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Tales from IT – Upgrading a Mac Mini to a Solid State Hard Drive August 3, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Site Videos, Tales from IT.
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Maniac tells a story of how needlessly difficult and annoying it is to perform a simple upgrade of a 2014 Mac Mini’s Hard Drive.

Maniac’s Kitchen – Deep River Ninja Ginger Potato Chips Review July 30, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Maniac’s Kitchen, Reviews, Site Videos.
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Welcome back to Maniac’s Kitchen, where we review gaming foods and share recipes for gamers. Today, we’re going to highlight Deep River Snacks, which sells high quality potato chips in our region. We’ve wanted to highlight them for a while and this new Ninja Ginger flavor chip is the perfect chip to start with.

Ginger is an old-school gamer’s solution for motion sickness. With the increased use for Virtual Reality, ginger-flavored goodies are popping up everywhere. I like ginger, typically with sushi, so I figured these chips should taste great to me. Let’s try these chips out and see how they taste.

Catherine: Full Body Nintendo Switch Unboxing July 7, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Site Videos.
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Catherine remains one of our favorite games of all time and probably was one of the most influential items that started my deep love and appreciation for Japan. Today, Catherine: Full Body has just been released on the Nintendo Switch with all the DLC originally offered for the PS4 included. The retail edition even includes a cute exclusive item we are going to take a closer look at.

Catherine: Full Body is out now on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. Catherine (Classic) is out now for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Preorder Stories – Aliens Vs Predator June 29, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Preorder Stories, Site Videos.
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In the year 1999, Aliens Vs Predator was one of my favorite PC games. Based on the classic 20th Century Fox films, you could play as an Alien, a Predator, or a Colonial Marine in a single or multiplayer campaign for supremacy. It was terrifying, violent and absolutely fun as hell.

A year after the original PC game was released, Rebellion planned to release a new Gold Edition of the game. It included new multiplayer maps and updated in-game cinematics and was essentially going to be the new version of the game. However, while it was not uncommon for PC games to receive post-release paid expansion packs at retail, it was not common for users to to have to rebuy an entire game they already owned just to receive that expansion. To split the difference, Fox Interactive sold an expansion pack disc as an online exclusive. For anyone who preordered the expansion disc, they received one of the coolest preorder incentives in gaming history. Take a look.

Aliens Vs Predator is out now exclusively for PC.

Preorder Stories – FEAR June 27, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Preorder Stories, Site Videos.
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Welcome back to Preorder Stories, where I chronicle some of the coolest preorder promotions from throughout gaming’s history. In 2005, Monolith, riding high from the success of No One Lives Forever, developed one of the coolest PC demos for an upcoming game I had seen in quite a while, FEAR. The hype from the demo was so impressive in fact, an empty box preorder campaign was launched at Best Buy. It included a special DVD with early episodes of content that would be included with the Collector’s Edition, and download codes for access to the multiplayer beta.

Let’s take a closer look at this preorder, and why it meant so much to me.

FEAR is out on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Preorder Stories – Metal Gear Solid 4 June 22, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Preorder Stories, Site Videos.
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By popular request, here’s our Preorder Stories for Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PS3. This was the game that was one of my biggest reasons to buy a PS3. Today, we’re not just going to share a story about a preorder, we’re also going to talk about the time I got to play the game a year before everyone else did. Enjoy!

At least one more Preorder Stories video is on its way! Stay tuned!

Metal Gear Solid 4 is out now exclusively for the PS3.

Preorder Stories – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic June 20, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Preorder Stories, Site Videos.
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Got a short and sweet preorder story today. Back in 2004, for some reason Lucasarts decided to release a new Star Wars game on two platforms…several months apart from each other. After the first time playing the game on a friend’s Xbox, and not having an original Xbox myself, I would have to wait several months to play the game on my PC. On the plus side, I was going to get a really cool pewter mini-lightsaber with the game.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is out now for Xbox, PC, smartphones and tablets. It’s backwards compatible with the Xbox One.

Mind of Maniac – The First Time I Bought Art June 9, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Mind of Maniac, Site Videos.
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As Mr. Spock would say, “For everything, there is a first time.” I have been interested in art for most of my adult life, but the rigid framework for memorization of art history (and the insanely early class hours) has always prevented me from exploring my interest any deeper than the surface. Still, I’ve been to museums I’ve attended art exhibitions and I’ve seen documentaries on the subject. Then, I saw a piece of art while at a trade show with my fiancée.

What happened? Watch and find out.

You can see more examples of MiJuMi’s art on his website.

Tales From IT – When a Printer is More Than Just a Printer June 8, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Site Videos, Tales from IT.
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We’ve got a follow-up to our last Tales from IT, with a hiccup I encountered from a major network migration. I was under orders to pull all of the old printers from a major business. One particular user did not want their printer to go anywhere.

Tales From IT – How Dungeons and Dragons Prepared Me to Work for Major Companies June 7, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Site Videos, Tales from IT.
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I know I said that we would retire Tales from IT, but given the current state of the world I thought it would be important to tell this personal story. Many of you may have been told while growing up that playing games with your friends would never help you in your life, and that harmless games like Dungeons & Dragons were bad for your personal growth. Your parents lied to you.

Here’s a story about a time I handled an important project for a major company. Not one single assignment I ever did in school was useful to me. The game of Dungeons & Dragons I learned how to play just a year earlier…was.