Return of the King

Oh hey, how's it going? It has once again been a busy time here in RKS-Land; maybe more so than at any time since I started this faltering page, in fact. This has definitely been the longest period without a post since I started the page 12 long years ago. I even forgot about it altogether for a while and hadn't been here for so long I had about 900 billion spams in the 'comments' section amongst other things when I did eventually saunter back here. BUT!! My return isn't what prompted the title of this post - that would be a step too far in the direction of vanity. No, it refers to a thing, not a person at all. Not just any thing though. Perhaps the greatest thing.

But first a bit of background which includes the main reason I have absent for so long - I have moved house! Well, I say 'house' but I was in a flat previously. A pretty good one it should be said, but it was in a shitty area filled with loud, super-annoying people of a remarkably undesirable nature (to put it politely). Our new place was larger and in a far better area, but the actually process of packing and moving, then unpacking and organising takes an extraordinary amount of time, as I'm sure anyone who has done it will testify. Then there were numerous small jobs that needed doing such as 'mounting' (snigger) my large TV on the wall - a prospect that scared me - but I did actually end up doing it myself and... the TV is still there! But suffice to say, I've been busy, and on the occasion I've had some time to pootle around here, I just haven't been in the mood for one reason or another.

I probably should've been though, as prior to moving I sought and received my wife's authorisation to make one of the rooms in the new house into my game/movie room, a so-called 'man cave' as some like to call them. This has basically ended up similar to my room at my parent's house before I moved out - there is a single bed (for friends to sleep in, if I ever have any), my record player and collection of associated music, two DVD players (for different regions) and a medium-sized TV with which to watch my many old DVD's (nearly a thousand), three laptops (current MSI one, old red one, and my work one), and a stack of consoles including my green Xbox, GameCube, and Wii (PS3 and the currently-broken PS4 are downstairs with the big TV).

The prospect of making this room was more exciting than it probably should've been, what with me supposedly being an adult now and everything, but there was one thing I was particularly looking forward to - retrieval and restoration of my treasured Master System at the forefront of my set-up! Most of my MS gaming for the last 10+ years has been for this blog and therefore requires playing via emulation in order to get screenshots, so my actual MS console has been stored at my parent's house all this time along with my games. Retrieving it all was job number one upon moving into my new house. Happily, I found it pretty much straight away. Sadly, it appeared to have fallen foul of a little damp/mould, despite being stored in my old bedroom under the bed. Were my hopes dashed? It didn't help that I couldn't find my controller or some of my games either, so I had to make a quick stop on eBay to get a new joypad in addition to a lovely RGB-Scart lead. A quick clean later, however, and my very first console wheezed back into life for the first time in many moons, and apparently without any issues... except the image was squashed for some reason. This was highly puzzling and frustrating but it was eventually resolved leaving me sat before my wonderful, fully operational Master System along with five of my old favourite games, as well as an Everdrive I purchased shortly before moving which is purely for playing the most expensive of MS games such as Power Strike II and Golden Axe Warrior. All the other games I wanted were either still hidden somewhere at my parent's house or would henceforth be purchased from eBay or similar.

The time I've spent with my MS since I set up my room has already been wonderful though. I've spent so long over the years playing games to get screenshots (which even extends to my PS4 sessions thanks to that console's handy screenshot button), I almost forgot what it's like to just... play a game, for no reason other than to enjoy it (hopefully). And enjoy them, I definitely have been.

Given my appreciation of the 80s and the many ace things of my youth, there is of course a sizeable dollop of nostalgia involved, I'm sure. I probably spend a little too much time daydreaming about decades past and my strong desire to return to those times - but none of my old faves have aged in the least, gameplay-wise. Shinobi is probably the one I've been playing the most, at least in part due to my initially-appalling performances (by my old standards), and it has taken some time for me to even start playing at the standard I used to. I've also spent a lot of time with Wonder Boy 3 again, hoping to play the whole game through for the first time in years (not counting the Steam/PS4 remake). I've experienced two different problems with this game though. Firstly, the use of charm stones which are much more important than I ever remember them being, and it seems I have also become overly reliant on game saves and save states over the years, for I have more than once forgotten to make a note of my WBIII password while playing!

The games all look better than I've ever seen them too, thanks to the superb RGB-Scart lead I bought which, as I've discovered, is a must when using older systems on an HD TV. I had intended to buy a non-widescreen CRT TV for my room, and I still may at some point, but there isn't currently space for one. I hope to sort something out eventually though, as I'm keen to add my old Mega Drive and Nintendo 64 to the room at some stage, and having them all connected to a chunky CRT TV with it's glorious scan lines and everything would be mega skill.

I guess it's time I stopped rambling on but, as I can now confirm, and as anyone else who already had a special gameroom/mancave/etc to keep all their nerdy stuff in will probably testify as well, it is a wondrous thing to have. Not only for giving us the opportunity to indulge in things that many people (*coughwivescough*) deem to be foolish and immature, but also simply as a retreat when times are hard or perhaps when one is just feeling blue. I am still working from home as a result of the global pandemic that seems to be mostly over now, and it is from the game room that I have chosen to work. I don't actually stop working to play games or anything like that, but I swear it eases work-related stresses and positively affects my mental health just to be surrounded by all these things that I love and enjoy so much. If only it prompted me to get busy with this blog as well, huh?