The migration of posts from my old Wordpress blog continues in earnest. Currently at the stage where I'm making all the fixes and edits that automation can't do, but I had to stop because I'm starting to feel a headache coming on.

QRP, video game hotlines are something I sadly missed out on completely... but then again, even if the phone bill hadn't been an issue, I don't know if I'd have been able to overcome my social anxiety long enough to call one.

People think the Sega Hotline was just kids stuck on bosses. In reality? A huge demographic was bored housewives. ​They’d call while the kids were at school to "help their son," then stay on for 20 mins to perfect their own runs. ​Did you ever call a video game hotline?

Spent some time working on a script that takes a Wordpress blog export and converts the data to a format my blog can work with. I've still got a bunch of kinks to iron out, but the overall proof-of-concept is there.

Made some more progress with the character bios today. I'll try to do the rest next Tuesday or so, but definitely no later than Sunday. This whole "get at least something done every Sunday" resolution is working out pretty well for me so far.

Part of me is wondering if I should rename my "Full Playthroughs" compilation on YouTube to something else, since it kinda precludes games I'd want to show off that loop endlessly. But then I suppose I could also just file those into a second series.

New "byte"-sized blog post: A rant about AI making it impossible to search for information anymore. Alas... nicole.express/2026/not-my-...

Despite what I said around three years ago, I'm thinking of migrating all my posts from the old Wordpress blog over to my own blog. I can't actually guarantee that the Wordpress blog won't be taken down at some point, so I definitely need to preserve everything while I still can.

Dunno why it is, but the recent State of Play has once again reminded me that I'm just not getting gripped by any new releases, indie *or* AAA. Maybe I'm just a crotchety old man at this point, or maybe I simply don't vibe with contemporary game design philosophies. Could be both.

I know I'm kind of sitting in a glass house here, but this is yet another indicator of the games industry having gone to shit. And that's assuming sequels to IPs are even being made in the first place.

My sister got me a complete physical copy of this game last Christmas. I thought she was mad at first, but apparently it's common enough that it only goes for like 20 euros on ebay.

I urge you, cancel your Nitro subscription and call their support (assuming it's still up because I heard they took it down because of just how fucking severe the backlash is lmao) and let them know what you think. This is not protecting anyone. It's doing only harm and no good. Utter garbage.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, but I got a little under halfway through the character bios yesterday. What I've got so far will *definitely* need a second pass, though.

The random thought occurred to me that things cost roughly twice as much now as they used to 20 years ago... and, sure enough, the value of the euro has nearly *halved* since its introduction in 1999. So we're basically right back to where we'd started with the Deutsche Mark...

Finally finished my El Viento opening for #mastersystem with all scenes & tunes!! I'm very happy with the result 😀 Tell me what you think and what game I could pick next 🙂 #homebrew

It's Space Harrier Sunday! #SEGA #SpaceHarrier #retrogaming #retrogames #SpaceHarrierSunday

I wish every website with literally thousands of partners they want to sell my data to a very DDoS.

Ich bin überrascht, dass man sogar heutzutage noch Fotofilm kaufen und entwickeln lassen kann, auch wenn so'n Film rund 1€ pro Aufnahme kostet.

My attachment to each Sega console: 💙💙💙💙💙 SG-1000 💙💙💙💙💙 Master System 💙💙💙💙🖤 Mega Drive 💙💙💙🖤🖤 Mega CD 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 32X 💙🖤🖤🖤🖤 Saturn 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 Dreamcast 💙💙💙💙🖤 Game Gear 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 Nomad 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 Pico 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 Beena

Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega Master System #sonic #sonicthehedgehog #sega #mastersystem

Decided to make the switch from Ecosia to DuckDuckGo today. I commend the former's efforts to save the environment, but their search engine is so overrun with AI slop I'm not given the option to opt out of that it'd been cramping my style for a while now.

Sometimes I wish I could go back to (or *bring back*) a time when games like these were considered hot shit. There's just something about these old magazine/catalog ads that speaks to me on a visceral level...

Remember Valis series? I've made this on #gamegear with #GBDK, it could be interesting, don't you think? 😀 #homebrew

Took a bit longer than within January, but I finally got the final ending drafted up. It's still pretty rough, but then again, most of the dialogue is. I'll likely be constantly tweaking it right up until the day of release, like I did with COL.

Damn, I just found out that the Master System got barely more releases in Japan than the SG-1000 did. That is dire...

My attachment to Tomb Raider 💚💚💚💚⭕️TR1 💚💚💚⭕️⭕️TR2 💚💚💚💚💚TR3 💚💚⭕️⭕️⭕️Last Revelation 💚⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️Chronicles 💚💚⭕️⭕️⭕️AOD 💚⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️Legend ⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️Anniversary 💚⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️Underworld ⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️TR2013 ⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️Rise ⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️⭕️Shadow

Game #1: Breath of Fire 31 January 2026 A rather inauspicious start to the series, what with a bunch of town NPCs sharing the same lines. The difficulty also starts off pretty easy and veers into a complete joke once you unlock Ryu's final transformation. #GamesBeatenIn2026

Oh yeah, casual reminder that Sega Cards are my shit.

And arrive they did! Golden Axe Warrior showed up first on Tuesday, Great Soccer arrived yesterday.

Oh hey, Sins remembered his Bluesky password.

Feels nice getting close to achieving a goal. Which is to say I've only got one ending left to write for Mukai 2. Cranked out three of the remaining four this weekend alone, so I can probably do the last one before the month is over.

There is NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE for OPLL & SEGA MASTER SYSTEM!!!!

The purchases have been made. Approximately 170 and 160 euros instead of what I said earlier, since the 180€ game had its price slashed, and I had to switch to a domestic seller for the 150€ one because tariffs would've been like 30€ on top of shipping.

I think I'm going to fork over 150 euros for a new Master System game before the day is over.

Fuck off, Discord. You couldn't even pay me to use Nitro.

You know, it occurs to me that we don't really get advertising like this for new consoles anymore... but then again, that's probably just because it's done through different outlets now. Conventions, expos, YouTube, social media...

The Final Fantasy titles on the Famicom were a shining example of Nasir being hopelessly out of his depth when it came to writing RPGs.

Managed to make time this morning to do some writing for Mukai 2, specifically one of the endings. Still feels a bit scuffed, so I might polish it later, but for now, there's only four more endings to go.

>see someone say "please watch warmly" For fuck's sake, it's "please WATCH warml-" oh wait, you actually got it right.

I have a poster with Master System box arts in my room. Some time I look at it to give me an idea of what to play next

Happy new year, everyone! I went ahead and wrote up a new update log just now, since the last one is now just over a year old. gensakudan.com/en/blog/gene...

Happy new year, everyone! I went ahead and wrote up a new update log just now, since the last one is now just over a year old. gensakudan.com/en/blog/gene...

Four months later, the candles I bought for just that occasion are still unlit.

Alright everyone, huddle up - we're gonna do 4-player on my Nomad with the Micromachines J-cart! Snuggle up close! #retrogaming #sega

I've been at this five years and it was unlikely that I'd ever give Sega platforms their due. So I took a look at every 8-bit console game on a Sega platform that was released in Japan and put it all in one video. youtu.be/yjBdqGMCO-g

🚚 Delivered a complete decompilation of and research into TH03's bullet system! A minor iteration on TH02's rather decent system, but definitely the point where bullet systems in PC-98 Touhou took a turn for the worse. 🐞 1 bug 💣 1 landmine 🎺 4 quirks 🪨 33 pieces of bloat

And the final count for #GamesBeatenIn2025 is 16. A far cry from the 25 I was aiming for originally, but somehow I just didn't have the drive to do a whole lot of anything this year. Barely managed to reach parity with 2023.

Game #16: Estpolis Denki II 31 December 2025 Glad I got this one cranked out before the end of the year. Game's kinda piss-easy, but the story more than makes up for it, and the reprise of the final dungeon theme gave me goosebumps all over my body, my god... #GamesBeatenIn2025

Game #15: Estpolis Denki 26 December 2025 Fairly interesting battle system for this one. Also didn't need to grind at all, thanks to the stupidly high encounter rate. The story is lighthearted for the first 90%, then immediately starts punching you in the gut repeatedly. #GamesBeatenIn2025

Game #14: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice 23 November 2025 Like DD, I feel like this had a really weak first case. Athena got done extremely dirty, too, and the game just drags on way too much. I still really enjoyed the story, though, and Simon is peak malewife material. #GamesBeatenIn2025