BlackGeekdom Science-Fiction from a Different Perspective

Now, I’m sold.q

Posted under Comics, Movies, Trailers

Couldn’t let another week go by without posting a preview for HBO’s Game of Thrones.  The show is going to be epic.

Posted under Uncategorized

Update: This Xbox no longer lives.  Five months after bringing it back, the reborn Xbox will not go beyond an E73 or E74 screen.  Which means the components have overheated to the point of being physically damaged.  I think it’s my fault because normally when I play it, I take it out of its hiding place except for the last time I played it.  Usually, many of these things overheat when operated and placed in enclosed or poorly ventilated areas.  I failed to follow conventional wisdom and for the sake of convenience left it in such a state.  Thus, it overheated.  Lesson learned.

Normally, all the items we post here are about sci-fi or fantasy in movies or  television, or comics. Rarely do we post anything about gaming. Not that we have anything against it, our contributors here own or have access to all the gaming consoles and platforms. We just don’t really cover gaming all that much.
A while ago, a friend of mine had an Xbox 360 that suffered the Red Ring of Death. For those that don’t know, that’s when the usually green glowing lights on the front LED panel of the Xbox change to red. It means that your Xbox isn’t working any more for any number of reasons. There are different reasons based on the number of lights. This Xbox had 3 red lights in the circle of LEDs. That is supposed to mean that there is either a power failure or some other hard ware failure. Microsoft apparently repairs red ring of death Xboxes if you are within a two year warranty period. Well, he’s had that particular Xbox for over 3 years and on top of that it’s a refurbished one.

My next door neighbor mentioned in passing that there were websites that tell you how to repair a red ring of death if you are outside of the warranty period and don’t want to spend the 99.99 plus shipping to have Microsoft fix it. I figured this might be something worth checking out. So, I got the Xbox before it was tossed out (my friend purchased another Xbox). And I looked up several websites to see which one would be easy to follow and do the least damage if I got it wrong, but hey, there wasn’t really anything to lose.

Now mind you, I have done something like this before. My PS2 stopped working, so I took it apart and fiddled around with the inside a little bit, and it started working again. Also, the glass screen on my PSP splintered and I ordered a replacement part and fixed it myself. My Desktop PC wasn’t functioning and I took it apart and put new thermal paste on they CPU. Little did I know, that the two skills, dismantling a PS2 and removing the heat syncs from a mother board would be exactly what I needed to fix the Xbox.

I settled on the instructions on Instructables.com, Fix the Red Ring of Death. After a week and one trip to Home Depot (and my 2 year old’s enthusiastic assistance), I put the Xbox back together and booted it up. To my surprise it worked. I popped in a game and had no problems. It’s been two weeks now, and still no after effects from my repair or any indications that the RROD might come back.

For a long time I have been debating if I wanted to get a PS3 or an Xbox. I guess the decision was made for me. I guess I’ll throw a couple of dollars my friend’s way.

Posted under Articles, Games

All-Star Superman is the 10th movie in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line. It’s based on a 12-issue series of the same name written by comic book fanboy favorite Grant Morrison. The previous movies include, Superman: Doomsday, Batman: Gotham Knight, Green Lantern: First Flight, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, and Batman: Under the Red Hood.  Basically, the story is about Superman’s impending death due to some maneuvering by Lex Luthor and how Superman/Clark Kent is dealing with it.  Sounds like that could be a potentially great story.

Let me start by saying that of the previous 9 releases, I liked each and every one of them. They were all animated well and the voice acting was great. For some reason, this movie was a miss for me. It might be that I don’t like the story, because I didn’t like the series it was based on. However, I think it’s more than that. The animation was fine, but I’ve seen better. The voice acting was okay, but it could have been better. Edward Asner as Perry White and Anthony LaPaglia as Lex Luthor were great, but it seems as if everyone else was either phoning it in or half-asleep. Maybe there wasn’t as much enthusiasm from the production team for this movie as it has been for the previous ones. It seems that this might be a theme of DC Comics. Start great with something and once fans get interested and excited about it, don’t work as hard on it anymore because fanboys will still buy it. I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just not as good as the other movies have been.

DC has been getting a lot of props for these animated movies. They do them so much better than Marvel, but this movie shows there might be a few kinks in DC’s armor. If you’re a die hard DC fan or Superman fan, you’ll probably love this movie. Most people should just skip it.

Posted under Animation, Comics, Movies, Reviews