Joe Dynamite

In 1994, Nintendo released a pair of arcade classics on Game Boy. There was a really great version of Donkey Kong and this kind of meh version of Space Invaders. Like many children in the 90s, I barely left home without my Game Boy. Some games are permanently burned in my memory, and I remember playing them over and over again, like Final Fantasy Adventure. But I found Space Invaders pretty forgettable, even though I’ve kept it all these years. Not sure what I was really expecting when I bought it as a kid. With Donkey Kong, Nintendo added a lot more content, but Space Invaders was seemingly just a straight-up port. I probably never would have played it again, but then I listened to episode 15 of the Nintendo Power Podcast.

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With all the talk of digital storefronts being shut down (I’m looking at you PS3, PSP, and Vita) as well as digital games being delisted (Mario’s 35th anniversary), it got me thinking. I never owned a PlayStation Vita, but I did buy a PlayStation TV a couple of years ago. If you’ve never heard of it, PlayStation TV is basically a screen-less mini Vita that you can play with a PS3 controller and hook up to a TV with HDMI. One of the first games I purchased was Adventures of Mana. It is a 3D remake of Final Fantasy Adventure, a game I played the heck out of on my Game Boy when I was a kid. It is only available digitally on Vita and on iOS and Android.

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I recently bought an AVerMedia Live Game Ultra to replace my few-year-old Elgato HD60 S. I wanted something that can pass through 4K video from current consoles like Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X. While also allowing me to downsample to record and stream in HD. And I figured it could be valuable to try out an AVerMedia product because up until now, I have primarily used Elgato. The Live Gamer Ultra captures video and audio separately, which is a bit different if you’re used to Elgato products.

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I started playing Pokémon when Red and Blue released in the US in 1998. At the time, I was a sophomore in high school, playing Pokémon Red on my original Game Boy when most folks had already upgraded to a Game Boy Pocket. Something about the game hooked me. I continued playing it until I got Pokémon Gold when that released. I lost my love a little bit after Sapphire. Honestly I’m not sure I ever finished that one, but it is on my list to play soon. Then I skipped a generation and bought Pokémon Black when I got a DS Lite. I thought this was where my Pokémon journey would end, but I was wrong.

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In 2016, I remember how excitedly a group of my friends and I were waiting for the release of Tom Clancy’s The Division. We were all living and working in New York City (and Brooklyn) at the time, and that is where the game takes place. We were looking forward to having an online multiplayer experience where we could run around in an environment we were familiar with. Not just another fantasy world or on a different planet. Little did I know, starting up the game would probably be one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever had while playing a video game.

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When I built my PC a couple of years ago, I wanted to grab some great 4K monitors to go along with it. At the time, the Dell P2715Q monitor was the recommended one on Wirecutter, so I grabbed two of those. They worked great with my PC, which is hooked up with DisplayPort cables. When I recently plugged my Sony PlayStation 4 Pro into it, I couldn‘t get it to display at a 4K resolution.

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A little over a year ago, a friend of mine was moving out of the country. He gave me a bunch of his NES, GBA, and some PC games to hold on to for him. One of the games was Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising. I was familiar with the series but never really spent much time playing it. I think the first Advance Wars came out at the same time as Final Fantasy X, so I was much more interested in playing that.

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Aside from just video games, I am a big fan of music, and I’m always on the lookout for a new band or artist. Over the years, I have grown an affinity for rap and hip-hop music.

Maybe it’s your subconscious, but when you enjoy two things, I think you tend to look for any overlaps or connections. I have started to notice and pick out more and more references to video games in the hip-hop music I was listening to, so I decided to make a playlist of all the songs. Many contain references in the lyrics or titles. Some include samples of video game music in the underlying instrumental track.

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I won’t do this most weeks, but a few exciting things happened, and I wanted to share my thoughts. I’ve included links in case you missed any of it and wanted to check it all out for yourself.

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Last month brought us the long-awaited release of Final Fantasy VII Remake. It was something fans had been waiting for since Square Enix showcased a rebuilt FFVII intro sequence on PlayStation 3 hardware at E3 in 2005. Final Fantasy VII is undoubtedly one of the more popular Final Fantasy games, but did you know this isn’t the first time they completely remade one of the games from this beloved franchise?

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