FM Chiptune Musician | DX Complex Staff | SEGA, MSX and Retro Tech Dork | He/Him

Formerly _NetNomad@kbin.run
Microblogging at _NetNomad@oldbytes.space
https://netnomad.dxcomplex.com/

On mbin, it’s very easy to accidentally boost (retoot) posts, and mbin doesn’t seem to propogate undoing that. any boosts you see from this account when viewing on mastodon et cetera are finger fudges, sorry!

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 15th, 2024

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  • i just rolled credits on Forgotten World (the one where you can become a car) last night and i was blown away. Forgotten World is largely a 1:1 conversion of the 2D games into 3D with the notable exception that you can’t float higher than your jump height, so that does raise the skill floor noticably. still, just getting to the end of any given level is easy-peasy, but some of the challenges and collectables are definitely tricky. the 3-star portal stages in particular can be a real challenge, and there’s also a post-game world i haven’t tried yet. i think the switch 2 version even has a post-post-game. ultimately, though, if challenge is an important factor for you, you’ll probably be better served by another game

    kirby and the amazing mirror deserves a shout-out for being difficult in it’s own unique way. it’s a metroidvania but many of the doors are one-way just like in regular kirby, so it’s easy to fuck up and go the wrong way and have to restart. the platforming and combat are both still very easy but that does you a fat lot of good when you hit a dead end!




  • Part of it is that Voyager has the unenviable role of being one of TNG’s two successor shows. The other was DS9, and everything looks bad sitting next to DS9. Part of why DS9 was able to do the wild things that it did was because the writing team had minimal supervision and were allowed to go buckwild- paramount were keeping a closer eye on first TNG, and then Voyager. Because of that, Voyager plays it safe and worships the status quo even when the fiction is begging to go in another direction, and the whole series has this feeling of having been written by committee. This even frustrated the writers, one of whom left the show out of frustration to go write the Battlestar Galactica reboot, which is essentially gritty, serialized Voyager

    that said, I watched the whole thing and largely enjoyed it. you kind of have to meet it where it is, and accept that major plot details get glossed over and everyone takes turns holding the idiot ball. for me, the characters are what salvages the underwhelming plot. being a smaller ship, younger characters like Kim and Paris are able to be movers and shakers, giving the show a coming-of-age quality not found again until LDS and Progidy. Janeway is great when she’s not holding the idiot ball, it was really awesome seeing a captain who came up through science instead of command. When the blue or gold shirts give most captains a solution to a problem, they’re glad the problem it solved, but Janeway would get excited about the solution itself, sometimes even finishing Belana’s sentences.

    Neelix had never so much as heard of starfleet, and had none of the training or skills even a crewman would need, but his good nature and see-a-need, fill-a-need ethos arguably makes him the most starfleet person on the boat. Kes is similar, with the added twist of dedicating herself to a voyage she won’t live to see the end of.

    VOY spoilers

    People say it was good that she left because there wasn’t much to do with her character, but to me that’s nonsense. Not being able to see her come to terms with her mortality and how that intersects with her psychic powers was easily the show’s biggest missed opportunity.

    the doctor is an interesting inversion of the good idea/meh execution pattern because his concept is unremarkable- essentially a rehash of Data learning to be human, just accidentally and with sarcasm- but the execution was incredible. later on when 7of9 joins the cast, she displaces him as The Data but he remains a main character and takes on a mentorship role which allows him to develop even further

    all in all, it’s a show full of then-new and brilliant ideas that regularly fumbles the execution. and that isn’t for everyone, especially with the plethora of other great trek out there. but if you watch it and are able to forgive the not great scenario writing you might enjoy it nonetheless




  • shout out to the galloping ghost in chicago. massive, massive arcade full of vintage cabs, some of them super rare. they charge a door fee so no cards or coins, but if you make a day out of it you’re plaging hundreds of dollars of games for like 20 bucks or something. they even have an R360 G-Loc cabinet, although you need to call ahead to make sure they have an extra hand on site to run it. i didn’t know you needed to call and when they told me i could come back tomorrow and i mentioned i drove in from out of town, they gave me a free admission card for next time, so very nice people working there too!









  • it’s hard to compete with A Chtistmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, which has to me the definitive versions of a lot of the classics plus one of the all-time greatest tunes period in “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” if you like the kind of cheese that sprays out of a can, the Brian Setzer Orchestra does fun rockabilly takes on the classics, and Wizzard’s originals “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” and the other one who’s name i can’t remember are great. for the nerds in the room, Urizen’s “Autonomy” carries on the TSO spirit with a heavy heaping of chiptune, the soundtrack fo the Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams… demo has awesome renditions of the classics in 90s VGM fashion, and look up the demo song on the Yamaha SHS-10 keytar when you get a chance