downfall
12-04-2004, 02:14 AM
Title: fell iin the ditch *or* the things you do for the good of the community
Location: Milton, WV - the home of one "bigdaddychester"
Date: December 3, 2004
Time: Approximately 10:00 pm
Weather: A chilly night, probably in the mid 20's at best. Mostly clear sky, though the stars are tough to see. Bright moon, a little more than half is visible.
As the DP Secret Santa gift exchange is rolling to a close, I went to hand deliver a few things from my spare bins (some consoles) to help bigdaddychester (hereon refered to as "bdc") test the games for his giftee before he ships them out. I also brought along my DS - our plan was to hook up and test the appropriate games, and then bust out some DS link play on Metroid Prime Hunters and Pictochat.
Things go as planned, though I arrived just as the yearly obligitory showing of Frosty the Snowman is wrapping up. Of course we all must watch Frosty get locked inside the greenhouse and die a horrible death, but as you all know, Christmas snow never truly vanishes.
Anyway, after Frosty the Snowman, and Frosty Returns (which is far from the greatness that is the original Frosty) go off the air, the game testing commences. I crack into Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits, as bdc is hooking up the test system and preparing. I finally was able to procure a copy after being told at Gamestop that it wasn't going to be released until next Wednesday, but that's another story for another day. With the system hooked up and the testing out of the way, we finally jumped into what we'd really been waiting for - DS wireless link play! Rock on!
We knew that the link play worked well - we had tried it with Mario the day I bought my DS. However, we were sitting in the same room about 5 feet apart - a far cry from the 30 to 100 feet that the DS is supposedly capable of.
"Let's bundle up and go outside and test out the wireless capabilities of the DS," suggests bdc. I'm all for it, though I do have on my trusty sandals, a pair of ankle high socks, khaki pants, and a t-shirt - not exactly the best garb for 20 degree weather. Regardless, we toss on our coats and I start down the driveway, as bdc heads up the street in the opposite direction. We fire up Pictochat and connect with each other. We lose the connection once or twice, but I wasn't experiencing any trouble sending or receiving messages (no lag of any kind - though bdc experienced a little).
I assumed by this point that we were about 100 feet apart, so I turned around and couldn't see bdc anywhere in sight. No wonder we lost the connection - that's about the extent of the claims made by Nintendo - can't ask for more than that. The disconnection didn't last long though (15 seconds?), as the systems hooked back up, and bdc told me to move out into the street so he could see where I was. I obliged, but as I did, a truck came down the street. I had to step off the side of the road (no sidewalk), but naturally, I stumbled up onto the bank. Catching myself on the bank (protecting the DS all the way of course), my left foot comes off the ground and lands in the ditch beside the road, sinking in about a foot of freezing cold mud water/sludge.
Quickly thinking, I key "fell iin the ditch" followed by "fooot is cold" into the Pictochat. The rest of my body was cold also, as evident by my lack of winter attire, so in shaking so bad, I managed to type iin and fooot while trying my best to hold the stylus still. Regardless, I made my way out of the muck as bdc walked up, and pointed out where I had been standing when our connection failed. bdc pointed out where he had been standing as well, so I decided to walk it off and see just how many feet apart we had been when the connection did fail. I assumed it would be near the 100 foot range - that is until I started walking off the steps.
Giving or taking a few feet due to shoe sizes and cold, hurried steps, we determined that our DS'es blew away the supposed 100 foot limit, as we were standing somewhere in the (again, give or take a few) 290-310 foot apart range. @_@ That's a football field apart, and like I mentioned, it wasn't like we could see each other around the houses and things either.
That was a huge suprise to the both of us, and it blew away our expectations. Hopefully, it's something that you will find interesting as well. And it better be, as I surely couldn't have fallen into a freezing, muddy ditch, ruined a good pair of Dockers, and threw away what had previously been a perfectly good pair of socks for nothing. Right? ;)
Location: Milton, WV - the home of one "bigdaddychester"
Date: December 3, 2004
Time: Approximately 10:00 pm
Weather: A chilly night, probably in the mid 20's at best. Mostly clear sky, though the stars are tough to see. Bright moon, a little more than half is visible.
As the DP Secret Santa gift exchange is rolling to a close, I went to hand deliver a few things from my spare bins (some consoles) to help bigdaddychester (hereon refered to as "bdc") test the games for his giftee before he ships them out. I also brought along my DS - our plan was to hook up and test the appropriate games, and then bust out some DS link play on Metroid Prime Hunters and Pictochat.
Things go as planned, though I arrived just as the yearly obligitory showing of Frosty the Snowman is wrapping up. Of course we all must watch Frosty get locked inside the greenhouse and die a horrible death, but as you all know, Christmas snow never truly vanishes.
Anyway, after Frosty the Snowman, and Frosty Returns (which is far from the greatness that is the original Frosty) go off the air, the game testing commences. I crack into Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits, as bdc is hooking up the test system and preparing. I finally was able to procure a copy after being told at Gamestop that it wasn't going to be released until next Wednesday, but that's another story for another day. With the system hooked up and the testing out of the way, we finally jumped into what we'd really been waiting for - DS wireless link play! Rock on!
We knew that the link play worked well - we had tried it with Mario the day I bought my DS. However, we were sitting in the same room about 5 feet apart - a far cry from the 30 to 100 feet that the DS is supposedly capable of.
"Let's bundle up and go outside and test out the wireless capabilities of the DS," suggests bdc. I'm all for it, though I do have on my trusty sandals, a pair of ankle high socks, khaki pants, and a t-shirt - not exactly the best garb for 20 degree weather. Regardless, we toss on our coats and I start down the driveway, as bdc heads up the street in the opposite direction. We fire up Pictochat and connect with each other. We lose the connection once or twice, but I wasn't experiencing any trouble sending or receiving messages (no lag of any kind - though bdc experienced a little).
I assumed by this point that we were about 100 feet apart, so I turned around and couldn't see bdc anywhere in sight. No wonder we lost the connection - that's about the extent of the claims made by Nintendo - can't ask for more than that. The disconnection didn't last long though (15 seconds?), as the systems hooked back up, and bdc told me to move out into the street so he could see where I was. I obliged, but as I did, a truck came down the street. I had to step off the side of the road (no sidewalk), but naturally, I stumbled up onto the bank. Catching myself on the bank (protecting the DS all the way of course), my left foot comes off the ground and lands in the ditch beside the road, sinking in about a foot of freezing cold mud water/sludge.
Quickly thinking, I key "fell iin the ditch" followed by "fooot is cold" into the Pictochat. The rest of my body was cold also, as evident by my lack of winter attire, so in shaking so bad, I managed to type iin and fooot while trying my best to hold the stylus still. Regardless, I made my way out of the muck as bdc walked up, and pointed out where I had been standing when our connection failed. bdc pointed out where he had been standing as well, so I decided to walk it off and see just how many feet apart we had been when the connection did fail. I assumed it would be near the 100 foot range - that is until I started walking off the steps.
Giving or taking a few feet due to shoe sizes and cold, hurried steps, we determined that our DS'es blew away the supposed 100 foot limit, as we were standing somewhere in the (again, give or take a few) 290-310 foot apart range. @_@ That's a football field apart, and like I mentioned, it wasn't like we could see each other around the houses and things either.
That was a huge suprise to the both of us, and it blew away our expectations. Hopefully, it's something that you will find interesting as well. And it better be, as I surely couldn't have fallen into a freezing, muddy ditch, ruined a good pair of Dockers, and threw away what had previously been a perfectly good pair of socks for nothing. Right? ;)