art – AgentAnnK

I’m getting too old for this Dank!!!

I finally finished MXS2 Snatcher two weeks ago checking off another game in my classic Kojima game playthroughs. I had been trying to play the MSX2 version for a while, but due to limitations to my setup, the translation patch would always breakdown mid-game causing large dumps of garbled text. With my new set up I wanted to see if this same issue would come back and I am happy to say I have fixed all the problems retaining to my MSX emulations.

I now only have the PC-88, PS1, Saturn and PC Engine CD versions to play through. One of the most significant variations you’ll find between games would be the musical arrangements between each system. I own the vinyl record release of Snatcher, but hands down the original PC-88 has the best sound despite the PCE CD arrangement having that CD sound quality. Check out a few differences here:

The translation I was playing was a bit broken (funny at times, but still broken) however, if you want to see a better-translated version of MSX Snatcher I recommend watching Awesomebrand’s video of his playthrough of Snatcher to get a feel of how this game played out on the system.

But hey- enough Snatcher for a few weeks. It’s only natural after playing a lot of Snatcher that one would dive right into Kojima’s other classic Sci-Fi drama Policenauts.

Policenauts

Policenauts is another game that has eluded me for years due to my at-home setup and the fact it never got a proper English localisation. It was initially released in 1994 for the PC-9821 in Japan after four years of development and conceived when Kojima was working on Snatcher. It’s got a high-cinema style production, and it’s got a lot of throw-backs to American Buddy-style cop dramas, mainly Lethal Weapon. There were plans to make a Saturn localisation for the Sega Saturn but cancelled due to technical limitations. Policenauts came out for the PC-9821, 3DO, Playstation and Sega Saturn in Japan only, but if you want there is a fan translation for the game made in 2009 for both the PS1 and Sega Saturn.

If I had my way, I would play the PC-982 version; however, there doesn’t seem to be a translation for it yet. I have also seen that emulating this game is a bit of a trick in itself, though Macaw45 recently played thru the game on his stream using updated patches in Mame to get the sound/mouth events working. Still, there were a few audio issues and crashes that did seem to break the game in some areas, however hopefully in time many of these issues will get cleaned up so people can enjoy how this game.

I’m playing through the PS1 version which has many differences from the original PC-9821 version and added animated cutscenes. It has a different look and feel to it, and some would argue it’s a tad uglier vs the original. For me, I am obsessed with playing thru fan translated games just for a glimpse of what these games had to offer and to share in the fun of experiencing the game’s story.
Playing Policenauts has been a two-year desire for me, but yet again, my at-home set up was holding me back. I wanted to play thru the game way back in February after I finished SD Snatcher, but I couldn’t get the disks to work. As I have switched to windows set up, I got help from my buddy Fantasic_Plannet and was able to get things moving forward.

I plan to write a full review/feature about Policenauts in an upcoming article after I finish the game, so tune in Sunday morning when I dive back into the game and see if I can finish it!

Zine Updates

Oh boy. Where do I even start?
The zine is going to be late this month due to the worst customer service from the new printers. I stress that WAS part as I never want to work with these people ever again. What happened was I submitted my order July 16th and asked for three-day shipping to my place, and they kept ignoring and dodging my phone calls, emails and instant messages in regards to my order. TL;DR I had to escalate my frustrations with Paypal to get them to either finish my order or refund my money. This whole thing took an entire month, and I am beyond enraged. Good news! I have zines, and they are shipping out this week, so thank you so much for your patience.
This issue features a story by the fantastic Giby who was at Combo Breaker this summer and his adventures taking part in the event. He got to meet up with a lot of great players, people and checked out a lot of awesome games. I also started featuring a new segment where I dive into unboxing of older games, so be sure to check out the images from that. I also have some great art by Dasyati and yours truly, and overall it’s a good issue despite the lateness of the printing.

Dank Art

Missed the Dank Art? Check it out here! I’m always sketching and working on art from the games streamed by people I follow on twitch. As always, I enjoy people who play retro, classic and obscure PC games, and I try to promote everyone I follow. Check out the streams: LordBBH, Aquas, Zallard1, Retrograde Tom, Macaw45, Omnigamer, Duke Donuts, Tondagossa, Goati, SQPat, Chuboh and CapnClever.

Joe and Mac 3 SNES – Macaw45

Punch Out NES – Zallard1

Beasts of Horror DOS – Macaw45

Edge PC-98 – Macaw45

Joe and Mac 2 – Macaw45

Innocent Until Caught DOS – RetrogradeTom

Bio Menace DOS – Macw45

Journey to the West for DOS – Macaw45

Policenauts PS1 – AnnK

Briganty PC-98 – Macaw45

Gothic 2 Gold – RetrogradeTom

Nightmare Busters SNES – Macaw45

Policenauts PC-98 – Macaw45

Secret PS2 Stream – Duke Donuts

Joe and Mac 2 – Macaw45

Aqy Moo!

Battle Zeque Den SNES – Macaw45

Red Zone Sega Genesis – Duke Donuts

The Destroyer from Jail Arcade – Macaw45

Pinball Dreams Deluxe for DOS – CapnClever

NFL Blitz 200 Gold Edition Arcade – LordBBH

The Destroyer from Jail Arcade – Macaw45

My Eyes! PC-98 – SQPat

Belzerion for 3DO – Macaw45

Woody Woodpecker Sega Mega Drive – Goati

Suikoden II – Omnigamer

Red Zone PC-98 – Macaw45

Castle of the Winds for DOS- CapnClever

Bunches of Games Done Eventualy

After a few months of intense deadlines, new things in life and big changes, I am back with my weekly blog! A LOT of stuff has been going on in my life but I have made time to stay on top of all my Dank Art and Dank Zines. The blog however had been put on hold but now that things seem to be not as busy I am back at it with the Dankness every week! Let’s get caught up on all the stuff you missed:

SO MANY ZINES

E96F605F-0FE1-437B-898D-DD20673C6339 — Puri-Puri with his issue of Dank Zine #15

Have you been checking out my Dank Shop lately? I now have issues of Dank Zine for sale there so if you have missed an issue or only wanted to grab the issue of your favourite streamer. Remember issues are always cheaper when you subscribe.

The most current issue up for grabs right now is Issue 16 with an interview with Giby who is known in the fighting scene circles as well as his goonish appearance with the GameGoons who stream on Twitch. I got to sit down with him and talk about his fights in and out of competitions.

We also celebrate 10 years of Fangamer in issue 16 of Dank Zine with an interview with co-founder Reid Young where he reflects on his little game merchandise company that could. We touched down on how 10 years ago, Fangamer was operating out of Reid’s second bedroom in his apartment and how it’s grown to the size it is now. Sadly I wont be at Camp Fangamer taking place on July 20th, but it’s at that event where Fangamer will celebrate it’s official 10 year’s with the people who helped make it great, the fans.

I also want to welcome cartoonist and illustrator Shan Murphy to the team as she now will be featured monthly in Dank Zine with a series of comics that looks at the personal experience of playing video games. You can check out her work here to see more of her work. As the months go by and the Zine grows I hope to keep adding more content from quality content makers like Shan to the mix.

SO MUCH DANK ART

The pile of Dank Art that needs to be uploaded is too big! When I started to get busy, I started off with the intentions to put all the Dank Art in folders from the week so that when I got unbusy I could simply drop them all in. Yeah, that didn’t happen and now I am sitting a huge dank pile. I should be uploading more as the weeks go on, so do keep checking back to get more Dank Art.

SGDQ 2018

Over $2 Million dollars was raised in just one week during Summer Games Done Quick and I had the pleasure again to be there as it happened. I flew out solo but met up with a bunch of people at the event so I never really felt alone when I was there. It was great to see all of my awesome friends again and hang out with them even if it was all the way in Minneapolis.

I had the honour of sitting on the couch for both Aquas’ Mr Gimmick run with fellow speed runner Narshe along with his daughter as well as LRock’s Double Dragon run on the NES. You can check out both the vod’s here:

The BEST thing about going to a GDQ is to meet other speed runners and streamers and hang out with old friends as well as meeting new. I think I firmed up the next 5 issues of my Dank Zine in just three days of talking to people. Oh shucks, I was also super happy when I introduced myself people said “Oh yes! I know you and your Zine! I would love to be part of that!” I also had the pleasure of meeting Puwexil who I have been following for a while on twitter and ask him some questions about his Final Fantasy 6 speedrun as I am a huge fan of FF6 and his stream was going to be my highlight of the week. Make sure you sub to my Patreon or keep watching my Dank Shop and pre-order or back the zine if you want to read about that one as Puwexil really dove back into some GDQ history from its humble beginnings in some guys basement to the 4H club.

Get your Pulls in… Collecting in 2018

Everyone I know has a collection. My father has been collecting classical music for fifty years and has one wild museum (when it’s that big it’s a museum). It’s floor to ceiling stacked with his favourite composers, the albums that had the better art, the obscure and rare recordings. The only thing that was on par with my fathers’ music collection was my mother’s book collection. Together, they married into a movie collection, and that was normal and was “every day” feeling for me. I naturally started collecting comics and video games at a young age and learned you had to shop around to five or six different stores in a day just to find all your stuff.

My good buddy Greg and I meet up once a month to go collecting and drive out to a few locations or any shows that might be happening. Greg usually has a better idea of what he’s looking for where I often take my chances as I know I can be very fickle. This time we were going to Gotham Central which connects with a collection flea markets, comic shops and even this place called Game Experts which I like to check out for games.

First a bit on Gotham Central which is pretty much how I want all comic stores to look like when I walk into them. It’s wall to floor selection, tonnes of huge collectable action figures, toys, games, and even a huge candy shop where you can get sugar breakfast cereal or a 3-pound gummi bear. I often get so overwhelmed with this place that I forget I am there to get comics, but they have an amazing selection, and they often carry the trades I am looking for as they usually have those in inventory. Greg told me the candy store wasn’t open the last time we were there, so I took my time walking those isles slowly to kind of drink up everything,

I only grabbed a few photos from inside, and I am regretting not getting more photos of some of the candy there. As you can see, everything is very neatly stacked so you can find it and they have a range of unique merch.

I have never seen this game in the wild ever. I have only seen videos of it and had an idea that it was going to fetch a high price. I knew enough that it was “That game that’s a lot like Valis” and it stands out as having a wacky sense of humour so of course, I wanted it. I always try to find that something that is a little different when looking for games and this cart was stuck all the way at the back of the jewel case.

Like most people I know who collect you kind of “hmmm” & “hawwww” over things especially prices. There are a few games that I keep bumping into where I see the price tag hanging around $40 which often makes me pass. I think Alex Kidd for the Genesis is one of those cases where I saw this game hovering around $40 for a while but always chose to pass on it. I’m glad I did as I picked it up for $20 which is not bad.

Finding imports is somewhat rare around here these days, but I always manage to find a few dirty Famicom carts, and they are usually decently priced to move. I passed up on a few items, but I never try to go over a budget when I am out shopping these days as I don’t have the cash flow for it.

We decided to check out the flea market that was inside this connection of buildings and Greg must have warned me a million times over that we might not find what we are looking for here. Usually, you can find one or two vendors set up in a flea market who are selling games or comics. We found a few who had some alright stuff but nothing that stood out enough to buy. I did find a laser disk seller in that mole-cricket maze, but I am unsure if I am ready to make the plunge into collecting laser disks.

Some people can’t do a real flea market like this. Seriously you miss out not checking these places now and then for deals. I used to go to sites like these all the time in my teens with my family, so I’m never intimidated to check out the bargain bins.

Easter with the Family.

I saw my parents last weekend for Easter lunch. My mom recently learned how to work a DVD player, so that means my parents are focused on collecting DVDs and are starting to trickle down some of their VHS collection. You will not find a more eclectic collection of movies than on the shelves of my parents. They range from the best of the best and the best of the worst and even a few titles that will make you wonder if my parents were hippies. Shocking reveal: my parents are not hippies and are in fact Star Trek fans.

Dank Art

I have been so busy with Zine work that I don’t have as many Danks to share this time around. With the new issue already at the printers and feeling a bit worn down and sick I really just need a few days off to get things sorted out. I was hoping I could have done that during Easter break, but instead I got sick and now I need a break from my break.

Facebook Page Launch

After almost an entire two years of making Dank Art, I have finally caved in and made a Facebook page. If you want Dank Stuff on your Facebook feed then follow this link and hit that like button. The Facebook page will act as sort of a permanent home for a lot of the stuff I share as well as another outlet for people to find me.

I am currently working on the next few isues, so if you would like to submit work or have a great idea, give me a should over social or email me here at dankzines@gmail.com

AGDQ2018 or How I stopped worrying and learned to love Speedrunning

After not getting tickets to SGDQ in 2017 I made a point of doing my best to give it all I got and put my bid in to get a ticket to the January event. When I actually got tickets, I kind of sat there in my chair and thought, “OK, I got in. Now what?” I thought that because I had no real idea what games were going to be played or if any of my friends’ runs would be accepted. I had to give it time and wait. I waited too long and missed out on a chance to get a hotel room on site so I was forced to book an Air BnB a bit off-site just to sleep.

I keep hearing people say “GDQ’s were better before 2013” or something to the effect. I can’t speak to that as I was only watching those at home and not at the event itself. I would safely say being there has its own set of advantages as well as negatives. However, GDQ’s are events that are designed to celebrate Speedrunning and working towards raising money for a selected charity. They really don’t have anything else behind the scenes that you would find at a regular convention because the event is the main draw. So there were really no artist alley or merch booths that you would expect at other cons. There was a booth set up that focused on the charity itself so you could learn more about where your donations were going and if you wanted to keep supporting the charity they could give you more information. Nice.

A wild Omnigamer and PJ appeared! — Pho time with Omnigamer and PJ

I checked into the event on early Sunday morning and since I was travelling alone I asked PJ very nicely to meet up with me at the event so I wouldn’t feel as awkward waiting for my Air BnB to be ready later on in the afternoon. He totally didn’t have to, but he said yes and because he & Omnigamer were kind enough to let me tag along with them for a few hours I gave out a bunch of PJ stickers I had lying around from when I made him the Feature Streamer in my Dank Zine. I had no run in for this event and besides seeing a few choice runs I was mainly there to find people to write about. I had my own agenda and it involved Zines, burgers, beer and watching a lot of games.

One of the important things I wanted to do that week was to catch Aquas’ run as I always try to watch his stuff when I am at home watching this event and seeing it in person would be a great kick. His run was around 8 am on Monday and Mr B & I both woke up early to go to the event with him. We met up with one of Aquas’ streaming friends Figbird and to our excitement Aquas said it was alright for all of us to sit on the couch for his run. First GDQ & already on the couch. I was glad I was as Aquas made a very touching speech before his run about his dad who passed away because of Cancer and he wanted to dedicate his run to him. I kept getting so many alerts on my Apple Watch during this that I just switched it to Do Not Disturb for an hour so I could focus better on his Contra III run. Lots of you were all tweeting “I see you on the couch!” Which was very nice, but since I had one of the best views in the house I didn’t want to comment till it was over. Aquas had a very good run, it wasn’t deathless, but it was still something to watch as this guy plays like a beast when he needs to bring it. Check out the video from the event:

My time was spent hanging with people, being social, and playing games in the set up arcade that was on site. There was no pinball this year which was kind of depressing, but there was a Neo Geo multi-cart in the room which I sat on most of the time with my pal Zerst and together we clocked in a lot of hours on Money Exchanger. Zerst also got the Donkey Kong 3 machine to its max score which was fun to watch as I love that game myself and it is always exciting to see someone master a game you like. I also met up with a few of my friends from Macaw45’s chat to play a bunch of dank games in the practice room and this C64 that my buddy Dana had going with an everdrive. Let’s say that when we had the C64 going we put a few good hours playing around with the games on that.

It was really exciting to see my friends up on stage playing games when it came too their runs. PJ managed to break an arcade button in the middle of his Battletoads run which could only be described as “PJ’s dumb luck”. He had a backup planned and it only took him a few moments to switch over to a backup (what a backup? Yes if you know PJ….). It was also really fun to watch The Mexican Runner play the rocket ship part in Battletoads for NES blindfolded. There’s always going to be a few blindfolded donation incentives and I didn’t want to miss this one as it’s known for being extremely frustrating even without a blindfold. I have huge respect for TMR as he played every NES game as part of a challenge and that meant playing all the Powerpad games. If you know me I love the powerpad and try to stream it as often as I can and knowing someone else actually beat Street Cop gives me hope that I can do it too. I also saw Zallard1 do his amazing Two-Punchout One Controller challenge. Fellow streamer Omnigamer helped out and rigged up this splitter that would help him use one controller to beat both games at once.

Zallard1 who played Starfox2 and Punch Out & Super Punch Out at the same time

Please when you share these runs don’t use click-bait tactics like “Some Dude just killed Contra” but share links properly as in “Watch The Mexican Runner play Battletoads blindfolded” as its more about the player and less about the game itself at these events. I was also reading a lot of game devs upset with people who were using words such as “this game is broken” to describe certain manipulations and taking offence to it. I can’t say that for all games, but having see some of the codes from some of my most favourite games I would be safe in saying that not all games are broken, but having broken mechanics and code in a game does make the game more easy to be manipulated hence why they can use glitches to a speedrun advantage. I can think of many fan translations projects my friends worked on where they had to clean up the original source code and fix game ending bugs left in the code itself simply because a game was rushed into development to make a sales date. I’m not saying all games are like that, but I also don’t put any game up on a pedestal of perfect coding either. Even great paintings have mistakes in them and it is those mistakes that we as players love/hate to our advantage.

The Dank Zine core staff: Aquas, AnnK, Lady Te and trap15 (as JJ Squawkers)

The BEST thing about the entire trip was finally meeting up again with Lady Te who I hired to edit my Dank Zine. We’ve known each other before the Dankness set in, but this was the first time we have met up face to face since she’s been staff. I was able to get a very rare staff photo of Aquas, myself and Lady Te and hopefully one day we will be able to get trap15 in there as well. That’s pretty much the core Dank Zine staff right there and I am lucky to have these wonderful people in my life. My little zine has really grown in just under a year and now I have people who contribute to it all over the globe so it makes me getting a photo with everyone harder. I hope that in the future when my zine gets bigger I can start actually traveling to these places and meet everyone.

Overall it was a great time and I was happy to meet up with a bunch of people I have only known thru Twitch, chats and over the internet. Maybe when I get things figured out I’ll work on my fishing game and see if it’s something I want to submit and if its something people would like to see at an event such as this. In the meantime I’ll be hard at work making Dank Art, Dank Zines and trying to give back as much as I can to the retro gaming community.

Updates & AGDQ Fun

I am at AGDQ this week to help support Aquas and all my other friends as they raise money for Cancer Prevention! Stay tuned for a HUGE post about what I have been up to at the event and also what I have planed for my Dank Zine in 2018. I have been very busy here on my trip to America and one of the best part of this event is finally meeting friend from streams & chats face to face. Stay tuned for a HUGE AGDQ Dank Art dump and few other surprises :3

Closing out a Month

Dank Work

Making Dank is what I am all about these days and I am happy to announce that I am accepting submissions for creative content! If you want to join the fam and think you have what it takes to have your work featured in my Dank Zine you may submit it here at dankzine@agentannk.com

I am looking for content that is about retro gaming, streams, and the gaming collecting community. It’s not just limited to writers, I am looking for artists as well who want to make Dank Art and be featured in the Zine or on my blog. Please end me an email and attach an example of your work to get the ball rolling.

Dank Art

C’est ne pas use Dank Art. Burglar X @LordBBH

In the name of the moon I will punish you! Quiz Bisyoujo Shenshi Sailor Moon @Lordbbh

All you need to know about Thunderjaws is that it starts with an Atari gong & theres sharks 🦈 @LordBBH

DK the Donkey Kong @LordBBH

Mystic Warriors @LordBBH

Money Puzzle Exchanger @LordBBH

BBH had a great week returning with his championship belt from the tournament he just won, as well as visiting the Portland Retro Gaming Expo over the weekend. I’m sure he’s going to talk about all the cool stuff there including this strange and new Space Harrier type game he got to try out at the expo. If only my budget would allow me more chances for travel so I could check out events like that then I’d be there myself front and centre. Hopefully BBH got some photos and will show them off during the Monday roulette stream.

Zyclunt on Windows 95 @Macaw45

Boxes! Emergency Box strum @Macaw45

Dracula for Sega CD @Macaw45

Appleseed SNES @Macaw45

Macaw45 had an emergency unboxing video as he got a bunch of new auction wins arrive at his place and whenever he gets a cool delivery such as this he’s gotta share it with his community. There was a bunch of Japanese Windows 95 games as well as few other neat things that he got to show off. The Dracula Sega CD game was a surprise being that I never thought Macaw would subject himself to the torture witch is Dracula on Sega CD, but he did manage to play the game right up to the boss where thru means of the emulation or the game itself it kept glitching out. This sums up Dracula for Sega CD as a whole.

There was a whole week where Macaw was exploring FMV Sega CD games, so hopefully he will someday replay those or explore more of the Sega CD library on a future bird stream.

0FF736F2-E658-45BD-B74F-9C71CA1C90F4 — Gracious IV @Aqy

Aquas is getting ready for GDQ by punishing himself with his practice streams of Contra III along with Batrider for the 1CC Marathon taking place in November. You can check out the trailer here. The 1CC Marathon is a fun weekend where streamers in the arcade scene can get together and go for those 1 Credit Clears and beat the game on one “quarter”. I took part in the event last year with Sega Marine Fishing where I managed to not just 1CC the game, but did it under 15 minutes. I’m sure someone’s done it faster. Anyway, get over to Aqy’s channel and if you are a sub or a fan so try to donate money to his GDQ fund so he can fly out this January and take part in the event.

NOPE. Speedrunning Earthbound/ Mother 2 @Entrepreneurdy

Good thing you have a teddy bear!

The Mad Duck slowed your progress down! Oh Duck!

Ultimoice is making more progress in Speedrunning Mother 2 and after a bunch of resets I got to see him complete a decent run this past Sunday. I am not 100% sure if that was his PB for Mother 2 as it was very early in the morning (what am I doing awake this early in the morning?), but I will say congratulations to Ultimoice as he does put on an impressive run of the game. If you love Earthbound half as much as I do then you definitely want to follow him as he’s going to be going for the World Record in Mother 2 soon. Ultimoice was quick to pick up that I will try my hardest to make Dank Art that is relevant to what’s going on in the current game, so this weeks collections is a whole bunch of stuff that seems to slow him down in those awkward Mother 2 situations.

Streaming

Goati managed to scrub-save the final boss in Fantastic Pinball last week so its official on what conditions need to happen in order to open the boss room. The boss itself has several stages of awesomeness as Goati showed off here in this clip. I’m still playing the entire game as I am a HUGE pinball fan, however I have moved onto a new game to feature on my weekends and that is Sonic Spinball

Sonic Spinball came out in between of Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 to fill a void that the Casino Zone left you with after you defeated the boss. It’s interesting mechanic is that you have to manipulate Sonic as he’s spinning as a little pinball to hit the targets and collect the chaos emeralds while you go after Dr Robitnik. It also features characters from the Saturday morning Sonic Cartoon, not to be confused with the Sonic cartoon where his siblings form a rock band or the horrible The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.

I was the biggest Sonic fan as a little girl and naturally I had all the Archie comics, books, guides and anything else I could get my hands on. When I found out that they were making a cartoon featuring Sonic I was excited and couldn’t stop talking about it. I always thought that the Saturday morning cartoon was the only Sonic show on TV until I started to have medical problems. I had to start waking up at 5am in the morning to take medication hours before eating which made me scan the TV Guide looking for something to watch at 5am and low and behold The Adventures of Sonic their Hedgehog was there!

If you are wondering why someone would put this Sonic Show on at 5am in the morning it’s because that’s the only time slot that would ensure no one would be able to watch it. It’s that bad. The animation is OK from time to time but the world could have been a better place without this incarnation of Sonic. I think this is also where the stupid Chilli Dog obsession came from. Oh well, if you like Sonic then tune in on Sundays when I am going to play thru Sonic Spinball and share with you not only my love of Pinball but Sonic as well.

Fall

Greg & I checked out Mill Pond in our town this past Sunday to take in the colours of the season. It was 30 degrees outside! I have photos of us walking the pond from last year in our full winter coats. If you live somewhere that doesn’t have such a glorious splendour of colours in fall please enjoy the few that I have posted here!

Sweet Home

Dank Art

Still working on getting that backlog of work uploaded. I’m almost caught up with the time that I have lost, but I will eventually get there. Enjoy!

Such Soft Tennis with Ultimate Tennis @LordBBH

Three Stooges @LordBBH

Knights of the Round @LordBBH

King of Fighters 2000 @LordfBBH

Marvel Super Heroes @LordBBH

Parodius @LordBBH

VAMF X1/2 @LordBBH

More great LordBBH stuff here from Monday roulette and Thursday raffles. LordBBH will be one of many players that will be in the 1CC Marathon which we both took part in last year. An official players schedule should be going up halfway thru October so stay tuned to see who made the cut. In the meantime, shoutouts to Mokototruth, Dasyati and leilei for their own contributions to art during BBH’s streams. I’ll see if I can talk to them and get permission to post up their pieces of Dank Art along mine here so it all gets to be shown off in one place if people go looking for it. Also, omg Dank Art is a thing now!

Lord of the Sword @Macaw45

Ninja Gaiden on Gamegear @Macaw45

Ninja Cop @Macaw45

Kensiden @Macaw45

Disney Princess @Macaw45

Metalgun Slinger @Macaw45

Pyjamas to Kuku! Jaguar Byuu to Deru!

Macaw45 is streaming almost every day now so when I wake up and get into my first job of the day I start it off watching whatever strange oddities he’s got cooked up for my morning. There was almost of week of Lord of the Sword where he dived into the strange Zelda II looking action RPG game for the Sega Master System. It took him a few days, but he eventually became the Lord of the Sword himself when he finished it. There was also some muddling around with the endless glut of licensed Gameboy Advance titles and other strangeness.

The Amazing Spider-Man @Chuboh

Chiller @Chuboh

Chuboh is the Lord of Jank and has started to not only look at Janky arcade games, but is also focusing on some of the more special titles featured on the Amiga: the forgotten computer system of the 90’s. In one of these streams he played The Amazing Spider-Man which some people will remember for that insane looking health bar which is just Spider Man’s skeleton. That Dank Art has gotten well over 100 likes since I posted it last Thursday and is my official top rated Dank Art ever so far. Who would have thought that boner Spider-Man was such a huge deal?

Also Zallard1 is starting to route thru Starfox 2 for Speedruns on his channel. Check out what he’s got going on for this never before released classic from the SNES. There has been some amusing articles floating around about Starfox 2 and depending on which ones you read you’ll find very polarizing points of view that either say the game is a bunch of trash compared to modern games to a product of its time that pushed new concepts of gaming for the SNES. Just remember that this was a game that was made for the 90’s when gaming was in a completely different universe compare to where we are now. Also, the mystery behind why this game never game out has been answered by a few diligent fact finders so go watch the video and stop guessing as to why this game never saw an official release as it might disappoint you …

I’ve started following Ultimoice as he has started routing Mother 2 for Super Famicom recently and for those who know me I cannot get enough Earthbound. I found out first about ___ like many this year who saw him perform at SGDQ when he wrapped up the event speedrunning Earthbound for the first time ever at a Games Done Quick. If you love the Mother games as much as I do then go check out his stuff and give him a follow as he’s friendly, entertaining and really has his head wrapped around these games.

Sweet Home

I have wanted to stream Sweet Home since 2011 when I first discovered it from a few online articles that were passed along to me. Everyone will tell you that this is the game that inspired the Resident Evil games and that it was a tie-in with a movie with the same name that came out at the same time. This game never saw a North American release for reasons that are quite obvious such as the gore, violence and graphic death scenes.

That’s right, death scenes. And when your characters die they die for the rest of the game. There are no places to sleep off the pain to restore your health, no secret water that heals all wounds and defiantly no phoenix downs. Just like in real Life, Death is permanent.

I called it a dick. WELL DON’T BUILD YOUR MONUMENT LOOKING LIKE A BIG DICK!

The other challenging thing about this game is the item management where each character has a special tool ability that only they can use. If that character dies you are stuck looking for alternatives that are littered around the dirty haunted mansion. Also if you find yourself in a situation where you need to pick up something but your inventory is full you’ll have to drop something. Sounds a little like Earthbound in that aspect of gameplay only it’s more serious and stressful in Sweet Home.

A976D904-6E46-4F49-B306-BD5A89A9129C — Troll 2 OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

Also, this game is creepy as hell. The music is every eery and some of my followers has described it as “Jaws” sounding where it gives you this feeling you are being hunted or something terrible is following you. Even the pause button stressed you out when you use it as it just screams “STOP!” As in “OMG STOP THIS CRAZY GUTS GAME PLZ!”

Totally pick this game up as it really is a hidden gem seeing that it was never released outside of Japan. If you want to spoil it for yourselves, you may always check out the movie, Sweet Home, as it’s online with subtitles and it’s alright as horror movies go. For me, I am excited as I have ordered the strategy guide that is in full Japanese, but has lots of hand drawn art featuring the actors/characters from the game and movie as well as screen captures with lots of information. Once this comes in I’ll be showing it off on my stream.

39A976D3-8411-49C5-913B-725A869748EB — Ew Monsters.

Tune in Tuesdays and Wednesdays when I’ll be playing thru this game. I started streaming more during the week to help play thru some of the games I have in my backlog and I should be posting up a poll soon to see which game I will play thru next in my weeks to come! You can follow me on Twitch here

Comic Con

My good buddy Greg and I checked out the Hamilton Comic Con on Saturday morning last week and we had a BLAST. It’s been a very long time for me visiting a comic con and at first I was a bit shy asking if I could take people’s photos, but as the day progressed I calmed down a bit and I got to meet a bunch of neat people who had some really stand out costumes. I actually found some amazing deals on some games that I picked up including Lord of the Sword for the Sega Master system complete in box.

Funny that I didn’t pick up many comic books, but I am finding that the more cons I go to its less about the books and more about what crazy crud people can sell at their booths. I’m totally alright with that as I need more crazy crud and video games in my life.