Reconnect Recap - w/e 10th August
A weekly recap of some of the best video game articles to feature on Reconnect.
Kia Ora folks
Welcome to yet another week of the Reconnect Recap, this will be my 69th edition, there’s a joke in there, but I simply don’t have the time.
As always this newsletter act’s a companion to the main site, Reconnect, the games writing discovery platform.
There’s a myriad of ways you can get more games writing into your life, visit the website whenever you want, hook into the RSS Feed, follow my BlueSky where a different article is shared every hour, check out who I’m reading here on Substack, or keep your eyes peeled on this very newsletter. There’s so many options.
This week we’re talking Amiga, Game Engines, BDS Boycott, manipulative game mechanics and more GBA demakes.
Enjoy!
Great Write Ups
Censor, I hardly know her!: The NSFW game ban is not the first time outside agencies have tried to control what games are allowed, all in the name of the ‘Kids’, Atelier Gaming Verse gives us a long run through of all the other times in history this has happened.
Choose your engine!: If you're thinking about what engine you should select for your next game dev project, Game from scratch has a great breakdown of Godot vs Unity and which you should choose. I personally use Godot as Unity probably has it in their terms and conditions that they own my first born child.
Forty years of Amiga: I’m getting to the age where not many things make me feel young and vibrant any more, but Goto 10: Retro Computing & Gaming has a great deep dive on the history of the Commodore Amiga that launched forty years ago, and because I’m SO young, It was all brand new information for me.
Keep calm and game on: Like many I use video games to disconnect from the dystopian hell scape that is life, Leefa has a great guide on how to approach games for maximum calm. My fun tip is don’t play Control whilst you have an anxiety disorder.
Crying is healthy: A strong recommendation from Rewinder is that you should play ‘and Roger’, its a spoiler free piece, though their are spoilers if you choose to see them, and its convinced me that I should carve out some time and tissues to play this.
Guardians Assemble: Square Enix’s Guardians of the Galaxy game fucking slaps, if you didn’t play it when it first came out (many didn’t) you are truly missing out, don’t believe me? Check out this write up from Aftermath.
Being Transphobic isn’t hot: This one is a little left field, but I feel passionately about this topic. As a queer person who doesn’t care for gender labels we look for safe spaces, not to preach about anything, just for some peace and quiet, I want to talk about my hobbies without being called a slur. However, and Ali ‘shanodin’ Rees puts it in far better terms than I can, places that feel safe like cozy game communities or book clubs can still carry with it a heavy level of hetero-biases and its not long until you start butting up against latent, or nascent, homophobia or transphobia.
Hacking the mind and the wallet: One day I’m going to wake up, have the right amount of coffee and finally get around to developing a game, now I’m thinking I might just make some horribly addicting game that empties peoples wallets and makes me rich, to do that I’m going to read everything Game Wisdom has written on the topic because thy truly understand how games are manipulating people.
Porting a one way ticket to hell: My day job specialises in taking old tech and data and moving it to modern platforms, so I end up on series of projects that make me want to go off the grid and live in the forest. That means my heart bleeds for any story, like this one about how porting No One Lives Forever to the PS2 was an absolute nightmare.
More than Wordle: I tried to be a wordle girlie but I just wasn’t smart enough, but I’m always looking for something to scratch that daily puzzle itch, Laura Michet has a few suggestions there’s one I’ve already started playing daily.
Sibling Rivalry: My sister and I played heaps of gams as a kid, sometimes we cooperated sometimes we fought, Crossplay has some great advice to promote team work and collaboration between your kids playing games.
Stop covering Xbox: If you aren’t aware Microsoft is on the BDS list of companies to boycott over their involvement in Palestinian conflict, No Escape explains why this is important and how you can help with the boycott.
Fun Tidbits
Someone is turning Snow Piercer into a game, which is think is WELL overdue, given we have Frost punk and a never ending love for misery in the world I would have thought we’d had this game a decade ago.
After 3 years of negotiations, 19 QA testers at COD development studio, Raven Software, have ratified their first union contract with Microsoft.
Designer Makes Working Kirby GBA Pendant, what’s more impressive is the designers website, reminds me of the MySpace/Bebo days.
Should your PC go on the floor or on your desk? I personally put my PC on the roof to assert dominance. Aftermath has posted two articles arguing both sides of the debate, which side are you?
PS1 Clone 'SuperStation One' Will Run Your Sega CD And Saturn Discs Just Fine
Preservationists at the Video Game History Foundation purchased the rights to Computer Entertainer, the first video game magazine ever written and uploaded it for free.
LOVE a Gameboy demake, I’m dying for the day someone does a Fallout GB demake, would make my year, instead check out this Resident Evil Demake OR this Luigi’s Mansion demake.
I’m not overly a knick knack person, so when I was in Japan I had a lot of self control over what little trinkets I picked up, however had I know about these Playstation Gashapon I might have had to buy another suitcase.
Writer Recap
Time Extensions features in just about every single one of my newsletters, they are melting pot of awesome cools things to check out, retro news, and some great stories.
If you like a lot of the fun things I share here, then you’ll love Time Extension and you should check them out.
Housekeeping
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"I personally put my PC on the roof to assert dominance" - 🤣🤣🤣
Didn't we have a Snow Piercer game already? Trans Arctica
https://transarctica.fandom.com/wiki/Transarctica