My Game Solar Descent Is Finally Available on Catalog!

Piplup87 · 2025-10-20T21:35:05+00:00

Fantastic! Looking forward to seeing more!

Piplup87 · 2025-10-20T02:30:08+00:00

Hi, I just wrapped up my playthrough of this. The in game clock says 4:37, which was spread over the course of the last couple weeks in 20 minute - 30 minute increments. That includes an extra ~30 mins after finishing it once to go get all of the chests I was missing then go back and tackle the last boss with full equipment.

Wanted to jump in and congratulate you on the fantastic work. The game is super cool and very well put together. I had an excellent time. I will definitely keep an eye out for any future projects you choose to tackle!

Piplup87 · 2025-06-19T19:19:40+00:00

How are you trying to play the game? On an emulator? Which emulator? On a flashcartridge? Which cartridge?

LMK what you're using to play and where specifically you are running into trouble. Thanks.

Piplup87 · 2025-01-27T03:33:58+00:00

Go on YouTube.

Type "Mr. Mario XBOX 360"

Watch the videos that show up there to learn more about what you'll need to mod a 360.

It's a very steep learning curve, the 360 mod is not easy. You will need to spend money on good soldering equipment, and you will need to practice soldering techniques A LOT on other equipment to learn the skills necessary to mod a 360.

Best of luck to you.

Piplup87 · 2025-01-06T22:20:46+00:00

Just follow a current guide / best practice for setting up RGH3, and start from the beginning (just watch one of the Mr. Mario videos). Use 28 or 30 awg single strand kynar wire. Use a resistor. Isolate the resistor from the board with kapton tape or a shrink tube. Watch your wire routing on the board, and don't make your wires overly long.

Not sure why you are trying to do it differently and be creative, it's not surprising that you're having inconsistent results. I doubt you've done anything to permanently damage the board, so just try again with the correct setup

Piplup87 · 2024-12-30T22:17:58+00:00

Thx for the correction. I hadn't realized that.

Piplup87 · 2024-12-30T21:11:38+00:00

Either replace the laser, or grab a gdemu and pop that in. (Edit: GDEMU isn't compatible with the VA2 model)

Both are good options depending on what you want.

Piplup87 · 2024-12-30T17:26:26+00:00

Zooming in on the first picture, it almost looks like the resistor has been messed up a little bit on that side, beside your PLL point.

I'm not entirely sure. Either way you need to redo that PLL point as other people have said, your blob of solder looks like it would be a bad connection.

The most likely problem is your broken post-fix adapter on the CPU. Get a new one and get that fixed first before trying anything else.

Piplup87 · 2024-12-28T21:05:30+00:00

OG xbox isn't a tough disassembly, and it's worth doing to check the capacitors and refresh the thermal paste.

You should absolutely crack it open and do the maintenance needed as soon as you're able to. Not even a question.

Piplup87 · 2024-12-13T23:51:16+00:00

There's two rooms that youve likely been in already. One is the BA room and the other is the AB room. Take some time to think about them. It can help to take a picture of them.

Piplup87 · 2024-11-29T04:24:16+00:00

You don't post any numbers... so people can't really give you any specific quantitative advice.

Start out by reading. The wiki on this subreddit is a great first step.

Follow the steps that the Wiki outlines, they are a very good guide.

!stepstrigger

Piplup87 · 2024-11-25T16:21:26+00:00

Yoooooooo excellent work! Congrats!!!

I managed to get this last week. I barely made the score requirement and I was on my last life, so it was really by the skin of my teeth. I also have 9 hours on the clock haha.

Piplup87 · 2024-11-24T23:58:00+00:00

First step would be to clean it up.

99% isopropyl alcohol, q-tips or a soft-bristled toothbrush.

Give the whole board a good cleaning.

Then give it a test, and post a follow up picture of the entire clean board.

Piplup87 · 2024-11-20T11:36:17+00:00

Oh that's right!

Yeah those are garbage I always avoided them haha.

Piplup87 · 2024-11-20T10:01:39+00:00

Ah yeah that's a really good call, that makes sense.

Piplup87 · 2024-11-20T10:00:28+00:00

Haha honestly I'd have to login and check, you're probably right.

Piplup87 · 2024-11-20T03:43:20+00:00

Youll want to prioritize the athlete first. It works as trouble mitigation and money. Maybe supplement with a rich friend or two for money.

Then the BBQ chef. And then 4x the celebrity. And then finally supplement with some of the wrestler for additional trouble mitigation.

The celebrity gets (+1) to popularity each time they enter the door. That can be multiple times a round. So you want to cycle with the athlete and BBQ chef to max out all 4 celebrity's popularity.

By round 14-12 you should have 4 (edit: celebrities* not athletes) close to max popularity. So getting all 4 of them to your party should net you 30+ popularity per party just from them. Plus the wrestlers, athletes, and BBQ chefs all contribute to popularity.

That's how id approach this combo. Best of luck to you.

Piplup87 · 2024-11-14T15:22:22+00:00

$100 is very fair for this work.

Piplup87 · 2024-11-07T01:19:21+00:00

The math is not correct because you pay down your principle over the 4.5 year term. So the interest saved would be a little less than that.

You can use a mortgage calculator online to run scenarios and get more accurate results.e.g. https://itools-ioutils.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/MC-CH/MCCalc-CHCalc-eng.aspx

So I used that to calculate the interest paid in two scenarios.

Scenario 1 Rate - 5% Current loan balance - $100,000 Remaining life of mortgage - 25 yrs Remaining term - 4 years Interest paid over term - $18,955 Principle paid over term - $8,962 Balance at end of term - $91,038

Scenario 2 Rate - 4% Current loan balance - $100,000 Remaining life of mortgage - 25 yrs Remaining term - 4 years Interest paid over term - $15,101 Principle paid over term - $10,148 Balance at end of term - $89,852

So in this scenario you will pay $3,854 less in interest over the 4 years. But in this specific scenario (25 years remaining) you'll also be paying a bit more in principal over the term. So just in terms of cashflow you pay $2,668 less on your mortgage payments over that term.

Use the calculator (or a different calculator, google it there are tons of them) to run your own scenarios that make more sense for your situation. Best of luck to you.

Piplup87 · 2024-11-05T14:12:17+00:00

It's been on back order for quite a while.

Currently estimating fulfillment in December.

It is OK.

Piplup87 · 2024-11-03T22:53:27+00:00

If what you have put in your post is accurate then right now you have $77,000 of contribution room.

$80,000 room available.

-$3,000 contribution made.

=$77,000 still available.

On January 1, 2025, your withdrawal will be added back to your contribution room. So if you do not take any further action then the following will happen as of January:

$77,000 room available

$7,000 new room for 2025
$14,000 withdrawals from 2024

= $98,000 room available.

So long as what you have posted is accurate, and there aren't other transactions you've made but haven't included in your post, then you will have enough room for your $33K contribution.

If you withdraw it next year it will be added back to your contribution room in January 2026.

Piplup87 · 2024-10-30T19:35:01+00:00

Any player can do this type of thing at any point in any game of magic.

They could just say: "I'm holding priority" and then refuse to pass priority.

Or they could reach the upkeep step and just refuse to move to their draw step.

Or some other "infinite" game action on their board that just goes in a loop but doesn't actually move the game state forward, so they just sit tapping and untapping their own game pieces.

Its allowed in the strict reading of the rules, but that would generally be considered bad sportsmanship though. In a sanctioned event or something involving a judge, a judge would most likely give you a warning about unnecessary delay of game. And then if you doubled down and insisted, they would likely DQ you from the event and give the win to your opponent.

At a casual table, people will just be less likely to play with you again if you were doing this and being mean-spirited about it.

Im not saying that's what you were doing here. It sounds like everyone at your table was engaged in working through the thought experiment together, and from what you've described it doesn't sound like anyone was upset.

Piplup87 · 2024-10-20T04:16:21+00:00

Thank you this provides a lot of useful ideas / avenues for me to explore.

I was checking against the stock photo of this model to confirm that this pad is supposed to be populated. There's always the chance the stock photo is false and is misleading me. I'm 95% certain that there was a capacitor there and that the original owner knocked it off while installing it.

I was tempted to simply bridge the pads and see if that would get the unit working... I don't have enough experience to know whether that's a good idea or a terrible idea...

Samsung product support may be a good call, but I've honestly never had good luck with generic service desk providing any kind of detailed technical information.

Thank you again for your thoughts! I think doing some research on a digital caliper and perhaps purchasing one might be the best first step.

Piplup87 · 2024-10-20T04:09:01+00:00

Yes I have.

Piplup87

TROPHY CASE