Virtual Boy Stuff:

Virtual League Baseball 2 was found and released. Compared to the first game, we've got:

• Brighter graphics
• A dynamic fielding camera
• Functionally different ballparks
• "Full Swing"
• The ability to reposition fielders while pitching
• Optional "Semi Auto" fielding
• Multiplayer
• Save support
• Arguably better music

...2's been much more fun and engaging to play in the time I've spent with it so far, though I do kinda miss the SD players in the Japanese original.

Finished Insmouse no Yakata in Japanese 'cause it really doesn't need to be translated; good game, doesn't do much with the 3D effect though. Wrapping-up the last few bits of Jack Bros. too; better game, better use of 3D. Neither is worth the asking price though, so I'm glad to see them in the Nintendo Classics collection.

Also, Capitán Sevilla 3D and Fishbone both look really good; more slick sprite-based games, please. 

Deathchase is pretty neat, Dragon Chopper could turn into something fun, Hunter is an interesting curiosity, VB Racing is pretty great, and Zpace Racers is a really cool glimpse into what could've been.

Other Stuff:

Hi-Fi RUSH, Sifu, Bloodborne, Demon's Souls, MediEvil... Nothing was grabbing me, so I finally committed to Gravity Rush 2, and I'm hooked. Really liked the first one, and the sequel feels great.

Bubsy 4D demo isn't great; Yooka-Replaylee demo is better but I hope they added more sound effects for the final release 'cause that attack sound gets old fast. Went back and played Yooka-Laylee, and it's much better than I'd heard - the quizzes are inane, Kartos levels are broken, the final boss is kind of annoying, but it's still really good. Tried The Impossible Lair, too and it didn't feel great; nothing wrong with it, but it feels way more sluggish than Donkey Kong Country.

Finished Echoes of Wisdom and thoroughly enjoyed it. Things did start to drag a little, but there were enough secrets and entertaining writing to keep it interesting.

Getting back to Age of Calamity; still just fine. Might even buy Age of Imprisonment one day.

Played some spooky games for Hallowe'en: The Ten Bells is absolutely worth your time, and FAITH is genuinely chilling despite it's intentional limitations.

Picked-up a $5, French, not-for-resale copy of Destiny for PS4 - playing solo through story missions and patrols without a PlayStation Plus account is decent; might even buy The Taken King if it goers on-sale for $3 again... Rise of Iron for $30 is a big nope though, and sealed copies of The Collection don't seem to be readily-available for cheap. Still prefer Anthem, by the way :(

Thrift store stuff:

• Tactile MX Mechanical Mini for $10 - that's $210-off!
• Clean Logitech G633 headset also for $10 - they were close to $300 new!
• Pioneer DM-C820, which happens to go with the LaserActive PAC-K1 - Neat :)
• CIB Casio SF-3000 GD for $5; works great, but as awful to use.
• Linksys EA8500 AC2600 router for $9
• Samsung SyncMaster 193p Plus for $15 for my old PCs.
• 15" LG Flatron TV + remote w/VGA+audio, component, s-video, etc... for $20 for my old video games - composite input ain't great though.
• Xbox One Kinect sensor for $10 (just to have a spare)

...Also found and left:

• Clean Razer BlackShark headset for $14
• TRD-80 Cassette Interface for $4
• Oculus DK2 for $20
• HP OfficeJet Pro 7740 for $25

128Mb, huh?

Test Chamber was released for Virtual Boy and it's a 4Mb game, so that's five titles now. Looks like MrCART is the best value going forward, but I'm not in any rush.

...And then they announced Virtual Boy - Nintendo Classics! It's missing eight games, there's no word on mutliplayer support, and the image quality doesn't look very good (please make filters) but I'm buying one anyway.

Started Hi-Fi RUSH; looks incredible, deep and rewarding combat, and I'm getting kinda bored between cutscenes. Will finish it.

Started Sifu... It's fine; not really getting into the flow though.

Finally started Bloodborne in earnest - five hours in, and I want to like it more but it's just kind of exhausting. I get it; it scratches all sorts of itches really effectively, but it just wastes so much time. I'll keep at it, but spread-out over time.

Finished Horizon Zero Dawn and The Frozen Wilds (not Remastered), and while it was never quite a chore, I think I just like the setting and not much else - the presentation is a little rough around the edges, the combat is still fine and plenty deep, the story is uneven... It's a very good game, but I'm mostly only interested in Forbidden West for the graphics, am absolutely not shelling-out for a PS VR2 for Call of the Mountain, and I'm so far removed from the Lego games in general.

Grabbed Heretic + Hexen, played through Faith Renewed as well as Vestiges of Grandeur, and they're both great.

Pretty much done Super Mario Wonder - green checkmarks all around except for Special World; working on The Final-Final Test Badge Marathon. Game is a masterpiece, maybe a little easy, incredibly charming, and vaguely reminiscent Virtual Boy Wario Land with the multi-layer playfield, eye-tracking, exploration, etc...

Pleasantly surprised by Echoes of Wisdom, albeit repetitive. Wetlands writing is particularly hilarious; maybe halfway through, and excited for more.

Totally missed GBADoom - very impressive, and looks like the best way to play on Analogue Pocket. The new SNES DOOM, while also seriously impressive (and still tempting), just isn't the same as GBADoom, DOOM 32X Resurrection (3.3a!), DOOM CD32X Fusion, or the Saturn Doom fix patch - those were achieved using contemporary hardware, whereas the new SNES DOOM was not. The FX3 is neat, but it just didn't exist back then.

Found a sealed TrickleStar AV Advanced PowerStrip+ for $5, and what a silly device.

An Experience

Add Outer Wilds to the list with Pacific Drive and No Man's Sky... Finally got around to playing it, and while it's really clever with some truly stunning moments, and while I appreciate its smaller scale, it's just enough of a Roguelike to feel like a chore sometimes. I finished it, and I enjoyed it, and never got stuck for long; but the repetitive elements felt more like they were in service of the narrative rather than the gameplay. I'll count this one along with Majora's Mask 3D as an achievement in the genre nonetheless; worth checking-out.

Been catching-up on all the Paprium happenings and I don't get it. The game looks fine, but Streets of Rage 2 and Bare Knuckle 3 are still the best examples of the genre on that platform.

Speaking of sorta-released games, I finally got to play Bound High! on an actual Virtual Boy and I have never experienced my stomach drop while playing a video game - it honestly felt like I was on a roller coaster. Incredible use of the platform. Otherwise, finally got to try:

• Elevated Speed (16Mb)- Great graphics, questionable design.
• Faceball - Impressive! Awkward controls.
• Hyper Fighting (Demo) - Looks great, plays poorly.
• Insmouse No Yakata - Way better than expected; need more time with it.
  
• SD Gundam Dimension War - Actually about as bad as I'd heard.
• Space Invaders Virtual Collection - Slightly better than expected, but nothing special.
• Space Squash - Decent so far; need more time with it.
• Virtual Bowling - Overrated so far, but I'll reserve judgement until I've played more.
• Virtual Lab - Worse than expected!
• Waterworld - Better than expected!

Still interested in the new SNES DOOM, but $100 US and not shipping 'til 2026? I think I'm alright.

Found a copy of Ballistic for Nuon at a thrift store - so I had to check every DVD player there, just in case. No dice though.

Grabbed a loose Wolf Link amiibo from a local guy, just to go with my Wii U copy of Breath of the Wild; very cool, and I wish I'd done it sooner.

Re: Windows 11 on my X1 Carbon 2nd Gen - I needed to install a bunch of specific drivers manually, but I got the Adaptive Row working! Had been picky about drivers in the past.

Well, the ribbon isn't virtual...

Bought three Virtual Ribbon 4.0 kits for my three Virtual Boys, and got a pal to install them for me seeing as how I lack both the Virtual-Boy-specific Gamebit screwdriver and the necessary soldering skills. Also splurged on a FlashBoy+ - which're too small for Elevated Speed, Formula V, Hyper Fighting, and Virtual WarZone 😞 There's a lower-resolution version of the beta of first one though, I'm not super-interested in playing a Street Fighter game on that controller, and $100 USD for the last one feels steep; plus shipping, duties, and second copies of the two-player games is getting a little ridiculous. I could've spent an extra $100 on a HyperBoy+ or a MrCART, but it doesn't feel worth it for three games at this point. Anyway, still need Waterworld to complete the NA collection (and then six ridiculously-expensive Japanese releases), but these upgrades are a huge relief and I'm mostly looking forward to the Innsmouth no Yakata translation as well as grabbing a link cable for the two-player Mario's Tennis hack. Speaking of hacks, I was way out of date in terms of what the community's been up to over the past 15 years or so. I'd also forgotten how much I enjoy this thing; seriously, every game (even some of 3D Tetris) is still pretty fun.

Found a complete copy of Jeopardy! for SEGA CD; I know there's a PC port, but I just wanted that original footage on the original platform... RIP, Alex Trebek.

DOOM CD32X Fusion 2.2!

As I finish-up Planet Robobot, I think the only Kirby games I actually like are:

• Dream Land
• Epic Yarn
• Planet Robobot
• Forgotten Land

They released a demo for Mina The Hollower, and I kinda hate that there's no scanline option; looks awful scaled to fit a 27" 1440p display... 5x is the way to go. Also don't really like jump/burrow control scheme. Really neat Zeldavania otherwise, but I was hoping I'd like it more.

Speaking of things I wish I enjoyed more, Pacific Drive and No Man's Sky both seem to require a level of commitment that I'm just not into right now; which really sucks because they're both so cool, but I haven't been able to find a rhythm - not even in VR with the latter, though getting in and out of your ship in VR absolutely rules :)

Speaking of VR, I finally really sat down with Rez Infinite; and while it's a neat upgrade to the original, it's the new Inifinite mode that really impresses. Still mad that my WMR headset just doesn't work past Windows 23H2 :/

Speaking of Windows support, I've successfully installed stock Windows 11 on these "unsupported" computers:

• ThinkPad E570
• Core i5-7200U
• Surface Book
• Core i5-6300U
• EliteDesk 800 G1 DM
• Core i5-4570T
• ThinkPad X1 Carbon
• Core i5-4300U

"Elite"

Graven sucks, Cultic is boring, not even bothering with Wrath... Might as well just replay Hexen, Blood, and Quake again. I really wanted to like Graven though, and I really tried, and it really does have potential, but it just ends-up feeling more like Daikatana than anything else... And I've even been a bit of a Daikatana apologist, but I couldn't finish this one.

Can't stop thinking about how well Majora's Mask 3D came together, and wishing I liked Wind Waker more than I do. Probably gonna go back to Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks again before tackling Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.

Finally finishing the last two Special worlds in Super Mario 3D Land... I think I hate the physics in that game. Also finally getting back to New Super Mario Bros. 2; feeling like it's kind of underappreciated these days - some really good ideas in there.

Space Marine 2 is so pretty and I'm so glad that it exists and I'll buy the next one, but it also feels kinda short (yes, I'm playing through Operations) and somehow also a little boring through the middle? I appreciate how many classes, loadouts, and squad-dynamics are available, but... Meh? Maybe I'm wearing rose-coloured glasses when I think about the first one, but I remember the gameplay just clicking a lot better for me back then.

Bought Lair again; don't remember why I sold it.

Got an old phone-santising UV thing for free, and it cleared my EPROM, and I now have a two-slot MVS running a paid version of the Universe BIOS 4.0

Found an HP EliteDesk 800 G1 DM at a thrift store for $13:

• Core i5 4570T
• 4GB 1600MHz DDR3
• 120GB Intel SATA SSD
• Windows 8 Pro

...A friend gave me a 256GB Samsung NVMe SSD for free (only works as a second drive on that motherboard though), I found an OEM power adapter on a local marketplace for $10, tracked-down another 4GB of RAM for $3, and installed the Windows 10 Home license (upgraded to 11) from my HP Stream 14 laptop (it runs Linux better anyway) - $26 all-in!

Fierce Deity

Majora's Mask 3D is a very welcome upgrade over the N64 original. I get the appeal of the organic exploration and discoveries in the original games, but it all feels a little arbitrary once you've wasted enough of your real life applying the solutions. The remake goes a little overboard with the Bombers hints, but then they're also optional. A lot of the game is still obtuse and the new swimming controls are questionable, but I think this may be my favourite Zelda game.

Finally found copies of Disneyland Adventures and Kinect Sports Rivals for Xbox One; surprisingly few Xbox One Kinect games in the wild around here. Also grabbed Project Spark and ScreamRide for $5 each.

Wipeout-DC is really cool, but I'm still enjoying HD and Fury... Plus I don't have an ODE for my Dreamcast and they're still releasing new versions, so I'm waiting to burn any new releases.

DOOM CD32X Fusion v2.1a! Doom fix patch 0.2.1 for Saturn! What a time to be alive!

Ghost of a Tale is so impressive at first, but becomes such a slog toward the end. An absolutely stunning achievement for such a small team and the tools involved; but the game either needs to be polished in terms of layout and interface, or it needs to be shorter. It's still very good, and maybe its flaws are just in starker relief because I played it alongside Majora's Mask 3D, but it just needs a little more time and care.

Found a Mouse Systems Corp. PC Mouse MSC 901163-001/A at a thrift shop in the middle of nowhere, complete in the box, with handwritten notes. It works great in DOS, and that's about it. Neat curiosity.

Thought about figuring-out that PC Mouse on Windows 11 without a serial connection, but finally pulled the trigger on a G203 instead... Took some time to get used to the right-click sensitivity, especially as a two-fingertip user, but what an upgrade from my Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical.

Finally found a PS3 Super Slim for cheap, 'transferring' my library from my CECHA model literally took an entire day - firmware upgrade; full system wipe; configure network, time, AV; log-in to PSN, download everything I own as well as any add-ons; install all of my discs, download and install upgrades; remember there's no way to recover the offline saves on my old system...  Brutal, but worth it if this thing holds-up. Will still see about getting my CECHA fixed (again), and still entertaining a "Frankie" conversion some day, but pretty content for now.

Got a great deal on a TL866, contacted Razoola to get my personal Universe BIOS 4.0 upgrade, need a proper UV light or a blank EPROM, might also grab a 4Mb adaptor for Amiga stuff.

Never gonna play this, or the originals, or Destiny... But wow.

"Don't mess or you'll get burned!"

Looks like a 4070 Ti SUPER or a 9070 XT are the sweetspot until prices and stock levels calm down, and that's... $950~$1100 CAD!? Yikes. So the realistic entrypoint with any kind of futureproofing is a 7600 XT at $450, or splurging for a 4060 Ti at $600; everything in between or newer kind of feels like it's in a holding-pattern right now.

Anyway, Concrete Genie was a pleasant surprise. Really pretty, pretty charming, fun to explore, and doesn't overstay its welcome. Would like to see it running at a higher framerate on newer hardware, but not upset about it either way.

The Order: 1886 - I feel bad for Ready at Dawn; fantastic production values (especially for what is effectively a launch title) that hold-up today, great performances, intriguing world and story, solid gameplay... You'll notice some rough edges if you look close enough, but nothing I'd dock points for; I recall reading complaints about campaign length and shallow gameplay when it was first released, but it was the abrupt ending that seemed to stick with most... I disagree with all of that, though I do understand it in context as a full-priced retail product with limited replay value. For me, I wonder if the moment-to-moment scope is a result of the developer's PSP roots, but otherwise this feels like a complete package should've been an easy sell as a showpiece followed by a discount relatively soon after launch. Sad we're not getting any more.

Crusader of Centy - Absolutely not worth $400~$600 for a loose copy, especially when games like Beyond Oasis and even Landstalker exist. It's not bad, but it is a weird beast; seriously impressive graphics and genuinely catchy music, plus all the elements of a good 2D Zelda game and a unique animal-pairing powerup system... But none of it really works all that well as a whole. The animation and level design is kind of janky, and it often feels like the way forward is a fluke or an afterthought rather than a natural progression; the floaty controls only accentuate those issues, and the music sounds like it's from a different game. Still fun and still worth playing, but this one ranks below Landstalker and Beyond Oasis in the genre.

Burned through PC-Genjin; it gets pretty tough... Started the sequel, and it feels way more refined so far.

Did some more shopping:

• Power Strike (SMS)
• Found it loose for a decent price; seminal game, was mail-order-only in this part of the world.
• Operation C (GB)
• Loved it as a kid; never owned it.
• Defenders of Oasis (GG)
• Found it a few towns over for way under the going rate.
• Aladdin (Genesis)
• Never owned it; fixed that.
• The Jungle Book (Genesis)
• Incredible graphics, right up there with Aladdin and Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure... Terrible music.
• Doom (PSX)
• Unique port, never played it, went Greatest Hits because the longbox and black label versions are ridiculously expensive.
• Donkey Kong 64 (N64)
• Never owned it; thought I should.
• Haven Call of the King (PS2)
• Traveler's Tales curiosity; was cheap.
• Jak and Daxter The Precursor Legacy (PS2)
• Never should've sold my copy when I got the Jak and Daxter Collection for PS3; remaster isn't quite perfect.
• Jak X Combat Racing (PS2)
• Kept hearing how good it was and found it cheap.
• Froggers Adventures Temple of Frog (GBA)
• Got it for free.
• Sonic Battle (GBA)
• Found it cheap.
• Fighters Uncaged (360)
• Ridiculous; had to have it.
• Fighter Within (XBO)
• They made another one!
• Eternal Sonata (PS3)
• Always meant to get this after enjoying the demo; finally pulled the trigger.
• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii)
• Heard this version is unique and the motion controls are actually good.
• Pitfall The Big Adventure (Wii)
• Just adding to the collection.
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS)
• Never quite sussed-out enough heart pieces when I played it on N64 years ago, and kinda hit a wall. Much like the remasters of Wind Waker and Skyward Sword, this version feels so much better because it wastes so much less time. Still one of my favourite entries in the series from an aesthetic standpoint, too.