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Pinball in my House, 2026: Alice Goes to Wonderland
So, an ongoing background story in this blog has been that I quite like to play pinball. A problem with pinball, though, is that it is an intensely physical game. Video pinball machines, modded or otherwise, struggle to scratch the same itch, even though they have major benefits, like multiple tables. And many manufacturers have, over the years, tried to make a home pinball machine work. Now we have another: Wonderland Amusements. Let’s take a look.
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What if the Apple ][ had run on Field-Sequential?
One thing I remain fascinated by is the field-sequential color system. Essentially, unlike composite video, which sacrifices color depth in space, field sequential sacrifices color depth in time. But the specifics matter, and we have the specifics: the United States adopted such a system, but didn’t stick with it. So this article describes a nonexistent, alternate-world computer– what would an early mass-market 8-bit computer have looked like in a world where the field-sequential color system was in place?
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Sega Consoles Never Die: The Soggy-1000 and MD3
It should come as no surprise that I love the retro video game fandom. There is a huge outut of effort and creativity to keep game consoles alive and improve them decades after they were abandoned by their manufacturers; and this is an international effort. So today I’ve ordered a few consoles from enthusiasts in China via Aliexpress. China is a major center of this due to their thriving electronics industry, so I’m excited to dig in. And of course, how could it be anything but Sega?
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You Can't Trust the Internet Anymore
I like things that are strange and a bit obscure. It’s a habit of mine, and a lot of this blog is to document things I haven’t heard of before, because I wanted to learn about them. I mean, jeez, I’m certainly not writing blog posts about strip mahjong because the people demand it. But I can’t stop seeing misinformation everywhere, and I have to say something. This post is just a rant.
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Story Follows Function: Mahjong Daireikai
We like to say that video games are art, and there’s truth in that. But in the capitalist world, video games are also a business. Not everything is the product of an auteur with unlimited funds; sometimes, the funds justify everything. That’s especially true in genres like strip mahjong. At the end of the day, everything is subject to the budget. Sometimes it’s just more obvious. PLUS: The AI apocalypse continues! Ghosts! The Legend of Makai!
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The Last Preset Machine: Yamaha's MR10
Earlier on the blog, I took a look at an early preset drum machine, the Panasonic RD-9844. How early was it? Not a single IC in sights, a pure discrete logic machine packed tightly into a case. Let’s take a look at the opposite end of things. The 1982 Yamaha MR10 drum machine. PLUS: Disco fever!
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Playing Arcade Mahjong at Home? Or is it just a Mirage?
A lot of the things I’ve looked at on this blog have never left Japan, often for good reason. One genre that stands out in this is mahjong, a tile-based gambling game popular in Japan, associated with nudity in their arcades, and associated with old ladies everywhere else. How can we add this to our supergun? Surely that’s a question someone other than me is curious about. Reader’s note: This post will be strictly “safe for work”. The game might be too. Depends on your workplace.
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