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.