Friday, February 26, 2021

Year 5: February Update

Last month's blog update image turned out to be an unintentional preview for my latest "almost-a-toy video." McDonald's stuff isn't exactly about toys but a few of the items qualify as such so I grouped it with the toy posts. Of course, I decided to do that because of the recent Pokémon trading card craze at the fast food chain. Pokémon is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and just today three new video games in the franchise were announced for the Switch. Two of them are remakes of the Nintendo DS' Diamond and Pearl Versions that will be out at the end of the year while the third is a new open-world RPG from Game Freak that is expected to release in 2022.

Mattel announced a Hot Wheels video game will be out on September 30th for all the major platforms. That one is in development at Milestone, an Italian studio that specializes in realistic racing titles. Quite a bit going on this week for gaming as Sony also held a State of Play event, though nothing there grabbed my attention. The big reveal was Final Fantasy VII Remake for PlayStation 5. Other games being brought to the latest consoles and Switch are Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, both from Activision. If you're waiting for the Intellivision Amico you'll need to wait even longer as it was delayed for a second time and will now release October 10, 2021, exactly one year later than originally intended.

Hasbro revealed some upcoming television programs this week too. There will be two new Transformers animated shows which isn't a surprise as that franchise is continuously being milked. One will air on Nickelodeon and will be about a new species rather than Autobots and Decepticons. The other is a Netflix show subtitled "BotBots" that is set in a shopping mall where the Transformers pose as everyday objects. Netflix will be the home of a new My Little Pony series and movie as well. Finally, a live-action G.I. Joe show is in the works for Amazon Prime! Not much is known about this one other than Lady Jaye is the focus.

Here's a quick story about a recent experience with my first and still primary HDTV that I bought in January 2011. It had been giving me some issues throughout the past year with lines on the screen for a few minutes when I'd turn it on and then this month all the HDMI ports quit working. What was most strange is that the Switch and Xbox One displayed no signal, my PC caused the TV to turn on and off, and the PS4 got a partial picture through that caused the TV to make popping sounds. After searching online I found HDMI ports failing was common on older LG TVs and someone suggested "cooking" the circuit board in an electric oven. 

Back of my television opened up. Power supply
on the left, main board on the right.

Without HDMI ports the TV was not very useful so I went for it, though I had to take it to another house since I have a gas oven. That actually worked, fixing both the ports and the image quality. I'm not suggesting anyone with a broken LG TV try it but it didn't seem like a big risk since a similar television today wouldn't cost too much and if it hadn't worked I'd have upgraded to 4K but that will have to wait until the TV breaks again.

Thanks for reading,
Jonathan

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