New Thrift Store Acquisitions Special Issue: Easter Savings!

We’ve just finished our local thrift store hunt before the Easter bunny arrives! And here’s what we got so far:

• Need for Speed: Rivals (PlayStation 3)
• EA Sports F1 Championship Season 2000 (PlayStation 2)
• MX vs. ATV Untamed (PlayStation 2)
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (PlayStation 2)
• Shrek Pick a Pair (DVD Player)
• Nancy Drew: Treasure in the Royal Tower (Windows)
• Arc Media’s Whales (Hybrid Classic Mac OS/Windows)
• Disney’s Treasure Planet Broadside Blast (Windows)
• Treasure Cove (Hybrid Classic Mac OS/Windows)
• Disney’s Treasure Planet Treasure Racer (Windows)
• Disney’s Pocahontas Animated Storybook (Hybrid Classic Mac OS/Windows 3.1)
• WordAce! Talking Translation Dictionary English/Spanish (Hybrid Classic Mac OS/Windows)
• Microsoft Pinball Arcade (Windows)
• Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection (Windows)
• EA Sports NHL 2005 (Windows)
• Detective Barbie 2: The Vacation Mystery (Windows)
• Adventures with Barbie: Ocean Discovery (Windows)
• Reader Rabbit’s Reading 2 (Hybrid Classic Mac OS/Windows)
• BONUS: Peter Cetera World Falling Down Cassette (1992)
• BONUS: Euro Mix Cassette (1994)

That’s twenty acquisitions today! Stay tuned for more blog posts here at Katie Cadet’s Computer and Video Game Collection, and take care!

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OpenMPT – Popular Open-Source Music Creation Software for Microsoft Windows

OpenMPT, originally developed by Olivier Lapicque in 1997 and currently being maintained by Saga Musix, is a popular open-source music creation software that utilizes a top-down tracker interface. The current version at the time of writing is 1.28.04.00, and supports current Microsoft Windows operating systems from Windows XP up to Windows 10.

FUN FACT: Saga Musix also currently maintains the ModArchive, which is a community where members upload their completed music modules for everyone to rate, review, favourite, and more!

Skaven252 (Peter Hajba of Future Crew fame) and Siren (Alexander Brandon) used OpenMPT to compose the music for a lot of PopCap games such as Bejeweled 2 and 3.

As for me, I like OpenMPT because it preserves the quality of the music regardless of what sample rate you select from the options menu of your favourite MOD player. I currently have over 120 music modules created using this software, mostly electronica music in Impulse Tracker format, and I’m happy with the result! You don’t need expensive equipment to make it happen! All you need is a Windows PC, and you’re good to go!

If you like this blog post, stay tuned for more here at Katie Cadet’s Computer and Video Game Collection, and take care!

Katie Cadet Reviews the Saitek P880 Dual Analog Gamepad video on YouTube!

Join me in another YouTube video of Katie Cadet’s Computer and Video Game Collection as I talk about the Saitek P880 Dual Analog Gamepad! (Well, the voice acting and voice recording are in a different style than I normally talk, but hey, I’m getting better with my video editing!)

While I talk about the gamepad, there are clips of Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, and StarFlyers Royal Jewel Rescue, two of which they support DirectInput, and the other one that doesn’t support gamepads that can be easily added using Saitek’s Profile Editor, found on the Saitek Download Page!

Let me know what you think and stay tuned for more! Take care!

New Thrift Store Acquisitions Special Issue: After the April fools!

April fool’s day is over! And here is what I got so far thanks to our local thrift stores:

• Corel Wild Board Games (Hybrid Classic Mac OS/Windows 3.1)
• Test Drive (PlayStation 2)
• FrenchNow! (Hybrid Classic Mac OS/Windows)
• SpanishNow! (Hybrid Classic Mac OS/Windows)

Other than the Annie Special Anniversary Edition DVD from 2003 (the actual film was released in 1982), that totals to five acquisitions! Stay tuned for more blog posts here at Katie Cadet’s Computer and Video Game Collection, and take care!

New Thrift Store Acquisitions Special Issue: Spring Cleaning!

Finally, Spring! Things are starting to warm up after all those cold snowy days! And today, we have found a lot of things thanks to our local thrift stores, but not much in the games department!

The first batch is the video games, which includes:

• Red Baron 3-D (Big Box, Windows)
• Chess Master (PlayStation 2)
• Trivial Pursuit Unhinged (PlayStation 2)
• MX vs ATV Alive (PlayStation 3)

The second batch is the miscellaneous items, which includes:

• The Magic School Bus: Space Adventures DVD (2002)
• Garth Brooks – Beyond the Season Cassette (1992)
• Garth Brooks – Roping The Wind Cassette (1991)
• Michael Bolton – The One Thing Cassette (1993)
• Kenny G – Classics in the Key of G Music CD (1999)
• Kenny G – Paradise Music CD (2001-2002)

And the total amount of acquisitions is an all-time low of ten! Stay tuned for more computer-related blog posts here at Katie Cadet’s Computer and Video Game Collection, and take care!

Revisiting Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit on Windows 10, and in 1080P HD!

Back in the early 2000s, a friend of mine got me an EA Top Ten compilation that included Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, released in 1998 by you guessed it! My brother and I played the heck out of this game on our old power-draining Windows 98 machines! Good Memories!

Fast Forward to the 2010s, and while playing the original release on Windows XP and Vista, I encountered a system freeze while loading tracks the second time you start the race, so I had to power off the PC for a few seconds before turning it on again! What a pain, but the game seemed to be incompatible with Windows Vista up to Windows 10… until now!

Yes, a modern patch exists! And a fan of the game did a lot of programming and testing for compatibility with modern Windows operating systems! A web page for the modern patch says it all! I always like classic games revisited in 1080P by the fans of the original game, and this is the one!

This modern patch was tested on my Custom Built Futuristic High Performance Rig running Windows 10 with dgVoodoo 2.55, and I didn’t encounter any issues when I did the Hometown 2-lap race with the Chevrolet Corvette, as shown in a screen capture above the text. For some reason, the modern patch won’t do any screen resolution above 1080P, causing graphical corruption. All in all, for those wanting to be a hybrid modern day gamer and retro gamer in one, go get the Modern Patch of Need for Speed III Hot Pursuit, and (even better), if you have your original copy of the game handy, this will make the installation process much easier!

Graphics Card and CPU Brands tested: AMD

That’s all for this post! Stay tuned for more! Take care!

Katie Cadet’s Computer and Video Game Collection’s All-New Windows 10 High Performance Rig of the Future!

Imagine a computer that can be a gaming console, a video editing workstation, and a light show all-in-one! That’s why one group of Katie Cadet’s Computer and Video Game Collection decided to put together a high performance Windows 10 rig of the future to contrast with the iMac 4K nicely!

And so that event happened! And I was able to play Cities XL Platinum by Focus Home Interactive, released in 2013, on this new fangled custom built machine the group and I put together in just a few days of research! I am ready to power up for a new generation of gaming and video editing, or for a light show of music! My futuristic high performance Windows 10 rig is the one pictured above the text!

So what do you think about this new customized machine? I think I should codename this futuristic rig “X12500”, since some YouTube people such as Lazy Game Reviews customize their rigs with their own name such as “Lazy Green Giant” (he featured me on episode 41 of his thrifts series!), so why not call mine X12500? That’s a good codename!

If you like this picture of my new high performance rig, stay tuned for more! I will be using this for 2010s games that I find at local thrift stores, as well as getting older games to run on modern hardware! Anyways, take care!