64-bit Atari Jaguar CDROM Braindead 13 Easter Egg

Troy Cheek used to host this little nugget on his website (now gone) but here it is thanks to the Way back Machine.

Andy Floyd of Fidonet ATARI_ST says...

1. Start Braindead 13 with the Memory Track cartridge installed.
2. When the game begins to play the intro animation, skip it by pressing a fire button. (Not necessary but hey, you've seen that before, right?)
3. Select a New Game.
4. When the scene begins with that shot of the fireplace, immediately press OPTION and Save your game, then Continue.
5. Play up to the point before one of the witches (usually the one to the left after you get past the Conservatory).
6. Instead of pressing Right or Left, you should see an Elevator and press UP.
7. This transports you all the way to the showdown with Fritz, and then the Brain Chamber.

I have done this at least 3 times and always works.

Data Existentialism

This is the sort of thing you don't want at 5 a.m. You're using your device and looking at pictures when it suddenly decides to stop recognizing your micro SD card and now shows only what's on the internal storage.

Yeah, my Alcatel device decided to do that. I had deleted 2 images off, and I was just looking around when it decided to do its own thing and blam. Settings said by not showing it there was no SD card. It decided on its own to unmount it. Yikes.

So I fully get up, get out a flashlight and open up the back, remove the battery, and then get at the card. Contacts are gold plated and clean. What the fudge. Put it back in and together, still not acknowledging the card.

This is NOT happening. Make the effort and turn on my Windows 7 desktop. Get out the Micro SD adapter. Make a backup directory. Insert card into the reader slot. Windows says there are errors and should it scan and fix? I say no, let's just see what's on there. And up pops the directory of the card. So yes, it still works.

Grab everything and drag to copy into the backup directory. And it goes well, except for one imgcache directory with an error. I tell it to skip it. No other read errors. But I notice while browsing in My Computer there are a few images not popping up a thumbnail and same with a few video files. The images won't load at all, the video files at least play. One looks like there's some bad data. Hhhrrmm...

I forget to scan it and pop it back into the Alcatel and boot it up. It once again sees the microSD card! And as expected, Gallery isn't fully populating all the image folders. So that may be that imgcache error. Stop Gallery, clear cache, delete application data. Let it rebuild its thumbnail database and it does. So it seems to be OK.

But I still made that backup of 3.7 gb of data and photos.

When I actually buy candy

I just realized there are only 4 times a year when I actually buy candy for personal consumption:

• Valentine's Day - if I can find a special KitKat variety

• Easter - $1 solid Chocolate Bunny or 2. This will always be chocolate regardless what I buy.

• Halloween - again, special KitKats apply

• Christmas - something chocolate

Always cheap, at least 1 bag of something. It's enough.

I found my game online!

Years ago I had toiled away writing a conversion of Spectrum Holobyte's Soko-ban ("Warehouse Guard") game on the IBM PC for my Atari 8-bit. I had dumped all the levels in hex on printer paper at college, so all I needed to do was figure out the game.

I used a powerful font editor called Envision, published by Antic Magazine. It made creating an animated font very easy. I designed a smoothly animated font for Push It! which I called my game as well as signed my name into the font.

At one point it bogged down even in compiled TurboBASIC, so I pulled out MAC-65 and began putting together a machine language subroutine to check the screen. It was the most important piece of my game and the program self modified it by inserting the screen address and my string table of screen addresses which needed checked as well as how many. It returned a number equal to the boxes put on solution squares. You completed a level by pushing the boxes onto the solution squares.

And I wrote it, finished it, played some levels, and basically had it on a disk and thought not much of it until I uploaded a Diskcomm file of it onto an Atari user group BBS in Arizona. And then I forgot about it.

Some time later, I was contacted by that user group how they went nuts over it and how 6 levels were "unsolvable." So I went back to those the printouts and reentered them and a few I had made mistakes. But I made sure to play those 6 levels and surprise - I solved them! I sent them a new disk but the user group still insisted they were unsolvable... 

I thought as a lark to search for my game online, and I was surprised to see someone uploaded it!

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-push-it_4178.html

Yearly visit to my doctor?

Last week I ran out of refill counts and when that happens, I have to call my primary doctor for refills. Only this time, I had to go in to their office first. I was expecting to be able to talk to her about my issues - falling drowsy and then asleep around noon even in spite of a rousing wake up and breakfast, not having the 4 things I need for my care - scale, shower seat, hand sprayer, and rollerator. I don't know why I don't have these things when all my mother had to do was ask for them.

Instead, I was NPO since midnight before the day of my appointment because they were wanting a blood draw. I was less than enthused.

I spent my week getting ready. I get a phone call from my pharmacy saying I have refills to pick up - apparently the doctor people called them in already. I tell them I will be there on the 3rd because I have other things also to do on that day. I planned to leave my broom closet around 10:30 a.m....

Only thing is 2 days before my appointment, I get a building notice they are doing Covid cleaning from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and would people either stay in their units during that time and spend as little time as possible in the halls.

8:30 a.m. ... Goddamnit to f•vk. So along my preparation to have a little post blood draw picnic, I basically have to wake up and immediately get my underwear, pants, and shoes on before my feet can swell up after being wrapped the night before. And then be out of the building before 8:30 a.m. leaving me to have to wait in parking lots before going to the doctor and bring supremely early.

One detail I left out out until now is I usually take 2 acetaminophen tablets for pain because it hurts getting around. I have to do all this getting out, go to my credit union, go to the doctor, then the pharmacy store, with absolutely no pain relief. Somehow, I managed to do this.

I get out, check my mail, get to my vehicle and get in, get to my credit union, get back in, and get to the pharmacy store parking lot where I wait. I pop on the radio, listen to lunatics on talk radio, look through my mail and other bits I need to write stuff on. I considered going in but realized this was to be a busy day, so I waited to advance to my doctor.

Get to my doctor and no weigh in. I don't get to speak to my doctor, it's straight to the blood draw person. Not enthused. Get the spike in my arm (still hurts a day later) and now I'm being asked to pee in a hat. This hat you don't wear - I'm being told to perform a little urine sample. This is a surprise, because I went back in the broom closet before I left and I was pretty sure I didn't have any more. But I was betrayed and enough came out in the hat to get my nuts warm and moist whereupon I pinched it off to remove the device from the toilet so I could finish... And then I was done. Didn't get to speak to my doctor.

Back in my vehicle, I have my little picnic. Sandwich, water with flavor packet, cold rice with PreCure curry. And 2 acetaminophen. Only thing is, this triggered something else the body does. I started farting. That means I need to visit a toilet soon.

For supper the night before, it was also rice with a little PreCure curry packet. And a raw egg mixed in the hot rice. Only it must not have been hot enough, because my farts were signalling I needed to hit a toilet damn soon and there would be no pain relief or waiting for a powered shopping scooter, this poop baby was going to deliver itself in my pants if I didn't hurry up.

Get to the pharmacy, park, get out, and grabbed a cart without accident. Walk in as quickly as I could, making a beeline to the men's restroom and thankfully nobody on the toilet. Barely had moments to get my ass uncovered before this runny shitstorm was forcing its way out into the toilet.

Then I realized I need to bring my magic butt wiping wand with me at all times because this was going to need wiped off. I also found out the short small end of my cane can be quickly adapted for this purpose with enough toilet tissue wrapped around one end.

Somehow I managed this whole episode of a day where I dropped off the one container I still had for a refill and went back to grab a charged shopping cart (the slow green one) and conduct my business.

Only to find out my doctor called in 3 refills of pills. I hope more get called in after next week's appointment.

When Barty Crouch Jr used polyjuice to become Mad Eye Moody, why was he also missing an eye & part of a leg?

I miss my Marmalade.

Intelligence is fleeting for some

A while back I had been friend requested by a same graduating class person who at the time was known to be rather smart. Good grades, on the chess team and was skilled even while in junior high. Generally active in a few scholastically inclined things.

Then after a while on The Book of Faces, it was clear he was a Trump supporter. I mean, really? It's a shame he let those smarts go to waste. Or maybe he smoked something during those formative college years. But it's appalling how low that intelligence went. I doubt he could play chess anymore.

For others I've seen, they've held onto their intelligence and supplanted it with experience and wisdom. So yeah. Work that cranial muscle or lose it.

As for that "friend" on Foosebook? When it was clear our views didn't match, he unfriended me rather than accept he was wrong. (Or dumb)

When Facebook doesn't like YouTube for some reason

Facebook doesn't like various random YouTube URLs ("earls") for whatever reason. 

Clues include no thumbnail when you post either the full URL or the shortened mobile URL. And your post of the YouTube link disappears when you put it in a comment and hit Post.

I had once tried to share the link to a comedy clip on YouTube where an old guy operating a computer puts the My Computer icon in the desktop Recycling Bin, and his computer disappears. 51 second video, I thought it was hilarious. But no. It was my first occurrence of seeing Facebook throw up a message where it wasn't an approved URL and wasn't going to let me share it here. And yet the group who had the YouTube channel with this video had a page on Facebook and they were able to share it there!!

Just now I tried to post a link to a decent quality upload of MC Hammer's 2 Legit 2 Quit as a comment. But no. Facebook wouldn't put a thumbnail on the mobile link and deleted the full desktop link when I tried posting that. I had to settle with a link to another but crappy quality upload of the same damn thing.

Now, in the case of the old guy deleting his computer video, there was a place I could tap on (click?) to dispute the verboten status of the link, and I explained what it was and Did they even see this video?? I mean, are you kidding me??

New post after not posting in some time

Finally using a device which lets me log into my account without complaining. I don't like the changes they keep making to the dashboard. Just leave it alone!

I'm still angry about what was stolen from me. That anger and unforgiveness will never go away. If anything, life is more difficult for me. I probably weigh more now than I ever have and I'm not happy about it. Having to isolate because of the corona virus pandemic isn't helping my fitness goals either. I wish Mom was here just to hear her thoughts on things.

I miss my cat Negi. It was only in the last 18 months of our lives together did he finally get the idea he was allowed to jump up on my lap to ask for attention. I loved him dearly. He was the best mouse catcher I ever had.

Every day is a struggle to give a damn and to gather motivation. I just hope I'm not depressed. Back on Bayard, I had more room to move around and more of a distance I needed to walk. It was easier to go outside. 

I just want my stuff back.