Redkey

The morality system was a huge disappointment for me. You said most of what I wanted to say, so I'll be brief.

Right near the start of the game, an NPC outlines the Way of the Open Palm vs. the Way of the Closed Fist, more or less the same way you described them. And I was so excited to see a morality system in which both sides were morally defensible positions. But from the very first Closed Fist follower you meet (just minutes later), they may as well all be monacle-wearing moustache-twirlers who punctuate every sentence with "mwah-ha-ha!"

The worst example that I remember is a bootlegger who's essentially holding a town hostage. Far from following either philosophy as described, he's just plain evil, and in fact I easily came up with (IMO solid) arguments for actually swapping the game's morality labels on the player's options. But no, one option is clearly "evil", so that's Closed Palm, while the other is obviously "good", hence Open Palm.

I bought it when it came out and played it a little. My Japanese wasn't great then (it's not all that much better now TBH) but I think I understood enough of it to give it a try.

The game itself is split between a dungeon crawler and a management sim. You go dungeon crawling to capture staff to work on games, and the combat system includes timed multiple-choice options, some of which are related to Sega and Japanese gaming trivia. Then once you leave the dungeon, you create game projects from menus, and assign your captured staff to work on them. Your ultimate goal is to claw back Sega's market share from the Dogma Corporation (standard sentai villains and thinly-veiled Sony stand-ins).

There are tons of Sega and Japanese gaming culture references of course, but a lot of these are either just "Hey, remember this?" (and as a non-Japanese gamer, you might not), or in-jokes that can't really be translated. For example, if you're familiar with the "All your base" meme, imagine trying to translate that into Japanese; it's just not going to work because its enjoyment largely hinges on having "lived through it", and the idea itself resists translation anyway.

I didn't get very far due to a combination of language barrier, lack of trivia knowledge, and the unfortunate fact that after the intro section I just didn't find it all that amusing. I live in Japan now and as far as I can tell, these days people still occasionally talk about it fondly but it's not really considered to be a cult classic here.

According to the author, the giveaway is in support of World Suicide Prevention Day. Also, at least for me, it looks like it actually runs until the 12th, even though the author just said the 10th.

You're quite right! I didn't notice that.

Many special editions of the Dreamcast were released over the years, in a variety of different colours. However, every special edition Dreamcast that I've seen has had some other visual change besides just the colour.

Looking at the pictures, I suspect that your console has just been put into a replacement aftermarket shell. However, if the bottom half of the console is solid grey, and there's a pale yellow limited edition number sticker on the back, then you have a quite rare Code: Veronica (Claire version) console. I'm guessing that if the sticker was there, though, you wouldn't be here asking about it, as it's a real giveaway.

That being said, it still looks cool, but I don't think it's going to command an especially high price or anything. The controllers were always available in a wide range of colours, although it's funny that the beige controller on the right has the blue European swirl. I guess someone got a deal.

There are a couple of different USB devices (usually sold as just cables) that communicate with an app on the Android device. I tried a few that worked well at first, but for some reason became flakier and flakier until they wouldn't even start after a year or so. I'm pretty sure that the devices are still fine, but the app updates killed the functionality by degrees, to lock out clones and force customers to buy a new device periodically.

However, there is one decent company with a reliable software and device chain: DisplayLink. They have a free app, and sell their chips to various equipment manufacturers, as well as making some of their own.

I will warn you that you need to be careful about buying equipment that carries the DisplayLink compatibility logo, because there are some devices that use their chips but don't support the software. You also need to make sure that the device will work with your phone, i.e. USB 2.0 or USB 3.x. Not all USB-C ports are automatically USB 3.x.

I got a secondhand HP device intended to be used with laptops for a second display output, but it works great with my phone. HDMI output with sound and negligible lag. I can even use it with a hub and have a wired controller at the same time. Now if only my phone supported simultaneous charge and OTG hosting. Ah well.

I got an RP2 (not plus) when it came out, and while it was a very nice little device for the price, I ended up switching back to using my phone, once I found a way to output HDMI over cable from my phone (it doesn't do it natively, but there's a way) so I could seamlessly transition to a big TV when I'm at home. The performance on the RP2 just wasn't good enough when compared to my phone and a Bluetooth controller.

I kept my eye on the scene for a little while, hoping for something that could do DC, GCN, and PS2 at full speed, since my phone can't quite do that. But despite claims of various handhelds having this capability, none of them really did; in real tests they would just limp along with a few games at around 50% speed or worse. So I got kind of burned out by the hype and stopped paying attention.

I've just had a look and it seems like the RP4 kinda sorta actually DOES handle PS2 to a large degree. So as long as it's got a wired HDMI out, it's not too big physically, and the price is reasonable, I might be back in the market for something soon.

I wonder when he last sat down and really played a game for an afternoon. Now that everything is plugged in and ready to go at the push of a few (spreadsheet-tracked) buttons, he has finally overcome all the difficulty of switching consoles and can now play through all the games he's been wanting to play. Right? Right?

In my experience, your request is unrealistic. Bluetooth shouldn't be too much of a problem, either built-in or with a dongle, but a stick that can emulate much of anything from the PS2 library is going to be ridiculously expensive compared to other options. I'm not aware of any Fire Stick, however new, that could do it. The majority of sticks are good for up to 16-bit, and quite a few that are at the upper end of the sane price range will stretch to PS1, some N64 and Saturn, and maybe even some Dreamcast and PSP.

If you have to have PS2, I'd really recommend going for a micro-pc or high-end Android box if it absolutely has to be as small as possible.

Worse than companies that release doodads virtually identical to things that have been cranked out of Shenzen factories for years as "new and unique" products, are news sites that go along with them.

I've tried a couple of things like this over the years and none of them has been very useable. They're just too small to really hold comfortably, but also, what do you do with your phone while you're holding this with two hands? Putting it on a stand on a table is possible in a cafe or library, but not on the train or standing in line.

Most phone controllers seem to fall into one of two categories; either too small to really use (and with no way to attach them to a phone) like this, or huge, ergonomic things with clips or stretching middles that are too big and bulky to carry everywhere for unexpected gaming time. I have found two small-ish, square-ish controllers with clips and the full, standard range of buttons that work for me (not so small they cramp my hands, not so big and oddly-shaped that I can't throw them in my bag and forget about them), but I think they're both out of production now.

It's a bit odd, but I don't have more than a passing familiarity with the N64's library and I still got it on the first guess. If you know the N64 library inside-out and you can't place it, it's the Japanese cartridge for a famous worldwide release.

Swap the positions of Minish Cap and Link to the Past, then play them from the bottom up.

I'm not sure if that's the actual release order, but it feels like the right "progression" to me.