Andie and I are going away this weekend to go visit my parents. As such I won't be around much online and won't be posting stuff — Atari A to Z Flashback is already scheduled to go on Saturday morning, but aside from that there won't be anything until I get back on Sunday afternoon/evening.

As such, that means the next Atelier MegaFeature part will be at some point late-ish on Sunday. I've got something I can write, but I'm taking this weekend as an opportunity to just get away from stuff for a bit; naturally I'll be taking some games with me (as well as some stuff I need to test) but I won't be doing any writing other than some quickie posts on here if I remember to do them on my phone of an evening.

Just wanted to let you all know just in case you found yourself wondering where the usual Saturday posts on MoeGamer were this week. They'll be late on Sunday instead… assuming I'm not too knackered after driving back here, of course!

Anyway. Hope you all have a suitably pleasant weekend.

I've noticed a marked increase in YouTube comments recently — and not of the spam variety, either, which is nice. (Well, I did have one guy who was constantly asking about Atari NFTs a while back, but he got his ass blocked. We don't talk about New Atari, particularly if you spam every video I make with the exact same question that is nothing to do with the actual contents of the video.)

View counts are… pretty much where they've always been, perhaps a bit higher. Every so often a vid breaks a hundred views and that feels like it's happening slightly more often than it used to, which is cool. I appreciate I'm doing something niche-interest with YouTube, but I'm often surprised at how much worse the performance is for videos where I deliberately take on something I know is popular and well-known.

The trouble with trying to be part of a more competitive field, I guess; you make a choice between being one of the few people making videos about things that only specific people want to watch, or one of millions of people making videos about things that everyone wants to watch. To be honest, I'm mostly happy with the former; as I've said on numerous occasions, I do this for fun and always have done; the fact that more people seem to be actually enjoying what I'm doing just recently is a pleasant bonus.

On that note, it's been a slow crawl, but I reckon I'll probably hit a thousand subscribers on YouTube by the end of the year, assuming nothing disastrous happens and I don't have a Google Doc written on me by some teenager on Twitter keen to destroy my life and YouTube subscriber count. (I have no skeletons in my closet, don't worry; the most exciting thing about my past life is that time I… wait, ahhh, you almost had me there, didn't you?)

I'm in no hurry to monetise as a tiny channel — largely because the earnings won't really be worth bothering — but a thousand subscribers does seem like a nice milestone. I've had my YouTube account for over ten years at this point, but the majority of those nearly-a-thousand people have showed up since 2018, when I started doing stuff semi-regularly on the channel.

So yeah. Happy with things are, and this seems like a good opportunity to thank you all once again for your support of my passion projects online. It's always a pleasure to know these things are more than just vanity projects — at least some people out there are getting something out of them, too! And there's plenty more where that came from, so please continue to enjoy! 

Every so often when I'm sitting on the toilet, staring into space or otherwise trying to avoid existential despair, I find myself thinking of (inevitably stupid) business ideas that I think would be fun, but usually completely unworkable.

Today's random thought was some sort of sandwich bar, but one whose specialism was adding crisps to their sandwiches. I was inspired to think of this by… something I watched online recently (possibly a Mythical Kitchen episode?) in which I learned that it seemingly wasn't uncommon for certain parts of America to put crushed tortilla chips in their sandwiches. I've certainly experienced that after a fashion courtesy of Taco Bell and, of course, it works. Why wouldn't it?

My idea is something along the lines of Subway, where you have a sandwich bar with a selection of different predefined fillings, or the option for a custom. Rather than being subs, these are proper nice doorstep sandwiches with tasty bread, though, with plenty of filling. You'd get your sandwich done, have all your optional bits and pieces, and then, as the final step in the process, select one of a wide variety of crisp flavours to be put into your sandwich and crushed for that finishing touch.

And I don't mean just boring old Walkers default flavours; I'm envisioning some sort of Shakeaway-style wall filled with every variety of crisps you can think of. Want a ham and cheese sandwich complemented by KP Skips? Go right ahead. Tuna mayo with Flamin' Hot Monster Munch? Sure thing. Bacon, Brie and Wotsits? Absolutely. Chicken salad with Walkers Sensations roast chicken flavour? You're damn right.

If this wasn't enough of a gimmick, you could combine it with some sort of other feature to bring the punters in. Board gaming and crisp butty café! I'd go there. LAN Quake and crisp sandwiches! Oh god, imagine the cleanup.

Maybe this isn't such a good idea.

Made a start on Police Quest III: The Kindred this evening. So far I'm liking it… apart from the driving, which is somehow even more rubbish than in Police Quest, but I can live with it for the moment.

I greatly appreciate how this series has "escalated" with each new installment; while an early part of Police Quest III does see Sonny Bonds back on the traffic beat for a short period — they're always understaffed, you know — for the most part, each new game has significantly upped the stakes in terms of "seriousness".

I was surprised how invested I was when the major crime of the first part of Police Quest III — I'm being vague for the benefit of those interested in playing it — was perpetrated, and the impact it had on Sonny. I'm definitely interested to see where it goes — and, looking through the credits (or rather the in-game "personnel" file) I see that Jane Jensen had some involvement with this one. I can tell!

It's actually been quite some time since I played any Sierra games with any seriousness, so trying these games for the first time has been a real pleasure. It's encouraging me to check out some others I've never tried, too; I've got my eye on the two Laura Bow adventures after I'm done with Police Quest.

Anyway, for now I must tear myself away from old PC games and hit the hay. Didn't sleep all that well last night, so hoping I have a more restful night tonight — though with the heat the way it is right now, I'm not counting on it.

This month's Patreon shenanigans have gone through, so thank you once again for all your support (and welcome to the few new and returning Patrons from the last few days!); S-Rank Patrons, I'll get you a new wallpaper either towards the end of this week or at the start of next. I'm away this weekend, otherwise I'd take care of it then!

Anyway. G'night. Have a good evening!

I feel kind of… restless. I suspect it's mostly a result of having not left the house for about two weeks (although I did actually go out today for the first time since knackering my ankle). But still… it's a bit of a frustrating feeling, because it's that kind of restless that makes you feel anxious that you "should" be doing something, even when you know that you've 1) done everything that you need to have done and 2) don't actually have anything to do that is of such earth-shattering importance that you need to worry about it even a little bit.

Oh well. I at least got some recording done today; Retro Select next week will be fun, since I went for Westwood's classic RPG Lands of Lore and ended up playing it for an hour and three quarters because I was having such a good time. I'd forgotten quite how excellent that game was, and I'm tempted to play more off-camera — but I do have a lot of other things I want to be getting on with, too, so I should probably resist the temptation. For now, anyway.

I feel like I'm getting pleasingly close to the end of Atari A to Z Flashback, too. We're not yet on the last page of games, but the episode I recorded today was the last one of the middle column of the penultimate page. I think I've got one more two player-only game to inflict on my wife, then it should be a smooth ride to the finish, all being well. It's going to feel damn good when that project's complete — that and the Atelier MegaFeature are the biggest, longest-term major creative projects I've ever undertaken, and finishing one of them will feel amazing. Finishing both of them will feel even better!

I'll likely play some Police Quest III this week because the first two intrigued me sufficiently. I see mixed opinions on III: some people absolutely love it, others hate it. IV is pretty universally reviled, but I'm intrigued to try it anyway; it was a game of a few interesting "firsts" for gaming at the time, so it's of historical significance, if nothing else.

I'm keeping busy if nothing else. Got a nice weekend visiting the folks planned for next weekend, too, so that will be a nice opportunity for Andie and I to enjoy a bit of quiet time in the country. I doubt we'll do anything particularly out of the ordinary while we're there; sometimes it's just nice to relax somewhere other than your own house, you know?

Anyway. Work tomorrow so time to hit the hay. Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Started and finished Police Quest II: Vengeance this evening. This amuses me, because I vividly remember back in the day when Sierra adventures would take us weeks or even months to complete — in some cases we never even beat them at all!

On top of that, I remember vividly buying a copy of Full Throttle, playing it through with my brother over the course of a weekend and being a little peeved that we beat it in about a day and a half. For some reason, that game felt "shorter" than those classic Sierra games — even though practically speaking it wasn't; I think it was just easier.

Anyway, I'm not someone to whinge about game length — I actually quite like having short-form palate-cleansers now and then, particularly when I have other, substantial things on the go — so I'm not annoyed or anything, but I am glad I finally took the time to play through Police Quest II, which a lot of people seem to think is the best installment in the series.

I certainly enjoyed it a lot and I can see where that opinion comes from, but I'm undecided as yet. I enjoyed the expanded dialogue and narration of the Police Quest 1 VGA remake a great deal — though I understand even that is a bit divisive to some fans — and felt like Police Quest II was missing a certain amount of characterisation for Sonny in comparison, but such was the nature of games from that era; every little bit of text counted!

Obviously the VGA graphics of PQ1 Remake are "nicer", but I was actually impressed how well Police Quest II's EGA visuals hold up. Police Quest II was among the first of Sierra's games to use their newer SCI engine, so it has much less "chunky" visuals than early Sierra titles. And even with the radioactive skin tones of the EGA colour palette, Police Quest II still looks pretty good, with an impressive amount of detail packed into each scene, and some nice sprite animation.

Anyway, I have more to say, but I'll likely save it for a Retrounite post next week, since I wrote about PQ1VGA today. For now, I'm going to go sit in bed, watch VTubers and play Mega-Lo-Mania. Have a pleasant weekend!

Finished Police Quest this evening. Really enjoyed that! Can't believe I'd been too intimidated to play it for more than 30 years; the "police procedure" stuff wasn't as much of a big deal as I'd made it out to be in my mind. In fact, I suspect it was primarily in there as a means of copy protection, in the same way that King's Quest III required you to exhaustively type out steps in a recipe when casting spells.

As an adventure game, it was actually rather straightforward; rather than having obtuse "adventure game puzzles", everything made perfect sense, and if you do find yourself confused on procedure at any point, there are plenty of opportunities for the game to remind you of what you should do. Even when you encounter the typical Sierra frequent death scenes, they provide sufficient clues to help you avoid further mistakes; in many ways, it's actually one of the friendliest Sierra games I think I've ever played.

I was playing the VGA remake, by the way; I am curious to give the EGA version a go sometime and see if it has the same level of charm, wit and characterisation of the VGA version, but I suspect the parser-driven interface may make some of the procedural elements a little trickier. I understand the driving sequences in the EGA original kind of suck, too.

Anyway, I'm definitely going to explore the other games in the series. I remember reading a review of the Atari ST version of Police Quest II back in the day and thinking it looked thoroughly intriguing, so I'm looking forward to giving that a shot; I suspect it will be a bit of an adjustment to go back to a parser-driven interface, but it does at least make use of the later-era "nice" EGA graphics rather than the weird double-width pixels Sierra games used in the early days.

It's strange what happened to Police Quest in the long term. After three games with a coherent, ongoing narrative, the fourth game completely ditched everything it had built up in favour of a realistic LA setting — and from there it ceased to be an adventure game altogether, gradually turning into a strategy game and then a tactical shooter. Original series creative lead (and ex-cop) Jim Walls has supposedly attempted to create a "spiritual successor" on a few occasions, but we're yet to see this realised.

Anyway. I'm definitely intrigued by what I've played so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing if the fourth one feels like it has any connection whatsoever to the first three — I suspect not. For now, though, I definitely don't regret my time with the VGA remake of the first one!

After my frustrations over adventure game classification yesterday — which, as promised, culminated in a full article today — I decided to boot up on that it occurred to me I'd never actually tried before: Police Quest from Sierra.

To be perfectly honest, I'd always been a bit daunted by horror stories of this one: the need to follow strict police procedure, its unforgiving nature, its terrible driving sequences. But I noticed that the GOG.com version incorporated its VGA remake as well as the chunky EGA original; the newer version makes a significant amount of the game a lot more palatable, stripping out some of the more obnoxious elements and making it significantly more intuitive to play. Even the driving doesn't suck… as much.

Anyway, I'm now here wishing I'd given this one a go sooner, because I've always had a soft spot for police procedurals, investigative stories and thrillers, and Police Quest is packed with a whole lot more personality and humour than I'd been led to believe over the years. I guess this is just another example of a lesson I've re-learned many times in recent years: if something sounds interesting, then you may as well give it a go rather than relying on hearsay.

Anyway. I estimate I'm probably about halfway through Police Quest so far and have solved the majority of it by myself so far. I did check a walkthrough at one point just to see if I was missing something important, but other than that I have successfully seen Officer Sonny Bonds through a couple of shifts on the traffic beat, and he's now temporarily been reassigned to the Narcotics division to help chase down "The Death Angel".

Looking forward to seeing what comes next, but DOSBOX crashed not long after I saved (thankfully) and then I needed a poo, so I took that a sign I should probably leave it for tonight. I'm definitely into it, though, so I'll likely try and see it through over the next few days!

And yeah; if you've been putting off trying Police Quest for yourself for whatever, reason, give the VGA version a go. You'll be pleasantly surprised, I feel. Just don't forget to read 'em their Miranda rights.

Foot not doing too well today — I know you're all here for the feet content, that's what all the cool girls on the Internet seem to be doing these days anyway — but I'm hanging in there. It's getting a bit frustrating now; there's an annoying sort of "tight" feeling in it that makes it difficult to move, but as with the last time I went through an injury like this, popping regular Ibuprofens is helping a bit.

With that in mind, not a ton of exciting things to report right now, I'm afraid. Andie pointed out that I haven't left the house for over a week and I'm kind of fine with that. No point going outside if I can't walk up or down stairs without a lot of pain, after all; here's hoping I mend within the next week or so. I forget how long it took me to recover last time, but I was also 20 years younger, so… well, there's that.

I did finish the first "half" of Atelier Firis earlier, though, which is something! That means no more time limit for the rest of the game, which is exciting. It turns out that the time limit wasn't really an issue anyway — I had about 150 days to spare — but it's nice to feel that I  can now fully explore the game world, mechanics and quests with no pressure at all. Quite a good reward for proving myself in that first bit, I'd say — though I'm sure some would disagree.

I'm in the mood for a new (to me) point and click adventure, but am finding myself frustrated by how today's digital storefronts have no idea what "adventure game" means. I think there's a fun article in this, so I might post something along those lines over on Retrounite tomorrow.

For now I'm going to watch Hololive and play Lynx games in bed. Have a lovely evening!

Well, yes, today was a bank holiday and I got a few things done. Was hoping to record some more stuff to get ahead of schedule on things, but absolutely did not have the energy after the other stuff I decided to get done today, so I'll take care of all that another time.

Of particular note today is something some of you may find helpful: my How to Play Mega-Lo-Mania guide over on Retrounite. If you find this game a bit tricky to get your head round, take a look at this and you might find things a little bit clearer — it can be daunting at first but it's really not as scary as it seems!

I must actually spend some proper time with Mega-Lo-Mania, actually; I do love it as a game but inevitably spend all my time replaying the first couple of levels rather than actually making any progress! The fact that the Evercade version has the ability to save will make progressing a bit more practical than relying on passwords.

Tomorrow it's pack to the usual grindstone. Retrounite will have a feature on 10 of the best retro combat flight sims, so please look forward to that, and Rice… I'm not sure yet. We take things a day at a time! Probably time we looked at another Chilla's Art game, especially now Tormented Souls is out; people should be in the mood for some more horror!

Anyway, I'm off to pop some painkillers and hit the sack. Hope you all had a good weekend (long or otherwise) and that Monday was bearable if you had to do the work thing.