...is the the sound my computer made. It seems that it was a little off-balance, and the fan over the graphics card got caught on something, causing it to snap off and break the plastic frame holding it in place. It still works, but no more graphics-intensive games for a while I think.

It was a pretty competent Nvidia GeForce 6600. I don't do too much PC gaming, but I'd like something comparable.

Anyone got a suggestion for a relatively cheap replacement?

Wii Sports is fun and all, but it can't hold your attention for too long (though Star Tropics on the Virtual Console is an excellent time killer.) I finally picked up Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy yesterday, and it's been lot of fun. I sat down and played SSBB with my sister for a couple hours and a bit of SMG. My dad just might be addicted to Galaxy, he seems to be playing it at every opportunity.

I also took up GameMaker a couple days ago. I'm just fiddling around with it for fun, but maybe I'll put up a tiny game soon. I'm starting to get the hang of things. It's surprisingly easy to learn.

To the person who "tagged" me, and all those who tag others:

I don't mean to offend you but, this is stupid. And by association, so are you. I award you the "Bio_Spark seal of Awful."

Gamespot is not Myspace. Or facebook, or whatever the hell you kids are using these days. Myspace is a terrible plague upon the world: it saps brains, destroys personality, and rewards stupidity. The average Myspace user and Youtube commenter don't even have two brain cells to rub together to create a coherent thought.

Look at that.

You can feel the stupid oozing from it. And yet Myspace is even worse, not only does it have the attention whores begging you to watch videos unfit for humans:

but they play stupid little games like this:

If I ever met this guy on the street, it would take every last ounce of restraint in me to not remove him from the gene pool.

Yes, I know know these examples are all from Youtube; but I refuse to ever go to that glitter-encrusted, utterly fake hell known as Myspace again.

So yes, it's a plague upon mankind. And you are trying to make other places more like that. You are spreading the plague, if you will.

So for everyone who agrees, please join me in telling these folks:

"Your tag can go to hell."

"You're doing really well in college, and we're all proud of you."

And they bought me a Wii. Even my kid sister chipped in some money (she's a model, by the way.) I have about $300 I set aside for eventually buying a console, and they know it. And yet, they still bought one for me.

I hooked it up in the living room, and it must have seen eight hours of play today, even though we just have Wii Sports and Wii Play. It's definitely a hit. I think I'll be putting some of that saved money toward a couple of games. Y'know, maybe for the family.

1) King of Figters XII

Okay, 1280x720 high resolution, with redrawn sprites isn't really small. But what I am getting at here is the detail in the 2D sprites. Look at it.

YouTube doesn't really do it justice (I'm convinced they apply some kind of "make it crappy" filter to everything uploaded.) I'm not sure I could play this game without being distracted by the animations. If you don't mind a 70MB download, you can also get it here.

2)The Mother 3 Fan Translation is relatively close to completion, with a release date expected soon.

The Earthbound/Mother fan community are among the most hardcore and rabid I've ever seen, despite the fact that Nintendo refuses to localize the games. Led by professional translator Tomato, (who has worked on Shin Chan and the more recent One Piece episodes, among other things), they've taken things into their own hands.

3) Metroid 2 Remake.

This is sort of the forgotten one of the series, (not hard to belive since it was just a Gameboy game) but I love 2D platformers. He's making it in Game Maker, which is pretty impressive. It's a versatile little program: it was also used to make Barkley: Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden. I might have to play around with it some time, it seems like fun.

After sending my DS away last Thursday, I already got it back today: that's an impressive 5 day round trip. Good show Nintendo. I even picked up the new Advance Wars to celebrate, snagging the last copy at the store. Lucky me!

I also made my 1000th post in a little over 2 years here.

That equates to roughly 1.25 posts a day. Most of which were in the DS Recommendation thread.