Of Woes and Worries

So I am a bit concerned about my laptop. It seems that for some reason the wireless card is acting up. Usually when I turn on my computer for the first time, the wireless card is not detected at all. It does not show up on network connections or even in the device manager. The weird part is that after I restart, the card is detected fine... Or so it seemed. This time it took 3 entire restarts before my card was detected. Something is not right. I need to go buy a small screwdriver so I can open it up and re-seat it.

In other news, I ventured to the Big Box to play at the game center. I mentioned the card game Aquarian Age yesterday and would like to go into more detail. It seems that the game consists of a couple of different modes. There is story, single battle, and online. You can actually play against people in real time from anywhere in Japan. The great part is that because it is electronic, it is impossible to cheat or "misunderstand" the meaning of an attack. I also found out that there are special "events" where for a period of a week you can play under special rules for prizes (promo cards, figures, etc.) I ended up playing for a couple of hours and it was pretty cheap all things considered. I received a couple rare cards which improved my deck a lot. I also am getting the hang of what my characters are doing on screen with respect to where the cards are placed on the table. It is really cool. I even met some other guys who were playing beside me. They tried to give me pointers, but it was really hard to understand all the technical card talk.

I also want to mention how clean that particular arcade is. More than once today I have seen the workers there go around and wipe the screens and controls on various machines. It is good to know that they like to keep their games in tip-top condition. I also made up my mind that someday I will have my own arcade. I will bring those card games to the states, have all those bemani games, get some of those interchangeable cabinets, and open up a huge arcade.

I proceeded to go to Nakano to search out more elusive Super Famicom games. A couple of rarities were Super Mario Kart and all 3 Go Go Ackman games. I also picked up Metroid 2 for the black and white Gameboy, and the original Super Mario Bros on the Famicom. I was also tempted to get a Famicom (5000 yen for the 2nd version!) and a N64 (2000 yen!) I decided to pass on the N64 because most of the games were released in America. Only Animal Crossing, Puyo Puyo, and Doshin the Giant are games that I would want for it, and those are all on different systems. The Famicom on the other had has a ton of Japan only releases. Moreso than the Super. The only problem is that the games seem to be more expensive... All the Rockman games for example are over 1000 yen each!!!