Virtua Call S Arrived!

Hi gamers!

I've gone a little Saturn mad this month, mainly because there are so many cool anime games for the SEGA Saturn you can't go without them if you're into Anime. Anyhow, as much as I love old Anime art style I've been ordering a lot of games with those style covers, and Virtua Call S just fits into that style perfectly.

I looked around eBay for this game for days, and I nearly bought a copy for $30! After checking out Yakumo's store from ASSEMbler forums I found the exact game with reg-card for $7, that's a major price difference. So I'd thought I'd try out his store and see how it is. I'm amazed at the condition for such an old game! Even the card cover was straight and not jagged edges, spine card was there, reg-card, and the manual was very neat. I recommend Yakumo's store any day for Saturn titles!! A link to his store at the end of this entry, so check it out ^_-

So for all of you wondering what Virtua Call S is all about, just like Angel Graffiti S (why so they all end with S?) it's another dating sim and only released in Japan. Whether you like it or not there are lots of dating sims for the Saturn and just for kicks I'll mention the PC-Engine too. It's a popular genre that many western gamers won't understand, but hey if you collect, you have to collect them all, so to speak.

If you don't know Japanese the game is very difficult to play, and like I said before this game has very nice art and it's what I bought it for... I have even ordered a few more dating sims as well just for this factor. Like many dating sims there are lots of FMVs to watch which the Saturn can pull off really well.

I personally enjoy the art style of these games, as much as I enjoy old anime series like VG, Sakura Wars and so on. So if you're into Anime and gaming and you *also* happen to collect retro consoles, the SEGA Saturn is surely a console you should think about getting.

Yakumo's Segagaga Domain Store

PC Troubles encounters with bitcoin mining, Study, Figures and new Anime addiction!

Hi gamers!

Recently I've been so busy with studying and fixing my PC. Which came first? Well they both did, as soon as I started studying again my PC decided to catch a bitcoin miner, yeah a bitcoin miner that was embedded into my GPU causing it to lag out. How did I notice? Well from the lag, I'd usually get 230ish FPS in Counter-Strike: Source instead I was getting 50fps, so yes it was very noticeable. So exactly how did I get this bitcoin miner? Well I believe it was through an insecure torrent connection through the uTorrent client...

What I'd do to save power would be to let the torrent download over night and use auto shutdown feature. As I had to get up for study the next morning, I then woke up and found the PC off ( I had thoughts of it not turning off for some reason ).

So I just was a little worried I formatted and reinstalled Windows, the problem was gone. At this moment I didn't know what caused it, so I downloaded another full season of "Ikkitousen" over night with auto shutdown enabled... I bet you can see where this is going...

I woke up, turned on my PC and started Counter-Strike (at the back of mind, I thought this occurred again). Fuck me dead there was the dreaded 50FPS bitcoin mining son of a bitch draining my GPU's power. As it was in the morning and I had to leave to go to study I left it at that for the day.

I got back while not looking forward to seeing the Windows setup screen formatting my HDD. Windows finally installed after many races on Ridge Racer. Installed Steam again, installed Counter-Strike "cannot sync to steam cloud" *Great I thought*. So I thought this was a bugged install of Windows and formatted again, thankfully this second format was the final one. After this format Counter-Strike could sync to cloud, my GPU was running happy like a school girl and I can now play CS at full FPS and use a lag free Windows.

I promise this is last bit of text about the PC trouble. Either this was a payload or I was being hacked is completely over my head, so I mentioned this on the wonderful world of ASSEMbler forums and wanted to ask the awesome people there what they thought caused this. Without any doubt Bad_Ad84 mentioned bitcoin mining on my GPU, I take his word for it as it describes exactly the symptoms I was getting. The trojan was hidded I couldn't find any of it's melted exes, dlls or cmd any where. Possibly it was a rootkit but who knows, for all I care the problem is gone. I'll no longer torrent through Windows, it will all be done in another OS or a separate PC.

No no, really THIS is the last one; let this be a warning for all you torrenters out there. I'm a very knowledgeable  PC user especially in Windows. I take every careful step through downloading content through torrents and this just happened to sneak through a connection. So I recommend NOT to use uTorrent right now as I believe there is a security breach in it somewhere. Oh and for fucks sake, don't download while leaving your PC unattended, especially over night.

FIGURES AND ANIME STARTS HERE

Now for some good news, finally! My Boa Hancock figure finally got shipped, even though I contacted the company about the lack of communication I got no reply, how ironic. On the topic of figures, my MAX-FACTORY Zero Suit Samus figure is secured so I will be getting one, now all I gotta do is wait till June ( i think ).

Right, so I've mentioned my PC troubles, study and figures what else? Oh yes I have a new anime addiction, I now understand why people get hooked on it. So what anime am I addicted to? Well it's "Ikkitousen" series, I won't go into detail about the series too much but basically it's a bunch of school girls fighting in championships around the world ( i think ), for what? I don't know yet.
There is quite a few series/seasons of this anime and I don't know the original order, it's based on the Manga which I plan on reading soon while on the bus or on break in class. I'm currently looking around libraries that have at least the first one, but no luck yet.
I happen to love old style Anime like Advanced VG, Sakura Wars but some more recent Anime I've like would be Rio Rainbow Gate, Shuffle, Azumanga. If you've noticed a pattern somewhere, well done I guess...

Apologies for the long, long post but really I haven't had a functioning Windows until now. A new game arrived today, with a nice story so I'll mention that in the next entry.

Happy collecting.