Site updates

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Site updates | 0 comments

Hurricane Sandy, for the most part, finished its course on Tuesday. Its effects were – and still are – being felt throughout the East Coast, however.

As a New Yorker, the entire experience was pretty frightening. There are a bunch of large trees scattered around the property – some of which could be healthier – so with each wind gust, I was concerned that one of them could come crashing into the house.

And man… I have never in my life heard the wind howl like it did. We honestly didn’t get much rain here (which probably helped out the trees’ stability), but the wind was enough to drive me insane. When you’re hearing those strong gusts for 12-24 hours, they’ll drive some terror in your heart!

I mentioned earlier this week that our power was cut on Monday. That was around… 6:30 ET. Obviously the lack of power brings about a huge amount of problems. It’s not until it’s gone that you realize how important electricity is in our day-to-day activities.

I notified Austin that he may need to take over NE/GE prior to Sandy’s arrival, yet I still had a pit in my stomach over the fact that I couldn’t contribute to the sites. Am I insane? Quite possibly!

Heading to a Wi-Fi spot during the hurricane was most definitely out of the question. Once the storm passed on Tuesday though, a friend luckily agreed to let me stop by for a few hours for some site updates.

That was basically what it was like throughout most of the week: searching for Wi-Fi spots, heading home at 4:30 ET so I could eat dinner before total darkness, and then spending seven hours in complete darkness. That’s what things were like around the Valay household before the power somewhat unexpectedly returned Thursday night.

Fun times! Well, no, not really.

No traffic lights. No lights in general. No people on the streets. Lots of fallen trees and wires. Property damage.

In the end I’m extremely grateful though. There are thousands upon thousands in the East Coast without power still, homes that have been demolished, and peoples’ lives that have been destroyed. I truly feel for the affected families out there and hope that some sort of normalcy can be established in the future.

Brief picture time!

That’s across the street here. A huge tree fell over and sprawled itself over the driveway, so the people inside this house were stuck inside (basically) until it was chopped up and removed.

A random downed wire. It’s kind of hard to make out in this photo.

These photos were taken a bit further down the block. Lots of trees on the house and on the ground. I’m not entirely sure if their house was severely damaged, but I can’t imagine things being too swell here…

Hopefully this week wasn’t too abnormal for you folks in terms of site updates. I truly apologize for not being able to maintain my usual routines.

Having said that, I really have to thank Austin and Patrick for helping me out. I’d say they were able to replicate updates on NE/GE very well.

Believe me… when I couldn’t get to the sites, it drove me bananas. I literally spend almost every available moment of my time on NE/GE-related activities, and since they’re such integrated parts of my life, being unable to update and not knowing what was going on wasn’t easy!

Satellite Image Source

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Site updates | 0 comments

Hi folks,

As Austin mentioned yesterday, I lost power last night. Fortunately Hurricane Sandy did not cause any damage to my house and I’m okay for the most part.

The problem is that the latest estimates suggest that power could take as long as a week to come back. Believe me when I say that a massive amount of people have been affected by power outages, which is why the wait could take so long.

I was able to come across a Wi-Fi spot and should be able to handle updates for a few hours. I’ll have to head out eventually though, so Austin will be taking over later tonight.

I’m not sure how I’ll be approaching updates over the next few days, so we’ll just have to play it by ear. Hope everyone else on the East Coast is alright though!

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Site updates | 0 comments

Some bad news for you guys: Valay just texted me and let me know that he finally lost power entirely, which means he is completely unable to access the sites (NE and GE) until further notice. The small glimmer in this otherwise dark patch is that I live in a completely different part of the country, so I should be able to keep things updating as they normally would. Things might be a little slow at times (I’m not used to this schedule; apologies), and I might miss certain things (if you have a tip, please use the contact form and send it to me; it’s a great help!), but for the most part I’m hoping you guys barely notice a difference!

Wish me luck in posting, and wish Valay even more luck in getting his power back. I’d imagine he’s already bored out of his mind!

~Austin

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Site updates | 0 comments

Hurricane Sandy will be tearing up the East Coast in a matter of hours. As it so happens, it should be hitting my area pretty hard.

I’ve generally been lucky with storms in the past, and I can’t recall any major power outages in recent years. Still, this looks like a beast of a storm, and I really have no idea what’ll happen over the next few days.

So here’s the deal – assuming something happens (mainly a power outage… which I have a feeling could last a few days if it occurs), Austin will be taking over both sites. Austin won’t be in the storm’s path at all, so if I go down, he will at least be around to tend to NE/GE.

Anyway, here’s hoping that the storm passes without too much damage…

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Site updates | 0 comments

This is an important day for two reasons. First, my guinea pig is turning one year old today. Wait… I’m the only one who cares about that? Well, aside from my personal update, you may be surprised to hear that Nintendo Everything is celebrating its fifth anniversary today as well!

When I look back on things, I seriously can’t believe that the site has been up this long. I’ve grown along with NE in many ways, and I truly believe that our updates have steadily improved over the years – in terms of quality and quantity.

I’m really pleased with where NE is at right now. I feel like we have a great handling of the news, and always post appropriate content in large bunches that is relevant to everybody’s interests. Austin has also been doing a bang-up job with features over the past couple of months with his podcasts and other initiatives like our Extra Life charity event.

At this time next year, I think you’ll find that NE’s ability to deliver updates will be better than ever – more on that in a few months. For now, let’s take the time to enjoy this day.

Happy anniversary, Nintendo Everything!

Note: Now that the day has passed, I figured you’d all love to hear that my guinea pig had a lovely birthday!

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Site updates | 0 comments

Update: Opted to switch times to PST so the max number of people will be awake to watch. Not sure too many are up at 6AM on a Saturday. 😛

NintendoEverything has never attempted to do a livestream of something before. I mean, sure, we’ve done near-live blogs and hosted some of Nintendo’s own streams, but actually streaming ourselves? And for 24 hours straight!? There are bound to be some major technical issues! Nevertheless, we’re going through with it, and we have a whole slew of games (mostly ones chosen by you!) lined up for every hour of the day. We even added some “terribad” games, as requested by you guys.

Here’s the full schedule, subject to change. All times are Pacific Standard Time (add two hours for CST, add three for EST, use Google for everything else):

[8:00-10:00AM] Mario Sports Mix
[10:00-11:00PM] WarioWare: Smooth Moves
[11:00-12:00PM] Shaq-Fu (Hopefully– SNES has been acting up)
[12:00-2:00PM] Goldeneye (N64)
[2:00-3:00PM] Star Fox 64 (Goal: Beat the game)
[3:00-4:00PM] Timeshift Multiplayer
[4:00-6:00PM] Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Goal: 99 Life Match)
[6:00-8:00PM] [OPEN– TO BE DECIDED LATER]
[8:00-10:00PM] Mario Party 6
[10:00-1:00AM] Banjo Kazooie (Goal: Beat the game)
[1:00-3:00AM] Mario Kart: Double Dash
[3:00-4:00AM] War Gods (N64)
[4:00-6:00AM] The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
[6:00-7:00AM] Just Dance
[7:00-8:00AM] Wii Sports Resort

After a final check of the technology that will be supporting us (uStream and a capture device, baby!), I’m ready to head off to bed, wake up early tomorrow and start gaming. I know most of you will miss the first couple of hours, but please tune in if you want to, and, arguably more importantly, consider donating to our page to help kids.

I’m off to bed. See you all shortly!

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Site updates | 0 comments

tl;dr – Austin is going to stream 24 hours of gaming and perform hilarious commentary, all for charity. And YOU get to decide which games are played.

Twelve games. Two hours each. One man (and sometimes the rest of the ‘Here’s a Podcast’ gang, schedules permitting). Donate here.

Update: We will be streaming Saturday at 8AM via either uStream or TwitchTV! The games we play will be announced tomorrow! PLEASE consider donating (even $5– I’m sure a lot of you have a few dollars in bank accounts somewhere!) to help kids. I want to let you know that– due to demand– we’re adding a few “terribad” games to our list, which means we’re going to play a single terribad game for two hours straight at some point Saturday/Sunday. Maybe twice! And you can watch!

I’ve never made a single penny from all the writing and podcasting and video-making I do for Nintendo Everything. I would never think to ask you guys for money for myself. That’s not at all why I started writing for NE and not at all why I keep doing it!

That being said, I’m asking for money from you for the first time ever. Not for me, but for kids without health insurance who need medical care across the country. It’s all part of something called “Extra Life“; a huge charity event that pits players against time as they attempt to game for 24 hours straight, requesting “sponsorship” from friends and family for each hour that they play. It’s an awesome way to put gaming to good use.

Here are the only two rules:

1. Austin will be playing games all 24 hours, only stopping to go to the bathroom or trade off on single player games. He’ll still be there offering commentary to make things funny, and his eyes will never leave the TV.

2. Eating will be done while playing.

3. If other members give up, Austin will keep playing. Austin is strong. Austin will not stop.

Why Should I Donate?

Well, firstly to help kids. Any amount is great– a dollar, five dollars, ten, seven, thirteen, a hundred thousand–, and one hundred percent of it goes straight to the kids. No administrative costs for the organization, no money for Nintendo Everything, no reimbursement for how much I’ll be spending on caffeine– absolutely 100% of it goes to helping people in need. It is, as donations all are, tax deductible.

Beyond that though, I’m giving to you in return for your generosity. Not only will I be playing games from 8AM Saturday morning to 8AM Sunday morning, but I will also be streaming the entire thing live so you can slowly watch me go from alert and focused to delirious, reflexive, and exhausted. The whole thing will be like Mystery Science Theater, but for video games, live, and really really tired. It is bound to be hilarious fun.

Oh, and did I mention that you guys get to decide what games I play? There will be one game from each genre played in two hour spurts (which means twelve games in total), and voting is open now!

When Is This Happening?

The fun starts at 8AM, October 20th and ends at 8AM, October 21st.

What Games?

Nobody knows yet! Voting will be open shortly.

What If I Have No Money?

You can watch the event regardless of whether or not you donate, but if you want to help out without monetary donations, share my ‘Extra Life’ page on Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, etc and tell them your friend Austin is going insane to raise money for charity.

Thank you guys so very much! It’s a pleasure to be able to make features for you, and I hope you consider supporting Nintendo Everything’s efforts to raise a bit of money!

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Site updates | 0 comments

Here’s a quick rundown of the Wii U events happening today:

3:00 AM ET / 12:00 AM PT – Japanese presentation; Japanese release date and price, other news
10:00 AM ET / 7:00 AM PT – Conference in New York City; US release date and price, other news
10:00 AM ET / 7:00 AM PT – Nintendo Direct for Europe; European release date and price, other news (Australian event planned as well)
10:00 AM ET / 7:00 AM PT – Nintendo Direct presentation for Japan – first/third-party games overview

Assuming I’m not dead, I’ll try to cover as much of these events as possible. We should be fine for the first Japanese presentation, but the three events happening at 10:00 AM could be tricky…

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Site updates | 0 comments

You may have noticed that Nintendo Everything and Gaming Everything were down for a couple of hours. We encountered a very, very annoying bug. I believe we’ve tracked that down once and for all, but that obviously doesn’t help us out today.

I’ll be posting a few updates on both sites now. Austin will be taking over in a bit. This obviously messes things up for the day, but at least we shouldn’t encounter any more issues of this kind going forward.

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Site updates | 0 comments

It’s almost that time again, folks! The latest Nintendo Direct is just a few hours away. The Japanese presentation will begin at 7 AM EDT / 4 AM PDT.

Since there won’t be matching videos in North America and Europe, today’s stream is expected to be smaller in scale. There will be updates for the 3DS and Wii, and we’ll likely see more of Animal Crossing: Jump Out and Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

Keep track of Nintendo Everything for live updates throughout the presentation.