Struggled to understand why I’m not getting any picture. Turns out, TV doesn’t automatically switch to SCART, even when there is signal. As I didn’t get a remote, I was glad to find that “input” followed by + does the trick.
I tried connecting Neo Geo first, but by the time I figured how to change inputs, I switched to Dreamcast through Composite to SCART adapter, because I thought that maybe Neo Geo is acting up. Dreamcast only displays black and white image that flickers badly, though. And I was afraid that might be the case with Neo Geo as well. Luckily, switching back to Neo Geo on the correct input worked fine.
The image from Neo Geo exceeded my expectations. The colours are indeed very pleasant, and there is not much flickering. You can see it in the menus, on the white background, and reading documents from it would probably be a very bad idea. But I actually played Metal Slug and Garou, and both are extremely nice.
Author: TheAleosha
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Sony Trinitron
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Dragon’s Milk Tales of Gold, New Holland Brewing
I rarely go back to write about beer I’ve had before, but I’ve finished my second and last bottle of Dragon’s Milk Tales of Gold, and it’s still one of the best beers I’ve ever had. Maybe it’s the barrel aging, or the the added lactose, but it has this amazing creaminess and vanilla notes that none of the Belgian beers come close to. A real shame it’s impossible to get in the UK nowadays.
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Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty
Completed Phantom Liberty by siding with Songbird all the way, because I thought it will be the most difficult. You get number of options to betray her in the process, and then you can shoot Reed dead in a cutscene. It’s a good spy thriller, and the best Cyberpunk 2077 story, but every Cyberpunk 2077 story has to be a W40K story: meaning it all has to return to status-quo.
One nice detail. If you side with Songbird, Alex survives, and she actually calls you later.
Whole Panam romance didn’t work for me. I’m not gonna analyze why, just gonna say it worked in Metro Last Light, and hell it worked in Kingdom Come, and even Wolfenstein, but not here.
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Sony Trinitron KV-M1401U
I didn’t plan to buy a CRT. They are overpriced nowadays, since everyone is into retrogaming it seems, and nobody produce them anymore, and they degrade with time. Limited supply, growing demand.
They are also very heavy and bulky, and most sellers refuse to ship them, or the shipping can be while not astronomical, quite significant.
So I noticed someone was selling Toshiba CRT in my neighborhood, which they obviously used for retrogaming. That seller disappeared, but the thought stuck with me.
First, I started looking for a similar Toshiba, or a Panasonic. Then, a wild Trinitron appeared nearby.
Now, the thing with Sony Trinitrons is that they’re supposed to be unique among CRTs. Most CRTs are curved both horizontally and vertically, like a bulb, which they are. But Trinitrons are curved only horizontally, like a cylinder. Also, most CRTs use a slot mask, which gives almost honeycomb like pattern. While Trinitrons have more of a grid like pattern.
Unexpected benefit of buying a UK CRT is that it almost always has RGB SCART port, that offers the best quality. While US CRT owners sometimes have to mod them to get one.
In any case, I found myself in the afternoon in Catford, by a row of brick houses. The guy, Elliot, has 3 CRTs, including a 21″ Sony and a Panasonic, and he seemed to be a genuine retrogamer: with a modded PS2 and a RGB cable. He even said that he calibrated the TV himself.
Carrying CRT on a bus isn’t easy, even if it’s “only” 14″. It’s the way the weight is spread, very forward. But I managed. -
Pet Sematary, Stephen King
“Rachel looked on this, his only real hobby, with a wifely indulgence that held, he supposed, some elements of contempt; even after ten years of marriage she probably thought he would grow out of it. “
I have read a lot of Stephen King as a teenager, but not Pet Sematary. I wonder what I’d think of it back in the day. Because now, to me it all looks like a discussion about death being inseparable part of life.
I find that the most interesting character is Rachel. Not because she’s likeable, but with the way she uses her kids to veil her own emotions: “he’s tired” means that she’s tired, “Ellie is now upset” means that it’s actually Rachel who’s upset. -
CaDA Master C61505W Viva Hypercar (Ferrari La Ferrari)
3rd bag, 5.5 hours, over 2 months, though, with a break of almost a month in the middle.
I wanted to finish the gear box in one go, as the gears aren’t held together by anything until fully assembled and simply fall out, so I spent more than one hour in a single sitting on it. There was one angled piece that you either need tweezers or drop it extremely precisely, because that’s the only way it gets in. I thought I’ll push through to finish the engine. But it turned out to be a literal jumble of pipes going at weird angles, and loosely connected. And on page 218 I realised I did a mistake on page 158. So I spent 20 minutes fixing it. Good times. -
Lochlea Cask Strength Batch 2
Once you get deep enough into whisky, there are a couple of topics you start to encounter: “batches” and “rebuys”.
Batches are relevant to cask strength whiskies mostly, because any blending diffuses the character, while making whisky more consistent. “Batch” is between “single cask” and “age statement” for me at least. People still rave about Bunna 12 Batch 2022.
Rebuy is a whisky that once you’ve got in your collection, you’ll happily get one more once you finish the bottle. It’s one of the highest praises a whisky can get from an enthusiast. Because, let’s be honest, there are plenty of good whiskies.
For me, Lochlea Cask Strength Batch 2 is probably the first whisky ever I’d happily rebuy. Not that I didn’t have other great whiskies, I’ve had plenty, but I really think this one was something special, and I’m not sure they’re gonna beat it. -
Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty
The Brazilian spies sidequest is what I’d expected from more quests in this game. You’re asked to track a spy that was MIA half a year ago, but not his tracker came back online. Only it’s not the spy, but his interrogator who fell out of favour that activated the tracker. You’re asked to kill her, but you also can let her go. Then one of the spies asks you to destroy the tracker, because it all was a government coverup, while the second spy wants justice.
What really sets the main story of Phantom Liberty apart is the murder of the French twins. And I’m sure it’s deliberate, as you have voice lines to protest it. By that point, you’ve killed a thousand people, probably, but most of them faceless. But the twins, you get to know, they are funny, and not even particularly evil, just kid hackers. Then your companions murder them.
In any case, Songbird gets possessed by a rogue AI. Either you help her, female spy assassinates the colonel, and you escape with Songbird, or you try to incapacitate Songbird, colonel kills Alex, Songbird goes full Darth Vader, and you escape alone. The benefit of the later is that you get to fight and kill Hansen yourself, and it’s a good boss fight. He chases you with a machine gun, then throws his unique Yakut knife at you and tries to beat you in a hand to hand combat. Fun times.
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HifiMan Ananda Stealth
Don’t laught, but I replaced my Hifiman XS with Ananda. I got an open box this time, and with a coupon, the price was the same I paid for Hifiman XS.
The main visual difference is the metal headband with headstrap on Ananda. No more 3D printed crap.
The sound quality is… the same, to me. Won’t lie and say I can hear the difference, but hey, it’s the same price. -
Myst 2021
Another point’n’click adventure that I found extremely obscure back in the day, this one a 1st person as well.
First I tried the Masterpiece Edition, which, although it works, is basically unplayable. There’s a Windows 3.11 border, blurry prerendered graphics and discrete movement that induces motion sickness, because you rotate at arbitrary angles, depending on the “room” you’re in. Sometimes you’d do 90 degrees turn, sometimes 180, because it’s a “corridor”. Unsettling, and not intentionally.
The remake on Unreal Engine is much more playable than the original, in my opinion. It solves the issue with disorienting navigation, as it turns the game into a typical walking sim, most of which use Unreal Engine anyway, and it’s pleasant looking too.
The game itself is the most difficult point’n’click I’ve played so far. Not that I chase difficulty, quite the opposite.
It’s just the first game I can’t even understand what’s a puzzle I supposed to be able to solve, and which I need more hints.
You can rotate the lighthouse, and when pointing to another puzzle, it will show you a solution: which time to set on the clocktower, or what’s the code for a safe in the boiler room. Are those hints? Or is it the proper logical solution?
Also, it spills on you four graphomanical stories about a man travelling between worlds. Are those hints? I don’t know, for how much text there is.
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Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty
The problem with Cyberpunk story that it’s gameplay is in dissonance with it. The story is that Relic is killing V, and he doesn’t have much time left, but in reality, you can play however much you want. Of they wanted death breathing down the neck, they could just do time limit like in Fallout 1.
Story of Phantom Liberty is pretty good, though. Songbird is a superhacker working for the US president, and like V, she’s dying due to access to Forbidden Knowledge. She strikes a deal with Hansen, a bald rogue colonel who controls part of Night City. A clear reference to Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. A bald rogue colonel. President’s jet is downed, but she also makes sure president is rescued, by guiding you towards an undercover agent, Reed, whom she and the President betrayed some years ago.
There’s a lot of “power fantasy” for sure, “gun porn”, to be exact. The marvel at the “Sam Fisher’s” gun, or how you can unplug a unique sniper rifle and carry it away. -
Painting Ghostkeel Battlesuit
I already painted one 10cm base model, Horticulus Slimux from Warhammer. It had a lot of detail, but Ghostkeel Battlesuit is interesting in many different ways. First, I’ve never seen instructions to paint before assembly. When I painted Commander Farsight, I cursed and swore that the next model I will paint in parts, but here they’re basically saying “no way you’ll manage to paint the details once you put it together”.
And the reason is, that this model has moving parts. The barrels of the not-minigun and not-grenadelauncher rotate. But also, the highlight is that the cabin opens, showing grumpy Tau pilot inside. Speaking of pilot, that’s also the first model that has choice of parts. You can pick its main weapon, it’s side weapons mounted on the top, whether you want a missile rack or some sort of a radar on the back, and there are even two heads for the pilot. There are also a few decorative pieces you can choose from, like the top of the “helmet”.
There are practical reasons for some of those choices too, I guess. I’ve heard that those suits are so effective in tabletop play, some bring 3 of them, and you’d want to be able to distinguish between them at a glance.
On top of that, I also decided to magnetize the model. Magnet Baron have some good instructions and even kits at a reasonable price, but their shipping to the UK in unfortunately unreasonable. So I bought the drill and the magnets separately on Amazon, for half the price too. -
Neverhood
Another point’n’click I remember from my childhood. The navigation is discreet first person, though. There’s no inventory, character just uses the item when needed. No active zone highlighting on the other hand. Puzzles are simplistic so far, except for the music puzzle. Although I might be just not very good with music puzzles in general, as I also had to look up a solution for it when I played Sanitarium.
It feels like they didn’t want to make as much of a game, as a Nickelodeon style animation. The escape from crabmonster scene is unnecessary long for a game to justify another simplistic puzzle, but makes total sense if it’s an animation that’s all about slapstick humor, like bumping into a door you just closed.
Also, either they wanted to troll the player or to prolong the game, possibly both. If you eat 3 “apples”, there’s a video playing for a literal minute of protagonist barfing. Then there are literal 50 screens of poem you need to cross in the “museum”. -
Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
Completed Blood Meridian. I must say, I enjoyed the book, despite the fact it had no structure or rhyme or rhythm. There are rarely justifications for characters actions, or some type of closure.
It does help knowing that Glanton’s Gang was real, and one of its alleged members wrote a memoir describing its misdeeds.
Not only Glanton, but Judge Holden character come from this memoir, and apparently there’s an episode where Holden managed to talk himself out of raping a Mexican girl by speaking Spanish to the villagers. And on another occasion he decides to lecture scalphunters on geology.
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Tacticus
Unlocked Lucius from his final LRE. Was missing 25 shards, because some tracks were impossible with my current roster, so had to spend blackstone. He should be useful in long battles, as whoever kills him gets damage over time, and if he dies, Lucius comes back. Should be a nice distraction.
Unlocked Sekhetar Robot from it’s release event. It’s 100 shards, so that was easy.
Brought Maladus to Mythic. Now Guild Raids will also bring Rogue Trader shard.Last two weeks there was a 4th Anniversary event, that allowed you to pick shards for characters, instead of gacha them.
Unlocked:
Tyrant Guard. Tyranids are cheap, so it’s surprising I didn’t have any until now.
Darkstrider. I was only missing 5 shards for him anyway. Would have been useful in Lucius LRE, as there was “Tau only” track there.
Neurotrope, another Tyranid, which is considered very important for some Guild Raids.
Winged Prime and Deathleaper from grinding the few last shards in the Tyranids campaign event. Now I’m missing just one Tyranid, when I began the week with none.
Azkor:
Mephiston. Looking back, I should have unlocked him from the Blood Angels event, but better late than never.
Parasite of Mortrex on the final day. That’s all Tyranids complete.
Also, got plenty of shards for some expensive 500 shards characters, but will have to grind their campaign events most likely. Overall, a very fruitful month.
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Pokeno Origin whisky
18 taster from the Advent calendar, this one is from New Zealand. It’s very floral on the nose, jasmine like, and very light and smooth, to the point I thought it’s a blend. At 50GBP, it’s not great, but it is discounted to 30GBP, which make it not great but cheap whisky.
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Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
Despite all the unexplained violence, I was enjoying the narrative until the style shifted.
First it was the tale how Judge first appeared in front of a company of headhunters in order to lead them around volcanoe for a few days like Moses in order to produce crude gunpowder like a bunch of bloodthirsty Robinsons, so they could defeat the Indians. Then there’s a rambling by the Judge about one man killing another with a rock, which I assume is about Western and Indian civilizations.
I’m 3/4 of the book, and still not sure what am I reading. It’s a chain of atteocities, sometimes commited by the headhunters, and sometimes on them. First they massacre Indians, then peaceful Indians, then Mexicans, and even managed to sell Mexican scalps back to the Mexican governor. Then they are finally chased by the Mexican army.
It’s mostly grounded, except the story about Judge able to levitate a coin, unless it’s some known snake oil trick I’m not aware of.
Then there’s the subversion of expectations. I thought that the entire point of the Judge is that he’s a paedo, killing kids as he passes, and the entire point of the Idiot is to demonstrate that female compassion kills. But he ended up saving the Idiot? -
Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty
Before getting to Point of No Return, I need to finish Phantom Liberty DLC. It replaces Johnny with an Asian chick, Songbird.
The story is that you need to save one girlboss, the President, whose plane was shot down, while getting instructions from another girlboss.
Because it’s an end-game content, and the character is maxed out most likely, they introduce a new perk tree, that can only be upgraded through perks you find in the new zone, Dogtown. A lot of the new perks are focused around buffing the cybernetic weapons you can install in your arms, as they are indeed pointless. Whole point of them could be that they are concealed, but then you are rarely penalized even for carrying an antitank rifle in public.
The way they recreated the fight with a robot tank from Ghost in the Shell is great. It’s a good boss all in all, that has weak points and multiple phases, but you also can just whack it little by little.
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Dig
Completed The Dig.
Didn’t look into walkthrough once, which is a good result for the game. Although two episodes did get me stumped for quite a long time. First, I thought the lightbridges need to be activated from both sides, or in some order. Turns out, you just need to hold the mouse button while activating them, a mechanic that the game never uses again, and I haven’t seen in any other point’n’click. And second, is that in order to deactivate the forcefield, you need to talk to Maggie about a specific object in that specific location.
Initially I praised the story, but having finished it, I must say it’s a disappointment. I remember how confused I was while reading about the game that there’s an instance when you need to saw off your crew member’s hand. But it all comes quite out of the blue: Brinks, the resurrected junkie, gets his hand stuck without any good reason, and this is the only bloody violent episode in the entire game, added for pure shock value. Later he tries to kill you and falls off a cliff, but lacking an arm doesn’t have any relation to that.
Then there’re the aliens. They went to a higher plane of existence, while their bodies and planet deteriorated, and now they are bored and long to return, but they can’t. Sounds like a good story of civilization that is too evolved for its own good, and “be carefult what you wish for”. Only the protagonist manages to not only to pull them back, but return them their physical bodies, without any explanation. Also, both of his companions are miraculously resurrected, although Brink is unexplainably aged now?
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Dig
I’m surprised how much I managed to progress without a guide, considering how unhelpful the game is.
We revive Brink, the archaeologist that falls to his death early in the game, and he gets obsessed with the crystals we used to revive him, as well as some ancient machine, so he isn’t much help at all.
The only puzzle I kind of remembered from reading about the game was recreating the turtle. You have fossil in one room, and bones you can place and rotate in the other.
There is a lot of find password, go back to nexus, open new door. And at one point, you just have to try all the passwords you have acquired in order to proceed.
