Why does Family Feud SNES rule? May I present Exhibit A:

“What’s an encyclopedia?” “What’s a typewriter?” “What are footnotes?” I’m not at all the type to say that kids today should suffer like I did in my school days in *most* situations, but this is an exception. Typewritten or legibly written. No computer-aided research— use a real library. DRAFTS.

Anyone else’s brain run so non-stop and hot that they need 1-2 fans on them to stay cool year-round? One of the reasons I don’t fear death is that it will literally be the first time in decades that my brain will finally stop processing and parsing information. It will bring relief.

If we’re subbing N64 controllers in for steering wheels, we’re hosed.

Just got back to the room for the last night of vacation. Check out by 1100, then the 2.5 hour return trip home. Proud of myself for not just sitting in the room the whole time as I did a few years ago. I don’t think I “recharged my batteries” as much as I kinda pressed the Pause button on life.

Translated for realism: “We thought we could get away with it this time, but even our influencers complained… so you win for now. We’ll try something else to regain access to your wallets next season.”

The @jeffgerstmann.com alarm has been sounded. More Lukes for the cause.

I pray that my fellow social media rabble will allow me the kindness of sharing the sun-yellow treat known as… mustard.

Top Skater was my introduction to Pennywise (the band, not the clown).

There’s some really, really desperate people out there who are thinking that government intervention is going to somehow preserve physical media or figure out some set of “digital rights”. Governments are USELESS. Paid off by corporations. Easily swayed by political lobbies. Please learn this.

Tekken (1995) was my first.

Today is the last of my vacation days. I head home tomorrow and then it’s back to the office Monday— where a ton of projects await. Yesterday was really the highlight of the trip. I’m pretty beat after that, which is such an old man problem.

The last bastion against the enshittification of websites and applications are the ones you make yourselves. Everything else you like online has a significant likelihood of being sold and enshittified by the new owner(s).

This is one of those times I don’t miss my karaoke job as much as usual. I know I’d be getting *multiple* request slips for this song— and, yeah, it will humble you (and piss off the crowd) if you don’t have the chops. The passing of any notable singer always carries over to karaoke shows.

It doesn’t really do anything in the grand scheme of things, but voting with your wallet is still the only real power you have as a consumer. You’d have to get about 10-15 million friends to all do the same thing— and completely stop buying any new PS4/PS5 game— to make Sony take notice, though.

Going on the attack against industry analysts, as the Pro-Physical Media crowd has been doing is such a bad look. The thing with social media outrage is that it’s never controlled or contained and often leads to what was a worthy cause being not-so-worthy in the end.

Seeing a lot of misinformation, guesswork, and misinterpreting of stats in order to attack gaming analysts just doing their job re: physical games. Physical games are my life, and I want better preservation/ownership rights for games - we can only achieve things by facing facts.

“Saturn is kicking serious butt!”

It’s okay to like bad movies, but pretending they’re not bad to justify you liking them isn’t it. I enjoy Twister. The Wizard is my favorite movie of all time. Both are awful movies, critically. And that’s okay.

Social media users proclaiming that negative Sony stock trends have everything to do with the company’s recent announcement about moving away from physical really makes them look stupid, desperate for validation, or both. There’s other stuff at play, including a(nother) collapsed ceasefire.

While I absolutely enjoyed myself today, the FunSpot visit also hit me in ways I didn’t expect. The first of these was a very sudden aging. It had been 10 years since my last visit— and 25 years since the last big Twin Galaxies event (where I set the Mania Challenge record). Time stops for no one.

It was nice visiting the American Classic Arcade Museum today. The ambience alone was comforting— the sounds of so many attract screens and players playing mixing with the music playing. I didn’t shoot much video as there were other people there and recording others (even incidentally) isn’t cool.

Sitting out here looking like Conker without the tail.

I’m here at FunSpot. I’m having a good time— but this place is also kind of reminding me of how much of a relic I am. There’s only so much restoration Gary and the crew here can do. As these machines have aged, more and more break down and are difficult (if not impossible) to fix.

Vacation breakfast.

“EA has its fingers in our wallets! Get your fingers out of our ass wallets!”

My uncultured ass just read this as “Goo”.

I would do the “honestly rate yourself” thing, but integers aren’t part of the rating formula.

Wii wasn’t always about playing video games. Checking the latest weather and news, then taking part in polls with other Wii users was part of the fun for me.

Video game consumers are well-known to cave to industry demands. They talk a big game— boycott this and social-shame that— but the biz knows it’s all bluster and posturing. And, again: Socials aren’t real life for most users. It’s places to shitpost and act all tough. Reality is much different.

Launching a new website about video games today. Meet @respec.net. A sibling to @rpgsite.net, a spiritual successor to VG247, & a brother from another mother to other 100% independent UK media brands like @videogameschronicle.com and @trueachievements.com. www.respec.net/feature/87-w...

Heat & humidity have become my mortal enemies in my advanced age. I used to despise winter more, but I think that was because of snow removal (which I no longer do). Now, 75°F is my comfort max. Anything higher than that, my misery level increases. Like now.

I have this version of South Park in my library, but haven’t played it. I have the better N64 version, which is also how I first played the game at all back in late 1998.

The “Indie vs. AAA War” waged online has always been fought by the dumbest of soldiers. You’d like to think that Team Indie would’ve been the smarter side— or, at least, that’s the image they wanted (but failed) to portray. You can prefer one over the other, but no AAA would be industry-fatal.

It’s not too bad, either!

I have two of these, both manufactured in the late 1990s (~30 years ago). Both still work well. I’ve got multiple video game consoles manufactured before these TVs that also work well. Conversely: I’ve had multiple newer video game consoles (3x PS2, 2x X360) and TVs (2x Samsung) fail within 5yrs.

Bart Simpson v. Flowbee FIGHT!

First day of vacation in the books. Made it to 10pm— go me. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. For now? Getting used to the bed.

I know it’s not always maliciously intended, but it’s worth understanding *who the user is* whose thread you’re commenting on. Telling a video game industry professional that “video games are expensive to make” is, ummm… well… THEY KNOW. It’s their *job* (not to mention field experience).

IT’S IN THE HOLE THAT’S HUGE!

This is (incorrectly) the first thing I thought of.

In these darkest times of modern video gaming… there is one who might turneth that frown upside down. One… from the long ago year of 2007. Dost ye recall the House of PS Triple? Behold, downtrodden video game fans. Behold in wonderment.