um (indefinite hiatus + other projects)

so i feel i should get this off my chest considering the last post i did on here was in june and it's now december.

i've slowly been losing the drive to continue this site. granted, not as a permanent thing, but this site just seems to be a "side project" to me, since i don't seem to be placing heavy priority on it compared to other things offsite as of lately. combined with that and a case of writer's block for the things i've had drafted for months, it's pretty much slowed things to a halt. (and yeah, unfortunately this also means the Soul Nomad blind-ish playthrough for here is cancelled :( sorry, mates.)

but yeah, as far as things are concerned, the KKGS blogspot will be on indefinite hiatus until further notice. i may post info on other projects here from time to time, but otherwise the site will pretty much be inactive.

if you wanna keep in touch with me, i got a plethora of links available at my flavors hub.

as far as other projects i've been working on, one of them is a work-in-progress Disgaea lore wiki because of course i did.

also been setting up a gaming computer out of some old parts my brother gave me, so i might do some game video stuff at a later point. maybe streams or mods or something. we'll see.

anyhow, that's it for now. till then, stay cool, everyone.

love and luck to you all.

<3

"soon (tm)" exists for a reason

so uh, first part of the Soul Nomad playthrough writeup is going a bit slow due to things i honestly didn't count on my end.

that being the steam summer sale and camera convenience.

probably gonna try to squeeze more content in the first part of the playthrough, but we'll see how it goes. compiling stuff from each couple of sessions in each part instead of writing as i go, for the sake of convenience. i'm still fairly early in the game, so there isn't a bevy of stuff to talk about outside of storystuff and my own thoughts.

but yeah, just bear with me a while longer. though, if you're one of the few longtime followers of the site, there's probably a good chance you already are. bless you so much for your patience. i'm trying my best. <3

gen does Soul Nomad - gen ichida vs. the world (eaters)

so in lieu of the radio silence last month, aaaaand me getting kind of salty about the traffic crap i had to deal with in the last post, i think it's time for a bit of fun this summer.

things on my end seemed to have slowed down, so outside of practicing traditional drawing stuff and the frequent twitter activity, not a whole lot's been going on lately. and since i'd rather not sit here and do nothing while waiting for stuff like my birthday on July 8, Steam's summer sale, and Starbound's soon-ish 1.0 release, let's get things trucking on here again.

after mulling out how might probably roll with it, i'll be starting the Soul Nomad playthrough fairly soon. mostly will be doing it as a post-play commentary writeup since writing my thoughts on here while i play would end up being a bit cumbersome. i will be taking photos and even livetweeting bits on my twitter, but the more wordy thoughts will be reserved for after play sessions.

as for the playthrough itself, i'll be going in semi-blind. i have seen Soul Nomad's cutscenes a few times in the past, so i'm aware what goes on in the story. as far as gameplay goes, i only have a vague idea of how it works from reading the manual and bits of the strategy guide, and it's a radical change from Disgaea's gameplay. so yeah, settling into SN's gameplay will take some time.

also, don't expect entries to pop up too frequently on here. pretty sure you guys have come to expect it, but it takes a while for me to type this stuff out on here. though, for the impatient folks, you can check out my twitter for my less-than-140-characters-commentary and lowres screencaps while i play the game. amongst other things.

so yeah, pretty much how things will be going for the playthrough, but of course i can't end it off here. so what the heck is this game all about, and why'd i choose to play it?

dear Google/Blogger/Blogspot/whatever

far from me to call your staff being on par with how bad Twitter and especially Tumblr's site team seem to be but uh

if you guys haven't even made an attempt to even migitate this sort of traffic bloat then we might have a bit of a problem. and i don't think the switch to HTTPS or connecting my site Google Analytics even helped a little with solving this.

please fix this.

with love, gen ichida <3

a raincheck and makaipunkery

sometimes i keep asking myself why i continue to keep this blog up, considering updates on here just seem to be more and more sporadic. not to mention said updates don't seem to be very substantial since i am not a writing sort of guy and i make a lot of promises about writing about stuff that i don't follow up on.

well, as far as the first bit is concerned, i keep this site up because i like talking about the things i love and sharing them and my thoughts on them with other people. even if i don't keep this place as updated as much as i'd like to, i like talking about stuff i find interesting. and if someone likes the stuff i write or write about, then that makes the time invested all the more worth it. c:

as for the second bit of what i said, uh... yeah, i'm pretty sure i've said stuff on it in the past on here but i think it's plainly obvious i'm more of a visual kind of guy when it comes to creative stuff. i'm passionate about talking about stuff, but i'm not good at elaborating on my thoughts about things. said stuff about this sorta thing before whenever i talk about why i'm delaying on reviews and stuff so much, so i'll just leave it at that. no use in repeating every word i say.

with that said, might as well talk about a bit of stuff i've been doing as of lately. game collecting, book imports, other hobby stuff... and of course, talking about them. i kinda feel like i owe you guys a bit of newish content after several periods of stagnancy.

a small sampling of some games i have, some new, some oldish.

and yeah, with the mention of MAKAIPUNK in the title, expect a good deal of the stuff i'll be talking about to be related to Nippon Ichi game stuff.

and first off, i think i should mention that i managed to adjust the resolution on my camera when taking pictures. expect larger, more detailed photos of things here and in the future!

jukebox - Clock Strikes Midnight (Paddy and the Rats)

stiiiiiiiiiill trying to get things back on track here. been sidetracked with some other non-blogspot things, but i think that's the norm at this point. have some more tunes in the meantime. >w>

some time around january or february, one of my friends shot this band by me. Paddy And The Rats is a Hungarian celtic punk/sailor punk/pub'n roll band that does a heck of a lot of good music to drink to.

they've got a lot more music on their youtube channel if you wanna check them out!

vlog - netherworld-produced vhs tapes

so, many people have been having issues with NISA's latest PC outing with Disgaea PC. stuttering, issues with the graphical settings, and generally buggy stuff have been bothering players this week. and in my case, the framerate's so slow at essentially 5fps on my low-spec rig that i pretty much can't play the game.

well, at the very least, NISA's been listening to these issues and even asked players to post their computer specs so they can work on a fix. the fix is reported to come out tomorrow on the 2nd. nice to see NISA values their community and community feedback when it comes to their stuff.

'course, if Disgaea PC still doesn't run well on my computer, at least i got the PSP version of Disgaea 1 to fall back on. still don't really regret buying it if it means the possibility of more NIS games on PC/Steam. >w>

in the meantime, enjoy some 90's inspired demonic doofery with the dudes at Mega64. i'll just be here trying to get some more stuff done for this place.

and wondering where the hell they managed to get that prinny costume.

curiousities - the Jurassic Park 3 Dino Dex

okay, so there was a tiny little bit of a delay as far as updates go on here, but that's what happens when you got a old virtual machine set up and you goof around with it for a while. for now, have something a bit different.

one of the things i've been taught as a kid is what decisions to make, and sometimes those decisions are really hard. as we grow in age, we also begin to outgrow the toys we liked in our younger years, which leads to one of the hardest choices we have to make. do we give our old playthings to a new generation of kids for them to enjoy? or do we keep them as mementos of a time long gone?

for me, i went the middle road of "keep and actually still use to a degree since i've resigned to the idea that i'm still a kid at heart and enjoy kid things despite being in my twenties".

long name for that road, but hey. first time reviewing a toy on here. and for that first time, i'll be reviewing a Jurassic Park toy. :"D

i'll be honest, i never watched Jurassic Park as a kid, let alone the third film. then again i've heard less than favorable things about the third film so it's probably for the best. despite that, i was familiar with the Jurassic Park brand, half because it was one of those series of the 90s that most kids were familiar with due to being plastered everywhere, and half because i really liked dinosaurs.

never did own much of the toys or anything that came out of it, but i did own a few demo CDs from cereal boxes, and the Jurassic Park 3 Dino Dex.

the bare dex itself (img courtesy of the Museum of Play), my sticker-covered dex, and the open dex

manufactured in 2001 by Tiger Electronics and Hasbro, the Dino Dex was pretty much John Hammond's response to the Pokedex. this five-inch-tall handheld not only served as a comprehensive (if outdated) database on over 50 dinosaurs, but also a planner, notepad, and calculator. it also had two games that were enough to keep kids occupied for a while.

while nowadays pretty much all of those functions can be covered by stuff like Androids and iPhones, for the early 00s, this was a pretty nifty device for kids. it was a PDA built for kids and younger dino fans, and was a cheap alternative to more expensive PDA devices at the time, and pretty sturdy for what it's worth. kinda surprised mine still works after 15 years, even if i had to get my dad to replace a rusted battery coil in it recently. and the fact that mine's covered in dino stickers that are well over several years old.

anyhow, let's give this thing a more indepth look, shall we?

to 1998 and beyond (and back again)

so i finally took a chunk of time out of my life to set up a virtual machine for windows 98.

downloaded Oracle VM Virtualbox for this purpose some time ago last year, but i haven't gotten around to actually setting up a digital Win98 on it till yesterday. mostly did it because there were some old games i wanted to run on it that i can't on a Win7, but i've got a bit of nostalgia for the system, too.

up until 2013, i've had a Win98 in my old bedroom as a work computer of sorts. 'course, i did play games on it and such, but i mostly used it as a platform for browsing the internet, talking with friends via MSN, and the occassional Wordpad drabbles and MSPaint scribbles. even in the years prior to that, most of my time was spent on the old win98 in my dad's old room, which is also currently my new bedroom. funny how these things work.

of course my history with the win98 stretches to even way before that time to when i was a kid, but my memory's foggy on that period outside of all the Jumpstart and Reader Rabbit games i played. in my current age, i stick with my trusty Win7 since there's a wider pantheon of games and emulators i can run on it, but nowadays i've been dabbling in the technical aspects of old OSes. stuff like what older systems could achieve with their technical limitations; it's part of the reason why i have an interest in tech demos and scene demos.

granted, i set up a virtual win98 almost purely for the purpose of older games, but perhaps i'll be exploring some of the technical things behind that OS. i'm older and a bit more knowledgeable on those sorts of things, so maybe i'll know a bit of what i'm getting into, and maybe learn new things in the process.

for now, i'm gonna have some fun decking out this ol' thing.

so yeah, while this wasn't that big an update on mine or the site's end, it's a step in keeping the place frequently updated. plus since i have this set up now, maybe i'll get to reviewing some old win98 stuff at some point in the future.

if you wanna set up a virtual win98 of your own for retro gaming or whatever reason, go grab yourself a copy of Oracle VM Virtualbox and follow along this tutorial if it's your first time using the thing. you're on your own for the setup bootdisc, though. or any tutorials for getting other OSes running in it.

until then, hope you guys enjoyed this little retrospective of sorts. stay rad, everyone!

gen's daily life - the dream is real

so last night i managed to finish my collection of sixth-generation consoles: i finally now own a Dreamcast.

i did say i had the famous 6th-gen trinity of the PS2, classic Xbox, and Gamecube (via Wii's native GC emulation), but i've been meaning to get Sega's console swansong for quite some time. why? because it's got a solid library for its time, it's the very first console of the sixth generation prior to the PS2, and it still has a cult following and devoted modding fanbase to this day.

... okay, i mostly wanted one to play Power Stone 2 after playing it at Anime Boston last year. also Jet Set Radio. and i have a revision 1 console too, so i can run homebrews and bootleg stuff on it.

but yeah, gushing aside, it's a little interesting piece of gaming history and Sega's past in the console market. there's also a good deal of decent games for the system like Shenmue and Sonic Adventure, and they're pretty cheap at around 30-50 dollars depending on where you're looking. got mine for 35: 30 for the console/cords/controllers themselves, 5 for the VMU. if you want to run homebrew/bootleg games on it, make sure the revision number is either 0 or 1; revision 2 DCs won't run bootleg discs.

while i don't have any Dreamcast games yet, i'm planning on doing some reviews of some in the future, so that's something to expect.

meanwhile, i think i'm done with console collecting for a while. a probably-10-years-long while.

probably good that i don't have any incentive to get a PS3 or PS4 or Xbox One or whatever

MAKAIPUNK - building a netherworld travel diary

so first week of the new year went pretty well so far. managed to grab a couple obscure ps2 games, been working on getting my sleep schedule back on track, been helping out with quest writeups and design for that WoW private server i mentioned in my last non-jukebox post, and even got back to practicing my hand at pencil drawing. alongside a variety of other things. one of which was getting a cold last week and having to suffer through that.

been cleaning up a bit of my room a while back; my drawers and cabinets, mainly. stumbled upon a handful of drawing pads and various notebooks i had shoved in there when i moved into my new bedroom. they're a bit worn with age, but a majority of the pages of them are unmarked, so i'll use them for drawing instead of using a lot of printer paper for it.

the book before and after the new cover. art by airana@DA

that aside, stumbled upon a hardcover notebook with the title of "Forum for Excellence" and "The Warren Conference Center 2002" on it. so yeah, seemed pretty old, but the pages were all in perfect condition, oddly enough. from what my dad told me, he got it at a meeting way back when but never seemed to had used it. as for why i shoved it in my own cabinets when i got my own room... okay, to be honest, i'm not even sure why i had it there to begin with.

so now that i've rediscovered this little gem, i figured i'd make use of it and get started on a project i've been meaning to do for a while: making a "journal" of sorts centered around the world of Nippon Ichi Studio's Disgaea game series.

might seem like an odd project to write about on here, but it's been a while since i did a MAKAIPUNK thing anyway, so have a bit of a warmup on my end before i get back to bigger things. like hopefully chapter 3 of the Disgaea 1 manga readthrough thing. or maybe some game reviews or something. i don't know.

jukebox - Winterstorm (Machinae Supremacy)

bit of a belated new years post, but considering how hectic last month was, i'm still trying to get my bearings back. luckily it's going well. hopefully might start working on something for this place soon.

what's this? a jokebox post that isn't strictly video game music? unheard of. or maybe heard of now. audio jokes.

haven't heard of these guys until recently when i was talking demoscene stuff with a friend. Machinae Supremacy is a pretty fab indie band that mixes rockin' metal chords with squarewave and synthisized sounds that one might hear on a NES or Amiga or what have you. they've done music for the games Jets'n'Guns and Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, and have even performed live at The Assembly demoscene event in Finland!

so yeah, if you don't mind game synth in your metal, you should probably check them out. c: