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This April marked 15 years since the beginning of LCVG! It's been great to visit here daily, for online friendships and fun, meaningful discussions. Here's to the admin team, the moderators, and all my online pals! Congrats! Carlos.

I decided that I wanted to change things up in the gameroom, but I'm out of space, so first something had to leave. I've had No Good Gofers for 6 years now, and I don't play it as much as the other games, so off it goes... Of course, what better to replace a Pat Lawlor game with than another Pat Lawlor game: So now the pinball room looks like this:

Holy Fucking Shit! Look at this message I just got on Twitter from the official Xbox account: I guess I made the right move by not buying Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order yet, huh? Because that shit is MINE. 😁 😁 😁

Contributed whatever was left over after my ex-wife's alimony check went out.

Well, I am a bad boy. I haven't really bought much of anything in a long time and haven't treated myself since landing a pretty cool job a couple of months ago, and I'm still rocking my launch PS4 with my 4k projector. So...I paid the Ebay tax and bought one of the PS4 Pro 500 Million edition bundles. Should be here early next week, looks like a pretty nifty piece of gear.

Heh, good to hear from you Hoolie!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much I appreciate this place. It’s very easy to go online these days and lose faith in humanity, and think the internet is nothing but a breeding ground for toxicity. Social media is used far too often as place to be mean or nasty, or it becomes an echo chamber. It’s nice to know that there is one place I can go, where an actual, civil discussion can take place. Where we can agree to disagree when needed. Sure, we’re small, but that’s a big part of what makes it work. So thanks to everyone who who has made LCVG what it is for 15 years.

If you can believe it, it's been over 4 years since we last raised any money for the forum. To put it into perspective, the last time we ran a fundraiser, Fifty Shades of Grey and the first Kingsman movie were topping the box office The Order: 1886 and Evolve were just released Age of Ultron was the most current Marvel movie The Walking Dead topped TV ratings Barack Obama was the President of the United States Actually, the last time it was predicted that we'd raise enough get to a point where: At least two of those came true! About a month ago, you probably noticed the great outage of March the 22nd when the forum was down for almost the entire day due to depletion of funds. And then the other outage of Two Days Ago because my slack ass hadn't put up the fundraising post yet 😆 We've gotten to a point with our setup where the features we have are close to everything we need, and the software we now use is stable. Pretty much all we need coverage for is hosting. I'm also working on getting those costs lowered a bit to $45 a month. Think we can pre-pay keeping the lights on for at least another 2 years? If so, that'd put our goal close to an even $1000. Last time, 23 of us stepped up to contribute. If you can, consider contributing a month! But really, anything and everything helps. We can even take payments directly within the forum now! This month starts our 16th year together here on LCVG. So here's to many more, with discussions on PlayStation 5, Xbox Next, and everything else in between. To donate, click the Donation Goal Progress Bar at the bottom of this thread!

Yeah, thanks for checking. We finally got our car back nearly 1 full month after the wreck. The total damage bill was just shy of $9k. All of us are feeling fine, except my wife, who is still getting some physical therapy for neck and shoulder issues. Everyone except her has settled our medical/pain-and-suffering claims. They want to wait until my wife is done with treatment before talking about her settlement. Being back behind the wheel of the same car was definitely a weird feeling, but I've settled back into my routine. I've recognized it as a fluke, and I'm back to my normal driving habits, though I do find myself checking my rear-view a bit more still. I did ask about the other driver, since he was taken by ambulance from the scene. They said that he would be fine, which was all they could tell me. Carlos.

No no, I didn't set it up! In fact, I was a latecomer to the site. I helped with some new software well after LCVG was established. I even remember why I got the invite -- Wolfenstein had just come out on the Xbox and we were playing an especially tense match where we had to steal documents. I'm not very good at videogames, but somehow you and I made it into the guardhouse and you started to run out while I snatched the documents. You were frantically yelling "go go go!" I said "Hey, Kelley, look!" You turned around and I jumped on the desk and started hitting the crouch button. You were still frantically yelling "go go go" and then stopped and said "what the fuck are you doing?" I said quietly "I'm taking a dump on their desk." I had a PM from you shortly after that asking me to check out a forum called LCVG.

I just got an email for the 15th anniversary reminding me that this place is still around. I haven't been around in a while (probably 10 years). I miss you guys It was great catching up during the E3 chat today. I think the peak of my participation on this forum was during the Halo 2 era 😦

Our one-year anniversary is in 10 days which is just nuts! It's going to be a blowout kind of weekend with tons of rare barrels on tap, a special run of glassware we are going to sell, giveaways, etc. We just got our additional taps for (mostly) non-beer installed, so a couple of wines on tap, a cane-sugar soda and root beer on tap, cold brew coffee on nitro, and a dedicated gluten-free beer line. We are also about to start our on-premise-only bottle list with things we've set aside and we've forged some great relationships with our favorite Wisconsin breweries which is going to lead to fun things in the near future. I continue to dream about location #2, it is at least starting to become a glimmer on the horizon if things continue well. Beer rules!

If I allowed Hollywood personnel's off-screen behavior to affect my movie watching, I'd be stuck staring at a black screen.

Gutted the Retro setup and wire managed the fuck out it where I could. Those who have been to my place and checked out the setup knows that there was a rats nest of wires hanging behind the furniture. I tried my damndest to clean that up. Anything left are things I need access to and can’t tie down. Some during and after shots....

Yesterday I took delivery of a new gaming peripheral designed to help me win more rally stages in Dirt Rally 2, and more generally to assist in any driving game where I use my FFB wheel setup. It's well-made (in America no less), on the expensive side for what it does, and so far seems to be exactly what I needed. I felt more comfortable in teh driver's seat and more able to handle the capricious vicissitudes of a brutal rally sim. What is this magic gaming peripheral? .... A lumbar car seat insert. Some of you already know I have a ruptured L4-L5 disc, and it so happens the position I sit in while using my steering wheel setup is the worst for my condition. I've paid the price a few times for spending too many hours playing driving games. To the point where I can barely walk, and even one trip to the ER. The pain usually sneaks up on me before I'm aware of my poor posture. But lately I've paid special attention to my seating position, and realized that I need something other than carefully stacked couch cushions to maintain an ergonomic position. All of this got me thinking that many of us here are in the first generation of video gamers who will be seniors in the not too distant future. I'm 50, the first game I ever played was an arcade Pong machine when I was a kid, probably in 1975. How will games adapt for older folks? And how will we adapt to the physical and mental requirements of gaming? Gaming is not exactly hard labor, but it does require manual dexterity, extended periods of cognitive attention, and some degree of stamina. In terms of physical input, the work of Microsoft on their input devices for the physically disabled is perhaps a good example of what us elders may be using in our later years. It may end up being a big part of the gaming world to design more such peripherals, which could benefit both the disabled and the elderly.

I didn't want to post until the ink is dry, but I'm excited to announce my own premium streaming service: MonkeyVision+. What do people look for in entertainment today besides another goddamn streaming service? Remakes and reboots -- anything that comes with a built-in nostalgia factor. Our viewers want comforting, non-challenging entertainment. With that in mind, check out some of our exciting TV shows and original movies! A remake of Papillon starring Tracy Morgan and Melissa McCarthy. A television series based on the hit movie Dunstan Checks In in the style of a CBS police procedural. Scarlett Johannson is voice of Dunstan the Orangutang who solves crimes over the internet. Cedric the Entertainer plays the irate hotel concierge who suspects the guest in Room 221 is an ape and wants him out. Who pops over during sweeps? Jason Alexander as Dunstan's client who suspects his wife is cheating on him! We hope to get some pop from internet outrage because ScarJo is not in fact an orang. A remake of the Small Wonder tv show, starring Ashton Kutcher as the dad and Millie Bobbie Brown as the robot girl. A grim and gritty movie remake of Home Improvement, starring Liam Neeson as the dad, Forrest Whittaker as Al, Peter Weller as the voice of Wilson and introducing introducing Willow Smith as a villainous studio head. Chris Hemsworth as the Tool Time Girl. Directed by Zack Snyder. A remake of Blues Brothers 2000 (the sequel, not the original) starring Chris Kattan and Mark Wahlberg. A remake of Backdraft starring Jonah Hill in the Kurt Russell role, Jesse Eisenberg as the imprisoned whackadoo arsonist, Olivia Munn as Adcox the villainous father figure, and Owen Wilson as voice of Fire. We're also planning to launch Visión de mono+ in Spanish markets, of course.

Alright, regarding Dan’s staggering cultural myopia. I’ve let it stew for more than 24 hours, but no more. If an alien species communicated with us, querying what it is to be human, asking for a piece of art that defines our species, Tony Scott’s 1986 opus Top Gun is the answer. We would send it hurtling, digitized, through the stars, to trumpet our readiness for the uplift, our fitness for galactic apotheosis. That it has been unseen by a member, a MODERATOR EVEN, of this board, is shameful. I have never been more embarrassed to be a colonial, to know that in the distant past, our peoples were one. Your blithe ignorance of Top Gun is retroactively the reason the United States should have only declared war on Japan in 1941, continuing Lend-Lease for all time. Not seeing Top Gun is akin to never watching the sun rise. I am aghast.

I finally watched Spiderman - Into the Spiderverse this weekend. I assumed based on word-of-mouth, that I would probably like it, but holy shit, it's an absolutely astonishing film in every respect. First of all, the story was really engaging and well put together. As someone who has grown very weary of superhero films (yes, even Deadpool), this was a real delight. It seems designed to subvert expectations, with a wink and a nod toward the genre. It also manages to be very inclusive without being at all forced. Simply great storytelling with great characters. Technically it's spectacular, the animation is very stylized, which could be a distraction, but instead it elevates the visuals to match the great storytelling. I must say, it was absolute projector porn, the 4K image is literally jaw dropping. I swear I said "wow" out loud more than any movie I've seen in many years. The color rendition is hard to even believe. During some sequences, it was like someone had thrown fluorescent ink on the screen and then hit it with the world's brightest blacklight. I'm possibly the last person on this forum to see this movie, but if any of you haven't seen it, you're in for a real treat.

I agree. The internet has become one giant echo chamber where people amplify opinions into deafening screams of both agreement and disagreement. Usually it's taking someone else's opinion/idea/creative output, pulling apart some portion of it, with the intent of bending it into something not only more bite-sized and click-baity, but more outrageous, and controversial...rinse and repeat until it's whipped the faithful and/or haters into a froth. It's but one of the reasons I come here so frequently. LCVG is an oasis.

I'm going to a Triple Feature of the John Wick movies tomorrow at the Alamo. I can hardly wait!

I was gonna try to book tickets despite my wife + kids being lukewarm on it after their irrational dislike of the first film, but I came into work to find out our office manager booked us a private screening for the Friday, so I'm good

That reminds me of the time I tried getting the trophy for speedrunning RE1 under 3 hours. The game doesn't give you a timer and just shows the results at the end. My results screen:

I don't always have something to say, but I've lurked here practically every day since August 15th, 2003. Happy anniversary to the longest relationship I've ever had! (probably helps that I don't talk too much)

Hyuck, I mah gone have git me some help pickin’ me up one them thar Annihilation four kay casettes and sendin’ it across the waters! ....better?

So glad to see you all again! I just had to buy a new computer. It was very traumatic for me. But I had everything transferred to an external hard drive and with Chrome it still looks kinda like James' computer. You guys look awesome.

Well, Jeff inspired me, I threatened to do it, I realized I owned every game... it’s happening. I’m going to run the main Zelda series from the beginning, tackling each entry in release order. We’ll see the dizzying highs and terrifying lows and I traverse Hyrule and beyond... I’ll use this as a sporadic posting spot, but this project is probably at LEAST a two year commitment. But I also haven’t beaten so many of these and I really should... So, the proper order of play will be... The Legend of Zelda Adventure of Link Link to the Past Link’s Awakening Ocarina of Time Majora’s Mask Oracle of Seasons Oracle of Ages The Wind Waker The Minish Cap Twilight Princess Phantom Hourglass Spirit Tracks Skyward Sword Link Between Worlds Breath of the Wild The first step is getting out of the weeds on the NES releases. I’m six dungeons into Zelda 1 and have done some basic grinding and a dungeon in 2 to get myself a bit of a head start, then it’s proper order the rest of the way. I was going to replay Four Swords but that’s honestly a multiplayer game and a greatest hits mix of series beats, and the list’s long enough as-is...

It’s going to take a hell of an act to follow up the first one. Really looking forward to it.

One thing I haven’t mentioned on LCVG at all is that I recently got a new job. Today was my first day there, and now that this has become a reality, I went ahead and ordered an iPhone Pro. One of the main motivations for the new job is a nearly 20% salary boost (also, the company is less than a mile from my house and a bunch of former co-workers are there), so I feel more comfortable with the cash outlay and, frankly, it also feels like a nice celebratory gift to myself.

It's here. For fun I put my outgoing projector on top of the Epson. Needless to say the Epson is BIG. I've gotten it hooked up and have taken a quick gander at some 4K HDR stuff, and oof it's quite beautiful. So much lovely detail. I do have to take a moment to praise the old Panny, though. It provided many years of stunning imagery itself. But the future is definitely here.

John Wick 3 is fabulously absurd.

Started a new job almost a year ago still doing software development, I am the lead mobile dev for a three year-old startup based out of Seattle area. I handle both the iOS and Android versions of our end-user app. We have a small office in the Bay Area, too, but I'm the only person that is truly remote. I thoroughly love all of the people I work with, I get to travel out to Seattle every few months where my best friend lives, and occasionally to SF as well. At the same time, if you've followed my other thread, I own a couple of beer bars (our second one opened a few weeks ago) which are hopefully my long-term plan. I love my day job, and also after 20+ years in the dev world, I look forward to the day when I write my last line of code. I could probably eek by on the income from the first bar (and my wife's job) and quit my day job in theory, but I'm just not ready to do that yet.

I’ll be contributing on Friday. Thanks to everyone for their donations! LCVG Gold logins will be sent out by months end.

Holy shit, we are getting a couple of months away from when we starting planning this second location. Yuck! 😐 We are getting close to opening, should be in the next 4-6 weeks. 170 year-old buildings suck, I will tell you that much! I'll update with pics when we have the opening and when we run our first show. Otherwise, we celebrated the 2nd anniversary of the first spot at the beginning of February, super-duper busy weekend and things continue to go well there. I still drink too much beer. Onward and upward! 😀

Well...... The outcome to this exchange now has the potential to be more interesting than the movie. Joey?

Stop using the god damn out of box settings.... says Tom Cruise!

Dramatic recreation of Phil's theater exit:

This is fantastic to see: PC compatible too of course.

Well I survived my first marathon... which just happened to end up the hottest on record for London, and it knocked me back hard. My times were way, way out from everything I had achieved in training, but I finished, and I had energy to spare (it even allowed me to semi-sprint the finish line). Feeling good, ready to recover and move forward to get the last of this weight off me and really begin to challenge my running times. And now... sleep.

Could not be happier to have woken up to news of Del Toro being rewarded with two Oscars. I’d hope we won’t have to hear of him struggling to get projects made again.

Big PB fan here! When it comes to PB, the filmmakers of have carefully curated key defining aspects to the spread's fifty-plus years of stories. Here are a couple: 1. Peanut Butter by Proctor & Gamble, Volumes 1-4 (1958-2012). Peanut Butter wasn’t always an iconic spread. After its debut in the 1880s Peanut Butter went MIA for years — that is, until the late '50s , when Proctor and Gamble made something special: Jif. Proctor & Gamble used oils other than peanut oil in its hydrogenation process, and sweetened the recipe, adding sugar and molasses. 2. Peanut Butter Team-up by Smuckers, Volumes 1-3 (2012-current). After P & G ended their run, Smuckers took over in 2012 and revitalized the spread with a series of team-ups, including honey, cinnamon, and maple syrup. 3. Although not Peanut Butter per se, you might want to check out Jif's other spreads like Almond Butter and Hazelnut, which answer the question "what if, in some kind of Elseworld, an almond nut or hazelnut became a butter?

Guardians vol2 was added to Sky's streaming service today so I watched it this evening. I absolutely LOVED it.

Well, I've done it. Sony 4k projector incoming.

Welp... 65-inch LG OLED incoming.

Good news, fellas! It looks like I may be able to afford that new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR after all. My Barclaycard with Apple Rewards just increased my credit limit to $11,500! Of course, this means that I won't be able get the stand for the display right away. Maybe someone can buy it for me for my birthday. Or I could just do this:

I've been managing technical teams for the better part of 15 years now and I enjoy it. I can't say I love it but there are worst careers. I enjoy managing and mentoring people. With that having been said though, I officially accepted a new position in my company doing Salesforce administration today. It's an opportunity that presented itself seemingly out of nowhere but the woman in charge of the IT group is going on maternity leave and we've been without any CRM administrators for the better part of 3 months now due to regular attrition. I have had some experience with it in the past and she gave me administrator rights and I've been functioning in that role as a side job to my regular day job helping her out. She loved the work I did to the point where she aggressively headhunted me and officially sent over a job offer through my HR rep for a significant amount of money and senior analyst title that I could not say no to. It helps that I really enjoyed the hell out of the work itself, too. So I'm a little scared but super excited. Scared because its a whole new world but excited for the challenge and to get my feet wet in the world of Salesforce which is a highly marketable skill that will allow me to branch out from what I've been doing for a very long time.

Got the decals put on today. And the riser is technically backwards. The Arcade 1up emblem on the front is huge and would have been peaking out behind the MK 2 logo. I decided to just turn it around since there was no functional or real cosmetic difference.

Feel free to send her the link as well.

Aquaman is a waste of your precious time. Avoid at all cost (recognizing my warning is too late to save you all).

I've a Blu-ray player to sell and have also decided to sell my Vita which I am surprised to see still goes for a respectable sum on eBay (particularly boxed OLED models like mine). So whatever I get for those will go towards Switch funds. Now stop bullying me, you bastards!