TurboGrafx 16 Mini Revealed

To me the biggest news to come out of E3 this year was Konami’s announcement that it is releasing a mini version of NEC’s TurboGrafx 16 (as well as the two regional variants for Japan and Europe, the PC-Engine and PC-Engine CoreGrafx respectively). Like most of the planet this announcement came as a shock to me as Konami’s purchase of Hudson was long forgotten.

It’s far from a given that this will be officially released in Australia, but usually the grey market provides a way, usually for not too much of a price premium.

Six games have been announced, with a different line-up for each region, all pretty common fare: R-Type, New Adventure Island, Ninja Spirit, Ys Book I & II, Dungeon Explorer and Alien Crush. I am hoping that there will be 30 games released, but it possible a slim 20 games will be included.

Update: Australian pricing and availability isn't known at this stage.

I still have my original system hooked up (see my review for Victory Run here) but it will still be nice to play some of the games I don’t have in my collection as well as enjoying the convenience of save states. No dates or pricing has been released as of yet.

The original TurboGrafx 16 with CD attachment.

Game Under Podcast Episode 109

In Episode 109 of the Game Under Podcast, Tom and Phil do not talk about their eager anticipation of the death of triple a development or The Last Guardian (maybe they still will?) due to technical difficulties, but do talk about Tetris 99, Jurassic Bosch, Spielberg, and people who started playing games when Bioshock Infinite was released.

You can listen to such outscourings here.

Rare shot of Phil editing the podcast.

Game Under Podcast Episode 108

In Episode 108 of the Game Under Podcast, Tom Towers and Phil Fogg return to discuss eugenics, Jim Carrey’s teeth, the first ever walkout in the American games industry, Microsoft’s new community guidelines, The Warriors, and a YakuzaKillzONE minute devoted almost entirely to xenophobia.

And much, much more. Probably.

Listen here.

Freakwave, the comic whose name I could not recall on the show…

Tom Towers Returns to His Return to Reading in 2018, in 2019

I wrote some nonsense about Romanticism, the supreme narcissism of Buddhism, surrealism and its relationship to post-modernism (but not Marxism; late modernism and post-modernism were largely CIA-funded operations: even The Fugs were probably on a CIA record label, which makes one of their members later turning out to be narc who prosecuted a prominent European graffiti artist beautifying his real estate not so surprising), Dr. Seuss’ terrifying war and peacetime propaganda, and the queen of Europe, Björk.

You can read it here.

This thing is so spectacular there’s another picture of it inside.

Here’s the full list of books featured in this edition:

Flowers of Evil (both the Charles Baudelaire book and the Shuzo Oshimi manga)

Louis Bourgeois: The Spider and the Tapestry edited by Hauser and Wirth and also Louis Bourgeois: An unfolding Portrait by Deborah Wye.

Meret Oppenheim: Retrospective by Elisabeth Bronfen, Heike Eipeldauer and Christiane Meyer-Thoss

Surrealism by Mary Ann Caws

Poet in Spain by Garcia Lorca, edited and translated by Sarah Arvo

Wessex and Other Verses by Thomas Hardy

Rumi, Day By Day by Rumi, edited and translated by Mafi Maryam

The Romantic Poets by—you guessed it—the romantic poets, published by Canterbury Classics (I couldn’t find who edited it)

Paradise Lost by John Milton, edited by Dennis Danielson whose parallel prose translation I did not read

Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death by Yoel Hoffman

The Upanishads edited and translated by Juan Mascaro

Dr. Seuss Goes to War 1 and 2 by Andre Schiffrin and Richard H. Minear respectively

The Lorax and The Cat in the Hat 2 by Dr. Seuss

The World of Edena by Moebius

Nikopol trilogy and Century’s End by Enki Bilal (the latter with Pierre Christin)

Land of Love and Ruins by Oddný Eir

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

If you’ve ever come across the woman-as-platter cliche, it’s thanks to her. She is also the godmother of the internet facepalm.

Devil May Cry 5 Review

Devil May Cry 5 has been released now for just over a month, but how exactly does Dante’s newest adventure shape up? Find out by reading the review here.

- Aaron Mullan

21st Century Free Speech, Part One: Inter;lectuals

On Anzac Day, I thought I would perform my patriotic duty by posting the first part of my ruminations on free speech, written in consideration of two expats’ recent exploits in New Zealand who, between them (a racist xenophobe and a courageous refugee), epitomised both the very best and the very worst of the Australian character.

You can read it here.

Or, on a day when we are supposed to remember people who have been killed by other people—but at best we cry crocodile tears for the unburied dead with names etched in stone, whose surviving mates returned to sleep in the shade of such stone; if they were lucky—you can read a little bit more than names about people killed in the relevant recent events here instead.

Lest we forget we’ve always been a nation of toadies.

Enter the Gungeon's Final Free DLC Announced

After three years and 2.5 million copies sold, it’s time for Enter the Gungeon’s tale to come to a close with the final free DLC titled ‘A Farewell to Arms.’ The release features new Gungeoneers, Items, Floors, Bosses, an entirely new mode and, of course, new guns.

Just when I thought I was finished with Enter the Gungeon, Dodge Roll Games have sucked me back in for one last hurrah of bullet-hell madness.

‘A Farewell to Arms’ releases on the PC, PS4, Xbox One and the Switch on April 5th.

The VGPress Returns

Reports of the demise of The VG Press website were apparently premature as the site returned to full functionality earlier today.

Some had speculated that the site’s founder and lead developer, Yodariquo, had closed the site, with some reporting that a farewell message could be found on the “deep net”. Phil Fogg, noted game media executive producer, and co-host of the popular Australian gaming podcast, The Game Under Podcast, when asked of the outage responded on PSN stating, “No, must be an admin thing.”

The VGpress.com early today.

His co-host, Tom B. Towers, contacted Yodariquo through an arcane emergency alert system they had established in earlier years when producing, The Press Room, a notoriously poorly produced, and eventually failed podcast.

Yodariquo explained what had happened just hours ago, “Praise Tom B. Towers for giving me a heads up! The DNS completely died for no reason. Like, not pointing to the wrong place, but stopped considering itself DNS anymore. Redirected the domain to a new DNS setup on my VPS hosting and it's all good.”

Robio, a site contributor known for his nude YouTube appearance spruicking Oreo cookies, when asked for comment stated, “Holy [expletive]! Site back up!!!” Robio did not respond to questions about his use of a triple exclamation mark.

Game Under Podcast 107

Yes, yes, like an ancient virus released by melting permafrost, the Game Under Podcast is back.

Tom is joined by regular co-host and Devil May Cry 2 supernostalgic Aarny to discuss one of his favourite childhood games, and Devil May Cry 5.

Has Aarny grown up and realised his childish folly? Has Tom bought any Diesel clothing since playing Devil May Cry 2?

Listen here, and find out.

Diesel May Cry.

Hardware Review: New Nintendo 2DS XL

I was recently shown the sixth entry in the 3DS hardware family, the “New Nintendo 2DS XL” which was good enough for me to go out and get one for myself. Released in mid-2017 for approximately $250 AUD, what was striking to me about the N2DSXL was the large screen, which was the single most disappointing component of the first 2DS (my review here).

The size difference between the N2DSXL and original 2DS is apparent even to me.

The comparative form factor is also more useful for those with fully-grown human hands, though the directional cross pad and placement of the face buttons are the same size (though the face buttons have more negative space between them.

One of the first surprises, when opening the box, was the presence of a power adapter. Usually Nintendo does not include these for late-cycle hardware revisions, nor indeed in their Classic console series. I once read that there was a punitively high tax in Japan on the inclusion of power adapters (which I was unable to confirm through a web search because the first 8 pages wanted to send me to sites that sell power adapters). Beyond the adapter there are a few augmented reality cards to play with, which I recall were the same included with the original hardware, and the usual manual.

The orange-sickle colours are not offensive to me, but if you prefer, themed hardware options (Pikachu and Animal Crossing) for about $50 AUD more are available.

The stylus is stored at the base of the unit this time (took me a little while to find it).

Once the unit is turned on the difference in light quality is apparent. Prior DS and 3DS formats before the “new” hardware always had a dim quality by comparison.

A DS cartridge was used for this review so I could compare it to the prior DS hardware. This shot above was taken with a camera pointed at the screen (no capture or editing software used).

The top screen in particular is so large (compared to other Nintendo handhelds) that after a few minutes of playing a game you are playing without distraction and completely subsumed by the experience.

Out of interest I compared the second iteration of the DS to what is likely the last version of the 3DS.

After playing with the N2DSXL for over an hour I did not find my hands were sore, as they often are with most longer gaming sessions with a handheld. I’ve since played it for over 6 hours with little battery loss, despite the larger brighter screens.

The N2DSXL is likely the last iteration of this hardware — Nintendo has not many more options to add, though they may go down the the miniaturisation route, as the did with the Game Boy Advance Mini. With Nintendo enjoying the the success of the portable Nintendo Switch, it must be difficult for them to see a way forward. Perhaps an affordable, ruggedised version of the Switch, more suitable for the rough treatment children generally apply to the items they love most is a happy medium.

Compared to one of the first “multi-screen” handhelds, it’s great to see Nintendo stick to a concept so doggedly.

If you have a substantial DS and or 3DS library picking up the N2DSXL is an easy decision, as it is the best hardware format available for those games.