Video Game Journal 4 (July '26)
It's been an odd few months for me, and my gaming habits have been somewhat awry. Not to say I haven't been playing, quite a bit in fact, but with shifts in the larger direction of my life, I've shifted how I play, too.
The biggest change for me has been impulse buying a Miyoo Mini Plus for around £30 - a marvelous decision all around. I've toyed with trying to establish a solid emulation handheld for myself, at various points using a PSP, Vita, and Anbernic handheld for the purpose. None ever quite fit the bill as the MM+ has done this past month or so, with a sleek form and the delightful custom OnionOS, it's been a stalwart companion for me. Alongside the MM+, I've taken more interest in RetroAchievements, something I signed up for years ago and never really engaged with. In combination, it's been broadening my play quite a bit.
RA has been phenomenal for approaching older games with no definitive goal, offering something to shoot for in games like Asteroids or Barnstorming. I've often struggled to spend much time with these kind of score-based games, I'm poor at setting goals for myself, and RA is replete with fun and interesting ways to get the most out of games that, naturally, aren't as complex as our modern offerings. Frankly, the site feels as though it's the gaming activity tracker I've looked for all these years. I'm hardly going to 'beat' every game I take a punt on, and having some method of still denoting my time with it is a blessing.
Particular highlights for me has been returning to systems like the Atari 2600, or more niche devices like the Pokemon Mini, and exploring the slices of joy they have to offer. A rerun of various Donkey Kong ports has been a fun jaunt1 as has been revisiting a few Mario Karts and Tetris ports. I even replayed the Super Mario Land duo for some chill jumping time. A new discovery has been the addictiveness of nonograms via Mario's Picross - something about the intersection of logic and visual puzzles tickles my brain in the right places.
It's also been an excuse to go to Hell again, as I've been picking at a couple of Doom console ports. For what they are, they're impressive; as Doom one can surely do better. The 32X version is incredibly impressive by the mere fact of existing, and it's not too shabby to play once you've got the hang, but do beware of pixelated horror and the atrocious music noise - I played with music set to silent. The PlayStation port is holding up well so far, and I'm enjoying the vibe change brought on by more a more ambient soundtrack and much darker lighting that does, unfortunately, sometimes make it impossible to see a damn thing. It's a meaty package covering Doom and Doom II, with some original levels thrown in too (neat!), and I look forward to ripping and tearing through it.
All of this has marked a bit of a shift for me back to emulation as my main playing sphere, and honestly the convenience of it outdoes any criticism one can make of it. Does FPGA provide better accuracy? Is the original hardware more 'true' to the spirit of how the game was developed and released? Do decompilations and subsequent recompilations offer a more seamless integration with modern hardware on a game to game basis? We can argue about the answer to these kinds of things2, but each pale in the face of emulation's efficiency and ease. The fact of RetroAchievements allowing me to track my progression across multiple systems seals the deal for me. Playing something not via emulation is more of a case by case for me now. I still fully intend to mess about with things like Ship of Harkinian and light gun games on the PS1, but I think they're exceptions now.
Alongside the MM+, I've rebuilt the emulation section of my Steam Deck library to fall under the RetroDeck frontend, and it has created a marvelously cohesive experience. Chuck your ROMs in the right place, scrape the lot, and a self-curated library is at your disposal free from modern advert-intensive interfaces. Feels a fair bit liberating. Plugging a GameCube controller in and it working out of the box was a fairly delightful encouragement (or excuse) to play some classics like Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Pokemon Colosseum again. Sharing that RA tracking across a device I use at home and one I use outside is just even more of a boon, honestly.
I'll be continuing this way for a bit I think, jumping about and ultimately focusing on the games that grab me the most. I started a playthrough of Final Fantasy II that I got a decent few hours into, and haven't returned to it in several weeks as my interest waned and went elsewhere. I keep thinking I must go back to it, yet I don't. I think that's okay. There's games I've picked up for a few minutes, gone, nah thanks, and those few achievements I popped will linger like ghosts luring me back into something I passed on. Find your passion instead.3
My rough thoughts on each version I've played - arcade original is phenomenal, but challenging and repetitious - 2600 is barely anything - 7800 is a surprisingly competent port - ColecoVision is similarly competent, edging out the 7800 version - the Intellivision version is a crime - the NES version is the best for my money, alongside the NES Classic port to GBA - the Amstrad CPC port is clunky and slow, but passable. Whatever else, the essence of Donkey Kong is magnificent.↩
And in each case the answer is, arguably, yes.↩
I really do need to go back to Final Fantasy II though.↩