Category Archives: Video Game Consoles

I No Longer Regret Buying a Wii U

Sometimes sequels really stink.  Jaws: The Revenge.  Highlander II: The Quickening.  Dumb and Dumber To.  George Bush. Nintendo’s successor to the multi-million selling Wii was like that. Reggie Fils-Aimé came out on stage and talked this thing up like it was “a Wii… for you…” and other some such vague bluster.  He didn’t even let […]

Steam Deck, Schmeme Deck!

Want a portable gaming system with a large screen and full Windows compatibility?  Don’t have several hundreds of dollars to spend on the Steam Deck or one of its knock-offs? Get a used netbook! That right there is the venerable HP Mini Note 2133.  I bought that back in 2008 when it came out.  It […]

My Brief Dalliance with New Games is Over

Playing new video games is expensive.  Especially if you tend to play a lot of video games – like I do – and if you live in an inflation-ridden dystopia – like I do.  Too often I’ve had the unpleasurable experience of getting interested in upcoming games, balking at the system requirements, getting sticker shock […]

The Grandia Series and my JRPG Journey

I’ve mentioned recently how I’ve gotten into playing classic JRPGs.  That actually started by accident in a couple of ways. First, I made two games (here and here) in RPG Maker, which makes JRPG-style games by default.  As I was making them, play-testing them, and eventually playing through those finished games, I realized that I […]

Yakuza

Ah yes, it’s time to talk about this well known video game, “Yakuza Fury“, which busted onto the gaming scene on the PlayStation 2 in 2005. Nah, of course not.  This is about the long-running and widely acclaimed video game series published by Sega that everybody knows in the West as Yakuza.  I remember I […]

Robotman’s Cheap Classic Controller Calendar 2022

It appears to be calendar season.  Not, however, calendula season, nor colander season.  But as I was making my snazzy and sexy 2022 fembot calendar yesterday, I also started making one I could actually hang on my wall.  You know, one that isn’t pornographic. And it occurred to me that I hadn’t yet made a […]

Emulation on Windows XP in 2021

It’s been just over seven years since Microsoft officially ended support for Windows XP.  Most people have moved on to Vista, 7, 8, and 10 since long before then.  Hell, crazy people like me have even moved over to Linux, and there are those Mac people too.  That’s not even to mention the amount of […]

Emulation Roundup

Move ’em on, head ’em up Head ’em up, move ’em on Move ’em on, head ’em up, emulation Cut ’em out, ride ’em in Ride ’em in, cut ’em out Cut ’em out, ride ’em in, emulation After not really playing emulated video games for nearly five years, I think it’s time to catch […]

Farewell, Xbox

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the departure of an old gaming console, the Xbox. No, not that one.  And no, not the new one, or even that one. Jesus, Microsoft really fucked up the naming system for these things didn’t they?  I mean, it was so simple to just follow the […]

Robotman’s Cheap Classic Console Calendar 2020

In an attempt to adorn my bare and crumbling walls again this year, I’ve forgone the tradition that most folks have of buying a calendar, and I’ve made my own out of bookers and hacky sack.  Or something like that. Then again, considering how much printer ink costs, maybe this is the stupid way to […]

Robotman’s Cheap Classic Console Calendar 2018

Twas a day after Christmas and up on my wall Hung last year’s cheap calendar crude layout and all I glanced at the date and the days that were left And knew that of new calendars I was bereft So up off my lazy ass I had to go And think of more game consoles […]

Robotman’s Cheap Handheld Calendar 2017

Who doesn’t love gaming on the go?  I can think of a few people actually, including myself, but never mind us! This year’s calendar is dedicated to handheld video game systems, starting with the phenomenon that was the Nintendo Game Boy and up to Sony’s latest handheld the Vita.  And if you’ve been looking for […]

RetroArch – Still Garbage After All These Years

Actually I wouldn’t know about the “all these years part”, but frustrated by the sorry state of Saturn emulation, I broke down and downloaded RetroArch so I could try the much-hyped Mednafen-Saturn core.  See my rants here and here for some context, and how low my opinion of these projects is. I immediately got stuck […]

Emulator snobs

I’ve been wanting to make this rant for a while now, but after reading this thread on reddit (archive here), I feel that now is the right time to do it. Lately I’ve noticed  that there are some people in the “emulation community” who are just assholes.  They get mad over the stupidest shit – […]

Propaganda!

To forestall counter-revolutionary regressions and the tactics of those who would betray the ideals of the sacrifices our Comrades have made, please benefit in these glorious depictions of our shared console heritage. Onward!

Mednafen: Still garbage after all these years

Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) have been around since the early 1970s.  They are not a new idea.  A well-thought out and proper-functioning GUI is essential to modern computer use. Think how frustrating it would be if your phone or tablet didn’t have a GUI, and you had to issue a memorized list of arcane commands […]

Unlocking the Mysteries of Sega Saturn Emulation

The Sega Saturn.  It’s like a planetary system.  It’s like an atom.  Complex, yet ordered.  Dual CPUs and six other processors make it like a binary star system with six planets, or some mysterious element with a proton and neutron and six electrons. Nah, it’s actually a really fun console to own and play.  I’m […]

Fixin’ ta fix my controller

I really like my Saitek controllers. Not as much as I like my Logitech Dual Action controllers, but the Saitek controllers are what I use for my Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, 32X and TurboGrafx-16 emulators.  They’re decently built and feel comfortable in my large hands. So I was rather peeved when my oldest […]

SG-1000, Master System, and Game Gear emulation

Before Sega turned into the pathetic quarter-profits-chasing caricature of its former self that it is now, they were amassing quite a collection of games for their own video game systems.  This was back in the 80s and 90s, of course, decades ago. For years I’ve been using a program called MEKA to emulate the SG-1000, […]

A better way to emulate the TurboGrafx-CD

For a while now, I’ve been enjoying some of the rare video games that came out for the TurboGrafx-CD.  It was an add-on that came out for NEC’s TurboGrafx-16 console, and was the first CD-based way to play video games.  I talked about it here, exactly a year ago as luck would have it.  The […]

A review of PlayStation emulators

Emulation can get a bad rap sometimes.  I think that mainly comes from people who don’t really understand what they’re talking about.  I also think it comes from people who are just opposed to the very concept of emulating a video game outside the original hardware for which it was intended. Since I discovered the […]

Quizicality 04 — Odyssey²

As you may or may not know, the Odyssey² was a home console that included a full Qwerty keyboard.  The few quiz games available for it take advantage of this setup. Math-A-Magic! (1980) Yes, another math quiz game.  But this one is probably the easiest out of all of them to play because of the […]

Quizicality 02 — Atari 2600

Among the Atari 2600’s vast and vastly inconsistent library of games are a couple that qualify as quiz games.  And yes, they are both math quiz games.  We’re not going to see anything so astoundingly complex as words just yet. Basic Math (1977) This launch title for the 2600 (when it was still known as […]

Quizicality 01 – Channel F

Back in 1976, video games were still a very new phenomenon.  The Fairchild Channel F was not the first home video game console, but it was the first one that allowed for interchangeable game cartridges.  And even with the rudimentary tech inside the console, the game library shows signs of creativity beyond just Pong. Math […]

Quizicality

It’s time for another batch of video game reviews here on Robotman’s blog.  This time, I’ll be focusing on the exciting, engrossing and exhilarating world of quiz games.  Hang on to the edge of your seat, because nothing gets the blood pumping like a round of 20 Questions played on your old 8-bit computer, am […]

Robotman’s Cheap Classic Console Calendar 2015

Because I’m a cheap bastard, and in the spirit of making things for myself, I’ve made a wall calendar for myself to use that celebrates old video game consoles.  This one is the sequel to last years calendar that I made, and it features twelve lesser-known and less popular consoles.  Give it a download if […]

Video Carnage 36 — The Checkered Flag

My Video Carnage reviews have all wrapped up, and I’ve done the circuit from console to console, all the way from the lowly Odyssey to the Xbox.  I’ve stopped in with some computers along the way to check out the driving there,and all told, I reviewed 99 games for 33 systems.  Now it’s time to […]

Video Carnage 35 — Road Rash (Part 2)

I’m back with the second half of my Road Rash series reviews.  The first five games I reviewed can be found here. Road Rash 3D (1998) This was the second Road Rash title I ever played, and it was one of the first games I bought when I first bought my PlayStation 2. In fact, […]

The TurboGrafx-CD

Back in 1988, NEC released the world’s first disc-based video game system in the form of an addon for their PC Engine console.  This was in Japan, where gamers got the new tech first in those days.  The CD-ROM² added some extra power to the base console, and game studios took advantage of this to […]

E.T. – The Extra Terrestrial

Despite what you might have read, this is not the worst video game ever made. This is definitely a terrible video game, and I do loathe it.  I can find no enjoyment in playing it.  But the story of E.T. is historically important, and it’s interwoven with the story of Atari’s fall from the top […]

Video Carnage 34 — Road Rash (Part 1)

Now that I’ve gone from Odyssey to Xbox and burned chronologically through all the console hardware I own and emulate, I’m just going to focus on one series of racing games in particular for these next two posts. There are many popular and well-known racing game series that have come out for various consoles over […]

Video Carnage 33 — Xbox

No, not the Red Ring of Death Special.  I’m talking about the original Xbox here, the one released by Microsoft in 2001.  My spellcheck wants to change Xbox to bijoux.  Ha! Selling only about 16% as many units as the PS2 sold, the Xbox is seen by many as a failure in the console market.  […]

Video Carnage 32 — Game Boy Advance

We’re back into hand-held territory, and that means a step back from the realism of the sixth generation consoles like the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast.  Here we trade those features in for considerations of portability. The Game Boy Advance was really nothing to sneeze at though.  It was a 32-bit hand-held, though to me, most […]

Video Carnage 31 — PlayStation 2

If you’re reading this, I bet you owned or have played a PlayStation 2.  That’s a safe bet to make with the best-selling home console of all time.  What can I say about the PS2 that most people don’t already know?  It was birthed on the frozen fjords of ancient Viking Scandinavia by Legendary Feared […]

Video Carnage 30 — Sega Dreamcast

Dreamcast, oh, Dreamcast. My beloved Dreamcast. I’d better get my fanboy raving out of the way early. One of the most revolutionary consoles ever to be released, right up there with the likes of the Atari 2600 and the NES.  While those two were phenomenal success stories with equally phenomenal lifespans, the Dreamcast’s life was […]

Video Carnage 29 — Game Boy Color

Handheld game consoles sacrifice power and features for portability.  Comparisons are less and less acute these days, but back in 1998 when the Game Boy Color came out they were pretty stark.  We’ve gone from 64-bit computing and 3D polygonal rendering back to 8-bit low-res bitmap graphics for these reviews.  Oh, and kiss analog steering […]

Robotman’s Cheap Classic Console Calendar 2014

All of last year, I had a delightful ninja cat calendar adorning my wall.  I found that one on reddit in 2012, and I kept that in mind near the end of 2013, hoping that a similar awesome calendar would pop up there. Well, I didn’t see one.  So I’ve made my own 2014 wall […]

Video Carnage 28 — Nintendo 64

I didn’t say a whole hell of a lot about the Nintendo 64 when it popped up in The Golfyssey, so I’ll rectify that now. Coming on the heels of the Sega Saturn and the Sony PlayStation, those two systems were its main console competition.  Please don’t make me laugh by mentioning the Atari Jaguar.  […]

Video Carnage 27 — Sony PlayStation

If you were a console gamer in the mid to late 1990s, chances are you did your gaming on a PlayStation.  It wasn’t just competitive, it didn’t just outsell the other consoles, it dominated.  There were two big reasons why this was. Reason number one was the ease of programming and developing games for the […]

Video Carnage 26 — Sega Saturn

I really like my Sega Saturn.  I was a young man just out of my teens when this console was released here in Canada, and I was living on my own and dirt poor, so I didn’t buy one.  But I always wanted one, and nine years after it came out, I got one. I […]

Video Carnage 25 — Sega 32X

When I think of the 32X, I almost invariably think of it as one of the reasons that the Saturn failed.  Lesson: If you fuck over your game developers and your customers, you might jeopardize your future endeavours.  And since the 32X was dead on arrival and given only token support, its game library is […]

Video Carnage 24 — Atari Jaguar

Oh boy.   You know you have one craptacular shitfest of a console when you’re forced to resort to infomercials to sell it because no one wants to buy the damned thing.  I bet a fucking ShamWow can display better graphics than the Atari Jaguar.  This was purported to be the first “64-bit” console, but only […]

Video Carnage 23 — Sega CD

The Sega CD had some disappointing offerings when I reviewed golf games for the system.  It’s often looked back upon as Sega’s first hardware blunder, and if you look into the history of the Sega CD, you will find the story of a good idea botched by bad management and poor timing.  There are loads […]

Video Carnage 22 — Super Nintendo

I’ve always wondered why Nintendo stuck such a crappy processor into the Super Nintendo.  It had roughly half the processing power of the Sega Genesis, and it really left Nintendo’s 16 bit console crippled.  When I talked about the SNES in The Golfyssey, I didn’t fully realize that some aspects of the SNES hardware were […]

Video Carnage 21 — Neo Geo

From four colour low-res 8-bit portable racers, we now swing to the other end of the spectrum and check out the high-end home arcade system that was literally a home arcade system. The Neo Geo had its share of racing games, though it’s library is more well known for the awesome fighting games that SNK […]

Video Carnage 20 — Nintendo Game Boy

And now on Robotman’s blog, it’s time we put away our fancy, expensive home consoles and television sets and pick up a handheld system.  Put on those pea-soup coloured glasses too, because it’s time to revisit the original Game Boy. Our specs are lowered again for this post.  Not only are we going back to […]

Video Carnage 19 — Sega Genesis

It’s time to check in with Sega’s fondly remembered 16-bit powerhouse, the Genesis.  This is one of my favourite retro consoles for many reasons, and I can even overlook the frequently maligned sound chips.  There isn’t much else to say about this console that I didn’t say in my golf video game reviews, so let’s […]

Video Carnage 18 — TurboGrafx-16

It’s time to revisit everybody’s favourite 8-bit system!  I mean, the 16-bit system with the 8-bit system feel! (EDIT: The TG-16 actually has an 8-bit CPU.  The graphics processors are 16-bit.) I ragged long and hard on the TurboGrafx-16 when I reviewed some golf games for it.  A lot of TG16 games really don’t hold […]

Video Carnage 17 — Atari 7800

Oy.  Here we find ourselves in Underwhelmsville again, population 7800.  Like I mentioned before in The Golfyssey, the Atari 7800 was shelved for two years before it was released in an attempt to compete with none other than the legendary NES.  The graphics are shitty, regardless of how many terrible-looking sprites this system can handle […]

Video Carnage 15 — Sega Master System

Sega not only had better hardware specs in the Master System compared to the NES, but they also had a history of making successful and critically acclaimed arcade racing games like “Hang-On“.  It is because of these factors that when you compare the game libraries of the NES and Master system, you will find the […]