Editorials

At the End of the Day: Deal? Or No Deal? April 10, 2007 - | Editor/Publisher

It all started when I spy a PC game on sale for $20 at Wal-Mart in Nashville. Joint Task Force. Here is the way the game is described on the internet:

“Joint Task Force is a real-time strategy game where you command the frontline forces in tomorrow’s most hazardous conflicts. All battefield units including tanks, infantry, artillery, reconnaissance and helicopters are strongest when used together.”

Basically you are the leader in 20 “dramatic missions in explosive war-zones including the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Balkans.” Timely huh?

Since I have confidence in the game’s producer, Sierra Entertainment, and the price is right, and I am hungry for a new addictive PC game, I buy the game.

When I load the game on my PC, it will not play. The error message I get is my graphics accelerator card will not support this game. I call the 1-800 number for help from Sierra, thinking I could download some graphics updates from somewhere on the Internet, but no, the gentlemen in India says I need a new graphics card.

(He has difficulty understanding an Arkie accent, I have no difficulty understanding him.)

I buy one at Best Buy in Little Rock for $81, passing on one for $121. The way you install new hardware on a computer is unplug it and take the cover off and look for a slot to put it in. I take my computer apart, always a dangerous proposition for those over 50. I try to install the new card, but cannot get the card to work.

I call my computer geek nephew’s best friend. He is a computer expert. In fact I have never met anyone who could make a computer sing like he does. But he is 21, a college student, and has a new girl friend. I cannot get him to commit even when I offer to cook a burger for him. He doesn’t refuse me, in fact he even calls me “Uncle Larry” which is his pet name for me since he was 12. He just doesn’t want to commit to a date and time certain. This young man is a native of Russia.

Meanwhile my neighbor across the street gives me the name of this other young man, this one from Jakarta, Indonesia. I leave a message on his phone. My neighbor warns me that he will try to do the work for free. He drops everything on a Saturday and comes by, but he cannot install the new card. His suggestion: new graphics card, 512RAM, and possibly a new power supply. So now we are talking $121 for new graphics card, $54 for additional RAM, and $150 for new 350 watt power supply plus installation. So now the bills is $400. He refuses to take money but finally relents to taking $25 for two hours work.

His suggestion is that I would be better off buying a new computer. My Gateway is a 2002 model.

Since I won’t have to buy printer, monitor, scanner, and related software, my newest best friend from Jakarta finds one that fits my needs on the Internet. It is a Dell.

He offers to come by and help me install it and copy the files and software from my Gateway onto the new computer.

So the bottom line is I bought a game on sale for $20 thinking I was saving $40, but now it looks like I will end up spending over $700, not counting the new game.

At the end of the day, I ask myself: Deal or No Deal?

I invite your comments ...

↑ Top