Downing's Basement

As I sit here on a Thursday morning in mid-November, suddenly with a ton of unexpected free time thanks to a nearly undetectable trace of Covid, I came to realize it’s been 7 months since I last posted anything! This really got me thinking…what has kept me so busy that I haven’t had the time to make even a small update post, but it didn’t take much before I realized the better question to ask was what “didn’t” happen!

Since MGC, life has just been one big run-on sentence with the only break being “and then”…and then right into the next part! The pace is something akin to boot camp where once a chance to catch a breath happens, the program is over and you’re left dazed, broken and left in awe that 6 months of your life just disappeared.

In kind of a demented way, I’m thankful I came down with the “Rona” because it’s forced me to slow down, take time to myself and allows me to take the extra time to catch up on the blog and other things that haven’t just been pushed to the back burner, they’ve been put back in the fridge.

Big Changes Since MGC

DOOM Themed Air Hockey Table

So as far as projects go, after I got done with the Tiger Boy Advance, I started on a new project that I’d never done before. Wanting to get away from portables for a little bit, I decided I wanted to try and make a mini table top game, as for Christmas last year, I was gifted a very small, very cheap Air Hockey table from a drug store end cap. To my surprise though, the kids loved it and that’s when I decided to make my own!

This will eventually be getting its own video down the road once completed and all the details will be included in it, but lets just say this project has been quite the undertaking.

Since I started work at MegaPrint, I have had full access their 4′ x 8′ CNC Router as well limitless scrap material of all kinds, as well as their full custom digital printing capabilities. This in turn allowed me to design and produce a fully working 2ft x 3ft table complete with LED backlighting!

We unfortunately ended up having to move before the rest of the project could be completed which includes some very cool LED programming as well as custom scoreboards and game modes, but I hope by early next year I might be able to get this back on track!

New House – No Basement!

So by far, July 1st was the biggest change of the year as we finally got into our own place after nearly a year of crashing in my parent’s basement. And without a doubt, this is the most beautiful place we’ve ever lived and it’s only a mile from my parents house at that which is huge. Actually, funny story, my parents lived in this house for a short time while their new house was being constructed back in 2017. After they moved out it was sold and completely renovated from the ground up into what it is today which if you looked at it, you wouldn’t believe it was the same place.

That aside though, the biggest downside to me (aside from the rent being insanely expensive) is that there is no basement and no spare office. Right now I’m set up in the Den which suffices for a retro gaming area and my main PC set-up, but I have no workshop aside from an unheated set-up in the garage, and my 3D printers have taken up residence at MegaPrint, but that has been actually pretty helpful!

So needless to say, projects like the Air Hockey Table have been put on an indefinite hold until I can figure out some kind of workshop area.

Steam Deck

And as if I needed some other kind of distraction to stop me from working on older projects, about three weeks after we moved in, I got an email from Steam, saying that after over a year on reserve, my Steam Deck was finally ready! And though I was happy about this, I had totally forgotten that I’d even put a deposit on this! This also led to the question of “how much am I really going to use this?”, much to the point that for nearly two weeks after I got it I debated on breaking the seal and just flipping it.

But the curiosity ended up winning out and I was not disappointed in the least by the decision. Though I can’t say that I’ve been using it to its potential, as all I’ve done with it really is play the PC port of Final Fantasy VII, the time I have put into it has been a great deal of fun.

My main issue is that I don’t travel enough where I would find this beneficial to take my mind off the trip. Truth be told, 90% of its use has been sitting in the same chair that’s right in front of my PC anyway. So I’m kinda in the same boat as I was when I was debating on opening it in the first place and now that there’s no lead time on them, the window to flip for a profit has vanished. But, new events that were going to require travel were right around the corner so maybe it was going to start getting the use it deserved.

Kid’s Athletics

So as the Summer transitioned into the fall, my son started up flag football. Unbeknownst to me however, I did not know that the weekend game schedule was going to take us to all points of the state for 8AM games! This effectively killed off any hope of weekend progress for anything from September through October. And though I’m glad we did it, the time commitment was killer. Not to mention October is always an extremely busy month due to the number of Birthdays that are needed to be celebrated, but it wasn’t just any birthday this year, no no. This year I was hitting the big 4-0 and though I thought I did a pretty good job for my wife’s 40th that happened back in January, she was not going to be outdone and man did she deliver!

40th Birthday

So all I can really say here is that my wife knows me well! I mean she did a very good job of nearly convincing me that bringing my brother and his family up from Baltimore as a surprise was the surprise and after he and my brother-in-law took me out leaf peeping up in the North Woods of New Hampshire (I live there anyway, but ya know) and a few drinks, I certainly was not expecting what was parked at the house when we rolled in!

I’m not sure how in all my years of gaming did I not know this was a thing…literally a full pull behind trailer loaded with video games parked right outside my own house! And it wasn’t just that, but the fact she got nearly our whole core group of people together as well just made for one amazing afternoon!


New Dog

And the most recent event, we now have a new 4 legged member of the family, Maverick! He’s 3 month old French Bulldog and is probably the cutest animal I’ve ever seen! And though we weren’t planning on getting a new pup, it’s been over a year since we had to put our 14 year old lab down, and now that we’re finally in our own place, it was time to fill that gap.

So that is probably the most abridged way of covering the past 7 months, but it of course was far more hectic than I’m making it out to sound. There have been a ton of ups and downs, loads of stress and lots of uncertainty both at home and around the world…but I just have to remember to take it a day at a time and now that I’ve got a few days in a row where I don’t have to worry about the normal world, I can catch back up on a lot of projects that I’ve been slacking on.

I hope to be making more posts in the future, but again, can’t guarantee it as I’m sure as soon as this small Covid break is over, I’ll be right back in the same routine as before. We shall see though! Hope you enjoyed catching up as much as I have! Till next time!