AtariLynx Lover

I won't reserve a copy or anything - because I don't know if I'll have the money or anything, and also because I'm sure you'll announce its availability here - but I am definitely interested in it.

It looks fantastic, Ninjabba. Really looking forward to it. I'll love a good RPG for my Lynx.

Agreed! I hope there's a Secret Santa this year, come November/December.

You mentioned you liked Pac-Man and that was literally the only Pac-Man thing I had. I figured even if you couldn't play it (either due to lack of 2600 or the game's inherent awfulness) that you'd be amused by it

I was Secret Santa to CVG. Thank you Master Phruby. I loved the LifeSavers. So much so that I finished them all up in two days.

I have indeed. I love the attention to detail of each article - they're very, very informative.

I have the site bookmarked.

The photo of my stuff. I've, ah, already eaten the entirety of one bag of LifeSavers Gummies. I love those things, best candies in the world in my opinion. Quite looking forward to reading the Mistborn trilogy (I'm finishing up a re-read of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell at the moment) and also Etrian Odyssey IV. Though I've heard the Etrian Odyssey games are legendarily difficult and legendarily old-school. My survival is debatable at best! (Would love to know who sent the stuff, but I'll live not knowing. Whoever you are - thank you!)

Received my SS gift - the Mistborn Trilogy, Etrian Odyssey IV, and three - THREE! - bags of LifeSavers! I have no idea the username of the sender, but whomever it was, thank you very, very much!

I am willing to ship internationally.

Some days ago, while listening to some of the Zelda II soundtrack, I noticed something - it's possible you may have noticed it too. Zelda II's soundtrack sounds inherently different from the original Zelda. And not just due to the composer, either - (Koji Kondo in The Legend of Zelda, while Akito Nakatsuka did the music for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link in his only Zelda compositional work. Interested readers may like to know that his Dungeon Theme from the game was used as the StreetPass Battle Theme in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Rather the remix [as it is now orchestral] was done by Nakatsuka himself or the game's composer Ryo Nagamatsu is unknown, but I am of the opinion that it is the work of Nagamatsu as Nakatsuka does very little compositional work these days.) -it sounds like it's using different 8-bit 'instruments' from the original Zelda. A portion of this may be down to the technique of the composers. I however and of the opinion that this down to the sound programming - in particular, the sound driver used. You see, in these early days of gaming, there was no standardized software. Composers were often also proficient programmers, so each composer might program his own sound driver. Of course, you'd get the rare occasion where a programmer would have to do the music as they couldn't afford a composer, but we do not speak of these. I did some digging at this website for information, having stumbled upon it months ago and remembering a mention of sound drivers. And with that - success! Nintendo used three sound drivers on the NES. The first was programmed by Hirokazu Tanaka (at the time he started working at Nintendo, there was no sound driver for the Famicom, so he programmed one himself), the second by Akito Nakatsuka (initially he used Tanaka's before programming his own around 1986.) and the third by Koji Kondo (Nintendo required its main composers to write their own sound drivers, so Kondo did likewise). It is safe to assume that Kondo used his own sound driver for his Zelda music, thus, given the different sound of the Zelda II soundtrack, one can only guess that Nakatsuka likewise used his sound driver for Zelda II's music. A mystery solved. But one does wonder: what games had what sound driver? Kondo's (and possibly Tanaka's and probably many, many other company's sound drivers) fit the definition of 'classical' 8-bit music. Nakatsuka's doesn't. Metaphorically, it's the sitar to Kondo's pizzicato violin. Going off of only the Zelda game's, Nakatsuka's is immediately different from the first Zelda, and thus, Kondo's driver. One further distinction is that his driver seems peculiarly weak at the higher pitches, as the Zelda II title theme shows off. Something to wonder. Perhaps one day we may know, either through guesswork or someone managing to get their hands on information straight from the Yoshi's mouth.

Yes please! My PM will be forthcoming.

Magnificent to hear! I can barely wait.

I am living in Michigan and I'm in very close vicinity of a Plymouth Street. Does that count?