Category: Aleosha Blog

Dreamcast

One simple truth every retrogamer learns is that no hardware is eternal. In case of my Dreamcast, the PSU started acting lately. At first I thought it’s the discs, as sometimes it wouldn’t boot at all, or take a long time to boot, or load a game then reboot after a few seconds.
Luckily, there are a couple of solutions nowadays. The most popular is DreamPSU, which replaces the proprietary plug and a massive board with a tiny board compatible with standard 12V adapters. Then there’s CleanPower, which allows it to use USB-C, but twice as expensive. I decided to start with DreamPSU.
And since I’m going to disassemble Dreamcast anyway, I decided that replacing my CDROM (sorry, GDROM) with an GDEMU that reads games from a SD card would be appropriate to. Great thing about both mods is that you don’t need to solder anything. Dreamcast had a PC-like architecture, so you can just unplug your CDROM and PSU. And to get to them, you just remove 4 regular screws.
Expected benefit: now there’s no need to swap discs, or burn them. Also, the games boot much faster since there’s no seek time.
Unexpected benefit: console is 460g lighter. CDROM is 310g, and PSU is another 150g (I thought it’d be even heavier).

Tags Dreamcast

*.AVI

Cyberpunk Edgerunners S01

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 14, 2025
No Comments on Cyberpunk Edgerunners S01

Anime isn’t dead, it’s just financed by Netflix now.

I haven’t played Cyberpunk yet, so I might be not familiar with all the terms, but on the other hand, it’s so derivative from the genre there isn’t much that I feel I’m missing.

Storywise, it’s pretty standard. You have Boy with Abilities, in our case ability to slow time, or more correctly speed himself up, more than a regular implant user should. We have a Misterious Girl that saves him.

We have a gang he runs with.

Animation is serviceable. There aren’t that many frames, and they use shortcuts (cloud of gunmoke never changes shape, it’s just a decall), but the style compensates for it.
I also appreciate how mature it is. Isn’t afraid of ultraviolence or nudity.

Timeskip is another bit I appreciate. Allows for a character growth within a season.

My favorite character ended up being not David or Lucy, but Becca:

Despite her child-like appearance and obvious inspiration from Harley Quinn.

It’s a beautiful and complete story, and I’m glad they didn’t try to extend it further.

Tags Cyberpunk

PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

Completed Ace Combat 3.
English version of Ace Combat 3 is a complete mess. It’s like watching a silent movie from 1920, where every few missions you’re interrupted by a paragraph of text that makes little to no sense.
It’s the longest Ace Combat in terms of number of missions by far: 35 missions, compared to about 25 in most other titles.
Once you get used to the controls, the game is relatively easy, until the chase in the Geofront. Every Ace Combat game makes you fly through a tunnel. But that’s the only game I remember that has you do it for 5 minutes straight. It’s a torture.

And then you need to duel a X49 superfighter, similarly to Ace Combat Zero. But it’s very hard to tell if you hit it or not. And all that without saving in-between. I call it “superfigher” for lack of better term, as it is able to take ridiculous number of missile hits, and instead of firing missiles back it uses some kind of a laser.

After that there’s a long an unfulfilling fight against both X49 and UI4054 Aurora, that feels just random in the way they avoid missiles. During my first attempt, I simply ran out of missiles, and I had almost 200 of them, and gave up. Second attempt took me 18 minutes of chasing one then the other.

Didn’t enjoy it? It’s a shame, because you’ll have to repeat it two more times, beating Aurora first in another dogfight, then in Virtual Reality (the eponymous Electrosphere).

In terms of game length, it’s hard to measure, as it doesn’t let you save for the last 5 missions. 30th mission was 2:30 hours, and considering that just mission 33 took me 18 minutes, I’d say it’s around 3:30 hours of play time, which is again, longer than most Ace Combat games.

Tags Ace Combat

*.AVI

Wednesday S01

Visually it’s very compelling. Writing tries to be snarky, which I don’t appreciate, but at least it’s brisk.

Good example is when Wednesday escapes her therapist, the principal asks “What happened?”, and therapist just gives a sigh. Bad writing would be to explain that Wednesday escaped through bathroom window, despite we’ve just seen it.

Peel that away, though, and you have a school drama through and through. And Wednesday is this Marie Sue that knows Italian, can fence, play cello and beat three boys in a fistfight.
The only saving grace so far is that they aren’t afraid to discard characters quickly.

Tags Wednesday

*.AVI

Gentlemen S01

Finished watching Gentlemen.
Probably the best Ritchie ever created, simply because the format of the miniseries let him explore a lot of different British subcultures. You get the Scouse, Brummies, gypsies, Albanians, and probably more which I forgot.
Ending is a bit weak. I expected something with more punch, like Penguin did.

*.AVI

Persona 4 Animation

So I finally got to finish watching Persona 4 anime.
It’s probably confusing to watch if you didn’t play the game, but it does repeats some of the best moments. So it’s like a way to refresh your memory on the story.
They did well with the Nanako hospital scene, finishing the episode with her flat lining. And then the followup lynching scene.
And while the series was light on fighting scenes until the last three episodes, when fight kicks off with Adaci, it’s quite spectacular.
In the original game, I remember it as quite boring, because you just fight that dark cop. But here, instead they put Reaper and Dark Izanagi instead (Izanagi is the persona Yu, the protagonist uses).
Interesting for Shin Megamin Tensei fans only, but still, the way Yu defeats Amano Sagiri is by summoning Lucifer, the strongest Persona in most games.
And they actually made the final twist better. In the game, it was the secret ending, and or was a bit tedious to pull. But here, they went for a fake ending, then into Groundhog Day, and even gave Yu a shadow, which I think the game didn’t have because Yu was the Joker (or in other words a silent placeholder for the player).
Overall, I liked the anime more than I expected. Especially for the finale.

Tags Persona

Emulation PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

They did simplify the mini games. In Ace Combat 2 I didn’t to manage to land once. Here I managed both landing and refueling in air.
There are a few very inventive missions, one of which has you pilot a stratosphere fighter, and another a spacecraft taking down satelites.

Chasing a train is fun and stupid at the same time, as this mission can be completed in 30 seconds.

“Swarm” mission throws so many enemies at you, I was afraid to run out of missiles. But at least they are finite, unlike Ace Combat 2 and Ace Combat 4 missions. Also, you have an ally in this mission, that is even helpful and downs some enemies, but you have absolutely no context who that is.

Tags Ace Combat

Emulation

Dreamweb

I wanted to write first that this game is unbelievable. Then I remembered that Ultima 7 came out a couple years before. Still, what the game does is impressive for ’94.

The best way to describe it is an RPG without character progression. You have inventory of limited capacity, but the items you find aren’t necessarily unique. You open a drawer in your girlfriend’s kitchen, and there are two knives and two forks. You pick your wallet, open it, and there’s a credit card and a photo.

Computers operates on floppies, so you insert one, then type commands into a terminal.
The problem with all that freedom, though, is that the game feels almost impossible without a guide. And there’s also sort-of copy-protection, whereas the game came with “Diary of a Madman” that has things like the code to your appartment written down, which you can’t find anywhere else in the game.

Tags Amiga, Dreamweb

*.MP3

Britney Spears – Break The Ice

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 5, 2025
No Comments on Britney Spears – Break The Ice

I’ve never heard that song, nor seen the clip until now.

But all I’ve got to say: Ghost in the Shell changed the world forever.

Also, the character looks like Sarah Bryant from Virtua Fighter. At first I thought it’s some old OVA.

XBOX

Original Xbox

So I got myself original Xbox (I hate calling it OG Xbox) after scouring eBay for some time.
First impression: damn, it’s huge. Compared to PS2 Slim I have it’s eight times bigger.
Second impression: damn, the gamepad is also huge. I wasn’t sure if I want the original “Duke” gamepad or the more modern “Japanese” one, but in the end I lost the bid for the Japanese one, and got the Duke. It is not just wide, but also very thick. My hands are average, but I have to stretch my fingers to reach the buttons.
I didn’t remember it had two slots for memory cards in the controller. Just like Dreamcast. And in general, it reminds me of Dreamcast so much I wonder if they took an inspiration. But whereas the Dreamcast controller was bulky because of the VMU, here the huge Xbox logo doesn’t serve any purpose.
Of course I wanted the console softmoded. It is done with a USB drive, but there is a catch, or even two. First, Xbox doesn’t have USB ports, only proprietary gamepad ports and the memory slots inside a gamepad. So you need an adapter that plugs into gamepad port. Those are widely available, though, so getting one is not a problem. The problem is to get a USB stick it would recognize. I tried creating small partitions, I tried microSD card adapters, nothing worked, except a single no-name USB stick I got with my jailbroken PS4. So now I have a magic USB stick that jailbreaks both PS4 and Xbox. Although with Xbox, it’s a persistent softmod, so I don’t expect to repeat it.
After softmodding the console, the easiest way to get games on it is to connect it with a network cable to your router. Here’s a thing, though. The original Xbox had a HDD, but it was 8GB IDE, and if you know what that is, it’s time for your pills.
So the next project will be to install a larger SATA drive, possibly even SSD.

Hardware

Flash drives degradation

One phenomenon that I’ve never found explanation for is the rapid degradation of flash drives.
I had yet another flash drive RMA’d, this one from Kingston. A couple of them before were from SanDisk.
Exactly same model, connected to the same port. The only difference is that one is brand new, another was in use for 2 years.

Tags Kingston

Mobile Gaming

Tacticus

Unlocked Exorcist, another support:

Unlocked Ancient Thoread by grinding his campaign node. This unlocks last mirror campaign.

Unlocked Atlacoya with her event. Missed the unlock screen:

Unlocked Volk by grinding his node:

Unlocked Shiron with its (?) event:

Unlocked Hollan from Guild Raid shop. This one, like Atlacoya, hang the app on me, so I missed the unlock screen.

Last one is the first sign of a shift to how unlocks work.
Previously, you always had 3 characters to grind through Guild Raid shop: Eldryon, Archimatos, Boss Gulgortz. Great characters, same all the time.
Now you have 3 more mid-cost characters available each day. Which probably keep me in the game for a bit longer.

Tags Tacticus

Nintendo Switch

Diablo 3

Am I playing Diablo 3 again? Yes, I’m playing Diablo 3 again.
Thinking that all classes are born equal, I picked a Monk. Was I wrong. With Necromancer, I am on 400% difficulty. With a monk, I can’t handle 75%. It improved after reaching level 20 or so, after death of Decard Cain, but still, not the best class either survivability or damage.

Got myself orange boots that boost Mystic Ally. I didn’t intend to play summon monk, but here I am.
Then I tried Wizard(ress), the class I played the least in any Diablo. I expected a “glass cannon”, and she even has a passive called Glass Cannon. What I didn’t expect is that it’s a Laser Cannon, not an AoE Blizzard cannon. You’ve got Ray of Frost and Disintegrate that work almost the same, then the secondary attack on Arcon (the Form skill almost every Diablo 3 character has) as well.

One weird equipment quirk that I remember from back in the days: sometimes the best DPS comes from wielding a two handed sword. As a wizard.

Also, first time I notice there’s a lovecraftian easter egg in the Wizard intro:

Tags Diablo

Hardware

LG 32GS95UV-B monitor

When I was picking my TV a couple of years ago, I settled on Samsung QLED, because I was worried for response times and burn-in. But since then, I got deeper into retrogaming on original hardware, and we also are watching less movies in general.
And the standard in the retrogaming community are OLED TVs. Everyone bangs about how blacks are deeper and all that.
I was quite happy with my LG 32GK850G. Good colors, good refresh rate, no issues over 7 years I owned it. But I decided it’s time to upgrade.
Since I wanted to experience OLED and had a good experience with LG, picking it again was a no-brainer. And once you know what you want (OLED, at least 32″, 240Hz refresh rate) there’s actually just a single model that fits the bill. And Amazon had a really good deal on it too.
Once I’ve had it for a couple of days, here are a few thoughts:
The blacks are amazing. In general, the contrast is incredible. It’s like getting a laser surgery all over again. 240fps – I don’t feel it. Maybe I could have felt 60fps -> 120fps. But I’ve yet to see any difference above that.
Also, there’s some kind of dynamic color correction going on. If you look at the same picture, the colors will shift for a few seconds, before stabilizing. I haven’t found yet what that stuff is.

Tags LG

*.BAK

Scotch Malt Whiskey Society

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 4, 2025
No Comments on Scotch Malt Whiskey Society

For a couple of years I’ve been told that if I like whiskey, I should become a member of Scotch Malt Whiskey Society. After my visit to Newcastle, I finally decided that it’s now or never.
The idea is that they buy whole casks from distilleries, then bottle them under names such as “Dark Fruit Feedback Loop” from Distillery 48. They still have the important stuff like age statemen and ABV, and even processing. The aforementioned bottle they’ve sent as a welcoming gift was fantastic, 17 years old, Oloroso matured. I would happily pay the membership of 100GBP just for that bottle alone.

Tags whiskey

Emulation PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

Technically, “Fragile Cargo” will be repeated by Ace Combat 5, where you need to destroy antenas on the way of the landing aircraft. Here, you need to destroy chimneys on the way of zeppelin. But the way they errupt fire as if it’s Blade Runner is super impressive, considering it’s PSX.
This is the only Ace Combat game I remember that lets you choose between different machine guns. Also, the choice between missiles is much more interesting. In most Ace Combat games, you always fire two missiles. Here, you also have the ability to fire 4 missiles, but with a shorter range.

The approach to aircraft is what I call in shooters “M4 with neon lights”. Those are “futuristic” versions of modern aircraft. So we’ve got F/18U HornetAdv (real aircraft is called F/18 Hornet).
Ravine mission here is interesting for two reasons. First, it’s more of a maze, where you need to follow F117. And second, they created a reflection for F117 in the water. Impressive.

Tags Ace Combat

*.AVI

Takopi’s Original Sin

Finished Takopi’s Original Sin.
5th episode is a flashback to timeline when Takopi met older Marina instead of Shizuka, and Shizuka is alive, despite attempted suicide in 4th grade.
Marina’s mother is a violent alcoholic. In one of her fits she attempts to stab Marina, and she kills her in self defence. Marina still blames all her troubles on Shizuka, so Takopi decided to travel back in time and kill Shizuka. That’s what we see in the first episode. Both time travel and time loop in the same story.
I can see where all the praise comes from. It discusses topics which are rare for anime: depression, suicide, alcoholism, child abuse.
Even though the resolution seems a bit force (Shizuka and Marina become unlikely friends after Takopi’s sacrifice), it is still at least something different to the regular slop.

Tags Takopi's Original Sin

PSX Sony

Ace Combat 3

One thing I never had trouble with before are the controlls being slugish. But here, I have to pull very hard in order for my aircraft to do anything. Ironic, considering that the machinegun mechanic feels much more lenient, after nightmarish machine gun mission from Ace Combat 2. Hitting even multiple targets with a machinegun is no big problem. But turning your aircraft is.

Ace combat 3 Controls vs Ace combat 2 Controls
byu/gsifdgs inacecombat

I thought that only Fat PS2 could play PS1 games, but then I learned that my PS2 Slim could do that as well. So I gave it a try. Even on original PS2 analog gamepad, the game still controls differently than any other before or after. And it hangs on a second mission. Not sure if it’s because of my disc, or playing on Slim instead of Fat, or the game in general.

Tags Ace Combat

*.AVI

Takopi’s Original Sin

An anime that is based on subverting expectations. It’s a depressing school drama wrapped in a comedy anime about a 4th grader, Shizuka, that meets always optimistic alien, Takopi.

The 4th grader, in contrast, is depressed, suicidal. Her father absent, her mother is an escort (in other words, prostitute) and she’s bullied at school. The only positive part of her life is the dog that’s left from her father.

It quickly turns out into a “Groundhog Day” time loop story, where Takopi tries to prevent Shizuka from killing herself by unraveling the cause in an naive, alien way. Until it doesn’t.

Tags Takopi's Original Sin

*.BAK

Soldering

As a kid, I had to do some soldering, and I hated it. But people change, purposes change, and technology changes as well. Now we have cordless USB-C charged soldering irons.
My ultimate project is to resolder a SATA connector that is broken on my laptop motherboard. Not that I need the laptop, but it’s a goal.
But in the meantime, I got myself a practice project:

I don’t plan to solder all of the components, but it’s a good practice. Also, helps discover stuff that you’re missing. Like the flux that came with the solder is completely crystalized, and not very useful. Same goes for the wire.
I now also understand why people pay 70GBP for a soldering iron, and not 20GBP. While my soldering iron shows temperature, it’s the target temperature, not the current temperature. And it cools very quickly once you start soldering.