Cluttered Week

On the clutter side I got nothing done, including the project I had planned. I’ve been busy on projects and life this week. But I do have some plans that I hope to get working on.

1. Finally getting to Video Game Clutter. I’ve had the first game scripted for almost a year, maybe longer. I now have access to a video capture device so at least I only need emulators for the Game Boy (regular and Advance) now.
2. Speaking of going through my games I have a video project for the other site where I’ll be doing a “let’s play” of games with longform stories or at least a definite ending. These can then be turned into Video Game Clutter reviews that will be seen here and at a site called Reviewers Unknown where I contribute to.
3. A selling page. I haven’t sold anything on eBay because I’ve been waiting to put money in my PayPal account. And I never seem to have the money available. So I’m going to try to sell through this site on a page that will offer purchasing information plus linking to my review. This is the project I wanted to do this week.

Things have been difficult and trying to turn the other site into a career has hit more than a few snags. I’m rethinking my future right now cleaning this clutter is still a part of it. Stay tuned and I hope to have an actual report next week.

Related articles

• “Organizing Clutter” – – ADD Tip o the Day 480
• Can gifts become clutter?
• De-Clutter Your Life
• My Top 3 Tips for a Clutter-Free Closet
• How to Reduce Clutter and Your Taxes
• Effecting Stress Relief by Clearing Out the Clutter

Advertisement

Another Corner To Fix Up

Another messy corner. I’ve got to stop throwing junk in the corner. This particular mess is making it harder for me to get to certain videos, games, and other software. Time to reorganize again.

Cleaning the NES

Image by freespamfree via Flickr

I lost a few pictures thanks to some technical difficulties. So you’ll have to use your imagination or memory to recall when your NES was glitching because it needed a good cleaning. You’d blow into the system or the game pak (that’s how they spelled it). I actually would break out the Game Genie even if I wasn’t going to use a code. Sometimes that worked.

Before starting this week’s project (thankfully a short one, as it’s a busy weekend for me) I actually tried that. I haven’t broken out the old system in years. I started playing Super Mario Bros. because there’s no need to review it. I plan to keep it and everybody knows that game, so it was a good one to try out. At some point in the playing it did something weird. The only control that would work was the “A” button, and that would work like the start menu. I’d be playing, jumping around and tossing fireballs, and suddenly the game would pause. That clinched it, I needed to clean the NES before reviewing any games.

You can easily find a tutorial of how to clean the games; isopropyl alcohol or a mixture containing it is usually recommended, although I’ve seen claims of Windex or similar cleaners, or a certain brand of countertop cleaner (I’m a bit skeptical about the long-term effects the latter would have on the connectors), so you may have to judge for yourself. However, when it comes to the console, the only solution I’ve seen is to open the thing up to get at the connectors. Lucky for me, I have an alternate tool for the task.

Last of the pre-game clutter cleaning

There it is, the last of the stuff I need to begin going through the video games. Like everything else, it’s buried in clutter. At the time I bought my NES I figured the best place to keep the controllers would be in the NES box. While the console remains on my shelf with a dust cover and the ergonomic controller was stored with the games, the regular controllers and the Zapper were left in the box until I wanted to use them.

However, as you can see it is not a pain to get them. Space has become a priority and I have a storage box I can put those controllers into. First I need to dig my way to them, though. Sometimes you have to clean in order to clean, if that makes any sense. So let’s get started.

Toy Report: Tomy Pocket Games

Tomy was a Japanese company that put out a lot of toys and games. I say “was” because a few years ago it merged with another Japanese toy company, Takara, to form Takara Tomy. In the days before handheld gaming systems, handheld games came in analog format. You had games filled with water where you pressed a button and tried to get a ring or ball into the right spot. Then you had the Tomy Pocket Games. While they started coming out in 1975, it appears that it wasn’t until the last 70’s and early 80’s that it really became popular.

Above you see the four I still have. (Actually I had one more, a game called “Time’s Up“, but the timer broke and the game became unplayable. That was pretty fun. Get the ball through the maze or at least into a scoring spot before the time ran out and the ball became stuck.) My tripod broke before taking these pictures, so this is the best one of the group. Luckily I found a site that has better pics of most of them, so click the links for those.