I was right not to stay up and try to finish Mana Khemia last night — there was a good five or six hours more to go! I managed to bang it out this evening and finish the narrative writeup though, so that game is done and dusted a little earlier than I thought.

Next up is Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy, which is one of the few games in this series that didn't get a European release. Instead, I was fortunate enough to be able to grab a copy for $40 CAD about ten years ago upon a visit to Canada to see some friends who I haven't spoken to for about five years. Fortuitously, prior to this incidence of drifting apart, I had "borrowed" their NTSC PS2 specifically in order to play Mana Khemia 2.

At the time, I was getting big into the Ar Tonelico series, and picked up Mana Khemia 2 on the recommendation of the person who got me into Ar Tonelico. (A different person to the aforementioned friends.) I didn't know anything about the Atelier series then, and indeed my copy of Mana Khemia 2 has been shrink-wrapped since I picked it up all that time ago, because I'd been saving it until I beat the previous Mana Khemia. (And, as it turns out, the Atelier Iris series.)

Until tonight, in fact, because I just wanted to make sure that NTSC PS2 I "borrowed" about ten years ago (and which the original owners are probably not getting back now) worked properly, along with the aforementioned copy of Mana Khemia 2.

It does. I had a momentary scare when everything was coming out green through the RGB SCART cable I've been using that was supposed to be compatible with NTSC systems, but a quick dip into the system settings and changing the output from Y/Pb/Pr to RGB fixed the issue nicely. So Mana Khemia 2 will be getting underway shortly — looking forward to it! I'll record and archive my playthrough on the YouTube channel again so if you want to see what it's all about, you can — since I'm recording for the purposes of taking screenshots anyway, I might as well share the videos! Plus I believe Mana Khemia 2 can be a bit pricey these days — if you can't afford to add it to your own collection, you can at least experience some of it vicariously!

First up, though, I've got to bash out The Coma 2 for Nintendo Life this weekend, plus record my usual weekly videos. I'm keeping busy, for sure — and I wouldn't have it any other way. The work I do for MoeGamer and YouTube really does help keep me sane during even my bleakest hours, so once again, a sincere thank you for supporting anything I do — it really means a lot.

Been absolutely exhausted today, so while it is tempting to stay up until the wee hours trying to finish Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis, I think I'm going to hit the hay and hopefully feel a bit more refreshed tomorrow. That does mean that the next part of the Atelier MegaFeature, focusing on Mana Khemia's narrative, likely won't be tomorrow, but it should be out by Monday at the latest.

I've got another Nintendo Life assignment coming up too: Korean horror game The Coma 2. I have the first one on my shelf and, to my shame, haven't gotten around to it as yet, but according to the developers the second one stands completely by itself with just some "nods" to the original for those who enjoyed it. It's also apparently only about 8 hours long, so I'm hoping I can bang it out over the weekend and get the review squared away. Please look forward to it!

I'm in retro heaven right now between the Evercade and the PC Engine Mini, so expect a lot more of that stuff in the meantime because a lot of it is easy to get a feel for and be able to put together some interesting articles fairly quickly. And there's a hell of a lot of games between those two systems to cover!

Exciting times. But for now, hopefully non-exciting sleep. Good night!

Pour one out, if you please, for Peashy mk. 2, who served me well for a very long time indeed, both through her first incarnation and her subsequent motherboard, processor and graphics card upgrades. Yesterday's "incident" led to the decision that some major surgery was required: not only did the power supply need replacing, but I was long overdue a new case, too.

Pay your last respects to the old Peashy, if you please:

If you're wondering, the 1up.com and "gaming" stickers on the side came from a long-defunct social media service called GetGlue, which sprang up around the time of the mobile social apps boom. I used to rather enjoy GetGlue, because it provided a fun means of following and talking about topics — plus their big gimmick was that if you acquired enough "badges" (I forget exactly how — as I recall it was somewhat akin to "Foursquare for entertainment" in that you "checked in" to things) they would send you some physical stickers.

The Green Heart, meanwhile, came from Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online.

And here's Peashy's new look — a sleek black monster in a Corsair case with a power button that works (the primary reason I thought it was probably time to get a new case) and a power supply that doesn't blow the fuse of any plug you put into it. Thankfully there doesn't appear to have been any damage to actual system components, which is a relief; everything got back up and running very quickly.

If you're wondering how we rescued her so quickly, we're fortunate enough to have a decent PC parts supplier about 15 miles from us, and they're open for click and collect orders. I ordered last night, got a notification this morning and picked up the parts this lunchtime, then Andie put it together while I had some lunch. She was very impressed with how easy the Corsair case made the build process — absolutely nothing went wrong at all, which as those who have built PCs in the past will tell you, is a rarity to be treasured!

Anyway, it's an expense I would rather not have had to… expend upon, but it's done now, and that should hopefully keep the ol' girl up and running for some time to come yet!

My computer gave up the ghost this evening. We had some sort of power surge, and it appears to have fried my power supply — thankfully, it seems to just be the power supply and nothing else, but we had a lot of "fun" trying to diagnose the issue and blowing the fuses in every kettle lead we had in the process.

I can't imagine a life without computers, but dear God if I don't fucking hate what we now know as "the PC" sometimes. I think back to the good old days of the dear Atari 8-bit and ST, and they either worked or they didn't. (Well, okay, the ST's myriad compatibility issues depending on what day of the week it was were a bit silly, but you could learn to live with them.)

In my experience though? PCs break for seemingly no reason. One morning you'll try and turn it on and it just goes "nah". In the last couple of years I've had my computer forget it had a hard drive, forget it had an operating system, refuse to display things properly and, as we stand now, refuse to turn on altogether. It's immensely frustrating, because you don't realise how much of your life sits on those little no-longer-beige boxes until you're suddenly confronted with the possibility that you might not be able to access their contents any more. PC Master Race my arse.

With any luck, it is just the power supply and not a fried motherboard or any other components. The various tests Andie and I ran this evening would appear to suggest that is the case, but we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully I'll be able to collect some components from our local(ish) computer emporium tomorrow and give them a go, and all being well that should get Peashy mk. 2 up and running again. It's not as if I'm spending a lot of money right now what with not going out or driving to work, but it's still £100 I could have done without having to spend!

Oh well. It is what it is.

Thankfully, I got everything I wanted to achieve out of the way before this happened tonight! "Normal service" may be disrupted for a day or two, however, so please understand if… things are a bit more sporadic than usual! 🙂

Anyway, as irritated as I am right now, there's nothing else I can do at the moment, so I guess there's nothing for it but to sit in bed and play retro games. Oh no!

I think I might take another short break from… probably social media in general for the most part, aside from private messages.

I saw a message from Matt Papa at Inti Creates earlier that resonated somewhat with me. He was talking about how he had gone cold turkey on Twitter in an attempt to improve his mental health, and in an attempt to reintegrate it into his life, he had felt himself just starting the old routine of endlessly scrolling, refreshing, all that sort of thing, over and over again… and I know that this is something I do.

Right now, this is not a healthy thing to be doing when you're already feeling a bit bleak and depressed, because there is no escape from the bleakness out there. There are better, more fun ways to be spending one's time — and with everything as it is right now, the bleakness is stifling a lot of real conversations that people might want to have that are nothing to do with The Current Troubles.

It's not that people are actively "silencing" others — it's more a noticeable feeling that a lot of people just don't want to talk in public right now. And I get it. I completely understand. But all that leaves is a mire of misery that you can wallow in… or that you can turn your back on, walk away from and have a more pleasant few days.

With that in mind, I won't be actively checking "public" social media for the next few days because I just need to tune out for a bit. You can still send me a DM private message or leave a comment on MoeGamer, YouTube or anywhere else you happen to see me — and of course I'll still be posting on MoeGamer and YouTube in the meantime — but I'm otherwise going "dark" for a bit. Much needed.

I've honestly not had a ton of time to spend with my new Evercade as yet, but the little time I have spent with it has been oddly reminding me of when I used to play my Atari Lynx as a kid. This is a compliment, by the way — and entirely appropriate, considering that two cartridges' worth of Lynx games are on the way for the system.

I think it's something to do with the combination of the games that are on the system and their overall aesthetic and feel… and perhaps a touch of the actual physicality of the device, too. The Evercade is a nice-looking system with some of the loveliest physical controls I've had the pleasure of using for a while — the D-pad in particular is beautiful — but it's also a £50 handheld made in China, meaning it also has a few little idiosyncrasies that give it a certain amount of character… just like the dear old Lynx.

Thankfully, the screen is better than the Lynx — LCD technology has come a long way — but the overall "feeling" the system gives me is similar. It's a system I pick up when I'm in the distinct mood for a particular type of experience. While there are alternative avenues to play most of the stuff I have for Evercade — primarily through emulation — there's something… very distinct about playing it on that handheld. And I like it a lot.

Expect plenty of Evercade games coverage in the coming weeks, because this system is going to be keeping me company when the day job bores me!

Chris and I recorded a great podcast today — one where we both had a lot to say and felt passionately about the subject matter.

The main topic of the show is, as always, the primary attraction, in which we talk about the games on the PC Engine Mini and its local variants, but we also have a good conversation about Phantasy Star Online 2, 51 Worldwide Games and a lot of other things besides. It was just what I needed for a bit of distraction from the endless bleakness out in the world, so thanks Chris, once again, for not only being a great podcasting partner, but a great friend too.

I spent a lot of this afternoon recording some footage of the games we talked about — including some from the PC Engine Mini that I hadn't tried yet. I'm very taken with the Bonk/PC Genjin games, as bizarre as they are, and of course that system is absolutely rammed to bursting point with incredible shoot 'em ups. Not all of which are monstrously difficult, even; I got a long way through Star Parodier while recording footage without needing a single continue.

The PC Engine Mini is easily my favourite of all the mini consoles that have come out to date. While there's some great stuff on the Nintendo Classic systems and the mini Mega Drive also has some great titles — including a few that haven't been seen for a long time, like Alisia Dragoon — the PC Engine Mini is just rammed with such joyful Japanese exuberance that I can't help but smile ever time I just boot the damn thing up and hear that jolly menu music.

If you've been on the fence about these mini consoles, this one, more than any other, is a solid investment — especially if, like me, you don't know the PC Engine as a platform all that well.

2020 has been, as many people have commented already, absolute shit. For so many reasons. I've been doing my best to shake off any unpleasant, negative feelings for the most part — as I've previously talked about, the whole "lockdown" thing initially was absolutely fine with me, as I'm more than happy to do my thing independently — but as time goes on, it seems that things are just getting worse and worse, not better.

The chaos surrounding the race relations situation in America has been bleeding over into this country quite significantly. Public places are being defaced, things are being destroyed, creative works are being removed from public circulation… it's all starting to get a bit scary, to be perfectly honest. As I saw one person on Twitter say the other day, "that's the point", and I sort of get that… but for someone who has always done his best to keep his head down, get on with things, be a generally decent sort of person to anyone he comes into contact with and, you know, not be a racist… I don't really know how to react.

I honestly don't know what the end outcome of everything happening right now is going to be, and in some ways I feel like I don't want to know. There are already some things happening that are setting dangerous precedents, and I don't know if the people who are fighting for what is an inherently just cause realise what some of the long-term, unintentional side effects of the current situation are going to be.

I guess all we can do is wait and see, really. With each passing day it feels like it's getting harder to remember what a "normal" life was like. And I don't like it.

Thank heavens for video games, I guess.

I'm left strangely underwhelmed by all the PS5 stuff so far. With every new supposed "innovation" in gaming tech I find myself drifting further and further away from the mainstream — not from gaming itself, because there are still people out there making things that people like me enjoy, but from the supposedly "exciting" part.

I mean, consider the things I'm most excited about right now. My new PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini. My Evercade. The fact that I'm playing through a series of RPGs and massively enjoying the installments that came out in the mid-2000s. Has modern gaming completely left me behind?

Well, no, because there's still a ton of stuff that I enjoy. It's just not the stuff that gets big online streaming reveals to millions of people. And that's why it's important to talk about, to celebrate, to explore in detail. Because while you can bet every big site will have fifty clickbait "How to [x] in Spider-Man: Miles Morales" guide articles on their front page the moment that game launches, who's going to be writing about… well, I don't know, because nothing from the more "niche interest" end of the spectrum has been announced or confirmed for PS5 as yet!

Anyway, this isn't to get down on people who enjoyed the PS5 reveal or who are excited for what it showed off. I just find it interesting how much my tastes and priorities have changed over the years. While I once would have been there on the virtual front row for a new console reveal, oohing and aahing with the best of them… today I find myself much more enamoured with the older systems, the less powerful platforms and the lower-budget end of the market — because for my tastes, anyway, that's where all the truly interesting stuff is going on.

I'm having a great time with 51 Worldwide Games, and I haven't even jumped online to compete against other people yet. The package is a lot of fun just for single-player competition against the computer — which, it turns out, is a great way to learn these games and start to figure out some good strategies — and also for local multiplayer, either on a single TV or with multiple Switches.

Since it seems that a fair few people have actually picked this up and are enjoying it, I've been wondering if there was any sort of semi-organised multiplayer community appearing for it. I haven't seen any sign of one as yet, so I'm trying to think of the best way to get one up and running.

At present I'm thinking a Discord would be the obvious choice, with channels for each of the games so people could discuss how to play, strategies and best ways to learn, plus at least one "looking for players" channel where people can hook up and get some online matches going.

I'd set it up myself right now, but I'm not sure 1) if anyone would join and 2) if I want the responsibility of managing a community. That said, I'd say the average breed of person who is playing 51 Worldwide Games is probably a world apart from trashtalking battle royale fans… probably, anyway.

I dunno. I'll mull it over. In the meantime, if you're reading this and are interested in competing on a smaller scale, let me know and we'll see if we can organise something!