Anyone familior with my YouTube account knows more or less what to expect here.

Recently I've piqued the idea of doing a live-stream of me gaming. Playing old games on my laptop while doing commentary live. I'm just wondering what you folks would think of the idea?

Well now that I'm more or less finished my backups from the crash last month, I've been working to turn my laptop in a retro-gaming power-house.

Hardly satisified with the typical NES/SNES/Geneis etc emulators, I'm also digging into my 486 gaming history with DosBox. While this isn't the first time I've been running the program, I've taken the insanity a step further and installed Windows 3.1 on it as well. However, I've run into two hickups that I wouldn't mind help with...

1 - Mouse doesn't work; While with everything else I've run in DosBox has worked with the mouse no problem, it seems Win3.1 ignores all mouse input, dispite seeming to recognize it (as a Logitech). While I can do some navigation via keyboard, not being able to use the mouse kind of defeats the purpose.

2 - No sound; I figure this is just a matter of finding the right drivers and using them within DosBox, but can anyone help me figure out how to get Win3.1 to recognize proper sound output?

EDIT; Alright, after a little bit of setting tomfollery I managed to solve both of my problems. Now it's Windows 3.1 as I remember it down to the classic sound sets (it's just not Win3.1 without the classic 'tada.wav' start up). I've also tested a few games and they work like a charm. I'll probably spend the week installing more classic games, there upon backing it all onto DVD so I don't need to do all this over again.

So, a means of discussion, what were some of your favorite DOS/Windows games of old? I'm currently planning on doing another playthrough of God of Thunder, Stunts, and Castle of the Winds myself.

Updating the journal again. Wow, this makes like, what, 9 times this year? Anyway, I want to talk about some relivant game topics of late.

First of all, I was quite excited to hear the long-rumored sequel to Rocket Knight Adventures announced. While I would have prefered it to take closer root to the 'ReBirth' games in WiiWare of late (classic 2D graphics and focus), I'm acctually feeling a little more encouraged based on what I've read so far. Regardless Sparkster is a character long overdue for a revival and I'm pretty happy that of all things they ARN'T making some brooding, dark anti-hero (he's just racist is all ).

Speaking of ReBirth, I understand Konami is continuing the theme with an upcoming Castlevania ReBirth. I wouldn't mind seeing another game in the classic style again acctually. Not that I have anything against the Metroid-vania path the series went after SotN, but Contra and Gradius ReBirth hasn't QUITE managed to make me tear out my hair in frustration yet (in a good way, mind you). Another download I'm looking forward to (aside from Cave Story... seriously WHEN is that comming out again?)

As an additional note, I was thinking of shaking things up on my YouTube account (dispite the fact my recording computer is still dead). My library of NES games is getting quite sizable (almost 400 last I counted). I though I might put up a list and start taking requests. I'll play any game from my collection, and depending on the game selected I might record a playthrough be it standard or with special conditions (play with the Game Genie using difficulty-enhancing codes for example), or at least showing more pivital scenes from any longer ones (say perhaps an attempt to beat Necrosaro in Dragon Warrior 4, or seeing how far I can get without the sword in Zelda). What would you guys think of this idea?

Art wise, I've still just been practicing with my tablet. If anyone is up to a trade, catch me on AIM/MSN and perhaps we could do a quick sketch together.

That's all for now

Hmm, I admit while I've been using this journal a little more often than before, I don't so much care for talking about my personal self, or life for that matter. Maybe I'll use it to foist my opinion on others about media I've been consuming of late.

I recently finished watching an anime called 'Ghost Stories', probably the first series I watched through since Bomberman Jetters several years ago. I more or less divorced myself from the scene after watching an episode of the painfully formulamatic Bobobo...bo...bobobo..bo (is that enough 'bo's?). That being said, it would've taken something unique to get me to watch a new series.

The premise of Ghost Stories was such a concept.

Ghost Stories is an anime about kids who find a book detailing how to trap various ghosts that were released durring reconstruction and urbanization in the local area. They go on multiple adventures with the only consistant 'villian' being a demon who is trapped in the body of the family cat, but acts little more than a very reluctant guide and spares no chance to tell them he waits for their death with eagerness.

By itself, the show it trite, formulamatic, and holds nothing special that hasn't been done in several anime before it. What DOES make this anime different is the dubbing done by Funimation. As the story goes when the studio picked up the series for western release they were told they had free reign to do what they wished as long as certain key story points were kept intact (how the kids defeated the ghosts, and so on).

In turn the entire show is played very much tounge-in-cheek. Most characters are aware of the fact they're in a show that rips off common Japanese-Horror films (in one episode they wonder how many times they've already ripped of 'The Ringu', and very little is sacred including...

-Several references that the main character's dead mother, while being a spiritual demon hunter, was also a lesbian
-The token 'sychic girl' character is now a pentacostal who thinks most everything that happens in the show is an act of God's will, and often reminds the others how they will be going to hell if they don't repent.
-The main character's younger brother suffers from dyslexia, is easily manipulated, and when flustered or upset (which is a good 90% of the time) his speach decends to loud babbling
-The show now takes place in America, but all the Japanese text is still left in the show, often confusing the main cast

This is just the short list of the changes made to the show, and I think a rather hilarious afront to the 'Dubs ruin the original intention of the language' crowd. For the bounderies they push though I will admit they cross the line of good-taste, perhaps a little more often than what you would see on Adult Swim. There were a few jokes I did feel uncomfortable laughing at but I still did laugh none-the-less. If nothing else it has some of the more memorable quotes I'd heard from a show in some time.

"Shirotabe, my freinds over there think you're a rabid serial-killer. And in the movies, this would be the part where I foolishly trust you not to kill me, and stick my hand in the cage."
"'Come bring me back to life' he says, 'I'll be good, I promise' he says, 'I'm not gunna turn into a big, red-eyed, flesh eating monster rabbit' HE SAYS!!"
"Stupid sentimental flash-back time is over now you bunny loving bitch, if you don't throw that thing I'm tossing YOU with it!"

And this was all from one episode.

In closing, a different kind of anime, mostly for the cynics and those who enjoy dark humor.

Meh, not a very good reveiw. I'll try better next week. As an aside, can someone tell me how to turn of Emocons? I'm getting rather irritated with random smily-faces sullying my text.

An update about the Tablet issues from before. It seemed to be a common problem regarding Vista, however recently installing Service Pack 2 seemed to solve the problem, as you can see from the recent influx of new art. So everything is status-quo.

So let's talk about games for the sake of putting up a new Journal

First of all, I've recently found a flash game called 'andemic 2', which can be found here [link] . You play as a virus with the simple goal of wiping out all of man-kind. It's fairly simple, but I find it intreging if not for the darker theme than also for the shift in a gaming paradigm. At least you don't see unique angles like this very often.

I've also recently re-arranged my living room. Where previously a bulk of my systems were put away in dressers, the new set-up allows me to have them all out on display and even able to hook up with minimal fuss (No more than plugging in the power cable and changing a switch-box or two). Unfortunatly, I'll need a super-long HDMI cable to hook up my computer to my TV again, but it wasn't something I used very often anyway.

Being so, I've been able to play a lot of the systems I havn't put time into before, most notibly my Saturn systems. This brings me to the point that I wouldn't mind having more games for the system. Two I'm looking for are Sonic Jam and Fighters Mega Mix (the later of which I do have in Japanese, but I wouldn't mind having an english version of). Are there any other games worth getting for the system that you people might want to recommend?

While I'm at it for that matter, would any know some good online retailers for classic games? PnPGames has been a significant boon to my collection, but even their selection can be limiting.

I think that should be all for now