NEC PC Engine LT - An interesting and very rare console way ahead of its time.

 

It's expensive and rare so I don't own one.

The NEC PC Engine LT was released in 1991, and it was an expensive Japanese only release then, so did not do well. For less money you could get the Turbo Express which had a way to connect to an external monitor and used batteries, where the LT needs an AC adapter to fully work. The trade off? Better quality backlit screen and compatibility with all your old gadgets and gizmos that hook up to the PC engine already. This console fits the same cradle as the Core Grafx, so could slot the Super CD Rom adapter, audio enhancer, different card readers for the three different kinds of CD roms you need, and the myriad of other add-ons that you don't really need, but want.

Interface unit! Super CDRom2! It's like a transformer. 

     Long before the release of the Gameboy Advance SP, you could play 16 bit (well, not quite) games on a backlit screen, play modern titles available on the SNES, and look much cooler doing it. 

People need to stop being so hard on the Sega Tower of Power.

     Sega did not have an original idea with adding more consoles and adds on to current systems, it was being done for a while. While NEC and Sega were building higher and more elaborate, Nintendo was adding full blown RISC processors, math co-processors, ram, DMA, flash memory, and custom sound chips to it's game carts and wrapping it up in the price of the game, as opposed to making cheap add ons as a requirement to play games. No surprise, if the game is more accessible, more people will purchase it, and so Nintendo won this war in a big way. Not to be outdone, it got way worse than just the tower of power; they even made a Laserdisc console system, PC computer combo units.. the list goes on and on and on. Even if you had your NEC Turbo DUO-R SuperGrafx with an Arcade Card, you would not be able to play any of the Fatal Fury games, or any of the rare titles, because they require the Arcade Card PRO. Don't forget a special controller that does not come with the console as well. You see where I'm going here. 

     I could go on forever about this, and I just might in another post. For now, enjoy more pictures of this unique handheld that inspired a whole marketing angle years later. 

Aeon Flux - Full Series & Notes

 

Ahead of it's time. Click the Tape to watch now!

     Aeon Flux, part of MTV's late night experiment, starting airing after midnight on the Liquid Television's late night block. If you were lucky enough to have MTV (A paid channel then!) and stayed up, then you were one of the few that got to be amazed. Totally rated R, full violence and gore, and the main character died in some strange way each episode, and seems to be aware that she is prone to dying over and over as evidence in the end of the second short.. Other than music and sound effects, there is no real voice acting going on. This is the first example of dystopian spy fiction that I can think of. Lots of feet licking (tons of licking in general across the series) fet-life worthy porn store vibes in the first episode that aired, which is worth noting I suppose. 

Concept Artwork was rad. 

     Peter Chung worked on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, and was fully involved in the creation and design of C.O.P.S., where you can really seen the design similarities. Rugrats was his design, and has that same gritty art style, but lacks the overall attention to detail and quality of Flux, showing how much he really wanted this to succeed as a passion project. I still have my original DVD compilation I paid over $100 at suncoast motion picture company all those years ago!

Bastard!!! - Full OVA Series!

 

Bastard!!! OVA Full Original Series

     I've been watching the new Bastard!!! on Netflix, and it's been a hot minute since I've seen the original 6 episode OVA series from the early 90's. I think that last time I saw it was on VHS with my sister, and we rented it from Blockbuster. Surprising visuals and tons of nudity and gore, you could say it made me a fan. I've since read the Manga online, which I really enjoyed. The Netflix show is missing some of the charm of the original series, some of the nudity, and a little of dark feeling. I still liked it, and hope they release season 3 in the future. 

                           Cross-posted on r/animefulleseries with other free anime online.

Either way, enjoy this classic in all it's Heavy Metal Dark Fantasy glory!

80's & 90's Arcade Movie Scenes - Part 2

 

From Robocop 2 [1990] Featuring Peter Weller

My 90's picture made it to the top of Reddit.

The 90's all wrapped up in one image.

My dad was going through some photos at home and stumbled upon a stack of my sister and I, one time when she was visiting Florida. Lot's of pictures from Busch Gardens, Disney World, and random vacation spots around the area. I sent this one to my sister who responded.. "Well that's the 90's in one picture." Click here to view the reddit post in question. This picture really stood out:

     Soooooo naturally I posted it on Reddit for imaginary points that no one cares about. It swiftly made it to the top of Reddit, and the r/90's group, and I've already seen my own picture once in a Tiktok video slideshow of the 90's. Crazy how that works, and how fast it happens. In 24 hours the post had 204k views and 1.9k upvotes. 

Top comments from the post that stood out to me:

• Wicker backed chairs for the win
• Lol caption on the TV
• Quart of Icehouse
• Rocking the JNCO jeans
• I can hear the computer start up in this picture

     This is one of the few pictures I have of my original battle station in High School. As I have talked about many times, I had a Macintosh Performa 636cd, DOS card, and video capture card. This was as close as you could get to having a Quadra 840av for a third of the price. Connetix Color Quickcam, aftermarket Keyboard and mouse, and a Laserwriter printer under the desk. This was cutting edge in the mid-90's! On the screen is AOL 3.0 with OJ's Tool's installed. Using this setup, I was able to create my Legend Website, Hack the Planet, Rip music and video from VHS tapes, and play/tape/document the emulation gaming scene at the time. 

Hack the Planet