🔄 Reconnect Recap for w/e 8th December '24

Connecting you to even more great games writing

Dec 08, 2024

It’s that time of year where everyone is jumping at the chance to see their Spotify / Apple Music / Xbox / Toilet Paper wrapped for the year, but here at Reconnect we go smaller and just focus on the week that’s been.

Yes it’s another Reconnect Recap, the companion newsletter to Reconnect, the games writing discovery platform.

Let's get recapping.

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The Recap

It’s the 30th Anniversary of Sony’s Playstation, which makes me feel very old, but it’s led to some great articles this week. Starting off we have

JM Mendez

who provides us with a full history of Sony’s consoles, including the Vita.

Talking of the Vita, to which I owned two, we have a more in-depth look at one of my favorite handhelds by

ObsoleteSony

, who provides a retrospective on the handheld that was clearly before it’s time.

Ever wondered how Sony got started on the PlayStation 30 years ago, despite Nintendo and Sega having a chokehold on the industry at that point? Well TimeExtension explains how it’s all Nintendo’s fault that led Sony to make one of the most successful gaming consoles of all time.

My final article about games hardware, is from GamingOnLinux, about a raspberry powered portable computer, that you can customize for any need, including retro gaming, and boy does it look pretty. Like impulse purchase pretty.

Given it’s Indiana Jones release week for Machine games,

Flynn Hams

gives their thoughts on what the upcoming release means for Xbox’s ‘strategy’ and in the same vein of licensed games,

Paul Shkreli

runs us through the highlights of licensed games past, and ponders what’s next?

A common theme of today’s recap is a bit of time travel, a reflection on what has been and what might be. Staying on topic, Thinky Games talks about 2021’s The Rewinder an adventure game that bucks traditional time travel tropes for an enjoyable and unique experience.

Matt Carney

did a guest post this week over on

Crossplay

all about playing Pentiment whilst his new born slept on his chest. Learning about a history while making memories with their child is very sweet.

Swinging onto how these games are made, we have an Interview with Interactive-fiction writer Andrew Plotkin by The Digital Antiquarian.

Rob Sandberg

talks about using Gherkin to extract value from Game Design Documents , and

Niki

digs into a common game feature, factions, and how to make them truly impacful in games.

Well that’s the Recap folks, not long until Xmas and the New Year, where I will take a small break, but we still have a few recaps to go until then.

Enjoy the week!

Something Extra

Like most people, I love a bit of background music, and despite the fact that I’m supposed to be focusing on something like writing, I also like for the background music to have pretty visuals.

I came across BeatBloxFM on social media, who combines their Pixel art skills with animation to make gorgeous sci-fi scenes backed to music. I have been jamming out to their videos whenever I need something chill in the background. My fave is LO-FI Pixels Vol. 03.

Writer Recap

JM Mendez

has had my attention since the second I got started here, we both share an interest in writing about the industry more broadly and I often feel like they have beaten me to the punch on a couple of article ideas.

If you like the sort of things I write about, or want to read someone better, go on over and check out 1UP Vault.