BABIP, VORP, PECOTA, and FPGA
For Christmas I received a bunch of parts for a MiSTer, the FPGA emulation wonder-machine. Once it’s all set up, it will probably be my preferred way to record gameplay for games from before the PS1 era going forward.
I’ve struggled to find an ideal method for recording games for NES, SNES, Genesis, PC Engine, etc. Composite cables look pretty cruddy even going through a RetroTINK. And I’m not really into console modding to get better video output options.
I have recorded plenty of videos on emulators, but I find baseball games are prone to authenticity issues even on the supposedly perfect emulation cores out there. I get the sense that similar issues in other games tend to get patched quickly, but sports titles get passed over for these.
It’s still pretty new tech, and I’m sure there will still be issues with certain games or cores, but I look forward to playing around with the MiSTer and hopefully capturing a million videos and screenshots of retro games I own soon.
A pocket-sized Power Pro
Shipped straight from Osaka via eBay, I grabbed a cheap, sealed copy of Power Pro-kun Pocket R, a 2021 Konami game for Switch. It’s a sort of follow-up on the long-ago Power Pro-kun series for Game Boy and DS, with a different art style from Pawapuro games and a greater focus on random mini-games (and not so much actual baseball).
One funny anecdote from my 30 minutes with it so far: Every player in the game’s rosters seems to be fictional except for one, Ichiro. I guess when they got that Ichiro license last year they couldn’t help but put him in all their games.
Shamefully I haven’t actually played Power Pro-kun Pocket 2 yet, which I picked up in a Book-Off in L.A. last year. Game Boys are region-free, and I have one sitting within arm’s reach most of the day, and yet… I’ll get to it eventually.
More additions to the 30-30.club collection
I picked up a few other games at my favorite independent game store, Video Game Cavern outside of Greenville, South Carolina:
- Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball for SNES (complete in box and nice condition, which has been hard to find for SNES games)
- MLB 06: The Show for PSP
- Legends of the Diamond for NES
The 2022 Video Game All-Stars Lineup
1 – Stray Cat, DH (Stray)
2 – Melina, 2B (Elden Ring)
3 – Kirby, RF (Kirby and the Forgotten Land)
4 – Big Man, C (Splatoon 3)
5 – Eunie, 1B (Xenoblade Chronicles 3)
6 – The One, SS (Immortality)
7 – Aloy, 3B (Horizon Forbidden West)
8 – Mazda Atenza GR3, LF (Gran Turismo 7)
9 – Sonic, CF (Sonic Frontiers)
Starting Pitcher – Josh Wardle (Wordle)