Monthly Update #7: Emulation Galore!

July 2025

I definitely didn’t forget to post this at the beginning of the month, nosiree. I definitely wasn’t sitting at work writing the date on something and realizing a new month had started and I didn’t write my monthly post. Better late than never, right? Anyway, not much gaming this month, but I basically completed my emulation cataloging, so that’s an accomplishment. More on that below.

Game Acquisitions

Not quite as many as last month but still a fair amount. I was dodging Fanatical bundles left and right to keep this down which I’m quite proud of. I did make three purchases here with Kaze for ~$1, Athenian Rhapsody, Terra Memoria, and Space Prison for ~$10, and CHAOS;HEAD NOAH and CHAOS;CHILD for ~$10. CHAOS;HEAD NOAH and CHAOS;CHILD had been on my wishlist for a little while now and with this purchase, I have completed the Science Adventure collection. Now I just need to play them! I redeemed the July Humble Choice as well; I’m especially looking forward to Rogue Trader. The others were giveaways and Steam Family purchases. Not a bad month!

# of Games: 32

Total Money Spent: $20.80

Price/Game: $0.65

Game Recaps

Very similar to last month, I only played games two separate days, and it was Tales of Phantasia both days. Thank God my friend agreed to play games with me, otherwise I would never get any gaming in it seems. I did beat Growing Up (you can see my review here, but I didn’t time or record it so left it off the recap. We got a lot accomplished in Tales of Phantasia across just two sessions though. We fought in the Valhalla War, fought Dhaos for the first time, and saved the source of the planet’s magic. Next time I believe we’ll finally return to our own time. Check out our let’s play! 

TV/Movie Recaps

Here is everything I watched last month:

·       Tales from the Loop Season 1 Episodes 6-8 (complete)

·       Family Guy Season 23 Episodes 16-18 (all caught up, show ongoing)

·       Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Season 1 Episode 1-Season 2 Episode 20 (still watching, show ended)

·       My Little Pony: Make Your Mark Season 3 Episodes 1-3 (still watching, show ended)

·       Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

·       Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

·       Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

·       Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I was really on a roll with Ghost in the Shell and Harry Potter in July, wasn’t I? There will be more of that in August too. Tales from the Loop was a good show too, just odd. I’ve gotta give my best of the month to Stand Alone Complex. The setting, characters, animation, and story are all just really interesting to me. I had already seen these three Harry Potter movies before so nothing new there. Maybe when I get to the new stuff, it will take the lead for best of August. We’ll see!

Conclusion/Upcoming

Bit of an odd month July was. I mentioned in my June post that I was hoping to get the emulation cataloging done by the end of July and I managed to do so in the last week. I realized I didn’t have any Atari console games which feels like a big oversight due to how influential they were on the games industry, but I couldn’t really find anything I was interested in that hasn’t already been remade and/or available on PC. I almost added Alien vs. Predator for the Atari Jaguar, but decided against it due to some graphical glitches with the emulator I was using and As mentioned in my last weekly post, I still want to go through my itch.io purchases and pick out any games from there that I skipped over earlier due to needing emulators to run. I haven’t had much time to get to it yet, but I got through the A’s (going alphabetically). I’ll be finished in no time!

I’m going to spend most if not all of August continuing to watch Ghost in the Shell and Harry Potter. I’m nearing the end of Stand Alone Complex, but I still have Solid State Society, Arise, and Stand Alone Complex 2045 which will take some time to get through. I still have four Harry Potter movies to go as well (I just watched Goblet of Fire before writing this post). I’m still not planning on getting any personal gaming in as I wrap up step one of the emulation cataloging and begin step two where I actually get all the games and test them to make sure they work. I’ll probably get more co-op Tales of Phantasia in though! I feel like we’re getting closer to the end, not sure how much is left. The  Dhaos fight sure was a doozy. I’ll see you all tomorrow for the weekly post assuming I don’t forget again. Thanks as always for reading!

Backlog total: 3,332 (+28)

Weekly Update #30: Done Console Cataloging…Kinda

July 20-26, 2025

I’ve been at it for weeks now, but the finish line to (step one of) my emulation cataloging is finally in sight! Just ignore the part in parentheses and it looks like I’m actually making progress. More on that below. I also dodged a few more game bundles. It seems I’ve become adept at not spending money (or playing anything by the looks of it). Let’s get into it.

Game Acquisitions

The Sonic game is related to the emulation cataloging. Despite not enjoying the one Sonic game I beat a couple years ago (Generations), I have had Sonic Lost World in my backlog for a little while now due to getting it in a bundle with games I actually care about. I figured if I’m going to play one of the best games in the series along with one of the worst, I might as well see what I’m missing with some of the better in-between games. You can see which Sonic games I’m planning to play in my Sonic Play Order collection. I added some highly regarded fan mods of the first few games to patch in some quality of life improvements like widescreen support and infinite lives to make the experience a little less frustrating. Who knows, maybe I’ll actually enjoy one of these? Rounding out my acquisitions this week were a couple games purchased by a family member, so I have access to them through Steam Family Sharing. Score!

# of Games: 3

Total Money Spent: $0

Price/Game: $0

TV/Movie Recaps

Here is everything I watched this week:

·       Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Season 1 Episode 23-Season 2 Episode 10 (still watching, show ended)

·       Family Guy Season 23 Episode 18 (all caught up, show ongoing)

·       Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Ghost in the Shell is a good anime. You should watch it if you’re into anime, cyberpunk, and/or crime dramas. This also marks the end of the Harry Potter movies I’ve already seen. This week should start all new content!

Conclusion/Upcoming

In my last update, I mentioned that I only had the Sega Master System, Genesis, Game Gear, CD, and Dreamcast consoles left to catalog. I must’ve been on a roll, because I just wrapped up the Dreamcast which marks the end of the console game cataloging! Getting all these emulators set up made me remember that I skipped over any itch.io games from the many charity bundles that required emulators to play. I didn’t want to bother having to download an emulator just to get a game to work at the time. Now that I have tons of emulated games through basically every major retro console, I can go back through my itch.io bundle purchases and add any interesting ROMs from there to my backlog as well. I’m hoping that process won’t take too long. After that, step two is acquiring the games and making sure they work with my machine. That will take a good bit of time.

Aside from working on that, I will also continue my Ghost in the Shell marathon. I’m on the second and final season of Stand Alone Complex which I probably won’t get through this week. No personal gaming planned, but maybe a Tales of Phantasia session is in store? We gotta fight the big bad! That’s it for this week, thanks for reading! The next post will be the July recap. Crazy how quickly this year is going.

Backlog total: 3,329 (+6)

Weekly Update #29: I Completed Something!?

July 13-19, 2025

That’s right, I had a surprise completion last week, and I wasn’t even documenting it! Just like the old days 😂 The emulation cataloging continued as well, of course. More on that in the conclusion section as always. But first, let’s talk about my self-control in resisting several game bundles this week!

Game Acquisitions

So every few months, Fanatical will put on what they call Bundlefest where they’ll reveal a new game bundle everyday for a week with different themes. Last week, they revealed bundles for RPGs, strategy games, shooters, arcade games, and roguelikes. The first bundle for RPGs looked pretty interesting, and it was only $10.15 for 7 games (like the rest). With how long this genre tends to be, this seems like an absolute steal. I was too busy to look into the games right away, so I saved the page for later so I could investigate further. The bundles kept accumulating and I finally found the time after a couple days. The game I was most interested in from the RPG bundle was removed at the request of the developer who claims there was a mistake and it should never have been included. I felt deflated after that, and I wasn’t sure if I would like any of the other games on offer enough to justify spending the money so I decided to resist. I like strategy games as well, but most of the ones on offer are real-time and/or 4X which I’m really not a fan of so I skipped those too. There were some decent shooters on offer, but a lot of them are shorter experiences that retail for less than $10 anyway so I didn’t quite feel like the value was there. Same with the other bundles, a couple decent games that looked interesting but nothing that I felt I had to get. All-in-all, a decent Bundlefest but not one that I decided to partake in. At least I won that Wanderer game in a Reddit giveaway! That should keep me occupied for a couple hours.

# of Games: 2

Total Money Spent: $0

Price/Game: $0

Game Recaps

This is going to be a weird one. This is a game that I played exclusively at a friend’s house casually and very sporadically over the course of a couple years. As such, I don’t have any recordings of it or know how long it took me to beat it. I also decided to keep it in my backlog (as well as marking the completion) since there are so many routes you can take and I’m curious how the game will feel when played in a normal period of time. My review is below so you can learn more about it. Long story short, it was a decent visual novel.

Game Reviews

Growing Up is essentially a visual novel where you play through 18 years of a character's life learning new skills, going to school, working, and making friends. Different skills have different attribute requirements you need to meet to unlock them. They all require spending knowledge points, but they also have their own requirement such as intelligence, charm, memory, and so on. The basic gameplay loop consists of increasing these attributes through something called a brain map, going to various areas around town and the school to participate in different activities, taking a test every few years, and rinse and repeat until high school graduation.

The brain map is laid out as interconnected nodes that are slowly revealed as you click through the few revealed ones. These nodes raise your attributes. Depending on the route you want to take in life, you can choose from many different activities like working to make money, playing video games (so meta), studying for exams, sports, and much more. There are two primary meters to keep track of from year to year that you need to keep in balance: happiness and parent satisfaction. The different activities can raise or lower these meters, but also have the benefits of increasing your attributes, making money in the case of jobs, and ultimately determining the path you take in life. I wanted to be a video game designer, so I made sure to visit the arcade often and talked to a couple game enthusiasts there whenever I got the chance.

The gameplay loop is broken up every so often with social interactions and exams. Every "run", you'll meet various characters picked seemingly at random that you can choose to befriend, potentially romance, or ignore completely. There is a high degree of replayability since there are many different people you can talk to and activities to participate in. Every few years, you'll take an exam which presents itself basically like Bejeweled (or I guess Candy Crush for a more modern example).

There are numerous grammatical errors which is unfortunate for a game that is mostly reading. They never detracted from my enjoyment, but it's worth mentioning. I playing this game sporadically over the course of a couple years so I wasn't able to time how long it took me, but I imagine a first run takes a few hours if you actually read everything. Subsequent runs can probably be completed in a couple hours if you know exactly what route to take and skip all the dialogue. The art style is alright but nothing groundbreaking, and the writing ranges from good to cringey. Despite the many different routes you can take, the moment-to-moment gameplay never really changes so you really have to like the characters to keep playing. Still, I had a good enough time and recommend this game to anyone looking for a simple visual novel experience.  

Rating – 7/10

TV/Movie Recaps

Here is everything I watched this week:

·       Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Season 1 Episodes 15-22 (still watching, show ended)

·       Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Ghost in the Shell continues to be an enjoyable anime. The visuals aren’t as impressive, but I think I like it more than the first two movies now. That tends to happen when you get more time to flesh out the characters. I also haven’t brought this up yet, but this show takes advantage of my surround sound system more than most. I love the sound design. I’ve seen this Harry Potter movie before so no surprises here, I still think it’s fine. Looks like a slower week for watching stuff.

Conclusion/Upcoming

Cool, I haven’t had a game review in a little while. It was nice getting back to that. On the emulation front, I mentioned last time that I only had Sega consoles left to go. More specifically, I have the Master System, Genesis, Game Gear, CD, and Dreamcast to get through. I had already gone through the Saturn earlier. I’ve finished up the Master System and Genesis. The Master System games could be rough given their age, or they could be great! The Genesis looks like it has a lot of a hidden gems as I expected. I guess these systems are known for their shoot-em-ups and beat-em-ups which are genres I’m not interested in so I didn’t add as many as people suggested I should. A lot of classic platformers such as Wonder Boy have since been remade and released on PC so I left those out as well. That’s been a common theme throughout this process. There seems to be a lot of cross releases between the Genesis and Game Gear so the Game Gear doesn’t have a big library of its own heavy hitters. I imagine that probably won’t take too long to get through. After that, I only have the CD and Dreamcast to go through, unless anyone here has any other console suggestions. The cataloging phase of my emulation project appears to be nearing its end. I’ll talk about what’s next when the time comes so stay tuned.

For this coming week, it’ll be more Ghost in the Shell watching. I’ll be finishing up season 1 of Stand Alone Complex and moving on to season 2. I’ll also be continuing my Harry Potter “marathon” with Prisoner of Azkaban. I’ve seen it once before but it’s been a while, so I don’t really remember anything about it. After that, all the Harry Potter movies will be new to me. No gaming planned this week, unless a surprise Tales of Phantasia session happens. Thanks for reading!

Backlog total: 3,323 (+2)