Reaperman

So warhammer is a series of miniature wargames that steal at least a thousand dollars and hundreds of hours from each player. They like to sell the rule books by race, so to make sure the guy(s) you're playing against aren't cheating, you have to sit down and read their stupid rulebooks too. By the time that's done, everybody's too drunk to play anything, which makes it N64 Goldeneye time. At least that was my experience. YMMV. Then the next time there's a balance revision, nobody can field half their $1000+ armies, so your friends all switch from Fantasy to stupid 40k, because they'll never learn. Oh and the video games are all incredibly awful except this one 'Epic 40k' random huge battle game. That was pretty sweet but is only recommended to those who can appreciate how much that would cost to run on the table in terms of money, time and paint (even at epic-scale). Space Hulk Tactics was the last I can recall playing and was especially unredeemable. The voice work was both persistent and awful--I assume it was made by placing a microphone at the bottom of an empty toilet. It's only for gamers who felt the xcom reboots moved WAY too quickly and competently. For a challenge, follow the link and see how much of that guy's turn you can sit through.

So, since I saw the convoluted Tennokoe instructions on page 8 of the Analogue Duo's online manual, and figured that I usually like putting my life into hard mode, 🙄 so I naturally went ahead and ordered one of those Tennokoe hucard savebanks. Presumably, with the proper TG16 adapter that I don't yet have, I can take a save from my existing Tennokoe II to the analogue duo via a process I already know I'm probably never going to bother with, but options are nice to have. But it's not like I'll just be able to buy one of these later if I change my mind. I have to get them before they go ultra-rare like everything else in the family. Speaking of how common they are, the Tennokoe cards seem like such an edge case device, so it's surprising there are so many of them in relation to Tennokoe II units. (??) I must be missing something. And thank you internet for putting out instructive videos on 30 year old japanese-only savegame technology.

Yeah, the shipping always does seem to go this way and never does feel like $34 worth (where I'm at). Wife got the confirmation email 3 min(?) after it went live--and bravo to her for being quick on the trigger. I didn't have enough notice to take the day off last time. and of course today tracking is just as it was monday. I can't blame UPS, since it's not even in their hands yet, and once it is, these are the hardest weeks of the year for shipping: So the thing of it is that I've currently worked myself up to the state of 'jazzed' about turbografx for the first time in probably 2.5 decades, so of course I'm playing it on MiSTer, with exactly the same controller options (8bitdo, and both SNACs), but lots more games. I'm hoping I don't burn myself out on the platform before it gets here, and probably won't, but I'll probably still be winding down on the tg16 kick about that time.

I've never had a DSi before, so now I do. Battery's still good. No stylus, SD card, or downloaded games. They left close to 500 pictures on it, though. I'll have to see if there's a way to get DSiWare games on it, but at this point it's probably easier and more fun to just play 3ds.

Not the intended 'thrift find' but I'm jazzed and didn't want to start a thread somewhere. $29 RCA RPJ280 1080p projector at walmart.com Free shipping for orders over $35 Very bright for the price. and I believe the 1080p native claim. But Lens blurs terribly at the edges. 4:3 content is more tolerable. Speakers are loud, but quality suffers at higher volumes. lag test is on the slowish side of 'fair.' ~24-38ms toward top, ~42-60 at bottom. But did I mention $29? I ended up buying a couple more, another for me, and one for a gift.

Analogue label info was sent today, but it'll be a bit. Pretty jazzed. But wow is this ever the wrong year to start a TGCD collection. the only US game I can afford...within the limits of my sanity...arrived today, The VAX Collection! So I pulled down the old 'never gonna need these again' cd rack from the highest shelf for a pic. It's been up there for probably a decade. 🤣 Looks like I tripped over a couple pce titles over the years, so I finally get to play those too. There's something about the feeling flipping through a stack of hucards. Very low friction. everdrives took it from me, a duo jailbreak probably will again, but for now I've got little plastic squares. (embiggen)

I'm jazzed about the Duo, and figured I'd try out the pocket's tg16 cd core--fired up the annoyingly unskippable rondo intro and, as just I recall from last time I tried it, it de-sync'd badly enough that I turned it off. Any magic tricks to that? or the tgcd core in general? I notice there's some kind of a numerical setting in that menu, and also that the default options don't work great for me. I don't remember similar issues with the same games on MiSTer, but kind of want it handheld.

Briley Witch Chonicles is great. Go buy them. I don't think that's any secret over in C64 places, but here in Atariland word hadn't reached me about these, though search here reveals a few mentions over the years. Briley Witch 1 and 2 are over on the SarahJaneAvory itch.io (here). It's amazing to see the c64 doing all of this so smoothly, and for the only time in my life I'm 9hrs+ into a c64 game. I picked the first one up during the black friday sale, intending at first to buy a (shmup), but whatever. I was/am having unexpected amounts of fun, and then surprise--a few days later the second game came out so had to buy that day-one even if I'm not ready for it. Where I am in the first game is leaving the equivalent of 'Midgar' in ff7--first 6-8 hrs take place in one small town, and at the semi-conclusion of a storyline, the world map opens. somebody's hardware capture of typical raw gameplay: Briley Witch is a linear-story, turn-based japanese-style RPG, based on a series of self-published books. I'm assuming the books are for a younger audience than me, and the further translation to short dialogue boxes can honestly sometimes leave the characters feeling buffoonish. The game is not selling me on these books, but on a technical level, it's amazing to see the c64 humming along like this, and I have no memory of it doing similar BITD. The little technical things really add up. dialogue boxes float over the background complete with names/portraits, music interrupts for jingles and then resumes, the game scrolls smoothly even with an on-screen party of 3 following around. Speaking of music, it's pleasant/memorable enough, even having variations around a main theme. It never gets in the way (as c64 music tends to do) and I don't get sick of it. I think the controls are even as perfect as is theoretically possible (👍), in either one or two button formats. The creator's an old hand at this. Soulstar on sega cd is probably the previous standout but there's a lot. So 'fantastic on a technical level' isn't entirely news here, but I didn't know that before looking into it. Gameplay-wise Briley Witch has an interesting daily rhythm, like a harvest moon/rune factory game. Wake up, do jobs, pick plants, crafting/shopping, have whatever adventure, recharge amulets at night, bed. That's the standard loop, but of course it will deviate from it. The more modern gameplay additions like a mild focus on gathering/crafting, combined with the technicals, make it feel like a modern game for a 30 year old system--but it's a 40 year old system. official trailer for the 2nd one:

I will say that for the money I still think I should get a US-spec controller port, or a built in turbotap. But I did pick up 2x of the 8bitdo wireless controllers, which hopefully (THIS TIME) I won't have to flash with exclusive firmware to use with the console, because eff-that. My old setup's a Turbografx with an rgb-modded tennekoe 2, which is an odd configuration that had me locked into US-region hucards for 30 years. US games were cheap enough when I bought them all but...so sorry gen-z... 😁 Now I get to be one of those 'baller giga-chads' with a region-free duo setup. and I've been going nuts on ebay. Etsy also apologized for inadvertently preventing me from purchasing their pirated CDs, so... 😈 And yes, I have an everdrive, mister, pocket, and probably some other ways to play the games today, but let me be excited for the plastic squares and discs again! This doesn't happen often.

yeah, that does mean the hipsters have already moved on to the next big thing, and your embarrassing dad has started talking about it to sound 'hip to the jive.' (which honestly doesn't sound too far from my personality) TBH I haven't played a GTA since two solid attempts to play GTA 4, --BUT-- I notice steam has a sale for GTA V 'premium edition' for $9.25. Honestly that sounds fair, and I did enjoy Lemmings, so I'll buy their new game too. 🤣 I'm not doing the one with horses, though. that looks really lame, and I am not going to enjoy the theming.

mindrec's closed down, but I did manage to snag a vax remastered collection for a high, but probably-not-too-scalpy price. Now at least I can test the drive. My attempts to purchase pirated games from etsy keep getting shut down by their anti-fraud algorithm. They like to shut down the buyer, auto-cancel orders, keep making them reset their password, send them to 10+ min of captcha hell, etc, and then having their support just be rude/disconnect--when etsy's the one still offering the product. 🙄 super darius for pce/cd seems to be the most reasonably priced legit import for non-japanese speakers at ~$30, but I couldn't make myself do it.

So am I the edgelord, then? I've been thinking about this since my last post. At first the thread title drew me in by being so impossible to be remotely true, it has to be trolling. In my world, humanity doesn't even 'respect' GTA as a game series(?). However, it is confirmed, by even the normie news, that GTA 6 is the video gaming pinnacle of our modern cultural zeitgeist, Which makes mine the trolly edgelord opinion, then. When did this happen, GTA5 era? It's got to be recent right, the psp ones sure didn't get much respect, and there's only been two(?) since.

I keep forgetting that I even ordered the duo. It's happened at least 3 times now. That's why 'pre-buy and get it when you don't care about it any more' isn't my favorite sales model. Still, once I do remember I still get a little 'jazzed' to be able to play real turbografx-cd games for the first time, and do want to give myself a little of the full duo retail experience by grabbing at least one game. But wow, does ebay ever remind me that I picked the wrong decade to attempt that. Even the PCEworks fakes are priced a little crazily, but I'm guessing that's the direction I'm headed.

I just went looking for the trailer, before seeing it embedded above, but since youtube bumps "trusted news sources," all I can find on the 'tube are local news stories about there being trailer and how culturally important it is. I've scrolled a while, real trailer doesn't come up in search. Am I in bizarro world? Or an AI matrixed version of Candid Camera? Was there a point where grand theft auto became a family dinner table topic, and not just the realm of middle-school edgelords? 🤣

Figured it out(?) It's actually the petscii robots cart. if it's in either slot, duke 1+2 loses sync or crashes or whatever. No idea why, but annoying. can anybody else replicate? I don't even know if it's other carts, or just that one. @Ryan_Blaze Proof that I'm not crazy (its uploading now, but below vid will start working sometime): Yeah, obviously I'm just frustrated today. If I really didn't like Evercade, I wouldn't be trying this hard, and would just play on something else. and yes, my turbografx-16 setup is basically just a glorified 'evercade stand' right now...

...and very much like with the petscii robot cart, now it just works. 😫 Started working last night, and works every freaking time, same as the other cart. I put off posting it in here as I was trying my hardest to reproduce any kind of failure again. I spent probably an hour trying to get this going last night and about the same amount of time today trying to get it to break. am currently actually furious, because just like the petscii robot cart, now it just works every time. List of things it's not: one vs slot vs other one. screen resolution (1080p vs 720p do the same) not the power supply (I'd tried it in the big usb one that powers my MiSTer) not running an old firmware not helped by "factory reset" (not even sure what that resets since the firmware stayed "current version" not some kind of aftermarket VS firmware--I don't run that, but if anything I'd think it'd help. could still be something that starts working when I properly boot it in a different system (in this case super pocket). but I don't recall it immediately working in the VS after that. I'm also not sure if it's a 'crash' or just a permanent loss of sync. It doesn't drop me back at the menu like the crashes do, because oh I've had tons of evercade crashes, and other evercade issues. So sometimes I get the feeling that evercade carts/hardware are all just a bit 💩 I said it, and it needed saying

Anybody having trouble with duke 1+2 on vs? I just went from current update to console factory reset(?), it still dies(?) or at least loses sync forever after the little c:\> intro and 'loading' screen. seems to work on the super pocket and duke 3d at least gets to title screen on vs (probably farther, I stopped testing there and went back to 1+2) I notice it says 'console up to date,' in system menu which makes me wonder about "factory reset" 🙄 seems like it forgot my wifi password and that's about it. last month's petscii robot cart started out super-jank on it too, but eventually decided it wanted to start working flawlessly. I assumed it was either booting it up on the super pocket, or updating the vs firmware, but probably just this same deal.

Amazon's got a sale on the kof 97 edition 8bitdo neo geo usb pads. Standard version still full price.

I got my MiSTer Laggy lag tester in today, which is available for $12 (here) Usually it costs way more than $12 to get disappointed with your life 🤣 I kid, this thing's actually great: My w1070 projector was reviewed at ~32ms (numerous sites) when I bought it, which is decent for DLP of the era. and per Mr. Laggy, it gets that 32ms all day at 720p, 480/960 etc. everything it would sync to. But not at 1080p (native resolution) it was getting 51-70ms+ Uff da! One MiSTer.ini setting later, 32ms at 1080p! Buy one of these(!), you never know if there's some stupid setting holding you back, and most frames of lag cost a lot more than $12 to fix. boring details:

I really like fullvoid. Played through in one go, and the ending made it a bit better than I thought it was while playing, but there's not much replay value on it. I don't think I've ever completed an evercade game before. I'm doing PETSCII robots now, while I wait for the 2d Duke games--and I'm doing as terribly on amiga as my attempts at SNES, genesis and others 🤣 I'm going to have to get more creative when the 'chair + gun' anti-robot technique starts to fail.