NES RF Switch Flaw

While on a trip in Pennsylvania, I brought along my SNES to play in my hotel room for when the fun was over at the party. First of all, I recently watched an Angry Video Game Nerd "You Know What's Bullshit" episode about hotel room TV's, James Rolfe (AVGN) lamented about how hotel room TV's are not great if you want to use video game consoles, DVD players etc.

Rolfe is right on this, especially considering most hotel TV's don't have RCA inputs to avoid people bringing their own DVD players. This is a common practice to help them make money through Pay Per View, so Rolfe advised people to buy a RCA to CoAxial converter box to take with them.

The thing is, I make due with what I have. Older systems like the SNES use an RF switch, and that just requires you to put the cable into the RF box and putting the box on the TV. I have two RF boxes, one for the NES and one for the SNES. You'd think they were the same right?

Nope, since I had the SNES RF switch on my TV, I took the other one. The hotel's tv was so annoying to remove the cable for, that i had to hold the TV sideways with my cousin who came to play. So when it was all connected except for the RF switch to the TV, I ran into a huge annoying problem I had overlooked.

THE NES VERSION OF THE RF SWITCH DOES NOT HAVE A TURNING NUT ON IT'S CABLE

The SNES one does, bitterly ironic but what did we do then?

Unplugged the whole thing, and connected the RF to the TV FIRST. You have to turn the RF box with the wire since the wire cant slide the other way, and thank god my cousin Rick was there because on my own this will be extremely frustrating to do when I am at it alone in a hotel.

My trip went well, but that was pretty annoying. If you have an RF switch for the Nintendo/Super Nintendo, make sure the wire to the TV has a turnable nut in case you plan to use it.

Blame it all on Video Games

So yesterday evening I was having dinner with some of the family, and I was telling a cousin of mine about the E3 news since she has an Xbox. And before I knew it the debate began again.

My grandfather brought up the "issue" of gamers spending so much time playing video games. I immediately flamed back that "people" blame video games for everything.

The point is, video games in their existence alone DO NOT cause issues for people. Think about it, if they are bad, why not ban porn magazines too? Aren't they about the same since, like video games, people under the age limit have been able to grab them. That's bad parenting, not the company's fault.

And even if this was not bad parenting, if you can't differentiate between games and real life then you have a problem. Steven Speilberg, as an example, is one of the greatest all time movie directors and an avid gamer. Does it look like intensive gaming is ruining his career or turning him into a nutjob? If you answered yes, then I pity you.

If people really need a positive reason to like video games, consider the social networking going into gaming now. Facebook, Live Netflix Parties, Staying Connected. And my personal favorite, the deep critical debate over the Zelda timeline of their games as explained by James Rolfe. This shows critical, intelligent thinking doesn't go away with video games.

Anyway I really hope the opposition to video games stops, because hoping it doesn't exist does nothing. Trying to help people realize the difference from reality and a video game would help. Video Games helped me become less shy when talking to people and helped me understand people on their many different levels of life and attitude.

In other words, anyone claiming video games caused them to be violent or shoot people is a lie. Because you still have a part to play in how video games affect you, video games reveal your true nature in what games attract you. Let that be a lesson for how useful games could be to psychology of the human mind.