yarr

I was watching some YouTube, trying to find some forgotten gems from retro systems. I ran into one about the Jaguar and decided to watch it.

Well, the fellow said a lot of the games were great, and I was kind of curious about that because I don't think it's controversial to say there's only a handful of decent games on the Jag, but this fellow was rating everything highly.

Later on I sat down to think about it and I realized something... after every game the fellow would say "Oh, and you can get it for about $XX.XX."

At that point the light-bulb went off and I realized this fellow is probably deriving enjoyment from collecting the Jaguar games, not playing them. To him, if he buys a game, plays it for a few minutes to make sure it works, it's probably a winner for him.

For me, who is getting Jaguar games from uhhhh a friend, I don't care about collecting them, I just want some fun stuff to play.

Anyway, I learned my lesson: I'll believe non-collectors' opinions more than collectors because they are mostly concerned with gameplay instead of how it looks on the shelf, or how rare and difficult it was to acquire.

P.S. I don't know how "hot" of a take this is, but I figure it'll probably hurt the feelings of collectors, so that's why I prefixed it.

YOU CAN PROVE TO YOURSELF ITS NOT A GLOBE

I've been revisiting some classic games lately, and while I love the Sega Genesis library, I can't help but find its sound chip a bit grating. There's something about the harsh, metallic tones and often scratchy quality that makes it hard to enjoy games at full volume. I know it has its fans, but compared to systems like the SNES or even some older consoles, it just seems unnecessarily rough.

Am I alone in this? Does anyone else struggle with the Genesis' audio, or is this part of its charm for you?

I’ve been wondering about something that probably resonates with many of us who still use our phones for calls and not just texting or apps. What percentage of phone calls are actually legitimate?

Even with my carrier's "junk call" blocking, I find myself receiving 4 to 5 calls daily with no caller ID. It’s become second nature now to reject these unknown callers. But if I do answer, it often turns into a choice between being pitched a Medicare scam, a car insurance scam, a social security scam, or even a utility scam.

It makes me curious -- how much of our call traffic is just a relentless barrage of marketing ploys and fraudulent schemes? The few times I still get a phone call, they either have caller ID and it's someone I know, or it's just a phone number and there's a 99% chance it's junk.

don't give in!

Today, let's take a nostalgic trip down memory lane with a little "What if...?" scenario. Remember the Sega 32X? It was this ambitious add-on for the Sega Genesis that aimed to catapult the beloved console into next-gen territory. While it didn't quite hit its mark, it left us wondering: what other classic consoles could have benefited from a similar leap forward?

Let's imagine—what if the N64 had gotten an "N128" upgrade? Could it have kept up with the PS1 and Saturn in that fierce console war era? Or maybe there’s another platform itching for a second wind, like the SNES or even the beloved Game Boy!

What other consoles do you think should've received their own "next-gen" add-ons?

In nearly every Mega Man game, Dr. Wily is captured at the end—usually after unleashing an army of killer robots and nearly destroying the world. And yet, by the next game, he’s back at it like nothing happened.

So what's the in-universe deal? Is the 20XX justice system just that incompetent or corrupt? Is there some official lore reason he's constantly released or escapes? Or are we just supposed to suspend disbelief for the sake of Saturday-morning logic?

Curious what theories or canon explanations people have!

Why are sites forcing us to deal with features we explicitly don’t want? Take YouTube Shorts for instance. I’ve made it clear I hate these things, but they keep popping up on my homepage every other week. Every time, I have to click the “Temporarily Hide” button like a damn whiner.

I can just picture the internal YouTube meetings:

Manager: “We’re not getting enough engagement on Shorts.”

Developer: “Maybe our audience doesn’t like them?”

Manager: “I’ve got an idea! Let’s force Shorts onto everyone’s homepage for a week or two each time!”

Then, later, they celebrate like they’ve invented the internet.

Is this really how it’s supposed to work? Why else are companies shoving features down our throats we clearly don’t want? Is there no better way than to just keep throwing stuff at us and hoping we’ll stick around long enough to click “Hide This Annoying Feature” again?

🤔 What’s the deal with this endless pushing of features we hate? Are they just ignoring user feedback entirely, or is there some secret strategy I’m not seeing?

With all the talk of tariffs, I've seen more or less this argument:

"Once the tariffs go in place, companies will start manufacturing in the USA and that's good thing."

However, when I think about being able to manufacture something like a laptop computer, or a car, these are both operations that require a lot of things:

1. the input components to build the thing
2. skilled labor that can manufacture the thing
3. supply-chains that are in place from initial build all the way to retail

The premise seems to be: "OK, tariffs go in, someone INSTANTLY sets up a company that manufactures X, then USA wins".

However, for someone to want to take the "bet" on setting up a really expensive factory, they'd have to believe that the tariff will be in place a long time, because if it is NOT... then they have made a terrible investment and the new factory will be instantly non-viable.

Am I crazy? Am I missing something? I understand that it would be great if we had domestic manufacturing but it seems like the people that are behind tariffs think you just snap your fingers and there is a factory cranking out laptops, when in my understanding this is a process that requires a huge amount of money and time.

My thinking is that the amount of people / companies in the USA that have enough capital to start up a manufacturing company like this want to make sure it's a relatively safe bet before pulling the trigger, and if past tariff behavior from Mr. Trump is any indication, we can't count on these tariffs being present for a long time.