomad is a keeper and I’ll never intentionally get rid of it. And you can pick up second-hand Genesis game cartridges now for a fistful of change.

What’s the coolest thing you bought in the 90s? My Sony MZ-R70 MD recorder/player is a close second to the Nomad.

Pasop

Simon — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:24:33 +0000

Last year I wrote a review about Intel’s new range of Penryn processors and the good people at Intel gave me my very own Core 2 Quad 3ghz Extreme processor by accident. It’s pretty much as rad as processors get right now, and it has the word ‘confidential’ stamped on the chip, because they gave it to me before it came out. This makes me happy. But I didn’t have a motherboard to run it on because they’re rare and expensive.

Thankfully local IT distribution powerhouse Mustek has it’s very own in-house messiah in the form of their CTO, Dimitri Tserpis. Dimitri wrangled up an Intel Extreme Series DX38BT board, otherwise known as the ‘Bonetrail’ and gave it to me gratis.

They say good journalists can’t be bought, but this is bollocks. Both Intel and Mustek are now on my List of Legends and other Rad People and Organisations who Rock. They have earned my bias. Buy their stuff.

So if you come ’round my base in Team Fortress 2 looking for aksie, I will hand you your ass with the help of my new arsenal. And my level 70 druid in World of Warcraft will murderise you in any battleground, even though my account was cancelled six months ago and my computer may be off at the time. You have been warned.

Now all I need is one of them new-fangled water-cooled Nvidia cards to make everything look the part. And some DDR3 RAM. It’s a sunny day in geekville.

Humble pie (or: GTA IV is rocking, after all)

Simon — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:06:58 +0000

I put my foot in it last week with my gun-jumping initial response to Grand Theft Auto IV. The game has since grown on me I see what all the fuss is about. Part of the reason I didn’t initially take to the mayhem of Liberty City is because this is the first GTA title I have really bothered to spend time on. Perhaps if I had played one of its predecessors I would have known what to expect and gotten into the swing of things more swiftly.

I stand by my opinion that the game is a little slow to get going – but this is only if you dive straight into the linear storyline. The sandbox concept of gaming is put to best use in Grand Theft Auto IV where you can stick to following the plot, or ignore it, put it on hold and explore the virtual city causing mayhem and leaving a wake of death, chaos and broken virtual families in your wake… if you like.

The gameplay in GTA IV is superb, even if the story is nonsense and the missions you get sent on are fun, if perhaps a little easy (so far). I’m approaching 20% completion of the game, which offers 100 hours of gameplay, and possibly more depending on how much time you spend aimlessly murdering and robbing the unfortunate inhabitants of the virtual world.

The game is awesome in multiplayer mode where up to 16 players can invade Liberty City and wreck the place – for fun, or with tenuous objectives. This adds to the value of the title which carries a high price tag but delivers hours of fun in return. In this way GTA IV is unlike many other titles for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 that, while fun, are short-lived and leave you feeling betrayed considering that you had to exchange a kidney for their purchase. None of that nonsense here, and that earns Rockstar Games an affection in my books which until now has been reserved for those magnificent bastards at Valve.

I’m glad I stuck it out with GTA IV and look forward to plowing my way through the rest of the storyline. In this case humble pie tastes good and I will have mine with a side-order of virtual carnage.