Minimal

Deals:

• 67%-off Powerstar Golf
• 65%-off Forza Horizon 5 Premium 
• 88%-off Destiny 2: Legacy Collection (2025)
• Amiga A520 for $40
• Found an Orico 4-bay, USB 3.0, SATA drive enclosure + RAID controller for $8 - appears to be an older 9548U3? Needs a power adapter.

Normal price:

• Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights (3DS) - Underappreciated, still cheap.
• Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Switch) - Didn't notice it was PAL though :/
• Headhunter (DC) - Has aged surprisingly well!

Dreamcast games that North America should've gotten because minimal localisation required:

• Aqua GT
• Capcom vs. SNK 2
• Cool Cool Toon
• Cosmic Smash
• Evil Twin
• Fighting Vipers 2
• Headhunter
• Ikaruga
• Rainbow Cotton
• Rez
• Shenmue II

...Nothing there that would've saved the platform, and playing imports has always been trivial, and they ended-up on XBOX and PlayStation and Nintendo and Windows anyway; but it's still just kinda sad.

Also, PocketDoom rewrite (SC-55 samples on GUS!) and Saturn DOOM Fix Patch v0.3!

"Repair Complete" 😢

Aveum is almost really good - weird weapons but also genuinely interesting replayability because of them; don't want to replay it because of the awful writing for the main character and one supporting character though. Tonnes of optional content too, but there's such a difficulty gap for some of it that people adopted Soulsborne-style strategies that exploit things like geometry and pathfinding bugs. I did only pay a few bucks for it though, so overall pretty happy with my purchase and time spent.

Speaking of time spent, Druidstone wastes a lot of that, but I'm still enjoying it - not Grimrock levels of fun, but engaging enough that I'll come back to it after rage-quitting.

Doom Resurrection 3.5 and CD32X Fusion 3.0 (Arch-vile!) are out, and the latest PocketDoom feels pretty complete.

Junkrunner64 is really impressive and surprisingly full-featured for something developed over what appears to be only a few months. Also kinda just makes me wanna play ReCore again... I really did enjoy ReCore.

Polymega Remix is interesting, but complicated - no upgrades for original Base Unit owners? No Remix capabilities for either Base Unit? I get the potential for abuse, so at least some kind of chart outlining hardware/physical-media/software/account/cloud validation requirements or something would go a long way to selling the idea of a legal and reliable backup ecosystem.

Neo Geo AES+ is neat, but will an MVS-to-AES cartridge adapter allow old MVS cartridges to run on the new hardware and how are refresh rates gonna be sorted-out? Regardless, I do appreciate that the launch library includes some of the traditionally most expensive titles, and I'd honestly buy four of them right off the bat if I didn't already own MVS copies.

Anyway, found decent prices on:

• Omega Boost and Treasures of the Deep for Playstation
• Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max on PSP
• Tony Hawk 3 and Wakeboarding Unleashed for XBOX
• Shape Up for Xbox One - I think that's all of the Kinect exclusives now!

Act 3: Junk

Spoilers here, but I'd always wondered why Snatcher's third act kinda sucks - mostly because of the absolutely ridiculous jilted-lover contrivance - and now I know that it's 'cause it was supposed to be five acts :(

Found a positive-tipped, 9V, 1.5A power adapter at a thrift store for $4 that works with the re-capped Game Gear, so that's nice.

The Eternal Life of Goldman demo is one of the best games I've ever played.

Found-out about and bought Druidstone - I'd wondered what happened to the Grimrock devs. It's tricky.

Immortals of Aveum is totally decent - the ~7/10 average out there feels about right. Way more Metroid Prime than I expected; lots to do, though it's all pretty janky - the usual Unreal quirks, inconsistent performance at any setting, keyboard gymnastics, unnecessary random powerups, the main character, a lot of the dialogue - but nothing show-stopping.

Bought a random copy of Jeep Thrills for Wii from a thrift store because of that stupid name... I guess I should bite the bullet and finally buy Ninjabread Man :)

Virtua Racing Deluxe was my first 32X game, it still holds-up incredibly well today, the idea of an optimised version running at 40FPS is really exciting, and sega-vr-disasm promises just that. The GitHub project is missing required files though, and the documentation is inaccurate... On-purpose or careless? Even after 20+ years in DevOps, I can never tell. I sussed-out and built a compatible environment (WSL 2 + Arch + marsdev), wrote the missing .lds files myself, and made the latest ROM in spite of everything - and I honestly don't really notice a difference. It doesn't seem to run on actual hardware, and reported bugfixes don't seem to be present; but there's also no kind of build validation in the repository, so maybe I've done something wrong.

I'd heard CachyOS was fast, so I tried it with Xfce on that awful dual-core, single-thread, 1.6GHz Celeron, 4GB of RAM, eMMC, HP Stream - 14-ax010ca (ENERGY STAR) laptop... And it's not that bad as long as I don't try to do too many things at once. EndeavourOS is still a more cohesive overall experience (with Xfce, anyway), but no real complaints.

Also, PocketDoom upgraded to OPL3!

Bottle caps, cigarette butts, thorium crystals, and pearls.

Recapped Game Gear doesn't work properly with the OEM MK-2103 10V power adapter, and those NiMH AAs are only 7.2V - seems as though anything outside of 9.0~9.5V results in video corruption :/ Gonna see if I can find something cheaper than an MK-4122 for it.

Splurged on a copy of Popful Mail for SEGA CD because it's the Zelda II we deserve, and SEGA CD still somehow has the best version despite a Switch re-release - plus it was local and absolutely not $500~$800... I could never.

Finally found a domestic copy of Waterworld for Virtual Boy for way less than $300~$400; and so I've now collected all of the North American releases; first platform I've ever done that for? Also tracked-down one of those discontinued 8BitDo Lite controllers to use with NSO VB - the dual directional-pads feel way better than the Joy-cons' analog sticks. The two MAR10 Day releases are welcome, but Tennis' emulation is a little rough around the edges. 

Speaking of NSO, I finished Comix Zone, Ristar, and Vectorman; started Dynamite Headdy.

Getting back to my relatively-cheap Amiga 500, I've ordered an RGB cable that works with my late-run Commodore 1902 monitor (the sticker says it doesn't support analog RGB, but it totally does), plus a USB mouse adapter. I also finally got around to disassembling and cleaning the keyboard, and about ten keys still aren't as responsive as the rest... Not sure what I want to do about that yet.

Picked-up:

• Bubsy 3D (PS) - Not good, but not as bad as you've heard.
• AeroWings (DC) - Underappreciated.
• Deep Fighter (DC) - Sub Culture 2!
• Flag to Flag (DC) - I'd never given it a second glance; it's good!
• Hydro Thunder (DC) - HOT! NEW! Non-"SEGA ALL STARS"!
• Ikaruga (DC) - About as close to the arcade as you can get?
• Street Fighter III: Double Impact (DC) - Playable bosses.
• Splashdown (XBOX) - Looks nice, wasn't expensive.
• Chili Con Carnage (PSP) - Name & game're somehow better than Ninjabread Man :)
• Sonic and the Black Knight (Wii) - Been surprisingly difficult to find around here.
• Rayman 3D (3DS) - I still do not get the hype, but I might actually finish it here.
• Collection of Mana (Switch) - Wanted Trials of Mana.

PocketDoom is great - kinda too bad about the OPL2, but even that's still really good! thinkelastic has been super-active and -responsive on the GitHub, and the progress made since the initial release less than two weeks ago is incredible.

Started messing around with Death's Door and it's not as frustrating as I'd feared.

Played through Killing Time: Resurrected, and it's great to see that hidden gem polished-up so nicely. Got me thinking again about what the 3DO could've been if it'd caught-on - tonnes of good stuff on there, even if a lot of it was just a cheaper way to play PC and arcade ports, or a very expensive way to play mildly-enhanced versions of previous-generation games you already owned. I can think of a bunch of titles that I'd still pick-up and play today - better versions of a lot of them hit the PlayStation and Saturn a year or so later, but still:

• Brain Dead 13
• D
• Escape from Monster Manor
• Gex
• Immercenary
• Killing Time
• Lucienne's Quest
• Need for Speed
• PaTaank
• PO'ed
• Return Fire
• Road Rash
• Samurai Shodown
• Slayer
• Space Hulk
• Star Control II
• Star Fighter
• Super Street Fighter II Turbo
• Super Wing Commander
• Wolfenstein 3D

Component-to-BNC

Assessing the aftermath of the fifth console generation got me thinking about how I'm used to hearing that Sony deeply undercut the competition with the PS1, Neo Geo CD/Z was too little/too late, Saturn was hard to program, Jaguar wasn't 64-bit, and 3DO's $700 price tag was exorbitant (which is actually pretty cheap, considering what a computer cost back then; that's why DOOM on Jaguar was a big deal) but what kinda irks me is that I haven't seen many explorations of the full SEGA CD 32X setup costing only $500 by the end of 1994... And how the journey to get there is pretty interesting.

Yeah, 3DO beat 32X by a year and was down to $400 by then; and no, they weren't equals - but think about it: Upgrading to Genesis from your NES by 1990 and holding your own against the SNES a year or two later? Finally pulling the trigger on a SEGA CD a year or two after that (when the price dips below $300) to add hugely improved sprite-scaling, audio, and video capabilities? Then grabbing a 32X a year or two after that for $150 to push some real polygons, add way more colours, and significantly upgrade video playback? That's fantastic!

If SEGA could've marketed that long-term upgrade path to showcase their ecosystem's true possibilities, they'd be providing an unprecedentedly vast library with full hardware 'backward-compatibility' right up to an entirely different sixth generation. Neo Geo was always a niche product, Jaguar was broken and unsupported, 3DO was already failing, and Nintendo 64 was late to the party... Delay or even skip Saturn, and offer a CDX+32X for $400.

Instead of pushing genuinely impressive sprite-scaling multimedia spectacles, however, Sega of America focused on shitty interactive movies and allowed half-assed Genesis ports that had nothing more than superfluous intro videos, lazily-arranged soundtracks, and longer loading times. Why not focus earlier on developing way bigger and better-looking game worlds, where players can move around in pseudo-3D for SEGA CD? Make more Sega Classics collections; hype-up the PC ports that're now playable at a fraction of the cost; push the LaserDisc arcade ports from ReadySoft and Wolf Team as true curiosities; feature how Core Design, Game Arts, Psygnosis, and Traveller's Tales had thoroughly figured-out the platform by the time the 32X was released; and then show what a CD 32X can really do! I know DOOM CD32X Fusion benefits from over 30 years' worth of computer science advances, but it does exist and that potential was always there. This is all in a different timeline though, and pointless because Sony upended everything... Should we still blame the Nintendo PlayStation for that, or would it've happened anyway?

-----

 

Finished Fable II and I want to like it more because it's still very pretty and has plenty of character for a playground, but it's just so janky. Ending was effective, if a little anti-climactic. I own Fable III, and I might even try it... But then there was a sale on No Rest for the Wicked, which looks like Diablo, plays like a Soulsborne, and seems to borrow a lot from Fable. Too bad about that one founder, though. Played through all of the content available so far, looks great, love the verticality and exploration, combat is fine, but a couple of the bosses are pretty annoying for certain builds.

Played through Iron Lung in anticipation of the movie; decent for $5.

Found a Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+, a 2GB microSD, an 802.11n USB Wi-Fi adapter, and a boxed 2GB GeForce GT 1030 for $20 at a thrift store... I'm open to suggestions for what to do with that Pi 1 B+ as well as a 1 A; Geiger counter is the most interesting possibility so far, but I don't think I'll need two of those. Tried RetroPie on the B+, but nah... And don't say Pi-hole. So, not sure what to do with any of that aging hardware, but I have been using this as my work computer lately:

• Core 2 Quad Q9450
• EVGA 132-CK-NF79
• 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 (dual channel)
• Radeon HD 5870
• 1TB SATA SSD
• EndeavourOS

...And it runs a decent amount of my Steam library. 

Picked-up RGB+Sync cables for Genesis/SEGA CD/32X/Saturn/Dreamcast as well as S-Video for SNES/N64/GC and it's all just beautiful. Keeping the Dreamcast on VGA and the GC on Wii though.

Virtual Boy for Nintendo Switch Online arrived: Some of the games run/feel a little differently (apparently it's running at 60Hz instead of 50Hz now) but nothing's unplayable. It looks really good on the OLED Switch, but it's kind of big and doesn't scale all that well if you shrink it down. Joy-Cons don't work as well as the original Virtual Boy controller - especially in Teleroboxer - but it's serviceable. Sometimes the 3D effect is harder to focus on than with original hardware (e.g. the targeting reticule in Insmouse) but the whole package is overall really cool and still way cheaper than tracking-down and fixing an old one, plus buying games or even a flashcart. At this point, I'm stoked for new games coming down the pike and hoping for a better controller.

Got my Nomad and my VA0, flat-lens Game Gear re-capped - original LCD on the latter has a couple of stuck pixels and some early signs of impending failure, but it's good for now. Weird thing though: Testing it with NiMH batteries caused graphical glitches, but alkaline batteries worked without issue.

Should you bother?

• Atari
• 2600 - Sure, why not
• 5200 - Nah
• 7800 - Only for Ninja Golf
• Lynx - Awful physical experience; emulate it if you must
• Jaguar - Not worth the money; emulate it for some interesting stuff though
• Jaguar CD - See Jaguar
• Nintendo
• NES - Nostalgia and speedrunning
• GB - However you do it, just make sure you get the display right
• SNES - 100% original, 100% awesome
• VB - Must be experienced; nothing else like it
• N64 - Original, FPGA, or emulator; all good
• GBC - Meh
• GBA - Yup
• GC - Meh; get a Wii
• DS - Yup
• Wii - Original hardware or Wii U for everything except Metroid Prime 3
• 3DS - Must be experienced; nothing else like it
• Wii U - Missed potential; leave it be
• Switch - Stellar platform
• Switch 2 - Waiting for a better display
• SEGA
• SG1000 - What
• Master System - Meh
• Genesis - Generally better on emulators
• Game Gear - Awful physical experience; worth emulating
• SEGA CD - Seriously underrated
• 32X - Missed potential; leave it be
• Saturn - 100% original, 100% awesome
• Dreamcast - 100% original, 100% awesome; punched above its weight
• Sony
• PS1 - Get a PS2
• PS2 - Yup
• PSP - Sure, why not
• PS3 - Yup
• Vita - Sure, why not
• PS4 - Yeah, but get a PS5 with a disc drive
• PS5 - Yup, see PS4
• Microsoft
• XBOX - Yup
• 360 - Yup
• XBOne - Kinect only
• Series - Sure, why not
• Misc.
• Intellivision/ColecoVision/Odyssey - Meh
• Vectrex - Must be experienced; nothing else like it
• 8- and 16-bit computers - You're a special kind of nerd, and that's alright
• Neo Geo - Totally fine on emulators, but original hardware is so cool
• 3DO - Pretty good, but most of it's also on PC and better there

Interesting that the vast majority of these classic platforms really only have 20 or so exclusive games worth playing; everything else has a comparable port elsewhere or a PC version. Most people just wanna experience cool art though, and that's never been easier than it is right now - almost all of this stuff can be fully enjoyed on a $20 thrift store computer. I hope collectors have fun and enjoy the hunt though, and speculators can get bent. 

Anyway...

I'd forgotten about this bit of nostalgic wish-fulfillment.

DOOM: The Dark Ages going eldritch horror is rad, and way better than whatever that floating mancave in Eternal was supposed to be. Finished the game and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Finally started Jedi Survivor, and yeah, I'd missed this.

Prime Hunters is kinda meh, though still impressive for the DS.

Picked-up Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider for too much money (but less than the going rate), Game Builder Garage and Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom (360) for a reasonable amount of money, and then decided to finally dig further into Fable II because it's supposedly works well enough on Xbox One, and... It hasn't aged as well as I'd hoped. I really enjoyed the first game on PC - small and flawed, but overall fun and well-built - but II just kinda feels like a slog of navigating eggshells and busywork at the cost of some pretty janky system implementations. It's still fun and interesting, and sports great performances; but then the menus are just infuriatingly unpolished, the moral choices lack nuance, and the writing is questionable - and none of that is a 2008 thing like the bloom, or the motion blur, or the combat system, or the animations, or the dialogue timing, or the checkpoints...  Really though, I just wish it ran smoother.

Hey Lizardcube, could you do Comix Zone next? Thanks.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is fine, regardless of how you play it - but it's also visually drab and poorly written. I'm not sure if I like its cliches less than Echoes', but neither lives-up to the first one. Beyond isn't exactly a breath of fresh air so much as it's just oxygen - a huge jump in production values, especially for secondary characters; Vi-O-La is more engaging than the cockpit in Corruption, and conveys a sense of scale much more effectively; the handholding is a little more obnoxious, but nothing new. I've finished the game and thoroughly enjoyed it - up there with Zero Mission, II, Fusion, and Dread; not quite Prime or Super. The scene when VUE-995 apologises to Samus and she just shrugs? Perfection. The ending though... Trash. I don't mean that the final fight or the conclusion of the story are bad, but the overwrought combat patterns and inconsistent conventions were maddening - i.e. Don't read too much into things; just dodge and shoot... Until you do need to literally read into them, and then risk repeating a significant amount of gameplay for no real reason. It's absolutely boneheaded design marring an otherwise brilliant game. Oh, and the secret ending? No spoilers, but that might be the stupidest origin story I've ever seen. Beyond is still an overall win, but talk about tripping over the finish line.

I've finished Other M as well, and it's mostly really good. The game doesn't play quite like anything else; Sakamoto clearly wanted to try something new in the wake of the original Prime trilogy, and he almost pulled it off. The heinously bad script needs a re-write, and that means those awful performances would need to be re-recorded. While the myriad hackneyed metaphors should be toned way down, I don't think they have to go entirely away - there's an interesting story here that explores concepts like creation and responsibility in terms of motherhood; independence and cooperation in terms of choosing to respect a particular chain of command; all of that in the context of AI, genetic engineering, and military applications thereof. This one's due a proper re-working - existing fan projects look solid, but I'd like to see Nintendo fix this mistake themselves - same story and setting, new script, edited cutscenes, and no more motion controls. Oh, and the epilogue is great right up until the end; it's like they realised what they had done, gave us what we actually wanted, and then pulled the rug out from beneath us at the last moment... I honestly laughed out loud. Anyway, Prime Hunters next.

Finally getting around to trying the Oasis Driver for Windows Mixed Reality on Windows 11 25H2, and it's pretty rad and I'm pretty grateful.

Found a Ducky One 2 60% Mini RGB (DKON2061ST) with TTC Gold Pink switches for $6 at a thrift store - missing three keycaps, pretty dirty, and not responding to every key-press. Figured worth cleaning-up and maybe getting a new set of caps if it's serviceable. A quick clean yielded some improvement, but input's still spotty and I'm not super-interested in soldering anything. Maybe some compressed air into each switch as a last resort.

Also found a NETGEAR EAX12 AX1600 Wi-Fi Range Extender/AP/Adapter for $6 - no point in replacing the AC1200 TP-Link I picked-up the other week since it's currently only extending an AC router, but I couldn't pass-up a $94-savings.

ALSO found a D-Link DCS-8010LH for $5 - which was particularly refreshing after recently fighting with a set of Blink cameras for someone else, trying to get them to work without a subscription. Pro Tip: The full local storage option is only available on Blink if you don't have any kind of plan active, including the initial free trial 🙄

I quit my job and bought a keytar.

Quickly:

• The parry mechanic in DOOM: The Dark Ages is less obtrusive than I feared.
• Isles of Sea and Sky gets kinda frustrating toward the end; I seem to be missing a few upgrades though, so maybe that's on me.
• SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance is stellar (Lizardcube hasn't missed yet) and more Metroid than I expected.
• Animal Well is up there too, but I'm not sure sure how I feel about the roguelike elements.
• Inmost gets a little silly toward the end and loses some of its impact, but still really good.

Bloodily:

• Played through the original six episodes of Blood; can't remember if I ever did that back in the day. Still nothing quite like it. Marrow impresses immediately, but I'll get back to it. I feel like I should've waited for Cheello to update Coagulated for Refreshed Supply, but oh well...

Metroidly:

• Metroid II - EJRTQ Colorization is really well-done, and the core game holds-up nearly 35 years later; a little short, but still huge - especially for an original Game Boy game.
• Trying PrimeHack after a few hours of Corruption on original hardware is a revelation.
• Other M at 1440p with a DualSense feels almost contemporary.

Consumerly:

• Finally found a copy of RUSH: A Disney • PIXAR Adventure for Xbox One in the wild (and it has a "Microsoft Company Store" sticker on it), as well as Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings for PSP, and a sealed copy of Destruction Allstars on PS5.
• Boox Go 7 seems to be the sweet spot that balances portability, display, performance, and public-library support - so I got one for my partner.

Privately:

• EndeavourOS + Waterfox + Startpage? Waterfox's AUR package doesn't seem to be maintained all that well and I'm not really interested in Flatpak, so I opted for a manual installation. Still running Windows 11 + Edge + Bing in most places, and Android for mobile; Gemini's getting annoying on the latter though, so... Graphene? Lineage? Calyx?

Thriftily:

• ASUS RT-AX57 for $10
• Wi-Fi 6 is way faster than I need - seeing 2401Mbps negotiated, but I'm on a 100Mbps Internet connection and the router only has Gigabit Ethernet.
• TP-Link RE305 V3 AC1200 Wi-Fi Range Extender/AP/Adapter for $7
• Should be useful; reminds me of the DWL-G730AP I used on my 360 from 2006 into 2011
• Antennas Direct ClearStream 2V TV Antenna for $14
• Was actually looking for one.
• An HP power adapter for a buddy's old laptop for $5
• I told them I'd find one :)
• An HP power adapter for that $12 EliteDesk for $4
• Might need it to replace the $10 official universal travel one - down to $20 total ;)
• Rock Band 3 Xbox 360 Wireless Keyboard for $8
• It's also a MIDI keytar!

Really gotta move the old routers... Keeping these though:

• ASUS RT-AX57 (AX3000, Gigabit, 2x2 MU-MIMO)
• Linksys EA8500 (AC2600, Gigabit, 4x4 MU-MIMO, USB3.0, eSATA)
• TP-Link Archer A8 (AC1900, Gigabit, 3x3 MU-MIMO)

$11.24

Some especially decent offerings in a recent Steam sale, so I bought Sonic Frontiers - aggressive pop-in, absolutely horrible menus clearly designed by inhuman monsters, ugly cutscenes, some truly baffling asset-placement and annoying instant-death situations, very strange music... But genuinely great traversal and satisfying boss battles, and it all lands somewhere between modern Mario and Zelda. Weird as hell, and it works, and I kinda love it - especially for $16.

Also finally pulled the trigger on Ys X, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, DEVIL BLADE REBOOT, Isles of Sea and Sky (needs a CRT filter), and Rollerdrome (neat); also found Super Mario Maker 2 new for $40.

Back to Destiny - I can't put my finger on it, but Destiny 1 on PS5 feels better than Destiny 2 on PC. Also, The Taken King and Rise of Iron both went on-sale for $3.12 each, so I wrapped all of that up before diving into DOOM and Ys.

So far, I much prefer gameplay in The Dark Ages over Eternal. Performance-wise, on my 3070, I'm seeing ~90FPS@1080p and ~65FPS@1440p

• V-Sync Off
• VRS Off
• DLSS Quality
• Path Tracing Off
• HDR On
• Ultra Preset

Then I got distracted by Voxel Duke Nukem 3D and Blood: Refreshed Supply - both really good.

And then I got distracted again by the Virtual Boy for Nintendo Switch preorders opening, so now I have a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription, and it's better than I expected - the NES, Genesis, Game Boy, and SNES offerings are pretty great; the N64 selection is good but I'd like to see a CRT filter; GBA on there is solid, but relatively weak.

...Aaannnd then I got distracted by Metroid Prime 3 in anticipation of 4... Loved Prime, didn't really like 2, and never got very far into 3; I'm still not a fan of the controls, or the dialogue, or... I'll finish it, regardless.

Got a watch repair kit, and I think I enjoy watch repair about as much as I enjoy soldering - which is to say, not much at all.

Oh, and I finally tried Astral Chain, and it's really good; I've been all over the place on PlatinumGames' output, but this one's got a hold on me for now.

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.