Alexlotl

I got started with Glenmorangie 10, which is a comparatively gentle and sweet whisky. It won't taste like that when you start, though! I still think it's a decent starter's choice, and it's easy to find. I can't imagine starting with an Islay or something similarly peaty. Rather than ice, I'd recommend taking it neat (or with a tiny drop of water) and giving it time - pour it early evening and nurse it over the next hour or so, taking tiny sips. Enjoy the nose, too - a Glencairn glass helps here (they're cheap, and often bundled with bottles in promo boxes). Once you've got the hang on that, recruit a mate and do a tasting session at your friendly local whisky shop. This will give you a much better idea of what you're interested in trying next. This sounds odd, but it's my booze of choice for drinking alone - you can sip from a dram over quite a long period (the peaty numbers in particular demand slowness, IMO), enjoying the flavours and the smell, and it keeps well so you can progress through a bottle slowly over the months.

I hated Fusion. We went from wordless, isolated freeform exploration of a hostile alien world to being ordered around a boring space station by a wordy, bossy computer who helpfully locks all the doors for any route other than the one you should be taking. Plus the aesthetic wasn't great - hated new lumpy Samus, and the enemies reminded me of VGA Apogee games like Blake Stone or Halloween Harry. Plus there was the Emo Telebug enemy. Good thing Nintendo learnt from their mistakes and didn't make a poorly received Wii title with even more dialogue and arbitrary barriers to progress from a bossy computer/man. Oh, wait. I still completed it twice, because Metroid.

More FFIV - having fun collecting more summons for Rydia. After taking down Asura, I went back for Leviathan, who was fairly trivial. Then nipped back to the overworld to swap the rat tail for Adamant ore, and by sheer fluke got the Goblin summon random-drop from the island next to Mythril. A quick trip to the underworld to get Excalibur forged, then off to Baron to find the ghost of the King and get Odin. "Well, this is easy", I thought doing decent damage with conventional attacks and Bio spams, then he killed my entire team in one hit. Turns out I should have paid attention to the books in the Feymarch library - one talks about Odin being felled by lightning. Give it another go - Edge's Blitz attacks do ~5000 damage, Rydia's Ramuh summon ~8000. Odin lasts about 90 seconds, with no time to use his insta-kill. 3 new summons in about 20 minutes play! I think I'm all set to go to the moon now - slightly worried I'll be stupidly over-levelled after all that four-man side-questing. There are a few more random-drop summons to get (Cockatrice, Mindflayer, Bomb), but the odds are just stupid, so I think I'll give them a miss. Life is too short to grind 28 year old RPGs.

Did you get stung for customs, or do 8bitdo use a friendly courier? FedEx are bastards.

Ah, I was getting things mixed up - looks like the IGR is a SuperNT thing, not an SD2SNES thing. Sorry. It is neat, though. Up and select - do it briefly for a soft reset (stays in whatever game you loaded on SD2SNES), keep it held for longer for a hard reset, which takes you back to the SD2SNES menu.

Where do you get the 8bitdo DIY kits from in the UK? I have a SNES pad awaiting conversion.

Still gently proceeding through FFIV, mopping up side-quests in the underworld before going to the moon. Think I probably screwed up by beating the Sealed Cave before doing the Sylph Cave or Feymarch, as it means I’ve had to do them without Kain. The Sylph cave in particular was a right bastard, the closest thing to a proper maze in the game so far and full of tough enemies. I’ve levelled up a lot, both literally and tactically. A good discovery was that if Edge is using one ranged weapon (a boomerang), then he can hit from the back row without detriment, even if his other weapon isn’t ranged. This has made him significantly less fragile. I’ve also worked out that a short casting time is basically the most important part of offensive magic, so Rydia pretty much exclusively uses Bio (instant!) and her Mist summon. Anyway, cleared the Sylph Cave, woke Yang up and got the Sylph summon. Got to Feymarch last night (much easier) and beat Asura - I’ll take on Leviathan next.

Ah, I do have Yoshi's Island. A good, and in retrospect obvious, idea. I'm not really a fan of the DKC games, as discussed earlier in the thread.

Finished Super Mario World last night, which has been my SNES game of choice for the last few months on nights when I don't have the time or energy for Final Fantasy IV. Completed all the conventional levels (88) and beat Bowser - I'll go back to tackle the final 8 Special Stages. First time I've played it through in about 10 years, I think. Struck me that the quality of the levels really tailed off after the Forest of Illusion, with Chocolate Island in particular feeling a bit phoned in - you can just belt through a lot of the levels without feeling like you're missing much. Still good fun though, and the castles in particular remained challenging. Wish I could play the Ghost Houses for the first time again, though... Any suggestions for a similarly fairly light actiony game with saveable progress to fill the niche once I've conquered Gnarly and Tubular?

That Mystic Defender clothing difference based on region also applies to Spellcaster on the Master System. The Japanese releases were both licensed games from a manga called Kujaku-Ou or something. Weirdly, there were two Kujaku-Ou games released on the Famicom that look a lot like the adventure parts of Spellcaster without the side-scrolling. I think Golden Axe is another game that has a few revisions. Sega were quite good at cocking up and using the wrong versions on their multi-carts. Not quite on topic, but a couple of interesting region/version related quirks: - Outrun on Mega Drive uses the Japanese track layout, even in the West. I think it's the only localised version that doesn't change it. - New Zealand Story on the Mega Drive is based on a prototype version of the arcade game for some reason, and has all sorts of weirdness as a result.

Tossed Salah and scrambled Ings?

Transferred in Sane and Laporte for this week. 2pts between them. -2 from Digne, and Doherty sitting on the bench with 6pts. Gutted Arsenal lost their clean sheet at the last minute too, although at least Kola got an assist. On the plus side, I got points from Richarlison and Jiminez, both of whom I came close to transferring out. Pogba got one from nowhere, and captaining Aubameyang seemed to pay off, although it leaves me hoping that Salah (who I also have) has a quiet one tomorrow. 61pts + Salah. Digne though. What a twat, right before a double gameweek.

We laugh, but boxes are what command the big bucks in the retro market, while the bare carts/CDs are cheap. All about having your Ikea shelves full of games behind you when you record your YouTube videos. I guarantee at least one of these pointless boxes will end up being one of the most expensive things that future Switch collectors chase.

Oh, the outfit comments are thoroughly valid, but not the 12 year-old bit.

That was XCX wasn’t it? X2 certainly had its problems but I don’t remember leering at underage girls being one of them.