I assure you that this gathering does not contravene official health
ministry guidance or any laws regarding the assembly of people indoors for
any purpose.

Play:
--=--

Yonder and Sparklite and Children of Morta (Switch/PS5) - Three 16-bit
styled Zelda-inspired action RPGs, all cut from a very similar indie
cloth. Sparklite is the one that's closest to its original inspiration,
with Morta being more portentious and text-heavy and Yonder aiming for
something that can only be described as a kid-friendly Breath of the Wild
of all things. If I had to pick a favourite right now it'd probably be
Sparklite, as that's the one that isn't trying to bash me over the head
with narrative that I have to be told rather than shown. Sparklite is also
the one that most organically shows off play mechanisms and makes them
seem fun. To be completely honest I might have missed all three of these
games if they weren't part of a Black Friday sale.

Yakuza 2 Kiwami (PC) - While I claim to love Yakuza 3 most out of all the
games, having Yakuza 2's narrative in this enhanced format (and being able
to play it anytime I want on a platform that's always with me) means that
the second entry in the series is rapidly displacing the other games in my
heart. I've loved reliving some of the quiet character moments, like
Date's sadness over his youthful bad decisions, or the regrets of the
tattoo artist who inked Ryuji Goda's back, or every last doomed
interaction between Sayama and Kiryu where they all but say that they
can't even explore the notion of some kind of normal couple connection.
It's lovely and I could spend all day here in this world.

Want:
--=--

Analogue Pocket (GB/GBC/GG/NGPC/TG16/Lynx) - Preorders at 4 pm UK time on
Tuesday! You're limited two per person, but otherwise there's no cap or
cutoff! Why aren't you getting one?

Bin:
-==-

Nothing game related.

Expenditure:
-----=-----

Balance forward - $5,102

Shin Megami Tensei V (NSW) - $40

Total year-to-date - $5,142

-KKC, who needs a day-long nap.
--
-- "People with happy families don't become spies. A bad | kendrick
childhood is the perfect background for covert ops. You | @
don't trust anyone. You're used to getting smacked around, | io-nyc
and you never get homesick." - Michael Westen, /Burn Notice/ | .com

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

> I assure you that this gathering does not contravene official health
> ministry guidance or any laws regarding the assembly of people indoors for
> any purpose.

We might be pushing it if Usenet counts as a care home.

> Play:

Elite (Electron) - this plays really slowly near stations (and has
some very polygonal planet outlines), not great when leaving the
station is almost the first thing you'll do in the game. At first I
wondered if the emulator was somehow struggling to run it properly.

> Want:

Nothing.

> Analogue Pocket (GB/GBC/GG/NGPC/TG16/Lynx)

This is a curious thing. FPGA is neat to have, but for me it seems
like a more expensive way to still not use the original hardware. :-)

> Bin:

The Electron's relative slowness (it was otherwise a decent attempt at
a cut-down BBC). Wikipedia refers to an issue of Acorn User from 1983,
which claims that for anything running from RAM the Electron's
effective CPU speed is halved relative to the BBC, and in some modes
it's considerably lower than that even. So in that context, it's not
surprising that the Elite port didn't run too well.

-Rus.

In article <V6%tJ.844574$RMW1.49957@usenetxs.com>,
Russell Marks <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:
>Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:
>
>> Want:
>
>> Analogue Pocket (GB/GBC/GG/NGPC/TG16/Lynx)
>
>This is a curious thing. FPGA is neat to have, but for me it seems
>like a more expensive way to still not use the original hardware. :-)
>

There are plenty of arguments against the thing, but I think right now the
biggest argument in favour is that a lot of the original handheld hardware
is simply unusuable. Most TurboExpress units require am absurd level of
repair to replace bad capacitors, most Atari Lynx units have bad screens
at this point, and Game Gears have mostly degraded into piles of
electrolytic goo at this point. Having one device that does the job of all
of those (and all the Nintendo systems besides) is just too appealing for
me to pass up.

-KKC, who has the day off to play Demon's Souls.
--
-- "People with happy families don't become spies. A bad | kendrick
childhood is the perfect background for covert ops. You | @
don't trust anyone. You're used to getting smacked around, | io-nyc
and you never get homesick." - Michael Westen, /Burn Notice/ | .com

On 13 Dec 2021 at 20:03:54 GMT, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"
<kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

> Play:
> --=--

We Were There - Together (PS4/5) (PMG) - continuation and completion of
this last of the current three We Were There games, with Gus. Still very
happy to heap praise on these; they're not as cool and swish as It Takes
Two is in the "obligatory two player co-op" genre, but the puzzling is
*much* harder but still manages to stay within the realms of
possibility. Just the right level. The ending has a post-credits "fourth
game incoming" scene, so that's cool - but it's not due soon and we've
run out of obligatory 2p co-op games now, so might have to jump over to
something else after the Christmas break.

That is all. I keep trying to play games and failing.

> Yakuza 2 Kiwami (PC) - While I claim to love Yakuza 3 most out of all the
> games, having Yakuza 2's narrative in this enhanced format (and being able
> to play it anytime I want on a platform that's always with me)

You have a PC of some sort always with you?

> Want:
> --=--
>
> Analogue Pocket (GB/GBC/GG/NGPC/TG16/Lynx) - Preorders at 4 pm UK time on
> Tuesday! You're limited two per person, but otherwise there's no cap or
> cutoff! Why aren't you getting one?

Several of my least favourite consoles being emulated there. Single save
state. Flaky cart socket. Lots of money. Probably won't arrive until
2023.

Apart from needing another o2pc-o game, preferably on console as Gus
only has a potato PC, I don't think I've got anything on my want list at
the mo. Metroid Prime 4 and Botw2 I guess.

> Bin:
> -==-
>
> Nothing game related.

Winter. Long evenings do not make it more enticing to stay in and play
games, somehow.

> -KKC, who needs a day-long nap.

They're surprisingly unhelpful. Yes, I have tried.

Cheers - Jaimie

--
I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use
as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no
longer figure out how to use my telephone
-- Bjarne Stroustrup