Big Evercade announcement tomorrow at 2pm BST. You can catch it at this link — they're doing a YouTube Premiere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdUEBPScfGk

I already know what this announcement is, but I'm not giving anything away. It's pretty damn awesome, though, and I'm happy to have had the opportunity to play my own small part in this whole project since starting my new gig.

It really is kind of astonishing what the Blaze team have managed to achieve in just a year — they're a small group of dedicated, hard workers who have managed to successfully release a brand new console in the middle of a global pandemic, and in the same year as the new-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony too. And honestly, with both the PS5 and Xbox Series series being wet farts in terms of exciting features and games, the Evercade genuinely was my favourite console launch of last year.

Tomorrow's announcement is an important moment for the platform — though there are still some other exciting things waiting in the wings to be revealed later in the year. I know what most of these are too, but again, I can't tell you anything right now, I'm afraid! Just suffice to say for now that this platform's going to be sticking around for a while, and that even more exciting times are coming.

On that note, I'm going to go play my new Jaleco Collection 1 and Piko Interaction Collection 2 cartridges in bed! What better way to end a day?

As I write this, I am being bothered by a cat. Specifically, I am being bothered by Patti, who is quite frequently the most bothersome of cats, but I wouldn't want her any other way at this point. It's part of her personality, and I'm absolutely convinced that she is communicating various things to us when she bothers us like this; right now I'm pretty sure she wants me to go to bed so she can cosy up around our feet like she normally does, then inevitably "go long" at about 3 in the morning, also like she normally does.

Having pets is one of the absolute best things, and I've known this pretty much all my life, having grown up with two wonderful cats and, prior to having Patti and Meg (and our dearly departed Ruby before Patti), a succession of delightful rats.

Pets bring a wonderful sense of comfort to a house that can sometimes feel overly quiet during times like the ones we've been enduring for more than a year now, and pets always have a kind ear to listen to your problems. Sure, they might not be able to help much directly, but they will at least listen to you and never judge you for the things you say. They'll judge you for all manner of other things, mind, but never the things you say.

And because Patti is such a precious friend to us both, that's why I don't get mad at her when she bothers me repeatedly… or claws the shit out of my chair. Which are both things she has done in the last five minutes while I type this.

I should probably go to bed to keep her quiet.

I know it's not something everyone enjoys, but personally I'm so glad that VTubers have become such a widespread thing. With a few notable exceptions, I consistently find that I enjoy watching VTubers do general streaming and YouTube stuff more than "real" people — though you still can't beat a good specialist for specific subject matter like, say, retro gaming or something like that.

Which got me wondering: at the moment, most VTubers tend to be variety entertainers with something of an emphasis on reasonably current gaming — either big names or, more commonly, indie darlings. I wonder if we'll get to a point where we'll see "specialist" VTubers focusing on more specific subject matter — like a retro gaming VTuber or something like that. There's probably an argument to be made that some VTubers like Inugami Korone err on the retro side of things already, but they're still mostly variety streams, just with a slight weighting in one direction of another.

Quite possibly the issue is that specialist subject matter, outside of breakout cases that become inexplicably popular or hit the magic formula in the YouTube algorithm, tends not to do numbers as big as those seen in "general interest" fields. For every person who knows their stuff about obscure Commodore 64 games, there are approximately five hundred generic white girls who only ate food they saw on TikTok for a week — and the generic Live Laugh Lovers are the ones with the hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

In a way that makes the person who knows their stuff about obscure Commodore 64 games all the more precious because they're not beholden to the whims of what is likely quite a fickle audience and can instead focus on their own thing — but it's doubtless something that is on the mind of anyone considering getting into VTubing.

VTubing is not an easy or cheap field to get into if you're serious about doing it, after all — sure, you can download VRoid Studio and Wakaru to get started for free, but if you want to look like something other than a relatively generic 3D model with minimal tracking, you're going to need to commission art and rigging as well as investing in equipment that makes your on-screen movements much more natural. And that naturally means a lot of people who have made that investment will want to increase the likelihood that they see some sort of return on said investment — which of course leads to them favouring more general-interest streams and videos.

I don't really have a point here and certainly don't feel I personally have the talent (or technical knowledge) to become some sort of amazing retro gaming specialist VTubing star — but I do think it would be interesting to see such a thing at some point. And I think that eventually we will actually see that — look at how YouTube videos and streaming have broadened as forms of media over the years, after all.

As the tech — both hardware and software — becomes more accessible, I suspect we'll see more and more people stepping up to give VTubing a try, and wanting to make themselves stand out through specialisms. It may even empower some people who have always shied away from making videos or doing streams because they're worried about appearing on camera, despite having the knowledge or talent to be able to make something work — and that'd be wonderful to see.

In the meantime, it's not as if we're short on VTubers to enjoy already — I suspect there's someone to suit most moods at this point. With that in mind, I'm off to watch Ame be bad at Oblivion some more. Good night!

New podcast! Sorry it's been so long, but you know how things get when you start a new job — particularly when it's a new job that you actually enjoy. We specifically made some time to sit down and talk about this subject, though, because there's a bunch of games we've been playing that made us want to chat about it.

It was a good excuse to revisit a lot of these games, too. Some of them I haven't played for probably 5 or more years, and many of them have improved in those intervening years. Others are pretty "timeless" and will always be good, but it was nice to explore them again while researching for the show — and while recording footage to include with the video version!

I'm looking forward to trying Demon's Tier+ when it arrives; I haven't got it yet, though. I think it's on the way from Limited Run, but it hasn't arrived as yet. I've learned to be patient with these things — it's not as if there's any shortage of other things to play, after all! And I have about five or six things coming from various limited press houses, so one day there's just going to be a flurry of packages and I will love it.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the new podcast!

New episode of The MoeGamer Podcast coming tomorrow. This time around we're talking action roguelikes — and in true MoeGamer Podcast tradition, we're (mostly) going a bit off the beaten track to talk about some that perhaps aren't quite so well-known, or which were maybe popular a few years ago but have fallen off the radar since then.

It's a bit sad how that happens with perfectly good games sometimes. In a couple of cases, in preparation for this episode, I picked up a few action roguelikes that I hadn't played for a few years and discovered that since their initial Early Access period, when I originally played them, they had become even better, even more enjoyable games than they once were.

This, for me, represents the fundamental problem with the "games must be updated regularly and as often as possible" culture a lot of gamers seem to favour, particularly on the PC platform. It can sometimes feel like there's not a good time to jump on board with a game because there's always "the next big update" just around the corner — and, of course, the threat of negative Steam reviews that say nothing more than "dead game" or "abandoned by dev". It's like no-one wants to accept that something can be "finished" any more.

This seems to be a particular issue with this type of game. Lots of these games release through Early Access and often stay in that state for several years. In some cases, the games never make it out of Early Access; one game that I didn't talk about in the episode, but which is a good example of this, is Neverinth. This was an immensely promising looking action roguelike that makes use of weighty stamina-management combat, and I was really looking forward to seeing what its "finished" state would be.

Trouble is, it was never finished, and the developer has completely stepped away from it now due to family commitments. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming him at all for that — he should absolutely put the wellbeing of himself and the people around him first — but it's a shame that Neverinth will forever be left in a state where people consider it to be "abandoned" and "dead". And it particularly smarts because Neverinth was looking so great. But oh well; these things happen — and Neverinth is at least in a playable state, so you can enjoy it for a good few hours before running into the digital equivalent of a bunch of scaffolding over the abyss.

In some cases, I get it. Deep Rock Galactic, which is one game I talk a bit about on the podcast, does regular substantial updates because it's an online multiplayer game with a persistent progression system, and those regular substantial updates keep the players coming, which makes the game continually worth playing. Over the course of 34 major updates in the last three years or so, the game has built a thriving community of players, many of whom have hundreds or thousands of hours in the game to their name. Without those regular new additions, many of those players would have reached a point where they felt like they'd "finished" the game and wouldn't come back.

Here's the thing, though; it doesn't really matter if you "finish" a game and never come back. This never used to be a problem, and indeed there are plenty of genres where it still isn't a problem. But there are certain types of game, it seems, where people seem to expect to be able to play forever, and have a regular influx of new stuff to enjoy. That's not practical or feasible for every game out there — and I have to say, I really feel for those devs who end up feeling trapped into having to continually update a ten year old game just because some Steam reviewers might start whining otherwise.

Well, I'm going to go play some Turrican now. That game's finished, and it's still keeping me busy!

Spent a bit of time playing a game called Golden Force this evening. I'd seen this pop up in Amazon recommendations a few times, then a few people I knew happened to mention it, so I thought I'd give it a shot — at under £25 for a cartridge copy on Switch I was more than happy to give it a chance.

For some reason I had it in my head that it was an open-structure 2D platformer in the Shantae mould, but it's actually a level-based platformer/beat 'em up type-thing that is seriously challenging, but rather rewarding — particularly once you get your head around some of its mechanics.

There are four playable characters; I haven't determined if there's much of a different between them yet, but each of them are able to attack with a combo, do a launcher attack, do a dash attack sideways or straight upwards (which can also be used to get around) and slide. They can also do a charged "crush" attack that will bash enemies off in a direction of your choice — assuming you don't kill them with the power of the blow, that is.

Each level has a number of hidden items, Super Mario style, and getting to these is a case of both exploring the level thoroughly and getting the hang of various mechanics. There's one in the second stage, for example, that requires you to launch an enemy into it to grab it, and another one that I couldn't figure out how to get without taking damage from falling into a pit — something to do with the upwards air-dash, I suspect.

These hidden items are used to upgrade the characters' combos and maximum health, and you also collect coins throughout the levels — with more coins exploding out of enemies the higher your combo count is. Coins can be used for temporary items such as power-ups that can be triggered at will, or an instant respawn to give you a second chance in a tricky stage.

I've only played three stages so far but they've been a lot of fun, and the boss fight you do in the intro sequence suggests there's going to be some fun boss encounters along the way, too. There's nothing much in the way of story, but given that the game is very much going for a sort of "32-bit era arcade" feel, that doesn't really matter too much; it's simply a fun game that I probably wouldn't have tried had a few people not mentioned it in passing to me recently, so thank you to those who did!

Doubtless I'll have more to say on that soon, but suffice to say for now that I'm glad I picked it up, and as an arcadey-style game it's something fun to have on the go when I'm in the mood for some action rather than having to think too hard. Always good to have something like that ready to go!

I've been playing some Turrican this evening, thanks to the Turrican Flashback compilation from Inin games. To my shame as someone who grew up with European microcomputers, I've never actually played Turrican before, so this was a new experience for me — though I was already familiar with its historical significance and how well-received it was back in the day.

For the unfamiliar, Turrican is typically the go-to example of the "Euro-platformer" in that it has vast, explorable levels — though the exits are usually pretty straightforward to find. It obviously draws a certain amount of influence from Metroid, but there are also elements of shoot 'em ups in there, too, particularly with regard to how the power-ups work.

It is, like many games from the period, an example of a game where developers were still very much figuring things out. In Turrican's case, the people behind it apparently had not realised the importance of invincibility frames and hitstun in action games, meaning you have to play it quite a bit differently from similar Japanese games from the period. Once you get your head around the fact that if you start taking damage from something, you will keep taking damage from it until you get out of its way, it provides an enjoyable experience — but you have to make that adjustment first!

I've been particularly enjoying the level designs, which have a nicely labyrinthine feel without feeling overly complex and impossible to navigate, and, of course, Chris Huelsbeck's excellent tracker soundtrack. Rather pleasingly, the Turrican Flashback compilation includes the Amiga versions of both Turrican and Turrican II (as well as the Mega Drive's Mega Turrican and the Super NES' Super Turrican) — it's quite rare to see home computer games in compilations like this, so I hope we see a bit more of this in the future!

I got a fair distance through the game earlier, but didn't make it to the end. I'm looking forward to trying again, though — I think I would have enjoyed this game back in the day and it still holds up rather well today aside from the aforementioned issues!

I did miss yesterday, I thought I had. Apologies! I was very tired and collapsed into bed before I realised.

Anyway — something fun to share with you today. I've mentioned before how much fun it is when I get developers of the games I cover on Atari A to Z showing up in my YouTube comments and giving some insights about what they worked on. Today, I received a message on a whole new level. You can see said message here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyUMC3e8Xkk 

For context, the author of that clip is Simon Hunt, the creator of the Atari 8-bit games Diamonds and Dan Strikes Back, both of which I've previously covered on Atari A to Z. During my Dan Strikes Back video, I made reference to the fact that Hunt once intended to make a third Diamonds game, but never got any further than designing a title screen. I also jokingly challenged what members of the Atari community actually watched my channel to see if they could pick up from Hunt's idea and develop something.

The last thing I expected was for anyone to accept this light-hearted challenge — let alone for it to be Hunt himself. And yet here we are; apparently at some point in 2021, we will finally see the third Digger Dan game that never happened — and it is, at least indirectly, because of me.

Pretty cool, huh?

Those who know me reasonably well will know that I don't have a lot of time for Bethesda games these days. I attribute this to a few things.

Firstly: frustration at the fact I inevitably spent more time dicking around with mods for Morrowind than actually playing it — which in turn led to the "if you need 200 mods to make it fun, it's not worth playing" philosophy I adopt today.

Secondly, I achievement-whored my way through Oblivion, making what should have been a fun, open experience into a complete chore. That one's on me.

Thirdly, I played Skyrim for 40 hours, realised I wasn't actually enjoying myself, couldn't name a single character or tell you what the story was about, and never looked back.

However, just recently I've discovered a way that I can enjoy Bethesda games: enjoy them through the eyes of a VTuber. Specifically, enjoy them through the eyes of Amelia Watson, whose enjoyably chaotic, attention-deficit playthrough is a consistent(ly frustrating) delight to observe.

She's someone who is good at just playing with Oblivion. And there's a lot to play with in Oblivion. She's the sort of person who inadvertently breaks games, does things "wrong" but still successfully, and just seems to have a thoroughly lovely time whether she's getting repeatedly caught in a physics-based trap or hurling her horse off a cliff just to see what happens.

It seems that Oblivion — rather than Skyrim, interestingly — is proving popular among some VTubers, because VShojo's new addition Veibae has been playing it too, and her highlights video was very entertaining.

I am all for this, because Oblivion's 2006 jank (yes, Oblivion really is that old, as I discovered to my dismay last night) is somehow much more entertaining than anything a bit more recent, while still actually looking quite good in certain circumstances. And if anything, it's actually kind of making me want to revisit it at some point just to piss around a bit. I don't know if I'll follow through on that at any point — I did play it to death back when I achievement whored it, and the things that have always bugged me about Bethesda games still bug me — but it might be nice to have on hand at some point.

On Xbox 360, of course. Yes, I know I could get it looking super-nice and smooth on PC, but my memories of that game will always involve early-era Xbox 360 jank!

Pounding headache this evening. A couple of hours of Deep Rock Galactic with my friends probably didn't help, but we manage to actually get together so rarely that I don't like to turn down multiplayer sessions with them — especially when they occur on the spur of the moment as they did tonight. So it's off to bed for me in a moment, I feel!

I've been finding myself frequently in the mood for retro games of late, and I've been very grateful for the Evercade, as it allows me to just sit back and enjoy something without having to browse through a zillion ROMs. Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad I set up my PS Classic the way it is, but I've taken to deliberately loading up my Evercade with a single cartridge and going upstairs with it, thereby "limiting" myself to only exploring the games on that cartridge. It encourages me to focus on and appreciate the games on that cart rather than jumping back and forth all over the place, never settling on anything.

I've said this before, but that, I think, is the real strength of the Evercade. Curated collections of classic games are a great way to celebrate the wonderful experiences that classic consoles had to offer — and with all the unease over the fate of the PSP, Vita and PS3 right now, it's nice to be able to return to stuff from an age where all that simply wasn't an issue.

I've once again been enjoying going back to some Atari Lynx games I used to enjoy in my youth, and it's a genuine pleasure to return to some of these. They look absolutely wonderful on the Evercade's handheld screen, and I even have a soft spot for them blown up to 720p on the TV! I still absolutely suck at Checkered Flag, though; some practice is clearly in order!

So with that, then, I think it's time to take some paracetamol, get into bed and enjoy some Lynx games. Sounds like a plan.