Cheap Ass Gamer's first submission turned to gold and became the winner of this week's wrapup. Of course, it helps that the comic referenced Portal, which seems to consistently rank high in our webcomic polling.

Second place goes to 2P Start, while Joy Of Tech takes third. As a reminder, the Weekly Webcomic Wrapup will be on hiatus this week and will return after the New Year. Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this (and next) week!

Ever wonder what devout followers of Cheap Ass Gamer do with their saved cash? From the looks of it, they give to charity. Last year, site owner (and wonderful Tokyo tour guide, if you must know) CheapyD raised $10,000 through CAG for Tycho and Gabe's Child's Play Charity, and in this year it only took four days to beat that record.

This year's fundraiser is a raffle: for every $5 you donate, you received one raffle ticket for one of 38 prizes (one grand prize and 44 runner-ups - there are some duplicates, read carefully). $11,300 has been donated as of this writing; excluding CheapyD's initial $1,000 donation, that's 701 people who have given $10,300, or an average of almost $15 per person. The fundraiser ends December 31, although CheapyD has declared he might extend the contest a week.

Care to donate a few extra dollars to a good cause, and perhaps walk away with some nice gaming gear? Head over to the CAG page and use the widget to donate for eligibility. The bar has been set pretty high for next year's fundraising.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled gaming news for a little soft weekend fluffy niceness. Good friend CheapyD of CheapAssGamer.com, known to us normally as David Abrams, became a father yesterday (or today, we can never figure out these Japanese datelines correctly). We wish him, his wife, and the new member of their family Tai (太) a happy and healthy future. Now how early is it to get a controller into the boy's little hands?

Feel free to leave congrats below, we're sure CheapyD and his wife can read them during Tai's 3AM feedings.

Even though your "Bros b4 hos" Gamer Motto may be both poignant and accurate, you may want to rethink it if you plan on playing on Xbox Live this weekend. Savings sultan CheapyD warns that his account was suspended for around 24 hours for his seemingly innocuous motto of "Konichiwa, bitches!" Another user on the site got a similar punishment for "called the šhit þoop," which is probably a bit more fair.

As Cheapy points out, a warning probably would have been sufficient, instead of automatically suspending a paying customer's account. There's still no word on whether or not Van Halen fans will get similar punishment for using their mottos to celebrate For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

OK, just ignore how much you'll never shop at Circuit City again for about two minutes. CheapyD, also known over a couple pints as David Abrams, was recently subpoenaed for his information regarding Speedy1961, a forum poster on Abrams' CheapAssGamer site. Speedy1961 is probably best known to the general audience as the guy who pretty much breaks or verifies major sales information early -- like the Circuit City price break for the PS3 seen above. CheapyD's lawyer has now filed a 'Motion to Quash" Circuit City's original subpoena citing procedural errors and stating, "CAG reserves the right to further challenge the Subpoena on its merits after the procedural deficiencies noted above have been addressed by this Court." That's legal talk for burning time.

CheapyD discusses the situation in the latest podcast. From a basic public relations standpoint, this really seems like a silly move. Circuit City has gotten tons of free publicity and advertising from these leaks. Well, the saga will continue and we're sure CheapyD will keep us informed.

If you're a regular listener of the CAG Cast (and you know we are) you may have already heard the news on this week's show that Cheap Ass Gamer has been subpoenaed by Circuit City. The retailer is attempting to get personal information on forum member Speedy1961, as part of legal action they're taking against him for posting info from Circuit City ads. The subpoena specifically mentions a forum posting that revealed the PS3 price drop before it was formally announced.

As Cheapy D says, the only personal information the site takes from users is an email address and an IP address. He's not rolling over though, saying he will "do what is right and legal." We just hope Cheapy wasn't being a tightwad when he hired his lawyer, we doubt Lionel Hutz will be much help here.

You want proof that Cheapy D isn't just a clever name? The lord of Cheap Ass Gamer proves it with this video, demonstrating his personal spin on the red-ring-of-death-repairing towel trick. It's an interesting process to watch if you haven't seen it, vaguely reminiscent of our college days when we would watch, enthralled as our stoner friend Rusty would turn his PlayStation completely upside down so we could all play Tony Hawk.

What makes this such a moving tribute to cheapness is not that Cheapy D will go to these lengths, it's that Cheapy D will go to these lengths every four days or so to avoid buying a new 360. Now that's a man who hates spending money.

Another edition of the weekly Joystiq Podcast has arrived, surprisingly within a week of the last one! This fourth edition finds our Cheap Ass Gamer friend, CheapyD, taking a break from his CAGcast endeavors and joining us for what's likely to be one of the longest hours in his life. Thank heavens he's arrived to give us some pointers -- the multimillion dollar production that is the Joystiq Podcast was starting to spiral dangerously out of control.

Get the podcast:
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[MP3] Download the MP3 directly

Hosts: Christopher Grant and Ludwig Kietzmann

Music: "Ted E. Bear's Mafia-Free Playland and Casino" from the Sam & Max Season 1 Soundtrack

Program:
0:00:40 - The Xbox 360 Elite! ("I've pre-ordered six or seven of them.")
0:03:24 - Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer ("That's why they need to put KITT in Grand Theft Auto.")
0:14:27 - Roooock Baaand! ("People realize those aren't real instruments, right?")
0:21:29 - Guitar Hero effects pedal ("It's something you step on, like the floor! The floor is free, why shouldn't the pedal be free?")
0:23:08 - Red Octane denies controller recall ("Seems like a pretty stupid computer.")
0:26:12 - PSP price drop ("Lots of memory... if you live in 1998.")
0:28:45 - Latest PSP firmware update ("I meant gaming heroin.")
0:31:19 - Dude, get your own ("All I want for Christmas is a decent ad campaign.")
0:32:52 - NiGHTS 2 confirmed -- again ("I've never played NiGHTS.")
0:34:04 - Time to reinvent Sonic, eh? ("I'll just Google a random butt and send it to you.")
0:38:11 - Resident Wiivil 4 ("Mii zombies?")
0:41:13 - What's up with the Wii? ("The basic rule is you can't criticize the Wii.")
0:51:12 - Continued Wii shortages ("^_^")
0:54:18 - The deal with stacker machines ("It's got mechanical pincers.")
0:55:28 - MAKE IT STOP ("I'm gonna edit one of those out just to screw you over.")

CheapyD over at CheapAssGamer.com has put together a really nice little video review about the Play Stand DS Lite from Hori. We were dubious at first, but after watching this review, we've ordered one ourselves from Play-Asia, to the tune of fifteen bucks.

This little sucker will make playing games with one hand a snap, and it also looks swanky as well. Cradle your DS Lite in some goodness, and wait patiently for the SimCity DS game to come out. It has the ability to hold the DS Lite horizontally and vertically, so basically any of your games will look sweet in its plastic and foam goodness.

Nice work, CheapyD. Now we'll wait patiently for this to arrive so we can pimp out Animal Crossing: Wide World as it was meant to be seen.

Lest you think we're the only game (site) in town supporting the Child's Play charity, we want to direct your attention (and your bulging wallets) to our good friend CheapyD's efforts at Cheap Ass Gamer. This year, he's partnered with Play-Asia to give away $1000 in credit to the popular import gameshop ... but that's not all! His legion of "cheap ass" gamers have stood up to pitch in prizes for the runners-up (our favorite: the random box. It's "basically, a ton of older games + accessories, some sealed, some not...NES/SNES/N64/PS1/PS2/Gamecube included.")

$5 buys your raffle ticket but you'd better hurry. You've only got until December 19 at 12:01AM EST to throw your hat into this virtual ring of giving (the hat does not guarantee you a place in the raffle). Check out CheapyD's post for all the rules and regulations and consider spreading your raffle love around this holiday.

Excerpted from the Cheap Ass Gamer podcast, CheapyD has some fun with the three latest consoles adapting Name That Tune into Name That Console: The Next Generation. Can you pick out the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 based on startup and fan noise? We'll give you a hint, the one that sounds like a vacuum isn't the PS3.

[Image from Killer List of Videogames. We didn't remember a Name That Tune arcade game.]

Last night I was invited by CheapyD, founder and Cheap Executive Officer of Cheap Ass Gamer, to join him and co-host Wombat on "a very special" episode of the site's podcast. No, we didn't talk about teen pregnancy and drug abuse; we talked about boobs in video games, the demise of E3, why epobirs can't get any more stars, and the apparently inscrutable Dead Rising save system. What made the show so special? It was the 40th episode and one year anniversary of the CAGcast. Congrats guys!

Listen - CAGcast #40: Happy CAGiversary!