Madness Sets In

First let me apologize for co-opting the much loved Basketball term "March Madness". This post actually has nothing to do with basketball, but with the crazy March I had. When I started this blog, I had made a promise to myself that I would "try" to crank out a post every week, just so I could "journal" (almost) my life, my experiences and the things I was interested in that time. I failed to do so last month, but at the same time I feel I went through a profound growth, and it all starts with a gift I received for my 40th birthday...

Super Nostalgia Entertainment Systems

I was given a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) for my birthday. At first I wasn't sure what to think. Sure it's a great gift to have but without the games being readily available, and with what happens to all aging electronics, would I actually get enjoyment out of it? (Spoiler: Yes!)

What happened in the following weeks was a blur of local retro game store visits (a big deal for hermits like myself) and trolling ebay posts for my "must have" games.

...and I got them, for the most part, while there are a few I would like to have (I'm looking at you Earthbound)-- I don't have enough disposable income to drop into a complete collection so I am going to settle for "my collection"--the crown jewel of which is a copy of Chrono Trigger.

Then, the urge hit me... I didn't just have a connection to SNES games, I had a strong connection to Genesis games as well... If only I could.... find a fairly priced Sega Genesis Model 1 on ebay with a controller and 3 games.

... and then I needed to work on the Genesis collection... "My" grail games there are Shining Force 1 & 2 as well as the Road Rash series.

I proceeded down a rabbit hole, that ended with me making my first retro-repair: I put a new battery in a copy of Soul Blazer (SNES). While not the biggest repair it's actually "more than most people will do" (as my buddy ChatGPT told me... I need friends)

Then, I thought, is it really that hard to repair retro consoles? I mean, I see people do it in youtube videos all the time, certainly I could ask ChatGPT, what does it think?

I could totally buy this 2 NES console, untested, as-is... most NES's don't have big issues and this is a cheap auction and... (a to be continued story when all the parts arrive for testing said untested consoles... and I'm only slightly disgusting in myself)

This is a cautionary tale to watch who you give retro consoles too. I love it. I truly appreciate it, it was the best gift that could be given to me. The whole journey above actually became a muse for Game Development!

Game Dev

I've long been a "I'll do it in JavaScript, by myself, I'll reinvent the wheel to avoid dependencies" hard (stupid?) mode kind of guy. This is only because JS has been my "comfort language" since I was a kid -- I'm well capable of building things in C and Java (and I do professionally) but something about the abstraction of JS just always feels like home to me for some reason.

So, understand when I tell you I have been learning and starting to feel at home in Godot is a BIG step for me. Having a prototype game "ready" is crazy to me. Having it to a "I'm comfortable with this a demo in 1 month of work" is just outrageous to me. The artwork is not mine, it's something I've been using for prototyping. The license it uses makes me wonder if I can even release a demo using it and on top of that the artwork itself is "complete" in terms of what I want for the game. And it's not the right atmosphere. So I'm teaching myself pixel art, unless/until I can find a good artist to work with that may be trying to step into the business as well (i.e. doesn't mind working for free on a passion project that may not earn a penny but will gladly give them credit and a slice of any pie that is baked).

This was all a long bit to explain that I've been working on a new game. I was fairly close to releasing a demo (which is why I haven't posted much) but decided I want to redo the artwork before I do so. I want the first impression to be using artwork "for the game" and not some prototyping set I found on itch (which is great in it's own right, it's just not "right" for my game).

Life

Hitting 40, I'm getting deep self-reflective on life, the things I've accomplished, the things I want to accomplish and how to make myself "truly happy/complete". The month of March not only had all of the things going on above, but, I am also going through what I like to call a "Mid-Life Awakening" (it is not a crisis). Sorting out what I want out of life, what I want to be when I grow up (yes I still have that question at 40) and how I can actually get there... toss in a little

I'm also doing a lot of big "last minute" projects at work. I'm very capable of the tasks but the saying "when it rains, it pours" comes to mind.

All of the above, add a toddler and infant that were sick every weekend, and I think you can understand why I called this post March Madness.

How was your March? How will your April be?