The end of COBRA
Space Adventure Cobra has always been a beloved manga/anime from my past and the game had eluded me for years. I grew up with Sega, but I never had the Sega CD until 2 years ago when I used money my dad gave me for Christmas to buy myself “what I really wanted”. I have a great dad.
Noted, this is a very hard to find game for the system fetching prices over $300 Canadian on ebay. I’ve only ever seen the sequel to this game in JP format in the wild and that was at a retro game swap going back a while. I highly recommend trying this game out as its fun, laid back when it needs to be but keeps you invested so you keep playing. It’s very linear, but I like that when it comes to games like these as too many choices can be overwhelming. The game over all is around 10 hours (you can do it in 7 with no muddling around) so play like I did breaking it up over a few days to really enjoy it.
I finished Cobra & went right into the game I originally was going to play first for my Sega CD Madness Streams: Snatcher. This cyber-punk adventure drama has been at the top of my list for years as one of my most sought after games. Like Cobra, it commands a high price if you are a collector and it’s one of those games I would love to own but probably never will as the game has too many bootlegs floating around the market. If you can’t verify what you are holding in your hands or looking at then you shouldn’t buy it and collecting games is starting to get like that these days. It takes the fun out of collecting to play so for stuff like this I’ll just emulate it. I plan to have a truly unique experience with the game & crack as many jokes as needed when doing it.
Dank Arts
Lord BBH is now down to one Arcade roulette stream a week taking place on Mondays to focus on playing games he actually likes and has submitted for the 1CC athon. I watched the 1CC athon around the winter holidays and I thought it was one of the best events for its type on Twitch as it featured amazing talent, skills and people who I follow to draw Dank art for now. One of the first few games I remember BBH playing was Super Spy & he’s something of an expert on it. The plot is Terrorists have taken over this building & you gotta punch, stab & shoot your way to the top to fight the main villan going thru all his crooked goons along the way. Theres only 1 lady enemy and that’s Pink up there who’s mean as hell & who BBH is a big fan of. The other piece of Dank Art that I want to point out in the BBH pile is the NARC one as I wasn’t 100% confident with posting it & hesitated a few times as I didn’t think it was good enough to share. I do have a small Ultra Dank pile of things I have drawn & either abandoned or never finished that I’ll never share online as I can get like that.
Funkdock is still at it with the 1CC requests where if you subscribe to him on twitch he will 1CC the arcade game of your choice. I’m thinking that’s how it goes for him so if you’ve been dying to see someone master a game with detailed commentary FD is your doctor. I really want him to play thru a game I really like, but I would need to take my time and really give it some thought as it would need to be a game I’d want to give the FD treatment. I had a lot of fun catching FD’s streams in the week that featured E-Swat because in my eye I pictured the cop just as I drew him here- just a slobby guy who’s a cop and has a better day with a full mech-suit on. FD started to play Bucky O’Hare & I did this Jenny drawing. I never watched the show as a kid, my brother was always older for remembering that stuff way back then. It was an experience drawing Jenny as there is a lot of Jenny fan art out there- most are weirdly proportioned sexualized Jenny’s. It’s a fair statement to say that 1 in every 50 Jenny Fan Arts out there is actually decent which isn’t saying a whole lot.
Macaw didn’t really stream a bunch this week, probably due to life or Australian internet, but when he did he played this epic onslaught of Witchaven. It’s a DOS game I actually remember seeing as a child and being excited to play. A few of my friends owned this game in fact and I had very rare occasions playing this when at their houses. The thrill was having Macaw actually beat the game (hours later) but he had to die a whole lot of times to get there as the #1 killer in this game is hidden floor pits with spikes in them that will impale you. That’s the humor in the bird getting hit by the stick Dank Art as there were often moments where it was nothing but non-stop floor spiking for a while. I also get a lot of messages over twitter from people who are fans of Birb- Macaw’s little bird character in the dank arts. I’ve always been into birds since I was a small child though my parents were never cool about pets. My mom did say I could be the owner of all the wild birds I wanted so I would spend hours at the Raptor reserve in my community drawing hawks and eagles that had broken wings or missing eyes. Next time I can get a ride I’ll grab some photos to post here.
Aquas is still going strong routing speed strats for Hammic- the Gimmick hack, Trip World and Ninja Gaiden 2. There was this evening where I was so tired from work that I was watching Aquas’s stream in my living room working on a few tax and bill things and I passed out where I had things set out on the couch. When I came to, Aquas was streaming guitar practice and it was morning. Aquas is one of the few other streamers I know who will stream another skill other than video games, kinda like how I am streaming a Dank Art before playing a game now. It takes a lot of skill to play games live for people, so just think what it takes to perform another skill like music or art. I take a lot of that for granted, but I know how enjoyable it is to share a skill withan audiance which is why I really like Twitch for what it does. It’s a thrill to see skills live and share that with a chat.
Trap doesn’t like my new Apple Watch, but he played some Battle Geregga on a Friday night. Yes, I like Battle Geregga. I can’t play it worth beans, but I enjoy seeing someone with skills play it. And you need skills to play it. Thanks for the Shmoops, Trap.
Adventures in Life
I have post cards now! If you want one, please contact me as I am taking requests for these. They are $25 and that covers the shipping. This goes for the little 4×4″ Dank Arts you see in my blog- they go for $15 each which covers shipping them in the mail. All of my Dank Art money goes towards supplies & burgers.
Dank Art money also goes towards improving my stream. A few months ago my entire retro gaming set up went down which is the reason behind all the Sega CD & Emulated DOS games lately. My old capture card died so I needed to put money into ordering a new capture card for my computer. My switcher went down randomly too so I’ll need to order another one of those so I can quickly swap out systems when I play.
I’ve wanted a nice quiet week to myself since I returned from Tucson at the start of the month. I work close to 60 hours in a normal week, more if I am freelancing and about the only thing I get excited for these days is coming home to make Dank Art. I work like this so I can pay off my debts and bills- just get by and live. It was easy living like this when I left home at 18, but these days I crave comfort so I try to make things as comfortable for me when I’m not working.
I remember two years ago I was really worried about living alone and on my own. My mother hated the idea & I remember she called me only to say that she worries about me. I told her she was never worried about me before when I did crazy things, trespassed, investigated news stories, or went off for weeks at a time with next to no contact. She agreed but back then I didn’t want to admit how scared I was, especially to her. Today I’m really happy I live alone and i can have these quiet moments.
You have no idea how simple things like buying food can be taken for granted when its an hour and 20 minute walk to just get to a decent grocery store. I have to be crafty when I eat as it’s super easy to cheap out and order food and you can lose a lot of money doing too much of that in a week. Perogies are simple to make and you can put just about anything in them- I like a simple potato cheddar cheese combo though if I can get my hands on proper sauerkraut I will make those. My dad would tell me when he was a child he would help his mom in the kitchen and she’d make the best perogies he’s ever had. It’s a skill that’s usually handed down through the family but since my dad was born when his parents were in their 60’s I never got the chance. My father would never make perogies from scratch, he’d always buy them from the store and boil. It was a rare moment to see the old guy in the kitchen to do anything besides washing the dishes, but I miss the way he’d cook those things. He had this way of boiling them just right so they were so soft & melty.
I’m limited to buying fresh produce at the local Farmers Market on Saturdays which happens in Downtown. Usually I would be painting at the market, but I have been too busy to get out lately and also too tired. I would like to get out for a few more paintings days this summer, but for those who have been missing me at the market this year I do apologise. I am working on a new collection of landscapes which I will unveil soon so keep watching here for progress photos.
I have been trying to get out and go off on adventures to see what I can gather- anything that I find of interest is useful inspiration. I guess you could call these my insparation walks. I look for things that connect with me or a scene or subject that is beautiful. I can’t stay cooped up in my place all the time and the best way to focus on creating a new collection of work is to get outside and enjoy things. I’m happy I had a chance to have a few quiet days and do this.