Accident Prone

On 9/3/2022 at 11:33 PM, Egg Shen said:

i keep seeing the phone stealing thing pop up in places, is it really that bad? I only have one experience at Slam Dunk (pre-Pandemic) and had a lovely time.

Yep, might be just a Leeds thing though as it's the only city where it's happened to me. The Slam Dunk Facebook replies were full of it, and I even posted a snarky reply about phones being robbed on their 'Coming soon!' post which got some attention. I'd recommend taking a cheopo burner phone, or investing in some zippy pockets or a decent bum bag, especially if you plan on getting mixed in with the public during sets.

Again, bastards. Utter bastards.

1 hour ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Why have you sworn off them? Was that the show where you (or someone else on here) had their phone stolen?

Yeah that's myself. It's the second time it's happened, so that's enough for me to wash my hands of the fest. It's only ever happened at Slam Dunk too, never at any other festival or gig that I've been to. They clearly attract wankers, and Slam Dunk are okay with it, so I want no part of it anymore.

The backstage chaos and social media sniping is working for sure. Real life issues generally bring out the best in pro wrestling, and as long as everyone is a professional in the ring and puts the fans first, long may it continue.

Gutted that I've sworn off Slam Dunk forever because that's a real sweet line-up. Offspring, Bowling For Soup, Less Than Jake, The Academy Is...it's perfect 2008 2am emo room fodder. Bastards.

I've never fallen asleep at the cinema and I've never gotten motion sickness at the cinema but that all changed when I saw one of the fucking Hobbit movies at the fucking cinema.

It wasn't number one as that was fairly decent, but it was definitely either two or three. Either way, a film featuring epic battle scenes should not make anyone fall asleep, but I was 40 winks deep during that slog, and to make matters worse, the weird frame rate had me clutching an empty popcorn box like an aeroplane sickness bag.

Anyway, the new show looks odd to say the least. It reminds me of '10th Kingdom', and although that's not exactly a bad thing, it does feel incredibly dated and like a SKY 1 original.

I thought that was a fucking excellent Dynamite. I'm all for nit-picking and detailed criticism, but we got the best 6-man tag in American TV wrestling history, a super fucking fired up main event hyped up for All Out, and some all round excellent pro wrestling across the show. That's an A-show right there, with a bullet.

Podcasts hosted by wrestlers usually fall into four camps:

1) Shit.

2) A constant barrage of shit adverts and plugs.

3) Free WWE/AEW PR (or "Please can I have Job Vince/Tony?").

4) All of the above.

So it's no surprise that William Regal, as entertaining on commentary as he is, has fallen into revisionist history and talking assorted bollocks.

I've not dabbled in tech and laptops since my days working as an electronics seller and repair guy at Staples way back in 2013, so I'm unschooled on the whole scene now and what makes a good deal and a good spec.

Anyway, I'm after a 13 - 14 inch portable laptop for the wife. She's going back to uni and it's mainly for Office suite tasks and Teams, but maybe some light Steam gaming too (stuff like Stardew, Sims 2/3, maybe Fallout 3/Skyrim on super low settings).

She's picked out this one, which seems good but has a dim screen and crap battery by all accounts: https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-ideapad-3i-14-laptop-intel-core-i5-256-gb-ssd-blue-10228900.html?fbclid=IwAR0BNeBL_iDBcwdsdkleG8OpksOrTXoHUZFZctbZJLP7WFDhEHNgXO_u1n8

I've had a look round, and this one seems a bit better, but also maxes out the budget (£500, tops): https://www.box.co.uk/NX.A4KEK.002-Acer-Swift-3-Intel-Core-i5-8GB-RAM-512GB_3207689.html?fbclid=IwAR0sNjLU6gJdDlfFJADzpUq3KQj0cvEhogvUQM7xdGI67LpIWM510mcbY_0#DetailTop

Are either of these good? Or even good for the cash? Anything better out there?

Christ, it used to be ME dealing out this advice, now I'M the old man asking for IT help. I never thought this would happen, haha!

Yeah you can run any of your own PS1 games through Adrenaline, but the PS1 games downloaded from the actual PlayStation store run natively on the VITA. No difference between the two except for accessing the usual emulator options on Adrenaline, which are very helpful when configuring controller layouts and the screen.

23 hours ago, simonworden said:

Out of interest what's the best way to play all these wonderful games again? Are there any emulation handhelds that run PS1 games well? I did have it all set up on an old laptop but I don't get much time with the littleun to set it up these days. 

One that would do up to PS2 level would be perfect for me and an ideal Christmas pressie to press gang the wife into buying. 

My VITA has played every PS1 game I've thrown at it with no problems, but you'll have to do some very sneaky (but very easy) jailbreaking in order to install the guff needed. The only real issue I've come across is the lack of decent upscaling, but it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

The VITA also has several PSX games either remastered for VITA or available to buy from their online store, and they've even got a few PS2 remasters.

It's the perfect PSX handheld if you put in the work, but if you want something more plug-and-play then you can't go wrong with the Anbernic range of handhelds.

So if Mox vs Punk next week is not an angle, and it's not some disputed finish to lead into an All In rematch, what have we got pegged for the top of the card at All In?

Punk vs Hangman? Punk vs Colt? Punk vs MJF? Mox vs MJF? Mox vs Cole? Mox vs an NJPW import?

16 hours ago, Merzbow said:

Back to PS1 though, did anyone else play that Ghost In The Shell game? It wasn't perfect and didn't exactly convey the storytelling of the film/show although there are anime cutscenes but it was one of the more solid shooters that was seemingly overlooked, I'm pretty sure it never got a big run either so copies were hard to come by. It's very, very slick and even without a proper dual stick control method it's easy to speed about blowing shit up while climbing walls and jumping.

I didn't play the full game but I played the fuck out of the demo. It was a level where you had to go into three or four warehouses and kill all the bad guys, and it was fucking perfect.

Looking back, I think I arguably spent more time fucking around on demos and constantly replaying the same levels than I did on some of my actual full games. Tombi, Kula World, Kurushi, G-Police, Rollcage, Armoured Core, the afore mentioned Ghost In The Shelll, Tomb Raider 2, probably even more I'm forgetting and they all had more play time than full games like Jersey Devil or Croc.

8 minutes ago, King Coconut said:

The phenomenon of people thinking "can't be that hard" and jumping in over their heads with pets, then learning the valuable lessons by killing them isn't new, or restricted to koi. 

Right, but that's not what you've said. You leapt in head first with the massive guilt trip when the poster is clearly distressed as it is, and the poster has clearly stated that they're new to it, despite it being a malfunction due to abnormally hot weather.

You didn't post "Ah that's horrible,  I hope you've learnt your lesson, it's hard to keep koi during the summer, here's some pointers...". Instead you went full-on scorched Earth riot act, and then you dashed in some Avatar-style Hollywood bullshit by comparing the fish to the most adorable puppies on Earth.

You weren't posting to help. You were posting to be a cunt.

17 minutes ago, King Coconut said:

Tell me this, Oscar fucking Wilde. Would you feel any differently if it were labrador puppies and a ventilation pump? 

Great example of a false equivalence here. Get to fuck.

It's the mode that makes older cartoons from the 90's look like dogshit. Try watching a classic episode of the Simpsons with all the weird, off-putting extra frames, an incredibly unnatural experience. I'm constantly tinkering with my Samsung TV, because there's no "catch-all" set-up that works for everything. A proper modern, first-world ball ache.

21 hours ago, cobra_gordo said:

Has anybody got any experience with bone conducting headphones? I need some new headphones as mine have died on one side. I struggle with a lot of in-ear types as I've got my traguses pierced which means most buds aren't comfortable and are too big for my earholes. I'm also not keen on the over the head Craig David ones so when I clocked that Orange amplifiers do these for around 80 quid I was interested.
I can't find anyone with any to test out so any advice would be appreciated.

I'm also interested in any reviews of these. I need some earbuds for when I tackle the gym again, and the over-head earphones just bounce off my head, and the in-ear headphones seem to be bad for my inner-ear health (I've got slim ear canals that need an annual de-clogging and I find that in-ear headphones just exasperate the clogging up process).

I think they'll do fine, as they've still got enough good will to fill the place to a decent level. It's very short notice but I believe Ospreay is still a draw if his York Hall appearances are anything to go by.

So that, plus it being the first proper New Japan show here since 2019, and I think they'll pull through regardless of the date and how many other events are taking place the same weekend (and there is a LOT).

I'm looking at hotels now and things are TIGHT. 85% of rooms in that area are already fully booked on Booking.com.

I re-read that brilliant @cobra_gordopost again this morning, and it just struck me how little time you had to really soak it all in. Really puts into perspective how much hard work goes into being in a band who don't have their own exclusive roadies and on-site tour managers. I hope the next go around works out smoother for you all and you get to breathe and savour it a little, but hey that's fucking metal my dude!

13 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Really missing the point of the thread there.

Oh yeah I know, I just thought it was an interesting tidbit.

I mean, this forum was rife with the "brian danielson iz jst a vanilla midget wiv no charisma" cretins round about the time in 2006, so Angle vs Danielson would've been an underwhelming dream match to them...

11 hours ago, Merzbow said:

I was thinking Necro Butcher vs Kobashi during that time when Joe had bangers with both but there's no chance that'd actually be underwhelming, is there?

 

The message boards were clamouring for this match at the time as Necro was hitting it out of the park with Joe, Low Ki and Super Dragon, and I do faintly remember some promoter trying to book this and it falling through. I don't think it was a ROH or PWG, but more in the IWA-MS/JAPW side of indie wrestling. I'm sure someone will correct me.

Talking of PWG, Super Dragon did an interview years ago where he mentioned booking Bryan Danielson vs Kurt Angle in 2006 when Kurt was freshly released, but Kurt quickly got snapped up by TNA and that was the end of that;

Quote

I really wanted to do Kurt Angle vs Danielson when Angle got released. I had him booked and everything. Then TNA cancelled it, and said he is not taking indy bookings in the end. Was looking into running a bigger venue for that one as well. - Super "Fucking" Dragon

Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle was great, but peak batshit crazy Kurt Angle vs peak ROH hard nasty bastard Bryan Danielson would've been ten times better.

13 hours ago, FelatioLips said:

 Great idea @Accident Prone here’s my list!

Racing: Crash Team Racing

Platformer: Spyro The Dragon

RPG: Final Fantasy IX

Action/Adventure:  Medievil

Puzzle: Bust a Move 4

Fighting: Tekken 2

Sport (yes includes wrestling): WWF Smackdown 2

Sim/Strategy : Theme Hospital

Horror: Resident Evil

Licensed: Rugrats: Search for Reptar

Free Pick: Ape Escape

The PSX library is so vast and deep that I never even considered the likes of Spyro, Medievil or Ape Escape.

Spyro brings back great memories of when I first moved out in 2010 and staying up late into the night and early morning with a bunch of potheads who were courageously trying to 100% the game.

I know it's a wrestling forum and it's already been discussed a lot even before this thread, but Smackdown 2 really was a game changer. Plenty of wrestlers, easy to play, fast without being silly, tons of match types and the creation suite was way ahead of it's time. I still play a bit on my Vita here and there, constantly trying to have the best PPV ranking. I've never envied the N64 dorks with their WCW/NWO Revenge and No Mercy because Smackdown 2 was in a league of it's own.

What a fantastic thread.

Stealing a bit from the EXCELLENT Back Page Podcast, if you were part of a PSX draft and had to curate one game from the following categories for a new PSX Mini, what would you aim for? Here's mine;

Racing: Ridge Racer Type 4

Platformer: CastleVania: Symphony Of The Night

RPG: Breath of Fire III

Action/Adventure:  Grand Theft Auto 2

Puzzle: Kula World

Fighting: Tekken 3

Sport (yes includes wrestling): WWF Smackdown 2

Sim/Strategy : Worms Armageddon

Horror: Dino Crisis

Licensed: Jackie Chan's Stunt Master

Free Pick: Tombi

This was TOUGH, and definitely cements the backwards-compatible PS2 as the second greatest console of all time (first place is the backwards-compatible Xbox 360, third is the backwards-compatible Gameboy DS Lite).

I think even with truck loads of nostalgia and rose-tinted glasses, Nitro and Thunder were not only incredibly shit but also massive downgrades from WCW vs The World. Every wrestler had the same set of moves with tiny variants where flippy lads did a 'rana instead of a big slam, and it just looked like arse. It gets a lot of ironic love these days due to the little roster videos and the YMCA dance, but they're both massive turds.

Attitude and War Zone are almost unplayable these days too, but at least they're built with some degree of merit, ingenuity and presentation. I poured HOURS into Attitude, and then even more into the Dreamcast version, and I feel justified in that despite never wanting to touch that sack o'shite again.

However I do NOT feel justified with all the time I spent unlocking all the characters in Nitro and Thunder. Yuck.