My RetroPie

Omigosh has it been forever since I gave this blog some attention! I have been thinking about coming back to it for a while now, but with so many life changes that had happened since my last post, it made it difficult. But, I'm ready to come back and breathe new life into this neglected blog of mine. Starting with... my most recent project I took on!

Late last year, when the NES Classic came out, I had looked everywhere for it. Every time we went into town, we were at every Gamestop, every Walmart, Target, looking to see if they had new stock of them in. The answer was always no. When they announced they weren't making anymore, I gave up. Now, the SNES Classic preorders started, and obviously, they sold out just as fast. I realized that I didn't want to go through the same stress as I did with the NES in trying to find this thing. Disappointed, I started to look at other options, and came across something that I could work with. I decided to make my own! How, you ask? With a Raspberry Pi!

It wasn't really difficult at all, either. With a starter kit from Amazon, an Xbox One controller, and the RetroPie, I had a really workable make-shift console. I later upgraded the SD card that came in the kit to one much bigger (to hold more games), and purchased a Nintendo-inspired case for it.

I'm in so much love with this little guy. My favorite game system of all time was without a doubt, the Super Nintendo, so I'm so happy to be able to play all my old, favorite games from my childhood. I remember sitting for HOURS in front of a Super Nintendo as a young child, playing Super Mario. It was some of the best memories I have. Both my mother and I would sit in front of the television for hours playing video games. It was great. I think about it now, and realize that maybe my mother at that time was a bigger gamer than I was!

The little flap of the case opens and reveals all the USB ports, and the Ethernet port. This is where I can plug in my controller, or my mini keyboard if I need it. If I don't need them, I can just unplug everything, close the flap, and it'll sit there looking adorable. Unfortunately, the buttons on the front are cosmetic only, as well as the little light to the left of the buttons. I have however, seen people be able to mod this case and their Pi to light the empty square up, and have workable buttons. This is something I wish to do in the future for mine, but right now, I think I'm happy with how it is. (Plus it seems to be a little too technical for me?)

The photos are a little misleading, cause it actually looks rather large! However, in reality, it's actually super-small! It fits in my hand! To anyone wanting a SNES Classic, or NES Classic and can't find one, I will forevermore suggest this to them. There's no need to spend upwards to $200 on ebay for the Nintendo version, do this instead, and get all the games you actually want on it!

I really do adore this thing. It's so easy to think of a game I want, grab a ROM of it and just send it to the system over my Wifi network. It was money well spent for the amount of games and entertainment I can have with this little thing!

Busy Playing Guild Wars 2

You ever wonder if you have too many hobbies? I do. I knit a lot, I tend to my African Violets, other plants, maintain a household, listen to audiobooks, browse Ravelry (it's an addiction, really!) and I play games. A lot of games. Currently, I play World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Aion, Minecraft, and now... Guild Wars 2. I've been waiting for what seems like forever for Guild Wars 2, and when it came out, obviously, I was excited. However, it wasn't until Monday morning that we had the funds to purchase it. At $59.99, it needed to be budgeted into our finances. That said, for the past 2 days, I've been playing as much as I can. While I'm only level 9, this game appears like it will go on forever. I'm not even joking. 2 days of playing, and I'm not even out of the starting area. Which, I guess is a good thing, because I'll feel like I'm getting my $60 worth.



(I cropped a good portion off of the sides of the above picture, my screen resolution was too big, and made for some really small, bad blogging pictures). Made by NC Soft, the people who put on Aion, the world really reminds me of Aion. Guild Wars 2 has that beautiful, whimsical feel that I love. It's a MMO, but doesn't seem to be the traditional type (the go kill 12 worgs and come back to turn the quest in type, instead it has a general description of what needs to be done with a progress bar). It has events that you can team up with other members to help, customizable armor, and the character selection is fantastic. So far, I've only ran into one jerk in-game, which is pretty shocking, considering by level 9 in other games, I've had already come across many jerks. (And by saying jerks, I'm being nice.)



As for me, I chose to play a Ranger. Because who can resist having an exotic cat as a pet to fight for you? Not this girl! As stated above, currently only level 9, and having a great time leveling up. Also guildless for the time being, as a few people I know are still setting up the guild and deciding which server everyone is going to be on.