I decided to go with a third option. I resurrected my console from the dead. I have no illusions that I have utterly resolved my issues, but I hope that the wet towel can give my crippled console a few more weeks to live, and that is what I most need. Save the console for a few weeks and I can live with the down time. I will then let my machine succumb to the rings. Then send it in for repair.

What is most important is that it will run next week. That is all that matters beyond that I will be able to switch hit with my brothers 360 our schedules do not usually conflict. Next week they would have.

However for the record I suppose we all learned a valuable lesson the wet towel of resurrection does indeed work.

in the 90ies I used to play Football manager on a laptop... of course after 3 hours it overheats..... the freezer compartment is a very efficient cooling appliance for gaming....

Get no more heroes and possibly others to tide you over until your 360 is fixed. You can wait a month for GTA4.

Just noticed you were able to get it back running. Is that the trick where you cause it to over heat and it reset past the rrod?

I would think it is better to just get your current 360 fixed and wait on GTA4 until then. Trust me, you will survive.

Then you could get a usb dongle + cheap batteries OR setup a wireless router in your house + cheap batteries, and get Mario Kart to help you survive while the 360 is getting fixed.

EDIT:

Have you checked the prices on Ebay for Wiis and 360 arcades? Used Wiis are selling for $300+ by themselves. Used 360s arcades are going for like $120-150 or so. You stand lose a lot of money by buying an arcade and selling it later when yours is fixed. Just seems financially stupid.

yeah or he could sell his wii, buy a used arcade on ebay, resell the used arcade and rush a store to get a new wii...

Buy Okami instead of GTA, buy GTA when you're 360 is back. See WoW's comments for details.

Technically I should sell my Wii and walk away a winner right now. I probably should have sold it last year or during the holidays and walked away a real big winner. Eventually the supply will exceed demand, and the prices on the likes of Ebay will plummet. I should just be thankful that I could actually make money off of my investment rather then accept a diminishing return.

I suppose old habits die hard. I never abandon a console gracefully. By the time I concede to myself that I should indeed sell it, because it is really worthless to me. The market for the console has long since died, and I would be lucky to sell it and its associated library for fifty dollars. Which is almost always over a ninety percent devaluation. When you reach that point you might as well box it, and save it for nostalgia reasons thirty years from now.

Just an interesting thought, but it is financially sound to sell the machine. Perhaps not using it to buy a machine and sell the old one at a loss, but were the question whether I should just sell it for cold hard cash. Then yes it would probably be smart. I could always buy a new one in a few years for just over a hundred bucks. I could walk away a cool two hundred dollars richer.

Just wait. From my own pov I can't understand your impatience. GTA 4 is going to be just as good if you play it on release day or in a month :-s

If you don't want your Wii then that's a separate issue but I certainly wouldn't use the money to buy a second 360. If you're selling it then don't sell it as a bundle. You'll get more money if you list the games and console separately. You could probably find buyers on here too which would mean you wouldn't be paying listings fees. Stick an ad in your sig.