outline/timeline III: my beloved little grey box--The Prologue

outline/timeline III: my beloved little grey box--The Prologue
OR
I love my dead grey console: Part 3


Got drunk at work the other night, caught another couple hours of Angel. One episode was a lovely meditation on vampiric evil vis-a-vis the passage of time, personal evolution and even...redemption. Somehow, this rang some bells...

Ended up buried in the basement, pounding Oly and starting up a new game of the truly excellent Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Now that's a take on vampiric evolution! The story blends revenge and redemption in a fascinating way, and has perhaps the best presentation of narrative of any game I've owned.(1) The voice acting trumps any animation I've heard, and the tutorial entwines with character/story development, all these elements scattered amongst standard action/adventure puzzle/exploration fare. This is simply one of the finest, most polished games I've played. And that got me to thinking...

Lotta really good stuff's come up on the 'nets the past couple weeks.

The Dreamcast Junkyard's roused itself from its sad, lengthy slumber to bust out a ton of updates. Highlights include:
a fabulous image they found(2);
a lovely round up of more recent Dreamcast titles, including a bunch of rad shmups, a topic near and dear to my heart.

The prolific and superb Racketboy's been on a mammoth hot streak lately. His Dreamcast stuff includes:
a solid introduction to most things Dreamcast;
a terrific starter's guide to filling out a collection of games for your nifty little grey guy(3);
an insightful where to go next" batch o' suggestions;
and a couple musings on classic bits of Sega, and new wonders to ponder.

All this wonderful work's got me All Fired Up, and over the next two weeks I hope to finish the Wholesale Roundup of All My Dreamcast Games. Excelsior! Allons! GIT SUM!!

-Fat(4)

(1) As in all things, Metroid Prime rates here. But LoK:SR did get there first...

(2) Can you guess what my desktop is at the moment?

(3) I grade out at an acceptable 7 of 11 of his main titles, and 4 of his 8 slightly more-expensive games. 11 of 19; I can live with that.

(4) Now, 'taint as tho' it's all-'n'-only Dreamcast down in Castle Contradiction's Keep. Also I'm fond of my GBA; barely a week ago, I scored an eight dollar copy of the FUCKING IMMACULATE Metroid II: Return of Samus. Wow. This game is...well, it's radtacular.

I mean, I've spent a couple hours with Metroid: Fusion, by general agreement the finest Metroid radness available on the GBA, and it's not clear to me that it even looks any better than II. (The backgrounds are better...maybe a few more frames of animation...but that's it.) Just a delicious little portal into Samus Aran's world. The world I wish I lived in.

Anyway, my hunger for consumption needs a little reining in--I scored a "backup Dreamcast" not long ago, and then talked myself into a second--MUCH NEEDED!!--copy of Jet Grind Radio. So...let's get technical:

The GBA is my beloved pink handheld. It plays GBA games, connects to my GameCube, and plays older GB games.

My DS is a gorgeous little platinum slab. It plays GBA games...and DS games. It connects to Wi-Fi things, might connect to a Wii, if ever I bought one, but won't play anything older.

My Micro is a gorgeous little black-an'-silver sliver. It plays GBA games, and nothing else. It connects only problematically to any other consoles...

Answer's clear. I gotta sell the Micro. It does what it does perfectly, but it only does one thing: play GBA games. Sigh. I'll miss her.

I'll miss her.