Returning to the Old - Part 2
I've recently noticed that I seem to be on quite the nostalgia kick as of late. For various reasons, doing things that I haven't done in a good while. For instance, playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The game still proves to be quite enjoyable 15 years after its original release, even with the XBox 360 version's crappy sound emulation. I've been playing this because my XBox 360 has been having issues; every so often, it will just abruptly red ring on me, with the problem seeming to occur more frequently when playing games that would require a lot of system resources. Sadly, this bit of nostalgia was brought to an abrupt halt when the machine apparently finished borking; it has started to red ring just after being turned on.
For this reason, I have dug out my old Gamecube, and have started playing Skies of Arcadia - Legends. This steampunk-esque RPG casts the player in the role of a good-hearted air pirate seeking adventure and treasure amongst the islands and continents floating in mid-air above (if I remember correctly) the long-destroyed remnants of the old world. I never did finish this game the first time I played it, and plan to rectify that now.
Another spark of old gaming nostalgia has been rekindled by a recent visit to Ryan Family Amusements. Their In The Groove machine is still there, and has been upgraded with the r21 patch. This patch, originally released after Roxor lost their court case against Konami's lawsuit, allows the machine to recognise, and utilize, Stepmania simfiles on a player's USB drive. In other words, I've actually been able to play some of my own creations on an arcade machine! This has given me an interest in returning to Stepmania itself, to update my old simfiles and perhaps create some new ones. Indeed, I'm already eyeing the extended version of a certain cartoon's theme song. One that has encouraged a bit of nostalgic behavior from me in its own right. (Edit: Half a day after posting this entry, I came across this news entry at major brony news site Equestria Daily. The timing on this is quite amusing.)
That cartoon would be the 80's-cartoon-remake My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. However, the form of nostalgia inspired by this is not what you may be expecting. Simply watching the cartoon does not elicit such feelings from me, as I never did find the original all that interesting. No, this bit of nostalgia was brought out of my by the very same group that got me into this show in the first place: the brony fanbase. This highly creative group has inspired me to start doing something that I most likely haven't done to any real degree since high school: drawing. And despite the amount of time that has passed since then, the raw talent I exibited back then is still present. As an added bonus, I have finally put my five year old deviantART account to use. Now I just need to get off my backside and finally create an avatar for it.
Only time will tell how far any of these nostalgic thoughts will actually go, but I'll most likely be posting more about this in the near term at least. If nothing else, actually posting to this journal on a semi-regular basis again is a bit of nostalgia in its own right.
Current Location: Valua
Current song stuck in my head: "Wide Awake" by Katy Perry
For this reason, I have dug out my old Gamecube, and have started playing Skies of Arcadia - Legends. This steampunk-esque RPG casts the player in the role of a good-hearted air pirate seeking adventure and treasure amongst the islands and continents floating in mid-air above (if I remember correctly) the long-destroyed remnants of the old world. I never did finish this game the first time I played it, and plan to rectify that now.
Another spark of old gaming nostalgia has been rekindled by a recent visit to Ryan Family Amusements. Their In The Groove machine is still there, and has been upgraded with the r21 patch. This patch, originally released after Roxor lost their court case against Konami's lawsuit, allows the machine to recognise, and utilize, Stepmania simfiles on a player's USB drive. In other words, I've actually been able to play some of my own creations on an arcade machine! This has given me an interest in returning to Stepmania itself, to update my old simfiles and perhaps create some new ones. Indeed, I'm already eyeing the extended version of a certain cartoon's theme song. One that has encouraged a bit of nostalgic behavior from me in its own right. (Edit: Half a day after posting this entry, I came across this news entry at major brony news site Equestria Daily. The timing on this is quite amusing.)
That cartoon would be the 80's-cartoon-remake My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. However, the form of nostalgia inspired by this is not what you may be expecting. Simply watching the cartoon does not elicit such feelings from me, as I never did find the original all that interesting. No, this bit of nostalgia was brought out of my by the very same group that got me into this show in the first place: the brony fanbase. This highly creative group has inspired me to start doing something that I most likely haven't done to any real degree since high school: drawing. And despite the amount of time that has passed since then, the raw talent I exibited back then is still present. As an added bonus, I have finally put my five year old deviantART account to use. Now I just need to get off my backside and finally create an avatar for it.
Only time will tell how far any of these nostalgic thoughts will actually go, but I'll most likely be posting more about this in the near term at least. If nothing else, actually posting to this journal on a semi-regular basis again is a bit of nostalgia in its own right.
Current Location: Valua
Current song stuck in my head: "Wide Awake" by Katy Perry