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SWITCH TO LINUX!

I implore anyone who sees this message to ditch the cycle of abuse and liberate yourself. Sticking with Windows is like a battered wife who refuses to leave her abusive husband. (Or a Star Wars fan at this point.) I made the switch over 5 1/2 years ago and I have not regretted it since. It’s easier than you think, and the learning curve is not steep like it used to be. If my computer-illiterate mother-in-law can comfortably use Linux Mint without a problem, so can you. You aren’t barraged by pop-ups and other ads, it’s fast and not bloated, no need to worry about viruses, no more need to hunt down software that may or may not be full of sneaky crap, it’s far more secure, and it is FREE.

If you’re still on Win10 but haven’t switched to bloated Win11 which will only spy on you and strip you of your dignity, back up all your data and give Linux Mint a shot. You can boot it up with an install DVD or USB stick and even run the OS from that alone. It really is that slick. See if it works with your hardware and Linux generally does not need drivers. And keep in mind that Bill Gates was a driving factor in the medical tyranny in recent years that destroyed so many people’s lives. Break free and embrace freedom.

Zorin OS also caters to Windows refugees and is said to be pretty good. I have yet to try it out. And Bazzite is perfect for those who love SteamOS on their Steam Deck. Linux is far more user friendly than it was 20 years ago. Educate yourself! There are so many videos these days about how to switch from Windows to Linux. I suggest staying away from Ubuntu, Pop!OS, and especially stuff like Arch.

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Scans of the ladies from the limited edition of Dead or Alive for the Sega Saturn

Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki has passed away. In his honor, I’ll post some pictures I made of the ladies of Dead or Alive from the limited edition of the Sega Saturn game I scanned a few years ago.

I don’t care what the pearl-clutching feminists say. I love Jiggle physics. Jiggle physics make video games fun. As far as my Dreamcast knows, my age is 99 years old. Rest in peace, Itagaki-san. Thanks for the pretty ladies.

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It’s October 14th. Time to switch to Linux!

I made the switch to Linux 5 1/2 years ago after Microsnot ended support for Windows 7. Of course, I was so nervous at first. But once I made the plunge, I’ve been happy ever since and I haven’t looked back. Delete Bill Gates’s authority over your life. It’s crazy that the moonbats who reject RFK Jr. because he is neither a scientist nor a doctor are the same ones who blindly follow whatever Bill Gates says, who is neither a scientist nor a doctor and is an authoritarian scumbag who constantly complains about how there are too many people in the world and have sterilized, maimed and killed countless people through his vaccine initiatives worldwide.

This is my video that YouTube banned for “medical misinformation” even though I was simply reporting on news events. Bill Gates is a horribly evil man and fortunately, Odysee allows freedom of speech.

Back in the ’80s and early ’90s, there was so much more diversity for home computing. If you wanted business productivity, you’d go with IBM. For publishing you’d go with Apple MacIntosh. For music it was an Atari ST. For multimedia, definitely Commodore Amiga. But we let this be whittled down to either Microsoft or ultra-trendy (and ultra-expensive) Apple. It’s time to ditch the Windows/Apple paradigm. My Mac fan Kevin got sick of Apple and he switched his Mac’s OS to Linux. You do not have to continue supporting Bill “I dunno how all that CP got on this computer… it must’ve been an employee” Gates and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Ditch Adobe who just wants you to be a slave forever by renting their software instead of owning it. Break free! Linux is your freedom.

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The Mikado game center in Ikebukuro

On August 21st I returned to Japan from my trip to Arizona. I stayed a night in Tokyo before proceeding home. I looked up how to find the Mikado game center in Ikebukuro. This was my first time visiting there.

I didn’t take a whole lot of photos, actually. By then I was getting very hungry, so I went to Ueno and went to an Irish pub called The World’s End where I had fish & chips with two pints of Guinness. It was great.

That night I also went to Taito’s HEY game center in Akihabara and took these photos there.

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A Daiso store in Chandler, Arizona

One of the places I visited with friends in the Phoenix area is a new Daiso in Chandler! It provides an identical experience to a typical Daiso in Japan. Items just cost more than 100 yen, of course. When we used to live in Arizona, these types of items were available at Asiana Market and other Asian stores, but now Daiso officially exists in Arizona. Wow.

Walking into the store, it looks so much like a typical Daiso store.

Lots of neat crap for kids, of course. I wasn’t expecting to find Touhou merchandise!

Gudetama and Cinamarroll stuff too.

Yep, this is typical Daiso goods! Straight from Japan.

Price conversion charts are posted about the store to let people know how much the items cost in US dollars.

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Dragon Quest Coffee Boss cans

Coffee Boss is doing a retro Dragon Quest campaign where entries to the contest can win limited edition prizes, as seen in the top picture. I love the pixel art on the cans. I didn’t buy the Black ones since I just cannot drink coffee black. I did buy the Cafe au Lait and Premium ones. I’ll feature this in my next Japanese Snacks video at the end of the year.

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Visiting The Outpost Arcade in Chandler, AZ

My friends and i visited the brand new Outpost Arcade on August 16th. It’s small, but cozy. No booze at the time of the recording, which was a shame because I could’ve gone for a beer if one had been available. I settled for an IBC Root Beer instead. Lots of great pinball games and video game cabinets too: Tempest, Star Wars, Tron, Marble Madness, Joust, Afterburner II, and a couple of games I’d never seen before!
https://www.theoutpostarcade.com/

From left to right, here are Star Wars, Tac/Scan, Robotron 2084, Joust, After Burner II, and Centipede. I’d never seen Tac/Scan before and it was a very cool vector graphic game by Sega! I also didn’t know that there was an Atari 2600 port of this game which uses the paddle controller. Neat!

Here I am, playing Tron. It’s one of my favorite movies, but I admit that the game is only so-so. As a kid, I really enjoyed the successor, Discs of Tron, far more. That said, this game cabinet is an exquisite work of art, with all the glowing detail which matches the movie, and the blacklights that create that fantastic glow. These two aspects really capture the ambience to the movie so well.

This really matches the Syd Mead/Moebius design work of the Tron movie so well.

Star Wars. Oh, heck yeah!

Somehow, the arcades when I was a kid only had Asteroids and not Asteroids Deluxe. The 3D look to Asteroids Deluxe is quite exquisite, with the background and the vector graphics projected onto it. Fantastic.

And of course, plenty of pinball goodness. I really liked the Doctor Who Daleks.

My friend Lou knows this Star Trek: TNG pinball game well. How appropriate, since he’s the biggest Trek fan I know.

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A visit to TiltStudio Arcade at Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe, AZ

So while I got to spend time with friends on my recent trip to Arizona, on the day which I visited Andy’s Hobby HQ and Book Off, we also went to AZ Mills Mall in Tempe. TiltStudio is there, and this is where I found the Pac-Man Capsule Factory I posted about earlier. Tilt is what used to be Gameworks which opened in the ’90s when I was in college, and I took videos of Gameworks back in 2010 in the early years of my YouTube channel. Here is the playlist for those videos. At the time, the guy who ran that arcade was focused on bringing in many arcade cabinets from Japan, including an incredibly awesome air hockey table I’ve yet to even come across in Japan even.

Tilt now focuses on a great selection of pinball games, thus the name.

This is cool! It’s a Beatles pinball game. My friend Kevin is a huge Beatles fan, and so is my wife.

An OT Star Wars pinball game! Righteous.

Ghostbusters pinball!

This is a JIBUNGOUS UFO catcher! Holy crap. I had to have my picture taken with it.

Tilt also has a nice collection of some great classic arcade games. The rest of these photos are a collection of pictures of those games.

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A trip to Mandai in Takasaki, August 2025

So a couple of weekends ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Mandai in Takasaki and look at the neat stuff there. I first checked out the plastic model section. Here’s an Imai kit of the Big Mighty from Mighty Jack. Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans will know about Mighty Jack. I believe I saw the toolings for these models when I worked at Aoshima 9 years ago in one of the company’s storage warehouses.

Imai made a classic Batmobile in 1:42 scale. Weird scale. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kit before.

There were many vintage Arii and Imai Macross kits too. I was tempted to get this one, but decided not to.

Here are vintage kits of Macross, Ideon, Harlock, and Yamato.

Vintage Mospeada, Ideon, Dunbine, and L-Gaim kits.

They have new kits too, of course. Evangelion, Xabungle, Layzner, Dunbine, Sakura Taisen, and Super Robot Taisen. I’ve watched YT videos of that Asuka kit and she looks great, even unpainted.

Plenty of scale aviation kits too! I don’t see those 1:100 scale Platz jet fighter kits very often.

I saw this Street Fighter II bath towel and Chun-Li doll. I was tempted to get the towel, but I couldn’t resist the doll. “Ha ha ha ha! Yatta!”

Lots of Famicom and Super Famicom games, of course.

All the expensive games are kept in the display cases, of course. I didn’t know that Clock Tower was ported to the Wonderswan.

I played a few rounds of Shanghai on a Blast city cabinet in the Gunma Leisure Land game center downstairs.

King of Fighters was playing on a Nesica cabinet.

There was this nice sculpture of Rei on an Evangelion pachinko machine. I don’t ever remember seeing Rei with long hair. Maybe it’s from one of the new movies I never bothered watching.

Here are the signs for the restrooms: Jojo for male and Hatsune Miku for female.