Around the Network

Good evening everyone! I’ve left this until late in the day once again so I’m pretty tired. Apologies if this is less coherent than usual… but eh. Roll with it.

It’s been a fun week! I finished Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revisand got cracking on my ongoing Evercade coverage, so please enjoy more of that in the coming weeks! Plenty more cool stuff coming up soon, too; I’ve had to dust off the ol’ NTSC PS2 (and my scary buzzing voltage transformer, which I’m replacing as soon as possible!) to get ready for Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy, which only came out in North America, so I’m looking forward to diving into that very soon.

For now, though, let’s check out what you might have missed in the last week.

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MoeGamer

The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 39 – Gentlemen, Start Your PC Engines – Chris and I sit down to discuss the PC Engine Mini and its many wonderful games.

Alien Brigade: The 7800’s Crown Jewel? – The first Evercade game we explore is Alien Brigade, originally release for Atari 7800 and one of the few games out there that are completely unique to that system.

short;Play: Descent – I haven’t played Descent for years. I had an amazing time returning to it, so I think I might be digging into it a bit more often!

Waifu Wednesday: Pamela Ibis (Again) – Yes, I know we’ve already covered her, but that was her Arland trilogy incarnation; now we’re looking at Mana Khemia Pamela. Who may or may not be the same ghost. Who knows at this point?

Star Luster: Namco Does Star Raiders – And does it really well. I’d never heard of this game before Evercade, but now I’m absolutely hooked on it.

Final Fantasy Marathon: Freelancin’ Ain’t Easy (Final Fantasy III #2) – Our heroes take on their first major quest: ridding the locale of a nasty horrible djinn who has turned everyone into ghosts!

Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis – Narrative, Themes and Characterisation – There’s a lot to talk about with Mana Khemia’s narrative. So grab a cuppa, sit down and let’s ponder it in great detail!

Atari A to Z

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This week we’ve got a beloved Synapse Software classic, one of the best racing games of all time, and a 2600 port that might just be more enjoyable than its arcade source material.

Patreon and SubscribeStar

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Don’t forget that over on Patreon I post a daily behind-the scenes personal blog that is, effectively, a resurrection of my old #oneaday blog I used to host over at angryjedi.wordpress.com. At the present time, this also includes exclusive patrons-only weekly vlogs and Let’s Plays at the weekends! If you’d like to get to know me a bit better, be sure to sign up; just $1 a month (about 80p) can get you in the club, and it also provides you with access to the MoeGamer Discord as well as helping to fund and support the things I do here on the site.

Find out more and sign up to Patreon here!

I’m also in the process of getting SubscribeStar rolling for those who don’t wish to or aren’t able to use Patreon for whatever reason — I’ve had a few requests for this, so I thought I’d actually get it done. Once that’s up and running and some people have signed up, I’ll offer all the same benefits there for the same price as Patreon.

Find out more and sign up to SubscribeStar here!

Cool Stuff By People Who Aren’t Me

First up, Patreon goodness! Right now, I’m supporting Paul “Mr Biffo” Rose’s creative endeavours on the Biffovision YouTube channel, incorporating Digitiser, the ever-grumpy (and always hilarious) Cheap Show Podcast, gaming and gaming culture commentator Liana Kerzner, independent games writing collective The Well-Red Mage, fountain of retro computer gaming knowledge Rob “Hellfire64” Caporetto, alternative fountain of retro computer gaming knowledge Kim Justice, and blogger/YouTuber Megan Marie, all of whom you can find out a bit more about by clicking through to their profiles.

Here’s a selection of YouTube and podcast goodness from several of this lot:

And as usual, time for a quick trip around the WordPress Reader to see some posts that have caught my eye recently! Feel free to let me know any time if you’ve written something you think I might find interesting, I’m always up for new reading material!

The RPG (Kimimi the Game-Eating She-Monster) – Kimimi explores the PS2 remake of the first Phantasy Star; part of the Sega Ages 2500 series.

Online gaming expos: digitally drained (Later Levels) – Kim ponders how the coronavirus pandemic has affected expo season in video gaming — and how too many online events can lead to fatigue!

Sunset Riders: Deserves More than Arcade Archives (Hundstrasse) – Luke checks out one of Hamster’s latest releases and finds himself wishing there was a bit more to the series.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – A Perpetual Work-in-Progress (The Jackabee Reads and Writes) – E.M. Neftelberg reflects on Animal Crossing, and how it’s not a game you can ever really “finish”. Is that something you can be okay with?

Sword Art Online: Unbiased and Fanboy-Free (Shallow Dives in Anime) – A while back, Dewbond decided to explore Sword Art Online for himself, completely ignoring both hyper-positive fans and hyper-negative haters. This post provides links to all his findings — they’re a great read, whether you know the series well or if you’re a newcomer.

And that’s that for another week. I’m off to hit the hay. And probably play a round or two of Star Luster before sleepytimes…

Thank you as always for all your support!


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One thought on “Around the Network”

  1. Thanks for the shoutout!

    Interesting to see you playing some Descent – one of the first PC games we had (on a shareware disc that came bundled with Doom, Heretic, and Warcraft iirc)…. I used to get so lost in those levels!

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