====================================================================== Log #10 || 12/27/2021 || Living Room || OpenBSD laptop ====================================================================== Vintage Gaming I've found that the lull between Christmas and New Year's is either spent grinding through last-minute work or a time to catch one's breath and engage in some relaxing hobby or just mindless fun. I'm a big fan of the last two options. It also being winter makes for a great opportunity to hunker down and read, play and watch all things vintage gaming (definition of "vintage" may vary). Looking up Atari, Famicom/NES, SG-3000/Master System articles and reviews has always been fascinating. I can recall tracking down random, yet well-researched and maintained pages back in the 90's and early aughts either via Yahoo, Alta Vista or just straight up links from another page on the same topic. Reading up on early console emulation, hardware info, unreleased prototypes and other versions of games we didn't get in the US was pretty fascinating. "Vintage" has slid a bit to include N64 & Playstation along with consoles and platforms around that generation - purely anecdotal, but it seems like I'm starting to see more and more of that era reviewed and written about lately. If you're anything like me, you've discovered the 'big' gaming channels that deal in NES et al. but here are some of the favorites and interesting ones I've come across. Jeremy Parish - https://www.youtube.com/c/JeremyParish Honestly some of the most informative, thoroughly researched videos you could hope to find on older Sega (SG-1000, SG-3000, Master System, Genesis) & Nintendo (Famicom, NES, Gameboy, Virtual Boy, SNES) consoles. The "Gintendo" livestreams are very entertaining as well. Stop Skeletons From Fighting - https://www.youtube.com/c/StopSkeletonsFromFighting Lots and lots of fun clips about obscure controllers, failed ports and platforms (Derek is eligible for sainthood for just the GameCom review alone). As an added bonus, the previous "Happy Video Game Nerd" persona videos are also available, which is how I first came across Derek and his fun reviews. Hard 4 Games - https://www.youtube.com/c/hard4games Very, very well done channel that reviews and demos prototype and rare hardware along with unreleased and unfinished games. I have a soft spot for Mother 3 info and media, which is how I stumbled upon these guys and their work in the first place. Game Sack - https://www.youtube.com/c/GameSack One of the larger channels about retro games that isn't AVGN but it's still got some great reviews of older gear and a pretty fun, quirky sense of humor and delivery. Even in a post-Dave world, Joe Redifer is doing a bang up job talking about consoles. Gaming Historian - https://www.youtube.com/c/gaminghistorian As the name suggests, it's more historically focused but still very well done and well presented nonetheless. There are some videos on obscure and/or failed hardware (e.g. the U-Force or Sega Modem) to go along with the historical videos and biographies and I honestly do look forward to when Norman puts out a new video. The 8-Bit Duke - https://www.youtube.com/c/The8BitDuke It doesn't look like any new videos have been posted in quite some time but there are still a number of good reviews and video essays to peruse. ProJared - https://www.youtube.com/c/projared Not strictly a vintage game channel but he does cover older NES RPGs and fleshes out the mechanics of games like Final Fantasy and Zelda II for the NES as well as their more recent installments. Additionally, the "D&December" series he puts out is pretty good as well - even if you're not a D&D fan, Jared's presentation makes them pretty approachable and gives a good feel for the gameplay and setup. Good stuff.