Waltorious Writes About Games – Game-related ramblings.

Scratching That Itch: Galaxy Goons

On September 20, 2021

This is the eighty-second entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Here comes another random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality: it’s Galaxy Goons by John Erwin, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

a space fantasy adventure game

Do you fantasize about adventures in space, reader? Then you are in luck, because that’s exactly what Galaxy Goons is about.

Scratching That Itch: Rosette Diceless

By Waltorious

On September 14, 2021

In Uncategorized

This is the eighty-first entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

The random number generators have whirred to life once again, plucking a random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. This time it’s Rosette Diceless, by Future Proof Games. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

Consensus-based, story-focused, improvisational roleplaying

Well, reader, you’re about to hear my consensus on Rosette Diceless. A consensus of one.

History Lessons: Miracle Warriors: Seal Of The Dark Lord

By Waltorious

On September 7, 2021

In Uncategorized

Other History Lessons posts can be found here. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

My slow quest to play the early Japanese-style role-playing games continues. I’ve even expanded the scope to include some games outside of the genre, like the one I played most recently, The Legend of Zelda. When I wrote about that game, I briefly discussed the action role-playing games that had inspired it, most of which released on Japanese home computer systems like the PC-88, which boasted high resolution displays in order to properly render Japanese writing. Compared to hardware in the Western market, these computers could render incredibly detailed images, although they were much worse at displaying animations than the console systems that would follow like the Famicom or Master System.

Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord, by Kogado Studio, was originally a PC-88 game from 1986, although it was later ported to a variety of other systems. One of these ports was an official English translation for Sega’s Master System, which is the version I played, using emulation via the Genesis Plus GX core (which emulates both the Master System and the Genesis) in Retroarch. This port is actually rather different than the original PC-88 version; the differences are discussed in this article. With new art, music, a mini-map view, streamlined controls, and a completely different world layout, the Master System incarnation is more of a remake than a port, with additional development in-house from Sega.

Scratching That Itch: Mausritter

By Waltorious

On September 1, 2021

In Uncategorized

This is the eightieth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

I’m back after a short vacation, brushing the dust off of the random number generators and spinning them up to grab another random pick from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. This time it’s Mausritter, by Losing Games, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Sword-and-whiskers roleplaying

I feel the sword would be way more effective than the whiskers.

Scratching That Itch: Micron

By Waltorious

On August 11, 2021

In Uncategorized

This is the seventy-ninth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

What’s this? Why, it’s another random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality! This time we have Micron, by Apparition Games. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

A fusion of puzzle and rhythm gameplay.

It’s time to solve puzzles to the beat.

Psychonauts Is Still Great

By Waltorious

On August 10, 2021

In Uncategorized

This is Keeping Score, a series about games and their soundtracks. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Later this month (at the time of writing), Psychonauts 2 will be released into the wild. In an unusual attempt at timeliness, I endeavored to replay the original Psychonauts before that happened, and lo, I have succeeded. Of course, I’ll probably play something else in between and not get to Psychonauts 2 until months later, but that’s beside the point. The point is that Psychonauts is still great, and I’m eager to play the sequel.

Scratching That Itch: Alone With Your Ghost

By Waltorious

On August 3, 2021

In Uncategorized

This is the seventy-eighth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Here we go again with a random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. It’s Alone With Your Ghost, by babblegumsam. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

a solo roleplaying game about coming to terms with your past

At last! We have uncovered a tabletop roleplaying game that I can actually play, since it’s designed as a solo experience!

Scratching That Itch: Apollo Visualizer Tool

By Waltorious

On July 31, 2021

In Uncategorized

This is the seventy-seventh entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our next random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is Apollo Visualizer Tool, by Kichex. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

Tool for music visualizations without writing code

The fact that code is not required is good news, since my coding knowledge doesn’t extend much past putting a for loop inside of another for loop. The bad news is that the Apollo Visualizer Tool is a package for Unity 3D, which I do not own, and therefore I cannot try it myself. According to the itch.io page, it lets users read the intensity of 6 frequency ranges and have these modify engine objects by changing their size, color, rotation, and other properties. How well does it work? I do not know, although there are several example videos embedded on the page. If you want to build a music visualizer or even create a game in which the visual art responds to the music, this could be a useful tool to have, and Kichex points out that it can serve as a starting point for your own creation, perhaps even by peeking into and modifying its existing code. If that sounds like something you want, and you are already using Unity, it’s worth checking out. If you missed it in the bundle, it’s sold for a minimum price of $12.

Since I can’t try it out and offer any more info, I’ll leave it at that. Which means we have 77 down, and only 1664 to go!

Scratching That Itch: The Adventures Of Elena Temple: Definitive Edition

By Waltorious

On July 30, 2021

In Uncategorized

This is the seventy-sixth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

It is happening again. The virtual dice have rolled once more, randomly selecting something from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. This time it’s The Adventures of Elena Temple: Definitive Edition, by GrimTalin. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

Play the classic platformer you never knew existed!

I can confirm that I did not know it existed.

Backlog Roulette: Wild Metal Country

By Waltorious

On July 28, 2021

In Uncategorized

As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Reader, brace yourself for a chilling glimpse into my psyche. Like many people, I have a huge backlog of games, acquired from various digital sales, bundles, and the like. Unlike most people, I’ve organized mine in a giant spreadsheet, tracking where I got the games from (Steam, GOG, Humble, etc.) and including other useful notes, like whether I’ve played the game already, or whether a game comes with a bundled soundtrack or other extras. This helps me organize all my games — well, not all of them, the gigantic itch.io bundle is a whole other can of worms — but even so, I often forget what some games are. A little while back, inspired by my Scratching That Itch series, I decided to pick one of the unplayed games from my backlog at random and try it out.

The virtual dice picked a game called Wild Metal Country. Not only did I have no memory of what this game is or when I acquired it, I saw that I’d listed the source as a “Digital Installer”. This means I didn’t get it from any of the major digital storefronts, but rather had downloaded an installer from an unknown location at some point and stored it on a backup drive. The mystery deepened. It was time to discover just what the hell Wild Metal Country is.