Tau's 10 Minutes of Yaroze: Rocks n' Gems

Remember this?!

Well I was trying to iron out some audio problems with my new computer and this video was the result of that testing.

I think it's safe to say I haven't fixed it quite yet.
I'm also terrible at puzzle games.
ENJOY!

I Miss The Demo Disc

Maybe it's a case of thick nostalgia goggles but I fucking miss the shit out of demo discs.

Just in case younger people stumble on this page and have no idea what the fuck that thing is in the picture, let me explain.  Demo discs were these things that would come for free on the front of a magazine.  In the case of a lot of people I knew, they would buy the magazine FOR the demo disc.  We didn't really give two fucks what some prick in "Official Playstation Magazine" had to say about Metal Gear Solid or whatever, we just wanted to try the damn game.

I remember every month I'd get a copy of some kind of gaming magazine from Tesco or whatever, run home, throw the magazine aside and pop in that disc.  On these discs there would usually be a few playable demos for big games on the horizon and video trailers for other ones.

But the best demo disks were for PS1 and the Sega Saturn.  The PS1 discs were fairly standard demo-wise, but they came with this thing called Net Yaroze, which is something I have talked about previously on this blog.  There's even a playlist of a few Net Yaroze games that I've showcased.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6Wc5_JYKZyN2TxkKlGKlyrOSHtQqPSTz
I have been meaning to do more, just no time and stuff

Net Yaroze games were FULL FUCKING GAMES that came on these disks and I would spend hours and hours playing these things.  Some of them were pretty good and most of them were kind of shitty but at the time getting free games was a big deal and I'd play it anyway.

Saturn Demo Discs were also really good because I seem to remember them having an absolutely crazy amount of content on them for a demo.  I remember playing Saturn demos for hours just because they seemed to go on for so damn long.  The best demo disc I ever encountered was for the Saturn and it had only one game on it.

For those that don't know, Panzer Dragoon Saga was a 4 disc long RPG.  The Saturn Magazines idea of a demo disc for this game was providing the ENTIRE first disc (and probably the longest one) for absolutely nothing.  What made this even better is that when you did get the full game, you could just use your save from the demo and carry on, it was fucking amazing.

Now demos are all digital and I can't be fucked with them and most of the demos that I have been arsed enough to try out just suck ass.  Bring back the demo disc and maybe some half decent gaming journalism with it.

Identity Gaming Content Update

Well recently blog content has been a little bit thin on the ground.  I'm not including the large amounts of speed running I've been doing on stream when I say that because that's not something that you could ever come back to (unless I PB and upload it). 

So today, instead of raging about the industry or talking about a specific game, I'd just take a little bit of time to tell you what's going on with the blog and what might be coming up soon.

Donation Incentives

Let's start with this one since this is the stuff that people have paid for and therefore it's the most important.

You may have noticed that a couple of the incentives have been met for a while but I've not done them.  Well I just want to put your minds at rest and let you know that I've not forgotten.

For 1000 Words, I was initially waiting to get to FFX-2 and sing it live on stream, but because I took up speed running as a hobby and that takes a great deal of time, it's taking me a while to get through those Final Fantasy games.  So, hopefully some time soon I'll be heading to a Karaoke booth and performing it there instead and it'll go on YouTube shortly after.  The only problem there is that my wife and I are quite busy even at weekends so we haven't had much time to hit a karaoke booth in a good while.  Next time I go, it'll be the first song I do!

Also the Japan Poop Story and the Habanero Pepper on stream need to be done.  It's basically impossible to find peppers in this damn country, so I'm going to use the hottest death sauce I can get my hands on.  Also I'm going to kill two birds with one stone and do those goals together but a few of the donators want to see it live and it's proving rather difficulty to sync schedules but as soon as we do that'll get done.

I'm also planning to add a bunch of new incentives next month, so keep an eye out for that and keep the donations coming!

Current Content

Outlast

I'm hoping to get this game done before the 16th of this month.  I was hoping to have it done sooner but then I got wrapped up in speed running Megaman X and THEN I got a cold, so my recording schedule got messed up.  Sorry for the delay and I'm not trying to make excuses but the game is kind of shitty too....which doesn't help matters.

Gone Home

A while ago a reader donated £25 for a Gone Home playthrough and even donated the game itself, so big shoutouts to you.  This is the next game to be played after Outlast and I'll be sure to try and get through this steaming pile as fast as I can.

The Japan Gamer

I have penned a bunch of episodes for the Japan Gamer, but putting them together is taking longer than I imagined since it's not a one man job, but you can expect quite a few individual game showcases coming pretty soon (I hope)

10 Minutes of Yaroze

I started this series while I was still in Sweden and once I moved to Japan it kind of fell to the wayside.  Well I want to rectify that and get some new episodes up, so expect some real strange PS1 indie nuggets soon.

New Content and Prize Givaways

The UFO Catchers

The UFO Catchers is a series I've been planning for a while now.  Basically me and a few buddies are going to hit a game centre at least once a month and try to win shit from the UFO catcher machines.  Anything we win will be put up for grabs via a charity raffle!  So if you're into anime or video game stuff, then you might want to get that donation money ready.  More details to follow.

Future Marathons 

Due to jobs and stuff, I've had trouble finding time for marathons.  That and my webcam is busted so I can't do any facecam stuff for the stream, which kind of sucks.  But SOON, I'm getting a new computer so the monthly marathons will come back real soon.  Also I'll make a prize available every marathon for donators, so get your wallets ready.

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Well that's it then folks, that's all the updates for now.  On a side note I'm planning to rework the site a little bit to make the content easier to navigate, but I have no clue how to go about doing that so that might take a while until I can find some time to chat with people in the know.

Thanks for your understanding and support!  Keep the donations coming and I'll keep producing content for you to enjoy!

10 Minutes of Yaroze! Haunted Maze!

I've had a very busy and very drunk weekend, which is why there hasn't been much content recently, so sorry about that.

To make up for it, have a nice shiny new Net Yaroze video.

Now our usual scheduled ranting can resume

Tau's 10 Minutes of Yaroze! Cat Game!

Jesus christ......just watch.....

Tau's 10 Minutes of Yaroze! Blitter Boy!

Well, here is another episode of the old Net Yaroze stuff.  This time we have Blitter Boy Operation: Monster Hall, enjoy!

10 Minutes of Yaroze! Terra Incognita!

Back again with some more Yaroze goodness (?)

This time we have Action Adventure Zelda knockoff, Terra Incognita.  It's not great

Tau's 10 Minutes of Yaroze!

Well here we are, the new feature for this blog!  Basically how this works is that I fire up an old Net Yaroze game and play it for 10 minutes while sharing my thoughts about it and maybe any memories that I had associated with it.

After 10 minutes I'll cut the video and if you want to see more then you just have to go try it for yourself.

Today I'm bringing you my first Net Yaroze experience, Pushy11b, a puzzle game about pushing things.  Enjoy!

Net Yaroze

Above is not a picture of a PS1 like you might think.  Well, it sort of is, but not really.

What you are looking at up there is something called the Net Yaroze (as in Japanese やろぜ, as in "lets do it") which was basically a mail order development kit where fans could make their own games for the playstation.

I never had one of these, but according to wikipedia these things at the time would set you back $750 and on top of that you had to provide your own PC to actually code the games on.  Still, you bet your ass that coding hobbyists at the time got a kick out of this bit of kit.

So how did one get their games out?  Well back in the day, before you could hook a system up to the internet, demos used to come taped to the front of magazines.  The Official Playstation Magazine would have a demo disc every month, and bundled in with the demos was a couple of Net Yaroze games.  I would get excited for these demo discs because even though the games were kind of ass, these were full games and the prospect of getting video games to play at that age would make my head spin with excitement.

The games were actually sort of ass but they did have a sort of charm about them that made them fun to play.  The first Yaroze which I remember playing was something called Pushy2b

A little puzzle game where you had to push blocks on to X's to clear the level.  The sound effects were sort of annoying but it was pretty fun, and it was nice to get a free game inside a demo.

So what  I've decided is that when I get some time I'll record some footage of these games and put them up on youtube so you can get a feel of what I experienced in my younger days, so keep an eye out for that!