Neon FM

Tsurukame – Hanasaki Ecological

This is my current desktop wallpaper. I have a dual monitor setup, so it looks like Marisa is throwing a star bomb onto my left monitor. I actually got this one from a Tumblr I'm going to call F'Yeah Pixiv that sadly isn't updated anymore. It's one of the last things posted on that Tumblr. (My old blog had all work safe text, but when I’m reblogging a user named fuckyeahpixiv-blog, I guess that idea goes out the window.)

Source: 「花咲エコロジカ」/「鶴亀＠１日目Ｈ-45ｂ」のイラスト [pixiv] via fuckyeahpixiv-blog

花咲エコロジカ | 鶴亀

UberNES - Nintendo Screen Saver

If you still use screen savers, Columbus-based developer M \ K Productions has a good one for you. Nintendo Saver 2015 fills your monitors with several NES games. Each one is actually a fully-functioning NES emulator playing a replay that was recorded in UberNES, and if you like, you can pick up a gamepad and take over control of one of the games on the spot. The recorded replays include my Super Mario Bros 3 playaround and a couple shorter videos showing glitches in Super Mario Bros 1 and Mega Man 2. If you like it, maybe I’ll record some more.

Source: http://www.ubernes.com/nesscreensaver.html via the UberNES – NES Screen Saver Facebook page

Street Fighter II: Mastering Great Combinations and Strategies

Oh, Capcom. When Street Fighter II Turbo came to consoles in 1993, they put out this campy VHS tape of totally valid strategies from old school Street Fighter legend Tomo Ohira. LordBBH compiled a highlight reel of all the character intro voiceovers. If the cartoonish racial stereotypes were any worse, this would be Punch-Out!! Underneath it are the full VHS tape and Mike Z’s parody from the BlazBlue Calamity Trigger limited edition DVD.

Source: SF2 HF – Capcom USA is silly – YouTube and its source Street Fighter 2: Mastering Great Combinations and Strategies (VHS); also BlazBlue Strategy: Iron Tager – YouTube

Foothills Of Passage

Dead End Thrills brings out the best in video game environments. This community goes beyond simple screenshots by making modifications to the game engines to render super high resolution images so professional you'd think they're marketing assets. My dual-monitor desktop just got taken over by this one from the new Shadow Warrior.

The old WordPress blog had the 'large' 2221x945 version and a broken link to a ‘full’ 3755x1598 version. Never mind those, I found this 8192x3486 monster on Flickr. Enjoy!

Source: Flickr and foothillsofpassage.png via Dead End Thrills

RetroAchievements for Romhacks

RetroAchievements adds Xbox 360-style achievement hunting and leaderboards to thousands of classic games and romhacks. Uncommon games often have romhacks that work with RetroAchievements. Check Romhacking.net for patches you can apply with utilities like Floating IPS. I’ve already recommended Rockman 4 Minus Infinity but it also has RetroAchievements.

Dynamite Headdy delocalization by M.I.J.E.T. (RetroAchievements) The localization we got here removed most of the dialogue, added American pop culture references, and made the annoying tower boss fight four times as long. This fan translation doesn’t do any of that. Go collect those secret bonus points.

Pulseman translation by M.I.J.E.T. (RetroAchievements) My favorite game on Sega Channel had you build up static electricity and then discharge it to attack and move around. Most of the team that made it went on to make Pokémon Red and Blue.

Super Mario Land DX by toruzz (RetroAchievements) Also Super Mario Land 2 DX by toruzz (RetroAchievements) Super Mario Land is the first game I ever beat and a fine place to get started with romhacks. This turns Super Mario Land and its sequel into Game Boy Color games with some graphics redrawn for better visibility. The RetroAchievements add some nice challenges to keep things fresh.

Extra Mario Bros. by ATA (RetroAchievements) This romhack gives Mario a dose of Metroid-like exploration with collecting keys and permanent upgrades to reach new places. It’s still Super Mario Bros., so the screen only scrolls to the right.

Umihara Kawase translation by satsu (RetroAchievements) A new Umihara Kawase game just came out and I’m afraid to start it because I get hooked on these games for a long time. We’ve got a wedding to plan! The original game’s RetroAchievements keep track of every door and backpack you’ve reached, so try to get them all.

Source: RetroAchievements, Romhacking.net, and My Life in Gaming

ArmchairTitan – Impractical Street Fighter

Street Fighter IV is actually pretty weird beneath the surface. YouTube user ArmchairTitan wows us with ridiculous combos you’ll never see outside of training mode and some priceless editing. This ought to help hold us until we hear more about Street Fighter V‘s mechanics, if they’ll be anywhere near this crazy.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol0cULzLdqw via Impractical Street Fighter playlist via Shoryuken

Shirakaba – Chiptune Hell

Chiptune Hell is what I wish my room looked like. The desktop is filled with retro gaming gear I’d have to get at Warp Zone or Ohayocon’s dealer’s room. Is that a CRT TV with a built-in Super Famicom?

I’m trying a few new things with this post. Jetpack is now cross-posting to my rarely-used Twitter and Google+ as well as Facebook and the usual RSS feed. Even if none of those things reach you, you can now subscribe by email in the sidebar. (Can I even do that on Tumblr? That was a nice feature in Jetpack...)

I’ve also introduced tags and tagged up all my previous posts Tumblr-style. If you want to see all the music posts, other posts that have too many links, my original content, or an RSS feed of just the pixiv posts, you can get that now.

The artist's web site links right to the full-size image, I guess it's probably OK if I do the same here. Wow, this post is so meta it hurts.

Source: http://bonenod.com via pixiv probably via from one of its tags

Rob Scallon – Angel of Death

Hold onto your hats! Versatile string player Rob Scallon just released another Slayer cover. This adds to his playlist of metal on instruments that aren’t metal with the description “If I wasn’t going to play Slayer on my banjo then what did I buy it for?”

Source: Slayer – Angel of Death (Banjo cover w/ solos) – YouTube via YouTube subscription

BANJO OF DEATH!!!!!

Weird Al SHREDS!!!

The first CD I ever owned was Weird Al Yankovic’s album Bad Hair Day. The wisdom tooth pain and root canal I’ve been recovering from for the past week remind of the track Cavity Search, so thought I’d make that the first song I post to the blog. Trouble is, I can’t find a decent way to embed the song that’s in any way legal, but you can play it on Spotify if you don’t mind getting an account there.

For the rest of you, you can still watch Weird Al shred.

Source: Weird Al SHREDS!!! – YouTube

Canvas for Pebble

UPDATE: I made another Canvas screen called Wallpaper Watchface. Go get that one instead. It’s better.

Wearable devices are the next big thing in tech. I’ve jumped on the bandwagon with a Pebble, and I want to develop for it. On Android, Canvas for Pebble lets you quickly make watchfaces that nicely display the time, date, weather, and your phone’s unread message and missed call counts. I took a few hours and made a watchface I like that displays seconds, and you can have it too.

If you want to try on the Dr. Mo Day 1 watchface, you’ll need a Pebble running  firmware 2.0 beta and Canvas for Pebble 2.0 beta. These should still work when Pebble 2.0 and Canvas for Pebble 2.0 are released. Once that’s installed, visit this post on your phone and click the version you want below.

Dr. Mo Day 1 Imperial Dr. Mo Day 1 Metric

Ever notice how almost every watch ad has the time set to 10:10? Analog watches look better that way, but I'm not so sure about digital watches. It's a lot harder to fake the time on a cell phone.

Source: My blog’s first ever selfie, Numberphile, and Canvas for Pebble