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May 19th, 2014 – 5:35pm – It feels good to cheat.

As you may or may not know, I have no qualms about using cheat devices when it comes to video games.  Sure, I love the act of legitimately beating them as much as anyone, but sometimes I just want to see as much of the game as possible.  I frequently snatch up all the “game enhancers” that I can get my hands on when I don’t have some pricey game or obsolete piece of hardware to track down.  I’ve always lamented that many of the secondary systems lacked cheat device support: the 3DO, CD-i, Jaguar, TurboGrafx-16, Neo Geo, etc.

However, late last night as I was looking up 3DO model numbers, I spotted something called the “Game Guru.”  Immediately this sparked connotations of the “Game Genie” in my mind.  After a few more seconds of digging, I discovered that it’s a cheat device actually made by 3DO with some incredible powers; it can even be unlocked to provide even more powerful shit via modifying its own internal config file or some shit!

Bad news:  The running rate, even for a used one, seems to be about $130.  You could probably score an FZ-1 3DO for that much, maybe even a little less.

Good news: It ain’t nothing but a CD so I can BURN IT!  (And the 3DO has like, zero copy protection shit going on so burned discs work fine, all the time, no strings attached.)

I have the file downloaded and am just waiting for the mood to hit me to try this out…I can’t wait!

May 16th, 2014 – 11:10am – Just a few more Castlevanias to go…

Well, as much progress as I was making on my “to play” list, I haven’t yet gotten around to giving my PS3 a semi-permanent spot in my room.  I’ve eschewed a few short term goals for the sake of Project Obscure, but I don’t mind.  It’s definitely time for The Bacon to flex our muscles when it comes to rarer systems.

However, Castlevania is still at the forefront of my efforts, and I’ve only got a few more to go!

• “Nocturne in the Moonlight” (Symphony of the Night for the Saturn) – I’ve played through a little bit of this version, but there are still a few more things I need to see and do before I come out with a full-fledged review.
• Rondo of Blood – I’ve burned a copy for the PC Engine Duo, which so far seems to boot without issue, and I also bought it through the Wii’s Virtual Console, which is supposed to be an exact port.
• The Adventure: Rebirth – Although I originally thought this was only a colorized version of the Game Boy’s Castlevania: The Adventure, there seems to be a little more to it.  I haven’t downloaded it yet, but I plan to.
• Harmony of Despair – Another download-only for both Xbox Live Arcade and PSN.  Although geared towards multiplayer, I still gotta give it a shot!
• The Dracula X Chronicles – PSP – I’ve played around with it some, but not extensively.  Essentially re-releases of Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night.
• Circle of the Moon – GBA – I played through a good deal of it a few months back, but never got around to finishing.
• Harmony of Dissonance – GBA – Own, but haven’t played.
• Aria of Sorrow – GBA – Own, but haven’t played.
• Dawn of Sorrow – DS – Own, but haven’t played.
• Order of Ecclesia – DS – Played it, but it was over way too quick and I never encountered Dracula.  Obviously I got the “worst” ending.  Need to revisi.
• Curse of Darkness – PS2 – Own, haven’t played.
• Lament of Darkness – PS2 – Own, haven’t played.
• Judgement – Wii – Fighting game that I’ve played briefly; forgot to add this initially!
• Lords of Shadow – PS3 – Own, haven’t played
• Mirror of Fate – PS3 & 3DS – Own, haven’t played.
• Lords of Shadow 2 – Since this just came out, it’s like $60.  I’m hoping by the time I get around to it it’ll be more like $30 or $40.

May seem like a lot, but I’ve hit something like 19 games already, so I’m at least over the hump!

May 9th, 2014 – 1:59pm – It looks like SAW VIII (8) may actually be happening!  Spring 2015!

This is excellent news, although I wish they hadn’t had to take a 5 year break before rejuvenating the series.  I know a lot of people were getting worn out with the series, but seriously, think about how far other franchises had fallen by their 6th sequel.  To still have a steady group of filmmakers and actors behind the project speaks for itself.

The 7th Nightmare on Elm Street film was New Nightmare which some people liked and some people didn’t, but I didn’t care for it since it relegated the rest of the storyline to mere movies.  Friday the 18th Part VII was another forgettable Jason installment – I can’t say I remember the particulars, but it involves Jason’s zombie form.  What I do remember is that Part IV sort of marked the end when the kid “killed” Jason, Part V was a copycat murderer, and then in Part VIII Jason “took Manhattan,” which leaves Parts VI and VII as the two where Jason’s corpse was walking around in the woods causing trouble.  Let’s see…the seventh installment of Hellraiser, Deader, was one of the 2 “modernized” Hellraisers that just turned into a teenage slasher flick.  I remember it involving some kind of reporter and a group of kids doing cult-like shit…  Point is, how many 7th films are memorable, competent, or even add anything significant to the mythology of a series?  However “bad” Saw 3D might be, it still had a lot going for it.

I’m excited to see the franchise continue, and while I wouldn’t mind seeing the focus of the films switch, it would be nice if the look and feel of previous installments could be maintained.  Back when they were still counting the box office receipts for Saw VI, it was suggested that there were a total of 9 plans filmed; I believe (correct me if I’m wrong) that Tobin Bell himself (John Kramer, aka “Jigsaw”) alluded to the possibility of 9 films.  Elsewhere it was almost guaranteed that 2 more films would be made, but by the time the dust settled and Saw 3D was upon us, it was revealed that the last few films hadn’t made enough money and that the intended stories for both 7 and 8 had been folded into one.

The hastiness to wrap up the story in Saw 3D is probably what makes it feel less than adequate for some fans.  The filmmakers made the story up as they went – obviously.  There’s nothing wrong with this, and I don’t doubt that a few elements were planned out ahead of time, but the story began to get convoluted and messy for newcomers, and really for anyone who wasn’t extremely familiar with all the finer points of past films.  What I take the most issue with is how, at the conclusion of Saw 3D, they tried to wrap everything up nice and neat by revealing that Dr. Gordon had been an accomplice all along.  It was a good idea, but the problem was that everyone saw it coming so it wasn’t much of a shocker for “The Final Chapter.”  Moreover, the guys over at IMDB had been putting together similar theories for years and I’m almost positive that the screenwriters lifted the major plot points from all this borderline fan-fic.  There wasn’t much nuance to Gordon’s involvement, it was just BAM there.

Now, what Saw 3D should’ve done was run its intended course instead of combining 2 films.  This way the “Dr. Gordon revelation” could’ve been properly fleshed out.  The franchise as a whole seemed to be moving in a direction where subsets of the franchise could stand together as discrete thematic elements.  “Jigsaw” himself presides over it all, but the first 3 films develop Amanda and detail her involvement.  Films IV through VI chronicle Hoffman’s origins and activities, and so VII through IX would’ve been the perfect vehicle to reveal Gordon’s place in the grand scheme as well as setting up future plot elements, and hopefully moving on from the Jigsaw character altogether after IX.  

Jill occupied an interesting spot in the story and may have been able to hold together “her own trilogy,” but if they had taken the events of Saw 3D a little slower, it could’ve focused on her as the main antagonist and acted as the perfect bridge between the “Hoffman Era” and “Gordon Era.”  Jill provided an excellent bridge between the 2 and their involvement with John himself; Saw 3D could’ve kicked off with Hoffman doing what he does, later reveal Jill as pulling the strings, and introduce Dr. Gordon’s influence at the end. with or without the death of Jill.  Jill was pretty undeveloped on her own, but she was a familiar face with an established history and could’ve proved valuable for later films, though I suppose wrapping up Hoffman’s story entailed wrapping up hers as well.

So I’m excited that the franchise isn’t totally dead, but I hope they do the twisted story justice.  Then again, they may wipe the whole slate clean and it may just be an excuse to insert these Rube-Goldberg traps into a movie and impart a warped sense of justice.  Could be another “sequel” where they doctor up a half-assed script that’s been lying around for 11 years.  Leaving Jigsaw behind might be the best thing, but I think the right person could make it work.  After all, there are plenty of survivors left, and even a few victims and traps that we don’t have the full story behind (the guy with Art at the beginning of IV, the survivor of the lawnmower trap seen in Saw 3D, Easton’s reporter sister from the end of VI, Gordon’s 2 “pig men” helpers, etc.)  It’d be easier if they hadn’t tried to tie up every single loose end at the end of Saw 3D and left a few threads dangling, but an astute filmmaking team could make it work.

May 8th, 2014 – 5:15am – Sleep may or may not come soon.  Luckily I found my cheap-o Travolta “set” of DVDs and I get to watch Face/Off!  They don’t quite put out these truly escapist flicks anymore.  It’s funny because I always thought of myself as a liberal, and I could never understand the adage (or maybe I just heard someone say it one day) that “today’s liberals are tomorrow’s conservatives.”  I mean, I had a loose understanding of the term that when you’re young it’s easy to be idealistic and in favor of the government taking from the rich and giving to the poor, but once you grow up and have a retirement account and a home and kids who’s minds you don’t want too soiled by the media suddenly you want the government to keep their hands off your money but vigilant in maintaining social standards.  That aspect I understood, but the more I compare the pop-culture of even 10 or 15 years ago when I was in the throes of teenage-dom to now, the more I think I get what it really means.

Let’s pull an example out of thin air – one that’s controversial and widely known – how about gay rights?  Personally, I’m not gay, and although I’ve known gay people I’ve never really been friends with one, so I don’t know what it’s like nor do I pretend to.  I don’t mean for this to be perceived as offensive or grossly simplistic, but it’s a good issue to illustrate my point.

Fifteen years ago (give or take) is when the whole gay marriage thing got big in the media, leading to larger issues of gay rights and tolerance.  Now I’ve never had anything against any aspect of the LGBT community; I’ve never fought against what other people found attractive, and I’ve always understood that it isn’t learned behavior, it’s just who these people are.  That being said, homework was gay, the Backstreet Boys were gay, my girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend was a fag, some goofy male teacher ‘took it up the ass,’ that ugly chick just had to be a lesbo, etc.  I said this shit all the time and so did everyone around me, but they were just words and expressions.  It wasn’t an issue of knowing whether or not it was “right” or “wrong” to use these words, it was more about the intent (or lack thereof) behind them.  No one cared, everyone giggled, and life went on.

However, as the years wore on, it became less and less acceptable to use these words because liberals were fighting for gay rights.  Liberals, in their infinite, tolerating wisdom, spread the word about how hurtful and hateful this speech was.  Fifteen years later, today’s highschool student will likely be met with strong resistance for saying “homework is gay.”  Peers will go on fitful tirades and make comparisons to slavery, and thus the speaker is, in a way, suppressed.

“Freedom of Speech” is a hallmark that even the most rudimentary liberals hold in high regard.  It’s the preferred cry of the young and uniformed.  What they fail to realize though is that the concept was designed to protect unpopular speech.  We need, essentially, the freedom to go against the grain, the freedom to offend, berate, belittle, and evoke.  Although “homework is gay” or “drama is for fags” may not be the most eloquent expressions, they are far from “hate speech” yet if one utters something like this around a crowd of people 30 years old or less, one is met with instant derision.

Fifteen years later, the same liberals that wanted a clean and painless-as-possible acceptance of gays are the ones that are effectively banning the use of certain words.  The liberalism of one’s time gets taken so far that anything against the concept of tolerance, love, and acceptance is so heavily frowned upon that it may as well be codified in law.  And thus, the liberals are now the conservatives.  They’re more tolerant, but they’ve abandoned their ideas of progress to maintain and uphold the progress they’ve made.  Whereas the conservatives of the past may have effectively “banned” the speech of a highschool student wishing to expose his or her own sexuality, the “new” conservatives similarly “ban” the abuse of the English language.  OK, it’s not quite the same thing, but the same social mechanisms are at work.

The first conservatives have stuff: wealth, power, clout, whatever, and they enforce restrictions on possible impediments to their possessions.  The young liberals then see that the conservatives hold all the keys and guard all the gates, so they fight for their voice, for their ideals.  Eventually the first conservatives age out and give up, and the liberals grow up and find their voice, and end up “getting” what they were “fighting” for, even if it is only in the form of ideals such as tolerance.  Like the first conservatives, they want to preserve what they have, so they create structures that make it difficult to challenge these things.

Let me be clear that it’s not even about whether or not you think ideals like tolerance and acceptance are right or wrong.  It doesn’t matter if you choose to hide gays in your basement or burn them at the stake – the morality of the issue has no bearing on the transformation.  It’s about the transfer of power and the preservation of said power.  It’s easy to hate the status quo when your biggest problem is a pimple.  But when the pimple poppers start grabbing the keys and guarding the gates, their strategy changes.  You’re on the inside, you can do whatever it is you want to do now, and instinctively, your aim is to keep others from marring or destroying what you’ve done.  Now you call the shots.  Now you decide what’s acceptable and what isn’t.  It doesn’t matter if it’s inherently “right” or “wrong” (if there is such a thing), all that’s left is you vs. conflicting ideals, whatever they may be.

Quite simply, liberals fight for their own piece of the pie, and once they have it, their natural response is but only to defend and conserve what’s theirs.

Take something a little less controversial like smoking cigarettes.  The big-time liberal highschool or college student wonders why they can’t buy cigarettes yet, “it’s my body” they’ll say.  If someone near them starts getting huffy about second-hand smoke, they’ll whip out a perfunctory recital of made-up statistics.  Or maybe they’ll say, “you’re the one with the problem, if you don’t like my cigarette smoke then fucking move.”

Those same damn people are now a little older, and they’re the very ones who’ve banned smoking within 25 feet of a building entrance, banned cigarettes from restaurants, hospital campuses, damn near anywhere except for your car and home.  It really doesn’t matter to what extent smoking is or isn’t horrible, it’s all about the power.  “Liberals” once fought for the freedom to smoke anywhere, but in their unending quest for equality and tolerance they’ve decided that people shouldn’t have to be exposed to it involuntarily.  To protect them, smoking is banned in certain (read: all) places.  And now it’s enforced to the point where cigarette smokers are verging on the edge of oppressed because they’re completely ostracized from their surroundings.  The same liberals who espouse “everyone just get along” are now the evil, key-wielding, gate-guarding bastards that cigarette smokers want to overthrow.

Looking at the world through this lens in the last few years has really changed how I feel about the dichotomy of “liberal” vs. “conservative.”  As much as it ends up boiling down to government spending or pro-choice or drug legalization, it really isn’t about any of that.  It’s about a shift in power.  People without it want it, people who have it want to keep it, and when the people who didn’t have it get it, they fight to keep it just like “the man” that they fought so hard to take it from.  So what does it all mean?  Hell if I know.  I just know that terms like “liberal” and “conservative” have lost almost all meaning to me, even taken in the most general and colloquial senses.

I certainly don’t agree with the typical conservative mindset, else I wouldn’t be so hung up on the liberals becoming conservatives.  Liberalism has left me jaded as well, because as they strive for peace and equality they inevitably create an unbridgeable gap between themselves and those that don’t subscribe to the belief of peace and equality (or whatever over-arching liberal agenda you want to insert here).  It’s unwinnable by default, and anyone who would fight an obviously unwinnable battle strikes me as counter-productive.

Both liberals and conservatives end up saying the same damn thing in essence, only the conservatives are slightly more forthright about it.  Conservative: live how we say to live, do what we say is right, and accept our standards of morality.  Liberal: live and let live, unless “living” alienates a certain group of people, harms the environment, or offends absolutely anyone at any given time; everyone is special, unique, and deserving of treatment representative of such, you’re free to be whoever you want as long as you’re not an outspoken opponent of anything on the liberal agenda including immigration, legalization of drugs, non-traditional family units, minority rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights, preservation of the environment, abortion, the death of religion, etc. and so forth and if you disagree with any of this then you’re a judgmental ape who should be forcefully rehabilitated, or perhaps even cleansed from the Earth and ought to be qualified as a subhuman species.

To be perfectly clear, I have no acrimonious feelings towards people of different creeds, ethnicities, sexualities, or anything else.  I believe that all people should be treated equal and fair, including people of every gender, color, race, sexuality, age, religion, ethnicity, etc. and I have nothing against any given human that doesn’t happen to be a white male.  Do I believe a lot of what liberals believe?  Yes, I do.  But people come first, not trees.  And just because I’ve never fucked a guy doesn’t mean I’m close-minded.  BET (Black Entertainment Television) is just as fucking racist as people would say that a WET (White Entertainment Television) channel would be.  Any, and I mean any criticism one could come up with for a potential WET is perfectly applicable to BET.  Liberals may be fighting for equality, but they still advocate separatist factions of society.  It’s A-OK for blacks to celebrate their culture and create a society that excludes whites; it’s good for them, it’s helping them heal from hundreds of years of persecution, it maintains group identity and solidarity, it provides a foundation for support.  What would happen if I created the club for white guys of European descent?  I’d almost certainly be obliged to include a black member or risk being lambasted as a racist.  But if I want to join “the black group,” I’m invasive, I’m taking away from their cultural identity, I “don’t understand.”

I’m not just picking on blacks either.  Feminists want to retain all the special treatment that they receive as females yet reap the benefits that males get as well.  Their perceived injustices have been moot points for decades; they’re fighting for domination under the banner of equality.  The LGBT community is free to establish “gay bars” but the minute some surly truck driver makes a remark about a faggot hanging out in his favorite dive he’s being abusive, insensitive, hateful, intolerant, and perhaps worst of all he actually ends up being pitied for his “ignorance.”  The liberal message is that it’s ok for minorities to create exclusive organizations, but majorities cannot simply because they are the majority, nevermind their own cultural predilections.

If we’re all going to be one happy multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-sexual family I’m OK with that; what I’m not ok with is having this ideal shoved down my throat only to be shown that separatism is favorable and indeed encouraged unless one is already a part of the majority.  “You, as a white male, must accept gays, blacks, and women into every single facet of your life, but you must also respect their needs to identify with each other, without your intrusion.  They’re perfectly free to establish communities and organizations outside of your ‘evil white man’ ways, but you must never, ever, exclude these timid, oppressed, gentle factions from any of your activities.”

What irks me the most is the liberals’ growing forcefulness and their own lack of tolerance for people who lack tolerance.  The inability for liberals to apply their own principles to people who don’t subscribe to their principles is sickening.  Get a bunch of libs together and of course they’ll agree, but they have a tough time with tolerance, acceptance, and equality when dealing with people who don’t believe in tolerance, acceptance, and equality.  That level of fundamental hypocrisy keeps me further and further from self-identifying as a liberal.

There are myriad economic issues that I don’t pretend to be up-to-date enough on to address herein, but from a purely social standpoint, it’s difficult for me to see anything beyond a struggle of power between the young and old, where issues like abortion and civil rights are merely the weapons of war, not the prize to be won by the victor or the core of morale.  It would be amazing to accurately absorb this transition several times during one’s life, but the truth is that most of us are only finely tuned in to the pulse of the mob during a very small window of our lives and we have but that window to reflect upon.  Practical matters end up consuming most of our mental energy as we age, and most all of us get to a point where ideals are just that: ideals.  We’ve all seen the ugly side of human nature too many times, and we know that nobody’s mind changes overnight, let alone everybody’s.  The most we can hope for is that tomorrow will be brighter than today, and that hopefully we will be long gone by the time humanity peaks because surely it will only decline thereafter.

While winding down my rant I’m reminded of an interesting idea I stumbled upon some time ago called the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory.  This theory basically states that humanity moves from generation to generation in cycles that inevitably repeat as a reaction to the previous one.  According to Strauss and Howe, there are essentially 4 types of generations: High (follows a major crisis, marked by strong sense of the collective and weak individualism), Awakening (a revolt against conformist institutions of the previous generation and a reclamation of autonomy), Unraveling (the culmination of the efforts of the Awakening; the revolution has happened, the institutions have toppled, and humanity is content to enjoy its high level of individualism and minimal institutional interference), and finally Crisis (institutions are rebuilt due to a real or perceived internal or external threat to the nation and its way of life; people begin laboring for “the greater good” and the chance to preserve what the Unraveling Generation was able to enjoy).

So where do those of us currently in our 20’s and 30’s fall?  Turns out that we’re right on the cusp of a Crisis, planting our young adulthood squarely in the middle of an Unraveling.  Perhaps our time spent scoffing at and criticizing institutions like schools, prisons, and the government itself are to blame for the protracted state of today’s liberal; we’ve had it too damn easy, we’ve fallen in love with ourselves just a little too much, we’ve lost all respect for everything other than our own whims, in the interest of “being ourselves” we’ve forgotten what it means to contribute to society and to sacrifice a moment of instant gratification for the greater good, perhaps we’ve contrived so-called issues because we’ve lost touch with everyone else while wallowing in our own self-importance.  Perhaps we can no longer see the forest for the trees because we’ve grown up under the pretense that each tree is somehow more important than the forest itself.

I actually like this theory so much that I’m going to go one step further and briefly dig into Strauss and Howe’s “archetypes.”  Each archetype corresponds with a generation (well, sort of, I do want to know more about what happens to those born in the High Generation…) and loosely predicts a similar set of attitudes on things like individualism, the state, family, and other factors shared by members of the same archetype.  The four are: Prophets (born near the end of a Crisis, usually indulged by parents who lived the Crisis (think of someone who went through the Great Depression as a youngster; when they grow up and have kids, they’re likely to give them everything they never had); due to their upbringing they often spearhead the following Awakening, and ultimately end up as elders when the next Crisis rolls around); Nomads (born during an Awakening, instrumental in the establishment of the Unraveling as young adults, often go through a Crisis during midlife and serve as guidance as the next High period is established by going against the opulence and lack of personal restraint during Awakening/Unraveling that acts as a perceived trigger for the Crisis), Heroes (born during Unraveling, come of age during a Crisis and act as literal or figurative soldiers to ward off Crisis; they then help to establish High periods based on principles gathered during Crisis, and are finally attacked by next generation of Prophets during the next Awakening); and finally Artists (born right in the middle of a Crisis, grow up overprotected and conformist, influenced in young adulthood by the grip of institutions during High, only to “break free” later in life, lead institutions in a less statist fashion than their predecessors, setting the stage for their eventual downfall at the hands of the Unraveling generation).

Ok, so where do us 20-30’s fall now?  Turns out, we’re actually Heroes.  That’s right.  According to Strauss and Howe, we’re not too far off from experiencing our own Crisis.  We’ve grown up detached and jaded because of our self-absorption, but in the face of an upcoming crisis, we’re going to put all that behind us, realize the error of our ways, overcome, and establish a new order based on our experiences of transitioning from flagrant individualism to staunch collectivism.  And eventually, we’ll be the old fools who our grandchildren and their contemporaries overthrow in the wake of a new socially liberal resurgence.  So I guess liberals turning conservatives kind of makes sense in a whole different way if you look at it like this.  We’re realizing and assessing the problems that a lack of unity has caused and tightening our grip in order to ensure that we don’t stray too far again.

But what about our Crisis?  A Strauss and Howe “Crisis” doesn’t have to be a war or market crash; perhaps ours is the environment, or maybe human rights?  Perhaps our crisis has already started, and we’re dealing with it by imposing a type of censorship (the whole “don’t say anything that offends anyone” mindset that I harped on earlier) that we feel is for the greater good and thereby eschewing the absolute comfort and freedom of every single person so that we can thrive as a diverse society…?  Perhaps we’re seeing a shift where we forsake a modicum of freedom (no more “homework is gay,” no more cigs in a restaurant) so that society itself can flourish rather than catering to each individual?  Perhaps “never offending anyone” is more about all of us reaching a more agreeable peace with each other; even a begrudging peace is better than no peace.

Wow, that’s all very interesting to consider, and I almost talked myself out of what I felt earlier.  Only time will tell, but maybe that is what’s happening?  Maybe I’m the one who needs to step out of my own shoes for a minute and quit worrying about whether or not I have the right to say “homework is gay” without getting 20 evil eyes and 2 lectures and just suck it up so that gays don’t have to feel like the English language is working against them…  Trivial?  Yes.  But possible?  Also yes.  Maybe we’re in the middle of turning it all around.  

This is of course a single interpretation of events based on a single observator.  More correctly, it’s only my interpretation of someone else’s theory and based largely on only my own perspective.  I’m willing to admit all that.  But I do think it’s fair to say, that for whatever reason, the liberal generation that I’m a part of, that I share many ideas with, is now in a position to enforce what were once novel and unaccepted ideas by yesterday’s conservatives.  The establishment is never overturned, it is but changed.  By changing the establishment, the liberals have become the establishment and by extension, true liberals will be those pushing against the establishment.  

This progression is likely to hold true for eternity; I guess what’s left for us to figure out is “what will tomorrow’s liberals look like?”  I venture to surmise that we are indeed heading for more restrictive times as per Strauss and Howe’s model, even if we are becoming a more accepting society.  More rules have to be put in place to accommodate the final assimilation of minorities into general acceptance as well as to further issues important to liberals (that conservatives may not have previously cared for) including laws about gay marriage (either for or against), airport security, environmental stipulations for industry, and even the government’s allocation of funds to stimulate the economy.  Yes indeed, while our ideologies for a perfect world may be coming into actionable law, our scope of permissiveness is inherently diminished because we must account for these new ideas and protect them.

So back to the question, “what will tomorrow’s liberals look like?”  In the short term, they’re almost sure to structure and restructure the existing order to reflect institutions that best reflect an “updated” public consciousness, but what about after that?  What will they look like then?  If they’re poised to overthrow what we work towards today, what will they be hoping to achieve?  And more importantly, how many more freedoms will we lose to put the populous in such a rebellious, distrustful state eventually?

If only we could see it all…

May 6th, 2014 – 9:22am – Fun finds yesterday on eBay:  Pro Action Replay for Genesis (bought it), The Addams Family for Turbo-CD (entirely differently from NES or SNES/Genesis versions – you actually play as the evil lawyer from the first film!) (bought it), and a rare Action Replay for the SEGA MASTER SYSTEM!  I want that, indescribably so.  Unfortunately the only one for sale right now is PAL, so I think the purchase would be pointless.  But I realllly fucking want one.

May 4th, 2014 – 10:48pm – Ok, apparently I can’t get my dates straight, that’s the second time I’ve screwed it up.  Thinking of pitching the idea to David about selling off our personal surplus on the site and putting a percentage of sales towards NB promotion and expansion.  I’ve got a spare Saturn and Virtual Boy I wouldn’t mind letting go of for a good cause, maybe even a handful of spare games and controllers too!

May 3rd, 2014 – 9:59pm – For once I’ve managed to keep to a gaming game plan for more than 2 days!  Symphony of the Night has been completed…twice and I’ve done a quick playthrough of the Saturn version.  Blazed through 2 Genesis games over the past 3 nights and plan to hit up a couple of superhero SNES games, Captain America and the Avengers and X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse.  Then I’ll be hitting up Castlevania Chronicles in full force.  And then I have to find a semi-permanent home for my brick of a PS3.

April 26th, 2014 – 10:37pm – Sticking to my schedule good.  Something like 47.3% through Symphony of the Night.  Apparently I’m collecting games based on comic books now; I wanted to find The Addams Family for SNES (Genesis would’ve been ok too) but didn’t, so I got got Maximum Carnage and (unknowingly at the time) its sequel, Separation Anxiety, both for the Genesis.  These will do nicely for my random games between versions of SotN.  I may make my way to the Mexican flea market tomorrow to give The Addams Family another shot!

April 24th, 2014 – 3:07pm – Upcoming gaming schedule that I’m going to do my best to stick to:

• Addams Family Values – SNES  Check
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night – PS1 Check
• A random NES / SNES / Genesis game or two, maybe one from each 2 Genesis Games
• Symphony of the Night for the Saturnn, a.k.a. Nocturne in the Moonlight Half-Check
• Castlevania Chronicles – PS1
• PS3 games, including Rayman Origins and downloadable Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

April 23rd, 2014 – 6:23pm – So in my very pathetic attempts to quit smoking, I think I’ve managed to make it like 4 waking hours without a cigarette.  I did break down and buy an ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE today, alongside a pack of the usual.  I don’t quite know what to make of the thing…it’s kinda neat, but it’s not a cigarette, yet it’s a more faithful simulation than I thought it would be…

Main problems: the smoke isn’t exactly hot, even plain ol’ “classic tobacco” has some kinda coffee/chocolate thing going on and while unsmoked tobacco may smell like that, it doesn’t really taste like that when it’s on fire, and I don’t get the whole lighter/ashtray/put it out business going on.  Like I don’t know when to quit smoking it.  It’s weird.  But these things do seem to be getting more popular, and I can definitely see it as more psychologically satisfying than wearing a patch or taking a pill.  Non-smokers always think us smokers are having some kind of nicotine fit…and maybe in rare cases we are…but it’s all about the act of smoking, the using your hands, the ritual and routine of it all.  I don’t think I’ve ever been like ZOMG NIKOTEEEEN!!11!!one!!on!!

April 20th, 2014 – 7:16pm – Easter stuff with the family is finished, and my 4:20 days are over.  To those partaking, stay safe.  In other news, I’ve begun work on a preliminary Castlevania portal.  Once I feel my way through that, I’ll move to the mass of games that is Mario, and hopefully NerdB will start work on Sonic.  In gathering information, I stumbled across 2 more Castlefreakinvania games, the iOS and Windows Phone Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night (which really pisses me off because I have to play it on my tiny iPod Touch instead of my new Samsung tablet), and the XBL/PSN exclusive Harmony of Despair.  Looks like the PSN version is the way to go, so I’ll be dragging out my PS3 in the near future since even downloaded games aren’t backwards compatible with PS4.

4 – 18 – 14 – 8:36pm – How could I forget: 2 new games today, both for Super NES – Addams Family Values (probably sucks, but I loved the original Addams Family for NES), and Marvel’s War of the Gems.  I always forget how fun those old comic book/superhero games are.

Oh oh oh and I was looking through the imports/rare shit and found a Neo Geo CD game.  Fucking outta nowhere this squirrelly 12 year old pops the fuck up over my shoulder “oh erm gee that there’s a game for the Neo Geo CD console” complete with finger pointing and over-enunciation.  FUCKING FAG, like I had NO FUCKING CLUE what I’d picked up.  I told him I had an AES too, along with a 3DO, Pippin, CD-i, PC Engine Duo, and TG16.  Apparently I railed off enough shit he didn’t know what was that he backed the fuck off.  As he should have.

4 – 18 – 14 – 8:20pm – Ugh, Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness is fucking pissing me off.  For one, I already did all this shit in the last game.  Number 2, I’ve (apparently) gotta play through the game 4 fucking times to see it all since there are 4 playable characters.  At any rate I’m about to take my Dramamine and get to work on it soon.

There’s an issue that’s really grinding my gears right now but I suppose it does deserve discretion.  I would at least like to point out that nobody makes money here; in fact, it costs money for all this to be possible.

4 – 8 – 14 – 2:14pm – As part of my ongoing efforts to experience the entirety of the Castlevania franchise, I’ve undertaken 2 projects recently.

The first involves soft-modding my PS2 so that it’ll play both burned and Japanese games.  I found one method using  a few computer programs, a memory card, Action Replay Max, a PS1 game, and a USB drive.  Unfortunately, this didn’t work.  Not one bit.  A second method involves using a similar method but with the game 007: Agent Under Fire.  I just recently found this game and haven’t tested it yet.  The third way to do it is by using a tool called Swap Magic.  Swap Magic can be bought from Amazon (which I did) and includes 2 discs (a DVD and a CD) as well as an interesting little tool.  Here’s the basic rundown:

1. First, one must remove the plastic cover in front of the CD tray.  This can be easy or tricky depending on your PS2.
2. Now the system needs to be booted with either the CD or DVD disc.  Which one you use depends on what type of disc your burned or import copy is on.  Oddly enough, I couldn’t get the DVD disc to work but the CD booted fine.
3. Then the little tool is used to release the CD drawer.  It slides in under the tray, hooks on to a rod, and moves it over.  The tray is then opened manually, Swap Magic disc is swapped for duplicate/import, and drawer is closed.  Then the tool must be used again to lock the drawer back in place.
4. Using the interface loaded on the screen, the disc should theoretically boot.

It was a little touch and go, but eventually I got it working.  Once the game was running everything went fairly smooth.  I used this to play an older arcade-only Castlevania title called Haunted Castle that eventually saw a Japanese-only release on the PS2.  While the copy I used was one I’d burnt, I’ve ordered the real Japanese version though it has yet to arrive.

Also of note is the ability to download a massive arcade emulation package for the Sega Dreamcast and play the game straight from the console.

The second Castlevania game I’m working with is Order of Shadows.  It was only developed and released for mobile phones; the catch is that it doesn’t work on today’s modern devices.  In fact, the entire game is programmed to work from a regular number pad, not even a QWERTY keyboard.  But people being the clever creatures that they are, developed a version for devices running Android.  So I took my new Samsung Galaxy Tab 3, put the correct file on it, and did some research.  Turns out I needed ANOTHER program to browse the SD card, and then one more program (akin to an emulator) to actually run the game.  Once I finally got it working, I found the controls extremely cumbersome.  They controls have been adapted for the touchscreen, but  they’re very awkward to use.  My next step was finding a keyboard for my tablet, and lo and behold I stumbled across an originally $79.99 Bluetooth keyboard for a mere $23.98.  The controls are much simpler and the game is now playable.

I plan to do a full review of Order of Shadows once I’ve played through more of it, as well as to addend my “8 Castlevania Games…” list with the new information in the near future.  The game itself is pretty cool and fairly deep, playing much like Symphony of the Night with 8-bit graphics.

Now if only I had a better way to play Vampire Killer than emulation I’d be all set on obscure Castlevania titles…