I’ll freely concede that here at eTeknix if something a bit bizarre crops up in the news it’s usually passed onto me for my expressed attention. Yes, I make no secret about the fact that while I love technology, I have a particular passion for some of the more weird and wonderful varieties of news that occasionally crop up. – So, with that in mind, for today’s festive edition of Mikes Rant Christmas Edition 2021, let’s have a nostalgic recap of some of the maddest news we’ve covered over the last year!
The PS5 is now over a year old. Despite that, however, getting one today is almost exactly as difficult as it was when they originally (and briefly) hit retail shelves. With global shipping seeing huge delays though, Sony came up with a rather novel solution. Namely, chartering Boeing jets simply for the purpose of filling their cargo hold up with PS5 consoles bound for the UK.
Did it help? Probably not much. – If you do, however, want to learn more, you can check out the full story via the link here!
It has, unfortunately, become all a bit too expected these days that any title released will probably not only come with a day one patch but also (probably) masses of more bugs and glitches that will need to be (eventually) ironed out. – The case of ‘Arctic Adventure’, however, was certainly a bit different. You see, this came from the days of homebrew developers and this particular title was somewhat representative of the time. Rather than a game you could just install, you were instead given code to type out that, all going well, would result in you being able to play the title the creator had (often painstakingly) put together.
Being printed in a magazine, however, the issue with ‘Arctic Adventure’ was that it had an unfortunate typo in the code that rendered the game completely unbeatable. – As mad as it might sound though, the game’s creator, Harry McCracken actually returned, 40-years later, to fix the bug that now makes the game fully playable!
To learn more, click the link here!
I daresay that more than a few of us now lament treating our games and consoles (and particularly the packaging) with a somewhat disposable nature back when we first got them. Although I can’t quite remember as a 100% fact, I’m pretty sure that the box my NES came in (back in Christmas circa 1988) was promptly destroyed within seconds in my excitement to fire up Duck Hunt.
In one exceptionally rare instance, however, a charity shop in America found something very unique in their possession. A sealed copy of ‘The Legend of Zelda’. – Fortunately, they were able to ascertain that what they had was exceptionally rare and they were subsequently able to sell it for over $400.000.
Click here for the full story!
A common metaphorical question many people are asked is what single possession would they remove from their house if it was on fire. For one particular person, however, it seems that when this poser became a reality, they (probably wisely) didn’t choose to lug their PC through the flames. Against all expectations, however, a subsequent check of the system found that the processor and graphics card were, somehow, still working!
Click here to check out the full story!
Finding big-box retro PC gaming titles is quite hard these days. Well, in terms of snagging yourself a bargain at least. With this in mind, therefore, when a boxed copy of ‘Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster’ was spotted at a charity shop, one person, quite rightly, simply had to make it their own. What they were not expecting to find within it, however, was not just a hand-written walkthrough, but one that contained some of the finest penmanship that you wouldn’t normally expect to see from the PC gaming community! (My handwriting is often compared to that of a spider having crawled in some ink and then across the page).
You can learn about this amazing find via the link here!
It’s so common that video game controllers have a vibration functionality these days that it’s often hard to remember when they did not. For one person, however, they decided that the level of vibration was simply not immersive enough. They did, therefore, homebrew a mod that made their entire desk (violently) vibrate to the action! – Practical? No. Recommended? Absolutely not! Fun to watch? 100%!
Click here to check it out!
Am I fortunate to not be wanted by the police? Probably. Especially considering some of the stuff I’ve written over the years. I daresay though that my name might be in a filing cabinet somewhere in China. For one man, however, despite having successfully escaped prison, it seems that the temptation of checking out the (then) new Call of Duty was simply too much to keep him indoors.
Unfortunately for him, however, he managed to attract the attention of the police on his way to buy the game and, after a brief but certainly notable scuffle, he was quickly captured within even managing to snag himself a single 360 no-scope kill!
Click here to check the story out!
I’ll freely concede that as I child I probably spent a lot more time playing my NES than actually doing something productive (let alone homework). Earlier this year, however, a rather unique device was discovered that looked to help parents limit the amount of time their kids could spend on the system. Namely, a locking device that prevented cartridges from being loaded!
Sounds mad, but it’s true! And you can learn more about it here!
Hands up if you owned a Fisher-Price ‘Chatter’ telephone growing up as a kid? Throw up another hand if you’re old enough now to have bought one for your own kid/s? – Yes, it’s undoubtedly one of the most iconic toys ever created. In something definitely approaching the weird and wonderful, however, Fisher-Price announced the launch of a fully working version. Yes, through the use of Bluetooth, you can both make and receive calls on your very own ‘Chatter’ phone.
Admittedly, it’s not entirely practical. Let’s face it though, who wouldn’t love one of these sat on their desk?…
Click here to check the full story out!
For many, the name ‘3DFX’ will likely mean nothing. For those probably over the age of 30, however, you may recall that for a period during the 90s’ they represented the graphics card brand! Having one of their ‘Voodoo’ GPUs in your system was the calling card of a real PC enthusiast. – While the brand has long since been dead, however, (following their purchase by Nvidia), back in the Summer, their Twitter channel sprang back into live claiming that not only were they back, but consumers could expect a whole wave of new tech launches before the end of this year.
Now, was it a hoax? Of course it was. It was hugely fun while it lasted though and if you want to learn more, click on the link here!
If you’re going to spend a small fortune on a graphics card (which isn’t hard at the moment for any relatively modern model), then I think it would be fair to say that most consumers would expect the overall build quality to be beyond question. For a short version of time during the Summer, however, a growing number of reports began citing the discovery of very iffy thermal pad applications on Nvidia 30XX Founders Edition graphics cards.
This included, most notably, the discovery of a ‘finger cot’ within a Nvidia 3090. – Fortunately, it did appear that this was merely an isolated issue. Albiet, how many of you have ever actually bothered to open your GPU to have a look? Not, incidentally, that we’d recommend it for the casual user.
If you do, however, want to learn more, click on the link here!
Unusually high levels of power consumption that isn’t being paid for? It’s certainly the traditional calling card of the illicit drug farm. It seems, however, that upon raiding a factory unit expecting to find masses of marijuana plants, UK police instead discovered a colossally huge cryptocurrency mining setup. – It seems that, if nothing else, 2021 has been the year in which police may have to consider alternative reasons why masses of electricity might be getting stolen!
Click here for the full story!
Well, as much as it was something of a chore to put that list together for you, I must admit to taking more than a little pleasure in recapping some of the most amusing and bizarre stories we covered over 2021. – If you too enjoyed this trip down memory lane, be sure to keep checking in on our website and social media portals as I fully intend to keep bringing you all the madness we’ll undoubtedly see from 2022!
For more of Mike’s Christmas-related rantiness, check out the link here! They’ll be a new rant (nearly) every day between Christmas and New Year!
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