Bubsguy.com - News, Interesting Facts and other Ramblings.

One great thing about the Wii is its use of SD memory cards for saving games. This means you can use any SD card up to 2GB. My last trip to Toys ‘R’ Us discovered Wii branded 2GB SD memory cards for $39.99. Pricey indeed. You don’t need to spend that much. I recently bought a 2GB SD memory card for $10 shipped to my door. It was manufactured by Kingston, which is a major memory seller. I bought it at Newegg.com. Use first class shipping to get the card for a total price of $10.

Here’s a link to the card.

I’ve been using it for a few weeks without any issues. It’s highly recommended. Newegg’s shipping and customer service is top notch.

Last week when I went shopping for a Wii I expected it to be a difficult task. I didn’t want to go the eBay route because of the possibility of getting a bad system and having a support nightmare. I checked Craigslist in the Tampa Bay area and there are numerous systems being sold by people at a premium. A typical asking price was $300 for a used basic system.

Now, a drive to my local Target store showed that they had ten in stock for $249.99 each. Brand new. I also found that Toys R Us, Best Buy, and most Gamestops also had systems for sale. Again, brand new. So, why do people still think they can get $300 for a used one? I don’t know.

Maybe it’s different in other parts of the Country. But here in Tampa, a simple trip to a couple of different stores and you can get one. Wal-mart seems to be the only retailer that has supply issues. They don’t have any. I ended up buy the last one at Sam’s Club (which is owned by Wal-mart). It was an unopened return.

You might ask why did I buy that one? Well, here’s a little secret. Unlike any other retailer, you can buy anything at Sam’s Club and return it if you are unhappy with it. Nevermind when you bought it. As long as you have your receipt you can return it. After 90 days, Target and Wal-Mart will say too bad. But not Sam’s Club. The philosophy behind this is since you pay for a membership, you deserve to be 100% satisfied. And rightfully so. Buying electronics at Sam’s Club is a good idea. Consider it a free extended warranty. If they won’t accept a return on an item, start asking for the Regional Manager’s phone number. This will get their attention.

One Nintendo Wii item that did seem elusive was a second Wii remote controller. I couldn’t find a remote and a nunchuck together at the same store. Most Targets didn’t have any remotes at all. Best Buy had a ton of them. They also had the Zapper Gun for $20 compared to $25 at Target.

So shop around and make a few phone calls before buying a Wii. It will be worth your while and save you some money, too.

If you own a Nintendo Wii, chances are you have starting looking at Gamecube games since the Wii is backward compatible and can play them all. The best place to buy used games in my neighborhood is Gamestop. I have five Gamestop stores within 30 minutes so there are many used games to choose from. One game I stumbled upon was True Crime : Streets of L.A. If you have owned an Xbox or Playstation 2, you have probably heard of it. It originally was released in 2003 and is similar to the Grand Theft Auto series of games. For a full review of the game, head over to IGN. Here’s a link. It got a 9.0 score rating.

Now, the best thing is the game can be bought at Gamestop for $4.99. A true bargain (no pun intended). It is a used game, so availability will vary. But I’ve seen it at 3 out 5 Gamestops in my area.

Oddly enough, two months ago I bought the game for my Playstation 2, but hardly had a chance to play it. Since I have both versions now, I was able to give a side-by-side comparison. I expected them to be exactly the same, but the Gamecube did have slightly more graphics horsepower than the Playstation 2, and it shows. The biggest difference is the graphics when driving around in the city. On the Playstation 2, the horizon looked pretty blurry. The Gamecube version it is not blurry at all. In fact, it looks pretty darn good. The frame rate is also higher. That is expected since Gamecube games get a slight shot in the arm when played on the Wii.

Overall, this game is hard to pass up. If you haven’t played it before, give it a try. It’s really hard to go wrong with a $5 game. Keep in mind, as with all Gamecube games on the Wii, you will need a Gamecube controller and memory card. This game is rated “M” for mature. Think twice about letting your kids play it.

This originally appeared on ATVFlorida.com on March 6, 2008.

Hey everybody,

Last weekend I headed out to Daytona, Florida to see the latest offerings from the big manufacturers for ATVs, motorcycles, jet skis, etc. In case you have never been there before, you can go to the Speedway and see all this stuff for free. The show is still going on until this Saturday, March 8th.

So, here’s the run down on what I saw.

Honda - A big disappointment if you were there last Saturday because just like last year, their tent wasn’t ready. The pic below was all I could see. In the past, they show all the current year’s models and bring a number of historical bikes to show. If you go this weekend, you will be able to see all of that. They do have a little pond for test riding of their jet skis which is pretty cool.

Kymco - Not a bad display at all. Not very big, but not bad. Their bikes seem to have come a long way in recent years. They are also cheaper than any other brand and always have a good number of kids quads to choose from. They did have a so called cruiser motorcycle that was almost laughable in its execution and quality, but hey, they got to start somewhere. Their scooter look ok, too.

Suzuki - The Suzuki tent was a little sparse for the dirt. Nothing really new to report, but you can check out their quads and dirt bikes. The street bikes for Suzuki is where its at because their new B-king Vmax killer definitely has a different style, like a transformer like bike (sorry no pic of that one).

Yamaha - Yamaha had by far the best display for the dirt enthusiast. They had a mini dirt track setup for testing of their ATVs and Rhinos. Very cool. They also had a lot of their aftermarket products on display. Cudos to Yamaha.

OCC was there with a trailer and some of their production bikes. There was hardly anybody there! 3 years ago it was a circus when Paul Sr & Jr showed up. Even though they weren’t making an appearance on this day, I think the buzz is long over. Their display was a ghost town. Good luck to Vinnie & Cody for starting their own company, V-Force customs. They were showing off their first bike near Destination Daytona but I missed it. Maybe they can make a fortune like the Teutuls without all the BS.

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Summer is here and all the big network shows have aired their final episodes. In a hunt to find something new to watch on cable (or old in this respect), I discovered AWA Wrestling on ESPN Classic. You might remember the names like Baron Von Raschke, The Midnight Rockers, Adorable Adrian Adonis, Nick Bockwinkle, The Iron Shiek and Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie with his “Army” to just name a few.

ESPN is currently showing episodes from 1988. So expect feathered hair, big funny sun glasses, and tassles. This is a throwback that is extremely entertaining. It’s really hard not to laugh when The Midnight Rockers come out in their 80’s Flash Dance leg warmers run dancing with their anthem from Judas Priest, “Living After Midnight”. The crowd goes wild!

This was back when wrestling was more “technical” (at least in the AWA) and still slightly believed to be real, because hey, it’s on ESPN, it has got to be a sport! AWA was nearing it’s demise of popularity near the late 80’s because of the rise of the WWF (now WWE), but we can still watch some great pointless TV here that is a like a capsule in time. Part nostalgia, part nonsense, but you just have to root for Baron Von Raschke getting revenge with the Sheik after damaging his infamous “claw” with a foreign object.

I also found it very interesting to research some of the wrestlers in the Wikipedia, to see where they are now. Some continued on in other leagues and have wrestled up until recently, others have become wrestling trainers, and quite a few have passed on. It’s a great little history lesson.

So if you watched wrestling when you were a kid or just like wrestling for that matter, check out AWA Wrestling on ESPN Classic. It airs most weekday nights at 1:00AM EST.