Blog is moving

I thought I could use this domain, synth.coolinc.info, without problems for the blog, but as it turns out, the connection wasn't that good all the time. Might be because I'm already hosting another website on the same account and the bandwidth is limited. That's why I decided to move on blogspot's hosting. Additionally I may get more functionality for the blog :)
The blog's new location is now http://synthscorner.blogspot.com/

The bootlegger doesn't rest

The bootlegger from the previous post obviously doesn't think we are done. Here's what happened:
Even before I received the package I got an email from him telling me that the game will arrive and asked me not to open a dispute on paypal.
After I got the game and wrote him that it was a bootleg, he gave me a refund and replied that the game isn't fake, simply "China version". Of course I couldn't keep quiet so I asked him if that meant that China version equals pirate copy. And asked him why then the game and manual aren't in Chinese and why the "instruction" are taken from a review of an other game. So far he hasn't replied.
Later I sent a message to various people who bought from him (so far to ten) and got three replies that they also got bootlegs. I know that one of them got a refund as well but also a request to ship the item back (he never asked me to do that). I told this buyer that if he wants to ship back that he should ask for the shipping fees as it's not his fault for receiving a fake. We'll see how this goes.
And then the seller turned his eyes on me. He filed an ebay complaint that I haven't yet paid for the item. I replied saying that I have paid, received a bootleg and got a refund. Well, he wasn't happy with the answer so decided to escalate the claim in an "unpaid item strike". Of course I appealed to ebay about this and explained the situation again. But if it's war he wants, he'll get it. I sent a detailed email to Nintendo of America's anti-piracy department. And I reported him for selling bootleg games to paypal. Why paypal? Because I got the feeling that he doesn't want things to go to paypal. Hence the email before receing the package and afst refund. If he won't calm down I guess the next step is the police.
I'll keep you posted ;)

A great bootleg

Two days ago we received another bootleg game, Harvest Moon DS Cute. It was bought at the same time as the other two bootleg games so this time we were already expecting it to be a fake, as it came from Hong Kong.
But I have to say that bootleggers have started to put some more effort in their work. This time it wasn't "cartridge only", but everything was included: cartridge, case, manual and even foil. BUT! The foil had no official Nintendo strip. The cover of the box, manual and cartridge label were obviously printed with a normal printer, not some fancy factory printing machine. The "instructions" in the manual were copied from a review found online. And it was a review for the boy version, not the girl one! And it was a negative review! Imagine that the instruction manual tells you that what you bought isn't that great a game! :D Lastly, the cartridge was missing the lot number.
At least the seller gave us a refund quickly. I guess he doesn't won't things to go on paypal. But I reported him to ebay and warned some other buyers.

Shopping day

Today was quite a big shopping day. We did go to two grocery shops, but the main deals, the ones I'm happy about, were made on eBay.

The first victory was for Friends of Mineral Town. I'm buying it from a seller in the UK. The picture was of an original cartridge (at least the label), the game was quite cheap and it's near. There was a bit of a battle and someone even tried to outbid us in the last half minute! But in the end we won :D

The second victory was for More Friends of Mineral Town, bought from a seller from the USA, to whom I pleaded to send to Europe. The battle was quite fierce, but we waited till the end and then attacked and won! Actually Ana placed the winning bin more for fun, just to see if anyone else placed a higher one. Well, they didn't. Losers! XD

And lastly, we had the friend who wants Golden Sun 2 over for a visit. Then I checked just for fun if there were any new offers and we found two (2) good ones: one auction and one "buy it now". Both from the USA, both seemed authentic. So I sent a message to both sellers if they'd ship to Europe. They would and so we bought the "buy it now" copy.

Now we're still waiting for a copy of HM DS Cute that we ordered at the same time as both GBA games. But we are expecting another bootleg, because back then we didn't yet know how this cruel world of bootleg games goes. Oh well, more disputes ahead of us. In the mean time I'll probably still roam around eBay looking for fakes from time to time and report them. Won't change the world, but feels something like the fun of scamming email scammers.

Not everything is dark :)

If one were to judge by my previous posts, one would think things are pretty low. But worry now!, as there have been also many nice things :)

For starters, last week I got a new dancepad and turned on Stepmania after a long break. My old dancepad is actually still functional, but it's a PSX one. At first I had an adapter that worked well for the serial port, but after changing computers I didn't have a serial port anymore. I bought a psx-usb adapter, but it wasn't compatible with dancepads. The new dancepad connects directly to usb, so no problems there :) Plus it's a really great one ^_^

Then I downloaded Ultrastar, a PC clone of Singstar, and a bunch of songs. Singing is fun :D Imagine a game, where you would have to dance (ddr) plus sing (singstar). And for the hands maybe Guitar Hero XD

I also did school stuff :D I finished writing my report about the use of web in social work centres in Slovenia. Well, I'll still write some more and edit it so it'll look very fancy, but it's done. Now I'm working on my thesis again.

In HM:IoH I finally managed to get three wonderfuls and equipped them to my hoe. Now I can make trips to the bottom of the mine with no stamina consumption (except for what I spend hammering). And with two oranges and a green on my hammer I'm looking into lots of money XD

I tried HM: Shining Sun and Friends (a rom, not the proper game). Because I don't know Japanese all I did was try the gameplay and see the graphics. I must say that I love how they made it possible to move with the directional pad and kept the same tools usage system. I also like the new shiiping bin, where you tap on the bin and a new screen shows where you drag stuff in the bin. Very time saving. Later I also read that getting wonderfuls and determinating the colour is much more complicated.

I found an ebay seller who sells what seem authentic HM for gba copies, both versions! At first she wouldn't ship to Europe, but after my big plea she decided to do so. I'm really so glad about that :)

And today a professor emailed me back and said she would be my thesis mentor. I'll go see her on Tuesday so we can start the serious work.

A small victory

The guy who sold us the bootleg copies is no longer a member of ebay. Now, I don't know if my actions contributed to this, but I sure am happy to see that something happened.
I also started reporting suspicious auctions to ebay and asking those who don't put a picture of the cartridge up, to show it. So far they seem quite reluctant to do so :D One even sent me a link to their non-ebay shop. There they sell Pokemon Blue Sea and Pokemon Dark Cry. Reported to NOA.
That bootlegger chose the wrong guy to sell his wares to. They will all feel my wrath now XD

eBay fraud

Two days ago we finally received both GBA Harvest Moon games. Oh were we happy :)
But then things atrted to go wrong. At first my game (FoMT) got its save file deleted when I played it in my DS (normal one). Ana's game (MFoMT) worked fine and both games worked fine in her DS Lite. The next thing Ana noticed is that the sticker was different from other games, too shiny and the seal of quali tywas hardly readable. We visited a friend yesterday and did some more comparing with original games. We noticed that original games have a code above the connectors, while our HM games do not. And this morning I did some research and saw on the web that the real difference is inside. So I unscrewed both games and saw it! The battery that distinguishes a bootleg from a proper copy!
After that I filed complaints to ebay and paypal. And also sent emails to users who baught from the same guy.
This all means we need to get our money back and find new deals. And right before a week of vacation when we could've played to our hearts' desire. The good thing is that we now know to be more careful...

Some ebay rant

My buying Harvest Moon games on ebay went smoothly. Found a seller, won the bid, paid, now the game is on its way (hopefully).
But it doesn't always go so smoothly. A friend is looking for a great game, Golden Sun - The lost age. I played both games from the series and I remember they are really great FRPs. Btw, I really hope for a new title in the series ^_^ Anyway, this game is for the GBA, so it's getting rare nowadays. That's why I suggested this friend to look on ebay. We did find some, but only a few were good finds. Why? Because most of the deals offer only the cartridge and just a few have also the map, instruction manual and box. And even those who have it all in good condition, ship only to the USA (and canada sometimes). I really see no reason why can't they ship overseas too, since they already go to the post to send the game anyway. I'm also sending messages to the sellers if they can ship here, but I don't get any answers...
We'll keep trying...

Why don't we use the animals 100% in Harvest Moon?

At least in the games I've played so far. Sure there are chicken, cows and sheep, but we can only take the eggs, milk the cows or sheer the sheep. Dear Marvelous Entertainment, it's also possible to milk the sheep and have sheep cheese! And why do we have to be vegetarians in the game? Ok, we do eat fish, but may people think also vegetarians do anyway. By the way, I'm sort of a vegetarian myself. Back to the point. Imagine taking care of your cow for so long, and then you can go to her with your axe and have a steak for lunch. Or go to your sheep. Or have a chicken soup that would cure colds. Horses are also edible, but there should be a way to get a new one then. And in the Chinese version you should be able to eat the dog too.
Or maybe instead of just going with the axe to the animal, on the DS we could use the touch glove and we'd have to follow a line, something like during sheering, to get the best meat of the animal.

Somehow I feel we won't see any of this in a game, hehe :)

Harvest Moon, Credit card, Paypal and ebay

I think it should be obvious by now that I became addicted to Harvest Moon games. And my girlfriends loves them too! And because one can marry the doctor in HMDS Cute only with a gba game inserted, I started looking for MFoMT for Ana, my girlfriend, at various places, but it's rare to find any gba games in stores, even e-stores. Luckilly we have ebay! Yes, but no credit card...

So first I checked my bank's webspace to see what are the requirements to get a Mastercard (the only one they offer). The only requirement is having had received "three monthly incomes (salary or pension)". I have neither, but I do have (actually had, it just stopped) a scholarship and I once already successfully argued that it counts as monthly income. Well, I went there to inquire in person and the bank clerk (who is always very helpful, btw) said that my scholarship probably wouldn't count, but that she'd make some phone calls to be sure and call me later.
After about two hours she phoned me and said that the comitee for credit cards probably wouldn't give it to me. Then she asked me why I needed it in case there was some other way around. But because I need it for e-shopping, it's the only solution. She told me to fill the form anyway and we'll try applying. In a moment she called back and asked me if I needed to make payments overseas. Of course I do! Well, their credit cards don't pay out of the country. Yet.

Then I was looking at paypal and various discussions if there's a way to deposit money on paypal without a credit card. Sorry, none. After chatting with a friend he said that his brother uses paypal and that he could ask him to help me. To cut this story short, I asked him to pay me some money on my paypal account and I'll pay him on his bank account. So finally I got the money, yay!

After bidding, winning and paying we are now waiting for the games to make it over here. Aparently it should take at least 2 weeks... Can't wait!

Mistake in Island of Hapiness

There was I in the beginning of my first winter, having more than enough money for buying Chen's wonderfuls from my first trip to the bottom of the mine. And then I was thinking "it can't hurt to buy the 10.000g ticket from Chen and ship it back. So I can get closer to his house upgrade plus I get one more item in the shipping list." Sounds good, right? Wrong. As it turns out, one doesn't get paid for shipping the money tickets and they can be only used in Chen's shop. And that's how I lost 260.000g for nothing. Arrrrrgh!

At least all the money from the mine didn't go to waste. I managed to buy the last bridge and upgrade all the roads, build the maker shed and one maker. But now I don't have money for buying the wonderfuls and there's still almost a whole month in front of me. So that's why I'm back in the mine, falling through the pitfalls, one or two levels at a time or too much stamina is wasted. The first time was already quite boring, so I really didn't look forward to this. I'll try to make it at least to the pink diamonds' level, then I'll see if I have enough recovery items to make it to the bottom for more ores and a recipe.

It's a long way...

The new DSi

These days the news about the new DS instalment, DSi, are all the rage around the internet. Bigger screens, thinner, but no GBA slot. Pity about that actually. No Pokemon and Harvest Moon gba-ds connectivity (though in Europe we didn't have the latter anyway) and no Guitar hero. The DSi will feature two cameras, one internal and one external. Some sources say both will be VGA quality, some say the external will have 3MP. And last but not least, the DSi will be able to connect to DSware (like Wiiware on Wii) for download of games in exchange for Nintendo points, saving them on the internal memory and an SD memory card.

I might end up buying one though, but it depends on the following things:

• moneywise (still paying for the new car and buying a Wii has the priority)
• wi-fi (if the DSi will have better wifi connection that my DS, with which I can't connect anywhere)
• DSware (if there will be any cool titles to download)
• games (any cool games that will use the camera)

The new handheld arrives in Japan next month, while the rest of the world will have to wait till next year. We'll at least have some time to see how it goes in Japan and what will Nintendo offer for it in the beginning. I expect at least a new WarioWare game that will make use of the camera.