Stuff

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 though; 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, the Kartos levels are broken, and the final boss is kind of annoying... But it's still really good overall. Tried The Impossible Lair too, and it didn't feel particularly special; nothing wrong with it, but it feels sluggish compared to Donkey Kong Country.

Finished Echoes of Wisdom and thoroughly enjoyed it. Things did start to drag a little toward the end, but there were enough secrets and some particularly 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 goes 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. Reading-up on the DCV for Destiny 2 is kinda disappointing, but I guess there's always YouTube. 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 awful to use.
• Linksys EA8500 AC2600 4x4 MU-MIMO router for $9 - was ~$300 new!
• Samsung SyncMaster 193p Plus for $15
• 15" LG Flatron TV + remote w/VGA+audio, component, s-video, etc... for $20
• Xbox One Kinect sensor for $10 (just to have a spare)

...Also found and left:

• Clean Razer BlackShark headset for $14
• TRS-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.

I hope you like text...

DOOM CD32X Fusion v2.0 adds a bunch of good stuff like episode-specific intermission backgrounds for DOOM, and it brings back the low detail rendering mode which looks really good on a period-correct TV over video connections like S-Video and composite. I like that the IDKFA soundtrack can be disabled from the in-game menu, though I couldn't get that ISO to work on my SEGA CD so... Almost there, but still just wow; what an incredible project, and what a monumental achievement.

Speaking of period-correct TVs and video connections like S-Video and composite, filters like ntsc-256px/320px-svideo-scanline really are the best way to experience a lot of old games as intended. So many comparisons out there, even from respected creators, ignore the displays of the time and then old games end-up being unfairly maligned. Genesis and early Game Boy Advance games are particularly done dirty by modern documentarians on account of how those platforms compensate for their colour and brightness limitations, respectively. SEGA's colour-dithering often looks pretty rough on modern displays, and a lot of Nintendo's colour palettes do not translate well from the the unlit original GBA. I keep seeing comparisons that include titles like Mortal Kombat II on the 32X and make the backgrounds look embarrassing next to the Super Nintendo and newer; those backgrounds look so much closer to each other on their contemporary displays though, and the Genesis' higher resolution is the dealbreaker in many cases. Something like the SNES version of Aero the Acrobat may look better on a modern emulator, but capture that over S-Video and then compare it to the Genesis version... Now consider the gameplay issues introduced by the Nintendo version's limited playfield, and all of a sudden those transparency effects and Mode 7 bonus levels don't really matter. Maui Mallard is another frustrating example of prevalent, wrong-minded discourse; the SNES port is painfully broken, but people keep giving it underserved points over the Genesis version because it's being viewed through too-modern a lens. All versions of that game have their issues but the Genesis release is by far the most complete and playable, plus it looks comparable to the SNES port on a proper display. As for a prime GBA example, the alleged travesty of Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure actually looks and plays really well on original hardware, and even better on something like an Analogue Pocket with the proper filter. It's akin to those comparisons of the audio output of different Genesis models - they're nowhere near as varied in reality as some of the videos make them out to be, but ignorance and clickbait tend to muddy the waters :(

Anyway, here're some modern Commodore 64 games that really impressed:

• Battle Kingdom - Venture!
• C64anabalt - Incredible port.
• Empire Strikes Back - Pretty.
• L'Abbaye des Morts - Stunning, artistic, and epic... But pretty difficult.
• Lester - MegatroidVania?
• Nixy The Glade Sprite - Looks great, but crashes a lot for me; not sure why yet.
• Ooze: The Escape - MetalStorm...troidVania?
• Powerglove - Fun!
• Puzzle Bobble - Incredible port.
• Runn 'n' Gunn - Slick!

Finished Landstalker, and I'm torn - so much potential to be an all-time, genre-defining, system showpiece... But the combat sucks (especially the trivial bosses), the menu interactions are annoying (shopkeepers repeats themselve ad nauseam), and the puzzles are asinine; that last one is made worse by the fact that so many of the game's most frustrating points could be solved with minor programming logic and visual design changes. The game otherwise boasts incredible graphics, a unique charm and aesthetic, a big world to truly explore, and some really good music. It's all worthy of a remaster à la Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap; but in the meantime it isn't helped by the Analogue Pocket's D-pad, and the idea of a dead battery erasing your progress on an original cartridge would be absolutely infuriating. For now, an emulator or an FPGA core with a good CRT filter and support for something like a Genesis 6 Button Arcade Pad or an 8BitDo M30 is the way to go.

Up next for Genesis is a toss-up between Crusader of Centy, Shadowrun, or Wonder Boy in Monster World...

Finished The Last of Us Part II; phenomenal experience. Even when things get frustrating along the way, the pay-offs are always worth it.

Can't bring myself to finish Suicide Squad... Maybe one day, but it's just so boring.

Atari 50 + DLC is a solid collection; weird pricing though - it was cheaper to buy the game and the DLC bundle on-sale than buying all of it in one bundle on-sale.

Also grabbed Space Beast Terror Fright; was really excited for a fresh take on Space Hulk, but this is brutally hard; should try with friends, 'cause I'm not making much progress on my own.

West End

Borrowed a T8 security screwdriver from a friend and got the PS3 open - four discs crammed in there! Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Don Bradman Cricket 14 (ANZ), Grand Theft Auto IV, and Midnight Club: Los Angeles Complete Edition; not bad! Drive doesn't take discs without holding the eject button first, and doesn't seem to read anything. Saw some damage to the bottom of the drive as well as one of the corners of the case, so I'm gonna leave the repair at that and call it a fun project.

Went back to the shop where I bought Pinball Fantasies the other week, and picked-up a few more things:

• Fantasy Life (3DS)
• Been meaning to pick this one up for a while; looks reminiscent of Ever Oasis and Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale.
• Industrial Spy: Operation Espionage (DC)
• Cheap exclusive curiosity.
• International Sensible Soccer (Jaguar)
• Unique port of a fun game, don't often see it in the wild.
• Kenseiden (SMS)
• Honestly missed this one entirely; real showpiece for the platform.
• NHL Slapshot (Wii)
• They threw this one in for free; silly exclusive curiosity.
• Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle (GBC)
• Just completing the set; awful game.
• Undercover AD2025 Kei (DC)
• Cheap exclusive curiosity.
• Wizards & Warriors X: The Fortress of Fear (GB)
• Childhood memories; badass cover art and cool intro that is entirely incongruous with the in-game graphics and music. Decent platformer.

Going back to Pitfall, I now have:

• Pitfall! (2600)
• Pitfall II: Lost Caverns (2600)
• Super Pitfall (NES)
• Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (SEGA CD, 32X, Jaguar, PC)
• Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle (PS)
• Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle (GBC)
• Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (Xbox)

...Which means I guess I need:

• Pitfall (Atari 400)
• Don't think I need the 5200, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, or Intellivision releases
• Pitfall II: Arcade (SG-1000)
• Even though I can't play it; not shelling-out for a Dina 2-in-1... But maybe the Team Pixelboy ColecoVision port?
• Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (GBA)
• Pitfall: The Big Adventure (Wii)
• Pitfall! (iOS)

Otherwise, found a clean LT2323pwA in the trash, so that got wiped-down and replaced my main workshop monitor.

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.

Please just port it already...

I have an old 4:3 LCD TV with VGA, component, S-Video, composite, and coaxial inputs that's been great for Dreamcast-and-older consoles, but it started randomly cranking-up the volume. I took it apart to see if anything looked off with the volume button or the circuit board, but nope; no way to easily check the contact under the button either... So I ended-up disconnecting the board altogether and it's remote-control-only from here on :)

My Ryzen 5600X started to slightly overheat - cleaning-out dustbunnies and re-seating the HSF got things back under control, but I should probably replace the thermal compound.

Halo Infinite started-out really well; the first level was badass, the second was intriguing, but then it kinda felt like Far Cry... And then when I encountered my first "propaganda tower" it sorta lost me a bit.

Ripple Dot Zero works well enough on Ruffle, which is fantastic; the bonus levels are kinda broken, but everything else is pretty great and it's still one of the best 2D platformers ever.

Got Astro Bot, Princess Peach: Showtime!, and a PlayStation Portal as gifts... Not sure what I'm gonna do with the Portal yet.

The math got more complicated, Atari...

Got a Stone Age Gamer Mega EverDrive X3 (Jungle? Electricity?) Deluxe Edition for $60, and I have now played Doom CD32X Fusion on actual hardware, and I cannot elucidate the feelings that I'm feeling for 30-years-ago me. Also got me excited for Phantom Gear, if they ever finish it.

Ploughed through Halo 5, and it's fine; not as bad as I'd heard, but nothing incredible... Unless you consider how incomprehensible the opening of Halo 5 is you haven't played Spartan Ops, but then you also try to figure-out why the rest of the game seems to abandon so much of what was set-up in Spartan Ops; that's incredible. So many major plot-points feel so unceremonious here.

Honestly, I had to go back and refresh my memory on the previous games because:

• Halo: Combat Evolved
• Iconic visual design, epic story with engrossing lore, excited for more
• Halo 2
• Basically DOOM 2 - more of the same, but with more Earth
• Halo 3
• I remembered nothing except for "Floodgate" and the ending
• Halo 3: ODST
• Loved it when it was first released, probably because of the cast; couldn't tell you what happened
• Halo: Reach
• Origins! Really only remembered that final bit
• Halo 4
• Older origins! I remembered there was a lot of talking...
• Didn't play Spartan Ops until this year, and it was really disappointing to see so much crucial plot relegated to what is effectively multiplayer DLC

Finally bought Halo: Infinite, and the opening was kinda great albeit somewhat confusing. Let's see how it shapes-up.

Anyway, I forgot just how annoying Windows 10's HDR implementation is, and so Windows 11 23H2 seems like the way forward... Just need to make sure I can reliably block the 24H2 upgrade; it hasn't been great on my Surface Book, either. Proton has me thinking my next main desktop is just gonna run Arch; only holding-off on my current hardware because of the WMR headset.

They may not die, but they do go on-sale.

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die went on-sale for $3.74, down  from $14.99 - so I grabbed that and all 18 free DLC packs. Also found a sealed copy of Rare Replay locally for $10. Very impressed with the platform now that I'm spending more quality time with it; the continuity across generations is handled well, being able to set the old 1080p, non-HDR Xbox One to 10-bit RGB for my monitor is kinda neat, and there're enough exclusives on here to justify the sub-$50 prices I've been seeing for these units - add-in that you can upgrade to a Series X for ~$400 (only getting cheaper, too), and I'd say there's a pretty good argument over PS5/PC. I still need a controller though, and ~$63 for an Electric Volt Xbox Core controller seems to be the best deal right now.

Been meaning to wipe my Windows 11 23H2 desktop for a clean installation of 24H2 for a little while now, but the automatic Feature Update notification finally came through so I figured why not go with that in the meantime. It really does completely disable Windows Mixed Reality though... I figured it'd still work in some capacity, but nope; turns my headset into a brick. Went back to Windows 10 22H2 for now; HDR experience is a little worse, but I guess I've got a year to figure-out what I wanna do.

Advice

Listened to myself and tracked-down an Xbox One with a Kinect - it also came with download codes for Dance Central Spotlight and Ryse: Son of Rome, an official XBOX One Chat Headset, a Turtle Beach Recon headset, and an Xbox 360 composite cable for some reason... No controller, but the whole thing was $80 CDN and just down the street from me. The S is better in just about every single way, but that dang Kinect...

I plan to track-down physical copies of Disneyland Adventures, Fantasia: Music Evolved, Fighter Within, Kinect Sports Rivals, and Rush: A Disney•Pixar Adventure. Also waiting for D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die to go on-sale again.

Really wanted to try FRU, got really disappointed when I found it had been de-listed, and now I'm eternally grateful that the developer sent me a code after I donated to a local charity! Fantastic game, reminiscent of LostWinds so far. With FRU and Dance Central Spotlight, I've now got two de-listed Xbox One Kinect games!

Buying Guide

Xbox:

• Great exclusive games
• Get component cables and a display that can use them, or an HDMI adapter

Xbox 360

• Great exclusive games
• Avoid the pre-2007 Pro/Premium and Core models
• Get a Kinect
• Limited backward-compatibility

Xbox One:

• The only exclusive games are for Kinect; S and X models are not compatible
• S and X models support resolutions over 1080p, HDR, and Ultra HD Blu-ray movies
• Limited backward-compatibility

Xbox Series:

• Essentially a cheap PC
• Perfect backward-compatibility with Xbox One library (except Kinect)
• Best way to play (all 11) non-Kinect Xbox One 'exclusive' games

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PlayStation:

• No need to buy one; just get a PlayStation 3
• SCPH-7501, 9001, or 101 if you do though

PlayStation 2:

• No need to buy one; just get a PlayStation 3
• SCPH-3x0xx is a nice-to-have if you do, but really can't go wrong otherwise

PlayStation 3:

• Great exclusive games
• CECHAxx or bust!
• Seriously though, they're all good; get CECHA/B/C/Exx if you want PlayStation 2 support, but look-into 'Frankies'

PlayStation 4:

• They're all good, but just buy any PlayStation 5 with a disc drive instead

PlayStation 5:

• Get a disc drive for PlayStation 4 games
• Pro only if you're rich
• I'd avoid non-'slim' Digital Editions

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No need to get into which Nintendo/Sega/Atari/whatever - just buy a Switch, a Wii U, and a Dreamcast; then play everything else on an FPGA or an emulator with a good CRT filter.

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2025 Gaming PC Minimum System Requirements Bonus Round:

• RTX 2060 SUPER/RX 6600
• Ryzen 5 3600/Core i5 10400F
• 16GB of RAM
• SATA SSD

Paperclips and Auto-Maps

Tried the A500 again and noticed that the floppy cable connection to motherboard was backward; whoever was in there before me was not careful, but I'd already kinda figured that from the assortment of random screws and what appears to be Rust-Oleum on the shielding... Anyway, the drive still couldn't read disks, so GoTek it is; fun experiment nonetheless!

Grabbed a few things in the last Steam Sale:

• Caravan SandWitch
• Shades of Beyond Good & Evil, ReCore, and Psychonauts - albeit without any combat. Loved it.
• Choo-Choo Charles
• Better than it looks, and it looks good! I recommend reading-up on its development story, too.
• Mirror's Edge Catalyst
• Might as well.
• The Mummy Demastered
• Metroidal Slugvania? Seriously, a WayForward Metroidvania that's styled akin to Metal Slug - I like it, so far.
• No Man's Sky
• Dangerous... I do not have time for this. Spent way too long messing around before I even left the second planet. Yet to try it in VR.
• Pacific Drive
• Good deal, wanted to support them, haven't installed it yet.
• Super Grave Snatchers
• Reminds me of Brutal Legend, but on a CGA 286. Really good.
• Super Woden GP
• Honestly, looked better in the trailers.

DOOM 64 Unseen Evil was a nice surprise.

SEGA AGES: Phantasy Star and Virtua Racing went on-sale and they're both stellar.

Played through the free trial of Diablo IV - hit level 25 as I completed The Magpie and the Knight. It's good; lots of systems I'll never touch, but more Diablo is always nice. Will buy it eventually.

Performed a clean installation of Android 15 on my Pixel 7, and it's slick; too many prompts, but nothing like Windows 11 24H2.

Grabbed Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League for under $5 and it's almost good? Traversal's clever but feels janky; combos don't feel particularly satisfying to me; story feels like a bit of a retread after the 2016 and 2021 games in addition to Injustice 2. I dunno... It's fine, but I think I'm just gonna burn through the campaign solo like I did with Anthem and Redfall.

Finally 100%'d Alan Wake II and all of its DLC - The Final Draft, all of the achievements, etc... It's really good and I'm ready for more... Still don't like the combat :)

A round of applause for this inanimate paperclip!

DOOM CD32X Fusion is incredible; really curious what else could be achieved with those processors and that kind of storage.

Finished Alan Wake II and it is singularly good. I still don't like the combat; but "The Final Draft" is a clever and worthwhile 'new game +', the DLC is fantastic, and now I'm really excited for more Control... If anything, The Lake House just reminded me how much more I enjoyed Control over all three Alan Wake games.

Re: My Amiga - This Bootstrapping an Amiga without a bootable Amiga floppy trick actually worked! ...I ended-up installing Windows on an old Athlon 64 with a serial port to pull it off, but it worked! I wasn't, unfortunately, able to write anything to an actual floppy; but that might've been my (or the disks') fault so I'll try one more time before giving-up and going with a GoTek.

Seven years, and totally worth it!

UFO 50 is fantastic. So many immediate standouts, and I've already finished Camouflage, Mooncat, Night Manor, and Vainger. Next is likely gonna be Porgy, Valbrace, or Mini & Max.

Vainger is essentially Metroid x Metal Storm, so I went back to the latter and it's wild - never got very far on my actual cartridge, so I may have abused some savestates elsewhere to finally finish it; but I honestly couldn't imagine the amount of practice it would've taken otherwise.

Started The Adventure of Link over again and I still hate it; the save system makes it clear that it's an early Soulsborne, and... Yeah, that explains why.

Garoyle's Quest II was decent, but I think I prefer the Game Boy and SNES games.

Finally tracked-down copies of Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for SEGA CD and Windows 95, so that's the best of either version of the game - GBA, SNES, 32X, and Jaguar just aren't the way to go; the latter two are alright but if it's not SCD or Win95, then it's gotta be Genesis.

My parents' old LG F4NR started "charging" while unplugged, so I went looking for a replacement. Their carrier offers a ZTE Cymbal 2, but wouldn't sell it to them without changing their plan... So I grabbed a new T-Mobile CAT S22 Flip for ~$87 CDN on Prime; it's so weird, and I kinda really like it.

Performed a clean installation of Windows 11 24H2 and wow is it awful... All of the offers and inconsistent question formatting, all of the unnecessary user account synching across so many services and apps, OneDrive... And all of of it constantly popping back up days and weeks later. I know none of it's new, but it's all just compounded so much over the past few years that it's become so heavy.

Decided to go with a Hall effect kit for my drifting DualSense (still mad about that) but then I ended-up replacing both joysticks with GuliKit TMR modules, and... I dunno, just feels neat :)