Mario! Mario! Mario!
It has been awhile since I last added anything to my video game collection. This showed up on KSL last week and I knew I had to buy it. Here we have an original copy of Super Mario Brothers 3 with original box and all paperwork. I got it for the great price of $10.
This game was a huge deal when it came out. I remember not being able to find a copy during the first week of release. I seem to remember it happened to be during a trip to Vegas and I couldn’t even locate a copy there. It was probably a week or two after that I finally got it. It was a lot of fun and is still considered one of the best Mario games ever. Nintendo really went overdrive with the hype machine for this game. It was obviously covered extensively in their Nintendo Power Magazine and the commercial below, but the thing that sets this game apart is the fact it was tied in with a movie.
That movie was The Wizard with Fred Savage. The movie is pretty much one big Nintendo commercial and I ate it all up as a kid. There were two items that really stuck out. The first was the Power Glove. Everyone wanted one after the movie, so they could be “bad”. The other was the last scene of the movie at the Nintendo Championships where the last game was Super Mario 3. This scene gave the world a chance to see the game in action 6 months before it was released. It also gave away where to find one of the warp whistles. 
I hope to have some SMB3 time this weekend and see if I can still finish it. Below is the original commercial and the trailer for The Wizard.
Another Server Upgrade
Friday, Sarah told me her workplace was having a surplus sale. I decided to take a look and was shocked when I found a 1U server for $20. I looked at the specs and was shocked even more. The system was a Pentium 4 3.2 processor, had 2 gigs of RAM, 2x gigabit ethernet ports and built in sata raid. Sarah ended up buying it for me which I appreciate. I was hoping to move the hard drives over from the previous server, but the IDE ribbon cable wouldn’t quite reach and it only had one IDE port to begin with. The motherboard however has 4 SATA ports, so I thought it would be a great chance to try two SATA drives in a RAID 1 setup. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the onboard RAID to work with Ubuntu. I found out that it is pretty much the same as a software RAID anyway and I would have to get a RAID card for true hardware RAID. I decided to try a software RAID with Ubuntu itself and it seems to be working flawlessly. Here is the guide I used for anyone interested.
I’ve got the whole system transferred over now and it appears to be working great so far. The really only issue is that being in a 1U case it has a 5,000 rpm blower fan to keep the processor cool and is really noisy. I think I woke up the neighbors last night when I powered the thing on the first time. I’m hoping to move it into the closet in the office, but it will require a major clean out to make the room. Hopefully that will quiet it down some.
Here are a few pics I took of the system. The first shows the insides, the second shows how thin the case is comparing it with a key, and the last is it actually running on my desk.
Star Wars in Concert Coming to Salt Lake
Last night we found out that Star Wars in Concert is coming to Salt Lake. I had been checking the site from time to time hoping that it would either come here or Vegas. The date for the Concert is October 16th and it is hosted by Anthony Daniels (The actor who played C-3PO). The official site with links to get tickets is http://www.starwarsinconcert.com/ and for those wondering what I am talking about the trailer is below. Should be a lot of fun.
Star Tours 2 Coming 2011
Disney had a lot of announcements at their first ever convention this last weekend. The biggest one for me was announcement of a new Star Tours ride at Disneyland in California and Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios) in Florida. Here is the link that talks about all the changes at the parks. http://d23.disney.go.com/articles/091209_NF_FS_RasuloImagineeringtheFuture.html Below is the quote on Star Tours.
But Jay was just getting started. With the help of Darth Vader and an army of Star Troopers, he announced that as of October 2010, Star Tours will be closing. But not to worry — Jay continued, “We’re closing Star Tours in order to create a spectacular new adventure at Disneyland. We’re going to do things with Star Tours that have never been done in any park attractions before at any theme park anywhere.” The crowd was then treated to a 3D sneak peek of the ride and wow — were people impressed! The new 3D experience will debut at the Disneyland Resort and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2011.
A trailer was also released showing some footage of Pod racing from the ride. Should be a lot of fun. I do hope they still keep the original ride. Even though it is now dated I still find it a lot of fun.
5 weeks old
The kittens are getting older. Here is a picture i took of them a few days ago. They are now getting to the point where they are getting playful. I was having fun with one of them the other day with a laser pointer. We try to give them a few hours a day to roam around a bit in our living room. I think we have home for two of them now, so there will be two left if anyone wants one.
