Some Nostalgia I Guess

You come across some parallel souls while browsing the internet, and the Old Game Hermit is one of them for me. At least when it comes to video games anyway. He has a very clean, concise blog that categorizes a lot of random things from the past, and his insight on them is pretty reasonable. If your formative years were from the 80’s to the 00’s, his blog might be a little more cozy to read than mine; especially if you consider yourself a super nerd.

By the time you see this video, Windows 10 should be “technically dead” for a lot of folks out there. I will be alongside most of you converting some old PC’s into a new operating system. My choice is Linux Mint. Apparently there are some “pitfalls” with installing an entirely new OS, so be forewarned. This video should be the first initial step in that hurdle. Thanks to Flip The Bits for both videos and step by step guide.

Let’s get up to speed with some “old is new again” gaming news, one of them being a remaster of a lesser known (but beloved) ARPG Sacred 2. I know a lot of older die hard folks would of wanted a remaster of Sacred 1 (which is a fantastic game), but I’ll be happy with what I can get at this point and Sacred 2 is fine too. For those young bloods in the crowd, this game is similar to the Diablo franchise. It is a slower burn gameplay wise, but we’ll see if the remaster “speeds things” up a bit from the original.

So this kind of caught me off guard in the best way possible, a new Heroes of Might and Magic game is coming out that doesn’t suck! I am a huge fan of the legendary HOMM III, the yardstick that all other HOMM games (although II was really good for its time as well) are held to. I won’t get into the lengthy details about the series over the past decades, but I will say that “all of us” old time fans have been waiting for a true successor to III and we might be getting it in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era. I stay cautiously optimistic at this time, because a lot of previews of the game (including the demo) have been favorable.

Figure I would round out some more nostalgic gaming with The House of The Dead retrospective. Although this isn’t necessarily a case of “old is new”, I do want to say that there are technically remakes of THOTD I & II that are both critically panned. So it’s best to stay with the original if you want to make that trip down memory lane and relive what (I assume most of you) played this game at your local movie theater, bowling alley, or maybe even your first date. Thanks to Mass Replay for the video and the related series.

Finishing off the month with an animation by artist of the month Bluethebone. Since this entire update has been gaming related and to some degree “retro” focused; I thought some animated Shantae would be appropriate. Bluethebone has been recommended a while back on my site, but their art style has pretty much been dialed up to 11 in terms of lewdness! Please visit their Patreon for a lot of bonus stuff if you support them, and support them I highly recommend you do.

Digging Up The Well

It pains me every night being stupid, talentless and running an ironically non-profit website. On the other hand, it brings me joy that there are people out there who are smart, talented and run amazing websites the world needs to see. AnnK is one of those people with an equally amazing place called Dank Zine. One of her most recent articles talking about live game translator software should peak the interest for most of you. Especially since I always preach some of the best stuff to play (past and present) is probably not in English.

In traditon with all October updates, I have to bring all of you something spooky. As noted by the title of the monthly update, I have been going through really old suggestions from years past to see if they’re still alive and kicking. And Nexpo is very alive and well, and still bringing out dramatic bangers. Some might not enjoy the overly artistic presentation, but I do think it adds a merit to the storytelling.

More spooky stuff on the internet thanks courtesy of Farrele McGuire. This particular topic is interesting to me (and maybe some of you) because I’m quite familiar with LiveLeak when it was active. It became a literal cesspool of content in its final years, but it was quite popular none the less.

I know in October it’s very easy to think about “scary” things in the context of monsters and spooky stuff. But scams are very real, and very scary to be involved with. I implore all of you to take this story as a learning opportunity above all else. Thanks to Mujin for the video. If you need the waifu version, SmugAlana here.

Lightening the mood a bit, we’re finishing off October’s update with a public service announcement. Windows 10 will officially be EOL in October 2025, so you’re going to have to make a couple of decisions where you go now with your PC if it happens to still be running the OS. JaysTwoCents kind of needs no introduction in the tech space, but feel free to check out his other videos for general computing news.

Artist is Luminyu

The extremely talented artist LumiNyu was recommended a long time ago by me back in my October 2021 update and is still active today. I highly recommend you keep their activity streak going by visiting their Patreon and showing some support for their awesome work. As always, sending encouragement to their socials is highly recommended.

Esoteric Rollercoaster

Everything in this month’s update is pretty obscure, esoteric and old. We’ll get things rolling with a book suggestion in the form of Tim Lapetino’s Art of Atari. If you’re a 20 something year old visitor and have no clue what “an Atari” is, don’t worry about it! Artbooks are cool regardless, and a good conversation starter for guests. It also gives you hipster credit with the increasingly “retro” crowd nowadays. Hats off to R T Ralph for the content. By the way, if the above book has you intrigued you can purchase hot sauce bottles with some of the art here as well.

I think the Atari stuff might be a bit too old for even my audience, so what about something a bit newer? Windows 98? Maybe? In any case, there is game based on all the iconography (whew!) of older Windows operating systems. It’s called Desktop Survivors 98 and is based on the popular Vampire Survivors genre nowadays. It’s a good fusing of old and new concepts, and quite frankly just a charming “all ages” game. Thanks to Gohjoe for the video!

I’m a fan of iceberg compilations, but I didn’t expect to come across one that was vastly different than most of the ones I’ve seen already. AmusingLuis puts together a vast array of discontinued brand food that I both clearly remember hearing about or actually eating / drinking myself. A nostalgia trip for me for sure, but I’m hoping someone does a compilation of popular (but discontinued) brand foods from around the world. Would definitely be an interesting history lesson.

About a year ago I did recommend a video from Jason Graves visiting a bunch of Goodwill stores here in the US. Apparently he has a new video with more stores, this time however they’re all different. It’s a cozy watch if you’re just interested in a nerdy travel vlog, but a sad one as well if you’re a retro games collector. The glory days of the 2005 ~ 2015 bargains are long gone here in the US as well as Japan.

My wife and I chose not to have children, but that doesn’t mean a vast majority of you visiting don’t have some of your own (or plan to). Theme parks are nerdy adjacent, and act as good bridges between age groups when the lingo can get tough between the generations. Have you seen the Gen Z lingo video yet? In any case, ReviewTyme (thanks guys!) has the most digestible review list of Disney theme parks without the obvious taint of corporate marketing teams or hometown bias. I feel the butthurt in the comments makes me like it even more!

This is kind of a leftover from the virtual travel update a few months ago. Harmen Hoek is arguably one of my favorite hiking content creators of all time. A year ago (and now recently above) he reedited some of his work into long form videos that contain only ambient audio from his journeys. If you need motivation to go outdoors for real or virtually, it’s hard to beat these videos. Please do me and Harmen a favor and watch these with the best earphones or earbuds you can while you’re relaxing. The enjoyment of them will increase tenfold.

Artist is Klopsiak

Artist is Klopsiak

Artist of the month is Klopsiak, someone I came across in an ironic fashion. There aren’t a lot of folks who draw obscure waifus, let alone very well. But I immediately thought the above pictures were AI generated at first due to their detail at first glance. After a while and a little bit of digging, I came to the conclusion it’s all above board (at least I think it is) and that Klopsiak not only is very talented, he also likes one of my favorite characters from One Piece Carrot. For that alone, he gets the artist of the month recommendation. Please visit his linktr.ee for socials, and send him a nice word!

Even More Internet Of Things

No specific theme this month, so we’re going to do what we did in June and take a look at a bunch of random things on the internet. As always with my monthly content, it’s mostly focusing on long form content. If you’ve been visiting for a while now, a lot of faces should be familiar to you. Starting off with Napoleon Blownapart and his most recent documentary on the MMA lineal title. If you’ve never watched any of his content before, I highly recommend you watch his martial arts frauds video first.

I remember only finding “strange and spooky” stuff on the internet 15 years ago during Halloween. Now that stuff has become increasingly mainstream, and it appears every day of the week you can find stories and tales of the weird side of the web. I’m not complaining, just observing the trend. Long time recommendation Sakura Stardust has a recent video diving into more creepy stuff from Japan. Weeaboos rejoice!

I’m not going to lie, this particular topic may seem like Boomer copium at its finest. I would imagine anyone under the age of 30 would have no idea what it’s even talking about. But for those dusty ass folks out there (like me), this video may be right up your alley. Thanks to Poseidon Entertainment for putting in the research and legwork. It’s a very long video by the way, so heads up.

It’s been a long time since Vsauce uploaded a video, so you know it’s probably going to be of substance. Sometimes we need to take a step back from the moment and look at the bigger philosophical picture of our existence. I recommend playing the video a few times to grasp the message, so that you can then proceed to the questions you’ll probably ask yourself. If this is all too deep for you at the moment, come back to it later.

Artist is Machulanko

I was doing my best to find a picture of Seiko Ayase to reflect the age of my audience. Luckily artist of the month has a very clean, classic, and elegant style that matches what I was looking for. That artist is Machulanko, and you can visit all of their social links by clicking on the image above. Don’t forget as always to send them a nice comment if you appreciate them.