Attenuation

Upgraded my parents' place to IPTV because their service provider was forcing them to migrate from their old mixed analog/digital service. One of their TVs was simple - 4K and Dolby Digital stereo over HDMI; the other is a 57" 1080i set and only has DVI, component, S-Video, composite, or coaxial... It was also connected (thankfully) to a DVD player + 5.1 A/V receiver combo... Which lacks any digital video I/O. Ended-up with the coaxial cable going into an attenuator, then a surge protector, then the new modem, then Wi-Fi to the cable box, then HDMI to one of these, then an HDMI-to-DVI adapter to the TV alongside TOSLINK to the receiver. Already had everything but the extractor, $35 is cheaper than a new TV, and 1080i is just fine. The service provider, to their credit(?) did offer us an HDMI-to-composite extractor... Ergh.

Finished Lady Sia... It is not a good game, but it is interesting.

Finished Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue - smaller and simpler than I'd expected, and the final boss rush is annoying; but still not a bad game. Looks better than Back from the Sewers, and Fall of The Foot Clan is still my favourite.

I restarted Final Fantasy II/IV and V on SNES alongside III/VI, and they all hold-up; actually having a hard time focusing on just one.

Also finally started playing-around with the Samurai Shodown RPG translation (been waiting for this one since the '90s) and Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition (slick!)

Passing Breeze

So Landstalker doesn't get any less annoying toward the end... Still not done.

Phantasy Star is way more impressive than I realised; seriously, a new translation and an automap would perfect this as an all-time classic... Which is already a thing, I'm now reading, in the Switch release... And it's from M2 because of course it is; they're the best. Kinda wishing I'd started it there, but I'm halfway through, so... Ergh.

Anyway, before I get completely distracted, I want to write about how I got distracted from Phantasy Star by Phantasy Star IV and ended-up ploughing-through it pretty quickly. Really good game, but not sticking with me after the fact - at least not like how the first two SaGa games, various Final Fantasy games, pretty much all of the Ys games, or the Personas have... It's weird. I've at least tried most of the Phantasy Star series, and IV is wonderfully streamlined - top-notch traversal, combat options, enemy design, and cutscenes layered on top of an expertly distilled collection of franchise hallmarks makes for a breezy and mostly-accessible (download the manual) RPG that I very much enjoyed... But I dunno; I feel like it's gonna be another Golden Sun or Bravely Default for me, where I found a lot to like but just kinda moved on afterward.

Speaking of moving on, I'm finally tackling Final Fantasy III/VI in earnest.

Unrelated: Glad that OutRun2006Tweaks exists; been happy with my XBOX copy, but now it's 1440p@240Hz!

Also, I think I don't like Alan Wake II... I'm trying, and it's really nifty, but I'm just not getting into it and I'm a third of the way through it now.

I'm looking for a...

Got what I wanted out of Redfall; gunplay got boring, exploration got boring, story was boilerplate by the end, and the last boss... Yikes. There's a good game in there, but Arkane Austin did not get to realise it. The Blackwood House side-story and the like were neat, and the other three bosses were alright, but yeah, moving on...

Found a Logitech MK850 (minus the M) for $8.49 instead of ~$75 on eBay, and a Microsoft LifeCam Studio for $6.99 ($30~$40 on eBay) at a thrift shop. Still looking for a new mouse; found another Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical (mine's getting tired after some 20 years) for cheap, but decided to keep looking - I hear good things about the Logitech G203. Need a numpad, too - the C64 Edition of the 8BitDo Retro 18 Mechanical Numpad is tempting.

Landstalker's not as bad in terms of perspective-issues making jumps as confusing as the reviews or the intro animation might suggest, but I am getting kind of tired of the game's jumping puzzles on the whole; it's all doable, the combat's fine, and the puzzles are neat - but it becomes a little too frustrating when you know the solution and the execution is the only issue. I've skipped at least one puzzle room because I looked-up the reward and decided it wasn't worth it. I'm almost through the Lake Shrine, so I should finish it... But it's just not winning me over like it was at first.

Otherwise, I started a Phantasy Star game for the umpteenth time (the original SMS release, in this case) and I'm about a third of the way in now. Always had a weird relationship with those games - could never get into any of them, and I'm not sure this is going to change things. There's a classic grind here, and I might check-out the Genesis titles again after this - but I don't think I'll ever be able get into the outright grindfest of the PSO/PSU/PSP games.

BioWare, Arkane, Rocksteady...

Got Redfall for, like, $12 a while ago. Installed it when Arkane Austin closed. I liked Anthem, but I got bored of it once I saw everything; this feels much the same. Disappointing, but not awful. Feels like Arkane-light.

Started Landstalker on Genesis... Again. Looks like I'm actually gonna finish it this time though. Really good game, surprisingly well-balanced, and definitely worth playing. I would've liked a better translation and less opportunity to miss important stuff... But seeing as how it's a proto-open-world, I guess that's something I shouldn't really be complaining about. 

Snagged Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon for $30 at Walmart.

Found a local guy selling a complete copy of PC Genjin 3 for a reasonable price; way better than $1000 for the censored NA release or $1800 for the CD release and its choppy sprite animation. Same guy also had an Arcade Card DUO and Tengai Makyō: Kabuki Ittou Ryoudan, so that was a nice surprise to bring home to my DUO-R and Avenue Pad 6 :)

Masochists

Finally got a reasonably-priced, sort-of-locally-available keyboard that comes with Cherry MX Clear switches! It's only 87%, but I can add a numpad later. The included double-shot PBT keycaps are fine so far, and now I can just replace them instead of having to assemble the whole damned thing. Also, no RGB :) Was on a 100% with Outemu browns that I got for free, and I liked it fine - but no more loudly bottoming-out!

Wrapped-up Resident Evil: Village - stunning game, especially in HDR; visceral and dynamic gameplay; decent story with a tenuous connection to the series (this event that started 100 years before this game is the impetus for the rest of the series up to this point and nobody mentioned it until now and also it's over now); solid vocal performances; ridiculous dialogue; horrible nomenclature. I still hate surrendering to the performance-based combat and supplies systems, but it's all worth it here. Lots of optional stuff to hunt for, The Mercenaries is fine and a good way to unlock bonuses for multiple story playthroughs (which can really differ from each other), and don't skip Shadows of Rose - House Beneviento is a real highlight in both the main game and the DLC.

Moved-on to The Evil Within, and it's everything I hated about Resident Evil 4: now with more bulllshit! ...And people seemed to just lap it up upon release 🙄 I'm about a third of the way through now, and the stealth aspects are too powerful to not simply rely on, too many traps to maintain balance with other gameplay options, and every aspect of the randomisation is so random that it starts to feel rogue-like. I get that it's its own thing insofar as we're given a playground to learn and then leverage as we see fit, but being so unforgiving that you are expected to die is just... So it's effectively a Soulsborn roguelike? Great. One reviewer said they died hundreds of times and still appreciated it, but I would've preferred a game that offered some challenge with opportunities to get creative, not a choice between 200 deaths and a casual mode. The story's still coalescing, so I'm reserving judgement on that for now, but it's all losing me... Also, having to launch the Epic Game Store through Steam to get my DualSense to work in-game as well as setting my 240Hz display to 60Hz just to make things playable isn't awesome, but understandable for a ten-year-old game.

Anyway, finally finished Beyond Oasis after 30 years... Lots of vague memories bubbling-up to the surface, but I don't think I ever finished it before. Regardless, still looks great, especially considering the hardware; controls are deep albeit stiff; hit detection and jumping puzzles are as frustrating as ever; music and sound design is delightfully weird while still being suitably epic; a few screens are particularly annoying, but overall still worth your time. I know for sure that I never finished Legend of Oasis though, so that's next.

Vampire: Master of Darkness was brutal at times, but overall a solid clone.

The Makai Toushi SaGa remake was everything I wanted as a big fan of the original.

Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru didn't disappoint.

Still working on EverOasis, but nearing the end and having fun despite things dragging every now and again.

Iconic

Came across an old Acer Iconia W700P, battery said it was healthy but wouldn't charge, SSD would handle clean OS installations and then fail to boot consistently, Acer's BIOS-update download links are dead, disassembly was brutal (so much adhesive, so many annoying cable runs), and I finally just gave-up on it figuring something's not working on the motherboard. Would've been a cool little tablet PC; ran Linux really well...

...But then someone gave me an (also old) HP Stream - 14-ax010ca (ENERGY STAR) and despite a dual-core/single-thread CPU and a 32GB eMMC for storage, that thing is not bad at all when running EndeavourOS (Windows 11 was a different story) plus it comes in a delightful blue shell :) I think I may just carry that around for meetings to freak people out.

I was given a box of old video games with along with the Stream, and this is just what I'm choosing to keep from it:

GC:

• Baten Kaitos
• Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix
• Donkey Konga
• Pikmin
• Pikmin 2
• Star Wars Rogue Leader

PS2:

• Dirge of Cerberus
• Haunting Ground (!!!)
• Radiata Stories

XBOX 360:

• LEGO Rock Band
• Rock Band 3
  

...And the rest should net me $100~$300

Translated!

I've already talked about Sylvan Tale here, but now I'm going through Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (delightfully weird) and Makai Toushi SaGa (my childhood!) before finally getting around to Mother 3.

Makai Toushi SaGa is especially nice though; what a great remake to a cultural touchstone, warts and all. Criminal that it's stuck on the WonderSwan.

Finished Gargoyle's Quest, may have abused some save states along the way, and what a gem! Flawed like so many of its contemporaries - this one is just full of character and good ideas, and deserves a modern take.

Played around with Mega Man World 5 DX; impressive, though the Mega Man games still just don't really do it for me. I kinda liked IV on both platforms, I liked the Game Gear one, I liked Rockman & Forte... I'm not sure why, but the series just hasn't clicked with me.

Easy, but not too easy.

Switch demos:

• Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is not what I expected, and I like it.
• Contra: Operation Galuga was kinda boring.
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown feels better than I expected.
• Princess Peach™: Showtime! is pretty sweet.
• Swordship is really polished, but just didn't really do it for me.

3DS:

• Ever Oasis is great; a true hidden gem. Challenging in more ways than one, but never too difficult or overwhelming; Grezzo did a great job making sure there're all kinds of options to streamline the game's various systems.

GBA:

• Scurge was really fun, right up until the final boss; felt like such a chore that I figured I was missing something. Checked-out some walkthroughs and playthroughs and yup, it's just a chore.
• Lady Sia really is better than what I'd thought of it in the past. It's rough around the edges, but it plays well and looks great on a proper display.

GB:

• Fall of the Foot Clan was just as good as I'd rembered. Simple and fun.
• Kirby's Dream Land 2 was kind of a slog, and unlocking the secret ending felt like another chore.
• Gargoyle's Quest is brutal, but also really charming.

Also, my Pocket Adapter Set arrived, and they're almost perfect. Neo Turf Masters (NGPC) doesn't work, and PCE/TG-16 six-button support is a problem with the adapter blocking the shoulder buttons.

Thanks to those adapters, I finally played through my copies of Splatterhouse - which is still really solid - and Keith Courage, which... This was the pack-in, remember. Yikes.

Anyway, lucked-into free copies of Need for Speed Underground 2 (sweet!) and Most Wanted Black Edition (already had it) and they've aged pretty well.

Yeah, I'm spending too much money.

Yesterday's finds:

• Batman Returns (GG)
• Good game.
• Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter (PS2)
• Weird game.
• Children of Mana (DS)
• Shop was trying to sell a loose copy with a "printed cover" for $65; this game has never sold for more than $40, even new. Also, their "printed cover"s are just generic store templates with the game's title in all-caps. I worked-out a three-for-two deal that got it down to a more reasonable price.
• Coca Cola Kid (GG)
• Gray cart. Saw it in a weird small-town pawnshop for $30 CDN. Yup.
• Croc (PS1)
• Black label, but just the cover of the manual :/
• Orcs and Elves (DS)
• Always wanted to try it.
• Robocop vs The Terminator (GG)
• Good game.
• Thor: God of Thunder (DS)
• WayForward!
• Vampire: Master of Darkness (GG)
• Found a guy a few towns over selling his kids' collection; got it for under $100.

The Most Dangerous Game

Ventured-out to some other cities, following-up on some old game shops I hadn't been to in over a decade. Came back with:

• Battle Ace (SuperGrafx)
• Don't own a SuperGrafx, but the Pocket can play it so I treated myself. Also realised that I own Darius Plus, which is enhanced for the SuperGrafx to reduce sprite flicker!
• Blinx: The Time Sweeper (XBOX)
• $10 complete. No-brainer.
• Croc 2 (PS)
• Better than the PC version. Saw the GBC version, which is more akin to a top-down action RPG; should've picked it up.
• Duck Tales (GB)
• Shouldn't've sold it when I was a kid.
• Escape from Monster Manor (3DO)
• Silly game, but really fun. Overpaid a little, but I don't care.
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order (Switch)
• Just wanted it.
• Mortal Kombat Unchained (PSP)
• Never played it or Deception; unique characters.
• Nightmare Creatures II (DC)
• I think I might've thought there was a PC version.
• Shatterhand (NES)
• Been looking for it, but hadn't seen it in the wild in years; paid a decent price, and totally worth it. Badass.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (GB)
• This one got expensive! Found a beat-up copy for relatively cheap though; decent Metroidvania.

Breezed though Final Fantasy Legend III, and what a downgrade from the first two. I especially remember being so excited about the screenshot with the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk on the back of the box, but when I finally got to that point of the game it was just kinda... Meh; just like everything else. The mechanics are solid, but none of it was anywhere near as memorable as the first two.

Almost done Adventures of Mana, spent some time with Final Fantasy Adventure, and thinking maybe I should've gone with Sword of Mana instead.

Also, finally sat down with DOOM 32X: Resurrection, and with a quality CRT shader... Oh my. Makes me wonder just what a 32X CD was truly capable of.

Jewellery?

Ordered a Master System Player for Game Gear from RetroSix in England, works like a charm on the Analogue Pocket, feels really well-constructed, and WAS OPENED AT THE BORDER DESPITE PROPER CUSTOMS LABELS, RE-ASSESSED AS ~$150 WORTH OF JEWELLERY, AND TAXED ACCORDINGLY. Argh. I can fight it, but I'll only get 60% of the fees back (at best) if I win... Seriously though, jewellery!?

Anyway, bought a Game Gear lot that included:

• Aladdin
• Ariel the Little Mermaid
• Deep Duck Trouble
• Jurassic Park
• The Lion King
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• World Series Baseball

...Really just wanted Deep Duck Trouble, already had Sonic 2, and the rest are all pretty good except for The Little Mermaid.

WTF, Nintendo!?

So immediately after my last post, I purchased and downloaded Adventures of Mana on my Vita... I had to add the funds elsewhere, but the whole process made me wonder why I can't still purchase 3D Streets of Rage 2, the BotW DLC for Sonic: Lost World, or even download the Data Packs for Xenoblade Chronicles X 😠

Anyway, I went to a thrift store afterward and found an AC1900 MU-MIMO TP-Link Archer A8 for $6! Not much of an upgrade over the AC1750 MU-MIMO D-Link DIR-867 I got from the same shop for $3.50 in June, but I'll take it!

Big fan of Donna Beneviento's house.

So about the Pocket...

Cartridges I never finished:

• Final Fantasy Adventure (GB)
• Never took the time; may just go with the GBA or Vita remakes instead for now.
• Final Fantasy Legend III (GB)
• I'm ~1/3rd through it now. I remember buying this new and returning it because it felt like such a weird departure from the first two. It's not bad, but I just don't think the time-traveling spaceship works very well within the limitations of the Game Boy - or at least not how they tried to pull it off here. Also the music is worse, the enemy designs are worse, and the story just feels kinda phoned-in. Got me looking at SaGa Frontier 2 and SaGa: Scarlet Grace - Ambitions though.
• Gargoyle's Quest (GB)
• Never got very far with it back in the day, but the Pocket absolutely breathes new life into this one.
• Jet Grind Radio (GBA)
• Bought it, never spent any quality time with it... Isometric games on a cross d-pad aren't ideal.
• Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (GBA)
• False-started this one so many times; tweaks my exploration neuroses in a way that I'm not sure I like.
• Kirby's Dream Land 2 (GB)
• I just like the first one better.
• Klonoa Empire of Dreams, Klonoa 2 Dream Champ Tournament (GBA)
• Bought them forever ago, always meant to get around to them.
• Tails' Adventure (GG)
• I picked this one up well after the platform was abandoned, and it was so slow to get going on the dismal Game Gear LCD that I never got into it. Playing it on the Pocket is infinitely better in terms of both the screen and the save states; passwords can rot and die for all I care. Basic Metroidvania, solid execution, lovely graphics, and only occasionally obtuse.

Homebrew/Romhacks:

• Coria (GBC)
• Neat.
• Super Mario Land DX 1&2 (GBC)
• A childhood dream-come-true, especially the sequel!
• Sylvan Tale (GG)
• Always wanted to play this, wasn't interested in an emulator, and wasn't ready to pay anyone $75 for a fan-translated repro cart. Another example of how good the Game Gear actually was; not quite on-par with Link's Awakening, but a really good portable action-RPG nonetheless. I'm grateful that I got to play this one the way it was meant to be played.
• Zelda's Adventure (GB)
• Just awful, and I dig it.

...And then there's the really expensive stuff. Even if I were to try them on the openFPGA cores, a lot of these're just overrated:

• Avenging Spirit (GB)
  
• Great concept and presentation, but is this the best version? Might go for the Switch remake.
• The Aleste GG trilogy (GG)
• I'll own these some day; 3 is especially impressive, and works on original hardware!
• Bomberman Quest (GBC)
• A Bomberman action-RPG is a great idea, but lackluster execution here.
• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)
• A classic for sure, but kinda short and the story is pretty cringey even by Castlevania standards. Prime Castlevania to me is still Belmont's Revenge, Super IV, Rondo of Blood, and Bloodlines.
• Castlevania: Legends (GB)
• No thanks.
• Defenders of Oasis (GG)
• Still trying to track this one down for under $100 CDN - another solid genre showing on an underappreciated handheld made significantly better by the Analogue Pocket.
• Trip World (GB)
• Looking at DX on Switch instead.
• Vampire: Master of Darkness
• Neat Castlevania clone; I'd also like to find this for under $100.
• Wendy: Every Witch Way (GBC/GBA)
• Really great curiosity, but I'm just not spending $200 on it.
• X (GB)
• Might actually import this just to have it.

The Pocket also got me hunting again; and while most of the options in my area have been picked dry for a decade now, I did uncover a few interesting things outside of eBay and online buy-and-sells:

• Advance Guardian Heroes (GBA)
• Not a great game, but might as well.
• Ever Oasis (3DS)
• This one did not show-up on my radar when it was new. Seen lots of comparisons to Zelda, Animal Crossing, etc... But I'm getting some overall ActRaiser vibes from it, myself.
• Land of Illusion (GG)
• Never really liked the series, but there's something about this entry.
• Lilo & Stitch, Lilo & Stitch 2: Hämsterviel Havoc (GBA)
• Cheap and reminiscent of Metal Slug.
• Psychic Force 2012 (DC)
• Don't recall why I didn't pick this one up earlier.
• Quartet (SMS)
• Classic.
• Scurge: Hive (GBA)
• Honestly saw this everywhere for decades and had no idea that it was a delightfully hand-drawn isometric Metroid clone - the cover art does not convey that.
• Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon (GBA)
• Found it for a fair price at a suburban mall kiosk.
• TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan (GB)
• Had this as a kid and sold it. Holds-up to this day, especially on the Pocket.

Put Alan Wake II on hold before getting too deep into it so I could do everything I just listed above, and also because my partner wanted to start Resident Evil: Village. Re: RE: Village, it's another lovely but flawed entry in the series; almost done.

Finally, finished Mad Max and had a great time with it. I'd say it's an underrated game, but a lot of people seem to be saying that so I'm not sure that it's true anymore.

No need.

Do you need an Analogue Pocket if you just want to play Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Game Boy Advance games? No. Get a GBA SP, and it's fine if it's not an AGS-101.

Do you need an Analogue Pocket if you just want to play Game Gear games? Kinda; it really is the best way to go, but for $250 + shipping (and duty if you're not in the US) you'd better really like your Game Gear games.

Do you need an Analogue Pocket if you just want a region-free TurboExpress with a proper display + SuperGrafx compatibility, a Game Gear that isn't completely washed-out, a Lynx that actually fits in your hands, and a back-lit NGPC? 100% yes, and it's absolutely worth the $350 + shipping (and duty if you're not in the US) if you can afford it. Throw-in the GB/GBC/GBA compatibility, save states, custom palettes, display options, screenshots, Nanoloop, GB Studio, and the developer tools... Plus MIDI, analog sync, and link cables... And a dock plus wireless controller support... Yeah, the Pocket's kinda nuts.

I got a yellow one.

No, we will not let you go!

My EndeavourOS Galileo in-place update left some stuff from previous configurations, I didn't want to figure-out how best to clean it up, and I did want to try the new installer, so... Fresh start. Mounting the old system in the new live environment kinda broke the installer (I wanted to check something before I wiped the drive) and offline installations failed consistently (maybe my image was corrupt?); online installations were fine though. KDE Plasma as the new default isn't my favourite, so I tried LXQt... Yikes. So I switched to KDE Plasma, immediately reverted to the Artemis wallpaper, installed Steam, my VPN connection, Remmina, FreeRDP, and the VMware Horizon client. While everything was pretty slick, KDE just wasn't doing it for me; I want something with a mostly-default experience that clicks with me. Budgie feels a little undercooked and a little too Windows; i3 is really neat, but I don't need a tiling window manager; GNOME and its derivatives all feel too chunky... So back to Xfce it is.

Finally...

Finished Cyberpunk 2077, went for "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and the "The Sun". Did everything but the NCPD Scanner Hustles... There're so many! Character was pretty balanced at level 11~15 for everything. Good game; impressive. Haven't bought Phantom Liberty yet though; need a break before I go back.

Also finished Tears of the Kingdom and got the good ending. Loved it. Back to Age of Calamity.

Accidentally bought SIGIL II for €6.66 because I didn't see that there was a free version like the first one... Oh well, worth $10 for both.

Finding programs and disk images for the Atari ST that work on actual floppies has been trickier than expected, but not impossible. Not really interested in buying a card reader for it.

Also, Epic discounting everything I bought during the last epic coupon promotion less than a month later kinda sucks... Could've saved ~$35

4160 Sixteen/Thirty-two

Didn't end-up getting the 1040 STFM, but found another and talked the guy down even cheaper than the first one. Picked it up and saw a 1040 STE badge on it, but the bottom label said it was a Canadian STFM. Opened it up, cleaned it out, saw a lot of extra wires under the power supply, powered it on, navigated GEM (TOS 1.02) with the keyboard (no mouse yet), dug-out some old double density 3.5" floppy disks, ran a system info app, and turns-out it's been upgraded to 4MB of RAM - not bad! Played some games and they were better than I expected, but I suspect it'll spend most of its time as an objet next to the 128 and the 800XL. Now to track-down a reasonalby-priced Amiga 500.

Bootleg MVS carts sold before I could get to them. The Simpsons: Hit & Run holds-up surprisingly well.

Voxel Doom II with Parallax Textures was a delightful surprise.

Almost done TotK, Mad Max, Cyberpunk, and Flynn: Son of Crimson.

The Touryst was everything I'd hoped for, and more. Just perfect.

Picked-up the System Shock remake, Alan Wake II, and Jedi: Survivor - started Alan Wake II; looks incredible at 1080p, medium preset/RTX low.

Jank

Still playing Tears of the Kingdom, still janky, still love it, still think Breath of the Wild is the better game. Also playing through Wind Waker HD, and I think maybe I just don't really like the 3D Zelda games from Ocarina of Time through Skyward Sword.

Mario Kart 8 Wave 5 is fine.

Quake 2 Enhanced was a really nice surprise; played through Quake 64 and Call of the Machine - both were solid fun, but I think I prefer what MachineGames did with Dimension of the Past and Dimension of the Machine.

Voxel DOOM II is fantastic.

Started playing Mad Max again on a whim and stuck with it this time. Really, really well made.  Arkham Asylum/Far Cry/GTA, kind of repetitive both visually and in terms of gameplay but still impressive and viscerally fun nonetheless. Inspired me to revisit RAGE, and it was even better than I remembered. Its limitations are obvious, but id did well within them. I'd love to see it remastered with nicer textures and a proper ending, but I'd settle for some optimisations and bugfixes.

Boltgun's charm wears-off quickly; I'm only maybe a third of the way through the game, and it's becoming a chore.

The RoboCop: Rogue City demo is fascinating - the shooting-gallery action level, the ridiculous police station, and walking the beat are all pretty dead-on classic RoboCop, but also aren't all that fun after a while... Like, the developers clearly worked very hard on a limited budget, but I question whether this needed to exist.

The rest of my Psychonauts 2 Fig backer rewards finally showed-up after, like, eight years - a nifty keychain on a USB drive containing Psychonauts 1 & 2, all in a little Altoids-style tin, and a pin to go along with the Raz figurine. Didn't really need any of that though; just happy the game was made and they nailed it.

My partner hunted-down a SEGA IR 7000 for my birthday, and it's pretty rad. The interface is almost impossible to use for anything other than the battle game, but still glad to own one after all these years :)

Paid decent prices for a bunch of stuff lately:

• Blinx 2 (XBOX)
• Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
• Sega 3D Classics Collection (3DS)
• Super Mario Maker (Wii U)
• Vice: Project Doom (NES)

...And for Vectrex, complete copies of:

• Bedlam
• Heads-Up Action Soccer
• Spike
• Spinball
• Web Wars

Also tracked-down a bootleg MVS Nightmare in the Dark cartridge and an original copy of The Simpsons: Hit & Run for PC; hope to have those soon.

Have an offer on the table for a straight trade of my loose copy of ClayFighter: Sculptor's Cut for a complete NA copy of Snatcher for SEGA CD... Tempting, even if I do think Snatcher is overvalued.

Finally, got a line on a really good price for an Atari 1040 STFM... Never been a fan of the platform, but like a 500 being the only Amiga you'd really need to get the true experience, the 1040 STFM seems to be the Atari equivalent... Just not sure what I'd do with it.

Moving on...

Final router list:

• 1x Hitron CODA-4582     (AC1750, Gigabit, USB 3.0, MU-MIMO, MoCA)
• 1x D-Link DIR-867         (AC1750, Gigabit, no USB, MU-MIMO)
• 1x TP-Link Archer A7 (AC1750, Gigabit, USB 2.0)
• 1x Netgear R6300v2 (AC1750, Gigabit, USB 3.0+2.0)
• 1x D-Link DIR-859   (AC1750, Gigabit, no USB)
• 2x Linksys EA6400  (AC1600, Gigabit, USB 3.0)
• 1x Linksys EA6300V1 (AC1600, Gigabit, USB 3.0)
• 1x D-Link DIR-822   (AC1200, 10/100, no USB)
• 2x Linksys EA3500  (802.11n, Gigabit, USB 2.0)
• 1x Dynex DX-NRUTER (802.11n, 10/100, no USB)

Using the DIR-867, keeping the Archer as a backup, and playing around with the Hitron as an AP/MoCA client/NAS interface. The EA6x00s could also be good NAS interfaces, but I don't really need that for myself. Was gonna set-up the EA3500s as range extenders for my buddy's place, but it turned-out his existing hardware was good enough and just misconfigured. Another guy wanted anything AC for a different place, but after I gave him the Netgear R6300v2 he said he only wanted MU-MIMO. Had a props master offer to take everything else... Gonna see if she can provide a good home for them, otherwise I'll donate them back to a local thrift shop with instructions attached.

Unpacking was a really fun game, Boltgun is solid but it's no Prodeus, and Mighty Doom doesn't suck.

moomeemo

Picked-up Need for Speed Unbound on sale, and it gets worse the more I play it... What initially seemed like a questionable incremental update to Heat ended-up feeling more and more like a truly odd step backward for the series. The driving feels really good, but I'm not a huge fan of the stylised presentation; Rydell's dialogue is kinda funny, but I'm not into the story whatsoever; the inability to sell or transfer parts is infuriating, but upgrades and customisations are still satisfying when you can afford them again; the cop chases are mercifully easier to escape, but the means of escape rarely make sense; the progression system is so broken that it's actually possible to go back a day if you find yourself running out of money or retries at the end of the week, but it does break-up gameplay and heat levels nicely... Oh, and speaking of retries, YOU SHOULD NOT LIMIT RETRIES WHEN THE PHYSICS AND AI ARE SO RANDOM. Aside from that, I've had cops spot me through walls, the camera get stuck in other cars, brutal performance dips and crashes when changing graphics settings, etc... Also, they changed the Ultra preset in the latest patch and it affected performance on my setup; only found out what was happening after checking patch notes; that's not fun. Anyway, I'm ~25 hours in, and I'm just kinda done with it; it'd like to explore the rest, but it barely feels worth it.

Also got Tears of the Kingdom; Amazon pre-order took longer to arrive than if I'd just ordered it on release day. Awesome. Anyway, huge game with so many awe-inspiring moments in just the first few hours, really stoked to get further into it... And also incredibly angry at how Ultrahand somehow makes the whole experience feel janky, how easy it is to fuck-up and get stuck early on only to have to die or reload to try again, how ridiculous Fuse makes some weapons look, and how baffling some of the default control scheme changes from Breath of the Wild are; short-press to engage power, long-press to select? What was wrong with the old way? I could go on, but at the end of the day - unlike Unbound - I'm actually going to tough this one out.

Would love to get games like Diablo 4, Final Fantasy XVI, Jedi: Survivor, Redfall (just to see), Street Fighter 6, System Shock, etc... Might even treat myself to Boltgun and Dredge; but I still need to play Death Stranding, Disco Elysium, Far Cry 5, God of War, GTA IV & V, Guardians of the Galaxy, Horizon Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption I & II, Sifu, Obduction, Outer Wilds, The Outer Worlds, A Plague Tale... Ergh.

Finally got direct fiber (50Mbps up/down) to my parents' house for $20-less per month that what they were paying for 6Mbps DSL. Also more than tripled the connection speed at my place for an extra $9 a month after all the recent CRTC crap ruined the good deal I had with my ISP. Found a DIR-867 (AC1750 MU-MIMO) for $3.50 CDN, so that replaced my EA6400... Pretty happy with how that all turned-out.

From last time, the Vertex 2 seems to be holding-up, Golf Story got ridiculously difficult toward the end so I walked away from it, and wrapping-up gigs and side jobs in Cyberpunk is still fun in small doses.