Random crap.
I got these on AliExpress.com. I didn’t notice the size of these stickers. I was hoping to put the RetroPie sticker on my Raspberry Pi case, but it’s way too big for it!
Here is the link to the sales page for these stickers. You have to choose which ones you want. They also have a Konami sticker, but it’s the newer logo and not the classic logo, unfortunately. So, I passed. I do want to buy a smaller RetroPie sticker now.
Since I’ve shown lots of cool Sega swag from Shimamura stores, I thought I’d share these images I found on my Flickr account. I bought the Saturn pajamas, but I wish I had gone into debt and bought the Megadrive and Dreamcast pajamas too. Drat.
I found these on Pinterest. I always preferred Capcom’s Aliens vs. Predator arcade game over Konami’s Aliens game. I played the Konami game in the arcades on occasion, but it never impressed me much. I’ve lately come to appreciate it more recently via Final Burn Alpha on RetroPie.
Oh my freaking gosh. CD Romance has released an ENGLISH-PATCHED image of Princess Crown for the Sega Saturn! I bought this game nearly 20 years ago. About 10 years ago I played up to the point where I slayed the dragon, but didn’t get further than that as I lost track of it. Now it is in ENGLISH! With my Japanese level, I was able to make sense of the game, but I didn’t catch the part of how Gradriel’s older sister is ill (which would explain why she was crowned queen instead of her sister).I don’t care for the font choice, but this is super-duper neat-o!
This game is the predecessor to Vanillaware’s Odin Sphere. I like how you can have the little girl pick up the kitty instead of the book.
I don’t care for the font choice, but this is super-duper neat-o!
It’s not a proper 1.0 version yet. Some text is still in Japanese, such as the labels to the doors. This will make it difficult for those who can’t read the moon runes. Plus it has some wonky text issues. Still, this is GREAT!
By creating an account on Mercari, I’ve expanded my ability to buy neat crap. Something I missed out on at Shimamura is this neat Megadrive T-shirt. This shirt is brand new and still has the tag attached! The front breast has the MD logo, the 3-button controller, and under that it says “16-BIT.”
This neat little tag is on the sleeve.
This is on the back. Neat!
Here is my newest desktop wallpaper, and it’s Nadia with a beautiful sunset. I was running Mint Mate 20 Ulyssa, and my 1TB SSD hard disk was maxing out. In august I bought a 2TB HD, and in September I installed Mint Mate 22 Wilma. It wasn’t a smooth experience like version 20 was. The first problem I had was when I plugged the old 1TB drive in and tried copying my files directly from there. Upon reboot, it wouldn’t even boot up and was scrolling text. I re-installed Wilma. Then updating the Nvidia driver caused the computer to freeze up. I had to get help on the Linux Mint Forums and learned how to modify the boot kernel. After that, it was fine. However what remains is apparently the USB device manager might not function properly.
I’ve done three fresh installs of Retropie on Linux Mint Mate 22 and each time the controller input is screwed up. I am using a Logitech F310 USB gamepad, which is pretty standard. Retropie on Mint 22 is flawed. Controller problems.
For this third time, I did not copy over any config files and I did the controller setup for my joypad from scratch. I thought perhaps that there might have been a problem by just copying the entirety of the ./opt/retropie folder and all of its subfolders, but this is not the case. I did a full uninstall, then a reinstall. The problem remains.
I am wondering if it is a problem with Mint 22 itself. I had zero problems installing and using RetroPie on Mint 19 and 20. However, with Mint 22 I’ve noticed that at least with Space Invaders Extreme on Steam, the game does not recognize my controller at all, regardless of which version of the Linux Proton compatibility tool I am using.
I’ve been advocating people switching to Linux for years now, but this latest version is making me hesitant. My experiences with installing Mint 19 Tricia and Mint 20 Ulyssa were smooth, but Mint 22 Wilma has given me some headaches. Posting my problems online, I was told by others who are disappointed with 22 Wilma’s USB capabilities. One guy said he has some external hard drives that 22 won’t recognize. Another said that his Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse combo is wonky, and replacing this with a generic wireless set did not solve the problem. I do hope that these issues will be addressed soon. I would not have known what to do with my Nvidia driver without the help of the Mint forum. I was told that my GPU is old, but it’s from 2017 so it can’t be that old.
For now, Steam is fine, more or less. Retropie is fine until I have to bring up the menu. Having to press the select button though, it makes me hesitant to plug in my Saturn controllers, since they do not have a select button.
EDIT 10/27: I ran an update over the weekend and the first issue with RetroPie freezing after calling up the menu is now fixed.
Oh hellsyeah! Just got my SUPER FAMICOM blanket from Aliexpress, just in time for the colder weather and our 23 year, 7 month anniversary. It’s so silky and snuggly, just like the Dragon Quest Slime blanket and Snatcher blanket I bought last year.
As a retro gamer, I really do not see the point in repurchasing games I already own. Unless it’s something expanded upon and improved, like R-Type Dimensions which lets you switch between updated graphics and sound and the original sprite and chip-generated sound on the fly, I typically do not want to buy games I have in my collection and can easily play through an emulator if I so desire. I just don’t have the money for that and would rather spend it on other stuff.
I bought the Valis games for the PC Engine when I first bought my Turbo Duo console in Osaka’s Den Den Town in October 2001. Except for the first game, I probably only paid about 1,000 yen each for these games. I don’t have a Switch, but for those who missed out on the getting the original Valis series, this might be a good way to go. As far as I know though, there is nothing new to this other than playing the games on an HDMI TV (which is something I could do with my Raspberry Pi).
The original Valis came came out on the PC-88 and the Famicom, but those were pretty much kuso-ge (“crappy games”). It wasn’t until the Valis games were ported to the Megadrive and PC Engine that they were decent to play. They are still a bit clunky and suffer from lackluster gameplay, but the charm is playing as a bikini armor-clad girl swinging a sword. On the PC Engine, Valis 2-4 were released on the CD-ROM2 format, then later the first Valis game was released as a Super CD ROM format with much improved gameplay, introducing a slide kick and such. This game was never released in English for the Turbografix 16, while Valis 2 and 3 were. (Valis 4 was released on the SNES as “Super Valis,” which did not include any cutscenes and only one of the two playable characters are available to play.)
The first Mugen Senshi Valis game is so very obviously heavily inspired by the anime movie, Genmu Senki Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko. Even the titles are extremely similar: 幻夢戦記レダ and 夢幻戦士ヴァリス. Leda’s protagonist is a high school girl named Yohko and Valis’s protagonist is a high school girl named Yuuko (even their names sound similar). They are both transported to a fantasy world where they are given a magical sword, and clad in bikini armor they must defeat a handsome, blue-skinned overlord who threatens to conquer the fantasy realm. Yohko has red hair and Yuuko has blue hair. The big difference is that in Valis, Yuuko discovers that her classmate has also been transported to the fantasy realm, and has been manipulated into serving the evil overlord. Yuuko must fight her friend to the death, which is pretty heart-wrenching.
I did not know this, but the limited edition version of the Valis Collection 2 for the Switch comes with a re-issue of Kaiyodo’s 1:8 sofubi figure garage kit of Yuuko Asou, the protagonist of the Valis games. While I was searching through Kaiyodo sofubi kits on YAJ, this showed up in my search and it floored me. I’m a fan of the Valis games, despite the generally lackluster gameplay, and I never knew that this kit existed. I saw a resin kit of Yuuko at a Summer Wonder Festival event many years ago, but the sculpting wasn’t so good, so I passed on it despite the low price. I saw this sofubi kit, bid on it, and won it with only minimal competition.
So of course, this kit is soft vinyl, and comes with a resin sword.
With that hairstyle, this is unmistakably Yuuko. Very nice sculpt.
Yuuko’s arms are pretty much straight down to their sides. Not very optimal, especially when viewed from behind.
Ugh. Look at how her arms just melt into the sides of her torso. The detail is very soft here. I will have to really cut into that and recreate the detail of her arms and her sides with putty to make this look good. Still, this is very cool and I am up for the challenge! I really had no idea that there was such a sofubi figure kit from Valis, and made by Kaiyodo no less.
I just find it peculiar that they sold a Nintendo Switch LE game with a sofubi kit, considering how the popularity of sofubi kits has waned over the years and how too many gamers don’t even build models anymore (unless it’s something lazy like Gunpla). You’d think that they might have included a pre-painted figure instead. I assume the seller didn’t care for the sofubi figure and just wanted the game after all. Mine did not come with any instructions, but it is so simple that I do not need instructions.
Arabian Fight by Sega (Arcade, 1992)
This early ’90s brawler game has its charm. Arabian Fight‘s gameplay is not as polished as it could have been. Hit detection is disappointing and can be frustrating, but what’s unique about this Arabia-themed brawler is that at times you’ll see the enemies in the foreground and they leap into the playing field. When your selected character casts a power move/magic spell, he/she leaps into the foreground.
I recorded gameplay from RetroPie using Simple Screen Recorder (a Linux program) and created this animated gif through Shotcut (another Linux program).
Rama is the token female character. She has pretty boobs. I wish her hair was black, but she’s still cool.
So I guess we’re pretty much at the point of WW3. Isn’t that fun. Apparently Israel’s “Iron Dome” has more holes in it and is more like a “iron colander” as one person put it. Mossad HQ was apparently obliterated, so I guess all the Epstein and P. Diddy blackmail dirt was destroyed along with it? I suppose now there are a lot of politicians and Hollywood types who are wondering if they no longer need to do whatever Israel tells them to do.
I’m rather nostalgic for the days when there wasn’t constant war, everything was cheaper, pets weren’t getting eaten, and I could enjoy MEAN TWEETS that were directed at specific individuals who were corrupt, degenerate, inept, or vicious… or a mix of all four—while the other side denigrates entire demographics of average citizens and celebrates the deaths of people in Georgia due to a bad hurricane.
I made this meme using FontMeme.com and running a CRT filter over the image.