Picade, something worth getting excited over?

Posted: December 7, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Raspberry Pi, Retro gaming | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

While I might not have been writing an awful lot over the past few months, that isn’t to say that the retro computer scene has not been rolling along happily.In an odd twist, the topic I’m posting about today is one I’m all to familiar with as I personally know the individuals behind it: Paul Beech and Jon Williamson from Pimoroni, the same guys who brought us the amazing Pibow case. These two nerds are at it once more and have come up with what is in my opinion, the coolest Raspberry Pi accessories to date. Step aside your SNES Laser gun and your 360 drum kit and make way for the Picade.

picade

This little beastie comes in two flavours, mini and full. So depending on how much space you have, you can still engage in some vigorous joystick waggling (hey no puns!).
Just like the Pibow, the whole thing comes in kit form. Included is a construction manual, which will show you how to put the whole thing together in roughly and hour, with just a  screw driver and  a pair of pliers. If the Pibow is any indication, we can assume the Picade will be fairly simple to put together. Once the whole thing is complete the only other piece of kit you will need, will be your Rpi. Hook it up and start gaming like it’s 1989! Pacman anyone?

picade2

While I’ve yet to see one of these in action, I understand the performance is actually very reasonable, with the Rpi only faltering on the sound, which is a known issue with the Rpi and something that’s a work in progress as the drivers are developed.

With no word on prices yet, the Picade is sure to go down well with the Raspberry Pi community and Retro gamers alike.

For further reading try
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pimoroni/picade-the-arcade-cabinet-kit-for-your-raspberry-p

Minecraft and Mobile Intel 9xx chipsets – Bad video error

Posted: December 5, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Retro gaming, Windows | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Minecraft logo

 

Hey everyone!

Well it might have been a while since I blogged about anything, but that’s probably because I’ve not been having too many computer problems (Gasp, shock horror!). Plus I’ve not had much time with it coming close to Christmas, to dedicate towards anything computer related. Other then playing a decent amount of L.A. Noire on the Xbox 360, which btw is an amazing game.

So as the title reads, anyone coming to this page is no doubt experiencing some sort of video fault with minecraft on their laptop. That being said, this problem arose not on my laptop but on my custom made desktop machine, which uses an integrated Intel 945GM chipset. Imagine my horror, when I discovered Minecraft didn’t want to run! (Nooo!!) In true BMV fashion I dug around to see if anyone else had hit this problem, luckily they had. To anyone who plays Minecraft I highly recommend joining the community out there at minecraftforum.net. Which is where discovered this fix, I’m reposting it here to save you digging through the pages to find it. A big thank you should also be given to WolfyB and Darknesschaos for this fix, who’s know how got everything working again.

Here is Wolfyb’s instructions as they where originally posted.

Note that this may not work for all but it works on my XP Dell Inspiron 1300 Laptop with a Mobile Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express graphics card (crappy, I know).

      *Download latest Minecraft client if not already present

 

      *Rename the downloaded Minecraft.exe to Minecraft.jar

 

      *Open a command prompt (go to start, all programs, accessories, command promt) and type the following command : java -Xmx800m -jar “C:\Documents and Settings\Brandon\Desktop\Minecraft.jar”

 

      (RENAME THE PART IN QUOTES TO WHATEVER DIRECTORY YOUR MINECRAFT.JAR IS IN)

 

      *Should open up Minecraft with no problems

:)Credit to darknesschaos.After you do that you can open Notepad and put the command that worked for you in that and save as MinecraftStarter.bat and you can double click that to play minecraft, it will start it up with those commands for you.
If this works for you please post your graphics card and system specs so we know better who this helps.

***UPDATE: THIS FIX SEEMS TO ONLY HELP INTEL MOBILE INTEGRATED CARDS USED IN LAPTOPS.

Ref:minecraftforum.net