Really Big Shoe

In a similar vein, anyone checked out 60 Days In on Crime & Investigation? It's a social experiment where the prison governor wants to see the effectiveness of his jail so he brings in civilians to go undercover and only he knows they are really who they are. The guards and their fellow inmates are not aware and they are given a back story which they have to stick to. It's 2 episodes in so far and they should be both on the ondemand section.

Unless there's a major upset, you can't look beyond a Golden State win. They've had a phenomenal season, they should also give credit to Luke Walton for stepping up when Steve Kerr was out with complications from back surgery. I think some teams might make moves for Luke in the post season and I think he'd do well with an up & coming team. Maybe the 76ers now Will & Jada  have bought the team. I think it might take time though as the 76ers don't really have an AI now to built a team around. Maybe if they have cap space and do some good trades they could put a good team together. Maybe the key is to get a good draft pick and create a younger team.

 

Going back to the Warriors, you can't really compare eras since the game has moved on since then, but the Splash brothers are certainly among the top duos in recent NBA history (say the past two/three decades). I think Shaq & Kobe and of course MJ & Scottie will still take everyone's vote as the best duo. Speaking of Kobe, what a way to go out with 60 points, he put up a lot of shots (50!) but they paid dividends. If he does get the itch to come back, highly unlikely though, I see Mark Cuban and the Mavs bringing him in. But I think it's more likely he'll transition into coaching eventually. It's a shame they don't have Phil Jackson at the Lakers since I think it would have been a great opportunity for Kobe to learn under Phil. Him coaching the Knicks with Jackson's patented Triangle offense is a possibility. I think the Cavs might implode along the way and the Raptors might shock everyone and be the team in the East. The Spurs with their big 3 might surprise to, if they manage to keep healthy and sweep teams. If they go 6-7 games I don't know how long Tim, Parker & Manu will be able to keep going on because really they should be playing limited minutes and being impact players. 

 

Should be a fun Playoffs and there might be a few surprises along the way too.

I wonder if for his last ever match Taker should go back to his old school look: 

 

 

Corporate Ministry Taker when he went all out for a more demonic look suited him during the Attitude Era:

 

When I played Champ a few years back I had one player, IIRC it was Alan Smith, get banned for a long time for either pushing over the ref or headbutting another player. If I find the screenshot I'll add it. 

If anyone wants newer data updates there's some here:

 

http://www.champman0102.co.uk/downloads.php?do=cat&id=2

 

 

 

Well, it's not working on my tablet. Starts running ok, then just as I'm setting up the game I get this infamous 'Unable to write to disk' error that others have mentioned. I know there are ways to sort this when it happens on your pc, but Christ knows how you can get around it on a tablet. I think this is a non-starter

 

Haven't tried it yet but someone's got it to work on Youtube

 

 

Although it's a Nvidia Shield according to the video and apparently they are quite powerful tablets. 

 

Another guide from Reddit:

 

 

 

The emulator is on the google play store just search for ExaGear Strategies

The official CM 01 02 download can be found here: http://www.champman0102.co.uk/downloads.php?do=cat&id=3

Then if you want the latest data patch you will need to install this: http://www.champman0102.co.uk/downloads.php?do=file&id=3

Followed by this: http://www.champman0102.co.uk/downloads.php?do=file&id=223

This guide explains how to install the patch: http://www.champman0102.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3863

Simply install the game + patches on your PC then copy the installed files to the ExaGear folder on your Android device.

The CM 01/02 download comes as a .iso, to install the game on your PC double click on the .iso and then run the CM 01 / 02 .exe

After the game has been installed on your PC and you have copied the files to your android device you also need to copy the .iso into the ExaGear folder (this works in place of a CD to run the game.)

Anyone struggling to get this game working? I've both burnt it to a disc and mounted it to a virtual drive but nothing happens. I've manually opened the setup file and still nothing. Am I missing something?

 

This should work:

 

 

Click Open or Explore on the Virtual Drive and right click on Setup.exe and select Run As Administrator on that

 

Also I don't think you have to mount it as a virtual drive if you've already burnt it to disc, you'll need to run it from the DVD-Drive with the disc in say its D: or E:, or alternatively if you have Windows 10 just double click the disc image(iso) and it should mount it to a virtual drive in Windows (so no need to save it onto a CD-R). Also its recommended to run the setup as administrator and also set the compatibility mode to Windows XP if it doesn't work directly in Win10. The game needs to be installed for it to work, it won't run direct from the disc/disc image but the disc image (or the old CD) back in the day was needed as a way to say you have the original game. Would have made it simpler if Eidos let someone update it so it runs on the newer OS's or put it up on something like GOG.com/Steam etc so you just run the game directly without needing to mess about with a disc image. 

Going back to Test he could have been a bigger star for sure, and he was super over when they did the angle with Shane O'Mac and then Steph inadvertently jilting him by marrying Hunter. I guess because he wasn't the greatest on the mic that put a stop to a main event run maybe?. He was like a Big Kev 2.0 as they had similar movesets, although Nash was more charismatic. But again that match with Shane was the best of his career and him & Trips could have had a huge angle over Stephanie. From what I remember that just fizzled out and I think that angle could have be successful if they booked it right like having Test get his revenge. Although I'm guessing a corny ending of Steph "annulling" her marriage & going back to Test would have fell flat since there wasn't really much place for sentiment in the Attitude Era. Maybe in the 80's WWF it would have worked, like where you had Liz reunite with Macho at WrestleMania VII. 

Eidos made the game freeware a few years back for PC, here's the direct link: http://www.fmscout.com/c-cm0102.html?id=1523&a=dlit'll download the file automatically, think it's something like 280MB then you have to mount the ISO file (think you can do that automatically in Win10 now by double clicking) and install from there. Interesting it can be run on a tablet too so might give the  ExaGear Strategies app a try. I assume the touch screen of the tablet function works like just for moving the mouse pointer & for typing in things like when making player offers & such. 

 

 

The new FM games are too time consuming

 

Yep, definitely agree, I think the last FM I got into was '08 but even then it started to get a bit too heavy on the detail aspect. Now you've got to deal with agents and all other sorts of stuff, you can automate that but it's still got over complicated now I think. Although on the plus side, apparently managers have used it as a scouting tool because of the detail they put into the game so it does have that benefit, especially for a lower league manager who can doesn't have the financial resources to send scouts all over the place. 

Reading "Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter" by  Alyn Shipton. A few chapters in, but so far Harry Nilsson had a really colorful life and this is before he got into the music biz. Also watched "Who is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)" as a companion piece, so for fans of his music I'd recommend checking out both. 

Echo the praise for the ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries. I've seen the majority of them, I think one of the best one's I've seen is Brian & The Boz, which is about an American Footballer called Brian Bosworth who created an alter superego on the Gridiron. There are some sad episodes too like those mentioned and "Guru of Go" which covers the passing of Hank Gathers. I'm not sure what the most recent one ESPN/BT Sports have shown, I think it must be the "The Prince of Pennsylvania" as the other ones they show are repeats. Have they showed the Tyson/Holyfield one or the one about the Bills?. Kinda off-topic but Sky Sports ondemand have some good NFL documentaries/specials too like about Joe Namath et al in the similar vein to the 30 for 30 documentaries. 

So apparently Witcher 2 is free in the UK, Germany, France, Canada & US for XBox One & 360. However when you try and get it the link doesn't work as of yet. Aegis Wing is apparently free as well, but not sure if that's only for the USA. 

New Day were more entertaining at first but like everything which gets over organically (like how the fans chanted along to Fandango's theme) once WWE takes note of it they ram it down the fans throats and add their spin to it where anything really good about it vanishes almost immediately, since you're inadvertently made to like it since it has their seal of approval. It's kinda like the equivalent of liking an underground band/Hip Hop artist and thinking it's cool because it's new & different, until everyone starts to like it too and you quickly go on to the next thing, which is why the Fandango thing fizzled out, why Zack Ryder never got pushed anymore etc. Going back to New Day, they seem to be turning up the level of wackiness week by week, now they've got the Unicorn headbands and such. Maybe if they turned babyface their schtick would work much better & have more of a place since you'd know it's targeted towards a younger audience, plus they could sell a ton more merchandise too. 

One way to make it portable would be install DOSbox on your phone/table, find a DOS version of EWR (something like EWR 9000) onto it and run it via Dosbox. Not sure how it would run without a proper keyboard/mouse set up but it would probably be playable. 

Currently reading: George Harrison Behind the Locked Door by Graeme Thomson 

 

A good companion piece to I, Me, Mine & Living in the Material World. 

 

 

 

One Night in Turin

 

The movie is a must-see too, the 1990 England team with Gazza, Gary Lineker, Shilts, Barnesy, Pearce, Chrissy Waddle, Beardo, Bully, Platt & Terry Butcher among others managed by Sir Bobby is still my favorite England team, a very close second has to be the Euro 1996 squad. Plus you had big personalities at the 1990 World Cup too like Roger Miller for Cameroon. On paper the golden generation of Becks, Scholesy, Stevie G, Lamps et al were better technically, but the other teams I guess you could say had much more heart. Makes you wonder if the 2006 England team had a Terry Butcher/Pearcey type whether they'd have gone all the way and got the finals or even won the world cup. I think that's the only real thing they were lacking, the heart & determination to push on til the end. 

It's a bit outdated now, but TEW 2005 is freeware here Mod's here goes up to June 2014. There's fantasy scenario's too like the 1983  Death of the Territories one. 

 

Off-topic from TEW, but the Prince Devitt doc is in HD now on BBC iPlayer, ends at 5pm though according to the description in the guide. 

And the winner is...

 

 

 

 

 

Yes it was on Sunday night for some reason. Back to Thursday this week. Good old Sky. 

 

My series link still recorded it at the odd time and I had it on yesterday afternoon. Nothing on it kept my concentration though, I did other things at the same time

 

OK, thanks. Sky aired an episode a few weeks old on think it was Friday night so thought I might have missed one or Sky made an error somewhere. 

Was their a new WWE Main Event last week?, as it wasn't on last Thursday. There was one earlier hours of this morning, which is up on Sky on Demand so I assume that's the last one. 

Apparently these were to be the series 12 heads for Hasbro (the "orange" cards)

 

 

So looks like Men on a Mission, Taker (with the face mask), Double J, Lex and the other face looks like Texas Tornado - maybe it's a place holder for another figure ?. I'm guessing Diesel would have definitely be included as that head sculpt was used for a Mannix bootleg figure. 

 

Going back to the Galoob line, I think in their own way they were as good as Hasbro. Maybe better for display pieces now too, as some Hasbro's have the tendency to fall over as they don't seem to balance right. Although they weren't movable, back in the day Sting could be used for press slams, suplexes, drop kicks and such. Plus if you compare some designs to the "jump" mechanism Hasbro's they are actually better designed for playability. Although some have limited potential moves such as the Ron Simmons, El Gigante designs for example.  

 

As for Hasbro's they waited a bit too late too for removable hats (the series 10 Bushwhackers came with baseball caps). They could have designed them so you had the entrance attire (ie for Mountie - his jacket, hat, caddle prod) with his wrestling attire underneath. They kinda did that inadvertently a bit later on when they had Ted DiBiase in his ring attire as the two previous Million Dollar Man figures were the black & green suits. Instead of having multiples of each figure they could and should have included managers, Haku, Barbarian, Orient Express, Dino Bravo, Power & Glory, Beverly Brothers among others and if they kept the series going - Body-Donnas with Sunny, Bob Backlund, Jerry Lawler, Diesel, Kama, King Kong Bundy et al. You'd have thought they'd have made a Hasbro of everyone they had on the roster, especially in the early 90s in the UK as other action figure lines had lots of characters to collect.  

Stephanie hasn't been involved in creative for the last two years.

 

Point being is that she's a McMahon, therefore she'll follow on from Vince and based upon prior evidence will continue to get herself over to the betterment of the roster - both male & female. Soon as Vince steps down, Stephanie will step up and be a focal point of the show like her father was. So whilst she isn't involved creatively at present, being a heel who doesn't get her comeuppance (well unless they manage to work out a deal with Ronda Rousey where she punks her out again) it's totally counter-productive to the advancement of any angle she's associated with if they have Stephanie McMahon as the top heel. Plus she seems like a clone of Vince business wise and will no doubt continue with the Hollywood writing team and placate Hunter by letting him do the NXT stuff as a side project. So once Vince retires or quits, we'll see Stephanie McMahon back on the creative team and leading the direction of the product & I'd imagine contingency plans are in place already for them to continue "as is" and not upset the apple cart by changing tact and being a "Wrasslin" show. Historically only when you go back to the WWWF days is the WWE known for the actual wrestling aspect (Bruno Sammartino et al) and soon as Vince Jr took over they became sports-entertainment even then with the focus more on the characters of the wrestlers and them going with the larger-than-life cartoonesque gimmicks. If fans wanted to see wrestling they'd tune into JCP, World Class or Mid-South to name but a few until McMahon run the territories out of business by hoovering up their top talent. 

 

Plus, however much the fans want it, I highly doubt Trips will be allowed to do the NXT-esque stuff on the main roster, since what WWE do is "Sports Entertainment". NXT is rooted in old school wrestling which is why the IWC love it so much and it would probably seem outdated to fans of the current WWE product who are accustomed to a emphasis more on the entertainment element. Maybe you can re-educate the fanbase, but going back to what I said earlier, Stephanie will be in charge and I think she'd be stubborn in the belief that their way is the right way and will rattle off a list of statistics proving their formula works. If they experimented with NXT and tried to run it on a grander scale (ie get a TV deal with USA Network for example) and see if it sinks or swims ratings wise would be a good barometer whether that format would work on a bigger stage. I think NXT is very ECW-esque meaning it works tremendously well on a smaller scale, the fans are absorbed in the product, they have their favorites who they root for (ie Bayley for example) and the booking in general makes a ton of sense and everything runs like clockwork because it's based upon an old school pro-wrestling foundation.

 

Raw and to a lesser extent Smackdown is more like a traditional TV show, so they focus more on the entertainment aspects and the actual matches themselves are almost like an afterthought which is why the booking is so scattershot. If they manage to take the best elements from NXT and intertwine those into a cohesive whole where everyone on the roster has a purpose & a storyline, or an arc of a storyline (ie A hates B, because B is friends with C, who's friends with D & E who are feuding over the tag belts with F & G etc etc) Therefore everybody on the roster is involved, some more so than others and a clearly defined role and one where it makes logical sense for someone's whos winning matches & getting over (regardless of whether management want them to or not) you put them in that position because the fans are buying into their character and want to see them succeed. You might get a few false alarms (ala Fandango, Zack Ryder to name a few examples) who were getting over but couldn't really sustain themselves as top echelon talent, but who knows?, given the ball they might have run with it. No one would have predicted Stunning Steve to go on to huge success as Stone Cold Steve Austin, or Cactus Jack to become a New York times best selling author as Mankind, or an even better example Rocky Maivia who the fans were crapping on & to turn it around to develop his The Rock persona becoming a Hollywood star in the process. So when someone's getting over and it's a genuine reaction you have to pull the trigger and go with a push. Why WWE is stuck in a rut right now is because they either listen and it's too late (ie Daniel Bryan) or they try and force people down the fans throats who get the opposite reaction they are supposed to (ie the reactions that Roman Reigns has being getting). If you break it down to the very basics, pro-wrestling is probably the simplest thing to "get" - Face vs Heel (good guy/girl vs bad guy/girl) that's all. No point blurring the lines with tweeners of face vs face, heel vs heel. You don't pit Batman against the Incredible Hulk or The Joker against the Riddler, why? because it makes no logical sense. When you try and over complicate things it becomes a muddle and that's why WWE historically is full of broken story arcs, messed up pushes, Big Show's 1,000,000+ heel/face turns etc At the end of the day, pro-wrestling should be booked in a way which the fans can follow, doesn't insult their intelligence, tell a story, has defined goodie vs baddie roles and above all and what it's been lacking for a long time now - actually make logical sense in the whole scheme of things. WWE will never be Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones because those story dynamics are too complex to work within the pro-wrestling framework.

 

Case in point - Walter White - Babyface in the beginning, when he starts making Crystal Meth he becomes a tweener with Jesse, then when they knock off Gus he becomes the top heel (plus letting Jesse's girlfriend OD), being chased by the Babyface cop Hank and his crew. Then it hits the fan and Hank works out that Walt cooks meth & is now a dealer too, so the guy(s) Hank has been chasing for so long is his actually own immediate family - Walter. Hank then gets bumped off, Walter's role shifts between heel and face again since he wants out of the meth game since things have got too much. Then he becomes a heel again and wants Jesse out of the picture. Jesse starts out as a heel, then becomes the ultimate babyface the TV audience roots for to get away from the bad guy clique (ala the nWo who've kept him hostage/prisoner and making him do their dirty work for them). Then heel Walter who wants Jesse dead (& vice-versa because Walt tried to poison Jesse's girlfriend's son) is back to tweener and even an anti-authority type babyface because he lets his former buddy free. Can you imagine that plot and the storyline arcs that it continues working within WWE or TNA?. Maybe it would but you've got a smaller cast in comparison to the WWE roster and you'd be asking a great deal of your audience to follow a storyline with dramatic twists & turns and such. If WWE ever manage to pull that off we'll see another golden age again because to my knowledge they've never gone all out with a multi arcing storyline framework before where it's akin to a Hollywood movie or a TV show like Breaking Bad. Maybe get the Hollywood writers to produce a show like that and use their capabilities to do that since I'd guess none really have a knowledge of the workings of the wrestling industry or at least it's traditional origins.  

Think my first Hasbro was Ax, then I got Jake & the Hulkster. Used to have some of the mini LJN Bendies before (Studd/Andre/Steele/JYD/Orndorff et al) so the Hasbro's were like a big improvement over those but the LJN were still cool since they were old school guys who didn't get Hasbros (apart from Andre, Hogan et al who did). Did Dusty ever get a UK release?, even a short time limited one as I can vaguely recall seeing it on the shelf in John Menzies maybe?. The R&B Hammer apparently has surfaced as a prototype, there's a pic of Zack Ryder with it. Collected up to series 4 originally I think ? and over the years have been collecting again and trying to find the ones I either sold or lost since then. Some of the MOC ones go for crazy prices on eBay especially Series 11 (Green Cards). 

However much the fans want the writer(s)/booker(s) of NXT to be the main driving force behind the main roster, unfortunately it'll never happen, well not until Vince (& Steph) steps down. It would make the biggest sense in the world to get the NXT crew involved because they are essentially putting on a traditional old school pro-wrestling show/product and they've hit upon a winning formula. But we'll never see them write/book Raw as its the "mainstream" show, with the table full of hollywood writers and cultural references (UNITY~!) ten years out of date. They try too hard to be run with the in-crowd so to speak and try as they might when they reference anything or try and parody it they just come off as so out of step it's cringeworthy. Classic pro-wrestling (ie the WWF of the 1980s) is probably the biggest pomp & circumstance you can get - larger than life colorful characters etc but it worked because it was above all fun and everyone had a place and a recognisable character even lower card guys like Koko. Now everyone is interchangeable & apart from Cena (& Bayley) they have no real color or substance to them too. New Day are at least trying, despite all the hype and "We want Sasha" chants, she's tanking on the main roster (like Emma I think she'll get sent back down to NXT & repackaged) and everyone else is just treading water. Neville won a Slammy yet they've been jobbing him out so the booking ethos just boggles the mind. They either shove talent down the fans throats, push someone to the hilt then drop them back to earth in midcard oblivion (Rusev, Ryback et al), bring talent up from NXT who tank on the main roster (Adam Rose, The Ascension, Bo Dallas, Emma et al) and the whole talent creation process is broken. I mean even Bayley says she's in no hurry to be called up to the main roster, why? because she knows once she makes her first appearance they'll saddle her with her old gimmick and pair her off with Santino as the comic relief of the WWE.    

Thanks Surf! 

Santa Ed & Topo would be cool, thanks