#but anyone who had ever operated a space ship or relied on space tech to get them out of a sticky situation

[rekkingcrew]

Campaign Debrief

So for nearly 2 years I ran an Edge of the Empire campaign with 3-4 players, mostly weekly. These last couple of months we’ve been using discord, which has gone great. I want to get down some of my thoughts about what worked and what didn’t. 

This is gonna be a big wall of text and all but two bits are gonna be under the cut: system and play style. 

Fantasy Flight Star Wars game system is legit my favorite system EVER. (Not to dick wave or anything, but that’s including D&Ds 2-5, Gurps, White Wolf, Blades in the Dark, Dungeon World, Deadlands, and a few miscellaneous other short form ones). The system of advantages and disadvantages, and especially triumphs and despairs rather than just straight successes and failures really opens up complex narrative opportunities and gives a chance for wild story beats that just would not have happened otherwise. The fights go fast but feel meaty and there’s a lot of room to pitch advantages to your friends so you’re not just waiting your turn. Character creation is granular enough that your choices always feel meaningful, and points can be spent anywhere, so you can really specialize and shape your character. 

We played very collaboratively and it made things AMAZING. Part of this is that we were all good friends and have played together for a while now. Our taste in what kind of story we want is similar- nuggets of drama scattered throughout, but mostly cutting up. A lot of the best NPCs and story suggestions came from my players rather than from me- our season one boss villain, Imperial spymaster “Uncle” Karston Severax, a pantoran ex-special forces black operative whose current public face was a Mr. Rogers-esque children’s TV presenter, for example, was someone my players started out and all of us collective “yes and” added to around the table, and he was JUST THE BEST. These kind of exchanges also gave us moments like the time our tech tried to blackmail the head of a security corporation with the fact that he was having an affair and he’d written just LOADS of incredibly cringey fanfiction; but the roll was such that the attempt ended with him finally getting the push he needed to quit a job he hated, get out of a marriage that just wasn’t working, and follow his dream of self-publishing. He even dedicated his first book to our slicer. Because it wasn’t a DM vs Players atmosphere, because we were all on the same page, I could ask my players “hey, what do you want for your triumph?” and “all right, so who is the NPC you know?” as well as just “that’s enough to finish this guy, what does this look like?” This campaign was 1000% better for sharing that world building load, and the players were all, I think, more invested. 

more below the cut. 

What Worked

One of the most useful things I ever did was start giving players morality pet NPCs that were their special hench people, and I’m embarrassed that I waited so long to assign one to our droid. 

The zero session was absolutely invaluable in setting the tone of the game and the relationship between characters, and I will bang this drum until I’m fucking blue in the face. Don’t meet in the first session. Sit the players down and say “how do you know each other, why do you stay together, what are some of your past adventures?” It’s just so much better. 

Cameos and ties to our other games, in what we’ve been calling “The Drax Kreiger Expanded Universe” have continued to be welcome pretty much every time. People were delighted to have a moment or two to slip back into old characters. 

I was able to identify what each player wanted and give them that. Brick’s player wanted quiet scenes with big character emotion, like his one on one pit fight the character didn’t want to have, or the letter from his mother telling him how proud she was of him, or the time in training where he tapped into how angry he really was and it spooked the character and everyone on the ship. Nyla’s player wanted a big epic, but also difficult space journey of good vs. evil, and so Nyla got a padawan whose parents she had possibly killed when she fought for the empire, she dug up the grave of her clone teacher’s order 66′d jedi for the crystal for her lightsaber, she got to cleanse a temple that was trapped in a fruitless struggle between light and dark, and a climactic lightsaber battle that was about possibly sacrificing herself for the good of others. TK’s player was deep into star wars trivia and space stuff, so he practically squealed when Verpine shatter weapons showed up, and he seemed to get a kick out of the Evocii, and also that time they put on wing suits and dove the atmosphere of a gas giant. It’s worth noting nobody was actually all that interested in the thing that turns my gears: complex mysteries with a lot of clues and investigation, and once I let that shit drop, things ran a lot smoother. 

Some of our best stuff was non-combat challenges, like climbing the cliffs of Naboo or navigating the deep undercity of Nar Shadaa. The guys reliably failed anything social, but environmental challenges were always appreciated. 

I always tried to make sure there was more than one way to do things. For any given mission, especially early on, I’d try to brainstorm at least three ways something could be accomplished. 

My party split up a LOT, but we found a sort of cinematic cutting back and forth to be really useful. When there was a big crit, or a goal accomplished, or something like that, we’d jump to the other party even if the fight wasn’t over. Sometimes that was only just, like, Brick and the guys doing drunk karaoke and saying to no one in particular “MAN, I hope Nyla’s having as fun a time as we are!” but it kept everyone involved and it wasn’t just people waiting their turn for 20 minutes at a time. Also people chimed in with fun advantages and disadvantages. 

I had everybody write backstories and whenever I could, I incorporated in things from what they’d written. Our second season was basically TK tracking down the guy who’d made him, a Thackwash alien with the same sort of shifting personalities he had. TK’s player hadn’t written much about the guy except that he’d been a salvage mechanic who constructed TK for protection when he got in trouble with the local mafia. Giving that guy complementary personalities for each of TK’s really helped stick the landing on that one, and the player really enjoyed having actually completed his character’s goal. 

It’s worth saying, we took some time at several points during the campaign, either individually or as a group, to talk about what we liked and didn’t, what we wanted more of, where we wanted things to go, possible directions for characters, mechanical issues, how to have a better game, group dynamics, all sorts of stuff. In a way it’s like sex: people have this fucked up expectation that you’ll just be good at it without communicating, and man, fuck that. Talking to my players was ALWAYS worthwhile.

I was always adamant, because it was a thing that bugged me when I was a player, that if a character had spent the points to be good at something, they got to be good at it. That made some things difficult, but I think it was the right decision. It took me a while to tailor fights right, and honestly a lot of times, splitting up the party was the best way to balance fights, but I never said to anyone hey that thing you spent all those points on, could you please not do that?

My players were excellent about encouraging each other to have serious dramatic moments. TK was completely ready to die in a fight, and when he lost a significant chunk of his programming, the way he chose to play it was really heartbreaking. Everyone came inside and had tea with Brick’s mom. No one stepped on anyone else’s fun when it was time to be serious, and everybody was great about cheering each other on, whether they were being funny or being dead serious. 

I FUCKING FINISHED A CAMPAIGN. IT HAD AN END. So much stuff petered out over the years, I was adamant I wasn’t going to do that. 

What Didn’t Work

Boy, my players had pretty much all the trouble trying to remember to use “they/them” pronouns for NPCs with neutral or alien genders. 

No one is interested in falling damage. Sigh. 

I did not keep good track of money or ship fuel or anything. The campaign didn’t end up relying on it too heavily (I was honestly expecting a much more Cowboy Bebop setup than where we drifted), but that was an area I kind of fell down. 

We never really got obligation working correctly and in the end we just ended up abandoning it. We kept doing the force morality because the lone force player was very into it and it was a huge part of that character’s journey, but for the rest having people show up to collect on obligation was sometimes not possible in the story- or if it was possible it was pretty cumbersome. Campaign did obligation by arc, and I think that’s a pretty useful way to do it- roll at the end of the arc for what’s coming next. 

Early on, I made way too many assumptions about what was an adventure hook for my players and what was an annoyance. Honestly, bits of this lasted pretty late. At one point I gave my players a spy for the larger rebellion they could totally talk to- he was even working with their resident bothan spy- but they looked at the senatorial assassination he was doing and literally said at the table “I think it’s best if we just walk away from all this.” And so they did. Which was frustrating, but, you know, it is what it is. They also never much cared about the hutt gang war. 

I let a lot of things drop that I would have liked to bring back before the end, but in all honesty, I think we were all running a bit out of steam. I would have liked to put in Brick’s old mentor, or follow up with the imperial governor that was a falleen in a human skin suit, or see more of the bounty hunter’s guild, or have a nice end thing with our bothan spy, or any of that. But I do think it was time to end it. And we followed the threads people liked. 

I had way too many NPCS.

What sort of worked

I had like 200 npcs and they were not all bangers. In particular, I let the party design their own ship, which I wish had played a bigger role (though it did really set the tone), and I let them design 2 npc crew who would fill in any party roles they didn’t want to play and guard the ship so they could go on adventures without worrying about it. The devaronian scoundrel was with the party to the end though I never really got him to be more than a joke, but the bothan spy kind of fell off, and while she made some appearances, she didn’t really have as big an impact as I would have hoped. She kind of got replaced by Nyla’s padawan, a hench mon calamari called Nezrene, who was a better fit with the party. But, you know, players will do what they like.

Factions. In the first bit of the campaign, my factions were a fucking life saver, because I could design scenarios with a sort of “what is each faction doing/ which faction hurts from this, which benefits?” By the second season we’d kind of abandoned them to go to the core, and by the third my group was solidly rebel, so the hutts and bounty hunters fell a lot by the wayside. I still think having a couple of broad poles of power, and having the players know them and their leaders, is a good call. But they do seem to kind of organically pare down on their own, and it’s easy to get caught up too much in them. Useful sorta?

There was definitely a point where my players just were not challenged by conventional challenges. We ended up doing most of the later fights that involved a lot of minions in montage. I’d have them roll their fight skills unopposed, just to see if they got any interesting advantage/triumph set ups. I still had boss fights that were mostly challenging, but there just was no point in throwing storm troopers or low level gangsters at them. Not when they have soak 8 and autofire, and that one talent that lets you kill every minion in a combat. Designings fight got a bit tricky, and in those big high level combats, despairs and triumphs come up a lot more and really sway the fight, which I like, but also it’s very hard to plan for. 

Mass combat was tricky. I did a lot of it toward the end because my players were generals in a rebellion. I always had them do the rolls and some of the narration, but that wasn’t always enough to make them feel like things weren’t very arbitrary. 

I personally love the rule that if you roll a despair shooting into an engaged combat you shoot your friend. Nyla, who got shot twice this way, does not. 

We started the game with a tech character who dropped out. Toward the end, we picked up another tech character whose player couldn’t do their regular stuff because of covid lock down. Neither of these characters could fight at all, and both were very differently oriented than the rest of the party, and that was tricky to manage. Additionally, the dude coming in at the end had like a year and a half of in jokes he did not get and there were 200 goddamn npcs. I tried to give him the lowdown on what he might have heard about the party, but it was a combination of too much information and not that much player interest. He did get to break a star destroyer though, and I think he liked that. 

I offered players XP to write backstory stuff, and later goodbye notes others could find if they kicked it. Not all of them did. In the end it made a negligible difference, and I still think offering the bounties on this is basically a good idea. 

What I would do different next time.

Three ring binder that opens and closes so I could move fucking NPC stats around. I filled two goddamn school notebooks with notes for this campaign and there were so many goddamn times I was like “I KNOW I wrote this down, but where?!”

Players felt a bit aimless when they didn’t have a specific villain. I’d planted a few in, but they took finding, or they were too easy to avoid. Next time I would have a few more people who were actively on my player’s tails. 

I would keep better campaign notes and/or ask one of the players to do so. I used to do recaps for the games when I played Rek. There’s stuff I KNOW I’ve forgotten, and more I’ll forget as time goes on, which is a shame. It’s a weird, ephemeral medium, but possibly I’m just spoiled by living in an age of easy reproduction and enormous storage where data is concerned. 

Better book keeping in general, really. 

When I did a mystery short, I wrote up a list of all the clues people could find but not where specifically they were, so that I could just jam them anywhere they seemed like they’d make sense whenever a roll called for a player to find something. I think I’d try to do that with player’s personal stories so they could be woven in a little better. I did a lot of flying by the seat of my pants. 

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how it went, and I’m ready to get back to playing for a bit. I loved DMing, and I more or less DMed the game I would have liked to play, but man, doing this all the time, or being the only person who does it? After a while, that’d be a lot, and I’m looking forward to the break. 

#star wars edge of the empire #Edge of the Empire #tabletop rp #i dmed

[krinsbez]

My Transformers Fancon: Decepticon High Command, Part III

-Tarn of Nyon commands the Decepticon Secret Police, in charge of stomping out internal dissent, and personally leads the DSP's elite Justice Division, which hunts down and brutally kills defectors. As demonstrated by his renaming himself after Megatron's hometown and having his face remade into the Decepticon logo, no one is more loyal to Megatron and the Decepticon cause, not even Soundwave. For one, Soundwave justifies his loyalty by being deeply in denial about the monsters they've turned into, whereas Tarn has no such illusions, and is fanatically devoted anyways. Soundwave also has his own ambitions, whereas Tarn genuinely cares for nothing but seeing Megatron's will be done. Not having realized that Megatron views this slavish devotion with contempt, Tarn is completely baffled why Megatron values Soundwave more than him, and subsequently hates the Intelligence chief with the intensity of a supernova. The only person he hates more is Starscream, who routinely attempts to betray Megatron and yet somehow remains second-in-command. Depsite his attempts not to show his true feelings to his superiors, they're both well aware of it; Soundwave ignores it, except when he needs to manipulate the DSP commander, whereas Starscream finds Tarn's impotent rage hilarious and makes a point of provoking him for kicks. -Thunderwing of Iacon is the newest member of High Command. Powerful, skilled, brilliant and charismatic, he led his Mayhem Attack Squad to some of the Decepticons' greatest victories. He came up with Pretender shells (though the tech was perfected by Shockwave and Tarantulas). He has never shown the slightest hint of disloyalty. He is the only member of High Command that Megatron worries about; everyone else, Megs has a bead on, is totally confident he can take on, or both. Thunderwing, however, is a complete enigma, and is every bit as badass as Megatron. For this reason, Megatron took the unusual step of assigning one of the Megacons, Bludgeon, to serve under Thunderwing and thus keep an eye on him.

-Tyrannitron of the Sector 4/6.4-K Campaign is the youngest member of Decepticon High Command, having been born only a few million years ago (you can tell he's warborn because his name refers to his first battle rather than his place of birth). A brilliant strategist and tactician, and an equally adept personal manipulator, Tyrannitron is the commander of the Decepticon Battle Fleet. While he has shown himself quite capable of commanding troops in the field as he is ships in space, he ever commanded Vehicon drones planetside. This because, while a Point-One-Percenter like his parent Archforce (to whom he bears a striking resemblance) and thus able to punch far above his weight-class, he is a Mini-Con. Given the might-makes-right philosophy of the Decepticons, this would mean that, where he to lead ordinary troops, he would face constant challenges to prove his fitness to lead, which while he is confident of winning said challenges (again, Point-One-Percenter), he doesn't have the patience. On the upside, it also meant that, unlike, say, Thunderwing, he has managed to avoid setting off the suspicions of Megatron and his inner circle.

(thanks to @cirex101 for helping me with the next three)

Jhiaxus: Second best.  That is the phrase that most Decepticons, and even some Autobots, would describe Jhiaxus, a brilliant scientist.  Second best to Shockwave.  Jhiaxus knows this what his peers think of him, and it infuriates and drives him in equal measure.  In order to escape from under SHockwave's shadow he revolutionized the Decepticon's budding system, creating legions of warriors almost overnight.  However, these warrioers are little more than cheap cannon fodder for the Decepticon cause, and have a shorter life expectancy on the battlefield compared to the older Decpticon warriors, earning them the derisive nickname "Genericons".  At the urging of Shockwave, Megatron assigned the Genericon legions to mere garrison duties, or to throw them at Autobot defenses whenever Megatron needs to distract the Bots from his true objective.  This ignoble fate to what was once his crowning achievement only spurs Jhiaxus to improve upon his designs, upgrading the Genericons, an creating even more horrible monstrosities in his lab.

Currently, Jhiaxus is in command of ‘Con controlled Cybertron

Onslaught: A decorated veteran officer of the Primal Vanguard, Onslaught left that prestigious institution in defiance of Functionism's, and by extension, Senator Proteus', growing power on Cybertron.  Onslaught signed on with the Decepticon movement, and used his military knowhow to win several victories during the Functionist revolt.  Onslaught and his elite team, the Combaticons, were responsible for several daring raids into Autobot held territory, and gained a reputation for planning almost every outcome.  However, the old saying, "No plan survives contact with the enemy", rings true, and although he plans for almost anything, Onslaught cannot plan for every eventuality, and if enough things go wrong, will lose his cool and resort to simply blowing the slag out of the enemy.   This deficiency prevents Onslaught from moving up in the Decepticon Hierarchy, but he doesn't let it show on the surface, and is liable to kill anyone who attempts to taunt him. 

Razorclaw: While Onslaught plans ahead of the battle, Razorclaw makes his plans durring the middle of battle.  His ability to take the unexpected with a clear, cool head makes Razorclaw's Predacons one of the fiercest squads in the entire Decepticon war machine.  Emotionless almost to Shockwave's level, Razorclaw was a gladiator, but he and his team operated in Vos, and as such never met Megatron in the arena.  However, he had heard of Megatron, and pledged his loyalty to him at the onset of the Functionist Revolt, ruthlessly hunting down Proteus' supporters with a silent enthusiasm that was as unnerving as it was effective.   Razorclaw is straightforward, and doesn't seek advancment in the ranks, seemingly content in his current position.  Some see this as laziness, but if you look beneath his contentment, you will see that Razorclaw is one of the most dangerous Decepticons because of this; he cannot be bought, bribed, intimidated, cajoled, or manipulated.  All that matters to him is the hunt, and many an unfortunate Con that got on his badside became the prey. 

BTW, something I tried to indicate but I'm not sure came through. There were two kinds of gladiatorial combat on Cybertron prior to the Great War, Arena Games, which were legal, restricted to trained gladiators, and had strict rules to minimize lethality, and Pit Fights, which were illegal, anyone can have a go, and the only rules are to put on a good show and try not to kill the audience. Mind, given how much punishment TFs can take, Pit Fights aren't that much more brutal or lethal than Arena Games. The real appeal of the Pit Fights is in their unpredictability; you can see a master of Metallikato go up against some big guy with a rocket punch, see a Beast-former take on a Tank, or who knows what.

Anyways, Razorclaw was an Arena Gladiator, because (as SB and SV poster Q99 put it...)

Razorclaw is a smart fighter, and he loves outfighting his opponents. Arena Fighters are almost all trained combatants at the upper levels, of the type he loves defeating, so once he's in the upper ranks his foes are almost all high-quality... though still not a match for him. Pit Fighters, you're more likely to see foes rely on raw power or a gimmick, and while he respects the more skilled fighters there, he doesn't want to waste time with the 'chaff' who got in because they happen to be a tank or such, or deal with silly 'three lesser bots vs one champ' matches, and as pit fighters are less regimented even good fighters there spend more time dealing with that kind of thing.

Which adds a bit of tension because Megatron and half of High Command were Kaonian Pit Fighters, so naturally they're going to think poorly of a Vosian Arena Gladiator. BTW, speaking of raw power versus skill, I imagine that... -Megatron, of course, is both hella powerful and crazy skilled

-Thunderwing is as well.

-Shockwave is actually a terrible fighter but makes up for her lack of skill with raw power.

-Starscream is the opposite; physically the weakest member of High Command, but makes up for it with skill.

-Scorponok is a beast, and he's got raw talent at fighting, but has no polish or finesse.

-Cryotek's strong, and used to be a good fighter, but he's rusty.

-Soundwave is a good mix of power and skill.

-Tyrannitron is similar, but has a fondness for trickery, head games, and such.

-Tarn is just this side of invincible, but finds brute force distasteful.

(the next three are thanks to @cirex101 again)

-Jhiaxus is unskilled, makes up for it with power, but not to the same extant as Shockwave.

-Onslaught has strength, but finesse he saves for his strategies.

-Razorclaw is both skilled and strong, but not to the same extant as Megatron, or Thunderwing.

-Dirt Boss was a scrappy little guy who always preferred to cheat. This may be one of the reasons he's dead.

Now I know what you’re thinking; Dirt Boss? You didn’t mention Dirt Boss. That’s because he’s dead, having been killed by Prowl. Before that, Dirt Boss was commander of the Combat Engineering Corps, and a member of Megatron's inner circle. Since his death, the Constructicons have resisted any attempt to appoint a permanent replacement and instead take turns holding the office. Megatron is not happy about this, but is unwilling to make an issue of it.

A few bits and bobs about Deception High Command:

-The Megacons are not technically members of High Command, but as Megatron's personal goon squad, each member holds comparable authority. In addition to the original line-up (sans Bludgeon) of Airachnid, Blackout, Thunderblast, and Lugnut, they've since added Lugnut's lover Strika, her conjunx Obsidian, and Megatron's personal medic, Scalpel. -A personality conflict I neglected to mention; while she doesn't act on it, Shockwave really doesn't like Cryotek, for reasons that should be obvious. -I haven't figured out what Tarn did before the War; I can't decide if he was also a Pit Fighter or if he did something else. What do you guys think?

-In addition to Shockwave and Tarantulas, a surprising number of the top Decepticons have science backgrounds (thanks to SVer KageX)

For Starscream since he was leader of the Exploration Corps perhaps his expertise lies not in the lab developing new weapons but in "surveying" areas and coming up with ways to exploit resources as well as how to survive in them. Think of the difference between a Geologist and a Chemist. Yes there is some overlap, but they focus on different areas of application. Starscream focuses on planning "field operations" and harvesting resources in his area of scientific expertise. He would know how to fix a shuttle, but it would not be his area of expertise, just something he picked up along the way as he was exploring distant areas of the universe. It would also explain his slippery nature, as this job would likely involve meeting with and negotiating with Alien Races. So Starscream became quite good at "negotiations" and other political endeavors.

- Shockwave is a polymath who is a master of all fields of hard science. Jhiaxus is more specialized; he does cybergenetics, mechanobiology, electronics, etc. but if you ask him about astrophysics or climatology, he's got nothing. Scorponok is interested in organic biology, but doesn't advertise this, since your average 'Con is at best apathetic about organics, and many actively hate 'em. Thunderwing is a dabbler; he reads scientific journals*, and will periodically come up with a clever idea, but doesn't really pursue the sciences.

-How Thunderwing came up with Pretender Shells: after conquering a particular planet, he made a point of studying their tech base, realized that some of their tech could be combined with Cybertronian tech to do something interesting, and sent Shockwave a memo. Shockwave agreed he was onto something, and she and Tarantulas made something out of it.

#Headcanon #Headcanons #Fanfic #Transformers #Transformers Headcanon #Transformers Headcanons #Transformers Fanfic #My Transformers Fancon #My Transformers Fancon: Decepticon High Command #My Transformers Fancon: Decepticon High Command Part III #My Transformers Fancon: Decepticon High Command III #Decepticon High Command #Decepticons #Tarn #Thunderwing #Razorclaw #Onslaught #Jhiaxus #Tyrannitron #Who in case you can't tell is supposed to be #Beast Megatron

[globebusinesscenter]

The best retro gaming consoles of all time

Modern video games and devices provide a storytelling experience that rivals the blockbuster Hollywood movies, but also requires a heavy commitment to your playing time. 

Retro gaming consoles

Sometimes you just want to jump into the action, and your favorite 8 and 16-bit games from last year are perfect for that. Retro games are more popular than ever, and finding the perfect old gaming gear can be a daunting task. So we did the work for you.

Whether you're a kid of the 1980s playing classic titles for decades and owning a mountain of old cartridges (and a hard drive full of ROM) or a teen curious to find out why so many people love the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, this guide will help you find the best way. To immerse yourself in old games.

Purchase forecasts for the remainder of 2020: While manufacturing and shipping delays that slowed deployments of new devices in 2020 continue into 2021, long-awaited older device releases like Analogue's Pocket and Panic's Playdate are on the way. Still in months. 

Small businesses, many of which are located in China, are always releasing cool old laptops, including the new Anbernic-inspired RG280V. One of the hottest elements for this Christmas is also a Nintendo renaissance and watch, but availability will be very limited and dedicated to Super Mario Bros fans.

The Best Portable Console for Experienced Retro Gamers

Anbernic RG350P

Just a few years ago, portable emulators made by former Chinese gaming fans were good, but not very good, and lacked the quality you'll find with big-company devices. This is no longer the case. The Annbernic RG350P looks solid like the Nintendo Switch, but instead of cartridges, it plays games using ROMs stored on microSD cards, for consoles such as various Game Boys, NES, SNES, the Sega system. 

Master, the original Sony PlayStation Genesis, and even older PCs. Like the Commodore 64. At around $ 88, it is also priced right for its capabilities but just be prepared for some forum research and tutorials when it comes to installing new emulators or making new ones. software updates, as the RG350P is designed for those more tech-savvy.

The RK2020

The price of the RK2020 is the same as that of the RG350P, it features a screen with remarkable accuracy, provides decent control, and a faster processor that allows it to play a large number of games from more powerful 3D consoles, including the N64. And Sega Dreamcast. The single analog stick makes playing PS1 games difficult (but not impossible), although the level of technical skill required to simply copy ROM files to its Linux formatted memory card makes the RK2020 much more difficult to operate. 

Instead of giving players a classic version of the Game Boy, Nintendo celebrated Mario's 35th birthday this year with the relaunch of its old school console Game & Watch that defined handheld games in the 1980s. New Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. Includes the original NES version of Super Mario Bros. 

Its sequel, plus a classic G&W game called Ball, test the magic of Mario and Luigi. However, it is only available in limited quantities and $ 50 is very expensive for only three old games. Alternatively, consider the new Anbernic 280V retro. It puts electronic components for the RG350P in a compact, pocket-friendly device. 

The two RG350P analog controllers are sacrificed in the process, however, which means that the RG280V is more suitable for playing games from the 16-bit era onwards. At roughly $ 85, it's more expensive than Nintendo's new Game & Watch, but it can also play thousands of old games, not just three.

The Best Portable Console for Casual Retro Gamers

Evercade

Unlike the RG350P and RK2020, Evercade does not require users to provide their own games. Its creators worked on licensing official games from the original publishers to create a thematic cartridge bundle each containing multiple games. 

There are over 120 games available for Evercade right now, and more are on the way, and for $ 100 you can turn off the handheld console itself and three game-filled vehicles to get you started. This approach means that Evercade doesn't rely on emulators, so every game works just like in the original system, with no slowdowns or audio out-of-sync issues.

Analogue Pocket

Until the Analogue Pocket officially arrives in May 2021, there aren't many portable console options that could run the original game carts if you still had your original kit on hand. But the $ 80 My Arcade Retro Champ can power the original 8-bit NES and Famicom game cartridges if you're okay with a portable console that's too big for a pocket. 

My Arcade has also revealed a follow-up, Super Retro Champ at CES 2020 that can power the original Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis cartridges but is currently another victim of manufacturing delays linked to the pandemic.

Super Impulse's Micro Arcade

If the size is an issue, Super Impulse's Micro Arcade line puts classic games like Pac-Man, Tetris, Dig Dug, Galaga, Oregon Trail, and Qbert into handheld devices the size of a credit card with the price tag. ranges from $ 20 to $ 25 depending on how many games are included in each one. Designed by the same engineer who created open-source Arduboy: 

The credit card-sized Game Boy lets anyone program and creates their own games. With a black-and-white OLED display, Arduboy games are as simple as old games can get, and while you won't find any A-list titles available for credit card-sized mobile devices (which whether the clone of Tetris or Space Invaders), all games are available.

Retro gaming

Currently completely free. You can get a version of Arduboy that lets you download one game at a time for $ 29, or wait until fall 2020 to get the new Arduboy FX at $ 49, which includes additional memory that can hold around 200 games at a time. times.

Many retro pocket players believe the genre has been mastered with the original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and various iterations of the Game Boy Advance. If you prefer to stick with what you know, companies like Retro Modding can create a custom version of the popular Nintendo laptop for you using a mix of legacy hardware (original motherboards) and the latest parts including rechargeable batteries, backlit LCD screens, and more powerful speakers. Colorful buttons and bags that match the originals or feature more elaborate designs. 

Custom versions can set you back up to $ 500 if you choose to upgrade every last component and it often takes a few weeks to build, but if you're sad the original Game Boys won't work anymore, replacing the rebuild is the best thing you do.

Alternatively, with more than 55 million consoles sold so far, there's a good chance you'll have a Nintendo Switch or Switch Lite at home. The cartridge slot won't accept older Game Boy games - a feature Nintendo has included in their latest mobile devices for a while - but if you're paying for the Nintendo Switch Online service ($ 3 a month or $ 20 a month). A), you might not realize it. 

Two free apps you can download that gives you access to a library of over 60 classic NES and SNES games, with Nintendo being added to the library every few months. This makes playing the classic 8 and 16-bit Nintendo games very easy and the simulation is perfect, but access is only granted as long as you pay for the Switch online service.

The Best Console for Retro Gamers

Analogue Super Nt

In just a few years, Analogue has made a name for itself as the best possible solution for playing old original game cartridges on modern TVs. Instead of relying on software emulators that can be buggy with a performance that varies from game to game, Analogue's 16-bit Super Nt uses a custom FPGA chip that perfectly emulates Super Nintendo hardware. origin. 

Every game works flawlessly and the console includes an HDMI connection and countless options to customize the look of games on a giant screen so you can get as close as possible to recreating your childhood gaming experience. At $ 180, the Super Nt doesn't come cheap, but the bigger problem is that Analogue only produces its material in small batches, so you might have to wait a bit before Super Nt is back in. stock.

Analogue Mega Sg

Everything we said about Analogue Super Nt applies to the Mega Sg, except instead of playing original Super Nintendo cartridges, the Mega Sg plays 16-bit Sega Genesis games, 8-bit Sega Master games, Game Gear (with the correct cartridge adapter), and even Sega games Perfectly CD, no lag, no frame drop and, most importantly, no audio sync issues that have plagued Sega emulators for years. Analogue currently has a Mega Sg in stock for $ 190, but don't drag your feet as the company's equipment often sells out quickly and takes time to restock.

Also Consider

Analog Mega Sg can run original cartridges from over a decade of Sega controllers, but Analog Super Nt is only SNES. If you also have a set of NES cartridges, you will need to look for the $ 500 Analogue Nt or the latest $ 500 Nt mini Analogue Nt which is currently out of stock Analogue itself but appears occasionally on eBay.

 If you are looking for a cheaper solution and don't necessarily care about being able to power your old cartridges, Nintendo fans should definitely consider the $ 80 Super Nintendo Classic Edition that comes with 20 classic SNES 16-bit games and two. Matching consoles, or the classic $ 60 NES Edition that includes 30 8-bit games and a pair of old gamepads, but finding either might be a challenge now because Nintendo no longer produces the classic releases. 

Retro gaming

However, Sega fans should have an easier time finding the $ 80 Sega Genesis Mini, which includes an impressive list of 42 built-in 16-bit games running from the polished Genesis emulator, while native PS1 fans can also grab the thumbnail. PlayStation Classic in one game, for $ 100, includes 20 games and a pair of consoles - although you don't get the enhanced DualShock option with an analog joystick side by side.

It's not hard to find an online tutorial on how to turn a Raspberry Pi into an old simulation game box. We made one with a Raspberry Pi 3, and the new Raspberry Pi 4 is a more powerful solution, and a good deal starting at just $ 35. If the DIY approach sounds too intimidating, there are some pre-built Raspberry Pi based controllers as well. 

Allcade Itty Bitty smartphones look like regular NES, SNES, and N64 cartridges, but they're standalone controllers with USB power and HDMI connections hidden inside. 8-bit Allcade at $ 149 and 16-bit Allcade at $ 169 and $ 199 for 64-bit Allcade, each of which comes with a matching legacy controller and the ability to easily mount ROMs using a USB drive.

The best retro gaming consoles of all time Gaming via exercisesfatburnig.blogspot.com https://ift.tt/354fgnW

#Gaming

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Royal Caribbean is making a big bet on technology

For the last few years, Royal Caribbean (RCL) has been on an almost maniacal push to turn its cruise ships into technology showpieces. Most of the developments are one-off technologies, massively expensive and time-consuming to develop and debug: robot bartenders, battery-powered bumper cars, a dedicated satellite for providing internet service, and so on.

Royal Caribbean is making a big bet on technology.

I now realize, of course, that they’re installing all of this tech for some perfectly self-interested reasons. One, of course, is to differentiate this cruise line from it rivals. Another is to keep the passengers entertained and having a good time. (The novelty of some of these features wears off quickly—but since you’re on board for only a few days, you don’t care.)

Last month, at an event called Sea Beyond, the company unveiled a showcase of the next technologies it’s developing. About a thousand journalists and travel agents toured these prototypes at the Brooklyn Navy Yards. I was among the invited, since—full disclosure—I had served as the emcee for the launch of an earlier RC ship in 2015.

Here’s what you have to look forward to—or maybe not.

Automated checkin with face recognition

As anyone who’s taken a cruise can tell you, the boarding process doesn’t get your vacation off to a great start. You’re herded into this huge hangar-like processing center at the port, and you wait in long lines dragging your luggage and children, so that you can reach a desk to get your photo taken and your room key issued.

RC’s existing boarding process is more efficient, because you can check yourself in and take your own photo at home, using the company’s app. But starting next year, the company hopes, things will be even quicker: You’ll simply stride onto the ship. Face recognition cameras will identify you (based on a photo you uploaded in the app), and a screen will welcome you by name as you walk through the metal detector.

They had the system working as we entered the Navy Yards building.

As you walk through security, a face-recognition camera checks you in instantly.

At the moment, it’s a purely optical system—there’s no 3-D modeling of your face, as there is on the iPhone X—so in theory, some evildoer could fool it with a photo. (But why would they bother? The minute the real you showed up, the system would flag you as already having checked in, and security would straighten it out.)

Drinks anywhere

At the event, you could order free drinks from the app—wherever you happened to be in the building. The waiters could find you, bearing your drink, thanks to GPS-like screens built into their serving trays, showing your current location and your face.

It worked great, even when I tried to fool my waiter by dashing into a different room when I saw him coming. Twice.

You order drinks from an app, wherever you happen to be on the ship; the waiter can hunt you down, thanks to a screen on his tray.

The system relies on Bluetooth beacons throughout the space; eventually, they’ll be installed on the ships themselves. Everybody wins: You don’t stand in lines, and the cruise line sells more drinks (because people don’t have to stand in line).

I interviewed Joey Hasty, a former Disney Imagineer who now leads RC’s innovation lab in Miami. Aren’t there some passengers who’ll find all of this tracking and facial scanning a little creepy?

“You can always opt out,” he replied. “If you really want to, the line will always be there.”

VR dining

By far the weirdest new technology on display is something they call virtual-reality dining.

I went into the mockup restaurant without having any idea what that meant. I sat down at a long table and put on HTC Vive virtual-reality goggles.

A weird way to eat.

What I saw inside the goggles was the inside of a Japanese tea house with traditionally decorated paper walls. A soothing female voice in the headphones explained that I was about to be transported.

In front of me, a waiter set down a tray containing three morsels of food. It was basically sushi, but I didn’t know that; all I could see was three glowing, sparkly colorful orbs—and my own hands, represented as silhouettes.

When the soothing voice gave me the go-ahead, I picked up the first orb and popped it into my mouth. At that moment, the music changed (the tray had sensors that knew when the bite was gone), and the walls of the tea room flew away in animated fragments, revealing that I was now in a cherry-blossom garden.

In this shot, the walls are in the middle of turning into birds that fly away, revealing a garden.

The same thing happened with each of the other two bites: the scenery and the music would change. Lighting, weather, locale.

My first thought was, “Man, this is weird.” And what does it get you? It isolates you from your dining companions. Furthermore, how food looks is an essential part of how it tastes; now you can’t see your food.

“It turns out that all of our senses are processed by the same part of our brain,” Hasty explained, “so it’s possible for us to use the visuals and the audio to hack and hijack your senses, to heighten the dining experience.” And I have to admit that that’s true: At this moment, I remember each of those three bites incredibly vividly (but weirdly).

“It might not ever make the best seven-course meal,” Hasty says, “but we think it can make an amazing dessert bar, for instance.”

Stateroom of the future

On RC’s existing Quantum-class ships, they’ve done something clever with interior cabins (the cheap ones that don’t have windows): Where the window would be, they’ve installed a floor-to-ceiling LCD screen. It displays whatever you would see if you had a window, thanks to a camera feed from outside the ship. In that way, it doesn’t feel so isolated from the real world.

But at the Sea Beyond event, a much more advanced stateroom concept was on display.

“As our ships get bigger and bigger and bigger, you start to be removed a little bit more and more from the ocean and the ports of call,” Hasty told me. “We believe the stateroom should connect you more with the ocean and our ports of call. And so we’re experimenting with ways to bring that outside in.”

The entire ceiling is a giant 4K OLED screen. There’s a foot-wide “river” winding its way across the floor—also an OLED screen. Two large “windows” on either wall are—that’s right—OLED screens, too.

All of these screens are synchronized so that they show different angles of the same scene. They can show, for example, the current conditions outside the ship. “We mirror exactly what you see outside, using 4K cameras. But since we can show you what’s really out there, we thought, ‘What if we could take you to fantastical places?’ Or maybe you wanted better weather or a sunset, a different time of day. So we let our guests control those scenes. With the tap of a button, you can turn daytime into a sunset, or the room can help you fall asleep by creating a canopy of stars.”

The prototype stateroom is filled with 4K OLED screens that transport you to different times, weathers, and places.

I tried out the sunset scene, the tropical rainforest scene, and the starry-night scene, complete with shooting stars. All of those screens, combined with a matching soundtrack, created truly transporting moments.

And the Misc.

Some of the other tech on display included:

Self-unlocking staterooms. The staterooms on display didn’t require a key or a wristband; if you have a smartphone, the door unlocks automatically when you approach. The lights come on, too.

Interior consumer tech. Inside, every room has an Apple (AAPL) TV (they’ve figure out how to auto-wipe the Apple TV after you leave, so that the next guest can log in with his own account). And Microsoft’s (MSFT) Cortana is always ready, so that you can adjust the temperature, the lighting, or the curtains with voice commands.

AR captain’s view. Ordinarily, when the captain is operating in fog or dark, he uses a radar screen to see what hazards are around the ship. But we also saw a mockup of a new pilot’s station, where a huge screen displayed an augmented-reality view of the channel and the buoys that would ordinarily be obscured.

AR posters. On one wall of the event space, RC had set up what looked like movie posters—but if you looked at them through the app on your phone, they became simple animated games.

Fuel cell demo. The cruise line will join Viking Cruise Lines and others in introducing fuel cells to power its ships. Fuel cells convert hydrogen directly into heat and water, producing no exhaust of any other kind; they’re 80% efficient, versus less than 50 for today’s diesel engines.

Sailing soon

 “I thought about Sea Beyond as a giant play test,” Hasty told me. “We got to put that experience in front of 1,000 people and see how people reacted.” He says that of these technologies will be on the company’s next-generation ships, called Edge (now under construction in France); and some will be retrofitted onto existing ships.

But isn’t it possible, I asked Hasty, that all of this technology risks killing the seafaring adventure of being on a ship at sea in the first place—the escape of it all?

“You know, I don’t think so,” he replied. “When we ask our guests what they really want from a vacation, they want more time with their family, they want more time for fun. No one says, ‘I want to spend an hour checking in,’ or ‘I want to wait in line at the bar for a drink.’ We talk a lot about giving you back that first day, that you sort of have to give up to get there. And we’re using technology to make that happen.”

More from David Pogue:

Battle of the 4K streaming boxes: Apple, Google, Amazon, and Roku

iPhone X review: Gorgeous, pricey, and worth it

Inside the Amazon company that’s even bigger than Amazon

The $50 Google Home Mini vs. the $50 Amazon Echo Dot — who wins?

The Fitbit Ionic doesn’t quite deserve the term ‘smartwatch’

Augmented reality? Pogue checks out 7 of the first iPhone AR apps 

David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, is the author of “iPhone: The Missing Manual.” He welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here, or you can sign up to get his columns by email. 

#Pogue #David Pogue #_lmsid:a077000000BAh3wAAD #$rcl #_revsp:yahoofinance.com #$MSFT #$AAPL #_author:David Pogue #_uuid:c46eed5d-5174-3846-9081-29f0b5c5b2eb

[idonotknowhowtoo-blog]

How to make and lose $2b on blockchain

Now, some experienced tech and green-industry figures are positioning an uncomfortable question: does Power Journal epitomise the over-hyping of blockchain?

"I'm a software application engineer by training, have been mucking about online for 35-plus years and am an energy geek," states Melbourne green-energy investor Simon Holmes a Court. "I still do not comprehend what important problem they are attempting to fix.

"The basic facilities to handle transactions at enormous scale already exists-- [there's] no requirement to use Blockchain."

Blockchain, which is the basis for Bitcoin and comparable currencies, was developed in 2008 by an unidentified individual. In spite of billions purchased the technology, it is uncertain if there are any successful blockchain services not directly involved in cryptocurrencies.

"We've seen a bunch of rewarding blockchain applications, however all have actually been concentrated on acquiring and trading crypto and their profitability is generally linked to costs-- believe miners, exchanges and wallet companies," states John Henderson, an endeavor capitalist at AirTree Ventures.The blockchain frenzy"Blockchain has been seen

as a nirvana-- its ideological roots are decentralisation and elimination of institutions," states Peter Williams, a partner at Deloitte Consulting who specialises in technology. "The zealots enjoy self-sovereign ID, everything decentralised and completion of institutions."

Last year, the blockchain enthusiasm drove an international investment wave. Some 1225 initial coin offerings, the blockchain-equivalent of IPOs or sharemarket floats, raised $US7.5 billion through the sale of blockchain tokens or coins, much of it from private investors, according to the ICO Data site. The technology was anticipated to change dozens of markets, from shipping to healthcare.In Australia, Green

was at the leading edge of the motion. Her company promised to use blockchain's anti-authority values to challenging huge electricity monopolies. @elonmusk I am told you may be thinking about us at @PowerLedger_io we do blockchain energy for democratisation of power & resident utilies-- Dr Jemma Green(@msjemmagreen)Green had been in London for 11 years. After starting as a trading assistant at the

Royal Bank of Scotland, she signed up with JP Morgan, where she evaluated the environmental and social threat of brand-new loans and shares.Going places in Perth In 2013 she returned to Perth, where her father had bred and trained racehorses.

She began to ascend the city's company and social hierarchy.Green registered in a PhD at Curtin University, consulted under the brand name The Green Enterprise, and ran for the City of Perth

council. She signed up with the board of advisers of One Million Women, a female environment modification group based in Sydney.Within four years she was deputy mayor and head of one of the Perth's most popular start-ups. She was tweeting Elon Musk, attempting to get him interested.(He didn't respond.

)"The motto that I live by is' anything's possible'," she said at the time.Why @elonmusk Has His Eye On This Aussie #Blockchain #Energy Company #ICO #POWRtoken-- Crypto Expert 2018 (@ICO_Market_Guru)

Green had hatched a plan worthy of her motto: capitalize the bitcoin boom by developing one billion virtual-currency tokens.

Her pitch was practically difficult for outsiders to understand. The aspiration was unmistakable.

"The Power Ledger Platform is a trustless, transparent and interoperable energy trading platform that supports an ever-expanding suite of energy applications, with an exchangeable smooth energy trading token, Sparkz," Power Journal's 28-page business manifesto said.Sounds like an IPO

It seemed like an IPO

. It wasn't. Instead, the tokens provided investors the right to utilize Power Journal's innovation at some time in the future. The weren't entitled to any profits.In Power Journal's market individuals utilize blockchain tokens to purchase and sell electricity produced from photovoltaic panels. Vicky Hughson A lot of business raising capital usage stockbrokers or lenders. Power Ledger relied on what are known in the blockchain world as"bounty hunters". One-and-a-half million POWR tokens were set aside for people to promote the sale on social networks. Lots of paper and blog articles were published. The Huffington Post profiled the business and compared blockchain with the early internet. Articles overemphasized Power Ledger's achievements. The company was often referred to as running a retail electrical energy market, and sounded

liked an eBay or Amazon for solar power. In truth, it was developing the innovation and didn't have an industrial market operating.Twitter was flooded with posts. Some claimed Musk had actually asked the company for recommendations. Fake accounts were rewarded with POWR tokens for their marketing work."A few of our bounty group were professional bounty hunters chasing after tokens because it's what they do,"Power Journal said in a post a few weeks after the token sale."Some were bots reporting an astounding 5000 similarity our social media output in a single 24-hour duration."Openness required The Australian Securities and Investments Commission disapproves of individuals

spruiking financial investments without divulging their interest." Definitely in my view it is not great practice for people to be promoting ICOs and getting an advantage if they are not transparent about the advantages they are getting,"states John Price, an ASIC commissioner.Peter Williams, the Deloitte partner, goes further. These are "timeless market adjustment techniques,"he says. Some experienced tech and green-industry figures are posturing an awkward concern: does Power Ledger epitomise the over-hyping of blockchain? Asked why Power Ledger utilized fugitive hunter, Green states she isn't knowledgeable about the phrase."I do not understand what you are talking about," she says.Later, in an email, Greens says Power Journal, unlike some other blockchain business, works difficult to be transparent." We ran the ICO through a business structure, through our proprietary restricted company,"she states." We have tax

direct exposure. We had an evidence of principle before going to market. And we did all of those things because we realise we need to bring legitimacy to our area and the ICO and crypto space more generally."Perfect timing In almost ideal timing, Power Journal raised$34 million a couple of months prior to bitcoin peaked. No other Australian blockchain company was as popular.Initially, the tokens were an excellent investment. Sold by Power Ledger for US8.38 cents each, within 5 weeks they were trading at

$US1.79. In a year and half, a company with fewer than 30 staff had actually produced$2.4 billion in wealth.Tokens designated to Green, other private financiers and crucial staff deserved$

360 million. The previous traders 'assistant had been struck by what is known in the tech circles as the"loan truck ". Green ended up being an authentic tech celebrity. She showed up at the World Economic Forum in Davos to assist launch the Worldwide Blockchain Company Council. EY called Green as one of its business owners of the year.The accounting firm had fast-tracked her through the process. Competitors in other classifications were required to go through applications, interviews, discussions over numerous months. Green's name was just forwarded

to the judges with a few others.A market that doesn't exist The adulation was based upon Power Ledger's home-to-home trading idea, which it states is "best for any family, office or merchant linked to the electricity grid ". Blockchain CEO David Martin with chairman Jemma

Green at their Perth workplace. The business provided blockchain tokens worth$2.4 billion at their peak. Trevor Collens But the system does not operate outside a couple of pre-established trials that cover a tiny variety of people.

The low-cost of electrical energy, the ubiquity of supply and efficient exiting payment systems position significant obstacles, critics say.There is no other way to sign up to Power Ledger's tradingsystem. Electrical energy business are required-- the Power Journal site advises consumers to lobby them-- however Origin Energy carried out a simulation and chose not to go ahead.Asked how numerous buildings all over the world usage Power Journal's system, Green states, "I don't understand precisely off the top of my head". Her CEO, David Martin, states the number is less than 100. All are trial sites, other than for three Perth apartment that were part of Green's PhD thesis."We have never ever said that anyone can get on and begin trading,"she says.Uneconomic trading The government has actually provided $2.6 million to evaluate the system out on some 40 homes in Fremantle. The job is billed as the very first electricity market where homeowners can set their own rates. It is a possibility for Power Journal to satisfy its core promise to produce higher rates for solar power manufacturers and lower rates for consumers-- the timeless example of an efficient market.One participant, who asked not to be named, says the trading system isn't worth using. A former manager in the energy market, she her own photovoltaic panels and electrical automobile. She offers electrical energy to the grid for 7 cents per kilowatt, and buys it for 26 cents per kilowatt. Using Power Journal, she anticipated to trade electricity with her neighbours in between 7 cents and 26 cents, conserving both sides loan. Power Journal takes a cut of about half a cent a kilowatt.But the local electricity merchant and power grid, Synergy and Western Power, charge a connection cost of$3 a day to

trial individuals. The overhead makes trading uneconomic for her.Initially, the tokens were a terrific financial investment. Offered by Power Ledger for US8.38 cents each, within five weeks they were trading at$US1.79. In a year and half, a business with less than 30 personnel had developed $2.4 billion in wealth.

"I was rather disappointed due to the fact that I discover the concept of energy trading extremely exiting and I actually desired to try out it, "she says.The project's manager, Karla Fox-Reynolds of Curtin University, says other homes

are purchasing and selling."They are feeling empowered and enabled to take part in the energy market," she states. The task is advertising for more recruits.' The road is not always straight

'Any criticism about Power Ledger's small take-up rate is unreasonable, Green says, because it is such a young business."The road is not always straight," she says."I believe the worth of it over time will be countless.

"Even some blockchain boosters are sceptical. Fred Schebesta, who owns a cryptocurrency broker, says he can't see what would drive the token cost up.

"I believe that they will need millions or numerous thousands [of clients] to be feasible or truly remove," he says. "The worth of the token holders is not well aligned to the value of business. "Now the bitcoin boom appears to have passed, lots of tech market leaders are questioning if the ICOs were an investment fad that shifted wealth rather than produced it." The ICO trend is and was way even worse than the dot-com boom, where capital raised was at least a share of the advantage and was subject to policy," states Williams, the Deloitte partner.After stunningly peaking in January, POWR tokens crashed with the remainder of the bitcoin market. Today they trade around 6.5 cents, about 20 per cent below their concern price.Skeptics question if blockchain is needed in the retail electrical energy market, where huge networks have scale, ubiquity and easy payment options. Provided The company continues to reward bloggers who promote the virtual currency. One of the boosters is a price-comparison site, Finder.com.au, which purchases cryptocurrencies."Power Ledger is an enthusiastic task but one that nonetheless has the potential to change the energy market all over the world,"among the website's contributors, Tim Falk, wrote last month.Falk, who recently blogged about 2018's leading carpet cleaners, has punted on POWR tokens himself. Share

[attendantdesign-blog]

New Post has been published on Attendantdesign

New Post has been published on https://attendantdesign.com/bsnl-unveils-new-double-data-talk-time-roaming/

BSNL Unveils New Double Data, Talk Time, Roaming

Ever on account that Reliance Jio has entered the enterprize, non-public telecom operators like Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea have reduced their records prices and brought money making offers often to preserve its customer base from migrating. State run BSNL has also been doing the equal, and on the very second, the telecom company has a bunch of gives for its subscribers due to Independence Day, Onam, and more.

As a part of its Independence Day offers, BSNL has announced full talk-time on less expensive recharges like Rs. 20, Rs. 40, Rs. 60, and Rs. Eighty. The Rs. 120, Rs. 160, and Rs. 220 recharges will offer Rs. One hundred thirty, Rs. A hundred and eighty, and Rs. 220 speak-time respectively.

The popularity of promotional gadgets comes on the back of electronic items enjoying a peak in their image.

Gone are the days when anyone with the latest gizmo was derided for being a geek, and now the latest “must have” gadgets have people queuing outside shops at midnight so that they can be among the first to get their hands on the newest release.

Promotional gadgets appeal to both recipients and companies because they provide practical and stylish items for businesses to display their brand on and for the recipient’s to be seen with. Promotional gadgets are riding a wave of popularity at the moment, just take a look around you the next time you’re on the train and see how many people are plugged into the latest hi-tech release. But what would you do if your gadgets were taken away from you? Would you be lost without the gadgets that have become such an important part of everyday life?

It’s easy to think that you wouldn’t miss them for a second, but when you think about it electronic gadgets have almost taken over every minute of our lives. From the moment the alarm on your phone wakes you up in the morning to checking your Facebook on an app before you go to bed, gadgets have become more and more important in everyday life.

So if we all experienced a Life On Mars style plunge back into the seventies, what would life be like?

Well, sales of alarm clocks Double  would spike as all of us who rely  BSNL  on our phones to wake us up in the morning would Roaming 

soon need to find a replacement. Want to find out what the scores were last night while you’re eating your breakfast? Well, there’s no longer an app for that and there’s no internet so it’s Teletext or bust if you want to find out the state of the league table.

Now, getting to work. There’s no website to check when the next bus or train is so it’s into the drawer to find out the paper timetable you’ve been holding on to for emergencies. Now you’re on your way to work and of course, there’s no E-Reader so you have to stop off at the newsagents for a newspaper or a real book made of paper for a bit of light entertainment on the way into work.

Once you’re on the train there are no laptops anymore so no chance of finishing that report that absolutely had to be done for Monday morning. And of course, there is a leaf on the line, forcing your train to make one of those oh so amusing unscheduled stops in the middle of nowhere. Time to phone into work to tell them you’re running late, but of course, no mobile phones.

Once you get moving again you decide you want to listen to some music, so time to crack out the MP3 play….oh yes, no gadgets. This is also the seventies so not even the trusty Walkman has arrived on the scene yet, so humming will have to suffice.

When you eventually get off the train to the relief of your fellow passengers who got sick of you humming a long time ago you make the last dash into work, 45 minutes late. Not only are you late but you haven’t finished the report you were meant to have done by this morning so you know you are in trouble with the boss. Only your work in internet marketing and you get to the office to find that no internet means that you have no job.

When you get a glimpse of what life without our electronic devices would be like, you realize the power that promotional gadgets can have. Gadgets are not only fashionable, they are everywhere and the right promotional gadgets with your brand on them can gain you maximum visibility and instant cool points. Make sure you consider promotional gadgets the next time you need to use business gifts to enhance your profile.

Alan writes articles on issues surrounding the business

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5264491. However, that has been doubled to 2GB for now. Similarly, Rs. 198 plan that offered 1GB of records for 28 days will now offer 2GB of information. The Rs. 291 plan will now offer double statistics at four.4GB, and the Rs. 561 plan will now offer 10GB of facts with a validity of 60 days. All of these gives will last until August 20 and are relevant for pay as you go subscribers handiest.

These blessings and all other voice/SMS, Special Tariff Voucher (STV) and Combo Voucher advantages through different plans are applicable to the user even if they are on countrywide roaming shifting forward. This changed into also introduced through BSNL as part of its Independence Day offers, and went into effect on August 15 in all areas where BSNL operates. R.K.Mittal, Director (CM) BSNL Board said in a statement, “Armed force employees, specialists, enterprize character, and students all get more advantage from this scheme.”

Separately, a confined period provider to have a good time Onam has also been launched. This plan is known as the Onam Plan and it’s far applicable handiest for Kerala subscribers. The plan is priced at Rs. Forty-four and gives 500MB information blessings, 5 paise according to the minute for BSNL to BSNL calls (10 paise for BSNL to different community calls) for the first 30 days to its new clients most effective, speak value of Rs. 20, and a validity of three hundred and sixty-five days. After you finish the prescribed information, additional records might be charged at 10 paise in keeping with MB (Rs. One hundred/GB). After the 30-day call subsidy, all calls below the Onam Plan, “from anywhere to any network in India,” will be charged at one paisa consistent with 2d.

There’s also the choice to feature four numbers of friends and own family who may even experience calls at 10 paise in keeping with the minute to BSNL numbers and 20 paise consistent with the minute to different networks. A BSNL subscriber with this plan activated can add four members by using SMSing FFE<>10 digit cellular range/LL to 123. To migrate from different plans, Kerala clients want to ship an SMS to mobile quantity 123 in the layout ‘PLAN < space > ONAM’. New subscribers get a loose SIM whilst activating this plan.