Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Also not gaming. It my day off today and I work all weekend (including mandatory overtime!!).

So my day is filled with... Repairing my server. The thing threw a file system error yesterday and dropped into RO. This happened once before. I ran fsck from the ramfs, fixed a few things and now it won't boot. Kernel Panic when it tried to load the kernel!!
So I downloaded debian live system. Won't boot that (bad magic number). So I'm making a new flash on a different computer with a different flash drive.
I'm thinking I need to just do a grub update if I can get in there.
Worst case, I'll reinstall, but that installation is almost 14 years old and has a lot of customizations over time (File server, SSL, cloud server, Cron jobs, ssh, zfs). I'm not sure if I can think of everything I'd have to backup and how to restore it (or even back it up properly)

Yay!!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Looks like I'm the first one in the thread with some games, this week. Granted, I won't have a lot of time for gaming this weekend due to Christmas, but I've picked a few small things that can fit into the free moments!


The first of these is a replay of Redimensioned mode in Zool Redimensioned (PC, via Proton), as it's short-but-sweet and a lot of fun.


I'll also be diving into Pac-Man 256 (again, via Proton) to scratch the maze-chase itch. This one's a lot of fun for quick bursts, as it's procedurally-generated and never the same twice!



Two caravan-style SNES mini-games, originally made for real-life contests, Star Fox Super Weekend Competition and Donkey Kong Country Competition Cartridge, will be present for bite-sized score-chasing.


Sticking with bite-sized experiences, I'll also be staying sharp on the Bomberman front by playing some battles with AIs in Super Bomberman 3 for the SNES. To the anonymous fellow GOL'er who I'll be doing battle with once Super Bomberman R 2 is out next year: I suggest that you do the same.



Aside from all of these, early on Friday I also checked out the two prototypes of "Super Donkey" (fascinating video here, an unfinished SNES game that pre-dates Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi's Island, and seemingly intersects with them both as well as with the less-famous vintage arcade-game Sky Skipper, and apparently crosses paths with third-party games like Plok somewhere along the line as well. There are some interesting gameplay concepts in there, some of which did get re-used elsewhere and some (such as the incredibly fun-to-use chargeable jump/flight mechanic) which did not. These were a fun little piece of history that I'm glad were preserved!

Quoting: itscalledrealityWishing you, your friends and family well this years' end!

Quoting: denyasisMerry Christmas and happy holidays.

Likewise to you and yours, you guys! Same for everyone else as well - have a great time, everybody!

G'Day everyone……. Its a very sunny Saturday here…… Its Christmas eve…… And thats about all to say about today…...

It was a good week this week…… My new PSU arrived in the post and my PC is now working perfectly again…… Something died in the old PSU and it went into a fail safe mode…… So nothing else was damaged…… w00t!……. About time I had some good luck……

Spent the week working around the garden…. Trimming back trees and mowing the lawn…… I also continued to take Rufus for a walk around the town…..

This week in gaming was spent catching up on the Gaming Advent Calendar……. Im back up to date now with it…… Makes it a bit easier when sports games are usually quick games to play…..

Anyway this week I played…….

Arcade

Capcom Sports Club (1997 Capcom) - Sports (Basketball, Tennis & Soccer)
Football Frenzy (1992 SNK) - Sports (Football)
NBA Hangtime (1996 Midway) - Sports (Basketball)
Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory (1998 SNK) - Sports (Soccer)


Console

Disney Sports Soccer (2002 Konami) - Nintendo GameCube - Sports (Soccer)
FIFA Soccer 2005 (2004 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Soccer)
Formula One 05 (2005 Sony) – Sony PlayStation 2 – Sports (Racing)
Formula One 06 (2006 Sony) – Sony PlayStation 2 – Sports (Racing)
Madden NFL 96 (1995 EA Sports) - Sega Mega Drive - Sports (Football)
Tecmo Super Bowl 2023 (2022 TecmoBowl.org) - Nintendo Entertainment System - Sports (Football)
Tennis 2K2 (2001 Sega) - Sega Dreamcast - Sports (Tennis)
WRC: Rally Evolved (2005 Sony) – Sony PlayStation 2 – Sports (Racing)


The 2022 Gaming Advent Calendar continues……. As a reminder I gave my lovely assistant a list of 25 games for the 25 days of Christmas…….. And they have jumbled them all up and every day I will open the door and see what game I will play that day……... Of these 25 games I have not played 24 of them at all before….. And the one I have played before I just played for a few minutes to check the rom worked back in 2016 and never touched again…….. There are 23 sports games and 2 non sports games……

Day 16 of the 2022 Gaming Advent Calendar was……..
Tennis 2K2 (2001 Sega) - Sega Dreamcast - Sports (Tennis)

This is known as Virtua Tennis 2 in Europe….. And to be honest I prefer the first one……. The first one was faster bit more more arcade like…… This tries to still be arcade while also trying to be more sim like and to me it fails…… If you want a good tennis game on the Sega Dreamcast play the original Virtua Tennis…….

Day 17 of the 2022 Gaming Advent Calendar was……..
Madden NFL 96 (1995 EA Sports) - Sega Mega Drive - Sports (Football)

Its 16bit Madden which means its not great……… I would much rather play any of the three Tecmo Super Bowl games on the Mega Drive over this….. Its a decent game but as per usual for the time there are a few cheese plays you can run that will easily either get you massive yards or even an easy touchdown…… Juts pitch it to the running back and spin down the sideline and the AI can hardly stop you……...

Day 18 of the 2022 Gaming Advent Calendar was……..
Disney Sports Soccer (2002 Konami) - Nintendo GameCube - Sports (Soccer)

Disney Sports Succer is another terrible game for the GameCube…… Exact same looping guitar rift as the other games and the exact same crap gameplay……. These games have not been fun and any Mario game even the crap baseball one would be leagues better than this…… What was Konami doing green lighting this crap???

Day 19 of the 2022 Gaming Advent Calendar was……..
FIFA Soccer 2005 (2004 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Soccer)

Its a 2005 soccer game……. And much like the other month when I played through all the 2005 games this game is really good…… Its very much a sim soccer game…. So the score wont be 27 – 0……. Even on the easy difficulty you need to work for your goals…… Another good 2005 game…… What a twist…..

Day 20 of the 2022 Gaming Advent Calendar was……..
NBA Hangtime (1996 Midway) - Sports (Basketball)

The follow up to NBA Jam Tournament Edition is another really damn good game…. Midway was knocking it out of the part at this time and this is no different…… Slightly better graphics and updated player roster and more insane dunks make it another great installment in Midway arcade basketball games…...

Day 21 of the 2022 Gaming Advent Calendar was……..
Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory (1998 SNK) - Sports (Soccer)

This is pure arcade joy and it is great……. SNK has a good nack for making great sports games on the Neo Geo hardware……. Neo Turf Masters is probably the greatest golf game ever made and this is not quite up there with that it is still a fantastic game and well worth playing…… Its got the typical really damn good Neo Geo graphics and sprite scaling……. Combined with the really good simple controls and fast paced action and some excellent cut scenes thrown in for good measure…… If you want good arcade soccer action….. Neo Geo Cup '98: The Road to the Victory is the game for you……..

Day 22 of the 2022 Gaming Advent Calendar was……..
Football Frenzy (1992 SNK) - Sports (Football)

Another good SNK Neo Geo game…….. This game is all about offense…… There are no defense plays to pick from or anything……. The controls are nice and simple and the game play is fun…. Only real negative is how many coins this would have taken to “complete” back in the day…….. 3 games to win the championship and 4 quarters per game and you need a coin per quarter….. So 12 coins minimum……. But back in 1992 this was probably a bad deal…….

Day 23 of the 2022 Gaming Advent Calendar was……..
Capcom Sports Club (1997 Capcom) - Sports (Basketball, Tennis & Soccer)

Three games in one….. The Basketball and Soccer games are good fun…… 5 on 5 Soccer and 3 on 3 Basketball…… Good simple arcade fun……… The Tennis game however is not as good….. And thats not real surprise…… There are very few good tennis video games….. The graphics are nice and very cartoony looking…….. The basketball players look like Mr Potato Heads……… Overall this is a good simple fun arcade game……..

As for this week there are 2 games left on the Advent Calendar……. And 2 traditional games I play on every Christmas…… Aliens vs Predator (1994 Capcom) – Arcade - Beat 'em up…… And…… Madden NFL 2003 (2002 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Football)…….. And then its back to the more usual stuff….. This week I want to play through some of the Nintendo GameCube Mario Sports games…… they cant be as bad as the Disney Sports games…… can they??? oh god….. I hope not……..

As for none gaming….. That will depend on the weather……. Its meant to get to 42 here next week and if the temreture gets that high im going to be hibernating inside…….

Quoting: Pengling

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The first of these is a replay of Redimensioned mode in Zool Redimensioned (PC, via Proton), as it's short-but-sweet and a lot of fun.

If only Zool didnt keep clogging the shower and blaming it on Wig….. We might have more Zool games.....

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night......

Well thats it from me…… Have a good week everyone……

Now for my bad joke of the week……
I went around to my mates place the other day and he showed me his new pet termite……. I asked him “why the bloody hell do you have a pet termite???”…… He replied “It seemed like a nice little pet to have”……. I asked him if he gave it a name and he told him his name is “Clint” I asked why did he name his termite “Clint”………. My mate replies “Because Clint eats wood”
*ba dum.... tssssh…...*

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderIt was a good week this week…… My new PSU arrived in the post and my PC is now working perfectly again…… Something died in the old PSU and it went into a fail safe mode…… So nothing else was damaged…… w00t!……. About time I had some good luck……

That was lucky! The last time I owned a desktop box (many years ago now - I've always preferred portables, anyway), the PSU exploded and took out the HDD! (It was a very "Kristen, you look burnt or DEAD." moment. Always keep up-to-date backups, everyone. )

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderIf only Zool didnt keep clogging the shower and blaming it on Wig….. We might have more Zool games.....

This is CONSOLE WAAAAAAAAAARS!

Last edited by Pengling on 24 December 2022 at 2:38 am UTC