If you have an old laptop laying around and your not sure what to do with it. One of the best and cheapest things you can do is re-use the old hard drive. This is a very easy and cheap process. You could be ready with your new external hard drive within 2-days with little work or cost.
After you remove your hard drive you will want to try to figure out what kind it is. Most likely it will be a Sata 2.5" drive. If you aren't sure try searching the information on the drive or your computer model to find out. If your still not sure safe bet is that it is a Sata 2.5" hard drive. Very unlikely will you have a 3.5" in a laptop because that is a large size that is generally not used in laptops.
Once you figure that out all you need is to find a Sata Enclosure and buy it. They generally run for about $6-$16 and up. We recommend the two items listed below. There isn't a need for spending big bucks these models work great for their low cost. The one one the left is a USB 2.0 and the model to the right of that is a USB 3.0. That basically means you will have a slight difference in speed.
Inside the box you will recieve:
One Sata Enclosure
One Black Bag, to help protect your hard drive and Sata Enclosure
One single ended USB to a double ended USB Cord
Two tiny screws and one tiny screw driver
If you are having troubles unscrewing the device from your computer, it wouldn't hurt to wait for your Sata Enclosure to arrive in the mail so you can use the tiny ended screw driver to help you retrieve your device.
The Sata Enclosure is just a tiny box that you put your hard drive inside, allowing your hard drive to be hooked up to any computer through a USB port just like a flash drive or external hard drive.
Below is a video to help you further understand how the device works:
May 18, 2014
Games I Wish Existed: Boy Scout Survival
Genre: Boy Scout Simulator, Parental Discipline Simulator, Survival Horror, First Person,
Sponsors: Boy Scouts of America
I am hoping that the actually Boy Scouts will fund the development of this game. Hopefully the Mature Content rating won't be a problem for them.
Game Mechanics
View: First Person Mode Only
Inventory System: The inventory is set to the amount of weight and bulkiness of items a normal fit boy can carry in real life. You will be able to take off and put on your backpack, without your backpack your inventory won't be very large. The general items you can carry is a backpack with a tent, shovel, rope, bug spray, five pairs of clothes (which you can mix and match in any way you'd like), a weeks worth of food and thats about it. When you place items into you backpack you will have to literally select which pocket to put it into. You will be able to fit smaller things like lighters into small side pockets. If you overfill a pocket on your backpack the pocket could get worn and rip more easily.
Crafting: Yes there will be crafting, there will be now hints or guides to this in the menus. You can figure out how to craft things through Boy Scouts pamphlets. If you have a rope you can choose to attach it to any item you have, may it be a pencil, a tree, or your own leg. You can also choose to cut, sharpen and make holes in any items you have. The crafting will be mostly up to what you can be creative enough to make. (This Mechanic may need to be altered and might not actually work like planned)
Survival: You will have to survive in the game. In general that means eating, sleeping, and hydration. You will be able to make traps to hunt for food by using the games physics to help you and through crafting items.
Open World: The game will have an open world exploration mechanic. It will be mostly made up of a large wooded, hilly/mountainous area, which you will have to voyage through until either the rescue team finds you or until you reach home.
Real Time: The game world time moves just as quickly as real world time does. Things like eating, crafting and sleeping does speed up the time. And all can be interrupted by NPC.
Injury: Your character can take on injuries, sadly he is no super hero and cannot regenerate health at a super fast rate. If the injury is sever enough and you cannot heal yourself by wrapping bandages to stop blood. Your character will die. When you are injured your character will receive visible scratches, bruises, scabs, and scars that may or may not go away.
Hardcore Mode: There will be a hardcore mode, but not required to play the game. Only presented as an option for players who want a true experience. The non-hardcore mode can be purchased through a DLC.
No Limitations: The story doesn't limit you, you aren't directed you to do anything specific. Characters will talk to you and hint at things you should do. However, you will receive no quest markers or even have a list of quests displayed. You must remember and decide to do things or not do things. At the start of the story, you could even just run away, and never go on the camping trip in the first place. Which would still cause for a search and rescue team to come and find you.
Game Intro
At the start of the game, you will be asked a series of question pertaining to your childhood, which will effect the style of your bedroom, clothing in your closet, clothing on your parents, and slight aspects of the story, among other things, to better fit your childhood atmosphere.
The game starts you out being woken up by your father. "Time to get up, you have a big day today, gather your things. Today you are going camping with your fellow scouts." You get out of bed to begin your day. You walk over to the mirror and see your tiny little self, about the age of 10-14. You then walk over to your closet to pick out what your going to wear. (now you don't just scroll through outfits in this game, you actually have to slide the shirts over, there will be actual physics in place for the clothes hangers in the closet. You can pick up your shirt and put it in your inventory just like any other item in the game. (if you don't put on your boy scouts uniform your dad tries to make you change your clothes.) You will be able to freely walk around your house and even go outside. You will have a boy scouts pamphlet with a list of items that you a supposed to bring on the trip. If you forget any of the items and your parents don't notice then it is your loss. You don't have to 100% complete this quest to move on (See note under Game Mechanics, No Limitations). When it is time to leave, your dad will get into the car and tell you to come with him. Anything your parents tell you, you can choose to obey or not listen. If you don't listen your character can be punished and even miss out on his camping trip.
The Main story is that you go on a camping trip with your troops, your troops and you get separated. You must rescue them or choose not to. You can fail and cause the death of others. If you get grounded from your camping trip you can choose to run away to rescue them when you here news of your boys scout troop getting lost in the woods. The game does not have a super defined story/quest format that you have to follow. The story is up to you and we will try to create all the possible options for the stories outcomes. However you can make this a very boring game but not having your character do anything.
May 17, 2014
Gaming on a Budget
So your working 40+ hours a week and putting all your money into rent, utility bills and that girl of yours, thats about $1,500 a month leaving your pocket. At times you just need to get away and play some video games, but with that kind of money going out the window how are you supposed to afford playing video games? Here are the "The Three Keys to Gaming on a Budget".
1. PC Versus Console Gaming
The biggest money saver you can is switch from buying game counsels to buying a desktop computer. The next time you are tempted to buy the Xbox One for $500 go out and buy or build a PC instead. A PC will cost you anywhere from $600-1000 for a decent machine that will run just as good or better then an Xbox. An Xbox will cost you $500 plus $50 if you want a second controller, another $5 a Month for Xbox Live, then there is the $35-60 games.
Also computers can do more then just play video games compared to an Xbox, for the same price you pay in a year, you can build a gaming desktop computer and buy 10+ games for less money.
The other bonus to PC gaming is when the next new counsel comes out, and they are wanting $700 for it. All you have to do is spend $200-500 to upgrade your machine to be even more powerful then that $600 Xbox.
2. Wait for Steam Sales
The best thing about gaming on a PC, rather then superior graphics and free internet connection, is great game prices. Every summer and winter, Steam does huge sales on a lot of their games. You know that game you really wanted that cost $60 even though its about one year old, well now its on sale for $10 through the Steam Summer Sale. Stinks to be your Xbox buddy who paid $60 for the same game you just paid $10 for. You actually don't always even have to wait for the Steam Summer and Winter sale, every week Steam puts a different game on sale. Worried you'll miss it, just add it to your wish list and steam will email you when the game is on sale.
Steam frequently allows you to play different games for free over the weekend. This will help you to know if you even want to buy the game. Some of those games you could even beat within the weekend and still get the achievements for it as if you owned the game.
Steam even gives games away for free at times. Last winter sale, Steam gave away L4D2 (Left for Dead 2) and in May they gave away Arma Cold Assault for free.
3. Humble Bundle
So you haven't done a lot of good in your life and your looking to redeem your evil deeds? Lucky for you Humble Bundle has been kind enough to allow you to give money to charity but not only that they will give you video games in return and not only that you don't even have to spend more then $1.
Humble Bundle releases bundles of games generally allow you to get 3-5 games for $1 or spend the average of donations to get 2-4 more and generally better games. They also have a weekly bundle and a video game store. In the store you might not be getting a discount but you will be giving 10% of your money to charity.
Not all the bundles are worth much money but when you do come across a golden gem, don't hesitate to pay the $1-10 for the bundle. You may not want all the games but generally at least two of the games you will be playing.
Results
Your budget one year later:
1. PC Versus Console Gaming
The biggest money saver you can is switch from buying game counsels to buying a desktop computer. The next time you are tempted to buy the Xbox One for $500 go out and buy or build a PC instead. A PC will cost you anywhere from $600-1000 for a decent machine that will run just as good or better then an Xbox. An Xbox will cost you $500 plus $50 if you want a second controller, another $5 a Month for Xbox Live, then there is the $35-60 games.
Also computers can do more then just play video games compared to an Xbox, for the same price you pay in a year, you can build a gaming desktop computer and buy 10+ games for less money.
The other bonus to PC gaming is when the next new counsel comes out, and they are wanting $700 for it. All you have to do is spend $200-500 to upgrade your machine to be even more powerful then that $600 Xbox.
2. Wait for Steam Sales
The best thing about gaming on a PC, rather then superior graphics and free internet connection, is great game prices. Every summer and winter, Steam does huge sales on a lot of their games. You know that game you really wanted that cost $60 even though its about one year old, well now its on sale for $10 through the Steam Summer Sale. Stinks to be your Xbox buddy who paid $60 for the same game you just paid $10 for. You actually don't always even have to wait for the Steam Summer and Winter sale, every week Steam puts a different game on sale. Worried you'll miss it, just add it to your wish list and steam will email you when the game is on sale.
Steam frequently allows you to play different games for free over the weekend. This will help you to know if you even want to buy the game. Some of those games you could even beat within the weekend and still get the achievements for it as if you owned the game.
Steam even gives games away for free at times. Last winter sale, Steam gave away L4D2 (Left for Dead 2) and in May they gave away Arma Cold Assault for free.
3. Humble Bundle
So you haven't done a lot of good in your life and your looking to redeem your evil deeds? Lucky for you Humble Bundle has been kind enough to allow you to give money to charity but not only that they will give you video games in return and not only that you don't even have to spend more then $1.
Humble Bundle releases bundles of games generally allow you to get 3-5 games for $1 or spend the average of donations to get 2-4 more and generally better games. They also have a weekly bundle and a video game store. In the store you might not be getting a discount but you will be giving 10% of your money to charity.
Not all the bundles are worth much money but when you do come across a golden gem, don't hesitate to pay the $1-10 for the bundle. You may not want all the games but generally at least two of the games you will be playing.
Results
Your budget one year later:
Console Verses PC
$400-600 Hardware $600-1000
$60 Internet Free
$300+ Ten Good Games $50+
$600 (lose old games and save files) Upgrade $100-500 (keep all games)
This is not a discussion about which is better, this is a discussion about gaming on a budget. Which is more financially cheaper overall.
May 15, 2014
Humble Bundle: Humble Daily Bundle
Humble Bundle does it again by bringing us some great deals. Its been awhile since I've been excited for any of the bundles that were up for grabs but this week I am excited about it again. Until May 26, Humble Bundle will be releasing a new bundle each day. Make sure you check back to see if they have something your looking for. When you do finally decide to buy a bundle don't forget to give some of your payments to the game developers and Humble Bundle for bringing us great deals.
Get Arma Free on Steam Game
Bohemia Interactive is celebrating 15 years by giving you up to 80% off on most of their games through Steam. That includes Arma II for as little as $2.59. They are also giving away Arma Cold War Assault for free. To get the free game to register on your Steam account you must click "Install Game". Shortly after a window will pop-up stating that it has been registered with your account.
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