Smell Dawg

Thank you for this perspective - I enjoyed reading it. Definitely easy to agree with the mouse/keyboard controls being most intuitive for anything in the first person. My last (but likely not final) hurrah into the gaming PC scene was 2011 (as one might imagine, it's not so good at being a gaming PC these days!). Now, here's my arbitrary defense of why consoles have primarily taken over in my situation: Modern console controllers have, what, some 20-odd inputs these days, and each input is comfortably available immediately - in many ways, they don't function as handicapped (compared to keyboard, that is) as prior generations. Knowing that a person can [easier than ever before!] link in a controller to a PC, though, this point is probably moot. The overwhelmingly largest anecdotal reason I typically choose console? After sitting in front of my PC for work all day, it's simply not something I want to do in my off-time - let me at least enjoy the couch!

There is an import/export tool which accepts/generates .csv files, so some data massaging was required for that - but it did indeed work. It's evidently $40/year, which is, err, quite a bit for a database tool. I'll be re-evaluating this in approximately a year from now, ha!

Pertinent to this discussion, and as a result of reading about it in the recent Old School Gamer issue, I spent a good chunk of time duplicating my listing into a Collectorz.com database. It's a pretty slick little deal with the batch importing via barcode scanner! There's plenty of tools and data analytics available via the desktop site access, but there's a lot to be desired from the mobile site access. Anybody else tried this? A good chunk of my weekend was spent digging through boxes and organizing shelves in conjunction with this endeavor. While not totally firmed up on a couple of the categories (Xbox and Switch), it gives a relatively overall accurate representation. Which gives rise to the neat feature of being able to share a boiled-down version of the listing with others! https://cloud.collectorz.com/smelldawg/games Ultimately, I just can't let go of my master Excel sheet, though. This is a great tool, but I'll resort to my spreadsheet as the authoritative listing!

Purchased a couple items this weekend. I suppose with the purchase of Basic Programming, I have lost any remaining plausible deniability that I'm collecting games - just shelf decoration, at this point! Albeit extremely lovely shelf decor! Regarding the SNES purchase - I can't say I was extensively into video gaming much during SNES's heyday, outside of occasional rentals on the bigger titles. Donkey Kong Country 2, though, was one I deeply fell in love with (and was one of the few titles fully purchased). Funny how seeing games across different times can snap you back to wildly differing points in your life - often without warning!

An excellent addition, nice! Have never seen one in the wild, myself!

Food puns make this an unusually enjoyable jaunt. Successfully getting chain attacks with the kernel shot is gratifying, as well!

Neat! What's the story with Intellivision's logo on the soundtracks?? (a cursory internet search didn't come up with any results!)

On a side note - for those (like myself) waiting for Atari to restock the CX-78+ - the current restock estimate is September 2024.

Played through this one yesterday - I'm not a professional writer by any stretch, but I enjoyed this game enough that I wanted to say more than my usual "loved this!" feedback 🙂. Here goes! In spite of the glowing reviews from other folk within my Evercade circle, I initially slept on Full Void. What a mistake; this was such a fun little experience which scratched my itch for a short-but-well-done playthrough. The core gameplay harkens back to the early days of home computer platform adventures, but it’s so much more than that. Going all-in on the nostalgia experience, I read the included prologue comic and instruction booklets prior to playing, which helped set the ambience before even firing it up (as such, I highly recommend doing this). There’s so much good to say about this title. The instruction booklet made comment that all the pixel art was done by hand, and I could tell – everything from the character animations to the quick cutscenes to the detailed backgrounds were well done and a pleasure to look at. Even the environment’s dynamic lighting would slightly alter the protagonist’s color outline. The sound effects were both minimal and yet totally on point; combined with the light background music (often no music at all), the developers nailed the feeling of desolation and loneliness. With the exception of the booklets prior to playing, the entire title was without text and without any voicing. In regard to the gameplay, the pace was on point and I didn’t run into any situations where the character control was sloppy. My first playthrough took approximately two hours, with eight out of 11 achievements completed (looks like online walkthroughs do it in about an hour). While there was one point I had to look up assistance, the remainder of the game did not require any esoteric or obtuse solutions. This is easily a game I can see myself coming back and playing again in the future. It’s short, tells a story, and sets a mood all to itself. It’s available on many platforms, and it’s a stand-out title on the Evercade.

Looks interesting! How's the gameplay between only two players? Still recommend?

No bitterness intended - just going for some light-hearted humor! This OSG issue was indeed interesting to me, as someone who owned an Intellivision eons ago but never really dug into details of it's history. As soon as I unwrapped it, it became obvious - the Club VCS zine clearly came from the same publisher 😁. On a more personal note of feedback - I love the advertisements for the various upcoming expos. I keep telling myself that I'll make sure to visit at least one someday... I live pretty far off the proverbial "beaten path" though!

Received and read through some of the most recent issue (#41) of Old School Gamer magazine yesterday - good stuff, but nowhere near the majesty of the Club VCS zine

After a long, long, long hiatus from hobby spending, these came in the mailbox a few days ago. There seems to be some divisiveness in opinion with Mr Van Ryzin, but I loved the VCS 800 release of Alien Abduction and picking up this physical was high on my list. Hey, it's a good game! I've been playing (or at least attempting to play 😅) Elden Ring with my spare time over the past couple months. I'm having a good enough time, but am now 55+ hours in on the game clock and there's still so much more ahead. I'm yearning for a more traditional game experience. Which is all just pretext for buying a few more Evercade carts, two of which showed up so far. Looking forward to posting thoughts in the Evercade Club section at some point. On a final note, I'm about halfway through this book "All Games are Good" by Stuart Gipp. It's effectively a 300-page compendium of single-page reviews on many of the more obscure video game titles over the past four decades (across many, many platforms). Mr Gipp is a Brit, and his writing is full of anecdotal opinions and British humor - a very fun (admittedly geeky!) read. Very much recommend for casual reading entertainment. It's also put a few more obscure titles on my radar! ...and, as with a few others here, I'm now officially part of the 1+ year club on waiting for my Atari Age Last Chance Sale order 👴.

New best on Sloans Duel - 0:54.20

Had a few minutes between outings last night - only got one race in - but it was on @Mockduck's MPG1 track! That corner before the drop tricked me good