HEN

Had $6 that was about to expire on the Google Play store, so I bought Balatro and was immediately like, yeah, I see why people love this; but then I'd found most of the stuff, and started winning, and then started losing interest in the challenges, and then I was like well, that was a really fun week ...Kinda like Vampire Survivors.

Found a 120GB PS3 Slim mixed-in with the kitchen appliances at thrift store for $30 CDN; hooked it up to a TV off the shelf with an HDMI cable from a nearby rack, and it seemed to work so I bought it. The drive passed a surface test but the optical drive is jammed with what feels like a disc; none of the manual or forced eject options have worked, so I'm thinking multiple discs are in there. I don't have the T8 security bit to get into the drive (smallest I have is 10) so I started reading-up on the PS3 homebrew scene and wow - hybrid firmwares up to the latest release, homebrew enablers, save tools, etc... Kids have it good these days. Still gonna try to clear-out that disc drive though, and either give it away or keep it as a backup for my CECHA model.

Got a chance to do some video game shopping in the suburbs and picked-up:

• Anarchy Reigns (360)
• I don't know if I've ever finished a single PlatinumGames title, but this was $10.
• Kinect: Disneyland Adventures (360)
• Wanted the Xbox One version, but this was free.
• Midtown Madness 3 (Xbox)
• $3, no cover; no-brainer.
• Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Xbox)
• No manual, but surprisingly uncommon in these parts; plus I got to support a local shop.
• Pinball Fantasies (Jaguar)
• Didn't buy it back in the day because it's been ported to everything, but this was complete and not exorbitantly-priced; might go back for Sensible Soccer International Edition.
• Road Avenger (SEGA CD)
• Fantastic; even better than expected.
• Spawn (SNES)
• Honestly thought I already had this.

Still

Caved and bought a Gotek SFR1M44-U100 for the Amiga 500, programmed it with a USB Type C-to-A cable (I don't seem to have any A-to-A; didn't expect to have to jump unpopulated through-holes either), got it working on the Amiga, and then three blinks on the Caps Lock key... Argh. Cleaning the keyboard a little helped reduce the watchdog errors, but it's still not all that responsive; when things are working though, the whole computer works well! So I still need to disassemble and clean the keyboard, properly mount the Gotek, and convert the RGB signal to HDMI.

Found a Pictek PC244A w/Jixian Blue switches for $6 at a thrift store, and it wasn't grody; decent keyboard.

Wondering if a 5070 Ti, 5700X3D, and 16 more GB of RAM might be a sound upgrade for my main computer this year...

Burned through Wolfenstein: Youngblood solo - not as bad as I'd heard, but not great.

Pacific Drive is very good, albeit not really my kind of thing in the end.

Space Marine 2 is glorious.

The Last of Us Part II  (on PS5, not Remastered) is incredible.

Got a PlayStation Portal as a gift, and it's really cool... Kinda worried about stick drift and what happens when the service is no longer supported, but still really cool.

Getting around to finishing Landstalker here and there -  the Lake Shrine sorta sucked; onto King Nole's Labyrinth. Still curious about Lady Stalker, Alundra, and Time Stalkers though; still need to play through Shining in the Darkness and Dark Savior.

Finished SEGA AGES: Phantasy Star - still obtuse, but so much better than the original.

Makin' my way downtown...

Crackdown 3 was on-sale for $9.99 - I loved the first one as a big, silly, superhero playground; and while I just couldn't get into the second one, I very much enjoyed 3 - the new map is great, the addition of Terry Crews is genius, and I happily finished it in about a week. I couldn't help but feel like I was playing a better version of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League though - just with less story and worse graphics.

Halo Infinite was good. I felt way more invested than I had with the last few entries, even if I still thought there were some storytelling issues to work-out here. Lots of cheap deaths, and it felt more like Far Cry than Zelda; but the good far outweighed the bad, and I'm looking forward to more.

Mortal Kombat II 32X Arcade Edition was already great, but I finally tried the MSU-MD option (in an emulator; hoping for SEGA CD support) and it just makes the whole thing kind of incredible; I did not expect the SEGA CD 32X to be the best way to play DOOM and Mortal Kombat II (single-player) outside of PCs and arcades in 2024... And no, the 3DO port of MKII is not a contender with its zoomed-in sprites, Shang-Tsung-breaking CD format, and approximated gameplay.

Speaking of games that were arguably unfair upon initial release, I finished Batman and Vice: Project Doom on NES... Absolutely relied on savestates, and Batman kinda falls-off after the first few levels; Vice keeps things interesting.