I’ve slowly been working on doing a bunch of upgrades to my console video game space. In some cases it involves elaborate changes to how things work with a particular system. I upgraded my PS2 to run from a hard drive, for example. I’ve modified my PS Mini to run more than just the base set of ROMS. I have an extra Wii I plan to try to jailbreak as well. I’ve looked into getting an Everdrive style cartridge for my N64, though those are kind of weirdly expensive.
Not everything is about playing more games though, sometimes it’s just a quality-of-life upgrade.
Like running everything over HDMI. This was somewhat born from necessity. Maybe a year or less ago, I upgraded the TV in the basement. I had been using a decent but somewhat aging RCA TV for a while. We go to a lot of Estate Sales in the area, and at one, I picked up a really nice Sony for pretty cheap. It’s slightly larger than the RCA, has a nice picture, and has more inputs. Except a lot of those inputs are HDMI. I don’t think it has any Component hookups at all, though I do think it has Composite. Over the last few months, I’ve been buying all of these cables, along with a small HDMI switch, because, I ran out of ports.
As the set up is now, I have:
A standard X-Box 360.
A modded PS2.
A modded PS Mini
A normal Dreamcast, I may or may not look into modding this
A normal N64, which I may get an Everdrive cart for
A normal SNES, which I still need to get an HDMI cable for
A normal Wii, my original Wii, the CD drive doesn’t work in it though.
I’m tempted to get a second HDMI switch, but if the Wii hacking works out I won’t need it. I can skip the SNES cable. I’ve got a Sega Genesis I wouldn’t mind connecting though. Also, with more hookups I could bring the PS3 down from the upstairs TV if I wanted to. I’m also considering getting one of those updated Atari consoles that run the old carts as well as ROMs, though I have plenty of Atari carts already.
I’m not finished getting things updated, but as far as cables go, I’m pretty close,
I have been mostly avoiding the newer Star Trek shows. One, I was under the mistaken impression that they were either part of the New Movies timeline, which I dislike, or they were yet ANOTHER new Timeline. It does not help that Discovery really, REALLY feels like they initially intended for it to be a new new timeline.
Everything about this show really feels way more advanced than other Trek shows, which is way weird because on the timeline of Trek Show continuity, it’s second after Star Trek Enterprise. It happens roughly 10-15 years before Star Trek TOS. I am sure the actual dates are out there, but like I said, roughly.
But we have holograms all over, and hologram displays on the bridge, and a ship that looks like a late TNG-era ship in Discovery.
USS Discovery
And the Klingons. The Klingons are really fucking weird. Spoilers (for a now quite old show), I think this was a big complaint and they do eventually fix it in a handwavey way I will probably mention when I get to Season 2. The excuse here is basically, these Klingons are kind of a cult for very old Klingon ways. They also have this big ship covered in coffins which vaguely resembles a Klingon Battle Cruiser in shape, but it’s bigger and looks nothing like a Klingon Battle Cruiser.
WTF is this nonsense???
There is also a core plot part of the show and the ship in the Spore Drive. Which is basically a Deus Ex Machina Warp Drive running on mushrooms and magic that transports the ship instantly. It does have some interesting limitations on its use, but it really feels like the show runners hate the usual time urgency that pops up in Trek shows a lot.
Star Trek isn’t the Expanse, where everything takes weeks to travel between places, but Warp still is “slow” in that it acknowledged the limitations of just how fuck huge space is.
Which kind of touches back on why I have been avoiding this. And not for trying. It took me three tries to actually stick with it. It really feels at times like the writers just don’t quite “get” Star Trek. I know, I probably sound like a big picky nerd, but all of the older shows just had this particular feel. They presented a perfect nice future with people who excel at what they do and the conflict was solving the problems of others. Sometimes the drama on this show feels like it’s a bit much.
Also the weird tech I consistency really bugs me. It’s gotten better as the series has gone on, but it would have been much better had they just gone another 100-200 years past TNG and made a “future, future” Trek show.
I mean, that’s kind of how TNG got away with a lot. Someone knew they could make things work better production-wise than a show made in the 60s and to not make it feel weird they just, aged up the timeline. Why can Enterprise D go to Warp 9 versus TOS basically maxing at Warp 6? Because it’s THE FUTURE! It’s the Future’s Future!
You ever wish you had a reason to feel bad for a ten foot tall micro-organism?
Over time, it does kind of feel like the writers realized this and rolled things back a bit. Also, the USS Discovery is supposed to be a super advanced prototype sort of ship, so you could sort of write off some of the inconsistency that way, except the first two episodes take place on the USS Shenzhou, which is just, a normal boring Federation starship.
The show also eschews its Trekisms in other ways. USS Discovery does not seem to have a Chief Medical Officer, or Chief Engineer, or Chief Science Officer. Or at least, they are not main characters. The crew complement and ship layout are also confusing. When doing Spore Jumps, the saucer parts of the ship start spinning, do people have quarters in these areas? Sometimes they do these weird internal Turbolift shots that also make the ship seem much more hollow than it actually is. The aft section seems to be like 90% shuttle Bay. It’s just, really not clear. Once again, not really sticking to the “grounded” parts of Star Trek sci-fi
The plot itself is alright, with some interesting twists at the end of the season that I will avoid for spoiler reasons. The whole thing is basically 3 acts with a two-episode setup front-ending it all. The set up 2 part episode takes place on the Shinzou and sets up Burnham’s history, this leads into some Klingon War stuff and a bit of an “episode of the week-ish” format. They also explore the Spore Drive quite a bit during this part. Then there is part teo, which is a visit to another far-off place, with a twist at the end that would have actually been more interesting if the surprise clue for it was not revealed the instant it happened. Then we return for the third act and Deus Ex wrap up the Klingon War, which has almost destroyed the Federation in Discovery’s absence.
If Burnham is a bit of a Mary Sue character, Discovery is definitely a Mary Sue ship.
Speaking of Burnham, is probably worth commenting on the characters a bit. There is another non-Trek thing going on here where there are only like, 5 crew members we care about and the rest of the bridge crew are literally just set pieces. It actually felt weird when they suddenly all started talking during the last few episodes of the season. They seem to be pushing some of the secondary non-federation/crewmember characters a bit more to make up for the smaller “main cast”.
The main character is Michael Burnham, who has no rank during this season but basically serves as Science Officer. She is also Spock’s adopted sister and is perfect in everyway! (/s). It’s really weird how much Ambassador Sarak shows up in this show and never shows up during Strange New Worlds where Spock’s is a main character. Anyway, she lost her parents at a young age and Sarak took her in to raise her as a Vulcan to strengthen human/Vulcan relations. This is all explored more in Season 2.
Saru and Lorca
Discovery’s 1st Officer is Saru, an alien from a planet that is driven by fear and survival. He often commends the Discovery and Shenzou when the captain is busy, as 1st officer. He doesn’t get a ton of background but he is one of the more interesting characters in the show. He also is very tall and has this goofy way of walking.
The spore drive is a bit part of the ship and plot and is controlled by Stamets, who essentially serves the role of Chief Engineer, but he isn’t and works with plants and spores and the space magic of the show. His characterization is a bit inconsistent, early on he feels very anal and strict, but over time he seems to just be, kind of worried but not so much, most of the time. He is also gay, we see his Doctor Boyfriend a few times, but for much of this season Doctor Boyfriend is kind of a non-character until we need to sympathize with this couple more for “plot reasons”. He is, an ok, character, I find him a little annoying at times.
Sylvia Tilly, a Cadet, or Ensign or low ranking officer who works under Stamets. She is also Burnham’s roommate and as such, more or less Burnham’s best friend, eventually. She is bubbly and insecure, and kind of feels like she exists to make Stamets come off as more likeable sometimes. Just kidding, she exists to be the Mary Sue character when the plot needs Burnham to suffer. I expected to like Tilly and maybe overtime, but for season 1, I found her to be a bit, really annoying.
Lorcam Tilly, Burnham
Lastly, the remaining important character , is Captain Lorca. Whom I disliked at first, but then is style of Captaining kind of grew on me and I found that I really liked him. Then I kind of really disliked him again. But that doesn’t really matter by Season 2.
Ash Tyler and Michael Burnham
Honorable mention I suppose to Ash Tyler. He has the most convoluted and weird story line going on, and he becomes Burnham’s love interest pretty quickly, and we are supposed to like him, I guess, but man, I sure don’t like him. Especially because of his participation in the previously mentioned “Doctor Boyfriend is kind of a non character until we need to sympathize with this couple more for plot reasons,” moment. Because unlike Stamets alone, Stamets+ Doctor Boyfriend was pretty good and interesting.
Anyway, that about sums up my general thoughts on Season 1 and my “before I really watched” impressions.
Overwatch has just launched Season 11, and it’s paying tribute to Tokusatsu. A lot of folks are calling it the Power Rangers season, but the designs on the sentai skins are closer to the bug eyed Kamen Rider than to Power Rangers. Power Rangers usually have a more themed helmet for each team and solid visors not bug eyes.
There are also several monster skins that are more of a nod to Kaiju, though nothing super directly “Godzilla” or anything. Road Hog has probably the closest thing to a Godzilla skin and Zenyatta is wearing some dinosaur pajamas. There is also a pink squid-haired Lucio.
Not to be confused with Pink Mercy, which is returning to raise money for the Breast Cancer Foundation. It seems like some gatekeeper type folks are upset about this one. Because somehow it’s bad that other people can spend money to get an untradable video game cosmetic.
People are also upset about the Ultrawatch theme. Several of the skins are light reworks of other skins which people are saying is lazy. I am inclined to agree a bit. I don’t really care about the “lazy” skins, the pass is $10. I am concerned a bit that Blizzard is trying to push the value there being for the Mythic coins (which cost $80 otherwise), versus quality pass content. Some of the highlights, victory poses, and emotes are also essentially just the same thing repeated, which is a bit lame. Several are for newer characters, who I have almost nothing for though, so that’s ok, I guess.
Even more lame is that all of the voice lines are currently unavailable. I guess there was a bug with the special audio. I mean, this is Season 11 Blizzard, and this is a big company. It feels like this should be nothing to make work.
I also kind of wish the special mode was a bit more themed around the season, maybe Monster team heroes vs Sentai team heroes.
I ended up buying in though anyway, and I decided to go in for the Ultimate Bundle deal, which had a couple of extra skins and $20 worth of OW currency. With the 20-level skips that I forgot that bundle had, I am already over halfway through the base pass. I really like the Sentai-themed, much more than a lot of the previous themes.
There is also a beach theme as a sort of secondary theme with a whole mess of “Lifeguard” themed skins. They all kind of feel like Baywatch Overwatch with their red outfits. There is also a Kiriko lifeguard skin that seems like the one everyone wants. The trailer also has teased some sort of upcoming Transformers crossover, though it’s not clear how that will work with Overwatch. Most of the speculation suggests Bastion (Shockwave), Ramattra (Megatron) and Reinhardt (Optimus) will get some sort of Transformers-themed skins. I could see maybe Starscream from Pharah or Optimus Primal from Winston as well.. Hopefully it’s some remolds and not some lame recolors.
Lastly, the Pink Mercy skin is making a return with a new variant, along with proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. I already have Pink Mercy but I will probably donate for the “Rose Gold” variant.
I have been playing Sky for a few years now but somehow I have missed the Days of Color event. Twice I think even. I have been waiting for this one to come along, for kind of a dumb reason, it’s the only way to (non hacky) access the space way up above the 8 Person Door puzzle area.
The Days of Color is essentially Sky’s Pride Event for Pride Month. Everything is rainbow themed. In fact, it was originally called Days of Rainbow. There are a bunch of Rainbow themed cosmetics available during this event and, like the recent Days of Nature, part of the sales go to charity. In this case, the donation is The Trevor Project, but I don’t see how much (Days of Nature was 50%). Like other “Days of” events, there are special daily tickets to collect and exchange for special cosmetics. There are usually plenty of days to collect the needed tickets, and there is a vendor that lets you buy them for 2 Ascended candles each if you come up short.
Or are impatient.
There are plenty of pricey real money items as well, though as mentioned, it includes a donation.
The event itself takes place in the 8 Player Puzzle door of the Daylight Prairie. There is a spirit in the Aviary that will teleport players there directly, which is nice because waiting for people to show up and complete the puzzle can be a pain. In addition to 4 event currencies on the ground floor, a 5th is found above in the normally inaccessible upper zone.
To reach the upper zone there is a rainbow themed puzzle. If I understand it correctly, in the past, you needed 8 players to complete the puzzle, but this year, a single player can complete it, which is new. Basically, there is a node (that should change each day) corresponding to one of the colors of the rainbow. The first day is Red. You wear a red cape, or use the nearby color foundation, which randomly speed out a different color that temporarily changes the player cape, trails, and hair color. Then you stand near the node for a few minutes to power up the rainbow which activates a jet that will propel you to the sky.
It’s only the first day, I am not sure if tomorrow you will need to power up two nodes or if the Red will just be activated already. Also notable, the first time I did this, something bugged and the upstream jet did not activate.
The colored jet can be rode up high in the sky to some floating islands where a 5th event currency is located. There are some neat little alcoves on these islands to explore as well, and the other main event for this event.
There is a race track down a twisted rainbow. It works like other races in other areas, players sit at the starting line to activate it and must collect checkpoints as they slide down.
It was really giving me some Mario Kart vibes.
I also have to say, I kept missing the checkpoints, which usually means starting over. Which is fine, it’s low stakes and that means it’s tricky, but not impossible hard.
