Blogs

I posted to Mastodon back in December about playing the original Half-Life for the first real time on PS2. Finally experiencing one of the greatest FPS games of all time was a revelation. So much so that I went out and installed it on my “gaming” PC right away. I needed to play it again the way God intended. With a keyboard and mouse. I wanted more Half-Life and wanted to play the expansions now. I barely knew of their existence prior to this. I could just get them on Steam, I think they are like $5 a piece. But if you’ve read my work before, you know it’s never that simple… ...

Act 0: Black Mesa Inbound When I was 5 years old, my family got our first home computer. The year was 1997. The computer was a Sony VAIO. I didn’t have a clue what a computer was at the time. When Dad booted up the computer that first time, I heard the Windows 95 boot up chimes, I saw the intro sequence of the VAIO-space software, and I was hooked. (Between the chimes for Windows 95 booting up and the iconic MacOS9 chime, the 90s truly had the most memorable startup sounds of all time) ...

This was my letter to Santa Claus in 1998. While I can’t remember whether I got twisted metol or my front teeth or the golf course material, I’ll never forget waking up on Christmas Morning and seeing a blue Game Boy Pocket under the tree. That Game Boy came with two games, Super Mario Land 2 and Donkey Kong Land 3 (so lovingly referred to as Donkey Kong Crountry). I played that Game Boy until the buttons wore out. Game Boy was famous for ports and reimagining of console games, such as the two aforementioned games. Not only just famous for ports, but also for taking risks that Nintendo was unwilling to take on their home console games. ...

2025 Update: I have since moved my blog to Github pages using Hugo with the PaperMod theme. The content of this post remains true, but note that I no longer rely on Google to host my content and use hacks to make RSS work. Someday I will write a follow up post on the move to Hugo and will link it here I’ve always been something of a tinkerer. In high school and college, it was messing around with the game files of Call of Duty and Call of Duty: United Offensive to create multiplayer mods for myself and my friends. This might sound hard to believe, but in the late 00s and early 10s; Stack Overflow wasn’t quite the repository of knowledge it is today. When I had issues making the game run the exact way I wanted to, tinkering with my code or configs line-by-line is all I had. I consider it a blessing more than a curse, I learned a lot about coding and networking this way. ...

I was a certified Zelda hater as a kid. The game didn’t really appeal to me. You have to fight with a sword and not a gun? Why does Zelda look like Mini-Me dressed up like Peter Pan? I gave the original a try on my dad’s NES and couldn’t figure out where to go after the first dungeon. I was much more drawn to the fast pace of side scrolling games such as Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong Country. Legend of Zelda was one of those “boring medieval fantasy games” like Mystic Quest, Final Fantasy, or Chrono Trigger (just some of the most highly regarded games of all-time; yeah my tastes weren’t that great). Soon the 16 bit era would give way to the 3D revolution and Nintendo would fall out of favor with me for Playstation. And though I would be back on Nintendo’s bandwagon the following generation with the Gamecube, I never found myself giving the series a shot. ...

The ROM hacking community is one of the coolest parts of the larger retro gaming community. ROM hackers are passionate fans of retro games that use their programming, art, and creative skills to create brand new levels, graphics, or even whole new experiences from our favorite games. In a previous guide, I showed how to use your iPhone to patch a retro game into a ROM hack using the JS Patcher and the original ROM and patch file. Often ROM hacks will release updates with even more new content or features. Many times your old save data from the previous version is still valid and you can continue on your adventure using the updated patch. If you use Afterplay.io to keep your ROMs and saves in sync on all your devices, follow this guide to help you update your ROM and import your save from your previous version. Prior to this guide, I downloaded the 4.0 update to Radical Red, a ROM hack for Pokemon FireRed Version; I will be importing my save from my old ROM which is on version 2.3. Note: Check the documentation for the ROM hack you wish to update to. Sometimes saves may be incompatible between versions. The documentation may have more information on how to prepare your save for updating if necessary. With all that out of way now, lets get started. ...

Afterplay.io is a great all-purpose emulator that runs on any device with a web browser. It keeps your ROM library in sync with all your devices, even keeping saves synced so that you can resume your game on any device logged into your Afterplay account. But what if you started your game on another emulator or even on a physical cartridge? Are you doomed to just start your game over if you want to start playing the game on Afterplay? No way, josẽ! Follow this guide and you’ll learn the steps needed to be able to import your game saves into Afterplay and pick up right where you left off! ...

“Zelda II: The Adventure of Link” is viewed in modern times as something of a black sheep within the beloved Legend of Zelda franchise. It’s not very hard to see why it’s thought of this way. It’s the only numbered sequel in the Legend of Zelda series. It’s not even actually called the Legend of Zelda! Just Zelda II! (This was actually a localization choice by Nintendo of America, the game is called the Legend of Zelda II in Japan) ...

ROM Hacks are a great way to enjoy classic games in a new way. ROM Hacks can add new levels to your favorite platformer, add a brand new story to your favorite RPG, or even change the game into something new entirely. But ROM Hacks are typically distributed via patch files. Patch files can end in a variety of different extensions including but not limited to: .IPS .UPS .APS or .BPS. Patch files are not playable by themselves in emulators such as Afterplay.io. Instead they must be applied to the ROM file of the game that they were created for, generating a brand new ROM file. This processes is known as “patching”. Luckily there are tools on the web that allow us to do this patching process all from just an iPhone or iPad. Follow this guide for a step-by-step tutorial on how to patch a ROM on your phone to use on an emulator such as Afterplay. ...

There are 2 types of people in this world: those who say Super Mario Bros. 2 has two playable characters and those who say it has four. And then there is the third type of person who lives under a rock. The one who is unaware of the story of how the version of Super Mario Bros. 2 that the rest of the world got was not the Super Mario Bros. 2 that was released in Japan. Thankfully this review is for all three of you. So before we dive too deep into my thoughts on Super Mario Bros. 2, let’s go over the game’s interesting history. ...