What are you playing now?

[Tawmis]

My only complaint is that it uses save points. That's why I downloaded a trainer program, so I can save whenever and wherever I want.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH SAVE POINTS?!?!??!

[BBP]

Haven't installed it yet, but I got Gray Matter for my birthday...

And I bought another copy of Frankenstein: Through The Eyes Of The Monster. This one has different box art. Seeing GM cost under 30 euros and a poor soul once purchased Frankenstein for 119 guilders (near 60 euros).

[AndreaDraco]

Haven't installed it yet, but I got Gray Matter for my birthday...

I can't wait to know what do think about it, since your love for Jane's previous masterpieces.

[Tawmis]

MORTAL KOMBAT 9 - Story mode! It's actually pretty fun! And for what it is - considerably well written! Some of the fights - however - are ridiculously tough. Especially when it's tag team (2 of them vs 1 of you with no tag team partner!) And fighting Goro again was a trip down memory lane (and he proves to be quite the pain that he was in the original MK game!) Thought I had beaten the story mode - but then something happens - and it's revealed you haven't! Which makes sense, because you don't get to fight everyone in the game yet! So that was a pleasant twist/surprise! Curious to see how they handle some characters, who are seen (and have some dialogue) that are not playable. And it's interesting seeing how some of the characters (Sektor, Cyrax) came to be as they are! All in all, pretty fun so far, but had to take a break because my fingers feels as though they're about to fall off from the button mashing!

[gumby]

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection (Wii). I can't put it down. It does a wonderful job of pinball emulation. I'm also I huge fan of Virtual Pinball and have played some Future Pinball tables (both on the PC).

The Wii console makes it really accessible. You utilize both the WiiMote & the nunchuck, which when shaken, work as the 'nudge' controls. Flippers are controlled by the triggers on each controller.

My favorite tables are Black Knight & Pin-Bot.

[BBP]

You know Pin-Bot was based on a real-life table?
You know I have a real-life Pin-Bot?
http://bonny.ploeg.ws/pinbot.html

The machine in situ, standing proudly in the living room. Except for my grandmother every visitor is really positive about it. When I broke my ankle, my temporary bed was in the living room, behind the Pinbot so I still had a bit of privacy.
http://bbpinbot.blogspot.com/ My repairs blog. Has been left shamelessly unupdated though we have had new adventures with it since.

[gumby]

You've got a Pin-Bot? That is awesome. I'd love a machine, but they are so friggin' expensive - and after reading your adventures on repair, I might think twice.

However, if I can get enough money scraped together, maybe someday. The emulators are the best I can do at this point, with the exception of local arcades. I found an great site to assist in locating where to play:

http://www.pinballrebel.com/locator/index.php

In my area, I've (just) found out that I've got 3 places that are a little over an hour away that host 20+ machines.

[BBP]

Yeah we were real lucky... There was one in the anti-squat my sister lived in. When they were forced out, my sister gave it to my father, so we got it for free, although it was broken down and very dirty. Since it is a large thing, we parked it temporarily in my grandmother's basement. She lived nearby. Two weeks later we couldn't rent a trailer, but we went over to Gran's to try to lift it out. It weighs in at 102 kg or 225 lbs, and to say it was "heavy" was an understatement. As I was in front of the main table, while we were carrying it out, Dad at the back of it, my gran (who weighed around 40 kg) said: "It looks like you're carrying out my coffin." Dad and I both said at the same time: "Your coffin will be much lighter!"

The table didn't fit in the car. The right dashboard fan got busted (and still is busted) while trying. Next week we went back with a trailer.
It is a gigantic apparatus with lots of tiny little inventions in it: there are a lot of solenoids that provide the explosive force you need for flippers and slingshots and bumpers... etc... Since it's an old table, it breaks down a lot. One of the bumpers broke most recently: a bit of plastic broke off. That caused the ball to cling to the electro-magnet of that bumper, causing the solenoid to burn through, which in turn may have damaged the matching transistor on the motherboard. So it really makes sense you'd charge people for playing it, figuring how much maintenance costs! Of course if you'd get a newer table you wouldn't have to do it yourself.

The main disadvantage of owning a real table is all simulations will become dull, boring, and highly unrealistic. In many games I have it looks like the ball is floating in water.

[BBP]

How long has it been? We just got it fixed yesterday.

[gumby]

Nice!

[BBP]

Clarence's Big Chance. I've scored the two top endings so far.

[Qbix]

Played and finished Crysis. Wanted to see what all the fuss was about when it came out. It was surprisingly even a real game and not purely a tech demo.

[BBP]

Lemmings for CD-i. This is version 1.1, only intended for testing and reviews, but it looks smooth. And it's cute and has a neat animated intro. Its issues: unlike on the PC version, you cannot hold left (or right) and click to make sure the Lemming you activate is walking in the right direction. And the gamepad I use is not really a great match for the controls needed, aiming is quite hard.

[BBP]

Just managed to install and play Tex Murphy's Overseer.

[AndreaDraco]

Just managed to install and play Tex Murphy's Overseer.

Is this your first playthrough?

I'm amongst the very few that actually prefer how the story was told in Mean Streets. Overseer is a very good game, especially when it focuses on Tex and Chelsea's present. When, on the other hand, it delves into the past, I think it looses a bit of its charm, especially if you have already played the first game of the series (which I recommend you to play in any case, because it is quite good!).