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        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
          publication</font></i></b></font></h1>
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<p><a href="../2.11/pipe/index.html">&lt;&lt; Back to Normal View</a></p>
<p>URL: <a href="../2.11/pipe/index.html">http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.11/pipe/</a><br>
</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 11<br>
                February 11, 1999<br>
                </b>
              <br>
              <br>
               
                <b><i>Down 
                  the Pipe</i></b></p>
                <b><i> 

                  Back to Basics</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Russell &quot;RadPipe&quot; 
                  Lauzon</p>
              
              <p> 
                

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              <p>
              First 
                off I&#146;d like to welcome Paul Steed back to the pages of loonygames. 
                I love Paul&#146;s writing style and I&#146;m always happy to 
                work beside a fellow philogyner. Hopefully he won&#146;t bore 
                us to death with modeling and animation tutorials. I love to see 
                messageboards across the internet blow up after one of his controversial 
                editorials. What a hoot.</p>
              </p>
              I&#146;d 
                also like to take this opportunity to give loonyboi a good kick 
                in the crotch. The man doesn&#146;t like mods and stated so in 
                his column this week. I still don&#146;t understand his reasoning, 
                thus I&#146;ll give him a kick just &#145;cause. When I think 
                about it, I&#146;ve played mods waaaay more than I&#146;ve ever 
                played the original game. I&#146;ve had addictions, at one time 
                or another, to each of: original Capture The Flag (Q1), Team Fortress 
                (Q1), Rocket Arena 1 &amp; 2 (Q1 &amp; Q2), Superheros (Q2), Action 
                Quake (Q2), and my current favorite Counter-Strike (HL). Oh my 
                god how many hours have I spent. Ratio of time spent playing Half-Life 
                deathmatch compared to Counter-Strike: 1:100. I think it&#146;s 
                cool that Valve is funding some of these mod ventures, but it 
                scares me to think of what will happen to my &#147;spare time&#148; 
                as these mods only get better.</p>
              </p>
              Ok, on 
                to the real topic of this column, helpfully titled &#147;Back 
                to Basics&#148;. I have two computers at home that I share between 
                myself and three hardcore gaming toddlers. Now, I don&#146;t have 
                a lot of money to spend on equipment, so if I have to buy something 
                new, I tend toward the cheap no-name brands. Curse me if you like, 
                but you gotta do what you gotta do. The headphones I use for my 
                main machine ($10 pair) finally gave up the ghost and it was far 
                past time I got them replaced.</p>
              </p>
              I don&#146;t 
                usually do my computer hardware shopping at Radio Shack, but that&#146;s 
                where I happened to be when I laid my eyes on a nice pair of Koss 
                SX-20 speakers for $14.95CDN. What a bargain! While waiting to 
                purchase my goods, the ever-present salesman came up to me and 
                began his little spiel about how I should go with the more expensive 
                speakers; the ones with the built-in amplifier, the treble, bass, 
                and volume controls, the power button. No way man, I said. These 
                babies are perfect.</p>
              </p>
              And they 
                are! We don&#146;t need no steenking knobs on our speakers. I&#146;m 
                serious. I have another pair of speakers on my second machine 
                that does have all those options. And I have nothing but problems 
                with it. The sound doesn&#146;t work worth a damn, just spits 
                out noise when I&#146;m adjusting the volume, and I never get 
                anything out of the left speaker. The knobs are obviously just 
                meant to be played with, cause that&#146;s all my kids ever do 
                with them. The amplifier? Just another thing to plug into my power-bar 
                (and I&#146;m running desperately short on outlets). </p>
              </p>
              These 
                Koss speakers, on the other hand, just sit there and work! No 
                knobs, no extra cables. They&#146;re powered straight off the 
                sound card so no need for another outlet. Sure, I can&#146;t crack 
                the paint with the deafening noise and I can&#146;t make the floor 
                shake with reverberating base, but I&#146;ve never been that big 
                on sound anyway. In fact, I used the 8-bit Soundblaster card for 
                years. I remember the day it went funky-doodaa and I went over 
                to Computer City to get a new one. My conversation with the clerk 
                on duty went something like this:</p>
              </p>
              &lt;me&gt; 
                Soundblaster Pro please.</p>
              &lt;clerk&gt; 
                Did you saw Awe-64?</p>
              &lt;me&gt; 
                No, I said Soundblaster Pro.</p>
              &lt;clerk&gt; 
                What is that?</p>
              &lt;me&gt; 
                You know, 8-bit sound card. The one that every other company tried 
                to emulate.</p>
              &lt;clerk&gt; 
                Give me a break, I&#146;m only 14.</p>
              </p>
              Touch&eacute;. 
                </p>
              </p>
              So it&#146;s 
                back to basics for me. I honestly can&#146;t tell the difference 
                between $40 speakers and these ones I got for $14.95. Why would 
                I spend more? As long as I can hear the guy sneaking up behind 
                me to harvest a quick frag on my ass, I really don&#146;t care.</p>
              
                 
                   
                    
                  
                
                 
                   
                     <i> 
                      </i></p>
                  
                
              
              Ready 
                for another shock? I still use an original Pure3D from Canopus 
                in my main machine. Yep, that&#146;s first generation voodoo graphics 
                from 3dfx in there. I get decent visuals and frame-rates in everything 
                I play, so why should I upgrade? I could be on top of things and 
                bandaging wounds from sitting on the bleeding edge, but why bother. 
                I&#146;ll use this card until it breaks. I mean really breaks. 
                It does some pretty funky things right now, like mixing up textures 
                in games, so I suppose it won&#146;t be long. Yeah that&#146;s 
                right, mixes up textures. It creates the absolute funkiest designs 
                sometimes, so it&#146;s kinda cool. Check out the screenshot.</p>
              </p>
              I am such 
                a naysayer. I still use an HP IIIP LaserJet printer. Had the same 
                one for almost 5 years. My keyboard? A good old keytronics with 
                the soft-tap keys. Love it. I don&#146;t know how many million 
                words I&#146;ve typed on the thing, including 300,000 for my fantasy 
                novel. Mouse? Age old non-ergonomic 3-button Logitech. Heck, I 
                think the chair I&#146;m sitting in is older than me. Now that&#146;s 
                getting pretty old. I better stop soon before I start telling, 
                &#147;You know, when I was a kid...&#148; stories about my Vic-20 
                while resting my hand in the waist of my pants.</p>
              </p>
              Am I back 
                to basics or just stodgy? I might be just stodgy, I&#146;m not 
                sure. I did splurge on a 17&#148; TTX monitor, and I&#146;ll smooch 
                Roseanne Barr before I&#146;ll give up my precious cable modem. 
                Did I really need 128 Megs of ram? Well, try playing Kingpin without.</p>
              </p>
              Well that 
                about wraps it up for this week. I&#146;d let you in on what I&#146;m 
                going to talk about next week, but I never know until about 10:00pm 
                Thursday evening when loonyboi starts sending me those &#147;Column?&#148; 
                emails and I think, &#147;Oh shit!&#148; So check back with me 
                then.</p>
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                  <i>- 
                    Russell &quot;RadPipe&quot; Lauzon currently holds the world 
                    record for using the word &quot;exhumed&quot; 15 times in 
                    a single sentence.</i></p>
                
              <br><p>&nbsp;</p> 
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.square8.com">Square Eight</a>. Used with permission. 
  Article is &copy; 2000 its original author. All other content is &copy; 2000 
  loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. You got that??</font></i></p>
 