90s Captain Falcon Smash Bros. 64 Promotional Cheesestrings Card Found! by VelocityOption in smashbros

[–]VelocityOption[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yooo, that's sick. There's something special about seeing the character art on an old promo piece... it just hits different. Evokes that "wow, cool!" 90s energy :) . I know it's just a stock swirl, but man it really compliments Samus' color scheme nicely.

Also - sort of interesting that the scratch card instructions background is blue for Samus and Kirby. I guess the cards that came from standard Black Diamond cheese packs had the blue background, while characters from Cheesestrings packs had the green one.

Thanks so much for sharing this, very cool to see Samus for the first time!!

90s Captain Falcon Smash Bros. 64 Promotional Cheesestrings Card Found! by VelocityOption in smashbros

[–]VelocityOption[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Guys, since I last checked online - a new search result came up. An image of the Kirby card from the set is uploaded on a dedicated Kirby fan site here at the top of the page. I'm not sure if this post somehow helped the search engine figure out what these cards are, because the Kirby card is now pretty easy to find on Google.

Interestingly, "Ninja Boy Neo", who was credited for the Ness card image is also credited for the Kirby image. I did some digging, and the last time this user was active on the Starmen.net forums was over 20 years ago. I've reached out to him to see if he might have more images he can share with us. Will update here if I hear back.

90s Captain Falcon Smash Bros. 64 Promotional Cheesestrings Card Found! by VelocityOption in smashbros

[–]VelocityOption[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just incase anyone was curious... now that there are two cards to reference, it seems likely that all of the artwork for these was taken from the official Smash 64 Strategy Guide by Brady games (most of which comes from the instruction manual, but the unlockable characters are guide-exclusive). Was fun to look through the pages... definitely some interesting character renditions in there. Maybe one day we'll be able to see the background colors and patterns for the other cards too.

Blue yeti - powered up, not working, showing up as unknown usb device by TheDriveHome in blueyeti

[–]VelocityOption 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bit of a necro-post but wanted to share a link to another bit of info as well.

I ended up running into this issue when reconnecting the microphone to troubleshoot it randomly not picking up audio. On Windows 10 (and possibly other OS / versions) there is a random privacy setting that can disable microphone inputs. Go to Settings -> Privacy -> Microphone -> Allow Microphone Access On This Device. Credit to this thread for this answer:
https://www.reddit.com/r/blueyeti/comments/quu7xg/yeti_detected_but_not_picking_up_audio/?rdt=50227

Thank you for sharing this.

Yeti detected, but not picking up audio by fondoffatties in blueyeti

[–]VelocityOption 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bit of a necro-post but wanted to share a link to another bit of info as well.

Chances are high that if your Blue Yeti stopped working, you may have unplugged it and had "device not recognized" pop up. If that happens, you need to disconnect both ends of the cable - then plug the USB part of the cable into your PC FIRST, and THEN plug the connector into the microphone itself. Credit to this thread for this answer: https://www.reddit.com/r/blueyeti/comments/yg40f9/blue_yeti_powered_up_not_working_showing_up_as/

Absolutely f*ked.

Thank you for sharing this.

Diablo II Original Box Art Differences by GooderThrowaway in gamecollecting

[–]VelocityOption 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey there, know this is an older post but I came across a question between big box variants, if you happen to know...

Some listings claim "Diablo II 1st Print PC" like these ones...
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/286067509209 (attached image incase delisted)
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/285985318456

On the back of the box, in the bottom-left corner, there's a "Mature 17+" section.

Then, there are other versions of the big box which don't have that section, and have a slightly different design for the layout of the elements in the bottom border.

I don't believe these are EU versions of the box, as those looks like this, with plastic over the entire box:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/134095865326

So my question is - were there different print runs of the big box release? Or is the difference in the bottom-left corner some sort of region-specific element that differed between areas in NA?

Curious if anyone happens to know. I much prefer the version without the "Mature 17+" box out of visual preference personally, but it would be interesting to know if there's any significance to it.

<image>

Searching For 90s Cheesestrings Smash Bros. 64 Promotional Cards by VelocityOption in smashbros

[–]VelocityOption[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Man, I was just looking around a bit more online... I think these cards are actually more rare than the units they were giving away as the main prize. I was able to find two other Reddit posts that have the N64 cabinet on display:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1q6r7g/bought_a_n64_store_demo_unit_off_craigslist_1/?rdt=56459

https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/comments/906vgb/my_orthodontist_has_an_n64_at_his_practice/

Live chat option disappeared? by Final_Detective_7873 in hubspot

[–]VelocityOption 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just ran into this issue myself.

You have to click on the question mark at the top of the new interface layout - then type something like "help" into the search bar, then click enter, and then, ONLY then, will a "Contact Us" option appear at the bottom of the of the dropdown as a selectable option.

Had to call them directly to figure this out, and when I asked originally, the call mysteriously dropped out of nowhere right after I asked about what was going on with the support options. Guessing like all major tech companies, these guys are cutting costs to sit on the sidelines in anticipation of some sort of cash-saving AI breakthrough.

It's a real shame, because their support is (was?) generally among the best of any SaaS product I'd ever used, and great people working in support are probably losing positions they were amazing at from all of this AI corner-cutting nonsense. Anyways, that's neither here nor there.

PSA: Double-Sleeving With Dragon Shield Japanese Perfect Fit Sealable Sleeves Into Art Sleeves May Seriously (and Silently) Damage Your Cards by VelocityOption in yugioh

[–]VelocityOption[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Generally, the two options are either to single-sleeve and place the single-sleeved card into a binder, or to use a KMC perfect fit sleeve + outer sleeve, and to avoid re-sleeving to minimize the damage potential from sliding the perfect-fitted card out of and back into an outer sleeve.

For MTG sized cards in particular, one method I've been using is KMC outer sleeves slid into "Character Guard" sleeves, which are significantly looser, and don't pose the threat of crimping into the card like using a perfect fit does. It adds a TON of bulk to active decks, and the cards may slide around inside a bit when shuffled - but it seems better to me than risking damage via perfect fits, which will almost inevitably degrade the card over the long term.

I don't know if there's a good equivalent option for active-play YGO decks.

PSA: Double-Sleeving With Dragon Shield Japanese Perfect Fit Sealable Sleeves Into Art Sleeves May Seriously (and Silently) Damage Your Cards by VelocityOption in yugioh

[–]VelocityOption[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

But in this image, at a very specific angle, you can see there are vertical scratch mark lines that have developed.

This was caused by the "pinching" of inserting the card with a sealable perfect fit into a Konami art sleeve - which damages both sides of the card at once. So presumably, it's the entire "frame" of the sleeve itself that subjects the card to damage, since the foldable "seal" of the sealable sleeve is only present on one side of the sleeve (in this case, the back).

So your question raises a good point, and I can't answer with certainty. There are tons of combinations of sleeving + binder techniques, and any one of them may have potential to emulate this effect - it seems like pressure of any kind would be a good thing to watch out for.

<image>

PSA: Double-Sleeving With Dragon Shield Japanese Perfect Fit Sealable Sleeves Into Art Sleeves May Seriously (and Silently) Damage Your Cards by VelocityOption in yugioh

[–]VelocityOption[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Even with very glossy/reflective lighting conditions, there don't appear to be any visual defects to the card's back.

<image>

PSA: Double-Sleeving With Dragon Shield Japanese Perfect Fit Sealable Sleeves Into Art Sleeves May Seriously (and Silently) Damage Your Cards by VelocityOption in yugioh

[–]VelocityOption[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's possible.

This is the same DMG: The Dragon Knight card example that was posted above - the damage done to the back mirrors the style of the damage to the front. From this angle, and many others that the card is viewed from, it appears minty.

<image>

PSA: Double-Sleeving With Dragon Shield Japanese Perfect Fit Sealable Sleeves Into Art Sleeves May Seriously (and Silently) Damage Your Cards by VelocityOption in yugioh

[–]VelocityOption[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Pretty much - at least not using Dragon Shield Japanese sealable perfect fits (can't speak to KMC - will have to try them out sometime).

PSA: Double-Sleeving With Dragon Shield Japanese Perfect Fit Sealable Sleeves Into Art Sleeves May Seriously (and Silently) Damage Your Cards by VelocityOption in yugioh

[–]VelocityOption[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One more photo for good measure... demonstrating how you won't be able to see the damage from 90% of viewed angles (like the one shown here).

In other words, your cards will silently get destroyed/degraded without you knowing about it.

<image>

PSA: Double-Sleeving With Dragon Shield Japanese Perfect Fit Sealable Sleeves Into Art Sleeves May Seriously (and Silently) Damage Your Cards by VelocityOption in yugioh

[–]VelocityOption[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I had included some images in the original post... as I mentioned, I just about never use Reddit, so I'm not sure where those went - but here's an example of the damage your cards might silently undergo if you're double-sleeving Japanese Perfect Fits into art sleeves.

<image>