Legacy of Lappy

It was a big deal when I got my first laptop. I wanted to have my own computer that isn't filled with so much clutter that my Dad especially leaves on anything he accesses. Whether it be on the desktop computer he uses, or on top of the physical desk the desktop computer is on, it's just a mess. Of course, being organized isn't the main reason why. The "real" reason for me wanting my laptop was for my own entertainment, such as being able to run computer games that our crappy desktop with Windows ME couldn't play well. I mean, the graphics chip that that old thing had couldn't render textures properly on character models. Mind you, this is as far back as the year when Guild Wars was released when I took that screenshot on Windows Mistake Edition.

Lack of texture sure is... shiny... ?

2005 was also when I graduated from high school, and decided to go to college at Rutgers University. The main purpose of me getting a laptop would be so that I can do my assignments on them at college, so my parents bought me a Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4000. It was definitely superior to all the Macs and the Windows ME we had at home. Allowed me to play Guild Wars with the proper texture, albeit it didn't provide the absolute best in graphics, but I wasn't really looking for a super-expensive laptop that can look super pretty and drain lots of power whilst doing so. As my first laptop, I wanted an all-round, versatile laptop that can do everything to a point where it's acceptable. It did for as long as the 3 years Lappy worked for me.

I did a lot of things on Lappy. My college assignments, of course, browse the internet, mostly talking with people on Gaia Online back then, use Adobe Photoshop to make simple stuff for Gaia as well... games from Guild Wars, Ragnarok Online, Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, Flyff, etc. Lappy and I also experienced a lot of other things too like viruses and malware. I mean, I knew enough to have protection on my computer but ... geeze, Norton Anti-Virus sucks. Norton kept detecting trojan horses that would immediately get quarantined, only to get replaced with a brand new one that Norton will continue to quarantine, filling its quarantined folder with countless copies of this crap that the main virus was creating. It was quite the nightmare. Norton eating up a lot of Lappy's resources to fill its harddrive with this crap, without solving the problem at all. Norton was essentially used to work against Lappy in a harmful way, and that pissed me off pretty badly. =/ Used some other program to detect where the main virus was, and removed it manually myself to fix the issue. Got rid of Norton so fast after that...

Lappy and I played Stepmania a lot too. It was my first time really getting into DDR then. My friend, Xu and I would play for hours... In fact, he was the one who taught me how to be good at DDR. After a while of getting used to DDR, I nearly played an endless game for about an hour straight. I just wish my Dad hadn't broken my dance pad with his carelessness when I had to leave Rutgers... ._. The dance pad I got cost just above $100 too, from RedOctane.

It was around that time when Gaia Online came out with a new, big game called zOMG. Big, ring-based MMORPG combat which mechanics are somewhat similar to Guild Wars in that you pick 8 skills to take with you into combat. However, the game, much like most flash games now, eats up an awful lot of resources it seems, so I tried getting bigger RAM for Lappy. Unfortunately, Lappy was still using the old DDR (Not Dance Dance Revolution) type RAM, which has a smaller limit than DDR2 type RAM, and costs more on top of that. D= And even worse, upgrading its RAM still didn't help run zOMG any better. The game lagged so badly that the game would freeze for around or over a minute when things got action heavy, and that's when you need it to lag the least. By the time the lag's over, if it ever DOES end, everyone would be dead. It was virtually unplayable. The issue I found was to be with my processor. It was simply not strong enough to keep up all the processing it required for flash games, for some apparent reason.

It was then that I decided to get a new laptop which main focus was for gaming. I wanted a strong graphics card, a powerful processor, and a big enough harddrive for all the things that I wanted, like games. Things that Lappy lacked for my needs. And this was what I had found on Newegg. I decided to name this laptop Pugyuu, a nickname for the abbreviation, P(ortable) G(aming) U(nit).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220343

I got Pugyuu when Newegg was having a sale, and Asus also had a $100 mail-in rebate going on at the same time as well. I had to wait a few months for this opportunity to come, and I had to jump at this opportunity, or else I would have missed it. I nearly did miss it anyway, because of Dad, but I understand how he was reluctant about getting it. I ended up having to spend what money I had saved up from my job at a pizzeria when I was in high school, as well as combining my birthday and Christmas gift for that year into buying this laptop, which worked out better for me since it's rare that I get anything good on my birthday and Christmas anyway. When Pugyuu finally arrived in the mail, the first few things I did were setting it up like removing Norton and replacing it with a different anti-virus program immediately. I also tested out zOMG on Gaia, and it ran so well that I felt so powerful in the game in comparison to how helpless I was on Lappy. On top of that, having Lappy handle things like AIM to chat on, while I played games on Pugyuu was a powerful and convenient set up where I don't have to alt tab to see messages and also not having to split my computers' resources that way.

It was around then when Lappy suddenly blue-screened on me. Obviously, I was concerned, wondering whether if I should have ran some malware scan or if maybe I had skimped out on keeping Lappy running optimally. Thankfully, I had Pugyuu with me, so if in the case of an error, I could look it up on Pugyuu while I work on fixing up Lappy. I quickly turned Lappy back on after the blue screen to get to work... but all that greeted me was a black screen. Not even a splash screen of any sort. The power was definitely on, but the processors weren't running. Perhaps I had turned Lappy back on too soon after it had shut down from its blue screen. It's possible that doing so had possibly corrupted the hard drive. That was the last I saw of Lappy with its screen lit, and that was the conclusion I came up with after the many diagnoses of Lappy's behavior.

There have been plans on resurrecting Lappy once again, by getting it a new hard drive with an operating system, and perhaps attempt to salvage what valuable data I have still in that hard drive. However, the opportunity hasn't come yet. Lappy now sleeps in its box, back with my family in New Jersey. Pugyuu now carries on Lappy's legacy with what information I could gather that I had before. So much was still lost however, as well as a big part of my life. It is a loss I wish to never experience again.