Well, I wasn’t supposed to be buying any gaming paraphernalia until well after Christmas, but it’s not every day Sega actually put out a new gizmo!
And while the wait is on for a proper successor to Dreamcast, there was no way I could turn my nose up at their latest mini console offering!
The combined going rate for everything on this li’l wonder would be astronomical, thus I am obviously well within my rights to purchase this as I’m basically saving money. Or something like that.
Anyway, the unboxing fun and frolics are on Dibbs of the Grig Gaming, which much like this online tome, is also making a long overdue revival from the dead! Until I don’t update it again for another few years that is. So enjoy it while it’s hot Grigadiers, coz like my bowel motions after my back operation, it ain’t gonna be regular!
Currently smashing records at an astounding 3 views, one of which being my own to check the video plays right, DotGG is soaring like a bird on the wing again. Look out world!
Thats all for now. I‘ll see ya next time, same grig time, etc, etc, etc.
Well, actually it’s not official news, so perhaps that headline is misleading. Falling at the first hurdle! Oof! But to be fair, it’s actually better than real Sega news, especially since real Sega is a dead entity that’s nothing more than a decaying husk of its former self.
This news is from the fan community, and man, this is a humdinger!
One of the awesome things about the fan community is that there are so many awesome projects in development for the Megadrive right now, from Street Fighter Alpha, arcade accurate Sunset Riders and the Simpson arcade game, to heavy hitters such as Metal Slug and the super ambitious and amazing-looking conversion of Castlevania Symphony of the Night. This is a coming lineup just as exciting as anything we had back in the day, and perhaps even more so!
And right up there, defying console limitations in a way that’s nothing more than pure wizardry, is our topic this fine day – Final Fight Ultimate!
Now, everyone knows that the humble Megadrive couldn’t handle Final Fight, right? Why even the 2 to 3 years newer SNES coughed and spluttered it’s way through their conversions, seriously hampered by the lacking content that was stripped from it like the 2-player mode, missing levels, missing characters, and limited 2 enemy characters on screen at a time scupperings. Twasn’t till you bolted on a Mega CD to the humble MD that something close to the arcade was realised, so a conversion on the ol’ bog standard would be nothing more than a simpering mess, surely?
Wrong!
What this dude has going on is nothing more than pure magic! Check out this shizzle below…
The dude is called MXRetroDev on YouTube and the channel is well worth checking out for more.
Quite how this dude is doing this I don’t know, but he’s got all characters present, 2-player mode with up to 7 characters on screen at a time, and has even found the time to add bonus characters such as Maki from Final Fight 2, and Captain Commando also makes a cameo! The dudes even added the challenge mode previously exclusive to the Mega CD version! Nice!
Back in the day this would’ve had to have come on a 60-meg cart, the same as Megadrive Super Street Fighter 2, thus commanding a high price tag. But it would’ve surely been worth it! I mean, everyone loved Final Fight, and this accomplishment would’ve had people going nuts, so surely Capcom would’ve had to have taken the plunge! Not that they had the skill to have pulled this off themselves at the time. They couldn’t even get a decent sound driver working for the Megadrive with SF2’s speech samples, something else that has now been fixed by fans.
Quite what the timescale is for this game being finished is unknown, but the hype and positivity surrounding it is upper echelon and with each passing update the quality of this title is shining through. It’s just awesome to see the Megadrive thriving even decades after Sega themselves moved on from it, and the potential of the beautiful beast is being realised even further. Seems like the Megadrive hasn’t given up all its secrets yet, and I’m well on board to see what’s coming next!
So hot on the heels of my past efforts (roughly an article 7 or 8 years ago) to break down the barriers and establish the firm connection between Teri Hatcher and video games, I figured why not go even further and having a closer look at her YouTube channel, Hatching Change. For surely ‘tis a veritable treasure trove of gaming connections that will render my past efforts seeming like mere brushings by comparison! Possibly. Let’s find out…
Man I could almost kick myself for not doing this earlier. I mean she’s got an entire YouTube channel, and I’ve just slept on it…
What the?! Well it looks like I’m not the only one to have slept on Teri’s efforts! 20k subscribers! That’s… surprising. Some might say pitiful. But of course I wouldn’t. Especially since I still have a vague hope we’ll meet in the foothills of Mount Tibidabo one day in a romantic encounter before going for a drive in KITT. So I would obviously NEVER say such a thing. It’s just, some people might say that. Not me. But still, you’d have to ponder that for a woman who used to have the honour of being the most downloaded woman on the internet, some may have expected better. Just to reiterate, Teri – not me. Heh.
I mean, it was 1997 or something. And to be fair, it’d be a miracle if my own YouTube channel got to even 200 subs, let alone 20K, so by comparison Teri is giving me a whuppin’ of intergalactic proportions. But the difference is I am pathetic, so the emphasis of failure is far more on her head here than mine! Or something. But look at these view counts.
Not much to write home about is it? 1.9 thousand for one of these videos. That’s standard fare for a Dibbs of the Grig video! Oh wait. No. According to my analytics that’s about my combined overall views from every video I have spanning my 7 year ‘body of work’. I really don’t know why I don’t just delete my channel, I really don’t.
Anyway, crashing on, it seems that there is a big focus on making food. Here, for example, she is growing scallions.
I don’t actually know what scallions are, sounds like something you’d have removed via surgery to me, but I thought I’d present this evidence if only to quote Dana Carvey in Trapped in Paradise…
‘It’s got scallions!’
So cooking, huh? I guess there was that one game on the DS, Cooking Mama. Could that be what’s piqued her interest in promoting this culinary endeavour? I mean, previous investigations showed that she had a Wii, so if she’s a Nintendo company loyalist, she may have indeed picked up said title if it was it ever converted. I’m seeing traces of a breakthrough already. Hmm…
Well my memory does indeed serve me correctly. With old video games at least. I could really do with it kicking into gear while I write this rubbish though to spare me sitting there for five minutes trying to recollect the word ‘and’ while I struggle to string a sentence together. Stupid failing brain!
Aha! See, I knew it. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Another investigative breakthrough for Grigorig!
Actually, one thing I overlooked previously, is that there were obvious tells of video gaming experience on show in her most recent video, as featured on this very website. Fishing? Sega Bass Fishing? Man it’s so obvious! How did I miss that at the time?! Darn my foolish oversights!
Clearly Teri would have the sense to be a Dreamcast owner, only being in possession of a Wii due to it housing Nights into Dreams follow up, Journey of Dreams. Of course if Teri were a loyalist to any company, it would have to be Sega. I hang my head in shame at even contemplating otherwise! Forgive me Teri!
So outside of the cooking stuff, what else resides in the depths of her YouTube back catalogue?
Well, she did a whole bunch of van life stuff, but I guess that fad has passed. She seems much too friendly and positive though so I quickly moved on before I found her irritating to the point that I would start to dislike her, thus ruining our past. And by our, I don’t mean you and me, dear greader. I’m talking about the Lois that I have in my head who buys retro video games, laughs at my jokes, and tells me that I’m not playing Rocket Queen loud enough on the car stereo. Them’s be treasured memories, so take the taintage of reality away from me!
There is one thing I gleamed from the van videos though. I’d seen that VW Camper before.
Teri’s ‘Van Life’ camper van.
VW camper from Forza Horizon 2 #similar
So what d’ya think? Clearly there’s a link here. This is an influence too uncanny to ignore! She a racing gamer! And we all know who makes the best racing games around – Sega!
Well, I guess the wheels are the same at least.
For whilst Teri wait’s mournfully for Sega’s port of Sega Rally to a modern system, and after playing Daytona till her thumbs could take no more, she doth while away the hours with substitute racers such as Forza 2. This is definitive evidence of gaming influence right here, and no court in the land could possibly argue otherwise…
Oh who am I kidding?!
Ok, this is really just a bust isn’t it. I’ve lost my touch in the seven years I’ve been gone! I can’t find anything! Even regular internet browsing yields no results. The best you get is it pulling up pictures of Billy Hatcher when you search Teri’s name along with Sega, and even that’s too poor a result to even make a Grig post out of… yet.
Sigh. Guess I’ll just skulk away defeated. Sniff.
But, just when you thought all was lost after I’d exited stage left, suddenly comes the unexpected and riotous encore!
Now you can’t tell me this isn’t a clear message! Everyone knows that in America the Megadrive is called the Genesis! A sure fire sign her allegiance is with no other than the maker of the bluest skies in all of gaming! In attendance probably to collect best action game on behalf of Treasure for Gunstar Heroes, Teri can be seen lighting up the red carpet here at the Genesis Awards. Other big winners that night were Streets of Rage 2, Sonic 2, Castlevania Bloodlines, and Phantasy Star IV, according to the voice inside my head.
And if you think that’s all I had, then wait for this! Extracted from her Instagram page… BOOM!
Obviously working for Sega on some promotional marketing blitz, Teri is seen here clearly getting into the habit of emblazoning obscure household items with the name of her favourite Sega handheld all in the name of pushing for gaming superiority!
Well, it’s worked on me. I’ll take three! Oh Teri, ye of such fine taste! Cultured enough to know of even the more aloof of Sega paraphernalia. I salute you ma’am, I salute you.
Well my winter mission was short lived. Check this shizzle out!
Now you might not be able to tell, but that says $32,550.49. But it looks highly dubious due to the shaky nature of the picture, all credit to my crappy phone and its broken camera that does a weird freak out thing at random intervals. It certainly picked its moment here, right in my hour of glory!
So the pressure was on. Was the useless leaderboard going to actually update my score, or was it going to throw ten buckets of buh over my latest achievement? ‘Tis highly hit and miss at the best of times, and I’d already been given a whuppin’ when it failed to upload my arcade rules score earlier in the week. Why, the pressure was almost too much to bare!
But no need to fret! I mean it did take several refreshes but after about ten minutes the piece of ayne decided to wake up and post my score so I could actually get a steady picture. 32K baby! Woo woo!
Now that my goal has been achieved I can do many more productive things, like go for walks in the park, observe fresh dew glistening on the grass of a winters morn, sit there and watch endless reruns of Baywatch on the 24 hour Freeview channel thingy on the fire stick. I think I’ll stick to the third one there.
But for now, it’s game over yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Till next time Crazy beauts, till next time. I wonder how realistic breaking 40 is? Hmm…
Grig mongers! Whassup?! How’ve you been, etc, etc, etc.
Well, after a 7 year hiatus I thought y’know what? I’m gonna make a post. And here it is. But pray tell, what is of such earth shattering significance it can haul me out of the retiremental writing abyss and make me pick up my quill once again?
Well, for one I decided to read a few articles on the now defunct website UK:Resistance which reminded me that I used to use it as inspiration to write stuff on Grig.
And two… well I actually don’t have a two. But what I do have is a near thirty grand score in ten minutes on Crazy Taxi on original city!
I thought I’d best post it before some git knocks me down by using the reverse glitch to get 99 grand or whatever. But I was so close to breaking 30g! Rats ahoy!
And if you think this is a flimsy reason for a post, you’d be right! But I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to post something to do with Sega and it was all I had, especially after I Googled Sega news and everything that came up was boring which led me to rationalise I could be boring about Sega on my own. Thus, this post was birthed! And you’re welcome!
So I promised myself I would break the thirty grand mark this coming winter, and by jove it nearly happened already! But there are many a cold day ahead so this can all count as good practise.
I also had a go at the 5 minute one on the Arcade city. If only they knew the secret to these scores! I’m like the Ed Leedskalnin of Crazy Taxi… if he were to cheese a video game instead of single-handedly building a castle moving massive coral blocks with few tools without telling people how he did it that is. And I’ve already failed there coz I showed Lartens how it works already. Rats ahoy again! Anyhoo, that was a weird tangent…
This one is a real grig-grinder. I beat this score the other night, but the freakin’ Xbox disconnected from the server while I was playing and it didn’t put it on the leaderboard despite my lengthy efforts spending a good couple of hours and getting my highest ever score. Tssk!
The score I got there, seen only on this demo screen on my Xbox. Unbelievable. Piece of crap machine.
Here’s the perpetrator of misery. I guess I can’t complain too much since some people gave it to me for free. But still… tssk again!
I particularly like these scratches on it. Almost as if they’ve dragged their infant children away from the 18 rated Call of Duty 84 or whatever it’s up to now.
Well that’s about all I got. Feels like a bit of a downer there so I thought I’d best check in on Teri Hatchers YouTube channel, Hatching Change, as a triumphant crescendo to the article. She hasn’t updated in 7 months, but she has been on an Amazon cruise in her last video.
Here she is, airing a morning armpit on the fresh Amazonian breeze. If someone threw her a pair of GHD’s and you were to squint, you could almost imagine she was 26 again and in her prime Lois and Clark glory ready to scribe some of the finest articles outside of Grig Orig!
Highlights include her catching a piranha fish, a probable crime that will get her retroactively cancelled in a couple of years time.
And speaking of getting cancelled, here’s something that could have the baying masses from Twitter banging down my door. The closest to some swimsuit related tom-japery I’ve seen from Teri in years! It’s one I’m just gonna have to take on the chin. And by that, I mean the 80 year old man down the street when I point them towards his house by pretending I don’t know what they’re talking about. ‘Dibbs Ahoy? Nah, you want the guy 7 houses down mate.’
Pwned. If people still say that. I’ll see ya next time, same Grig time, same Grig channel. Laters.
Its happened, it’s finally happened, you go out into the real world with scary people and you literally catch wild digital pokemon. And every other bugger is doing the same thing, it’s practically normal. Huzza. I’m not saying there’s going to be a time when I’m in a cave on a snowy mountain and Charmander and Squirtle are going to share body warmth but still. I’m going to be a Pokemon master. And here’s how you can too.
Pokemon go Gym Leader
So first up. Capture your pidgys and your weedles and any other pokemon that take 12 candies to evolve, this is your level up bread and butter. If you’ve got something that will evolve into a pokemon not yet captured maybe save this too. Basically there is an item called a lucky egg which lasts for about 28 minutes and will give you double xp, so activate the egg and evolve those beauts for double xp, thats 1000xp a pop, new pokemon thats 500 normally, bosch 1000. see where we’re going here. Great now you’re leveling up. you can also use your 1 free never ending incubator to hatch an egg by walking, try to time the hatching for when you’ve got the lucky egg going. The updating of your distance traveled can be a bit delayed so don’t be surprised if you’ve a few hundred meters to go and suddenly its hatching. If you’re going a 10k egg then chances are you haven’t got that pokemon and you’ll get that new pokemon bonus. but if you’re going to spend real coin then get the lucky eggs and incubators, each incubator you buy lasts for 3 turns, I use them for 10k and 5k and then use the unlimited one to knock off the 2k eggs during this time.
But if you don’t want to use your real money on coins here is how you get them.
Battle the gyms, leave yours in, head to the next one, when you’re defending all the gyms you can (up to 10 I believe) go to the shop and collect the shield in the top right. This will lock you from claiming again for 21 hours. You have to be level 5 to be able to battle gyms.
Ultra Pokeball at level 20
Right, next up capturing those pidgys, hold the pokeball, make circular motion until its glows, time the yellow/green/orange circle around the pokemon so its to your capturing preference then fling the pokeball to the side a bit and let it curl to the pokemon. takes practice and its hit and miss form here but sometimes you at least get a curve ball if not a great for extra xp on the capture
And the post for July is saved, all hail Gym Leader Lartens
Woah, so it’s 15 years since I left university?! WOAH!! It’s 20 years since Pokemon!! WOAH, it’s 476 millennia since I posted part one of the Grand Revotunion! And all through March I was like “nah, I’ll wait til April and use this sucker then” and whaddya know, that whole freakin’ month went by and no postage. So thank the Dibloons for Lartens whose tech-bantz saved our perfect run…
But fret not. For here we are, gentlemen, at the official unveiling pf Part 2. Which would be exciting except I am, of course, effectively just going to re-post comments that you two have not only read but have, in fact, written. But to dwell on such things would be madness incarnate so let’s crack most swiftly on!
Sonic CD – Palmtree Panic (Present) – Jap / EUR version
Yes, there’s nothing that a high-pressured journalist with a deadline likes more than picking a track from Sonic CD. It’s one of those quick wins you know? Those ‘speed tasks’. The ones that ‘write themselves’. I am, of course, joshing with you as it’s a freakin’ nightmare. Jap version? US version? Past, present, and future versions?! Mega CD, Sega PC, Xbox re-release, 20th anniversary remix, fan-dub… Holy b’griggers. Still, if you want an example of when developers gave a flying hoot about their music, picking a game with six versions of every level is a good option, no?
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link – Temple/Palace Theme
Oh yes, we’re mixing it up. Choice from Dibbs right up there with a choice from Lartens just down here? It’s all happening! And as if that weren’t enough, I’ve freakin’ McGroove’d up the joint with this little number. Hey, I’ve got to add some value right? Check out his high speed acapella action at the one minute mark. Oof, that’s a doozy!
Nights into Dreams – Soft Museum
This is a classic Pom-style selection – that little pan-pipe riff at one-minute in is just your kind of jam, eh grigadiers? Interestingly though, not a game I’d have ever picked out for its music. Probably because I had such high levels of stress just trying to pull off a grigging paraloop that my ears had probably shut down or something.
Zelda II – Overworld Theme
I mean woah, talk about going off in new directions you weren’t expecting. If you’ve never played Zelda II, like me, you hear this puppy strike up and you’re thinking, oh, OK, it’s an old version of the SNES music. But no way, Jose Carreras. It fires off in all kinds of places you didn’t see coming. Because what about that crazy-assedness when you’re 40 seconds in? This was some avant-garde 80s activity and no mistaking.
Sega Rally Championship – Getting Muddy (Mountain Stage)
Just like that time when Celine Dion knocked the UK into 2nd place in Eurovision ’88, Sega Rally’s OST slipped out of the GRiG’s first list by just a single point. And much like Scott Fitzgerald’s loss, it wasn’t without controversy. Indeed, while Dion, like Part 1 of The Revitunion, is now beloved by Titanic-fans and perverts everywhere, the fact that the Canadian-born songstress represented neutrality’s very own Switzerland – a country that is not in Canada – shocked Euro-philes to their core. And there’s an unnerving similarity there to the horror of the the GRiG-reading masses who couldn’t believe that Sega Rally, as the undisputed holder of an All-Time Top 5 Video Games Placard (laminated), didn’t make the cut first time around. It was, indeed, a shock. Even to me. As I wrote it. For there’s a perfection to Sega Rally that is, as Louis Walsh might say – were he judging this musical run-down with the X Factor hyperbole that is his wont – exactly what this competition is looking for. Every curve is well placed, every leap is well timed – and the music is the seamless extension of that attention to excellence. Joe Satriani plays his part, of course (just as he did in the burgeoning career of Kirk Hammett, tutoring the young lad before he went on to join Metallica in 1983. (C) GRiG Facts 2016). But he’s not quite the main man. For let us use the fag-end of this lengthy piece to pay tribute to that other unsung hero of Rally’s epic tunes – Mr Naofumi Hataya. For Fumi-san was not only lead composer on the Saturn port soundtrack (kudos), but also on none other than Sonic CD and Nights. And Golden Axe 2. Well I never.
Super Mario Bros 2 – Overworld Theme
My favourite thing about this little number is the echoes of the music for Jim Davidson’s classic ’90s gameshow Big Break. It would fit seamlessly into, for instance, Virgo’s Trick Shot. That said, Mario has done a great deal to eliminate racism in the modern world, what with being simultaneously Japanese and Italian-American, while Davidson has shamefacedly [SNIP – GRiG lawyers] all through the 80s. So the similarities are fairly short lived. As they were, of course, between the original Super Mario and its vegetable-throwing cousin. Diversity, you see. It’s how things should be.
As you know I’ve been looking forward to a better rift for years. Three years ago this month I received the First Development Kit that went out to backers, and the immersion was amazing, but the screen door effect was jaring and the response in head tracking wasn’t there. Well fast forward three years to the present day and the screen door is still there though less so, the resolution is better but not there yet and the head tracking is vastly improved, however, most of the experiences I tried were stories revolving around you in a fixed position. Luckeys Tale did pan around to keep up with the little guy but it’s far from running around like you could on Team Fortress 2.
This is the other thing, the old games that had rift DK1 support even if unnoficial seem to rely on running the rift with a certain sdk, which is something not easily done. especially on a windows 10 machine apparently. My hopes of have the bajesus scared out of me in Alien Isolation were dashed, at least for the time being. But hey, wearing the rift still looks so cool ^^
My advice is definitely to wait. When its better it will be worth it. Maybe even 500 dabloons worth it. It’s early days yet for mass support, though game makers have had three years to prep for this. As much as I enjoyed Henry, it was short lived, and to be fair I didn’t buy any games, only checked out the free stuff, so maybe there is a compelling reason to get a rift, I personally wasn’t fussed about laying down the cash for an experience I wasn’t enjoying. And I really wanted this.
AS for 360 videos, that was a huge flop for me, resolution and motion was too low, needs to be way better, I believe Facebook have just revealed a 360 camera they are open sourcing, so in time we may have the right content for the VR but agian not yet sad face, even the aurora borealis video that I used with the dk1 wouldn’t run probably due to the reasons mention before, it was built to run with an earlier oculus runtime. Sad times here griggers, sad time.
