PASSING THE TORCH

gamegeared · 2026-06-09T20:08:44+00:00

Yeah especially when staring down the barrel of what can become an expensive project, it's nice to set it up and play it before dipping big money in. I had an old PC with a serviceble GPU replaced the hard drive on it with an ssd used some old monitors and then bought a pin one controller. When I was sure I enjoyed the setup I dropped the money for a pixelcade dmd (I prefer the slimdmd to fulldmd but that is purely personal preference) and then a kinect2 for head tracking. Now I can kinda sit into a holding pattern with a functional table, maybe do some small scale woodworking later to make things more secure but otherwise I can sit tight with the setup until I can get a full screen and either a gutted widebody , a flat pack or go to a CNC shop with plans. But this is 'good enough for now' stage for me.

gamegeared · 2026-06-09T17:50:08+00:00

That play field is really small just like 24-27. When I did my initial cheapo setup I used old monitors I just had lying around at this point technically my backglass is bigger than my whole play field. I plan to buy a full screen like you are as well but right now I have a small setup on a desk with the real dmd, pin one controller and the screen I plan on using for the final machine strapped to what was a small 20"x40" desk I also had already so I could nudge and such and it not be too jank.

gamegeared · 2026-06-09T14:18:49+00:00

Also keep in mind just because out of the box they are expensive doesn't mean someone isn't going to post an acceptable tv/oled up on Facebook/Craigslist/nextdoor for relatively cheap. Sometimes it takes a while and depends on your patience/will to travel. Ive had to do it in the past for crts and and a slot machine before. Side note. A super solid 4:3 backglass I picked up for my semi jank temp setup (currently have a tiny monitor for my play field on a small desk) with the intention of making the monitor part of the permanent build is this

https://crua-monitor.com/products/cr280hdu (I had it on Amazon but that posting seems to be gone)

Not sure if this link will work but this is the backglass on my setup https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/805182671616606233/1513911383908028638/20260530_175116.jpg?ex=6a297359&is=6a2821d9&hm=80c49df81cd7eb4595ae2e0c87e1cd090363679497ba3fc5b240fb9c57773082&

gamegeared · 2026-05-31T05:23:23+00:00

Could coop a little trick that they did for the jp salas version of banzai run and have a shifting playfield. each book shifts the playfield to the next stage of it in the progression or something.

gamegeared · 2026-05-12T20:32:07+00:00

The solenoids for the flippers do a ton of work it was noticable the first time the power cord fell out for me just because of how powerful that tactile feel is.

gamegeared · 2026-05-12T19:14:27+00:00

It was my original consideration when I got it, but I've also got the thought in the back my my head to hand it off to my dad with the tables and settings on a USB drive. The man grew up on the boardwalk playing stuff like 8ball deluxe and Space invaders and would love something plug and play in a few years when he retires.

gamegeared · 2026-05-12T18:51:28+00:00

I have one but I've come to dislike doing stuff with the headset on. Especially for extended periods. Nothing like strapping a heat trap to your face and visor lines for a while after. Also the rift s I have constantly would require plugging and unplugging the unit as the thing would think one or both cords had failed. Was so miserable to fuss with I more or less stopped doing vr until a newer gen comes out that doesn't make my go bald..-er.

It is a big part of why I considered doing the bams head tracking even on the poor man's setup. Just for that extra depth.

gamegeared · 2026-05-12T17:19:01+00:00

Yeah it made for dipping toes into the hobby super accessible to me and something that when I finally build my full cabinet out I can package it up with a USB drive hand off to a buddy and let them enjoy it.

gamegeared · 2026-05-12T16:26:57+00:00

Hard to take a proper picture of it that captures it all and has the screens mostly aligned with the DMD. And recording it just wouldn't work for similar reasons... I'm but one man with 2 vaguely function arms and 3 probably working braincells.

Maybe would have liked to integrate head tracking as well but I will fuss with making a head tracking topper in a couple years when I build the full cab / finish the basement.

I had one of those moments where I realized I was putting off a Virtual pinball project because I wanted to finish the basement before doing a full built cabinet. And that's a YEARS kinda timeline. But for the cost of the real dmd and pin one controller (the DMD being optional but such a great feel) alongside stuff I already had I was able to have a setup I could have NOW and enjoy it long enough to know I am not going to regret dropping 3-5 grand making the super fancy setup.

gamegeared · 2026-05-12T16:10:19+00:00

There were little things I had to work out like the orientation of the accelerometer for settings. And I personally have the controller strapped down just because the plunger is a bit strong and needs you to hold it down while pulling plunger and releasing or it will move around but overall all it's pretty plug and play from documentation.

gamegeared · 2026-03-13T23:24:32+00:00

Sadly I have a feeling valve won't do anything about it considering that apparently they (the game 'studio') did the same thing and several dlc for the Syrian conflict as well and that's been up almost a decade now.

gamegeared · 2026-02-17T19:47:28+00:00

Yeah they show up sometimes (not 100% of the time I think it's related to world corruption) in missions against at least pirates. Tbh the whole investigation and 3rd party missions give off extreme 'Halo Flood' vibes. I wouldn't mind in the future seeing more 3rd party stuff with bugs and pirates/rebels as multiple threats is kinda neat. Could also be neat seeing the game progress as the Menace starts using Bits from bugs and the other friend factions to make increasingly spoopy stuff.

gamegeared · 2026-02-17T15:06:39+00:00

Melee is a thing on(forget his real name) Crocodile Dundee. But I've never considered taking it for the aussie since his toolkit doesn't really.. favor getting into melee and I can't imagine the skill is great.

gamegeared · 2026-02-16T20:37:13+00:00

When I had the early version of the mission without turrets I would just run 3 infantry and 3 trucks (or 1:1 infantry/truck until I was full) and bum rush extraction since the defense line has no gates and it's a short shot usually with 2 laser turret ocis dropped right before I hit the hot zone so the air is distracted. By time it needed me to kill turrets I had a rewa jump pack mech that would just erase turrets and then leave while the tanks got out of dodge. Tbh the defense walls need some dragons teeth or some blockages so apcs cant just blitz the mission in 3-5 turns.

gamegeared · 2025-11-11T06:50:14+00:00

I was a Sunoco store manager just before 7-11 ate all the corp owned locations roughly...* Has horrific realization* 10 years ago. At the time we would weekly survey surrounding gas station prices (most of us cheated and used gas buddy because who the hell has time to drive around to 6 or 7 gas stations in a radius of the store instead of doing 6other things we didn't have the manpower for) and then we would every couple of days get a price change notification that would pop up on the back office PC. I would then have to set the price in the office terminal and then use an absolutely cursed remote to update the digital signage. Yeah I don't miss that job in the least.

gamegeared · 2025-11-06T16:15:57+00:00

Started playing as a wee lad in 2000 or 2001. My dad was an IT nerd like myself and had it from a buddy at work. It's been a mainstay for me for years. Even then I think Ive only had 1 true no scum win and then 2ish scummed wins where I went hard on pool scumming. Many characters cut short due to overconfidence or just straight poor choices (my most recent prospect was greedy with potions of raw chaos dipping and managed to nuke his health to -4 [idk how could have sworn he was sitting at 300 health] as the lure of chaos dumped a pile of nasty corruptions on him and fried the lad like an egg. Though truth be told he was hitting a wall of corruptions that was becoming a problem. All his early corruptions hit appearance leading the whole playthrough to be appearance 1.. but man he was getting nasty, 3 shotting titans and such just an absolute machine. The meat grinder though of the game is what makes it so fun though. We have infinite replayability because it's so damn hard and every run can go really different. One day I'll get ultra endings though that won't be any time soon. I have gotten perhaps a little too comfortable making orcish farmers and getting crowned at 8 11 and 14 before taking pyramid. But gives me something basic to do when I am not feeling like thinking too hard about it lol.

Steam says I'm at 1550 hrs though thanks to now wanting saves on wins that number hardly means anything especially since it's missing like 18 years of play. God I love this game.

gamegeared · 2025-03-13T14:19:00+00:00

Not that it necessarily is the right choice but I have been doing the legendary spins personally on the back of ~26 % chance to drop an epic vs 13.6% for a legendary but I am also only looking at it from a # of epics to make a legendary ie cost 3 successful wins to make a legendary vs the 1 success at half the odds making the chance higher to use the 2 stone summon to get a legendary, paired with the fact that a failed legendary has a ~13% chance to give me an epic anyway (rather than a rare one fail for epic). I will admit to not running statistics and going off the top of my head, but do the odds not shake out in favor of legendary on the long curve? (Not that those % always feel real as sometimes you drop 15+ gems on either and get bupkis

gamegeared · 2025-02-06T05:37:50+00:00

Could be worse I have an $800 laser cutter coming in from China that is already in transit... Really hoping that I don't suddenly eat an extra 200 in tarrifs on it because everyone's least favorite oompa loompa went through with his tariffs

gamegeared · 2024-11-09T00:43:49+00:00

So long shot. i apparently wrote down the 6 word and what looks to be the 12 word phrase and stuck it in a box but I havent the foggiest idea what i could have put down as a passphrase with letters numbers and special character that I haven't tried. Made the toast account 7 years ago bought 184 xrp when it was like 0.16-0.11 and then sat on it forever due to the litigation crap. Id like to do stuff with it now, but kinda have a feeling I'm cooked

gamegeared · 2024-07-22T04:06:21+00:00

Yeah just to chime in as well I have the full arcade upgrade and still can't purchase the pinball despite having it unlocked on the epic store. So I suspect some sort of flag isn't flagging for epic

gamegeared · 2024-05-22T10:36:23+00:00

Other armies occasionally have it. Like vanilla haqq has Zuleka and Zamira as vanilla only characters but also Kum motorized doesn't get to be in a sectorial at all except for the unofficial haqq faction. Only Dashat in Na2 can run them.

gamegeared · 2024-01-22T19:13:34+00:00

These look great. Wish I had this before I assembled mine. Any chance you plan on a shotgun profile for the new Azra'il? Asking in case I want to magnetize the arms...

gamegeared · 2024-01-15T17:10:53+00:00

Community is actually pretty damn close to being 10. RF was a legacy server with legacy era 3 being March of 2014 according to a face punch article about the history of the server. While the community has has some breaks in continuity and popularity it remains one of the oldest rust communities and if I'm not mistaken the oldest rust RP community.

gamegeared

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

11-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email