#3 — Retro video games

Hello.

This seems like a bolt from the blue but, believe it or not, I've been planning the third edition of this newsletter for quite sometime now. I'll save you the load of tosh about why it's taken a whole year and dive into the newsletter right away. Oh and in the off chance you don't remember signing up for this newsletter and wish to unsubscribe, you can do so by clicking the unsubscribe link at the end of the mail. No hard feelings :)

Of NES and Emulators

As the header image of Double Dragon indicates, I would like to talk about retro video games today. It all started with a conversation I had with a good friend on Saturday about the NES (Nintendo) and SEGA games from our childhood. I wouldn't go as far as to say that these games were an integral part of my childhood but I do fondly remember dueling it out with the neighbors on 1v1 fighting games like Street Fighter or the hours spent on trying to complete the different stages of Mega Man, Mario, Contra and Double Dragon (easily my favorite). It was an era which probably lasted a good 5-6 years for me until everyone started getting their Playstations and Xboxes with their superior graphics. I've never owned a PS console but I did once try using an emulator tool to play PS games on my PC but that was it. Whenever I've been handed a PS controller, I am so out of place that I feel like a Bollywood actor holding a guitar during a sing-song sequence. Long story short, I've never warmed up to PS/Xbox games.

So, I asked myself if there were any online emulators for these retro video- games and lo and behold, there are! It's 2017 after all, where rule 34 of the internet applies to many other things. I'm not sure how many of you already knew about it (or care) but this was big news for me. This website is an online emulator which also hosts a shit-ton of retro video games online!

Visit: Emulator Online To get updates on the latest games they emulate (?), you can follow their Facebook page here.

Cut to a couple of hours and several games of TMNT, Double Dragon, Street Fighter later, I can't tell you how happy I am. This had many of my favorite games. It didn't have Spartan but I'll let that slide. The controls are fairly simple. You have the direction keys and Z/X on the keyboard as your A/B buttons. For other games, the keyboard controls extend to the A, S, D and C keys.

There are a few limitations with Emulator Online though. Firstly, you can't play them on full screen mode. Secondly, some of the games don't allow you to change certain settings like the difficulty levels. I got my ass handed to me in TMNT Tournament Fighters. Ugh. And lastly, there is no 'back' button. At times, I found myself refreshing the game from the start because I couldn't access the game menu.

That said, for a shot of nostalgia, I think this emulator website is pretty darn cool. It's worth a look if 8-bit video games tickled your fancy back in the day.

Edit: It looks like I'm quite the noob. There's a more popular website called www.emuparadise.me where one can get download links to almost all the retro video games.

The Uber game

From video games for fun, to something which is very real - here is a game developed by the Financial Times called the 'Uber game'. It's modeled around the life of a full-time Uber driver who has two kids to support and a $1000 mortgage payment due in a week. FT have done a brilliant job on making this scarily real.

Play the game here: https://ig.ft.com/uber-game/

After you're done with this scenario based game, I'm sure it'll make more empathetic towards your driver on the next trip.

Music.

2017 is nearing it's end and while I'm building my AOTY list, here's a sneak peek on some of the albums that caught my attention.

Abstract Void - Into the Blue
Genre: Synthwave / Ambient / Post black metal
Synthwave is getting fairly monotonous but Abstract Void make it interesting by infusing really cool ambient and, for lack of a better word, post black metal passages in the music. This has been my go-to background music for months. Full album stream here

Perturbator - New Model
Genre: Synthwave
James has evolved from the upbeat Hotline Miami OST he did many years ago. 'New Model' is dark, gritty and dense. It'll make you feel like you're trapped in a cyberpunk film noir. The song build ups are fantastic. Full album stream here

Elder - Reflections of a Floating World
Genre: Rock / Stoner / Psychedelic
The songs average out to around 10 minutes, but when you do play the album in its entirety, it'll feel like an effortless listen. I'd say around 70% of it is instrumental. Reflections is loaded with riffs, tasty basslines and thumping drums. Full album stream here

Blazing Rust - Armed To Exist
Genre: 80s Heavy Metal
When you think of Mother Russia, can you think of a prominent rock/metal act? At least I can't. Hopefully things will change with Blazing Rust. I'm quite surprised how good these guys are with their catchy choruses, catchier guitar licks and soaring vocals. That's Blazing Rust for you! Full album stream here

Phew, I've finally penned down this third newsletter. Hopefully, it won't take another year till the next edition. Do spread the word if you liked the content here and of course, feedback/comments are welcome as well. As always, I'll try to keep an eye and an ear out for anything interesting that comes my way on the intarwebz.

Cheers,
Vince