The lack of updates during the last months is due to the fact that I have decided to go back to college and I still find it hard to balance work and studies. The little free time I have left is spent with my family or playing games that don't take up too much time, like arcade titles, and scheduling a couple of hours in front of the computer to write something up has not been easy.

Still, I'm almost done with the next article, which will be up in 1 or 2 weeks. Future updates will remain irregularly scheduled with at least 1 or 2 articles posted every 4 months until I get used to this new rhythm, or figure out to balance my new responsibilities and old hobbies.

Thanks for reading and for all the feedback. See you soon!

Back in business. The site resumes normal programming after a month of housekeeping. As promised, I have cleaned up the code quite a bit for widescreen monitor display and revised the Greek Shoot'em-ups article, which you can now find as stand-alone Legendary Wings and Phelios articles. I also fixed all MP3 links.

But the biggest change is the new Index section, where I broke down each article into its smaller components so that individual games, hardware, and developer profiles can be more easily perused and found. Have at it, and take care of it.

Heads up. I have just realized my primitive HTML coding skills aren't very effective on widescreen monitor resolutions, so.... Yup. Time for some heavy duty maintenance. I hate it, but it needs to be done so that the pages don't fall apart when you guys try to access them with different screen resolutions, widescreen laptops, and those pesky netbooks. Since I'm at it, I'm also going to be re-designing some layouts, phasing out some backgrounds that don't display properly anymore, revise one or two of the older articles, and cleaning up the code as much as I can. So please excuse the mess. Be careful where you tread, and don't go opening any locked doors. There's going to be a lot of garbage and debris laying around for the next month or so, so don't think your browser is messing with you. Thanks for your patience!

Apologies for the week delay. I'm having trouble concentrating on articles lately, and it seems like everything I write needs to be revised over and over because I'm not happy with it. Maybe this is what they call writer's block? Who knows... I'm not even one. I just work here, thank you.

Take a look at HAL Laboratory's Trax, will you? It's a solid overhead shooter with suspicious Kirby-like physics, explosions, and other visual effects. So suspicious, in fact, I'm tempted to spread the rumor they are somehow related to one another. I can't explain why there's nothing to read about it online even though it was widely available around the world, and it isn't even a rare title. Am I the only one that likes it?

Next time I'll be taking a break from my GameBoy. I promise. I'm starting to see black and white.

The GameBoy shoot'em-up roundup is finished with these last 7 titles:

- Taiyou No Yuusha: Fighbird GB
- Xenon 2: Megablast
- Zoids: Densetsu
- Vattle Giuce
- Battle Unit Zeoth
- Final Reverse
- Volleyfire

Mission completed. At least for now. Or until someone writes in to tell me how I forgot about this and such title. Yeah, ok, Tale Spin is not in it. We'll have to live without it for now.

I certainly did not expect to find the history behind Crystal Quest and Dropzone, two British shoot'em-ups from the 80's, as interesting as I did during my research for their respective GameBoy ports. As mentioned in the previous update, I was hesitant to write more than a paragraph about them because, frankly, they aren't very good versions to begin with. Yet a quick look at the trivia and work behind what seems to be an early Geometry Wars for Macintosh and a deceptive Defender clone for the Atari 800 really caught my eye. Specially since the whole world seems to consider them classics.

I usually lean towards Japanese games and developers, as you might have noticed. Therefore I don't know much about western-developed games until I happen to trip, stumble, and fall flat on my face upon them. Yet every single time I had, it has been a very pleasant learning experience. In fact, the article I wrote about the origins of Argonaut a while back happens to be one of my favorite projects so far.

Somehow the links to all the mp3s on the site aren't working. I'm not sure what's going on, but I have been thinking about removing them altogether anyways. So if they aren't fixed in the future, well, it's because I scrapped them.
Lastly, the Gargoyle's Quest series article has been pretty much re-written. I couldn't stand how rough it was, and now it's at least legible.

Rounding up the main entries are Chikyuu Kaihou Gun ZAS, the most ambitious and gorgeous GameBoy shooter nobody cares writing about; and Burai Fighter Deluxe, an adaptation of the original NES version product of the collaboration between Japanese developer Kindle Imagine Develop (Low G Man, G.I. Joe) and that swell guy that seems to constantly find his way into game credits and endings, former Taxan's Ken Lobb.

Except for one or two more titles I'm still debating about including on this article, this is pretty much it for the full reviews. The final batch of shooters coming up in future updates is going to be presented in smaller format, because frankly, there isn't much to say about them. We'll see how it goes...

P.S.:Oh wait! Before I forget, the awesome people over at policenauts.net have finally come up with an English patch to Hideo Kojima's cult classic Policenauts, Playstation version. It was a very long wait, and if you have played Snatcher or are a fan of Metal Gear, you MUST give it a try. It's an order.