The Grand Emperor's Retro Video Gaming Blog

With the new website on the way I'm also slowly but surely coming out with YouTube content as well. Be sure to check out my quick look at Elgato Video Capture being used for GameCubes S uper Mario Sunshine.

When I was about 6 or 7 years old my Mom decided to go back to school. I was in school Monday thru Friday all day by this point, so she had time to attend classes and study during the day. Her main goal was updating her late 1950’s early 60’s education of typewriters and tediously done paperwork, and enter the modern age of computerization. The end objective of course being to take on a part-time office job while I was in school. My mother learned quickly and soon became our resident computer expert, bringing home cool text books, library books, and magazines on computers and the future of technology. I can remember this one Time-Life book she bought home from the library filled with robots and computers, and with future depictions of robot tractors farming fields, and rescue drone helicopters sent out by the dozens to help flood victims stranded on their roofs. This was between about 1983 and 1985, when the world of computers and their possibilities, provided us all with a lot...

So here we are May 24th, 2017 and the ZX Spectrum Next program has been fully funded on Kickstarter. That may not sound like much to an outsider, but it’s actually kind of a big deal to ZX Spectrum fans and/or vintage computing lovers alike. Over the past few years Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites have seen numerous ZX Spectrum projects come and go. Some of these have failed to get funded, some got funded and fell apart immediately after, while still others are marred in controversy with no final product delivered to backers as of yet. So when the ZX Spectrum Next project appeared on Kickstarter last month many of us were a bit skeptical, till we watched the video and did our homework. Instead of getting a flight of fancy with pretty 3D rendered drawings, we instead got a well thought out and feasible sales pitch, put together by folks who actually knew a thing or two and had the experience to make it happen. So after considering it carefully for about a week I decided to ...

So after some careful consideration, and just a complete lack of time to work on the website I made a few decisions about where I want to go on things. First I have determined that the new website will not be called 8bitFridays.com, since I felt the term 8-bit pigeonholed me into video games only, and there was a lot more than video games I wanted to bring to the site. The name I've decided to go with for the website is noisefromthebasement.com, which has a nice basement rec-room kind of feel, and opening my website to not only video games, but music (vinyl records), vintage toys, electric trains, and other man cave type pursuits. I'm also slowly but surely bringing in audio and video recording equipment and software, which may give me the ability to podcast and/or vlog in the near future as well.

Well, it’s been one of the weeks where it’s been hard to get out of bed in the mornings for work, and even harder to stay awake through the morning hours. To say the least this weekend has been a fight against wanting to just veg, and actually getting up and getting stuff accomplished. Luckily the latter managed to win a bit, and with it some games managed to get played as well. This weekend became an unofficial NES weekend, something I’ve needed in a long time, since sometimes you just need comfort gaming and the simplicity of 8-bit. This Weeks Buys: . Deserts of Kharak (PC-Steam) - Yes, finally the PC game I’ve been waiting to get on sale through Humble Bundle at more than 60% off. I haven’t had the chance to install it yet, but I can’t wait to play it. Desert Falcon (Atari 7800) - I have a minor desert theme going, sorry. So, yes on my way to wearing down my Atari 7800 wishlist and finishing off my collection. Tutankham (Atari 2600) - Um, I guess I’m continuing the de...

Sometimes you hear so much about a book, you realize that you have to read it. The only problem for me is that there isn't always time to sit down and read. Getting through my earlier Gamer Reads: Starship Troopers was tough last summer and took a lot of time to get through, being mainly confined to spare moments on Sunday afternoons. So after being hit on the head over and over again with Audible ads I decided to get a few free trial books, one of which was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. The book came on my radar through a lot of podcasts I listen to and for the most part it was in one ear and out the other. Then someone on one particular podcast who I know has tastes similar to mine suggested it, making me a little more willing to read it. So after catching up on my back podcasts, I decided to give my Audible app a spin with the few free books I had on it for a few months now. Putting Dune aside for a longer week I decided to listen to Ready Player One first. Note: I...