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I actually started writing this post on a topic that @Patrik entitled Fixes that make no sense, but still fixed your game, but I soon realised that it was going a little to far off topic. I still think this is a killer story that apparently few people know about, especially for some of the older gamers and retro gamers like @The Blackangell, so I decided to finish the post anyway and share it as a new thread. This is the story of how I believe censorship forced Nintendo to downgrade thier console to some of thier customers. The world is divided in many ways. In terms of technology, one of the ways the world is divided is by the Analogue Colour Encoding system engineered for television sets and video recorders. This splits the world into three regions, PAL NTSC and SECAM. Any gamer around in the 80's and 90's will know this system all too well, but is not as immediately prevalent with the more region free gaming world we have now. The map below shows what countries are set to what. I live in the UK, so as you can see that is in the PAL region. Back in the day, without having the right game copy for the right console to go with the right TV in the right part of the world, it simply wouldn't work. There is a lot of stuff to say about this system on it's own, but with the basics covered I'll just get to the point. In the 70's/80's (at least where I grew up), most game consoles connected to your TV through the same kind of connection you would use for an aerial (Called an AF Socket). The NES was like that, for example. In the 90's, things moved on to other types of connections such as AV, SCART and Super Video that would offer stereo sound and a better, more stable picture. The SNES had such connectivity, more specifically an AV slot (The rectangular port near the middle of the console). This is a step up, as you would expect with a next generation console. For reference sake, this is what an AV cable looks like. The slim, black connecter at one end to go into the console with the three other cables to connect to the TV being Right Audio, Left Audio and Video. This is where things, and by that I mean Nintendo, get weird. The next system was the Nintendo 64, one of my very favourite consoles ever and I'd defend it to hills, but the process of connecting it to your TV was a bit bizarre. It had an AV slot, just like the SNES (The port numbered 1 in this picture. The massive recess containing port 2 was to hold the power brick. I guess Nintendo didn't want a brick on the power cable itself but still wanted it easily removed from the console for this design, but whatever); And this port was thier on the PAL version of the console, but you couldn't connect it to your TV with as AV cable like you could with the SNES because it wouldn't work, Instead you got this fun little bugger included with your console; And what was it for you ask? To convert the AV socket so you could plug in an AF Aerial cable into your console then plug that into your TV. Like we were doing with the ATARI 2600 and NES over a decade earlier... yeah... As far as I know, this "feature" was exclusive to the PAL version of the console. Everybody else got to use an AV cable akin with the SNES. In fact, it was literally the exact same AV cable. This is like if PAL region PS4 owners were forced to use a SCART cable to connect thier PS4's to thier TV's whereas everyone else got to use HDMI. Why did they do this? Well, look back at the map I posted and you will notice that Australia is part of the PAL region. Australia was, and in many ways still is, something of a nanny state when it comes to video games. The Australian authorities weren't very happy that games and versions of games that they didn't approve off were being played in that country. People were able to buy these games simply by making trips oversees to the likes of America, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia to buy them during the life cycles of the NES and SNES. These places were cheap to get to and/or were frequent travel spots for Australians anyway, so this was economical. It didn't matter the games were region coded, people found ways to break them quite easily on those consoles despite Nintendo's best efforts. Fearing this happening again, not to mention fearing the Australian authorities, Nintendo came up with a cunning idea. The messed around with the video output of the PAL console so it had far less electrical resistance as the other versions. This resulted in a video signal that would oversaturate your TV, showing as almost entirely white screen, making the AV cable useless. The converter box itself was also designed to not let the 60Hz signal from an NTSC or SECAM game pass through it, only the 50HZ signal based tech' of a PAL copy of the game. So even if the console or game was cracked so a non PAL version of the game could play on said console, it still wouldn't work. You have to admire how clever this really was. So the naughty Aussie gamers with thier naughty foreign games had no choice but to only play the games mummy Australia approved off, and ruined the lives everyone else in the PAL region in the process. Years later, this makes the PAL version of the console a nightmare to hook up to modern TV's. AF signals are just too weak to transmit to them. The signal being transmitted to the screen refreshes slower than the screen itself creating a "flash" between static and the game signal. You still can't use the AV cable either because of how the console was tampered with. An AV cable that's been specifically modified to have the same electrical resistance on the video output as the audio outputs (only the video output was tampered with buy Nintendo) will allow the console to actually work. I learned this the hard way trying to get my N64 to work a few years ago. So that's the story. I can only imagine what would happen if Nintendo or any game company tried to pull this shit today. I actually believe that the only got away with it back then because the internet, at least as we know it, didn't really exist. I did successfully verify this a few years back but I remember it being a nightmare to do so, I can't remember how and I just can't be bothered doing so again. But of course, if any of the things I've said are incorrect please tell me.

@Steerminator OMG, THIS. Yes, the person who I watch play most often has this same issue. I think anxiety in general often boils down in part to poor self-esteem, so that is a factor here. And you end up with either 1-the person beating themselves up for being bad (when they are often actually just learning and are doing fine), or 2-the person blames the game, because the only way they have learned to feel OK about themselves is to outsource blame and perceive something else as Not OK.

Ah the painful game of blocks, I hate it, and I will always hate it. This does not kill time when you are bored this kills you.

I mostly get my news from here, but I'm more for reading the headlines. While I do like when people link YongYea's videos, who does a good roundup, I like to go to PC Gamer for the articles. GameIndustry Biz is my absolute favourite for news from people within the industry, especially for regular interviews on what job roles entail and the more in-depth side of development.

No, but I think it might actually be quite a clever strategy for the SNP. One Google search on this guy and everyone in England would think "Ok... FUCK THIS! Give them independence and leave them be!". 😅

That is one of the most narcissistic statements I have ever read.

What's the downside?

In all honesty, I get my news here. VGR keeps me up to date on everything I would care about. The members here are always posting articles that keep us all up to date on what's going on. Aside from that, you can always try YouTube. YougYea is always keeping up with the news, and always referenced here with his videos linked. I'm sure he's not the only one. You can try AVGN, but to my knowledge he's more satire with the gaming side of Cinemassacre. I don't think they really do much in the news area.

You are starting whit a wrong premise. You are not seeking an absolute answer, you are trying to absorb and understand more than your point of view, changing your own idea (maybe) in the process. I like to think philosophy it's like evolution, always changing with time and it's the process of studying it that enlight you, not read an answer from other people.

@Reality vs Adventure I don't wanna defend the Chinese Government (trust me, I REALLY don't), but you haven't quite got the full context to this. Gaming addiction is a pretty serious problem in China, more so than it is in the west. Part of the reason for this is that most don't own a gaming console or PC of thier own, instead they go to 24 hour internet café's. So when you consider that people including children are gaming and spending in a public space, with pretty much no supervision... I think you start to see the problems. There are people that have legitimately lost their lives in those kind of places after gaming for litteraly days at a time. It's not such a problem if the people, particularly children are at home like they trypicaly would be over here where that can be supervised or at least have somone knock on the door once in a while. I'm not saying the Chinese Government won't abuse this, they fucking obviously will, but I can see a point to it.

When an NBA Live game freezes, sometimes I'll press X. I don't know if it does anything or not.

I believe Heavy Metal and video game soundtracks are happy bedfellows so often for a reason. These things are sperate, but both are heavily woven into geek culture along with other things that don't really exist for the popular kids like Pro-Wrestling, Comics, Fantasy Novels, table top games and so on. It's not that these things are inherently uncool or unpopular, but there is a certain amount of obscurity and exclusivity to them that appeals to people outside the click. As a fam of both, I'm more than happy that this is the case.

Giant Bomb, I always recommend these guys. In terms of written content they aren't amazing for sure, they all mostly tend to contribute in this realm though not too often, they really only have a hand full of primary writer at this point at least. For news I'd say they are decent, you'll get good news pieces from Austin Walker, the main written content producer at the moment. In terms of just articles like opinion pieces or even reviews they are a little less frequent. THen you can do on reddit selection of reviews of games on what people say 🙂

More or less an never-ending cycle - figured as much.

It depends on the philosophy and your preconceived notions of it.