Laboratory of Mathematics and Writing

Conversation View Terranigma Gets a Proper Re-Release Terranigma will be re-release via GOG, Steam, Xbox, Playstation, and Switch. For those in the Western Hemisphere, it will be the first time it's ever been officially released. Prior to this, you could only obtain Terranigma either through reproduction cartridges or ROM files. I myself have both. And I also have a Japanese Super Famicom cartridge. Overall, I'm quite pleased. It's easy to complain that it should have been much more that being a simple port with some minor enhancements. Indeed, it really should have expanded the 4:3 aspect ration to a modern 16:9. It looks like it will ship with a decorative border. It would have been awesome for this to have enhanced audio. There's ROM hacks out there with it. Some where clamoring for an HD-2D remake/remaster ala Dragon Quest. Others still where hoping for a full on modern remake. Alas, it appears as though it's goi...

Denshattack! There's a YouTuber that goes by the name DreamcastEnjoyer. He coined the phrase "big Dreamcast energy" to describe games that are clearly inspired by the type of games that can be found on Sega's final console. I feel confident in categorizing Denshattack! as a game with big Dreamcast energy. There is no question that it would have been perfectly in place among that console's library of games. It definitely has the arcade feel where the game is easy to learn, but once it sinks its hooks into you, you'll spend many hours trying to truly master it. I myself spent such time mastering Denshattack!'s tracks and had an absolute blast. Xtreme Train Racing You play as Emi. She makes her living as delivery driver. Except, she doesn't drive a car or a truck or a bicycle. She drives a train. She lives in a fictional Japan where a climate catastrophe has affected ecosystems and people general...

Resident Evil - Code: Veronica I'm following up my playthrough of Resident Evil 2 with Code:Veronica instead of the RE3. I was inspired by Capcom's recent announcement of a Code: Veronica remake. So, I decided to jump right in before it gets released. Naturally, I'm going to compare Code: Veronica to RE2 quite a lot throughout this review. They're both great games and it just so happens that I played them on the same console: the Sega Dreamcast. Improvements The graphics are better than RE2. The zombies and monsters themselves are more detailed and gruesome. The human characters are more refined and, dare I say, prettier. The environments are completely rendered in the 3D engine this time around. Some might prefer the pre-rendered environments of the previous entries, but I believe they look better in Code: Veronica. Maybe it's just me, but it seems the lighting is more enhanced. Moreover, I think the character m...

The Most Y2K Game Ever This may very well be the most Y2K game I've ever played. Everything about it could onlyhave come from that era. I'm talking about the visuals, the sounds, the music, the art, the style, the hacking, the cyberspace, and even the genre itself. I've been playing the Dreamcast a lot lately in my quest to play as many Y2K era games as possible. In many ways, the Dreamcast is the console to best represents this brief window in time. Naturally, its library is chock full of games that radiate Y2K energy. We've got Sonic Adventure, Metropolis Street Racer, Space Channel 5, Dead or Alive 2, Slave Zero, and, my absolute favorite, Jet Set Radio. Now we have a new contender. Rez may very well even surpass Jet Set Radio as the most Y2K game ever made. Rez isn't merely a game released during the Y2K era. It feels like the cultural imagination at the turn of the millennium, when many believed technology was ushering in an...

Soldier of Fortune I played this on the Sega Dreamcast. I am fully aware that this is a PC game and it's massively better to play it there, especially nowadays. Still, I picked it up at my local retro game store because I wanted another Dreamcast title I could play with the console’s mouse and keyboard peripherals. I found it to be quite the enjoyable experience, even if there are two specific frustrations with it. Bare Bones Story The story is not exactly original. You play as John Mullins and you're teamed up with Hawk. You first start off by busting some weird skin heads in an underground subway. You then discover that said skin heads are running around the globe buying nukes. So, you fly around the globe destroying nukes. Once the nukes are destroyed, you chase the skin head freaks to try to end them and the shadow organization pulling their strings once and for all. It's not going to win any writing or creativit...

A Conversation Concerning With an AI Sony's Termination of Physical Games I decided to have a conversation concerning Sony's announcement. On July 1st, 2026, Sony announced that they will be terminating support and production for physical video games by January of 2028. Now, I've been a PC gamer since 2013. I even mention to the AI that one of my motivations to do so is that consoles where slowly but surely morphing into underpowered PCs. I did learn a few things. For instance, it is true that the vast majority of revenue is via digital sales. Keyword: revenue. Some of this digital revenue includes DLC, microtransactions,and subscriptions. So, it's not quite a one-to-one comparison versus purchasing a single game disc. Another thing I mentioned towards the end is that some games arrived digitally but never physically. These games are also included in the figures; further distorting the comparison. It's likely that digital games are still ...