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For What It's Worth

11/23/2016

1 Comment

 
Hi. I...uh...I haven't been around for a while, huh? I can explain that.

I've been busy. Not necessarily any busier than usual, but my focus has been elsewhere. I recently moved, and now I'm close enough to friends that I might be busy any given weeknight. I started a new job, and there's a "no blogging" policy that's curtailed my lunchtime writing breaks. I've thrown myself into developing a small Mega Man fangame, which has consumed almost all my free time for the last several weeks. Most importantly, I've taken stock of all my activities and obligations, and I've started turning my attention away from the things that don't energize and fulfill me the way I used to. Blogging, much to my surprise, is one such thing.

To be clear, I still love to write. I still intend to update my Series Opinions when I have the time and inspiration, and I'm not abandoning blogging altogether. But I look at the last several months--heck, the last year or two--and I can't consider myself a "blogger" anymore. With rare exception, my only posts have been my monthly Retrospectives--a holdover from my days with Exfanding Your Horizons, when we relied on regularly scheduled filler posts (which, ostensibly, were also of some benefit to our less-regular readers) to meet our blogging quotas. Until recently, I didn't stop to consider whether I wanted to keep going with a recurring summary of my online deeds. It was simply something I did. I never thought much of it because of how little time it took, in the grand scheme of things. Not like the GameCola articles that took me weeks to assemble, or the YouTube videos that took months. But when I assessed everything I was doing with my life, I came to realize that even the small effort it took to keep up with a monthly Retrospective was still an intrusion on how I wanted to be spending my time anymore.

If you're following an obscure blog that never updates, then you're probably following me on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and maybe even The Backloggery, where you'll get updates on my online deeds in real time. Neither of us needs a Retrospective anymore. (Apologies to the one person who misses the Retrospectives.)

That's how I operate: I accumulate more and more obligations and join more and more activities until I'm completely overburdened, then I clean house and start over again. I never want to let people down, and I often feel guilty backing out of a commitment (no matter how good the excuse is), and I'm also a creature of habit. Once I start something, I'm disinclined to stop. This is why I've played through so many video games I haven't enjoyed. Even that has changed, though; you may recall my Backloggery Revolution earlier this year, and I haven't looked back. I've lost all patience for things that should be fun but aren't. I have so little time to myself anymore that I can't afford to waste a second on anything that doesn't build me up.

That's a little unhealthy for a perfectionist, mind you. I already want the things I do in my free time to go smoothly; now I'm pressuring myself to choose the best possible activities and make sure they go off without a hitch. I'm making myself unhappy by trying to be happy. How messed up is that? The solution, or at least part of the solution, is to free up more time for myself so I'm not so pressured to make every moment count. To awkwardly employ a metaphor, they say there's no use crying over spilled milk, but I'll still cry less if I spill the same amount from a fuller glass.

Regardless, no matter what I do, I will always question whether it's the best thing I can do. Suppose I volunteer to be a friendly visitor at a nursing home. Great, right? But then I'm not helping out at a homeless shelter, providing disaster relief in the wake of the latest hurricane, mentoring a troubled teenager, or doing any number of other important things. And let's be honest; the activities I'm choosing between are playing AM2R and watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain Goes Somewhere You'll Never Visit, At This Rate. Maybe that's not all bad, though. Giving of oneself is arguably the highest pursuit there is, but giving is hollow without someone to receive the gift. By being a consumer of entertainment, I'm validating the time and effort that countless people have spent on trying to make me happy, however indirectly. Maybe, with the right mindset, whatever I'm doing is the best thing I could be doing. At the very least, I can aim to make the most of any situation, however trivial and wasteful it may seem.

It feels good to write again. I missed this. I missed you, dear reader. Even if I'm only writing for myself, this feels worthwhile. Even if this wasn't the best thing I could have done with my time, this feels worthwhile. Maybe perfectionism is the fear of things being less than worthwhile. Well, then. Things are going perfectly.
1 Comment

Retrospective: July 2016

8/11/2016

0 Comments

 
Hoo boy. After five years of exile on the moon (as I frequently referred to it), I finally found an opportunity to leave. July was spent packing up the moon base and looking for a new place to live, but I managed to fit in a little time to keep some of my side projects going.

This Website:

I started writing up Series Opinions for two more Star Trek movies, and I performed some long-overdue maintenance on my Series Opinions pages in general. I introduced a new section for Mega Man fangames...or maybe that was in June. I officially need to add a "Last updated on..." tag to each opinion so I can keep track of what to list here! I guess you'll have to settle for a single blog post.

- Retrospective: June 2016

Games:

Hot off the heels of Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest is another fan-made Mega Man game featuring a level by yours truly—or, in this case, two levels. Cool stuff.

- Mega Man Endless

GameCola:

Although I haven't made any official announcement on the site itself, I've scaled back my GameCola contributions to the point where I'm more of a cameo-amenable former contributor than an active staff member. Our long-delayed year-end awards finally surfaced in July, and I contributed writeups for Chrono Trigger and the original Super Mario Bros., which won Best Game of 20 and 30 Years Ago, respectively. It should come as no surprise that I, a man perpetually behind the times, had nothing to do with the writeups for any of the games released in the year we were actually celebrating.

- The 2015 GameCola Videogame Awards (Part 2)

YouTube:

One last spurt of livestreaming before the moon base relocation yielded one of my better crops of fangame sampling.

Flashman85LIVE:
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #11: Battle, X Night Shade, Atari, 9000
- Let's Play: Mega Man Endless (Blind, Live)
- Back for More: Mega Man Endless (Live)

The Backloggery:

GOG sale + a PayPal balance I keep forgetting about = time to pick up a couple discounted games I've had my eye on. I also gave SuperDanny Powered Up another shot, following a conversation with the game's developer, and I put enough effort into beating the game to warrant adding it to my backlog.

New:
- Day of the Tentacle Remastered  (PC)
- Mega Man Endless  (PC)
- Resonance  (PC)
- SuperDanny Powered Up  (PC)
- The Shivah  (PC)
 
Started:
- Mega Man Endless  (PC)
- SuperDanny Powered Up  (PC)
 
Beat:
- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze  (WiiU)
- Mega Man Endless  (PC)
- Star Trek: 25th Anniversary  (PC)
- SuperDanny Powered Up  (PC)

I expect August to be similarly sparse, but hopes are high that I'll be able to kick my side projects into high gear once my wife and I have finished unpacking everything and have finished jumping through all the other hoops involved in moving back to Earth from the moon.
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Retrospective: June 2016

7/12/2016

4 Comments

 
June! I barely even remember what happened in June, and we're already a third of the way through July, so it's all blending together in my head. Maybe this will help me sort things out.

This Website:

I'm getting back into a writing groove, with two blog posts of actual substance to show for myself, as well as plenty of writing for my Series Opinions pages (though not quite enough to report anything as completed for June).

- Retrospective: May 2016
- A Reflection on a Reflection
- Backloggery Revolution

GameCola:

2016 has been The Year of Mega Man for me, and it would be almost criminal not to write about it on GameCola. Even though the site is finally back from hiatus, I've felt my creativity pulling me in other directions lately, so updates in this category will probably get smaller and farther between as time goes on. Or maybe I'll pull a Michael Gray and make a tradition of announcing my retirement and coming back a couple months later.

Blog Posts:
- The Endless Legacy of a Good Mega Man Level

YouTube:

Now that I've got way more fangames to play than I can possibly keep up with (see this thread), I'm trying to step up how often I livestream. My original intention with my Twitch channel was to get people from my GeminiLaser channel interested by playing a few different Mega Man games, and then branching out to whatever I felt like playing...but I really have developed a niche for myself with Mega Man, and these fangame sampler livestreams have almost become a form of community service, documenting games that have received little or no coverage anywhere else on the Internet. It's kind of an honor to be the curator of what might be the most comprehensive list of Mega Man fangames out there, and to have such a strong following when I record these games.

Flashman85LIVE:
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #9: Dr. Wily's Final Attack, CalEdit, In Mega City
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #10: Bass Abyss, Polarity Reconstruction, Bad Box Over (and More)

The Backloggery:

I would strongly recommend reading my "Backloggery Revolution" post, mentioned above, before trying to make sense of this incredible list. Holy cats.

New:
- Heroes of Might and Magic  (GBC)
- Heroes of Might and Magic II  (GBC)
- Terminator Salvation  (ARC)
- The Legend of Dark Witch  (Steam)
- Yoda Stories  (PC)

Started:
- Started: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze  (WiiU)
- Started: Heroes of Might and Magic  (GBC)
- Started: Star Trek: 25th Anniversary  (PC)
- Started: Terminator Salvation  (ARC)

Beat:
- A Boy and His Blob  (Wii)
- Asteroid Miner  (Brwsr)
- Burnout 2: Point of Impact  (GCN)
- Caesar III  (PC)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night  (PS)
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert  (PC)
- Frogger  (GBC)
- Galaga  (GBA)
- Gamma Bros.  (Brwsr)
- Gradius III  (PSP)
- Heroes of Might and Magic  (GBC)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade  (PC)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia  (PC)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death  (PC)
- Hogan's Alley  (NES)
- Karaoke Revolution Party  (GCN)
- Mario Party 7  (GCN)
- Micro Machines  (NES)
- Ms. Pac Man  (GBA)
- Pole Position  (GBA)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon  (PC)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon: Corkscrew Follies  (PC)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes  (PC)
- SimCity 3000  (PC)
- Sonic R  (GCN)
- Star Wars: Episode I: Racer  (N64)
- StarCraft  (PC)
- Super Mario Bros. Crossover  (Brwsr)
- Terminator Salvation  (ARC)
- Tetris Worlds  (GCN)
- Theme Park  (PC)
- WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness  (PC)
- WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!  (GCN)
- Yars' Revenge  (GBC)

Completed:
- A Boy and His Blob  (Wii)
- Area 51  (ARC)
- Asteroid Miner  (Brwsr)
- Asteroids  (2600)
- Beetle Adventure Racing!  (N64)
- Blades of Steel  (NES)
- Braid  (Steam)
- Breath of Fire  (GBA)
- Breath of Fire II  (GBA)
- Bubble Bobble  (NES)
- Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse  (NES)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night  (PS)
- Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth  (WW)
- Chip's Challenge  (PC)
- Civilization III  (PC)
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert  (PC)
- Cruis'n USA  (ARC)
- Demons to Diamonds  (2600)
- Deponia  (PC)
- Detana!! TwinBee  (VC)
- Dino Run  (Brwsr)
- Dokapon Kingdom  (Wii)
- Donkey Kong  (NES)
- Donkey Kong Jr.  (NES)
- Doom  (PC)
- Dragon Age: Origins  (Origin)
- Dragon Warrior II  (NES)
- Dragon Warrior III  (GBC)
- Duck Hunt  (NES)
- Duke Nukem II  (PC)
- Earthworm Jim  (SNES)
- Enter the Matrix  (GCN)
- Escape from Monkey Island  (PC)
- Escape Goat  (Steam)
- Façade  (PC)
- Falldown  (CALC)
- Final Fantasy III  (NDS)
- Final Fantasy III  (SNES)
- Final Fantasy IV: The After Years  (WW)
- Final Fantasy VII  (PC)
- Final Fantasy VIII  (PC)
- FireFlies  (Brwsr)
- Galcon Fusion  (Steam)
- Game & Watch Gallery 2  (GBC)
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game  (PC)
- Golden Sun: Dark Dawn  (NDS)
- Gradius  (PSP)
- Gradius III  (PSP)
- Gradius III  (VC)
- Gradius IV  (PSP)
- Gradius ReBirth  (WW)
- Half-Life  (Steam)
- Half-Life 2  (Steam)
- Half-Life 2: Episode One  (Steam)
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two  (Steam)
- Half-Life: Blue Shift  (Steam)
- Half-Life: Opposing Force  (Steam)
- Hogan's Alley  (NES)
- Infectionator!  (Brwsr)
- Jeopardy!  (NES)
- Jolly Rover  (Steam)
- Jungle Hunt  (AppII)
- Katamari Damacy  (PS2)
- King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown (EGA)  (PC)
- King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown (VGA)  (PC)
- King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones (VGA)  (PC)
- King's Quest III Redux: To Heir Is Human  (PC)
- Leisure Suit Larry 1: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards (VGA)  (PC)
- Leisure Suit Larry 2: Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places)  (PC)
- Leisure Suit Larry 3: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals  (PC)
- Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work  (PC)
- Life Force  (VC)
- Lufia: The Legend Returns  (GBC)
- Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares  (PC)
- Mega Man Legacy Collection  (Steam)
- Mega Man Soccer  (SNES)
- Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes  (GCN)
- Metroid Prime Hunters  (NDS)
- Metroid Prime Pinball  (NDS)
- Metroid: Other M  (Wii)
- Micro Machines  (NES)
- Microzine #17  (AppII)
- Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge  (PC)
- Nightshade  (NES)
- Nintendo Land  (WiiU)
- Paper Mario  (N64)
- Paperboy  (NES)
- Police Quest I: In Pursuit of the Death Angel  (PC)
- Police Quest II: The Vengeance  (PC)
- Police Quest III: The Kindred  (PC)
- Population: Tire  (Brwsr)
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time  (GCN)
- Q*bert  (2600)
- Quest for Glory I: So You Want to Be a Hero (VGA)  (PC)
- Rampage  (NES)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon  (PC)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon: Corkscrew Follies  (PC)
- Rollercoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes  (PC)
- Scribblenauts  (NDS)
- Scurge: Hive  (GBA)
- Secret of Mana  (SNES)
- Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon  (GBA)
- Shogo: Mobile Armor Division  (PC)
- SimCity  (SNES)
- SimCity 2000  (PC)
- SimCopter  (PC)
- SkiFree  (PC)
- Solitaire  (PC)
- Sonic the Hedgehog  (GCN)
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2  (GCN)
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3  (GCN)
- Space Cadet Pinball  (PC)
- Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier  (PC)
- Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter (EGA)  (PC)
- Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge  (PC)
- Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon  (PC)
- Space Quest: The Lost Chapter  (PC)
- Sparkster  (SNES)
- Spider Solitaire  (PC)
- Star Fox  (SNES)
- Star Fox 64  (N64)
- Star Soldier  (NES)
- Star Trek: Starfleet Command III  (PC)
- Star Trek: Voyager - The Arcade Game  (ARC)
- Star Wars Trilogy Arcade  (ARC)
- Star Wars: Dark Forces  (PC)
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron  (N64)
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader  (GCN)
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike  (GCN)
- Stinkoman 20X6  (Brwsr)
- Stunts  (PC)
- Super Castlevania IV  (SNES)
- Super Mario Galaxy  (Wii)
- Super Star Wars  (VC)
- Tales of Symphonia  (GCN)
- Tetoris  (Brwsr)
- Tetris  (GBC)
- Tetris  (PC)
- Tetris DS  (NDS)
- Tetris Worlds  (GCN)
- The Curse of Monkey Island  (PC)
- The Even More Incredible Machine  (PC)
- The Legend of Zelda  (NES)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past  (SNES)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time  (N64)
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages  (GBC)
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons  (GBC)
- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass  (NDS)
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks  (NDS)
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker  (GCN)
- The Longest Journey  (PC)
- The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse  (SNES)
- The Sims  (PC)
- Theme Park  (PC)
- Tomb Raider  (PC)
- Tomb Raider II  (PC)
- Tomb Raider III  (PC)
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2  (PC)
- Treasure MathStorm!  (Mac)
- Treasure Mountain!  (Mac)
- WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness  (PC)
- Wario Land 4  (GBA)
- Word Munchers Deluxe  (PC)
- Worms: Armageddon  (PC)
- Yars' Revenge  (GBC)
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link  (GBA)
- Zork I: The Great Underground Empire  (PC)

Removed:
- Big Pixel Zombies  (Brwsr)
- Christmas Cat  (Brwsr)
- Fallacy of Dawn  (PC)
- Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords  (PC)
- Galaxian  (GBA)
- Mario Remix: Boss Edition  (Brwsr)
- Rocket Ranger  (NES)
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4  (GCN)

I guess that's what happened in June.
4 Comments

Retrospective: May 2016

6/3/2016

0 Comments

 
May was a fantastic month for my online projects, and I've been working on a number of things that won't be ready until at least June or July. For one thing, I started learning FamiTracker so I can try my hand at composing music for a certain semi-secret project that's in the works...

This Website:

Not much in the way of blog posts, but I did spend a lot of time developing various Series Opinions pages, finishing one and bringing several others closer to completion. On a related note, I really need to start including a "last updated" date for each of these so I can remember which ones to list in these Retrospective posts. I'm fairly certain that the majority of opinions I've written have never been mentioned in a Retrospective, on account of finishing them too early in the month to remember to include them. Well, and I also made the decision not too long ago to start highlighting each installment as it gets finished, rather than waiting for the whole category page to be done, so a lot of reviews fell by the wayside there. Poke around; there's plenty to read (and all of it is always subject to change).

- Retrospective: April 2016
- Series Opinions: Star Trek: Generations

GameCola:

By the way, GameCola is back! Again! A couple podcasts we recorded previously finally got their fifteen seconds of fame.

Podcasts:
- GC Podcast #91: Directly Indirect
- GC Podcast #92: The Singing Podcast

YouTube:

A few of the best livestreams I've ever done are preserved for posterity, my last two GameCola Podcasts are now on YouTube, and I finally got around to creating a channel intro video that's beneficial for new viewers, but mostly aimed at my longtime fans. Specifically, the longtime fans who have no idea that my GeminiLaser work is but a tiny portion of what I do in this series of tubes I call home, and especially the ones who assume I must be dead if it's been more than 72 hours since my last video or comment. Also, the video was super fun to assemble, and I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out. The last item on the list isn't technically for YouTube, but I did contribute a short clip to a video put together by Patricia of Old School Lane, whom you may remember as the host of a podcast interview I did at the beginning of 2014. The video itself gets very personal and spans a range of emotions (being at various times serious, silly, depressing, and uplifting), but it's an interesting watch if you've got the time, particularly if you're familiar with Patricia's work. You'll know my clip when you see it.

Flashman85LIVE:
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest - Part 1: Contest Results!
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest - Part 2: Judging the Judges
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #8: Square Root of Negative One, Mavericks, Bon Ball

GCDotNet:
- The GameCola Podcast #91: Directly Indirect
- The GameCola Podcast #92: The Singing Podcast

GeminiLaser:
- An Introduction to GeminiLaser

Old School Lane:
 -Should We Say Goodbye to Halcyon Days?

Games:

May marks the second time this year where a Mega Man level I designed for a contest was released for public consumption. Last time it was the Mega Man Legacy Collection; this time it's Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest, the awkwardly titled fangame comprised of levels from 20 contestants and five judges, all tied together by a hub filled with zany characters. In addition to contributing a level ("Maze of Death"), I had the honor of announcing the contest results via livestream (see above), I designed the logo on the title screen, and I've been an unofficial playtester and copyeditor/writer (you can blame me for most of the instructional text now). My personal stake in the game aside, this is one of my favorite Mega Man fangames yet; it's funny, highly replayable, and a solid challenge. The sheer variety of level designs makes for a unique experience, too; even the levels that aren't so fun to play make for good conversation, and it's interesting to read the judges' reactions to them. The game is free to download, and a multitude of improvements and tweaks have been made since I livestreamed the game. If you're even remotely interested in Mega Man, platformers, or collaborative game design, give this one a look.

- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest

The Backloggery:

It's nice to play games I'm enjoying, and nicer still to stop playing games once I've gotten everything I care to get out of them, even if I haven't beaten them yet. Faced with the reality I will probably never again be able to log into my Desura account to play the one game I have there, I did a little housekeeping.

New:
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest  (PC)
- You Have to Win the Game  (Steam)
 
Started:
- A Boy and His Blob  (Wii)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night  (PS)
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest  (PC)
- You Have to Win the Game  (Steam)
 
Beat:
- Gradius Gaiden  (PSP)
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest  (PC)
 
Completed:
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest  (PC)
 
Removed:
- Star Runner  (Desura)
- You Have to Win the Game  (Steam)

As it turns out, you don't have to win the game.
0 Comments

Retrospective: April 2016

5/6/2016

0 Comments

 
With no new Mega Man level design contests cropping up, I found myself able to once again devote my free time to...uh...staying late at the office. April was a busy month. However, I managed to accomplish a few things of note, so I'm happy with what I have to show for myself this time.

This Website:

I did a lot of writing in April (at least, by current standards), and there's another Star Trek Series Opinions page and two blog posts already in the works for May. If you ever miss the kind of writing I used to do for Exfanding Your Horizons, the posts from this month should be a treat. Incidentally, I wrote almost the entire post about the NuTrek Enterprise back in February; I just didn't take photos until the trailer for Star Trek Beyond and news of the upcoming Star Trek TV series got me thinking about NuTrek again, which also prompted the 2009 Series Opinions page. I swear I've finally gotten all the complaining about the reboot out of my system. Well, at least until I start reviewing Into Darkness.

- Retrospective: March 2016
- Origin Stories
- A Tall Ship, and a Star Trek to Steer Her By
- Series Opinions: Star Trek (2009)

YouTube:

I simply did not have the time or wherewithal to record as much as I wanted, but I managed to pull off one impromptu livestream, and I recorded the intro stage of Mega Man 8 for my upcoming video playthrough. And, of course, I published the elaborate April Fools video I had originally planned for last year. Happily, it works even better now than it would have then.

Flashman85LIVE:
- One-Shot Live Playthrough: Prince of Persia

GeminiLaser:
- [April Fools'] Mega Man 8 Teaser Trailer

The Backloggery:

I effectively cleared six games from my backlog and only bought two new ones with my tax refund money, but I still only broke even on my progress index for April. Go figure. April was simultaneously one of the most refreshing and one of the most disappointing gaming months I've had in quite a long time.

Appallingly unprofessional PC port issues aside, I had an absolute blast with Ghostbusters, which reminded me why I play video games in the first place. The game was immersive, faithful to the spirit of the movies, thoughtfully designed, possessed of fun mechanics and excellent production values, and very funny (the Spirit Guide descriptions cracked me up). X-Men Legends was a cathartic release of wanton destruction and a throwback to my college days, when people in the house would pop in and out as one of us kept plugging away at the story mode.

Playing a shinier version of Gradius, which I grew up with on the NES, brought back some fond memories, and Gradius Gaiden was awesome. Hopping around from game to game in the Gradius Collection gave me my first real appreciation of what good and bad game design look like in a scrolling shooter. Bad game design looks like this iteration of Gradius III, and to a lesser extent Gradius IV, which derive challenge from all the wrong places.

Although I wasn't as happy with those games as I'd hoped, FEZ was the biggest letdown of the bunch. It could have been a clever puzzle-platformer, or a diabolical puzzle game with platforming elements, but it insisted on being a boring and tedious collectathon with almost everything worthwhile locked away as a poorly explained secret. The game is full of good ideas, but their execution makes the game feel either pretentious or just badly designed—neither of which inspired me to stick with the game any longer than I had to.

Oh, and while the sentiment of gifting me with AVGN Adventures was appreciated, ten minutes with the game reinforced how much I really dislike AVGN. Sorry.

New:
- Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride  (NDS)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius Gaiden  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius II  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius III  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius IV  (PSP)
 
Started:
- Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures  (Steam)
- FEZ  (Steam)
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game  (PC)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius Gaiden  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius II  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius III  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius IV  (PSP)
- Type:Rider  (Steam)
 
Beat:
- FEZ  (Steam)
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game  (PC)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius  (PSP)
- Gradius Collection: Gradius IV  (PSP)
 
Completed:
- X-Men Legends  (GCN)
 
Removed:
- Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures  (Steam)

Hey, this felt like a proper post for a change! It's good to be writing again.
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Retrospective: March 2016

4/6/2016

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March was another busy month. No sooner had I submitted my entry for the Make a Good Mega Man Level contest on Sprites INC than another contest opened up: designing any number of six-screen level segments for the upcoming Mega Man Endless fangame. Between friends, family, work, and my deadline-driven side projects, I was going almost nonstop by the end of the month. It was exhausting, but it was also a reminder of how I thrive on having a variety of activities to keep me occupied. Let's see what all I have to show for myself.

This Website:

I might not write many posts anymore, but the ones I do write are ones I want to hang on to. The story of my concert experience with Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage is one of my favorite things I've written for this blog, and I think it's the biggest indication that I've finally moved away from the "general bitterness commentary" that weighed down my writing only a year or two ago. Also, I've decided to start linking to my individual Series Opinions articles once they're finished, regardless of whether everything else on the page with them is finished. I've still got a lot of Star Trek and Mega Man to write about (and rewrite about, because opinions are subject to change), but I'm one step closer to having my definitive take on every part of my favorite entertainment franchises all in one place.

- Retrospective: February 2016
- The Ultimate Voyage
- Series Opinions: The Misadventures of Tron Bonne

YouTube:

Due to all the time I spent making Mega Man levels in February and March, I wasn't able to focus on playing Mega Man levels, (meaning my playthrough of Mega Man 8 got delayed)...but I did subject one of my friends to a level I made, so we can call that a compromise. I did keep another one of my recording projects going, though, carrying on with the next installment in what is possibly my favorite first-person shooter series. I like MotS less than its predecessor, but I think I like this playthrough more than the one I did for the original Jedi Knight. So it balances out. Pardon the choppiness of the first video; it gets better.

Flashman85LIVE:
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith (Live) - Part 1: The Noisy Asteroid of Ugly Awfulness
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith (Live) - Part 2: Wireframed and Imprisoned
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith (Live) - Part 3: A Pirate's Death for Me
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith (Live) - Part 4: Nothing I Want at the Swamp Meet
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith (Live) - Part 5: Taking the Bonus Level for a Bespin
- Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest - "Maze of Death" Blind Playthrough (With Special Guests)

GCDotNet:
- The GameCola Podcast #90: A Not-So-Spooky Halloween

The Backloggery:

Wow. This portion almost isn't worth mentioning. My wife and I played one round of LEGO LotR and were put off enough by all the glitches and gameplay issues that we haven't found the motivation to go back yet, and I played just enough of Nintendo Land with friends that it qualifies as Beaten by my standards. Oh, and I chipped away at X-Men Legends and played a little more of the 3DS Mega Man Legacy Collection, so it's not like I completely abandoned my favorite pastime.

Started:
- LEGO The Lord of the Rings  (Wii)

Beat:
- Nintendo Land  (WiiU)

...And that's just the stuff I finished in March! April oughta be pretty big, and I'm in a great mindset going into the month.
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Retrospective: February 2016

3/3/2016

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My free time in February was primarily devoted to designing my entry for the Make a Good Mega Man Level contest on the Mega Man fansite Sprites INC. Consequently, I'm a bit behind on the writing and recording I wanted to have done by now—but I'm behind for a good cause, and I'm excited to share my finished level with the general public once the judging is done. In the meantime, here's everything I did manage to accomplish that pertains to my online endeavors:

This Website:

With the release of the 3DS Mega Man Legacy Collection, my name now appears in the credits of an official Mega Man game by Capcom. Naturally, there's a story behind this, and it's one of the most significant stories I've written about in quite a while. In keeping with this website's purpose as a base of operations for my creative endeavors, this seemed like a good time to set up a Games page that catalogs my contributions to professional and fan-made video games. I'm more prolific than you might expect, and there's potential for the list to grow in the years to come. I also kept plugging away at my Mega Man Series Opinions, finishing off my review of Mega Man X3 and going back to tidy up some of the Classic games now that I've started to categorize things a little differently.

- Retrospective: January 2016
- The Legacy of a Challenge
- Games

YouTube:

As mentioned above, I was otherwise occupied for most of the month, so I didn't get to start recording the video footage for my playthrough of Mega Man 8 as originally planned. Still, I've got something to show for myself, including a livestream of random SNES games, and a particularly silly installment of The GameCola Podcats. Meow.

Flashman85LIVE:
- Backloggery Choice #3: Mega Man Soccer, Super Mario RPG, Kirby Super Star, Donkey Kong Country 2

GCDotNet:
- The GameCola Podcast #89: When Jeddy's Away the Cats Will Play

The Backloggery:

LEGO Jurassic World got my wife and me back into co-op gaming on a regular basis, and it was the most fun we've had with a LEGO game since way back on the GameCube with LEGO Star Wars. When we went out to pick up the Mega Man Legacy Collection on release day, a couple bargain-price LEGO games came home with us, allowing for many more stay-at-home date nights. In prepping for my SNES livestream, I noticed I'd never updated Kirby Super Star for the SNES after playing through it as part of Kirby's Dream Collection for the Wii, hence the random Completed status for a game I hadn't been playing. And that's all the boring news I have to share about my video game backlog.

New:
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean  (Wii)
LEGO The Lord of the Rings  (Wii)
Mega Man Legacy Collection  (3DS)

Beat:
LEGO Jurassic World  (WiiU)
 
Completed:
Kirby Super Star  (SNES)
LEGO Jurassic World  (WiiU)

So much Mega Man! More than usual, even. No wonder I've been in such a good mood lately.
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Retrospective: January 2016

2/2/2016

1 Comment

 
2016 is off to a great start. In the absence of GameCola (the main site is still in disarray), I've been dedicating my free time to a select few side projects and my New Year's resolutions. Not only have I been very productive, but I feel generally more relaxed than I've felt in a long time. What you see here might well become the format for the year.

This Website:

If you're only going by what I've posted on this blog, I've hardly done anything. But there's more to this site than the blog.

I've made a great many updates to my Mega Man series opinions, chipping away at Mega Man X3 and The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, and finishing off my review of Mega Man Powered Up. In fact, I might start giving each game its own page (instead of grouping them by category) to make my reviews easier to read and keep track of. I've also made serious headway with my Star Trek series opinions, as you'll see below. All of these posts are perpetual works in progress, mind you; the more I write, the more I'm reminded to go back and refine what I've already written.

As far as regular blog posts are concerned, there's the obligatory Retrospective, but the one about New Year's resolutions is easily one of my favorite things I've written here, and perhaps one of the most important.

- Retrospective: December 2015
- New Year's Resolutions 2016
- Series Opinions: Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS)
- Series Opinions: Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT)

YouTube:

Not a bad month for videos. One of last year's most popular podcasts finally made it to the GameCola YouTube channel, and my latest Mega Man Fangame Sampler livestream was especially well received. The Fangame Sampler before it also went pretty well, with me beating one of the games on my first try without losing a life. Lastly, I finished off a playthrough of one of my all-time favorite video games, and the whole experience was fun enough (for me and my audience) to try tackling the rest of the games in the series in the months to come.

Behind the scenes, I've been practicing my showoffery for Mega Man 8, the next video series I have planned for my GeminiLaser channel. I don't think I've been this excited about a recording project since Mega Man 5, which is especially surprising if you've read my Series Opinions on the game. If all goes as planned, you'll see the first video in March!

Flashman85LIVE:
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #6: Scramble!!, DOS Remake, Star Man Upgraded
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #7: Hard Hat 2, Foo-roo's Flight, An Uncertain Future
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Live Playthrough) - Part 4: What, Fisticuffs!?

GCDotNet:
- The GameCola Podcast #88: When this Podcast Hits 88 Miles Per Hour

The Backloggery:

That New Year's resolution about my video game backlog has pushed me to change my gaming habits for the better. I tried a bunch of games. I removed them when I wasn't totally sold after the first play session. I powered through the last of Dragon Age: Origins in order to free up my lone, self-imposed PC game slot for something more my style. By the end of the month, my wife and I were back in the swing of co-op gaming on a regular basis, capping off one LEGO game we'd been working on for months and diving into a new one we'd just received for Christmas. Finally, in going through my Backloggery to finish writing mini-reviews for all the games I'd beaten before joining the site, I discovered a criminal offense: leaving a Mega Man game marked as less than Complete when I'd clearly met the requirements.

Started:
- Bullet Candy  (Steam)
- Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers  (PC)
- LEGO Jurassic World  (WiiU)
- Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble  (Steam)
- Osmos  (Steam)
 
Beat:
- Dragon Age: Origins  (Origin)
- Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers  (PC)
 
Completed:
- Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers  (PC)
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4  (Wii)
- Mega Man X4  (GCN)
- Mega Man X4  (PS)
 
Removed:
- Bullet Candy  (Steam)
- Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble  (Steam)
- Osmos  (Steam)
- StarFox Assault  (GCN)

Overall, a very good month. Let's hope things keep getting even better!
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Retrospective: December 2015

1/1/2016

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2015 ended on a high note for me. Good time spent with friends and family, some of the best weeks of work I've had all year, plenty of vacation time, meaningful personal development, and a change of focus that I hope will lead to a joyful and productive 2016. You'll note one big absence on this list: GameCola.net suffered a catastrophic server failure early in the month—the day before the shortest review I've ever written got posted, as though the website couldn't cope with me writing anything of substance shorter than 700 words.

Normally we'd revert to a recent backup version of the site, but due to mysterious technical issues, the latest backup we had was from sometime in November. An executive decision was made to put the site on hiatus to give our webmaster time to look into recovering the lost data, but also to give the Editor-in-Chief time to work on GameCola 4.0, a revised version of the site with all the modern bells and whistles we've been missing. I'll no doubt write more about the situation as time goes on, but in the meantime, I've been devoting my free time to other side projects that have been languishing for too long.

This Blog:

It's good to be writing again on a regular basis, and writing more positively, at that. In addition to the posts below, which hopefully represent a return to the kind of writing I used to do for Exfanding Your Horizons in its heyday, I was busy working on my Series Opinions for Star Trek: The Original Series and Enterprise, which I'll formally link to once they're complete.

- Retrospective: November 2015
- Star Trek Beyond the Point of No Return
- Always in Motion Is the Future
- Running With Superheroes

YouTube:

One GameCola contribution managed to slip through, despite the main site being out of commission. In honor of the new Star Wars movie, I kicked off a playthrough of one of my all-time favorite games, and it's been helping me refine my livestreaming style. The third installment of Jedi Knight and the second Backloggery Choice stream are two of my favorites so far (if nothing else, watch the Paperboy section of the first video below).

Of course, no mention of YouTube videos would be complete without a celebration of the true, final, real end of the Mega Man 7 recording saga. One of the funniest things I've ever released, according to me, and a joy to assemble.

Flashman85LIVE:
- Backloggery Choice #2: Crystalis, StarTropics II, Metal Storm, Paperboy
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Live Playthrough) - Part 1: The Force Awakens
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Live Playthrough) - Part 2: Elevator Action
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Live Playthrough) - Part 3: Confusing the Commentator

GeminiLaser:
- Mega Man 7: Audio Outtakes

GCDotNet:
- Hacks'n'Slash #10: Mario & Sonic Christmas Special

The Backloggery:

December is always a bad month for my struggle against the evil Bak'laag. Between Christmas, winter sales on Steam and GOG, and holiday travels that take me near used game stores, my game collection always seems to inflate around this time. At least my patience has run out for games that aren't worth my time; I'm abandoning bad and unrewarding games with a vengeance nowadays, and I've decided to go back to playing only the games I think I'll like—anything that's culturally worthwhile but not worth the effort is something I can watch someone else play on YouTube.

New:
- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze  (WiiU)
- Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition  (PC)
- Final Fantasy X  (PS2)
- Final Fantasy X-2  (PS2)
- Gun Metal  (Steam)
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis  (PC)
- LEGO Jurassic World  (WiiU)
- Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS  (NDS)
- Mega Man Star Force: Pegasus  (NDS)
- Rokko Chan  (Brwsr)
- Star Trek: 25th Anniversary  (PC)
- Super Smash Bros. for Wii U  (WiiU)
 
Started:
- Final Soldier  (VC)
- Gargoyle's Quest II  (NES)
- StarFox Assault  (GCN)
- Wario Land 3  (GBC)
 
Beat:
- Final Soldier  (VC)
- Gargoyle's Quest II  (NES)
- The Misadventures of Tron Bonne  (PS)
 
Completed:
- Final Soldier  (VC)
- Gargoyle's Quest II  (NES)
- Love  (Steam)
- The Misadventures of Tron Bonne  (PS)
 
Removed:
- Wario Land 3  (GBC)

That about wraps it up for 2015! Off we go into another year.
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Retrospective: November 2015

12/12/2015

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Long story short, 2015 has not been the greatest year for me. November was the first month in a very long time where I was both pleased with how things were going and looking hopefully to the future. I'm glad to be able to share with you some of the high points of this past month.

This Blog:

Hey, I wrote some things! I'm most pleased with the final entry—after looking back on a couple years of writing for this blog, I came to realize how constantly negative I've been, even after my one friend's comment about my "general bitterness commentary" caused me to reexamine my writing. I'm making a conscious effort now to be more positive in my writing. I miss being fun and friendly and optimistic, and it's within my power to be like that again. I still reserve the right to complain from time to time, but I'll try to do it with a smile.

- Retrospective: October 2015
- I Think You Overestimate Their Chances
- Lessons From Livestreaming: Deponia
- The Next Trek

GameCola:

Things are ramping up behind the scenes at GameCola, and most of my time has been spent updating our staff wiki and drafting up internal e-mail correspondence, despite the five articles below making me look like I did anything of substance on the site itself. I'm also getting back into the habit of writing full reviews, which you'll see in next month's Retrospective; I hadn't realized how much I've needed my writing fix, and churning out fluff posts about archival videos has not been meeting that need. This has been a very productive year for me at GameCola, but I've fled too far from the beefy posts that energize me in an attempt to free up time to work on other projects that energize me in different ways. Time to get things back in balance.

Columns:
- Featured Game Soundtrack: Shogo: Mobile Armor Division
- Q&AmeCola: Games or Game Series We Are Most Thankful For

Podcasts:
- GC Podcast #90: A Not-So-Spooky Halloween – Part 1
- GC Podcast #90: A Not-So-Spooky Halloween – Part 2

Videos:
- GC Podcasts #58-60 on YouTube: If You Die in Real Life, You Die in Mike & Jeddy’s Top 10 Bonus Games

YouTube:

More old podcasts, the conclusion of a livestream series that sparked one of the posts mentioned above, and one of my favorite livestreams to date. I feel like I've finally hit my stride with livestreaming, and I've got a couple ideas for easy-ish prerecorded videos that I may bust out during my December vacation time. We'll see.

Flashman85LIVE:
- Deponia (Blind Live Playthrough) - Part 4: They'll Need a Crane
- Deponia (Blind Live Playthrough) - Part 5: Hungry Like the Whale
- Mega Man Fangame Sampler #5: Rokko Chan, Hard Hat: The Rebellion, Quint's Revenge
 
GCDotNet:
- Hacks’n'Slash #8: Thanksgiving Special
- Off-Topic Podcast #3: The Thirties
- The GameCola Podcast #85: THE The GameCola Podcast

The Backloggery:

I've reached a point in my gaming career that looks an awful lot like where I started. When I first got into gaming, it was all about having fun. If I liked a game, I kept playing it; If I didn't like a game, I stopped playing it. Around the time I signed up for The Backloggery some six years ago, gaming was only partially about having fun; it was also about the cultural experience of these games that other people enjoyed, and about finally getting around to all the games I had bought or been given that were collecting dust on a shelf.

A couple years ago, I began to move past my compulsion to play every game, even the bad ones, to 100% completion. Over the last couple months, I've moved past my compulsion to play the bad ones to any kind of completion. Life's short, and there are things I'd rather do with it than subject myself to completely avoidable tedium and frustration. I'm also acknowledging that there are some genres and series I might enjoy if I gave them a chance, but require too much of a time investment to determine whether they're worthwhile for me. From now on, I'm watching playthroughs on YouTube of anything that seems worth experiencing but not worth however many weeks or months of my life to conquer on my own.

Don't be offended if a game you got me or a game you love ends up on my "Removed" list. All that means is that I gave it a chance and I'm not eager to go back to it, same as any movie or restaurant or anything I take a chance on. Unless we're talking about Cruis'n USA, in which case I wouldn't mind keeping it on my backlog if the game cartridge weren't only useful as a paperweight [glares in the direction of the PAX East 2010 vendor who assured him every game was tested to work].

New:
- System Shock 2  (PC)
 
Started:
- Nintendo Land  (WiiU)
- Rise of the Robots  (SNES)
 
Beat:
- Deponia  (PC)
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4  (Wii)
 
Removed:
- Cruis'n USA  (N64)
- Hexen II  (PC)
- Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire (VGA)  (PC)
- Rise of the Robots  (SNES)
- Rome: Total War  (PC)

Great month! Looking forward to December being even better.
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