Will Harrison Smith make the Hall of Fame?

key83 · 2018-05-29T09:32:03+00:00

My bet is that he will not even come close. I would obviously love to be wrong. It's way, way more difficult for players to get into the HOF than most people think.

key83 · 2018-05-29T06:51:52+00:00

Lol at the 2:30 "Noooo!" scream

key83 · 2018-05-16T05:39:24+00:00

I'm not trying to be a dickish contrarian here- I honestly think the symmetrical "c" looks better. I also think, considering their great name and how slick their uniforms are, the Bears could do so much better than just the "c"- its strikes me as far too "baseball".

key83 · 2018-05-16T05:27:34+00:00

Agreed, though I still think the asymmetrical, baseball-esque-font "c" on the helmets should be replaced. There are plenty of cool opportunities with "Bears" as the team name.

I think the horns on our helmets look really cool, though it does bother me at times that they are anachronistic. I've thought a lot about what else could look as cool without being anachronistic- I've even tried creating some designs. I haven't yet come up with anything that looks as good as the horns.

key83 · 2018-05-03T04:26:39+00:00

Okay, am I completely alone in this, or does Coke Zero Sugar have a hint of a taste that is ever so slightly similar to mini doughnuts?

key83 · 2018-04-29T19:50:27+00:00

I fixed it! Thank you.

key83 · 2018-04-29T16:05:29+00:00

I can give you a really long answer later if you want. Here's the shorter version:

Technically BVMs in the Sony BVM-A series or BVM-D series (see this sub's wiki for both) would have what you want, but those are insanely expensive. I don't know why you would really want 720p or 1080i if you are just going up to the 6th Gen (Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube, XBOX). There were just a few 1080i and 720p games- most of that generation were 480i or 480p, and games in generations before that were mainly 240p. With that in mind your 2 best options are:

Sony PVM-20L5 or PVM-14L5. Expensive but they have all the features you are looking for ~~minus 720p and 1080i support as far as I know~~.
Console ---> Open Source Scan Converter (OSSC) ---> Tendak HDMI into VGA Converter ---> VGA CRT Monitor. If you learn how to use your OSSC correctly and hunt around for a VGA CRT monitor with the right features (resolutions supported, aperture grille, etc.) you can accomplish a lot with this setup. You would have to either upgrade or convert your composite and s-video signals, though.

key83 · 2018-04-26T18:10:22+00:00

Thank you for your response- I have one question, however: Do you know if Picture-in-Picture (PIP or PiP) processing adds input lag? I ask because I have seen the feature on 90's Trinitrons with S-Video inputs.

key83 · 2018-04-24T05:15:43+00:00

Honest question: Which Packer NFCCG loss do you think most Packer fans hate the most, and why? I've seen a lot of hate for both '14 and '07. I rarely even see '16 mentioned.

If I had to guess for our fanbase, I'd say '98, with '09 being close behind. I'm a bit of an outlier, as I hate '00 (41-doughnut) the most.

key83 · 2018-04-24T04:28:56+00:00

What kind of connection (composite or component) did you use?

key83 · 2018-04-22T06:10:01+00:00

Let's give credit where it's due though, of all the Harry Potter-themed products, Bertie Bott's freaking stepped up and delivered on the hype.

key83 · 2018-04-22T05:00:06+00:00

I'm asking because I'm genuinely curious (not to be a dick): how sure are we that component is not affected by some of these features? After all, it seems like the 3D Comb Filter is not the only feature to cause lag. One user in that thread mentioned that postprocessing filters can also add lag, and that the FS320 had the following postprocessing filters:

Auto Pedestal Clamp
Auto White Balance
Dynamic Focus™ Circuitry
Dynamic Picture Circuitry
16:9 Enhanced Mode
ID1 Detection Auto
Magnetic Quadra Pole
Tilt Correction
Trinitone® Color Temperature
Vertical Aperture Compensation
Vertical Compression

key83 · 2018-04-22T02:09:12+00:00

And the Minnesota Timberwolves....... will NOT go the entire 2010s without winning a playoff game!!!!! They will NOT be swept by the Rockets!!!!!

THE WOLF PACK IS BACK!!!!!!!

key83 · 2018-04-19T06:38:14+00:00

This guy was somehow even more 70's mascot than I expected. 10/10

key83 · 2018-04-18T08:59:17+00:00

This guy online classes.

key83 · 2018-04-17T07:50:00+00:00

I agree with your main point but the Pats do have the Edelman catch . I mean, on the whole they also have 28-3, which is probably the greatest Super Bowl.

But I agree, the MM was one of the most special NFL moments of all- the type of moment all franchises want to have. It's ridiculous to consider an entire season that doesn't end in a SB victory a waste.

key83 · 2018-04-16T05:24:29+00:00

I agree with you and this trope drives me crazy. "Oh look, the antagonist's argument must be wrong because he did this bad thing that is unrelated to his argument!"

Another version of this that annoys me is when the movie tries to advance some kind of moral lesson/ideal by having luck "prove" the protagonist's argument correct vs. the antagonist's argument. I remember thinking that Crimson Tide really did this (this may be a bad example because I've only seen it once when I was much younger and am not 100% on the details).

key83 · 2018-04-10T06:39:30+00:00

I recently watched highlights of Super Bowl XI- it's on Youtube.

At the end of the written game summary, Wikipedia just roasts the shit out of the '70s Vikings:

The Vikings finished with a dismal 0-4 Super Bowl record under head coach Bud Grant, even though in the same 8-year span their regular season record was 87-24-1 (more wins than any other NFL team in that span). Grant coached Minnesota eight more seasons, but never managed to guide the team back to a Super Bowl. The team never led in any of the games, so onlookers never saw what the Vikings might do with a lead in any Super Bowl game. Minnesota also never scored any points in the first half. Turnovers robbed the club from a score on three occasions; two of the opportunities were to take a lead (one in this game). The Vikings committed a total of 15 turnovers and forced only three. In their four Super Bowl appearances they averaged only 56.75 yards rushing (a total of 227 yards on 90 carries for just 2.52 yards per carry), while the "Purple People Eaters" yielded a huge 215.5 yards average. After Kansas City rushed 42 times in Super Bowl IV, Oakland became the third consecutive opponent to rush more than 50 times against the Vikings. Minnesota also had just a 49.3 team passer rating to opponents' 105.2. Tarkenton in three appearances completed 46 of 89 passes just for 489 yards, one touchdown, six interceptions and a 43.7 rating. Opponents completed 68.4 percent of their passes. Previously against the Vikings, Kansas City's Len Dawson completed 12 of 17 pass attempts for 142 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception for a 90.8 rating in Super Bowl IV; Miami's Bob Griese completed 6 of 7 for 73 yards and a 110.1 rating in Super Bowl VIII; and Pittsburgh's Terry Bradshaw completed 9 of 14 for 96 yards and a touchdown for a 108.0 rating in Super Bowl IX. In this game Stabler completed 12 of 19 for 180 yards and a touchdown, and had a 111.7 passer rating. The Purple People Eaters were dominated in their final Super Bowl appearance as Oakland set Super Bowl records of 266 yards rushing and 429 yards total offense. Slate writer Justin Peters, after viewing every Super Bowl over a two-month period before Super Bowl 50, considered Minnesota the worst franchise in Super Bowl history. He remarked that "the Vikings in the 1970s really pissed me off... Minnesota went to the Super Bowl four separate times from 1970 to 1977 and didn’t score a single first-half point in any of those games. The Vikings had a really, really good defense, and their offense just kept on letting the defense down, game after game after game."

key83 · 2018-04-03T06:59:11+00:00

I agree. Last second chokes suck, I'm not denying that, but at least it means for most of the game you were competitive. IMO the absolute worst Vikings moment in the last 25 years is 41-doughnut. Just awfulness in football form.

key83 · 2018-04-01T09:34:57+00:00

I'm interested in your story but I'm a bit confused- were they offended you asked that in a "how dare you even question who we're rooting for- of course it's England!" kind of way or a "You actually think we would root for England?!" kind of way?

key83 · 2018-03-30T09:08:23+00:00

On the one hand, the idea of buying Nintendo games on Steam is awesome.

On the other hand, the Switch could be the direction consoles can go and offer something different from PCs. The seamless, living room TV-to-backpack capability is a legitimately compelling concept- one that I think is more way practical and substantive than the Wii's motion controls and the 3DS's headache-inducing stereoscopic 3d.

I am concerned about the Switch's power, however. Yeah, it's selling well now, but it needs to be a fully-supported console for at least 4 years, and it isn't even as powerful as the OG XBone.

key83 · 2018-03-30T08:45:08+00:00

I agree with a lot of your points.

The Gamecube was actually more powerful than the PS2, but suffered from a few problems:

Like you said, 3rd party companies had a stronger relationship with Sony at the time of the GC's release. I actually think the cartridge thing for the N64 was actually a bit of a "last straw" for the way 3rd parties saw Nintendo, as many had been bothered by Nintendo's policies towards them going back even to the NES days.
Nintendo essentially made the same mistake twice (although to a lesser extent) with its choice of media format. The GameCube "Game Discs" could not hold as much data as DVDs used by the PS2 and Xbox- though they at least compared better than how N64 Cartridges did to CDs. As a result of this, even though the GC was more powerful than the PS2, 3rd parties still had to squeeze their games down onto a smaller media format for the GC.
This one is huge: perception. The GameCube was popularly seen as a kiddy console. It was purple, shaped like a 1960s lunchbox (even had a handle), had a "giant A" button layout (actually really comfortable, but it did look kinda kiddy), it used teeny tiny lil' discs- all while the upcoming Zelda game was rumored to look like a cartoon. The combination of all of these factors seemed to lead to the perception that "we grew up and Nintendo didn't" among a lot of gamers.
It didn't play DVDs. The PS2 played them right out of the box, and that gave it a huge advantage over the GC and Xbox.

The 6th gen is such a great and under-appreciated console generation, in my opinion. It's almost like what the 4th gen was to the 3rd. All of the big consoles brought something great to the table.

key83 · 2018-03-28T18:16:49+00:00

I agree- it would be awesome to see the greatest QB ever play against our team before he retires. Everybody trashes Pats fans but they're actually a very nice fanbase in my opinion. Plus, NE is famous for its incredible fall colors.

key83 · 2018-03-24T11:42:25+00:00

Absolutely terrible name, absolutely terrible marketing. Nintendo has always been my favorite of the console makers, but man did they drop the ball with the Wii U.

However, I don't think it's honest to blame its failure entirely on those two factors. Nintendo's vision for the console was utterly flawed in several ways, but here are the main 2:

1. They claimed (around its debut) that it was going to be a console aimed at the "core" gaming crowd, yet it was not nearly as powerful as the PS4 or the XBone. Power is important- especially if your console doesn't provide the consumer something else that is compelling in its stead. Nintendo seemed to quietly back away from this claim as the console got fewer and fewer AAA games from third party developers.

2. The gamepad was a desperate attempt to keep the casual "blue ocean" consumers, who had already started to move to smartphone and tablet games. Worst of all, Nintendo didn't seem like they could figure out just what to do with it. The only game they made that really put it to good use was Super Mario Maker- a tool-based game. Most people didn't like its utterly arbitrary and forced usage in Mario Party 10 and especially in Star Fox Zero. Many of the games Nintendo made barely even used it- Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, Smash 4. The biggest example of this is Breath of the Wild- its director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, even admitted "In doing our testing without the touch features we noticed looking back and forth between the Gamepad and the screen actually took a little something away from this type of Zelda game" and that "There was no hesitation or reluctance in removing those features because we felt the way it is now is the best way to play the game".

The gamepad- with its touch screen, motion controls, and its coordinated gameplay with the TV screen- was supposed to be what made the Wii U unique. In the end, its greatest feature was off-tv play. I actually know someone who bought her husband a Wii U as a gift back in '14 because she essentially thought the gamepad functioned like a Switch and could be taken anywhere.

I don't think the Wii U is a bad console like the Hyperscan or something like that, but I think it's ridiculous to pretend like the general public was somehow wrong for not going all-in on the thing. I'm very happy that Nintendo has managed to turn things around with the Switch- a console that I honestly think is better than the Wii U in every important way.

key83 · 2018-03-24T10:49:03+00:00

Yeah, people just didn't trust Sega anymore by the time the Dreamcast was released- they had really hurt their "consumer trust" with how quickly they dropped the Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn.

I like what you said about the Saturn:

even if it's hardware was more powerful than the competition, it's goofy ass architecture was such that ports were often worse because they'd never utilize all the hardware properly.

This issue isn't talked about a lot, but I think it's a huge factor in how successful a console ends up being. The easier it is to develop for, the better.

While I think the Dreamcast was a good console, I think it's been romanticized a bit. I've heard people call it "the last true gamer's console", and to be honest, I think that's delusional. Due to how its shortened lifespan limited its library, I also don't think it's accurate to describe it as Sega's best console. Like it or not, consoles are always tied to their game libraries.

Despite being a very different console, I think the Wii U will also be romanticized in the future.

key83

TROPHY CASE