Older: November 2005
Newer: January 2006

もり Christmas

ehehehehe

This year I didn't even really ask for anything for Christmas, and made up a list mainly because my family kept asking about it. I think I'm pretty easy to please. For instance, I would have been happy to receive one of those iMac G5s, or a high-resolution print of a hoimi on some nice quality paper. But then Morgan went above and beyond and gave me the slime game. Yeeeeeeee. I can't wait to shoot slimes out of the slime castle cannon.

As my gift to you, here are ten new Famous Actors!

I'm also unreasonably disappointed that my layout this year doesn't really accomodate my holiday Metaly, so here he is:

me metaly

Merry Christmas!

I have a lot of checkboxing to do

proton cannonbaby

Aha I haven't laughed this hard since the German muppet thing.

MALL APOCALYPSE

Every real mall has one of these.

So earlier this evening I went to the Westfield Valley Fair mall to look at some of the Christmas items. I've been there a couple times, but I must have taken a different entrance before because I never realized how absolutely colossal that mall is until tonight. It probably took ten minutes just to walk from the parking lot to the food court. Every time I turned a corner I would peer off into the distance in search of neon food stand signs, but to no avail. Then, when I finally got there, I recognized the part of the mall I had seen in previous visits sprawling off into the distance on the opposite end. BIG.

Probably the most telltale sign that a mall is gratuitously large is that they have five different maternity clothing stores. That's like, "Hey, honey, this afternoon we'll swing by the mall and pick up a new blouse. And if they don't have one you like, we'll just try one of the four other stores. Without leaving the mall."

Mario Kart war journal: a haiku

~
reds swerve from the line
the japanese learned to snake
fun while it lasted
~

Wicki wicki Wild Wild World

5326 3710 7090

Animal Crossing is going to destroy my life. Come visit me in Aliahan if you get a chance. (I am still up for a race as well.)

Mario Kart war journal: now online

120318 579651

I was originally going to write about Rainbow Road here, since router issues were preventing me from playing anything but the single player mode, but since acquiring a new (actually, old) router last week, my online experience has been exceptional. While I've seen some complaints about how bare-bones Mario Kart online is (no lap/item options, no chat, etc.), the way Nintendo implemented the online play is amazing. Especially after the nonexistent online support for the Gamecube, the Wi-fi Connection really came out of left field. It's as simple as everyone says to get your DS to connect with your network, and then (provided you have a compliant router) a 4-player race is literally just seconds away. It's even better now that I can play with friends online instead of being matched up with random Internetters. (Although, it's exciting to be paired with Japanese racers, now that the game is out there.) When I think about how much I enjoy the experience as it is now, I wonder if all those extra options would even add that much.

There's only one thing sorely lacking: I'd like to play an online battle mode. Not with the current arena lineup, though. What the game really needs is battle course #4 from the original Super Mario Kart. It upsets me that they brought back courses from MK64 and MKDD, but neglected the greatest battle arena of all time. Hey Nintendo: I will pay $35 for another cart if it includes battle course #4. Imagine: Four people all skidding around in circles, trying to blast each other with red shells just as they come around the corner. Just think about that for a while.

Anyway, here are my friends who have gotten online with the game. If you encounter them, you are to give them the right of way:

Hi, jerks!
Kline
Leigh
momo
wilykat

And here's probably the last installment of OpponentWatch, now with commas:

I respectfully salute these individuals
Arnold, BLIZZERD, BOBO, Bolotov, BonJovi, byron, cat, cfr1, DarkMario, Dashiel, Djohn, EJ'S Jeeps, Eval Paul, Fay, GEO, Groudon, Han, Headache, hector, Ike, joker, Justice, ☆カブト☆, kent, killer, Leetsauce, Leif, LuNcHbOxXx, まりる, M3ssY MarV, m9(^^), Machine, MARIO DS, meleebros., mottap☼, Mr Grymm, Nick, Nico, NOODLE✳, sam, Saybrook, slick, Spectrum, Ted, TrvrGdcld, Tsatho, vampireboy, ウィンセソト。, Wacko, Weasley, whoa

Disconnecting won't change the fact that you chose Rainbow Road and fell off
BROOKLYNny, the cheat, Drikoth, Frosty #8, fyrefox911, hazerd, [IGN]DDC, INCUBUS, L. Mithos, Monkey, SMELLY, SNK HK, Solidsnake, Tenz Arabi, てつちやん, TheWhat, Tootall, vipr259, yoyo2

These people probably couldn't win a race if they didn't snake all over the course
c-munk, GeneralM1, Paul, RockLight, S.T.A.R.S., Zeven

Mario Kart DS VS Linksys WRT54G v5: solution

As I previously mentioned, I was having some trouble connecting to friends in Mario Kart DS using a Linksys WRT54G v5 wireless router. I'd see the blue friend icon but the DS would fail to connect to anyone and I'd get error number 86420. I tried all manners of fixes, from the standard port forwarding, DMZ, and even QoS which I had never tried setting up before, and none of those things worked. However, earlier tonight, I discovered a solution that works. I can now connect to people online with no [major] problems. Here is the fix:

  1. In a Web browser, go to your router control panel at 192.168.1.1
  2. Close that window and go exchange your v5 router for a v4 or earlier model
  3. Problem solved!

Unfortunately, that seems to be the only guaranteed fix for the problem. Linksys really dropped the ball with the v5 firmware, and based on my dealings with their tech support department, they probably won't even become aware there's a problem anytime soon. (They suggested connecting the DS directly to the modem to see if that improved things. Why didn't I think of that?)

The only catch is that it may be a little tricky locating an older model of the WRT54G. The Best Buy where I got the v5 only had that version in stock, but luckily there was another nearby that had a few v4s left. You can tell which model it is by looking at the first four letters in the serial number. Here's a handy guide I got from LinksysInfo.org:

CDF8 = WRT54G v3.0
CDF9 = WRT54G v3.1
CDFA = WRT54G v4.0
CDFB = WRT54G v5.0

The forumers on LinksysInfo.org were pretty critical of the v5. Also of note is how Nintendo's official router compatibility list now recommends the v3 specifically. So, at least Nintendo is aware of the problem.

Hopefully this is of some help to people struggling to connect. I'm sorry it isn't a true solution for the v5, but up until tonight I had tried every suggestion I'd seen. With the new v4, I was able to play a few races with my old #square friends milon and wilykat (who will be on the next list of honorable opponents). PICCOLO, YOU ARE NEXT!!

Update: Linksys has released the v1.00.4 firmware for the WRT54G v5 which supposedly will fix Mario Kart/DS related problems. You can download the firmware from this page.

Mario Kart war journal, entry 2

120318 579651

Mario Kart online keeps dragging me back to the DS, despite the aggravation of people disconnecting mid-race and the inability to connect with friends over the WFC, which it turns out is probably caused by my Linksys WRT54G V5 router. I keep getting error code 86420, which is something about being unable to establish a UDP connection. Nintendo's official solution to this is to open every port to UDP connections, which strikes me as, hm, insane. I would have thought it would be best to design software to use as small of a port range as possible. Maybe someone just asked Shigeru Miyamoto which ports he thought would be best for Mario Kart. I imagine his answer would have been something like, "Let's not limit the game to just a few, dedicated ports but rather open it to all, whether they be young or old, TCP or UDP!"

Anyway, hopefully Nintendo and/or Linksys will get their act together soon and make with the firmware updating, which I pray will solve the connection issues for me, and apparently a bunch of other players out there in Internet forum land. Until then I will settle with playing people through random matchups. And, of course, mercilessly pre-judging them based on whether or not they pick the Dry Bomber.

The ranks of worthy opponents grow
Caboose
colin
Dark Link
Drew Clun
.:edh:.
EDMUND
gamer4life
Genesis
Gordy B.☹
Hyperbolt
ILoveTheDS
→∞Jason™←
Kawai
Kinopio (good race but get a better connection please, the lag jumping makes me dizzy)
Kirby5759
Kyocat83
LionConnor
LUIGI
Nimajneb
OmegaZero
Oxin
phun.e
shotgun
-SIC-
Slamamama?
Stir-Fry
Tee
Yodelyfsh
Zidapi

The Sore Losers' Club welcomes these disconnectors
adam
Becca
☆BOWSER☆
CNL21
Heist
Judecal
koolboy123
LNEOR (with L/R button icons)
↓LOSERS↑
Nasty Nate
Protoman
らいん
Recor☹
rizLa
SHIVER
Tom Nook
|VASH|♠♦♥♣ (hey maybe you'd win more races if those symbols weren't weighing your kart down??)
X-Legs

Snaker alert
Branskins™
IngSlayer
Kidicarus™

As a special end note, I'd also like to thank U.S. players colin, Dark Link, and Genesis for an unprecedented six 4-player races without any disconnects. And, since the two of you who did disconnect were doing quite well at the time, I'll assume you were just having some connection problems, or maybe you needed to go out and grab a taco or something. Some things just take precedence.

Older: November 2005
Newer: January 2006