More VMU than anyone would ever need, with a price to match. stoneagegamer.com/vmu-pro-hand...

Whatever can be said about Sega's fall in the late 1990s, they were putting some really, REALLY damn good music in their games. Virtua Fighter 2 is just one banger after the other. And Daytona? The gooiest, warmest cheese. I'm gonna need some Dayto-nachos for this.

Jonathan Mangum (the sidekick on Let's Make a Deal) did get back to me on Lucky Stars after I sent him an email, which was cool. A national star like him can find the time to acknowledge my work, but apparently that's beneath some YouTube channels.

Did you know Paula Abdul was Jewish? Seriously, look it up!

Does YouTube throttle you if you're running ad blockers? Because I just moved to a new PC, and while YouTube performance was crisp at the time, it started to slog a week later.

Funny... I have Skullmonkeys, but I don't remember fighting Kash Patel in it.

The first thing I thought of when I saw the thumbnail for @johnriggs.bsky.social 's latest video.

$55 for 12 gallons of gas. And I didn't even get the stupid thing filled! Augh!

Is Rudy Giuliani dead yet? How about now? ...Now?

retrovania-vgjunk.blogspot.com/2018/11/alle... This is @vgjunk.bsky.social at the peak of his powers. Truly, the last great retro video game blog.

Anyway, the VCS dropped down to 160 degrees F on load... and by load I mean running GameCube games. That's 71C, which isn't spectacular but isn't terrible, either.

There seems to be a solution to my VCS overheating woes. I had RAM overclocking turned on, which got things nice and toasty. It's not really RAM *over*clocking, so much... the RAM is rated as 3200! It should be able to run it at the rated speed, but evidently not!

I don't know if it's literally a Yes song, but The Order of the Universe is as good as most songs by Yes proper.

Guess that'll be my next game... Operation Licks His Balls and Fetches a Stick for You.

I mean, I'm not the world's greatest artist, but you could pick up on the context clues to figure out he's a bear. You know, like the title Operation Hibernation. Not Operation Licks His Balls and Fetches a Stick for You.

Byron J. Lennox. The stout, short-eared, stubby-tailed, hibernating DOG. Yes, that makes perfect sense, wink wink give middle finger.

Thoughts on the MSXdev 25 contest. I'm not mad that I didn't win. Slightly annoyed that a lot of other games got the shaft because they were running on last-gen hardware, though. kiblitzing.blogspot.com/2026/05/as-x...

My car died, again. Stupid thing ran out of gas. How did you run out of gas, car? I've been keeping tabs with the trip meter!

"Don't let 'em go! Just give 'em a testicle!"

Fuck touching grass. At this point, I wish Americans would touch monolith.

Nobody's going to accuse Traysia of being the best RPG, even on the Sega Genesis where such offerings are relatively slim. But hey, it's five dollars, and now I have legal claim to it neener neener neener.

Did you know Sega Genesis obscurity Traysia is on the Xbox now? Because I sure didn't. Oh well, downloading!

Would anyone really be surprised if Jerry Seinfeld went down in a sex scandal, the way NBC's other cash cow comedian Bill Cosby did? Pride comes before a fall, and he's one prideful mofo.

I don't find the MSXdev contest to be all that great for promotion either, although honestly, I don't know what would draw attention to these games. Nothing I've tried works!

MSXDev judges: "Oh, your game for the MSX1 couldn't compete with entries for the more powerful MSX2? Well, I guess it just wasn't fun enough."

Commodore: "Behold, the 16-bit, thirty-two color mid-1980s majesty of the Amiga! Sinclair, what have you got?" (Sinclair responds with a loud, juicy fart)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-sS... In hell's arcade, there are only Sinclair QL games to play.

Not sure I'm down with Friends of Mr. Cairo. I give Jon Anderson a lot of room, but this tribute to film noir is thick, sweet, and gooey, like so much nostalgic treacle.

Well, I replaced the thermal pad in the VCS with thermal paste, but I'm getting really big temps on this machine. 200F now? That's approaching the danger zone of 100C! What the heck is going on here? Is the heat sink not screwed in tightly enough? There's plenty of paste (not too much!).

Hit about 160 degrees F after playing Bloody Roar for GameCube. The fan inside is definitely spinning, I can totally hear it, but when even the case starts getting warm, you get concerned.

But yeah, the VCS functions once again. I need to put it under load to make sure everything is hunky dory, though.

The CPU is running at 114F, which is what, 50 or 60C?

Okay, the VCS has been put back together. It took a really, REALLY long time to load up Recalbox, though. Should this concern me?

New fan's installed (with slight but worrying strain on the connector, eek) and the wi-fi card has been reseated. The stickers have been moved, because really, did they NEED to be stuck on the top of the case? They pull out from the card so easily there.

Hey, Amazon. Maybe you don't want to put delicate computer parts in the same uneven box as THREE 12-PACKS OF COKE.

I don't know if I rented Cybernoid or played it in the back room of a makeshift arcade, but either way, I'm pretty sure my reaction to it was this: "Fuck you, game!" How is this torture test enjoyable to anyone in the universe?

The suggestion that Exo-Tic-Al is more fun than Operation Hibernation, or indeed anything short of dental surgery, is borderline offensive. I guess you have to be weaned on that UK Spectrum ultra-difficulty to get much out of Cybernoids. I am with Parish 100% on these games! They're a scourge!

"I’d place this game (Operation Hibernation), in terms of proposal, fun, and execution, alongside titles from the golden age, like BurgerTime, Donkey Kong, Mappy, and Monkey Academy." Hell yes! Now there's a quote I can put on the back of a box.

Chrono Runner got a high rating, as well it should. Very strong game. Does the whole Matrix, time reversal thing pretty well, but you have to adjust to the game's vibe first. This would be supreme on ColecoVision. It'd be a lot better on Master System, with added detail to the robots.

The Japanese judge seems to like Eye Brawls more than Operation Hibernation. Eh, whatever floats your boat. He did point out that OH has issues with the ladders, and fair enough... there were originally plans to let Byron jump from one vine to the other, but that never came to pass.

Em, well I did beat the Space Invaders remake. That surprises me; the designer went to great lengths to reproduce that famous overlay with the big 'ol moon on the bottom of the screen. I don't know if the enemies were slightly transparent or glowy, but that would have been cool.

"I like the dog character."

But yeah, long story short: some very good games (and Exo-Ti-Cal) got high marks, while I again languish in the middle. Really, even Exo-Ti-Cal beat me!? Cybernoid-style games suck balls. I'd rather tongue wrestle with a weed whacker than play a Cybernoid.

The game that ultimately won was Neon Horizon, a pseudo-3D racer in the OutRun/Hang On vein that not only looked tremendous, but was supposed to be a lot of fun to play as well. Congratulations to the winner. (bites lip 'till it bleeds trying to be gracious)

Among the games that creamed mine was Boobie Ninja (totally deserved; I knew I was dead meat the moment I played it), DELTA (the racing game with "how the hell did they do that" polygonal effects), and consummately annoying to play Exo-Ti-Cal. Why Europeans love these is anyone's guess.

Mathematically, the two games did better than Whack 'Em Smack 'Em Byrons last year, which ALSO got 16th place, but in a pool of 31 entries. Maintaining that place with a greatly expanded pool of entries is... something resembling a step up?

The results are in for MSXdev, and as predicted, I got totally shellacked. Operation Hibernation got 16th place, Eye Brawls got 17th place, and Solar Fox 2, the only game that seemed to draw any heat out of this audience, was swiftly disqualified.

I have had no luck whatsoever making my Game Station Pro recognize any controllers. Some buttons work? The joysticks almost never do. Do I need to update the firmware on this crazy thing?

Carl-nov, take two!