darksnowman

I was just being cheeky about that as @Sméagol previously customised the range of mush lamps he made me. Keep up.

That'd be great. Let me know if you come across one!

Can he elevate PSG from 2nd to 1st in Ligue 1? Will Ramos crunch him day one in training? See, I can do numbers too. No Stoke so no challenge.

@Sméagol Two DIY requests if you'd be so kind to check: wooden waste bin and coconut juice. If you don't have spare DIYs for these but have already learned them, could you make me one of each (and customise the bin ) and I'll supply the ingredients?

Sports Story for Smash!

Meant more what line of (I.T.) work are you in, wasn't being nosey. A tin of compressed air on your utility belt might be useful for cleaning out grotty keyboards...!

This is a conflict because I play Nintendo... ...but I like subs. And crunchie.

I don't know what it is you do, but a roll of cat-5 and some ethernet crimpers must be handy.

I'm going to have to cross-reference what I have with what is on there then. Sounds like the Wii U has put off my retirement.

WHAT! I have a sealed copy! Tell me that's the going price for a grimy cart only!

Found Celeste and got a tree-branch wand recipe. If anyone wants to see her I can open so let me know!

Well, that's a bummer. Come on, Lord @Ike, what's your next protip? Dowsing, Goddess blocks?

If correct, this is a great shout! Let us know if it works out--might be useful for someone else to know.

Go on, then. Last time I properly played Zelda 1 was on the pre-VC, aka the NES Classic range on GBA. Having it just sitting there as part of Nintendo Switch Online as many of us do (plus the SP version), there's no excuse not to play it from time to time. With an online map of Hyrule that has level locations marked, you can wander around while still knowing where to go next if you get bored or feel lost. I had one mishap where I ran out of bombs in the final level and had to leave to go on a walkabout for rupees and a shop as no bombs were dropping from enemies. When you know there are bombable walls everywhere, you can burn through your reserves pretty quickly. Ganon's blood n' guts. They didn't think of inserting your file name. How quaint. The second quest will have to wait. Overall, I've nothing to add to what's been said about Zelda 1 over the last 35 years. If you haven't played it and you have NSO, then you should definitely check it out because it's more than just a curious relic of early Nintendo--it's a genuine classic. A Link Between Worlds is the only other Zelda game I'm up for revisiting any time soon. I've just played it the once so it should be nice to go through again, though I'm not sure I will do that in the immediate future. Funny to think I've recently replayed Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, both Oracle games, Links Awakening and Zelda 1 all in the time it took me to go through Breath of the Wild once (and far from 100%). Really hope the BotW sequel reins things in a bit... but I can't see it. Here is my sort-of ranking of the Zeldas I've played during the series' 35th anniversary: Cream of the crop: Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time Doesn't quite make the grade: Breath of the Wild At least they tried: Oracle of Seasons, Oracle of Ages

I've had it wishlisted for a while as it comes up on online recommendation lists quite a bit. Can't vouch for it beyond that as I am yet to make the purchase.

56k warning. Okay, let's start off by acknowledging the elephant in the room. They dropped the ball with Link's Awakening on Switch by not animating the flowers like in the Gameboy original. This missing detail is painfully obvious to me having just come off the Oracle games where the flowers animate the same as in the original LA. There. Now that's out of the way... I last played this on release when I just fired through the game without paying particular attention to the new collectables (I got what additional seashells and heart pieces I came across), doing any of Dampés challenges or even doing the Color Dungeon which I'd never played before. I didn't even ride the rapids in this spruced-up version. So there was still unfinished business here for me. I tarried for several long seconds on the file select screen--there are two files from before because I didn't know what to do with the complete game save, so I dumped it in slot 2--reflecting on my previous playthroughs of Link's Awakening on Gameboy, 3DS VC and this version. I've thought about Link's Awakening a lot over the past decades. In the beginning, it was a huge achievement (puzzled out over weeks and months with a primary school classmate) to get through the opening sequence up to obtaining the key for Tail Cave. And doing level one: you couldn't jump on the SNES! This is amazing! Then later, I put the game down indefinitely after eventually reaching and being deeply affected by the twist, as one of the conclusions my young self drew from it was that the game was now rendered pointless and not worth playing. Time passed until one summer when Sampras was racking up another Wimbledon, I went through LA again with a cousin who'd got into it. Going deeper into the game, I thought it was incredible how the later levels made the rest look like child's play. And the way the story played out, with the owl leading me relentlessly on and bosses futilely pleading with me not to wake the windfish, with characters knowing the awakening was looming, with the awakening itself being visually simple yet conveying everything it needed to in meaningful detail. It was all incredible. I was Link, the hero, the good guy. Set sail on the high seas for more adventure after Zelda 3 and washed up on Koholint Island where I was triumphant once more. But rather than the resounding victory of evil being vanquished and the land being saved, it was tinged by sadness this time. There was sorrow in success. I learned what it was for something to be bittersweet. Then I replayed it and replayed it, normally in summer, wondering what it could all be about and what could be done for Marin, Tarin, and all of them... until Ocarina of Time came along and I found Malon and Talon running Lon Lon Ranch. Now, every time they appear somewhere, I like to think it is Marin experiencing life off the island as she dreamed of doing. So yeah, all that and more (posting here on the old Zelda board) flashed before my eyes when I was hovering over the empty slot on the file select screen. Being no newcomer to Koholint, I decided that I should be enough of an "expert" at Link's Awakening by now to have a bash at hero mode. So I did. Hero mode turned a game I know and could bumble through on cruise control, into a game I have had to consider from a new angle--caution. I collected an extra heart container before doing Tail Cave, but I still had to exit halfway through to go up to the shop in Mabe to buy hearts as there are no heart drops or fairies in levels anywhere in hero mode. I reprimanded myself throughout every time I took damage in a level because it meant I was that bit closer to needing to step out. After level 2, I was able to break the back of it a bit by gaining access to Crazy Tracy and made sure to always have her medicine on me from there on out. It was something I never really bothered with before, but this time I paid special attention to routes to fairy fountains as well as keeping that precious tub of medicine in my inventory at all times. One bad room is all it takes to put you at death's door. I've seen Koholint and its levels in a different way and it's made for a new experience. On top of that, I had a go at the additional things in this version. Dampés dungeon design challenges are nice, but overall not especially interesting. I did enough of them (using the easiest rooms just to get through them) to max out my heart containers then called it quits. Not sure what you get for doing all the challenges but having full hearts and a full inventory is enough for me. Top swag, Dampé. I got the models from the Trendy Game and put them out around Mabe. Not adorning Old Man Ulrira's house with the Shy Guy is a missed opportunity and a total no-brainer! I got 47 seashells which was more than enough to upgrade the sword. As with Dampés challenges, I don't know what worthwhile reward you could get for collecting all the seashells as I have full hearts and full inventory already. An upgrade to something? And I did the Color Dungeon which really helped with hero mode. By the time you get Crazy Tracey's medicine, have fairies in bottles (which don't auto-revive you, pay heed...!) and have the blue mail, you can approach hero mode with some confidence. I'm sure this was novel on the GBC. I've one heart. Don't send me away without healing me. I like pretty much everything about the Switch LA remake though they could have thrown in d-pad controls. I like that you can see beyond "the edge of the screen". Like, from the beach you can see up to Mabe Village, from the east side of Mabe Village you can see out onto the prairie, you can see into and out of the Mysterious Forest to the north, etc. It makes Koholint seem like one consistent place rather than just a bunch of square screens stitched together. Speaking of the Mysterious Forest, it's a pity that the music is softer there as on the Gameboy it has a twang to it that makes the forest feel weird and overbearing. I was there a lot in the early going this time to make use of the fairy fountain so I heard the music plenty. Here are some snapshots. I could have taken more. In fact, I could have posted about Link's Awakening every step of the way as the uneasiness seeps through. Mostly it's Marin, though I would ask you not to skim past the pics too fast, but take a moment to look at one or two and consider where Link has been, where he's going next, and at what part of his journey to awakening he's on. I've been known to be a THIEF in past save files, Tarin. Papahl will be lost in the mountains later and you'll be abandoned here by monsters, Marin. I'll see you then. Static flowers but still, what a scene. Made a Horlicks of things in the Trendy Game with its purple and green Wimbledon colour scheme. That heart piece was pretty slippery. If you tilt your head just so and squint... Big chance to mess around a bit! Don't need a raft to get off this island! Let's tunnel! Win me something good. ...that's not the cuddly toy. I have to come back here, you know! It isn't what you think! Well, this is it then. Now THIS guy is obsessed. I always thought it was cool that characters crop up in different places around the island and that in this case, you are directly responsible for it. Are the above two places the biggest double gut-punch in gaming? By the power of seashells! But didn't it used to be the seashell sword, L-2? Where you were unable to wake the windfish I will prevail. Now let's get you down from there. I will soon put the island and everyone here behind me. Be ready when the time comes. The Mario stuff never struck me as strange when I first played since there's a giant pink Yoshi egg on top of the hill. And with Bowser being in Sim City on SNES it didn't seem out of the ordinary for Mr Write (with his music) to appear on the strange and wonderful island of Koholint. Zero death file done. As I said, it was tough for the opening levels but balanced out after that. I'm baffled by how people can completely miss the staircase to the Animal Village because even during this run, I was cutting every bush and even fell into the pothole that's underneath the bush outside Richard's Villa a lot. And that's when I couldn't afford the hearts and knew the pothole was there. If you don't know what's under a bush why aren't you cutting it to check? Zelda 101. Link's Awakening is up there with the gaming GOATs and would be one of my desert island games.

LOL. Was just about to ask you's when is convenient. I will open in five if that works? I see you are on the game so it might be a good time for you.

So... think you'll come to an agreement today about who's getting what?

Jolly Redd here with: - rock-head statue (fake) - academic painting (fake) - mysterious painting - wistful painting (real...?) Perhaps someone is interested in the Olmec head? Let me know.

Got that one--thanks for the heads up all the same. I just have Gulliver to deal with later. @Sméagol thanks for the post! 🎵

You old grump. Tugs flopped and Thomas the Tank is still going (?) so...?

Not really feeling the magic: xy/xx with these nominations.

In Europe, this sky-high grand prix will be: From 06/08 (Fri) 9:00 CEST Until 10/08 (Tues) 8:59 CEST

The book will be out on May 24th 2022 and can be pre-ordered at amazon.co.uk. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Disrupting-Game-Bronx-Top-Nintendo/dp/1400226678

Thanks a lot for opening and thanks for boxing her in until I got up there. Got the Leo DIY and checked your shop before leaving.