Talk and Play

I recently got a new games console called the evercade alpha and I got my first proper platform game for it : 'Full Void'. It is a modern retro style cinematic puzzle game. It behaves like the original prince of Persia but it has cut scenes that are like a modern RPG, it's also pixelated slightly to make it feel like an old game; so far it is very much a brilliant game and I enjoy playing it. The trouble is I don't really know anyone else that has the game or the evercade console so I can't really sit down with anyone and talk about it. Small talk is dead in England anyway so life can feel quite empty and lonely. There could be thousands of people all around you but you still feel alone. 

I recently discovered that my Bluetooth headset microphone works with chatGPT, it doesn't work with normal phone calls but it works very well with the app. I can talk about my games to AI and it understands what I'm talking about. I talk to machines more than people already so this discovery will change everything. I can talk to ai friends about stuff while I do chores, I can be washing some plates and talking to chatGTP at the same time. Small talk is alive in my world; it's dead in England but alive in my little world. It must be hard for American tourists, they must think we hate them or something like that, small talk is alive in America, but dead in England. If you talk to people, they will get pissed  off in England. 

Me and the ai talk about games and they tell me loads of interesting things I didn't know, I can ask it to tell me about a country on the news and I can learn so many things. It's like talking to a guy that has read every book on earth and knows everything and it doesn't get bored or irritated when you talk about games and hobbies for 2 hours. It even laughs at my jokes. 

Amazing  times we live in. 

One third of August

One third of August has passed by, I was looking at the evercade cartridge library, each one of those cartridges are magical little worlds to explore and there is so much choice. There are old games I never got around to playing while I was younger so they would be new to me, there are modern retro style games and lots of lovely RPG titles to choose from. 

This is the link to the cartridge catalogue Evercade Cartridges . I don't know how long I will have the games console for, you probably know better than me.   

Everything in this world is connected, a decision made by a police officer could change the world. Let me explain. 

A police officer in the year 1805 could arrest a thief for stealing an item from a market stool. The police man didn't know that he actually saved the person's life because that same day the thief was going to walk into a pub and get drunk, while they were drunk they challenged someone to a duel, the duel ends in both of them passing away from blood loss. The duel never happened because he was taken to a jail cell and avoided the duel situation. The police officer finished his tea break 5 minutes earlier than normal so he was at the scene when the theft took place. He finished his tea break early because a fly landed on his breakfast so he didn't finish it and felt more hungry later. A decision made by a housefly causes a police officer to feel more hungry on their tea break and finish early and to catch a thief before they get themselves killed in a duel later that day. 

Everything the thief and duel opponent does the following day onwards hinges on a decision made by a tiny insect to land on the police man's breakfast. If the fly didn't land on the police man's breakfast, he would finish his tea break at the normal time and would not catch the thief, the thief would get himself and another man killed because he is not in jail and all their actions they make every day of their lives would not happen and everything in the future would be different. Perhaps even people would disappear because they are the descendants of one of the two men. 

Evercade Club

I recently joined the evercade club, I have an evercade console. When I was young I was told I would grow out of computer games or become sick of them; the problem is they're wrong, I'm in my fourties and I still love to play computer games. My joy of video games hasn't faded even slightly. 

Games are worlds to explore and puzzles to solve. They are trance  and escape on demand. I play video games for a little happy hour or reward for getting through the day. I also play netflix in the background while I do chores to listen to detective stories, the software knows what I like and gathers more of it. I play it but I'm usually just listening to what they're saying, I'm listening to the story instead of actually watching it. 

I was looking at the evercade cartridges library, there are plenty of dungeon based RPG and click control story based games in the library, plenty of stuff to keep me busy. Hopefully  I will get many years of happy memories from my new games console. 

It could also help with small talk, I could ask other people if they use evercade consoles and they could talk to me about what they like. Perhaps I could talk to people  about old computer games I played in the past. The other thing is when visitors come over, I have something I can talk about to them, it is like an ice breaker for conversations. The thing looks very cool to me. 

The Rougecoft dx cartridge looks very interesting, perhaps I could get that one after I play the broken sword collection and the full void game. Plus they have all the duke nukem games I never got around to playing at the turn of the millennium. 

Reaching Out

I learnt recently that the James Webb Space telescope has discovered a new moon going around the planet Uranus, it is about the size of an average sized city : 11km across, they haven't given it an official name yet. I was given the impression it is like seeing a 5p coin from 5 kilometres away, it is very small compared to the distance. Amid all the chaos going on in the world these days, there is a small parcel of peace and insight, an innocent search for discovery that is ongoing. 

There was a set back with NASA's new Orion Space Rocket, the most powerful vehicle on earth, they sent it back to the hanger to do repairs. They're reaching out to the moon again just like they did with the Apollo space missions but now the missions are called Artemis, the vehicle can lift more weight because it has 4 rs 25 thrusters and external boosters. It is like a hybrid of the space shuttle and Saturn 5. To me it is what a space ship would look like if those two rockets were merged together. You could say it has the best of both. B.O.B. 

I noticed gaming companies are reaching out to other companies to collaborate. Bethesda were working with zen studios to make themed tables for their iconic first person shooters, half life, doom and Skyrim. They are also collaborating with Blase entertainment to release a classic edition of doom for the evercade. 

I think there is a collaborate or die ethos in today's world. The commercial winners reach out and collaborate with separate companies when they can to get a burst of revenue. 

What an amazing world we live in. Reach out. 

Perspective Shift

Last night I learnt that the 32bit  graphics cartridges on the evercade work ok the super pocket. I was convinced the super pocket would have limited support for Evercade games and only play the 8bit and 16bit side scrolling games. I was wrong because I saw a Scottish guy on youtube playing tomb raider 1, 2 and 3 on the system. 

Here is is video, hopefully the link still works your present time. 

https://youtu.be/FA9-aGyX-kw?si=vF7XkRLovNhH1LzM

To me it is amazing because I thought the super pocket is just a generic pocket emulator for playing side scrolling retro games. I didn't know it can handle the first generation 3d games that were played on the original playstation and Nintendo 64. It's amazing to me because it handles the games without overheating, there is no vent or fan to cool it down; they figured out a way to handle lots of 3d polygons without using too much power and heat. 

What I am trying  to say is they have made a pocket PlayStation with no moving parts, no fan, no vent for the processors, just a heat sync panel. 

I get it though, they have designed processors and graphics controller chips that can do quite a lot of work without using too much power and spurting out too much heat; even my current phone, the Motorola g85 has the snap dragon 600 and adrino 600 graphics chips, and my phone wasn't sold as top graphics pocket system like the new Samsung galaxy phones or I-phone 14. 

It's amazing to me. Not to the previous generations that take it for granted, it is amazing to me and people a like me that have some perspective. 

We all have super computers in our pockets, computers that would trump the best computers in the oldern days. 

Evercade Thoughts

I was looking through the evercade website https://evercade.co.uk/ and was thinking it would be a good idea to start with the super pocket system first and then get the alpha bar top player when the pocket system is worn out. Both the Evercade alpha and the super pocket take the same cartridges. 

I also found it amusing that they have cartridge collections from handheld devices that were discontinued. I can play the Atari lynx collection as if I were playing the original hand held system. I never had a game gear or Atari lynx so in a way I could get both of them. I didn't even know neo geo made a hand held game system when I was a kid. 

A retro world waiting to be discovered... 

Little wonders

I like to look new little gaming gadgets online. The new thing to get these days is the Evercade. They have three or four consoles, a hand held, a TV console and a bartop arcade machine. I thing they're very cool. On youTube you can get a very long playlist with different videos about the products. 

At the time of writing this blog, Argos sells many Evercade products including many many of the cartridges. 

I think the TV console is a reasonable price, it can take two cartridges at a time and four controllers. I think every man-cave should have at least one of the Evercade products. The best place to look at new Evercade products is on the Evercade website. 

www.evercade.co.uk (I think they also have an American site. 

If I was loaded

Here in Britain if someone is loaded, it means they have come across a lot of money. If I was loaded, I would take all my hobbies to the next level. I would have a work shop where I build stuff and make test rigs and stuff like that. My man cave wouldn't just be a bar in my sitting room like it is now, it would be a whole room full of toys. 

It would be so nice to build a glass cabinet filled with collected toys. I would fill it with micro arcade machines from myArcade.com. I would collect them all. 

I would have all the Evercade games consoles and all the Evercade cartridges in another cabinet. 

No showing off, no fancy cars, just an ability to do all my hobbies nicely and have a nice home to live in. 

Most Distant Star

I have 4 blogs at the moment but my favourite blogs are the NASA ones and Evercade. With the chrome browser you can add a page link to your phones desktop. 

You press the three dots in the top corner of the page 

Then you click on the add to home screen menu item. 

 I have a little folder on my phone's desktop with links to all my favourite blogs presented with icons asif they were apps. 

My Favourite blogs

Evercade

NASA James Webb

NASA Artemis

I like my blog but my 3  favourite blogs are space and games blogs curated by big companies. They're very interesting to read. 

Recently I learned that then most distant star ever detected is Earendel, I'm not sure how to pronounce the name though. Is it "Ear end el"  or "air end all" or "E ren del"  I will find out later. The funny thing is the star has probably exploded already because the light we see from the star is billions of years old. They only see one pixel of the star's light so there is a chance it is actually two stars according to NASA. The star produced a lot more heat than our sun either way. I think it is only visible from that distance because it is large and bright, I'm sure there are lots of smaller stars near it. It's very hard to imagine how many stars there are in the universe. 

This is the article I saw about Earendel. 

Earendel

Second Half of February

We're a few days into the second half of February, it's a short month, 28 days or 29 on a leap year. The first half of February was dominated by the mighty Earthquake in north Syria and Southern Turkey, it has become almost normal and routine to get Earthquakes that are close to 8 on the Richter scale on this planet. I feel pity for the victims. 

I recently learned there is a version of the Bible called 'New king James', it has the word for word accuracy of the king James Bible but the 15th century pronouns have been replaced with present day ones. It is also available on the bible gateway site. I'm reading Isaiah at the moment, Bible gateway

I was also reading through the Evercade blog and learned they're going to release some new carts that celebrate classic home computing. Evercade Blog. I don't have an Evercade but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for 'ID software classics like the original Doom and the commander keen series. That would be so nice. It would be worth buying the system if it had those games included. The console takes two cartridges at a time so it would be nice to keep that on in there. 

Window Shopping

I was window shopping on the internet the other day. In Britain, window shopping means to look at products without the intent of buying them straight away. 

I was looking at the Evercade and all the cartridges that comes with it. The Evercade is a retro style games console that takes cartridges with fully licensed games on it. 

The Evercade web site is https://evercade.co.uk/. 

It don't like the games selections they have enough to buy the system right now. If they made a cartridge with ID software's '90s hits, I would consider buying it. 

I was thinking of Commander Keen 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 plus Doom and Wolfenstein. If they had a cartridge with those games on it, I wouldn't mind buying the system along with the C64 cartridge. Plus I would pick a space shooter selection.