Onward, Invert the Y, and the mix for 3-15-24

The most important update this week is that my mother-in-law is continuing her recovery from heart surgery. She is motivated and in good spirits. This is good news and deserves to be shared up top.

The next news, which is a distant second, is this week saw the reissue of Star Wars Battlefront I and II. I spent hundreds of hours playing these on PS2. I’m always a little suspect of retro gaming. I’ve had the Atari 2600 and Sega Genesis hooked up in the last five years. These things are better as memories. Times move on. But for $30, I figured it might be worth it to go barging through the Galactic Conquest modes again. What I can say after giving both games a try last night is that they hold up alright. EXCEPT… There is one awful flaw. There is no option to invert the Y axis controls. Given that the modern standard in games is to offer an invert feature or even invert the Y (pull back on the stick to look up, so flight controls) as a default, this control issue makes the games VERY difficult to play. It’s fighting against twenty years of muscle memory. To be fair, this is how the original games were built and these games are unfailingly original. My hope is that the studio that did the port will add an inversion option. Time will tell. You can never go home again.

It would be the acme of foolishness to assume, despite the months of mild weather we’ve had, that winter is done. That is a good way to have your heart broken. Instead I will say that there is a very real note of Spring in the air, that the trees and tulips are waking up, and the birds have a lot of verses of “Hey baby!” to sing.

Listen to and/or download this podcast! The Funkomaticjamatron Presents 3-15-24

NOTE: New “The Funkomaticjamatron Presents…” podcasts are generally posted on Fridays. The show archives are around ten shows deep. Beyond that, if the link isn’t active, the mix has been deleted to make way for new material.  Playlist in “Song – Artist – Album” order.

1. Play That Funky Music – Wild Cherry – Wild Cherry.
2. Let The Music Play – Shannon – Let the Music Play.
3. Music Takes Me – School Of Seven Bells – SVIIB.
4. It’s the Music – Meat Beat Manifesto – Original Fire
5. Music Makers – Ils – Paranoid Prophets.
6. Music: Response – The Chemical Brothers – Music: Response single.
7. Music – Madonna – Music.  
8. What Is Music (Original Mix with Notes) – Eon – What Is Music / Spice single.
9. Music Sounds Better With You – Stardust – 15 Years [Disc 2].
10. Music Selector is the Soul Reflector (Remix) – Deee Lite – Sampladelic Relics & Dancefloor Oddities.
11. Music – Jamez Presents Tatoine – Perfecto Presents Another World [Disc 2].
12. Music Is My Mistress – Snail – Snail.