I’m Back from My Hiatus

Hey everyone! So last time I posted, I was on a mission to make an attempt to write something and post on a more regular basis. Well, that didn’t happen. Regardless of that, I have decided to not keep a particular schedule and instead post when inspiration hits. Ideally, I would like to get about three posts per week. If I can make that happen, great. If not, well, I won’t stress about it.

As far as gaming goes, I’ve been stuck on retro for quite some time now. I’ve been revisiting classics like Lufia II and Super Metroid for the SNES, as well as RE: Director’s Cut and Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation. I’ve been meaning to get back to some modern titles like Cyberpunk 2077, but I just haven’t got around to it yet. I’ve been having too much of a nostalgia trip playing my old favorites. 

Tech projects have been minimal. I recently managed to get my Raspberry Pi Plex server to recognize my external drive. It actually was a pretty simple fix and I should have paid closer attention to the tutorial I was following. I also picked up a Google AIY voice kit and put it together. So basically I have a smart speaker, like a Google Home or whatever they call it. Google Assistant? Something like that. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it yet. I had an idea of making a natural language chatbot of some sort, so that may be a project in the works. 

As far as my Raspberry Pi obsession goes, Twister OS is my favorite OS for the Pi by far. It looks good and runs nicely. Ubuntu on the Pi, however, doesn’t fare as well. It’s a bit glitchy and needs some work to run optimally on the Pi. Oftentimes I get error pop ups that notify me that “something went wrong.” I assume these errors are largely due to the Pi’s hardware and ARM architecture. Ubuntu just doesn’t run perfectly on the Pi. Still, it is nice to have Ubuntu available for the Pi. I’ve also been dabbling with Kali running in a VM to mess around with the various pentesting tools. I played one of those CtF VMs that I found online. It was a beginner level CtF that’s Mr. Robot themed. I’m a total noob at that kind of stuff so I followed along using a tutorial. Pretty neat stuff.  

Now for health and wellness. I feel that I’ve been neglecting this for the past few months a bit. Recently I’ve been trying to get on more of a regular exercise routine. So far it’s been going alright. I’m trying to get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise each day. Well, maybe it’s been more like every other day but I’ve been making an effort at least.

I’ve been keeping up with the keto diet I follow and something I’ve really been enjoying as a snack are cheese sticks and olives. I tend to go for a chipotle cheddar or pepper jack style cheese stick. There’s just something about cheese and olives that just clicks for me. I’ve tried a few different types of olives but the green pimiento stuffed ones are usually my go to. I’m a fan of the Pearls Olives to go cups since they seem to taste better than the olives in a jar. However, I did pick up some large Queen pimiento stuffed olives from Costco that are pretty good. The generic manzanilla olives that I picked up from a local grocery were a bit lackluster though.  

There. I mashed up everything in one blog post. Hopefully I can get some ideas generated so I can get some more blog posts going. I have a couple gaming related ideas brewing in my head and hopefully I can get some other areas of interest covered too. Maybe it wasn’t a great idea to mash all of my interests into a single blog? I’ll have to mull it over a bit, perhaps a restructuring is in order. Be sure to check back often, who knows, maybe my blog will be overhauled the next time you check it. Ha ha. 

Retro Trip: The Legend of Dragoon

The Moon That Never Sets. I’m having a hard time setting this game down after picking it up and replaying it.

I recently found a good stack of my old PlayStation games I had collected over the years. A few I remembered playing back in high school, spending tired-eyed nights with those classics. One of them I remembered being good and enjoyable but twenty years of wear and tear on my memory has fragmented it a bit and now I don’t remember much from the game. So I fired it up and decided to give it a solid replay. The game: The Legend of Dragoon. After playing it for a bit I soon found out that I was going in for a hardcore Retro Trip. Let’s dig in and take a look:

The game so far has been pretty awesome. I’ve been cruising right along through the game, enjoying it the whole way. It is a little linear as it lacks an open world map like the Final Fantasy games, but I kind of welcome that and it doesn’t bother me all that much. I get lost easily in open world games. Go figure.

The story so far at times was a little generic, sometimes a little corny, but all in all so far it has been pretty solid for me and I have been enjoying it. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get angry and cheer on the good guys. Just what you’d want from a good retro RPG.

I do like the different style of gameplay Dragoon uses during battles. Some characters have moves called “Additions” that require you to press a button at a certain time in a quick time event style. This does take a bit to get used to if you’re conditioned to just mashing a button for battles in turn based RPGs. I’m going to have to say that while this QTE system is welcome, it does require some ridiculous precision to get it perfect and it can be frustrating at times. Overall though, it kept my attention during the battles and added a bit more immersion into the game. You actually become a part of the battle instead of mindlessly mashing a button.

The graphics, I’m going to  be honest, don’t hold up strongly today. The pre-rendered backgrounds looked nice but are kind of dated by today’s standards. The character’s polygonal models looked a little aged by today’s standards as well. I can’t really rag on the graphics too much though. The animations and cut-scenes were fantastic considering the age of the game. I also thought the various magic spells and Dragoon transformations were very impressive visually, all things considered. 

I just finished the first disc of the game not too long ago and I’m having a great time replaying this game I almost forgot about after about twenty years. Pop this RPG in and you’ll be in store for a Retro Trip indeed! 

The Last Week

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Last week was a pretty stressful week for me but the gaming was pretty good. I tried to pull myself away but I ended up playing a couple of unexpected titles. Here’s what last week looked like:

Sunday I streamed a bit of FrostPunk since I was in the mood. It was still freezing cold outside and there was no way I was going out anymore than necessary. It went okay, I had a few technical difficulties and I also came to the realization that two monitors is almost a minimum requirement nowadays.

Tuesday I decided to play a quick session of Neofeud to get a feel for the game and to basically play the intro. I only played the game for about twenty minutes and felt like I was in for a trip. I’ll be firing up that game again sometime soon.

For Friday it was another episode of Friday Night Fights! I continued my career as the Purple Pugilist and fought Mike Dixon for the title. The title bout almost seemed too easy as I drove Dixon to the mat. After the title match came several challenge matches against some real-life greatest heavyweights like Joe Louis and Evander Holyfield. Those fights seemed too easy as well as I sent every boxer I fought kissing the canvas. I’d really like to see a modern reboot/remake of this game for something like Steam. The game is really good but the AI just didn’t cut it for me. I shouldn’t have been able to beat everyone with just two punches.

Saturday I continued Cyberpunk 2077 for my In Medias Res series. I did a few missions and died a couple times, but overall I had fun. I can’t keep myself away from side missions in these open world games! Let’s hope I can pull through and focus on the main mission eventually and finish the game!

I realized for a minute after evaluating my week that I intended my blog to include a variety of topics but lately I’ve focused heavily on gaming. I’m going to try to step away from gaming a bit this week to include a couple of posts on some of my other interests. I have a few keto/low carb products that my wife and I have tried that I’d like to share my thoughts on. I also hope I can get outside for some fresh air and exercise as the weather improves. Maybe I’ll even snap a few photos, who knows!

That’s it for now, as always I’ll be back with the games for Friday Night Fights on Friday and In Medias Res on Saturday. Until then, stay healthy and game on!

NES A to Z – Z: Zoda’s Revenge

It’s taken me way too long to play this game. It was pretty fun during my gaming session.

I remember way back in the day I had been given a Nintendo Power subscription for Christmas. I remember there was an issue with guides for both StarTropics and its sequel, Zoda’s Revenge when it was released back in 1994. These games looked and sounded great but they were a couple more titles that eluded me back in those days. By a stroke of luck, the randomizer chose Zoda’s Revenge for the letter Z. The game was a great Action/Adventure game where you play as Mike Jones, a young man who acts as the hero and main protagonist of the game. It had a few RPG style elements as well. I remember playing the original Star Tropics briefly at one point, but I never got very far and never beat the game (another game I may need to explore again sometime.) The graphics and sound were good, controls were solid, and most of all I had a lot of fun playing the game during my session. It’s another game I would definitely return to for some extended play sessions in the future.

NES A to Z – Y: Yoshi

Yoshi was a puzzler in the same vein as Tetris and Dr. Mario. It wasn’t as good as either of those games though.

This game’s title was a bit misleading: there was hardly any Yoshi in the game! This game was a puzzle game where you sandwich various SMB enemies in between two halves of a Yoshi egg. You can also match three to make them disappear. Mario rotates plates at the bottom of the screen as the enemies drop from the top. This game wasn’t really my cup of tea. I like puzzle games but this one just didn’t do it right for me. I’d much rather sit down with a game like Tetris or Dr. Mario than Yoshi. It’s not terrible or unplayable by any means, it just didn’t have strong enough gameplay to keep me hooked. This game hasn’t aged well by the looks of it and with that being said I would put it in the lower tier of puzzlers for the NES. It just didn’t scratch that puzzler itch for me.

NES A to Z – X: Xexyz

Xexyz was a great blend of platformer and side scrolling shooter. Guess how to pronounce it.

Wow, another solid title, and one that’s hard to pronounce no less! This game was a combination of an action platformer and a side scrolling shoot em up. It was pretty fun and the gameplay was solid. The graphics and sound were on point as well. The platformer stages had many doors to enter. Some had stores, some had treasure boxes, some had minibosses to defeat to advance to the next area. There was also a simple puzzle I had to solve during my gaming session to advance to the next stage. The nice part was that an in game hint tipped me off on how to progress. While the platformer section was fun by itself, I was really impressed when the game  transitioned to the side scrolling shoot em up. Your character hops into a flying mech suit and you blast enemies side scrolling shmup style for a bit! It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it during my session. Overall I thought this game was an exciting blend of the two genres and is another one of those games I think would make a great retro reboot.

NES A to Z – W: Willow

This game is what I needed. Willow made for an enjoyable gaming session.

This game was one of those titles I remember hearing/reading that was good but just never really thought much about playing it. I was a little excited to see what the game had in store since I remember the movie (which I haven’t watched in years now) being enjoyable. This game was just as enjoyable as I remember the movie being. It was an adventure game in the same style as the Zelda games for the NES. The graphics, sound, and gameplay were all solid during my hour-long session and the game controls were intuitive. Some of the visual effects, like the wind blowing the trees/foliage during the battle sequences, I thought looked pretty impressive for the NES. When my hour came up, I really didn’t want to switch games, but it was time. This is definitely a game I will be revisiting in the future. It’s a title I would definitely recommend to play.

NES A to Z – W, X, Y and Z!

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Willow, Xexyz, Yoshi, and Zoda’s Revenge closed out my A to Z series. Pretty good closing game session with the exception of Yoshi.

Hey everyone and welcome back! It’s been cold in my neck of the woods but that made it perfect to just stay inside and play a few games! Saturday was a great day to finish my A to Z series and to think about getting some new projects started! What’s in store next? I’m not sure, but I’ve got some ideas that I’ve been tossing around for a new project. Stay tuned for more on that.

Anyways, back to the A to Z! These last four games with the exception of Y, were pretty solid titles. Here’s what I played:

W- Willow

X- Xexyz

Y- Yoshi

Z- Zoda’s Revenge: Star Tropics II

I’ll be writing up individual posts on these games throughout the week while I work on ideas for a new Saturday project! I’ve also been revisiting This War of Mine and have been doing Friday Night Fights, a streaming series where I visit different fighting/boxing/martial arts games from different eras. I have currently been focusing on two boxing titles from the 16 bit era – Greatest Heavyweights (Genesis/MegaDrive) and Super Punch Out!! (SNES). I’ll be working on that and lots of new things in the coming weeks so stay tuned!

NES A to Z – V: Vegas Dream

The random events were probably the best part of Vegas Dream. I got married!

Vegas Dream was a casino game I remember playing at a friend’s house way back in the day. I remember drinking Mountain Dew and eating Doritos all night, spamming the A button for the slots, passing out in between wins, trying to stay awake. In short, I remembered it being good fun. That wasn’t so when I revisited the game over the weekend.. There were only four casino games plus some random events that would happen every so often. It was fun at first but then got slowly repetitive and boring. Not bad, but not the greatest casino game I’ve played. More casino games like poker would have helped bring up the gameplay value though. Otherwise it was kind of a snore.

NES A to Z – U: Uninvited

Oh jeez, guess I got her attention! Uninvited (NES)

Uninvited was a point-and-click adventure game. I’m a big fan of these games, Shadowgate and Deja Vu come to mind as a couple of point and click adventures I have enjoyed. Add another good one to that list with Uninvited. The music has to be the best part of the game. There were quite a few scenes that drove my heart rate up quite a bit when the music got intense! Yeah, the graphics were simple and the controller was a bit awkward to use for this type of game, but all that aside I thought Uninvited was fun during my session. It’s definitely a title I’ll need to come back to!