Modding March update!

modding-march-2012-consoles

Okay, here’s the latest update on my modding to-do list:

  1. Sega SC-3000H – Completed
  2. Nintendo Famicom – Completed
  3. Microsoft Xbox – Completed
  4. Sega Master System 2 – Completed
  5. Nintendo Gamecube – Completed
  6. Arcade – Not started
  7. Sega Saturn – In progress
  8. Sega Mega Drive – In progress
  9. Microsoft Xbox 360 – Not started

Not bad, huh? Since a few things changed up with the modding, I thought I’d give a quick rundown of what happened:

Sega SC-3000H

modding-march-2012-sc3000h
This one was time-consuming rather than difficult. The only drama I had was where one of the pads came away from the PCB when desoldering the old connector, but that was easy to fix by wiring the new cart connector directly back to the trace.

Nintendo Famicom

modding-march-2012-fami
Composite AV mod came off nicely, the controller hum was also an easy fix and the controllers have come up nicely after being disassembled and cleaning the contacts and replacing the membranes (NES membranes fit the Famicom without any dramas). Since the controllers had some charming (but disheveled – see the image above) Dragon Quest sticks on them, I soaked the plastic shells in warm soapy water for a few hours and gave them a gentle scrubbing in some fresh hot soapy water and the stickers, along with their residue, came off nicely.

Sega Master System 2

modding-march-2012-sms2
I was working on my original Master System 2 I picked up well over ten years ago when I started getting into retro gaming again. As a result, it was also one of my early mods… actually, I think it was my third one – the Saturn was my first (50/60hz switch, 1999), followed by an unsuccessful SMD1 (language/refresh rate switches, 2000). My SMS2 mod was originally just a 50/60hz switch, then I got a bit more daring and added composite video/mono audio. After that, I decided to add another RCA socket and rewired it for dual-mono out (saved having to add a RCA splitter on the audio socket), and attempted to add a language switch but couldn’t get a clean cut on the IC leg that needs to be modded; these were all done in 2000, with the language switch mod being done ~2001. I also attempted to add s-video to the SMS2, but between butchering the back of the machine to fit the socket (that wouldn’t fit because the hole was hodge-podge and too big – see the image for the unfortunate result even after adding a new s-video socket!) and not having s-video on my TV, I left it at that. Looking at my past work was a little embarrassing, but at the same time it was also heartening as it’s demonstrated how much better I am with a soldering iron now compared to back then. Mind, it also helps that I have better equipment now!

So, as far as the new new mods went, it came off nicely – the simplified s-video mod by Viletim! looked great, with no jailbars visible on my TV (for reference, I used 27ohm resistors, as recommended by fellow modder Mamejay).

I also added the language switch, which proved a bit tricky as my anal-retentivity suggested I didn’t want to leave the leg on the IC floating, so I wired it up to go between +5v and GND off the voltage regulator. When this didn’t make a difference to the games I tested, I went back and thought the error was being caused by the leg on the IC itself, as my butchering of the leg in 2001 actually broke it off at the IC so the solder didn’t have much to hold onto. So out came the rotary tool and I gently ground back the IC around the leg to get started, then manually scraped a bit more away around the leg with one of my precision flat-bladed screwdrivers to get more of the IC leg visible and thus available for soldering. After getting a very solid connection, I went and tested again, and still no luck.

At this stage I was getting a bit angry, so I went and read up a bit on SMSPower, and realised everyone was saying to let the leg float – the tute I was working off just said to temporarily ground the leg, and I just assumed this meant the leg was otherwise getting +5v from the PCB; turns out if I flipped the PCB over and traced the path with my multimeter, I would have found that the leg is normally left floating when in English mode. So, I went and disconnected the +5v line, went back and tested it and voila, it’s working!

Sega Mega Drive

modding-march-2012-smd1
I said in last week’s post that I removed the old oscillator, added in a 12mhz one and had system stability errors. Since I know it’s important to keep clock lines short, I figured I’d jump in and reposition the oscillator by having it close to the switch/CPU and thus create a shorter line of the clock to travel along; I also added thicker-gauge wires to take the +5v/GND from the voltage regulators to ensure the oscillator was fed a good power supply. You can see the “before” picture of where I positioned the oscillator, which is next to the headphone socket. Unfortunately it didn’t make much difference, but I don’t consider it as a wasted exercise, as it’s best-practice to keep the lines as short as possible. Since the oscillator is on a bit of perfboard, it will be easy to desolder the existing component and add a 10mhz oscillator I have on the way. Should only be a 30-minute job, if that – I’m not the fastest at soldering/modding, but at least these days I’m more thorough 😉

Sega Saturn

modding-march-2012-saturn
The replacement cart slots are in the post, but I did succeed in adding a 3-way region switch and 50/60hz mod, which is a bit of an achievement for me as I haven’t had much success with the three-way switches in the past. Admittedly the last time I tried doing one of them was back in 2002 or 2003 and in a time where I had less experience and poor tools in comparison to what I have now. I’m very happy with the result, despite the unusual board design (it’s a very early model PAL PCB, with the JPs spread across both sides of the board). I was also able to use the veroboard to provide the +5v/GND for the 50/60hz switch, which helped make things clean. I’ve noticed the power supply on it might be on the way out owing to the rolling bars and CD-ROM issues that hit after an hour or so of testing, so I’ll either look at swapping it with another supply that gives the correct voltages (GND/GND/+3.3v/+5v/+9v) or replacing the caps to see if that helps.

Nintendo Gamecube

modding-march-2012-gcns
I ended up wiring the XenoGC chip to the drive assembly rather than soldering it directly to the PCB. Took a little extra time, but it made it much easier to double-check the solder points with the multimeter and avoid accidental solder-spillage onto adjoining pads.

While I had the GCNs disassembled, I gave the outer cases a wash and I also modded my purple Cube to have a shiny blue LED instead of the standard orange one – blue LEDs are fun 🙂

The machines successfully loaded PAL and US games directly, so I’m really happy with the result 😀

Microsoft Xbox

This one was an easy job, but was time consuming to get it setup in the way I wanted. It was also the first time using the Slayers disc to take care of everything (the machine was already chipped), so I didn’t have to worry about popping off the doors to my PC to run the usual HDD tools to prep a machine and found it ran nicely. With everything now configured (including adding the video.bin 0-byte file to the HDD to force UnleashX to run in 480i over component), I’m very happy with the machine. Now I need to sort out a save file for Dead or Alive Ultimate with everything unlocked because I’m lazy 😉

For those curious, I took photos of most of the mods I have done thus far and intend to write up tutes on them at some stage down the track, along with plenty of others I have in the wings.

Anywho, all that’s left now is the SMD1 overclock (oscillator to arrive soon I hope), XB360 DVD fix (need to get a laser assembly sorted) and arcade button wiring. If the oscillator comes in time, I’d say the SMD1 should be sorted this month; the arcade fix is pretty easy as well and should also make it. If the laser assembly for the XB360 comes in this month, I’ll get that sorted as well; can’t see this one happening though, so it might be a job for April.

March is the time for console modding

In Adelaide, March is referred to as “Mad March”. Because we take a year’s worth of events, festivals and what-not, and cram it all into one month. With some exceptions. Still, it’s insanity. But that’s Adelaide.

So, to alliterate, I have decreed this month as Modding March.

Yes, that is awful. Get over it 😛

My aim this month is to try and mod as many consoles as possible to catch up on my backlog. Here’s where it’s standing at the moment:

  • Sega SC-3000H: Replace the existing cartridge connector with one in better condition.
  • Nintendo Famicom: Composite AV mod, controller 2 background hum correction, clean the cart slot and replace the membranes in both controllers.
  • Sega Master System 2: Add in a language switch and add s-video off the CXA1145 encoder using Viletim!’s simplified video amp.
  • Sega Mega Drive: Remove the existing colour mod now that I’m running a 32X and RGB in the setup, add a selectable CPU overlock switch along with the requisite halt switch.
  • Sega Saturn: Replace a dead cart slot, wire in a 50/60hz switch, then add a 3-way region switch.
  • Nintendo Gamecube: Install a modchip so I can retire my Freeloader disc and enjoy direct-boot imports. If I’m lucky it might even fix the font issues with some Japanese titles, but that might be wishful thinking! I’ve had the chips for ages, so it’s about time I sorted it out.
  • Microsoft Xbox: Remove the existing 8bg HDD and upgrade to an 80gb HDD for laziness to save me swapping discs out.
  • Microsoft Xbox 360: Repair the drive laser assembly that’s having a cry.
  • Arcade: Rewire the P4 button off the JAMMA harness so it can be patch-connected to the JAMMA+ cabling panel already in my Astro City.

I think that’s the lot. I’ve already gotten started on some of these jobs (and finished one of them last week – the SC3000H), but that’s a pretty ambitious list.

Realistically, I’m confident I’ll get the Famicom, Xbox, Gamecube and arcade mods finished as I have all the parts around. The Mega Drive shouldn’t be too tricky if the oscillator comes in the post before the end of the month (my machine’s CPU didn’t like being fed 12mhz, so I’m going to try 10mhz), same with the XB360 and getting a new drive assembly.

That then leaves a few question marks – for the Saturn, I have some replacement slots from some dead Saturns in the post, but cart slot replacements are never quick jobs (not difficult mind, just time consuming); since I’ll need to desolder and remove the dead slot on my machine, remove and desolder the working cart slot from the dead PCB, then resolder it to the working board and then add the refresh rate and language switches, that’ll take a while.

The SMS2 mods shouldn’t be hard and I’m pretty sure I have the parts lying around, so I should be able to squeeze that one in too.

So if I’m being ambitious, then the following’s my ordered list to tackle everything:

  1. Sega SC-3000H
  2. Nintendo Famicom
  3. Microsoft Xbox
  4. Sega Master System 2
  5. Nintendo Gamecube
  6. Arcade
  7. Sega Saturn
  8. Sega Mega Drive
  9. Microsoft Xbox 360

So, with all that in mind, here’s the progress breakdown:

  1. Sega SC-3000H – Completed
  2. Nintendo Famicom – In progress
  3. Microsoft Xbox – Not started
  4. Sega Master System 2 – Not started
  5. Nintendo Gamecube – Not started
  6. Arcade – Not started
  7. Sega Saturn – Not started
  8. Sega Mega Drive – In progress
  9. Microsoft Xbox 360 – Not started

I’ll update during the rest of the month as I make any progress, and since the work is likely to continue into April, I daresay there will be more updates next month too.

But the important bit was to at least get started in March 🙂

Dragon Quest 10 is online-only… huh?

So, DQ10 is online-only.

Yes, I’m late to the party, but thought I’d post about it anyways. I’m not the world’s longest-serving DQ fan, but I respect its history and that it, in many ways, embodies the spirit of JRPGs of old without making everyone beautiful, androgynous and full of clich&eaccute;d angst.

I don’t think I’d be as fussed if the game was going online as a side-story to the main series, kind of like Phantasy Star Online/Phantasy Star Universe or FFXI/FFXIV. MMOs and Diablo-clone MMOs have their place, but they don’t interest me all that much, as I prefer single-player JRPGs, particularly when they have blue skies and are jolly. Or are simply fun. The only exception to that was the original PSO releases (especially the GCN port with 4-player local coop), which was great fun back in the day.

For me, moving DQ10 as an online-only game seems… silly. I’d rather a shinier coat of paint and an interesting storyline. It also limits the accessibility of the game if you go back and play it once the servers get pulled.

Mind, the problem is that JRPGs (with a few exceptions) have languished over the current generation as Japan has shifted development priorities owing to cost and the changes in Japanese gaming demographics. Economic rationalism has also encouraged developers to play it safe rather than get too carried away or ambitious. So, while some of the JRPGs have been fun, the quantity/quality from the last couple of generations hasn’t been matched. At least in my opinion, but I’m old and stuck in my ways. So, my opinion should of course be take with a grain of salt. After all, I’m still whinging about Grandia getting passed up on the Saturn.

Still, there is some hope – Valkyria Chronicles married some superb characterisation and story-telling that echoed Kodama-inspired epics like Skies of Arcadia and Phantasy Star 4 in the guise of a strategy RPG, Monolith has reminded the world of what made JRPGs great to begin with in their amazing Xenoblade Chronicles, and Ni No Kuni looks so sumptuous that I dare to dream that it will bring a 90s-Miyazaki/Takahata soul to the world of JRPGs. In a perfect world, it will also be bilingual as part of the English localisation, much in line with Valkyria Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles.

Should the time come for DQ11, I can only hope it brings back the single-player focus with all the soul its renowned for. Including the Toriyama-requisite of spiky hair.

Am I a gaming aesthete?

Jeremy Parish recently wrote about the gaming aesthete, and the post captured something I’ve been trying to articulate for a while now. For whatever reason, I seem to prefer games with a particular aesthetic quality and loathe titles that go against my irrational sense of preference. Amusingly, a portion of my taste can be summed up in UK:R’s watershed Blue Skies in Gaming campaign – out with the poo-brown, grey, boring colour schemes, and in with colour, life and vibrancy.

blueskybanner3

No more silly gangs, testosterone, “extreme”/”hardcore” drab colour schemes and other such douchebaggery. The content doesn’t have to be sunshine, lollypops and pixies, but it should be allowed to have colourful vistas and degrees of depth to its aesthetic execution.

The problem is that with the rise and rise of US development in the gaming sector (underpinned by the dramatic fall from grace we’ve seen from Japan in the last 10 years, and the EU in the 5-7 years prior to that), it’s all very vogue and chic to be an (extreme) macho douchebag mirroring something out of a Michael Bay movie (with optional 1-dimensional arse-kicking but well-endowed female sidekick), or drawl like an (extreme) urban gangster or be an (extreme) racing game with unnecessary (but extreme) back story. You then play this on your (e)x(treme)box or your slick black PS3 (with optional extreme metallic blue/red/moose controller to complement the silly Spider-man font), with trophies/achievements to add to your signature on your underground/alternative message board where you compare how awesome you are.

And with a couple of exceptions, it just doesn’t appeal to me. I prefer the classical Japanese or European approach to gaming, which allows colour and not so much testosterone to overrun the landscape. The problem is that both of these communities are not the stalwarts they once were. In the 8-bit micro and 16-bit computer days, I played more games from the EU than I can count – some were stupid bouts of pixellated testosterone, but the underlying mechanics and aesthetics were fresh and interesting. But with the move to larger teams and bigger budgets, the old models failed to adapt to the changing scenery and unfortunately a lot of talent was lost or quelled as part of larger corporate mergers.

Jump across the pond to Japan, and the quality of their arcade and console games in the 80s and 90s were unmatched and arguably the hive of some of the industry’s core creative content. Sega, Nintendo, Namco, Hudson, SNK, Capcom, Konami, Taito, Square, Enix… amazing studios that produced stunning games. But something happened between the DC/PS2/GCN/Xbox and the current generation, and the Japanese sector imploded – larger teams were required to fuel larger budgets and suddenly the shrinking local console market demanded more conservatism in game design. This meant the baby was thrown out with the bath water to accommodate the Western market (which meant the unique “Japaneseness” that made the games so appealing in the first place was often lost), or developers focused on placating niche local audiences with an abundance of moe and fan service (which are fine in moderation, but stifling when they’re pandering). To offset development costs and the changing Japanese market, the situation was further compound with the dramatic shift of development resources to handheld platforms (which I guess is fine if you prefer mobile gaming, but I prefer to play on a console). Thus you have a variety of factors that have essentially quashed Japan’s ability to compete with the West, in particular the US and Canada.

So that leaves me in an unusual position borne entirely from my own particular tastes in gaming, where I have to look a bit further than Japan for my gaming kicks. For the first time in a while I’ve been playing Western-developed games – The Darkness (developed by Starbreeze in Sweden), Mirror’s Edge (DICE, also in Sweden), Enslaved (Ninja Theory, UK) and Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady, UK)… but what’s interesting is that these have all been developed in the EU (sorry to the UK studios for lumping you in there!), which is a trend I hadn’t consciously realised until thinking about my gaming habits for this generation of consoles. This doesn’t mean I’ve neglected Japan, as I’ve also enjoyed Ninja Gaiden Sigma (Tecmo), Valkyria Chronicles (Sega WOW), Street Fighter 4 (Capcom), Yakuza 3 (Amusement Vision/Sega) and New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo EAD). What’s interesting looking at this shortlist is that some games contain some of the elements I normally don’t like about current-gen games, but they’ve done so in a way that emphasises the often intangible aesthetics that appeal to me.

In short, my gaming preferences are confused and contradictory at times, but share a commonality that points to the resultant aesthetic which entices me to play the game in question.

It also means I’m more likely to play Wonderboy in Monster World on the Sega Mega Drive than Resistance 3 or GTA4.

I think that last point sums up the entirety of this post quite succinctly. Figures 😛

Seasonal gaming habits and associations

This one’s a little left-of-center, but I thought I’d post it anyhows.

I’ve found over the years that, just as musos will track periods of time in their lives or historical phases by the music associated therewith, I have begun over the years to do the same thing with video games. I see this happening on two levels, micro (annual seasons/events) and macro (periods of time).

The most recent/up-coming example of Micro Gaming Associations (let’s give it a fancy acronym – MiGA – yeah!) would be Easter. And it’s a completely irrational.

Back in March 1993, my brothers and I pooled our resources and sold off our Sega Master System, all our controllers (bar one or two we left behind, came in handy for 1-button games like Sonic or Sonic 2 on the Mega Drive) and all our games in order to pool the $300 for a Sega Mega Drive (original model, without the serial port though) pack that included Sonic 1 and vouchers to get Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (boo!) and Columns (uber). I’ll leave the full, drawn-out story for a later post, but suffice to say we picked one up and come Easter, we had a Mega Drive, and it was the greatest thing to ever happen in the history of the universe to my pre-pubescent brain.

So, I still remember clearly on the morning of Good Friday, after partaking in copius amounts of hot cross buns (yum), I jumped in front of the telly and played – of all things – Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker. It was an awesome game in 1993, and while it’s probably a bit on the rubbish side, is still a lot of fun today. If you’re irrational like myself.

So, for the last couple of years I’ve gone to the habit of digging out Moonwalker and give the game a crack around Easter time because of the association with the season – in fact, if you check out my 10 April 2009 gaming session gallery, you’ll find a few pics from the first stage of Moonwalker 🙂 The same thing may happen this weekend 😀

Thus, when Easter comes around, you can count on me firing up the old 16-bit beast and having a crack at Moonwalker. But what about other seasons? Let’s have a think…

MiGA list:

  • Seasons –
    • Summer: Shenmue (Dreamcast), Asuka 120% Limited (Saturn), Wonderboy in Monster World (Mega Drive), Sonic 2 (Master System)
    • Autumn: Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker (Sega Mega Drive), Super Mario All-Stars (SNES), Donkey Kong Country (SNES), Secret of Mana (SNES), Sonic 2 (Sega Mega Drive), Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast), Ico (Playstation 2)
    • Winter: Phantasy Star 4 (Mega Drive), Rocket Knight Adventures (Mega Drive), Ghostbusters (Mega Drive), TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist (Mega Drive), Zelda: A Link To The Past (SNES), Super Metroid (SNES), Dragon Force (Saturn), Magic Knight Rayearth (Saturn), Vampire Savior (Saturn), Saturn Bomberman (Saturn), Sonic 1 (Master System)
    • Spring: Road Avenger (Mega CD), Sonic CD (Mega CD), Thuderhawk (Mega CD), Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter (Sega Saturn), Panzer Dragoon (Saturn), Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn), Mortal Kombat (Mega Drive), Street Fighter 2: Special Championship Edition (Mega Drive)
  • Holidays –
    • Christmas: Shenmue (Dreamcast), NiGHTS (Saturn), Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn), Story of Thor (Mega Drive), Sonic 2 (Master System)
    • Easter: Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker (Mega Drive), Golden Axe 2 (Mega Drive), Sonic 2 (Mega Drive)

It’s a bit illogical and extremely inconsistent, but I thought I’d share anyhows 🙂

So what about Macro Gaming Associations (MaGA to keep things going) – for the purpose of my ranting and raving, I’ll use these to define where particular games emphasised or are representational of a period of years or within a particular generation of game systems. This one’s still a bit hazy/inconsistent compared to the former which I’ve spent more time thinking about, so bear with me for this more randomised list. Note that like the above, these are representational of my personal bias, hence why some systems/games aren’t represented and why some games that may have come out in other periods are represented out of date. Where games represent the period and were ported to numerous systems, I’ve placed them in favoured order of association. Thus, if a game came out on the C64 and arcade but I spent more time playing the C64 version, that gets preference, even if the arcade original was much better.

  • Decades –
    • 1980s: Asteroids (Atari 2600), Pitfall (Atari 2600), Enduro (Atari 2600), R-Type (Commodore 64, arcade), TMNT (Commodore 64 [platformer], arcade), International Karate (Commodore 64), The Last Ninja (Commodore 64), Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja (Commodore 64, Amiga 500, arcade), Wizball (Commodore 64), Combat School (Commodore 64), The Great Giana Sisters (Commodore 64), Bruce Lee (Commodore 64), Outrun (Commodore 64, arcade), Afterburner 2 (Commodore 64, deluxe hyrdraulic arcade cabinet), Wonderboy (Commodore 64), Space Invaders (cocktail arcade cabinet), China Gate (arcade)
    • 1990s: Wing Commander (DOS), Space Quest 3 (DOS), Warcraft 2 (DOS), Police Quest 2 (DOS), Double Dragon 2 (NES), Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES), The Flinstones (NES), Advanced D&D Collection series (Commodore 64, DOS), Sonic 1-2 (Master System, Mega Drive), Wonderboy 1-3 (Sega Master System), Alex Kidd in Miracle World/Shinobi World (Sega Master System), Sonic 3 + Knucles (Sega Mega Drive), Gunstar Heroes (Mega Drive), Story of Thor (Mega Drive), Phantasy Star 2/4 (Mega Drive), Super Mario World (SNES), The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES), Secret of Mana (SNES), Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn), NiGHTS (Saturn), Guardian Heroes (Saturn), Saturn Bomberman (Saturn), Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn), Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast), Soul Calibur (Dreamcast), Daytona 8-way linkup (arcade), Last Bronx (arcade, Saturn), Sega Rally 2 (arcade), X-Men vs Street Fighter (arcade, Saturn), Dead or Alive (arcade, Saturn), House of the Dead 2 (arcade, Dreamcast), Street Fighter 2/CE/HF/Super/Super Turbo (arcade), Metal Slug (arcade, Saturn), King of Fighters ’96 (arcade, Saturn), Crazy Taxi (arcade, Dreamcast)
    • 2000s: Shenmue 1-2 (Dreamcast), Dead or Alive 2 (Dreamcast, arcade, Playstation 2), Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast), Chu Chu Rocket (Dreamcast), Powerstone 2 (Dreamcast), Gauntlet Legends (Dreamcast), Ico (Playstation 2), Kingdom Hearts (Playstation), Viewtiful Joe (Gamecube), Tales of Phantasia (Gamecube), The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (Gamecube), Panzer Dragoon Orta (XBox)
  • Generations (in order of preference/emphasised experience) –
    • 8-bit: Atari 2600, Commodore 64, NES
    • 16-bit: Mega Drive, SNES, DOS
    • 32-bit: Saturn
    • 128-bit: Dreamcast, Gamecube, Playstation 2, XBox

Like I said, irrational, huh?

I think a special point needs to be made on the inclusion of the PS2 and the whole 128-bit gen note above – it’s actually all to Wifey’s credit that I had a big love of the PS2 in the last generation, as I was irrationally opposed to it on principle (being a bit of a Sega fanboy :P), but it garnered quite the soft spot in the end. It was also the first time I’d been in a financial position to actually get use of all the consoles in a single generation, so it’s quite interesting in that respect.

To be honest, I think I like the first list based on MiGA better than the second, as I feel like I’m making more of a randomised, generated list of games tied to extremely large swaths of time with the MaGA list, and the former seems more personal in its choices… but then again, when I think back on time periods, those are the games that stand out, at least at the moment I’m writing up this post.

I’ll have a thorough chuckle if either of these concepts get picked up anywhere else, or how many people throw on the rose-tinted glasses and look back on their classic games like this. I suspect I’m not the only one, but at the same time I don’t think I have my finger on the pulse in any way.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed that long-winded return to retro gaming blogging. I promise I’ll start getting back into regular posting from now on!