We're officially "locked down" again. It hasn't felt particularly different, to be perfectly honest, largely because we haven't gone anywhere or indeed needed to go anywhere. I did wake up this morning feeling like absolute garbage, though, and wondering if I had, in fact, caught the dread virus, but it turns out I was just some combination of exhausted and/or dehydrated. A glug of water and a good nap sorted me out good and proper. That's a relief.

I'm not normally one for hypochondria like that; the only reason I did find myself wondering was that Andie stopped by a friend's house yesterday to lend him a stepladder, and while she was there he got a message from his boss that someone at his workplace had tested positive for COVID. With the caveat that I don't know how long it takes for symptoms to show themselves, hopefully that doesn't mean that he — or indeed Andie or I — have picked it up.

As I said a while back, I'm actually fairly convinced that both Andie and I had it before it was recognised as "a thing". Back in the early part of the year, both of us were suffering a lot with "dry, unproductive coughs", as I believe medical terminology has it, and the situation was absolutely exhausting us. Thankfully we both recovered, though if reports are to be believed of lingering side effects such as tiredness, we may have been left with some "souvenirs" — if indeed we had it in the first place.

Scary times, for sure. But at least it's easy enough to stay safe in this day and age. There aren't many things you really need to leave the house for these days — unfortunately one of them is my prescription, which I'm going to need to go and collect pretty soon. Should probably get that out of the way sooner rather than later!

Take care of yourselves and be safe!

I was made aware of the AtGames "Legends" range of arcade devices today and I sort of want one. For the unfamiliar, you can find out more about them on the official website at https://www.atgames.net/arcades/

This model, the Legends Gamer Pro, is the model I think I'm most interested in. It comes with the double arcade stick you see above, includes a trackball and also has the core of the system: a console that comes preloaded with 150 games, plus access to the Internet to download or stream more. (From the look of things, it seems like it'll be streaming initially, but "download to own" will become a thing later. The preloaded games are… preloaded, though, so this thing isn't just a streaming box a la Stadia.)

The lineup of preloaded games is good, too. There's a lot of Taito stuff on there, which hasn't seen a rerelease for a while, and my beloved Rod-Land is also present and correct. There are also some console games on there, too, which is interesting to see. All of these games are licensed, too, so this isn't a dodgy ROM box — though I believe it is possible to load your own stuff in there via various means, too.

My main hesitation is the fact that AtGames has a bit of a variable reputation when it comes to stuff like this; some of their stuff is very good, while other bits and pieces are rubbish. I do like the idea of that lovely big arcade console, though, and, to be honest, seeing a trackball in the middle there is one of the most exciting things I've seen in gaming for a long time, haha.

It also looks like it might be fiddly to get hold of. At present, AtGames isn't listing any UK-specific retailers, so I'd have to get it from a French store in all likelihood. And the price they're looking to charge equates to about £300, which is considerably more than it costs over in the US — by like £100+.

It looks cool though. I won't be rushing to preorder one — especially while it's so pricey for Europe — but I will definitely be keeping an eye on things. And if nothing else, the presence of all those Taito games gives me a certain amount of hope that we'll eventually see them on Evercade, because it suggests that they're willing to play ball with a lot of their older stuff. We shall see!

As it happens, today hasn't been too bad. There's been the usual self-important "GO OUT AND VOTE!"-type posts on social media, but the actual… ranty, ravey side of things seems to have been relatively calm for today. That or I've finally outfoxed the Twitter algorithm and completely blocked all trace of political nonsense with artists who draw anime boobies very well. Either way, things have been fine.

I suspect tomorrow will likely be another matter altogether, but exactly what form that will take remains to be seen. It doesn't really bear thinking about right now, though, so that's the last on the matter from me for now, anyway. As I said yesterday, if you just want a nice, calm, kind, chill place to hang out, you can always stop by MoeGamer, my YouTube channel or the Discord and just enjoy some gaming good times. I recommend it; them video game things are pretty fun.

I'm reviewing Touhou Spell Bubble for Nintendo Life shortly. I submitted the review today — not sure when it's going to be published as yet, but hopefully soon. It's a really good game if you ever enjoyed Puzzle Bobble and didn't get turned off the formula by the zillion clones on the App Store/Google Play. Touhou Spell Bubble is actually made by Taito themselves, so you can very much think of it as a new Puzzle Bobble game — and the new mechanics involved, which are based around musical elements, are really fun. The only weak point is the localisation, which is dogshit, but anyone who has been following the Touhou series for any period of time will already be perfectly familiar with completely nonsensical translated dialogue. This is at least a step up from machine-translated gibberish. And, as I note in my review, the mechanics are the star here anyway.

I've got another review pending, but I haven't received the code for it as yet and indeed can't remember the title offhand. It appears to be a premium spin-off from a mobile game I'm not familiar with, so it remains to be seen exactly what I can expect from it! Could be interesting; could be a flaming pile of garbage. Watch this space for some initial thoughts!

Anyway, for now I think it's time to head to bed, play some Evercade and not think about anything even vaguely America-related. Good luck US folks; I suspect regardless of however things go, there's a rocky road ahead!

I'm really not looking forward to US election day tomorrow. I suspect the day will be filled with speculation and doomsaying, and then when the (I suspect inevitable) result occurs, there's going to be a real mess. At least online there will be, anyway; the vast majority of the people who claim they will "riot" should things not go their way in the polls probably aren't the sort of people inclined to actually leave their houses to do anything productive, anyway. Being a Twitter activist is much easier!

I'll be doing my best to provide some distractions for those who need it. Remember there's nearly two thousand articles on MoeGamer now, covering more than 500 games, so why not sit back and read a bit? Or enjoy a marathon of my videos? Or indeed, pop by the Discord and say hi. I've always said "no politics" on the Discord, so I will be strictly enforcing that tomorrow — not that I suspect I'll need to enforce it with you lovely folks (and the fact everyone is a bit quiet in there at the best of times!). Everyone deserves a nice quiet space with a bit of sanity to it all, and I'm damn well going to provide it.

One thing I will say in all seriousness: regardless of how invested you are in the results tomorrow, I urge you to take care of yourself first and foremost. It will be tempting to stay glued to the news to see what is happening, and to jump into arguments on social media with people trying to stir things up. I'm not saying don't do any of those things, but please do make a point of stepping away for a completely clean, social media and news-free break for a little while every so often. Play a game, read a MoeGamer article, watch a video, pet a cat. Decide if looking at what is going on is going to be a net positive or negative for your mental wellbeing — and act accordingly. I don't want to see anyone burn themselves out!

We're in tough times already and I suspect regardless of what happens tomorrow, even more challenges lie ahead. Just be sure to take care of yourself — and remember it's okay to take a break. It's times like this that arcade games were made for!

I've been in the mood for various bits of non-RPG nonsense between Atelier sessions of late, and one that I've been meaning to give a go for quite some time is Spy Hunter on the PlayStation 2. I fired it up for the first time last night and man that game is super-fun.

Most of you reading this are likely familiar, but on the offchance you aren't, Spy Hunter began as an early '80s arcade game that unfolded from a top-down perspective and saw you driving a tricked-out, heavily secret agent car along endless roads while listening to the theme from Peter Gunn in an attempt to take down enemy vehicles and score lots of points. It was monstrously difficult, impressively speedy and a lot of fun — and had some decent ports over the years, too. I have particularly fond memories of the Atari 8-bit version, for reasons that are likely obvious.

2001's Spy Hunter for PS2, however, is both a sequel and reboot. It transplants the top-down gameplay to a third-person 3D perspective, and challenges you to race through a series of missions, each of which feature various objectives to accomplish besides simply making it to the end. These vary from destroying specific targets to sticking GPS tags on things and collecting "Satcom" items; most objectives besides a mission's primary objective are completely optional, but subsequent missions are only unlocked if you've completed sufficient objectives in total.

The game handles really nicely. It's got a super-fun arcadey driving model, and the weapons controls are integrated simply but effectively. There's a touch of auto-aim and lock-on to keep things straightforward when hitting targets, and important objectives are highlighted with big flashing Sega arcade-game style reticles just to make sure you don't miss them. The only thing I do find a little tricky is the placement of some of the Satcom items; they often require the use of a jump ramp, and said jump ramps are often a little fiddly to hit at the right angle and speed. That's why they're optional objectives though, I guess, and after you've learned a stage by running through it a few times, hitting all these ramps as well as your other objectives will doubtless become second nature.

There are two other PS2 Spy Hunter games after this first one — the third of which stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, since there was originally intended to be a tie-in movie — and apparently another complete reboot on Vita and 3DS from 2012. I have all the PS2 ones… judging by a little bit of time with this first one, I'm going to enjoy exploring them!

And yes, the Peter Gunn theme is present and correct.

With lockdown going ahead from next Thursday (for four weeks, supposedly… I'll believe that when I see it) I thought I'd take a trip down to CEX and bag a few bargains. I came back with an armful of Xbox 360 and PS2 games for less than twenty quid, and it turns out there was quite the interesting little number in there.

At £8, Red Ninja: End of Honor for PS2 was the most expensive game I picked up today, but I thought it looked interesting and I had a very vague memory of having read something about it at some point. I'd never played it, though, and knew absolutely nothing about it. I thought I'd give it a shot, though.

Looking it up online later, I discovered that this game was actually Senran Kagura creator Kenichiro Takaki's first game as designer, which naturally intrigued me a great deal. This actually wasn't the reason I vaguely knew Red Ninja, but I found it interesting what a small world the games industry can be sometimes.

I spent a couple of hours this evening playing through the game's first mission. Mechanically the game is rather clunky, particularly with regard to camera controls, but it's an intriguing stealth 'em up with some very cool ideas. The most notable of these is the game's use of a "tetsugen" wire as its main weapon; this can have either a blade or a heavy weight attached to the end of it before flinging it at an enemy, and you can then Libble Rabble any of their friends who show up before ripping it back out of them and slicing a few important bits off in the process.

It's actually been quite pleasant to play a game with a rigid, linear, level-based structure; it occurs to me that it feels like I haven't played something like that for quite some time, and it's nice to have a sense of "focus" rather than the constant fear that you might be "missing things". It's certainly not a perfect game by any means, but it's interesting to look at as Takaki's first game. And if you were wondering, yes, his love of the female posterior is very much present and correct in this game.

I'll likely record a short;Play video on Red Ninja at some point in the near future, so watch out for that, and if I feel inclined to play the whole thing through (I believe it's about 6-10 hours or so in total, which is certainly achievable) I'll give it a proper writeup on MoeGamer. Definitely a pleasing discovery, for sure!

It looks like we're heading for a second full "lockdown" here in the UK — if reports are to be believed, starting as soon as next Wednesday. This is a bit of a bummer for numerous reasons, though with how relatively infrequently I go out anyway it won't be a huge deal for me.

Mostly it's frustrating. The rise in COVID cases here and the need for this second lockdown goes to show that a significant number of people just aren't taking things seriously. And I'm not talking about the government here (although there's plenty to blame them for — the Times report claims their "Eat Out to Help Out" scheme contributed significantly to an increase in COVID cases, to name but one!) — I'm talking about Joe Public.

Throughout this entire pandemic situation, we've seen numerous people acting selfishly, clearly not believing that there's anything to worry about; that there's no need for them to follow the rules that most of us agree to abide by for the benefit of everyone. We've seen overflowing beaches, jam-packed shopping centres and mass "protests" in the name of batshit crazy conspiracy theories… and it all just adds to the risk and, ultimately, the mess we're in now.

At this point, it looks like until there's a reliable vaccine that can be given to everyone, this is just going to continue, because people don't seem to be able to be trusted. That's a dangerous line of thinking, of course, because that way lies extreme societal restrictions, and no-one wants that. But until there's a reliable method of making the population immune, it just feels like this is going to go on forever. And even when that vaccine does arrive, there are plenty of people out there who are going to refuse to take it because… I don't know, Bill Gates or some bullshit.

Oh well. As I say, it's not a vast adjustment to my lifestyle, though with this in mind I may actually take a trip out of the house this weekend to go have a look around the local CEX for some preowned goodness. It might be the last opportunity I get for a while, after all!

Ahhh. Someday we'll look back on this and laugh.

As you might have been able to tell, I have not done at all well on the whole calorie-counting thing of late. Unfortunately I tend to find myself heading for "comfort food" when I'm feeling depressed, and I've been feeling pretty dang depressed of late. I fully intend to "reboot" myself this weekend and kick things off in earnest again from Monday. Until then, I'm going to just take the pressure off myself for the end of the week and clear my head a bit.

Been pondering a few ideas recently. I've mentiond a few times that I want to do more "video articles" — i.e. readings of my MoeGamer articles, allowing me to bring them to the YouTube audience, who might not be aware of my site or interested in reading lots of words for one reason or another. I've been mulling over ways to do this of late, and I see a couple of options: a weekly "digest" (which I could call something like "Radio MoeGamer") that compiles all the week's articles into a single video with timestamps/chapter markers, or individual videos for each article.

Both have pros and cons, but both would probably end up being roughly the same amount of work in total. And since I record footage for the purposes of taking screenshots already, the only real addition to what I'm doing would be actually recording the audio of the article.

I've done individual videos for individual articles in the past, and that would probably make things easiest to find. But I do also quite like the idea of a (potentially) weekly "show" that talks about a variety of stuff. It would be an interesting and fun contrast to the other stuff on the channel.

With so many videos in the can from my week off from the day job, I might experiment a bit this weekend. Watch this space!

Just a quickie this evening as I'm tired. A bit of a request, actually, for those in the know about such things.

I'm interested in getting my stuff read, seen, watched, whatever by a few more people, and I figured the best way of going about that would be to join some relevant communities. The added benefit of that, of course, is that if I have dedicated communities to spend time in, I'll spend less time doomscrolling on social media, and that will be a net positive for everyone.

I'm primarily looking for communities interested in the retro side of things — Atari-specific if possible — and forums by preference. I'm not a huge fan of Discords as a discussion format, though that seems to be the direction most communities have gone in these days.

I'm already a member of AtariAge, so that's one biggie off the list. If any of you know any other good retro gaming communities — especially if they're UK-centric — that it might be good to get involved with, please let me know. Even if they're on Facebook. I can brave Facebook if there are nice people who like talking about old computers there.

Good morning. Apologies for the slightly late post, but our Internet went down at home last night right before I was going to post this, and I really didn't feel like writing on my phone as I was tired. So here we are!

I'm back at the day job. And rather than feeling refreshed after my week off, I'm feeling pretty terrible. That week of working on projects I actually wanted to work on really highlighted to me how incompatible I feel with the "corporate" life. Not that I didn't know this already, but it feels particularly profound this time around, and it's frustrating.

Yesterday, like every Tuesday, was a day almost completely filled with conference calls. I didn't say anything on any of them because I had nothing to say. I barely listened to any of them because they had nothing to do with me. And yet I was expected to be there. I guess I should count myself fortunate that my employer isn't one of those ones that expects you to pointlessly be on video chat for such situations, but it still wasted almost my entire day and left me feeling completely drained and unmotivated.

This was further compounded in the afternoon by our team's leader calling us to talk about a new "process" which was utterly pointless, could be better served with a simple fix that would take less than two minutes rather than the 45+ minutes she spent farting around with our piece of shit online tools and which no-one felt comfortable actually objecting to because we "must respect the process" otherwise it is "dangerous". (It is not dangerous.)

I need out. But right now it just doesn't feel possible to escape in a "safe" way. The only companies that appear to be hiring consistently are big corporations, and swapping one instance of corporate life for another isn't going to solve the issue. I need to work somewhere where I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile and something that I actually care about — or even better, doing my own thing completely and being able to make a living from it.

It could be far worse, I know. I've experienced far worse. I've been in situations where I've been bullied out of jobs and treated like crap by the people I worked for. None of that is happening here, thankfully. I should probably be grateful. But I can't ignore the toll that this is still taking on my mental health.

While being in the depths of depression isn't the best time to be productive about this, when I clear my head a bit I think it's time I started actively looking around for alternatives to my current situation, because I don't feel I can go on like this.

If you know anyone hiring, let me know? 🙂