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From the NES to the PC Engine!
So, after completing Aspect Star “N” for the NES, I went back to my JavaScript dungeon and continued to work on my games there. But the sweet sound of retro homebrew has called me again, and this time I’ve ended up in the world of the TurboGrafx-16, called the PC Engine by its friends, assuming its friends live in Japan (or France, apparently). Why did I betray Nintendo like this? Let’s take a technical look at the system.
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Review! The Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy!
On this blog, you’ve probably noticed that I have a bit of an interest of vintage technology. Today, though, we’re going to take that to a ridiculous point by taking a look at some medieval technology, as I try to put together a wooden kit that mimics a historical instrument. What have I gotten myself into? Will the tips of my thumbs ever recover?
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Trademarks and Region Locks on the Sega Genesis
Region locks and licensing restrictions are something that I think most gamers find more frustrating than anything else. Why can’t I just play the game if I have it? And that’s certainly true. Nevertheless, I think they’re interesting from the point of a technical solution to a difficult problem (computers like to run code, it’s what they do), and if you click on a blog post about that, maybe you do too. I’ve seen a lot of misinformation here, so I’m going to try to clear things up.
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The Pioneer LaserActive: Can Sega do what NEC-tendon't?
The Sega CD gets a bad reputation nowadays; it’s a very impressive piece of hardware, and has some great games for it. But sometimes I think people just remember the FMV games and also Sega’s later 32X add-on disaster, and write it off. But Pioneer didn’t– they released a PAC for the LaserActive that brings it the full power of the Sega CD. How could this go wrong?
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The Pioneer LaserActive: NEC Style
The LaserDisc is one of the coolest media formats out there. (It’s huge, shiny, and has “laser” in the name. That’s objective coolness in my book.) The TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine is one of the coolest game consoles. (Johnny Turbo did not pay me to write that) But what happens when the two combine? Well, uh, not much.
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Making of Aspect Star N: "Making" Aspect Star N!
The biggest benefit, in my book, of making games for older consoles is that you can make physical cartridges for them. As a young kid, video games felt almost magical, and that mystique still lives around cartridges for me. Holding one and knowing “I made that” is a wonderful feeling, and one I recommend you try if you have the chance! It turns out to be pretty easy!
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"Modding" the ToyShock Haunted House!
I gave the ToyShock Haunted House digital pinball machine a pretty good review. So it stands that within two months, I would’ve completely gutted the machine, replaced all the software and the screen, and made it something completely different. Let’s take a look!
