Game Boy Interface Revisited

A few years ago, I discussed a piece of homebrew software called Game Boy Interface (GBI).  GBI was written and is maintained by a GameCube enthusiast who goes by the handle Extrems.  Extrems intended to replace the official Game Boy Player (GBP) Start-Up disc for the GameCube which, when combined with the attachment that is fitted underneath your GameCube, allows you to play Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges using genuine GBA hardware.  Before GBI, if you did not have the official disc, your GBP attachment was useless.  GBI quickly made the official disc essentially obsolete, but the software has been radically revised since I first profiled it.  Let's return and see what's changed and I will give my own personal take on how I like to use the software.  This will not be a fully comprehensive guide because there are features geared toward hardware I do not own and uses I do not put GBI, but if you are new to GBI you may find something here instructive.

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You say "obsessed" as if it is a bad thing.

Platic Crack?

Here is a little something I have been waiting on for a bit over six months…. A proof of concept in plastic from another manufacturer.

I am stoked! The quality looks good, the price is right and the turn around time will be good. So why did it take six months then? Because it was free, a test mold and test shots arranged by my old account manager at WGF who has struck out on his own. He asked if I could send him the original files to split and use as a non-retail sample to show other clients. I agreed and after some waiting they arrived! This is only two of the five pose options... As a free test mold we were limited to a single sprue.

No doubt Wai Kee and the old WGF makes incredible plastic, but his shop is always jammed with production, this makes it pretty much impossible for me to look at that as a viable resource for future production or Kickstarter's. I had my doubts that anyone could get close, but I am reeealllly happy with these shots, and as this opens up the door again I am eyeing another Kickstarter.

I am still pulling together all the costs and if it appears to be a real option, I am more than happy to give it a go. This time would be FAR more focused. One kit at a time, with true costs, the molds and production would need to be funded in full for that 'episode'? But if it works, another would be on the heals of the last… Ferals? then StuG? then Shadokesh vehicle or walker… then whatever sounds fun.

With this kind of Kickstarter there would be a very focused goal, drive and costs… We are not so much looking at the typical song and dance hype train. The product would make it or not on its own merits, and cover its true costs.

Soooo what do you think?

Would you like to know more?

New Points Are Here! Time To Boogy

Don't waste your time looking back, you're not going that way.

Here we go folks, we got points for days. I hope you guys all took my lead and started making your 1750 point armies with 8th Ed. points ahead of this points drop, otherwise, you are sure to be disappointed. To sum up before I go into anything else, both CWE and DE took a big points hit in some critical areas, but the one Eldar that made it out alive was Harlequins. You see, when I went through and reviewed the upcoming 9th Ed. changes a few posts ago, I specifically mentioned the one saving grace for Harlequins in 9th and that was its point changes. If points were good, Harlequins would be viable. Not top-tier, but playable for sure. Out of all three Eldar races, Harlequins definitely had the last laugh.

Now, let's dive into the previous lists that I tried to build. I'll start with my first love first, Dark Eldar, and then get into CWE, before finally touching on what I would with Harlequins.

1750, using old points:

• 2x Archons with BPs and PGL
• 2x10 Warriors with 2x Blaster, Dark Lance in Dissie Raider
• 4x5 Warriors with Blaster in Dissie Raider
• 2x Razorwings with Dissies
• 3x Ravagers with Dissies

Total firepower coming from the list I built before we saw the points was:

• 19 Dissies
• 8 Blasters
• 2 Dark Lances
• And a healthy amount of Poison shots

With the new points, here's what my 2K list looks like:

2000 Flayed Skull // 12 CP

+++BATTALION+++

HQ:

Archon, Huskblade, BPistol, PGL = 75 (was 69 in same config)

Warlord: Hatred Eternal, Djin Blade

Archon, Huskblade, BPistol = 70

TROOP:

10x Warriors, 2 Blaster, BPistol, Lance = 235 (was 199)

Raider, Dissies

5x Warriors, Blaster, BPistol = 160 (was 137)

Raider, Dissies

5x Warriors, Blaster, BPistol = 160

Raider, Dissies

5x Warriors, Blaster, BPistol = 160

Raider, Dissies

5x Warriors, Blaster, BPistol = 160

Raider, Dissies

5x Warriors, Blaster, BPistol = 160

Raider, Dissies

FLYER:

Razorwing, Dissies = 170 (was 145)

Razorwing, Dissies = 170

HEAVY:

Ravager, Dissies = 160 (was 140)

Ravager, Dissies = 160

Ravager, Dissies = 160

Total: 2000 in 9th vs. 1726 using 8th points (+274 point diff or +13.7%)

Before we get into anything else, let's look at the firepower in the new list:

• 19 Dissies
• 7 Blasters
• 8 Blast Pistols
• 1 Dark Lance
• Some number of Poison shots again

We are still sporting the same 6 Raiders, 3 Ravagers and 2 Aircraft, we're just missing some Warriors. The reason why this is so is because GW decided that universally, your basic bitch troop choice needed a points increase. This means that some armies with cheaper troop options like Cultists all took a significant increase, and so did the Eldar. This is even worse on the CWE side, but for a Mechdar list like mine that's been relatively unchanged since 3rd, we're now seeing our basic Warrior going from 6 to 9 points. While that sucks, our Blasters went down to 15 from 17, Blast Pistol went down to 5 from 10, which is huge for a weapon with so much damage potential, and Huskblade now costs the same as a Venom Blade. I'm not kidding about that last part, for some reason, GW decided that the two should cost the same which is actually insane.

Another few things to look at is the Disintegrator Cannons. They are now 25 per on vehicles while Dark Lances are 20. This is pretty much the same with other armies in the game, just a sign that GW still doesn't know how to properly separate good faction design vs. streamlining. I guess that's OK, but its going to take them a few more tries before they start getting good at it. I guess for guess for completeness, lances are the same across all the Eldar factions and twin-whatever is simply 2 of the same weapon in terms of cost as well.

Now, something that's very, very important to keep in mind are expectations. A lot of players out there are flipping out and crying the end of the world before they really have the time to process what's going on. The game: As in when you play with another human, pitting one list against another in a competitive setting, is not determined on points. It depends on player skill, their ability to play objectives, their ability to adapt to the meta, and some good generalship to help ease the RNG portions of the game. When I predicted that DE will be viable regardless of some anticipated points increases (across the board to all armies), I really meant it. As you can clearly see from the before and after lists above, the playing field is essentially 1750 points because I'm literally taking the same units. Very little has changed and the firepower spread is pretty much the same. The only big difference is slightly few Poison shots and shorter range Blast Pistols. However, you will see that this might actually be pretty decent because their a dirt cheap way to put out S8 AP-4 D6 wounds, and technically giving your crappy champ a power fist in CC.

I believe with some good play, the list above can be very good in this new edition. I predicted tanks, monsters and MEQ+ (Primaris/Custodes) and I think we should be building lists that can play against those armies. As a thought exercise, I strong encourage you to start resetting your brain from how you played 8th and focus on missions and meta. Know what players are going to be playing around you and start thinking with tanks/monsters/MEQ+ in mind. You'd be happy to know that the list above, when played correctly, is an absolute terror vs. all of my currently predicted meta choices. While not the strongest in terms of sitting on and holding objectives due to its frailty, it's very powerful when it comes to killy secondary objectives and moving around the battlefield with +3" movement from Flayed Skull. The Ignore Cover will be huge against some of the beefier MEQ+ we'll be sure to see, especially when your entire army packs the tools required to kill those targets cost-effectively.

TLDR: When building new lists, forget what you know about 8th and focus on 9th Ed. missions and meta. Like Ragnar Lothbrok said on Vikings: Don't waste your time looking back, you're not going that way.

My list barely changed, how about yours?

Next, let's take a look at CWE. Since the list I wanted to play was Mechdar anyway, let's look at what I wanted to bring vs. what I can bring now. In short, the Wave Serpent and Aircraft list that I wanted to take pretty much stayed the same.

2000 Custom CWE // 10 CP

+++PATROL+++

HQ:

Farseer Skyrunner, Spear = 140 (was 137)

Warlord: Seer of the Shifting Vector, Phoenix Gem, Doom, Executioner

TROOP:

5x Dire Avengers (Bladestorm, Twin ASC for all DA) = 235 (was 214)

Wave Serpent, Twin Stars, Stones

5x Dire Avengers = 235

Wave Serpent, Twin Stars, Stones

5x Dire Avengers = 235

Wave Serpent, Twin Stars, Stones

5x Dire Avengers = 235

Wave Serpent, Twin Stars, Stones

FLYER:

Nightwing = 160 (was 133)

Nightwing = 160

+++PATROL+++

HQ:

Warlock Skyrunner, Spear = 70 (was 67)

Protect/Jinx, Focus Will

TROOP:

5x Dire Avengers = 65 (was 58)

5x Dire Avengers = 65

FLYER:

Crimson Hunter Exarch, Stars = 200 (was 176)

Evade

Crimson Hunter Exarch, Stars = 200
Evade

Total: 2000 in 9th vs. 1794 using 8th points (+206 point diff or +10.3%)

As you can see, I'm still piloting a good amount of anti-infantry dakka, anti-tank and taking 4 CWE flyers that I think are still the best in the game. I won't go over this in too much detail, but I did want to mention that the points changes here are very much expected. In fact, call me a Farseer, but this is almost exactly what I had in my list earlier with an added Wave Serpent at a loss of 1 unit of Dire Avengers. Eventually, I decided to go with Spirit Stones on all my Wave Serpents because they're still one of the best vehicles in the game for negating damage and SS just makes that stronger. With my Doomseer, I'll be able to turn key targets into Starcannon food for the rest of the army. This particular choice is interchangeable with Aeldari Missile Launchers or Twin Bright Lances in case your meta sees the need for more anti-tank. All you have to do is drop the stones for that extra firepower. Otherwise, this will be the list I try first once the new book drops.

Before I forget, I just want to give a special shoutout for GW changing Crystal Targeting Matrix. It now does the same thing as the Drukhari vehicles; which is to turn a Heavy weapon into Assault when you Advance. This plays extra nicely with CWE vehicles that have other upgrades like Star Engines or Vectored Engines because you can either advance +2D6 or advance and be -1 to hit from shooting while still being able to fire your weapons. If you drop a Dire Avengers unit, you can buy this CTM+Star/Vectored Engines upgrade package to each Wave Serpent for +15 ppm. Something to think about.

Quick Blurb:

For awhile now, I've kept a small unit of Harlequins to play with as an add-on to my other 2 Eldar armies. The real reason is because all they really had was Bike-spam. As much as I wanted to, I kept my impulses in check and didn't want to go out there and buy a billion bikes just because they were the meta things to play. With 9th and the new points changes, well, I don't think that's going to change for the elven space clowns. They are still going to be spamming 18 bikes a game and that's pretty much the lamest thing you can play, especially on the competitive level. All you need to know is that instead of costing 276 for a unit of 6 with Zephyrglaives and Haywires, you're going to be paying 330. Meanwhile, the rest of the army is pretty much unchanged from 8th when it comes to points.

TLDR again: Yes, points did go up for CWE and DE, but on which units specifically and ask yourself if it really matters. Not every unit in the codex will be fit to fight the upcoming meta so you must adapt appropriately.

Alright, I'm done. I'm excited about playing with 9th and seeing what my Mechdar can do in the new arena. Out of the two lists presented above, I really don't know which list will do better vs. a vehicle/monster/MEQ+ heavy meta. I think the first list certainly has the firepower, but the second list has the durability and psychic shenanigans that I can use to play missions as well. Really tough choice. I guess we're just going to find out which list is better in the next few weeks!

Something To Do

They say a person needs three things in order to be happy... something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for.  I believe there's a hidden fourth need, as well.  Something to struggle against.

But that's for another time.  This blog post is about the first need - something to do.

I'm currently waiting on various stages of layout for Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise.  The book has been more or less finished for about a month.  The last few weeks were fine-tuning, revising, making small improvements, etc.

Deep inside my creative core, I've been pacing back and forth like a caged tiger... unsettled, anxious.  Today, I realized, it was time to get back to work.

My wife won't like the fact that I'm continuing to "waste time" on frivolities.  However, she'll enjoy a more positive, upbeat me.  :)

I have an idea for a small "dungeon".  It's sort of based on the 5-room dungeon concept, but I want a little more room to work with (pun intended).  At first, I thought 7 was the ticket... now, I'm leaning towards 9.  Yes, I'm certain that 9 is key!

So, if the first 5 are... Entrance, Puzzle, Setback, Boss Fight, and Reward... what about the other 4.

Here's what I'm thinking... 1 room should be empty but flavorful.  1 room should be mysterious.  Perhaps 1 should be a trap or hazard of some kind.  What about the 9th (I'm not listing these in order, by the way)?

Ah yes, there needs to be a room with social interaction.  You know, good old roleplaying!

Ok, I have my 9.  Time to get to work.

I asked if people were interested in reading blog posts about my process... turns out you were!  Start with Part One.  And now there's Part Two.  Here's Part Three.  Speeding right along with Part Four. And finally, Part Five.

Thanks,

VS

p.s. Almost forgot, I do have a few more Cha'alt books to sell.  Ordering details here!

Happy To Say I'm Completely Wrong About Sekiro! (Monday Musings 74)

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Masterpiece?

I am so happy to say that I'm 100% wrong about Sekiro. I watched my streamer friends and the gameplay looks incredible. It has the same meticulous combat as the prior Souls games, and perhaps melee mechanics as complex as Nioh. At that time, I found Nioh actually having better combat mechanics than Souls series, but suffering from graphics causing migraine, lack of level design, limited variety of enemies, and being unbalanced at the last area as described here.

Perhaps the saltiness in my assessment is not only stemming from Activision, the review embargo not lifting until the day prior to release (so if the reviews are negative, pre-orders can't be readily canceled), but I feel my bitterness is mostly rooted in not being able to afford Sekiro at this stage, after doing taxes with my accountant.

What I'm planning to do is to take charge of my finances with All Your Worth by Elizabeth Warren. I recall when I followed her program faithfully, I was able to max out my IRA contributions, having emergency savings, and having fun money to spend on whatever I want!

I will hopefully post a synopsis of what I consider the best personal finance book I've read (and I've read numerous titles), including sample worksheets that the average American will have, such as internet, utilities and food, to see if this book is doable for the average American income at 24K (perhaps 20K after taxes). 

Since I won't be playing Sekiro until much later, given my continued addiction to Assassin's Creed Odyssey, as well as working on my backlog of 100 games, I'm going to wait until the complete bundled edition comes out at reduced price. The benefits of waiting later is further described here.

I'm hoping to finish this All Your Worth post for the next Monday Musings, but for now, I'd like to conclude that Sekiro is exactly the game that I would love and find a masterpiece. 

The How of Happiness Review