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Approach this

This is a weird setting. You see I got sucked into a video (on YouTube) regarding the September 11th event and every year I see the same things passing by and usually I ignore them, not because I don’t care, but because it tends to be mass creators. And I am not really into that. This being said, this time I let it happen because it was 25 years ago. I remember that day 25 years ago decently. I was sitting in a bar (at lunchtime) in Stockholm consuming my wrap with Bamse and Potatismos. When Fox (or CNN) came up with the news, ignoring what I was doing and I saw the impact of the first plane. I ran upstairs and got the girls (fellow workers) Eva and Anneli and we were seeing the impact the first plane made and I immediately called the New York office to ask what they saw (we had an office in the Empire State Building) but I actually didn’t know to which side of the city they were looking and even as we were talking the second plane hit. We saw it live on TV. This was the moment I knew that the United States were under attack. There is no way this happens twice within the span of an hour (I actually didn’t know how much time had passed) but the terrorist setting was clear to me. It would be hours before I learned the the Pentagon was hit too. But I also saw that this was a failed attempt. I reckon that bin Laden had intended to let the two towers burn like matches so through the night that terror would get the people of the United States by the heart. But then the failure struck. The towers collapsed and the terror turned into anger and hate in an instance and that was when bin Laden decided into finding a place wherever he could hide, because only the Japanese know what an angry United States feels like and they did find out (the hard way) and if you want to see that impact watch Zero Dark Thirty, an excellent movie by Kathryn Bigelow. But this is not about that. You see, I always feel the urge of a game I bought in 1988 by Andy Hollis (a founding member of Microprose) the game was Kennedy Approach, I had the CBM64 edition.

And I never stop being amazed how he got this game working in only 64KB of memory and that it still tingles my mind is basically unheard of, that is the impact of a great game. And I wonder why this wasn’t set into the new systems (you know PS5, Nintendo Switch) and that is the real worry and also the path to amazement. Because whenever I hear that I hear people say “that game made me interested in being an Air Traffic Controller”. It is not a leap because even as the graphics were low standard (by even the definitions of 1988), but the issue is that this game tingles the imagination and nowadays, whilst some players are trying to get to ‘rejuvenate’ their old games and some still wake up the jolt of the old achievements (like Oblivion remastered) and the only game that really woke up the feelings of the old game was David Braben who turned Elite into Elite Dangerous giving us 600% more of a game that was a stretch from the start. I reckon that And Hollis could do the same, even if it only improves the ‘smooth’ graphics. Optionally he could add Amsterdam International, Arlanda (Stockholm), Heathrow (London) and optionally Dubai International Airport, Sydney International, and a few more. It might aid the new player if it was a little more educational as well, an option that could be ‘unlocked’ by finishing the first airport which I believe was Dallas/Fort Worth, some say it was Atlanta, but I do not remember that level. 

But the setting is clear in a sea of wannabe innovators who want to innovate gaming (by giving us Galaga on a tablet) games like Kennedy Approach should be on the forefront of their mind and I reckon that taking an educational sidestep might also encourage people to take that path. There is something of a disheartening side to the conversation “You did great at math, you have inside, you have what it takes to be a traffic controller ” I don’t know about you, but that comes across as a little anti climactic but that might be merely me. And the international setting could entice a lot more people and the educational side of it might give more people that vibe of “This seems rather wow (not World of Warcraft)” and the idea that a game still has appeal after 38 years and not just with me, should get the investors running for their purse to get this started. Well actually I reckon that Andy could afford all this with his own pennies, but there is the setting that he might get a game developer like Saudi Arabia involved. And they would love to get their hands on an original developer and even as it is ‘set’ as it is considered a highly respected classic. It got 85% to 90% rating and that is what I think is needed to revamp an original game onto a new classic and as I see it, it would hit well with the Nintendo Switch crowd which is presently around 156.59 million units worldwide as of June 30, 2026 only 4 million below the PS2 which is currently the global number one and I reckon that this record is broken when we consider switch lite as well. But the Switch is still being sold, so I have no doubt that they will break the PS2 global record this year. As such it should bow clear that the Nintendo Switch is the preferred system and the original fitted on a 360KB floppy, as such it could easily be sold in the Nintendo store and on physical media. As such, why did no one else think of that?

As I see it (and as we see failing design settings on nearly all consoles) the idea of revamping these old games could be the ticket for any developer of video games. It is just my way of keeping the old ideas alive and if one developer (David Braben) can do it, so can several others. You just need to keep it out of the fingers of these wannabe developers who think that the latest graphics are the ticket to quick profit. That is unlikely to happen. But the setting of great graphic games can be the ticket if the rest was awesome too. A example is Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (2021), which I picked up again as I never got it finished 100% and Wolverine is coming up today, as such I thought it would be a great idea to get another game finished 100% and I am making splendid waves at present. I finished the game at least 4 times and I had a blame blast every time I played it. That makes for an awesome game. And Insomniac does know how to make great games, as such there is plenty to game in 2026. Wouldn’t it be great that some of the great CBM64 games would make a reentry? Especially as we are focussed on the less than half a dozen titles at present? Just food for thought, have a great day today.

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It hasn’t dropped yet

That is an apparent setting and there is ‘no blame’ to anyone. But the simple setting is that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hasn’t dropped the ball yet. They have set a few things in motion, but where it goes is anyones guess. I have had my settings on something massively similar since mid 2022. I wrote about it in my blog ‘Girdle your loins’ which I wrote on November 30th 2022 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/11/30/girdle-your-loins/). I left the ‘issue’ with Andy Jesse (an Amazonian bigwig) because Amazon had the wave of the future and now as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has acquired Electronic Arts, a new play comes into being. The only part missing is a streaming system and they might want to acquire Google’s Stadia and create games for the PS5 and optionally the Nintendo Switch (2) as well. If they include stream deck they are likely to maker millions of dollars and become a lot more competitive in the gaming sector. With the speculative understanding that Microsoft is then devaluated to fifth position and they become the new winner of the wooden spoon.

So what gives?
Well to see that, we need to go via the settings that I am seeing. The old setting was that the games from the 90s are remastered to todays gaming needs. There is an upside. If they acquired the IP of Electronic Arts, they might also have the jackpot, because EA released a massive amount of games in the late 80s and 90s. All these games are up for rerelease at present. This requires them to set up gaming studios in Saudi Arabia, but with this setting there is an ability to stream these beginners into high priced executives and it is all done in Saudi Arabia. There are the plain remasters, but when you think of a title like Defender of the Crown, a game that beckons Islamification and whilst the game premise changes somewhat, we now get similar location settings for Acre, Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople, Edessa, Damascus and Jaffa. There could be tactical upgrades as well and the setting that Saudis see as the battlements are increased in graphics and enhanced (like the movie Kingdom of Heaven, 2005) and that is merely one title. So whilst we see renewed versions of Command and Conquer, Syndicate, Dungeon master and a few others, these games in their near original state could beckon thousands of gamers (I believe it is millions, but being overeager is not a good thing here) and should Saudi Arabia take over the Google Stadia there is the setting that a streaming device is clearly in the hands of Saudi Arabia, optionally depriving American advertisers of coin, leaving it in the hands of Saudi Arabia. And there are plenty of gaming sides that could be renewed. It would allow a mash of Saudi music composers out the world, with enhanced graphics all over the place. Saudi Arabia now has the setting that could set them and my idea for that next generation console would bank them up to $6 billion annually and a lot more after phase two is completed. You see, what Amazon overlooked was the fact that there are 1.9 billion Muslims and a lot of them like gaming and they are spread over the Arabian peninsula, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia. There are also scores of hem all over the EU and America. These are all pockets of addressable gamers and that is what I saw as early as late 2021 and in 2022 I made my move where they could see these fractions become a force of  advertisable people (according to the Muslim rules of advertisement) 

So no mater what Saudi Arabia does, these games are a first step to get the waves of gamer coming into their fold. So whilst the gaming community had little impact on lets say Indonesia, it is a place with over a quarter of a billion people and I saw that a system could propel them into the light. Consider a setting where these businesses advertise in a simple book that is in every console and like the Yellow pages they could register for free and for a mere $1 per month they could get a little more space and a bold naming of their place. For $2 a month they could add a picture. Now consider this over the setting of Egypt (170M), Pakistan (260M), Indonesia (288M) and several other places at that point close to a billion people could register in the yellow pages of this console. Muslims advertising and creating awareness to other muslims. And it starts free and when the revenue comes in, they might enhance their presence and all this comes to the coffers of Saudi Arabia. I saw this 5 years ago and as Google dropped their Stadia I handed it to Amazon (they never reacted), so now Saudi Arabia gets the setting where a gaming company starts a mot more and whilst I feel certain the the revenue will be $15 billion plus after stage one and my estimates are conservative. I absconded from adding advertisement revenue, because that requires hard data and I don’t have any, I can merely speculate on this, but the console would bring in its revenue, but it all starts with games and now that Saudi Arabia acquired Electronic Arts, that setting is up for grabs and they could start creating games for the Sony PS5 and Nintendo Switch and these numbers are legion. After that the SteamDeck which will make them hungry to buy the Google Stadia and that is where the game changes a lot. Which added media, they could now get ready to overwhelm the Muslim world with an optional Saudi console. Perhaps  renaming it to the Kingdom Console might be an option? It is what is out there and it has been out there for over 5 years. So as these captains of industry dropped the ball there, there is no setting the might please Saudi Arabia more and as I see it, they need one other IP to be handed to them (which might be in the power of Google to do) but then the pegs are sucked and sorted and a larger option becomes available. 

What a nice continuation of this Sunday. Have a great day.

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Retro framing

I had this thought this morning. Some might remember the Dragons Lair, a Don Bluth fantasy game on laser disc. I still remember it after 43 years. It was magnificent. It literally was a playable cartoon and it gave us Dirk the Daring dying over and over again until he meets the foe he was after. I spend a massive amount of quarters on that machine, the graphics were just that perfect. So I was considering the idea of a laserdisc added to a Nintendo Switch (2) with a game cartridge with 32GB available. This gave me the idea to include player software so you could replay your laser discs. I was blown away in 1990 when I saw the Abyss on laser disc. The idea surfaced as I am now in the setting of playing 4K games and watching 4K movies, the laser disc gave me that feeling in 1990, whilst VHS and later DVD came nowhere close. And it gave me the setting that this might be the option that could propel Nintendo to heights. But there was a snag, first there was the laserdisc player and the discs themselves often had Laser rot (a side effect of fingers on the disc and cheaper disc coating, so this idea was scuttled almost at the beginning. But then I got to think. A laserdisc has up to 5GB data space (a little less) and Nintendo Switch cartridges are up to 32GB (with smaller sizes available), so the game might be transferable to Switch in all its glory. But why stop there. On march 11th 2021 I wrote ‘In your face space’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/03/11/in-your-face-space/) where I was enthusiastic about getting series and movies on USB, there were two reasons. The first was space, these cartridges took almost no space and the second reasons (source: a Cylon) they come with zero degradation. 

This might be the step that Nintendo needs to become a long term number one in gaming and entertainment. Consider these series Battlestar Galactica, StarGate, Babylon 5, Harry Potter, the Disney movies and so many other series now other options, now one game card per season/movie, and the Switch 2 allows for a software upscaling to 4K. So consider that this would put Nintendo ahead of the pack by a lot. So whilst we see the impact that Nintendo might have, the idea that movies have zero degradation will be a plus sign to many parents. Then there is the option of getting empty packs out that support up to 8 slots and every TV series is printed on two sides, the side with the season and the other side with the series. Now you can move one cover to the 8 pack and put all the seasons (or franchise) in one pack. A setting that might give shivers to the collector as he/she saves a lot of space I am looking at my 8 4K discs of Harry Potter, whilst the game pack setting takes up a mere one disc space. A setting that would become a happy moment for any parent. 

This is a setting that gives Nintendo the growth that they need because the Switch 2 will enable 4K viewing, whilst this is software upscaling, it will give your entire collection a whole new stride. I wonder why no one else thought of this, because I have the ground work for this on my blog for over half a decade and whilst these parties all need revenue, are they so blunt and stupid to rely on their streaming solutions? The setting becomes that traveling parents and rural people outdo metro people by a lot and whilst everyone is saying there is no problem, the setting of revisiting net neutrality is getting stronger and more pronounced. I would think that players like Disney want to head that off whilst they can and as I see it, it is only a short time before lower returns, no traffic prioritization and the setting of it hurting new technology, all whilst people will get hit with higher base price and reduced service choices will hit people all around, that whilst rural people will be in this setting discriminated against. A player like Disney would want to avoid that setting, because the one player that takes rural people in consideration (apparently that will not be Sony) will take the cake, the cherries and the limelight. 

I for one think that Nintendo which has always been a hardware and family solution would be the premiere player in that field. And as I see it, it is not merely Disney, Universal faces a similar stage soon enough and I think that they want to head off whatever they can, because when the issues of net neutrality comes to blows it will be too late for these two players. I reckon that they will face millions of rural connections seeking other places to be entertained, should you doubt that, fine. But when did you actually consider that stage in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Texas, North Carolina, California, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maine, and West Virginia? I reckon that Sony never properly did their homework and there is space for Nintendo to head that off. 

Have a great day today, so as it is Caturday, don’t be a wuss and hug a tiger.

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Press X to race

There was an article in LinkedIn and it reminded me of an idea that I spouted on my blog. It took a moment, but I wrote it on February 16h 2022, it was called ‘Gift for the militant wench’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/16/gift-for-militant-wench/). So whilst I was looking at the image with the text “Wow! You can now simulate real world places by grounding Genie 3 generations with Street View imagery. Google sitting on the mother lode of real world data, and is starting to put it to work!” Nice for some to wake up, but I got there 4 years ago. And the blog is the evidence. In a setting where I wrote. “So in my sleep I was racing through the street, there were paths, obstacles and my mind was making sense of it all (which took a few seconds) and I was seeing the brilliance of that Nintendo kart game that can take place in your home. A good idea, but I gave it steroids and turned it into something serious. You see, there are the F1 people, who love the F1, want to race on their tracks, want to be an F1 driver and this is not for them, There are good products and they are happy there. No, this is for the people who want to race in the real world.” I got there 4 years ago, that is how asleep some developers are. I still think that the non-serious setting of real world and a Mario kart (or wacky races) works the best. For the serious racer there is Gran Turismo or Forza and as I see it, these are decent products. Racing them to overtake is not that eventful. But Wacky Races is down and out, Mario Kart is for Nintendo devices, as such there is a gap for Sony and they could release it on Nintendo as well. A market that I saw over 4 years ago and someone could have opened that door, but as you see alas, and now we see on LinkedIn that is is an awesome option. So whilst we see “Can’t wait till this grounding ability extends to fused aerial + ground imagery for a large area of interest. One helluva interactive canvas for humans and machines alike.” I was there over 208 weeks ago. As I see it, someone is asleep in a few places. A setting that could invigorate a new Franchise like Wacky Races, there is another setting, and that is perhaps a little niche. If the graphics are real, you could have a fun addition based on the Brigades du Tigre (1912), organized by French Prime Minister Georges Clemencea, and they race is on the tracks of the Tour de France. A wink at Ubisoft (as they lost enough revenue), but the idea that it isn’t speed, but the Renault Type EK might be fun ride to, optionally you could unlock the 1930 Talbot M67 11 six, or the 1932 Citroën C4 G Torpédo night be a fun addition. We all seek speed, whilst the fun of driving shouldn’t be ignored and as such there are plenty of other ideas. And the main machine (not the mean machine) would be where it becomes a setting of speed with kart traffic, or more graphical perfection with the slower older kin that the Ford model T offers. As I said, these were merely ideas that sprouted from the original and that is to let people race in their neighborhood and that will have a larger appeal, especially with the younger racers among us. Still to see that others see the option 4 years later gives me my validation, I wonder when they will see that they themselves denied themselves billions of dollars in revenue. 

One can only hope, have a great day.

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Optionally sorting land abilities

I know, it sounds vague, but after I saw the news (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/19/iran-attacks-cut-17-of-qatars-lng-capacity-for-up-to-5-years-qatarenergy) where we are given ‘Iran warns it will show ‘zero restraint’ if infrastructure attacked again’, as such I am willing to take their anticipation out of their realm of options. I created IP for water and rails. So, I started to think “How can we disable land options?” Well, that is a lot harder then you think. Yes you can bomb the hell out of a road, but I am a precision tool. I often dislike blunt tools. So I started to think concerning their drone abilities. You see these ones that are being send all over Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar come from the Shahed Aviation Industries in Isfahan. As such I started to think. These drones will be shipped in bulk to wherever they need to be operated. From Qatar that is 890 km, optionally it is a mere 322 km from the Sea of Dammam (aka Persian gulf) so now we have a tactical setting. Either they go part by road to Isfahan Shahid Beheshti International Airport and from there wherever they need to be. The idea started to form was based on previous IP is that trucks are easier to hit. I am not taking about missiles or RPG’s. The weakness of these trucks are the tires. So consider a lone drone dropping pellets no more than an inch in diameter. They are matted plastic balls containing crazy glue. The truck runs over these balls and the crazy glue is suddenly everywhere and for a second it will glue the tire to the road. It will take more than one pellet, but every pellet will rip these tires apart. One load should disable several trucks and there we see the benefit. Suddenly the IRGC will have to check every inch of every road where they travel. And where there is no tarmac, a rubber solving solution could be engaged, same effect different setting. It will not stop the drone stage, but now it is hindered by checks and safety settings. Optionally it is merely one cog in a system of attacks. And as they see optionally harbours and railway systems collapse. Iran will suddenly see the new setting where the gulf states give them a simple ultimatum: “Stop, or else” and I believe that Iran will suddenly see the light as they have never faced a three pronged attack in ways they never considered and it will not be coming from the United States. Suddenly they trade 2 enemies for 8 (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq and Oman are added) and those are Islamic enemies, but they had that coming. I am not pretending that this setting is perfect. This IP might only be used a few times at most, but now their deployment settings are hit with delay upon delay and that is a simple setting to start a larger stage.

So as we see “QatarEnergy chief says 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity knocked out in Iranian strike.” We can now bring the hurt to Iran in several ways and that is merely the beginning. We might applaud “The ONLY reason for restraint was respect for requested de-escalation,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had written in a post on X on Thursday. “ZERO restraint if our infrastructures are struck again.”” I reckon that Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani will be on why side of thinking, but personally it is time to stop restraint as Iran is hitting out to anyone they can hit and taking their infrastructures away might be considered the effect of ‘Zero Restraint’ and as they are given into a sense of dread because when the rails, roads and harbours are no longer dependable as options, they will see that being isolated is a massive downturn. As I see it, no islamic nation is willing to ‘aide’ Iran in any way and they did this to themselves. But as we are considering the other setting (I gave an airfield solution on the near past) the idea that Isfahan Shahid Beheshti International Airport is pushed out of operation. The setting becomes dire for Iran. They can talk a good talk. But they need deployments and that is now largely prevented or at least it will be delayed to a larger effect that they are happy with and as I see it, it will reset the deployment of drones and I reckon that this will open up a few more options, that is the benefit of hitting a fluidic setting again and again.

Is my land solution perfect? No, it is not, but it is one way to enter sand into the IRGC cogs of terrorism. And who knows, I might have more ideas that could be deployed by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. That too is the nice side of a creative mind. There is always another idea forming and some are even less useful, but. I learned that these might lead to greater innovation. Nintendo might have one disaster as they created the WiiU but that led to the Nintendo Switch which is one of the most successful systems as it sold 155.37 million units worldwide (up to now) and it is now the second best selling console in history. So, don’t knock what might at first be a failure, it could lead to the success that many desire.

So, have a great day and I will likely be back with more in about 15 hours.

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The wrongly seen direction

That is at times a question and at times a statement. Now consider your PlayStation (or Nintendo) and I think that Nintendo has a small advantage here. So consider a business setting (for the exercise) There is a given that “Project statistics involve analyzing data related to project performance (like budget, timeline, scope) and project management success rates, with common metrics including cost performance, progress, and stakeholder satisfaction, while tools like R help in complex analysis for academic or business research. Key figures show many successful projects usually have strong sponsors.” So consider this towards the upcoming PS6, isn’t it time to give the users that ability to see where they spend their times on? Like Nintendo with a calendar and a setting where you can see app use per user (so you can have a guest account for others if needed) and a setting where you see usage of apps like YouTube, Netflix and others, whilst also seeing games and now it gives a timeline optionally per game or per gaming house, per gaming style. I am certain that some are already doing it for themself but as I see it, it has never been offered to the users. Consider that ‘your’ online shop like Nintendo or Sony Store could crush those numbers and say ‘Hey, you spend a lot of time in this style of game and these games are now in the budget range’ this is not always a welcome setting but for a lot who have to mind their pennies, the setting of a similar game like the one you love to play is a welcome sight to your wallet. The other setting is that you could export your statistics on a game, or on anything to your memory stick and then spread it to your online presence. It is a small setting that I have no seen on the PS3, PS4, PS4pro or PS5. I think that this is an almost mandatory next step, especially as the gamers in the world will have a better understanding if the optional benefits of Business Intelligence when applied to whatever matters to them the most.

The benefits are that most data is already captured for the gamers, optionally per game, so there is not much reengineering required. The calendar is a welcome addition and game makers can add (as per request of the gamer) the upcoming release dates for games they are announcing and that will be in the interest of most gamers. Now consider that the use of Achievements and other setting can now be set outside of the games they are chasing and for that there are many consideration to be made. For Sony this would also give a new handle of appealing to players on a global setting. Because let’s face it, they are driven to success and to see where that success is captured is as essential for Sony (Nintendo too) as it is for the gamers. You can ‘hide’ behind the hours played on for example, Hogwarts Legacy and it goes beyond the 150,000 hours played in weeks x, The idea that we have 15,000 gamers who spend 1-2 hours on it (still an important metric) but it is the rest of the 120,000 hours played by 600 gamers in week x, that is where the real treasure lies and offering that to the gamers has benefits beyond measure. Optionally it could be linked to cosmetic rewards like a ‘house’ outfit that Avalanche could spread like the one Colin Farrell had in Fantastic beasts. Optionally with the house colour replacing the white.

And for the lady players there is a nice dress that Queenie Goldstein had, it is merely an idea, but you get the picture. 

There is a boatload of ideas coming from that area and I reckon that most game studios already have that in mind. Epic Games in their Fortnite has spewed close to hundreds of ideas in the time they have been active and gamers love unique rewards. I reckon Epic Games have a truckload of examples there, so why not use that setting to promote the PS6 and Sony’s drive to success. With Microsoft out of the running (as I see it) Sony needs to up the ante to keep up with Nintendo, because that is becoming the issue that is next. Because as I see it, gaming is warfare and Nintendo is showing to be just as equal as the one and only Sony and there is the thought that they are already lacking in that respect. We always saw the fight between Microsoft and Sony as the one that mattered and Nintendo won that a few years ago and the Switch 2 is merely adding to the distance it is gaining, as such it is time for Sony to move towards a better position in that race, because running by yourself without a real opponent is nothing to smile at, it merely makes you go contempt in your race whilst others are passing you by. As such we need to consider that Nintendo Switch sales with exceeding 154 million units globally, making it one of the best-selling consoles ever. Surpassing anything Sony has had in the mix and as I see it, Microsoft being a distant fourth in that equation. But for Sony there is a need to being better and they can do it, as such I see the metrics to be added to the fold will give the gamer a much better understanding on where he spends his (or her) time and the goes a long way towards promoting their shop and their titles. 

Have a great day today and never stop gaming.

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Never out of mind

That is the setting. I saw a trailer (I thought it was an AI fluke) but it had the stars and it reminded me of an old game. Wacky Races on the Dreamcast. I thought it was brilliant. SEGA had a competitor to Nintendo’s Mario Kart. Now, I have nothing against Mario Kart. I loved it on the N64, I also loved it on the Gamecube. And when I get the Switch 2, I will love it again. But the setting was that Wacky Races had an approach to counter whatever Nintendo had in those days. Wacky Races was it and as I loved the cartoon, I was instantly hooked. So I was surprised that Sony never bought the rights. So I don’t know what happened to that setting, but at present and especially with the movie apparently coming, Sony has a renewed option to get that title on their PlatStation systems. 

The game had several nice touches and the fact that every car had its own options, makes it a setting that will give renewed replayability. Set the game to several settings and as the game is played on ‘real roads’ the setting could get its own new lease of life. What is better than play your favourite character racing route 66? And that is merely the beginning. The cartoon gave us hilarious settings and that reflects back on the game and even now as this setting is transposed this game could have multiple settings. The famous ‘walks’ could now be the setting of Wacky Races. The St. Frances way (Florence – Rome), the Camino de Santiago walk (Saint JeanPied de Port to Santiago de Compostela) then there is the Nakasendo trail (Kyoto – Tokyo) And not to forget Lands end to John o Groats over the length of the UK. Now we can make the most of it and make it a cartooned version and we can add more. A setting never shown before and as I see it, you can race it eleven time. There were the Boulder Mobile, Creepy Coupe, Convert-a-Car, Crimson Haybaler, Compact Pussycat, Army Surplus Special, Bulletproof Bomb, Arkansas Chuggabug, Turbo Terrific, Buzz Wagon and who could forget the Mean Machine featuring Muttley. 

A wacky race and as the game gets more and more traction Sony could add its own set of tracks. There is no limit to the setting we could add and Sony had an advantage for the longer of times. There is even an option to add the Iceland ring road to these tracks. The quality of Deeper Machine Learning is almost perfect to add these tracks to their arsenal and Google Maps was kind enough to add these rides to the spectrum and now they only need to set the filters to adapt the tracks to a more cartoon setting. Was it that hard to think out of the box? 

But without fail there is always someone who can do better than me, that person (preferably at Sony) merely needs to raise his (or her) hand and start the setting and now that there apparently is coming a Wacky Races movie in 2026, there is an added reason to take up the baton of crazy gameplay on the PlayStation. There is of course a need to put it on the streaming systems too (Amazon Luna and whatever Tencent has). A setting we tend to forget about but the time is now to make that dent in the competitors. Should you see the need to add to this, my advice is to take a serious look at Fur Fighter (Dreamcast), the Playstation 2 made a mess of that game. Two titles and they were largely ignored. And with the stage of original games at a all time low, the need for quality gaming is now and the stage of these walks are a new ride, that besides the stage that you could also add tracks to this, perhaps Monaco, Francorchamps, Le Mans and a few other tracks like Daytona and the Gold Coast track. All options overlooked and now there is a larger setting to make it work.

Have a great day and when you go for coffee today, outside of the gaming world we do have speed limits, no matter how desperately you crave your coffee.

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The Nintendo Charge

Nintendo makes another blitz record, it is not the first one, but this one is one for the record books. The story (at https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-has-sold-6-million-switch-2-consoles-and-almost-the-same-number-of-mario-kart-world/) gives us ‘Nintendo has sold 6 million Switch 2 consoles and almost the same number of Mario Kart World’ as for my excuse not being part of that cluster is simple. I just don’t have the money at present. Nintendo played a near perfect awareness game. They went global with the teaser, they followed up with YouTube video’s and gave online presence. When Zero-hour was here. The streets were aligned around shops who sold it with people. We all wanted one, even the ones that couldn’t afford one. And there was a lot of interest. The expanded memory, larger screen, higher resolution, snap click controllers with magnets and the controller was also used as a mouse. 256GB against the 32GB of the original Switch. Basically everything was stronger. One exception, the battery life seemingly is not. I run my Switch on the TV, so I won’t ever see this one issue. And on the TV, you now get 4K. Cheaper than either Xbox or PS5 (not by that much) Nintendo made the record books yet again. In the first 7 weeks the Nintendo sold 6 million Switch 2 consoles and the real screamer is that nearly all of them got Mario Kart World, it sold 5.63 million copies. That is huge. I saw the videos and I would get that as my first game too. 

So when we se all this we tend to think, what is next? But that is it, this setting will hurt Sony as well as Microsoft to some degree. People can no longer afford it all and when they get a Switch 2, their coffers are nearly empty as such, no direct sales for either Sony or Microsoft. Microsoft with its Game Pass will have an advantage over Sony (for the first time) and it will not be as hindered by Nintendo as Sony is, but they too will feel the pain. I reckon that this will continue straight through Christmas 2025. Because those who can not afford it at present, will work harder to get one before or at this Christmas (hopefully me too). 

So whilst we get the quote “Despite being a launch title and being constrained by its user base, Mario Kart World is the series’ second biggest launch behind Mario Kart Wii.” And that makes sense. I see the improvements and the plusses that Mario Kart World is bringing and I reckon that this game alone is the largest push to get the Nintendo Camera as well. It goes further, As of June 30, 2025, the Nintendo Switch has sold a total of 153.10 million units worldwide. This makes it the third best-selling video game console of all time and now add the 6 million Switch 2 systems and we see that Nintendo is overtaking Microsoft by storm. Consider that at present Xbox Series X/S (2020): Estimated over 28 million units as of June 2024. This implies that Switch 2 is already at 21% of Xbox Series X/S lifetime sales. And the Switch already surpassed that. This sets the  Microsoft systems in third position and should Amazon agree to my terms Microsoft becomes the 4th player. Not bad after spending Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. That was money well spend wasn’t it? And should Amazon agree to surpass Microsoft too, that 68 billion dollar anchor will weigh harshly on their actions. The funny part is that neither Sony or Nintendo had to pay that much for anything they bought (as far as I know). And there is more (there always is) Nintendo is should of breaking its own record of the Nintendo DS which sold 154 million consoles. The Switch is now less then a million away from that record. It is anyones guess how far the Switch 2 will make it, but as I see it the numbers are in favor of Switch replacing a lot of systems within the next year. Nintendo said there were no changes to its financial forecast for this fiscal year, which is to sell 15 million consoles by March 2026. I tend to think that this number will be broken in several ways by Christmas 2024. That is before we consider the pleasing notions of all the Harry Potter fans who will be driven to this game on the Switch 2 as well. Yes, Nintendo is about to break record and this is the first time that I am saying this, but Nintendo is now approaching the pole position that Sony holds, as such they will have to up their game considerably if they do not want to be taken over by Nintendo, because that is no longer impossible. I don’t think Sony was ready to see the Switch family as a threat to their number one position, but that is the setting that they face in 2026, as such I wonder what Sony will come up with next. 

The armistice race on consoles tends to be a fulfilling one and there is the second step. When Nintendo get that done, it will find more gamers switching to their side. Although I have always stated that the Nintendo is the system you get next to your usual console, I still believe that and as such Nintendo tends to have great options. I merely wonder when Hogwarts Legacy 2 is released will it be released on day one for Switch 2 too? You might think that this doesn’t matter, but it does. It will be the first moment when Nintendo will have surpassed Sony and that is the kind of news that is massive in its own right. Sony released its PlayStation on December 3, 1994, it went straight to the top from the start and it will have taken Nintendo 32 years to overtake Sony and that is not something to think lightly of. I certainly am not. 

So, I merely have this to say “Well done Nintendo”

Have a great day today 

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When you are at odds

This happens, there is no real reason, merely that you do not agree with another view. In this case it is with the CBC. That is what intelligent people do, we are at odds and we reject a thought given to us. It started with the article (at https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/nintendo-switch-2-1.7558697) where Jonathan Ore gives us ‘Nintendo’s Switch 2 sets early sales records. Its future is less certain’ and his byline gives us the goods “Handheld console arrives with high price, few games and fresh competition” he gives us a decent reason. High price, a setting I personally do not agree with, especially as the systems is basically an overcharged Switch one. The Switch 2 comes with 12GB operating memory (up from 4GB), 256GB storage (up from 32GB) bigger screen and a few other gimmicks. It is a real step up and as I see it, it sold over 3.5 Million Units Worldwide in the first four days, not bad, as it took Microsoft a hell of a lot longer to get those numbers. On day one we got access to Mario Kart World, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch 2 Edition), The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch 2 Edition), Sonic X Shadow Generations, Street Fighter 6, and Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. Not bad capture of games. At present we have 84 upcoming games, as I see it 14 of them likely to be in 2026, but that gives us 70 games all this year and that is evidently just for starters. So, the few games is pretty much sunk at this point. Are they games he wants to play? That is a fair question, but that is a setting we all face whether it is Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. As I see it Mario Kart World is already worth buying the console for, a setting Microsoft enjoyed with Bethesda’s Oblivion and its own Mass Effect. As such there are overlaps in judgement. I had the same setting with the very first Playstation. Because of Tekken I got the system and when Tomb Raider arrived a few month later, the admiration for that very first playstation was complete. There are reasons why we buy a systems. Usually it is because of the games already out, or coming soon. And when the setting of “With a high price, small lineup of exclusive games and a more crowded market for handheld gaming — including a major entry by Microsoft — things aren’t as simple as the original Switch’s debut in 2017.” I roll my eyes and giggle loudly. As the ‘major entry of Microsoft’ is set, they haven’t really wowed us since before the Xbox series S, and as I see it, they have come up short ever since. Now that doesn’t mean that the new console is nothing. Yet two days ago I was given ‘Xbox’s new console quietly cancelled as Microsoft takes different approach’ with the byline “many are wondering what the native console would have cost, because we’re all looking at the Xbox Ally and estimating it will fetch well over £500, perhaps even over £700.” And that is cheap? And as we see the line “It’s a followup to the original Switch’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which sold more than 68 million copies — over 20 million more than the next best-selling title, Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” Which explains the setting that I am convinced that Nintendo doesn’t have any real worries to consider as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold more copies than Microsoft has in actual sales for consoles. That is set to 28.3 million (as of June 2024) accumulative for both the X and S series. Isn’t it weird that Microsoft bundles those numbers, which makes me wonder how many X systems were sold, Microsoft hides nearly all settings of those numbers, I wonder why.

And consider that Microsoft sold the Xbox Series X|S at 16.41 million units in the US in 50 months, Nintendo got 25% of that target in 4 days. So, as we find from a few sources “Xbox faces major challenges as its console sales hit record lows in 2024, and it’s not looking any better for 2025. The gaming giant sold an estimated 2.7 million units in the US market during 2024, marking its worst full-year performance in Xbox history” and as I see it, with cancelled systems the setting does not look good for Microsoft as it ‘just’ spend $69 billion on Blizzard (2023), as such the entire 2024 sales setting doesn’t even gets them the interest on that loan of $69,000,000,000 a year later. So the entire setting of “including a major entry by Microsoft” is massively bogus. One apparently is cancelled and the other one is years away (a speculated 2027 release). As we consider the first Switch with a Zelda game “earning praise as one of the best video games of all time.” Microsoft hadn’t done that since Bethesda’s initial release on the Xbox360, or Mass Effect in 2005, making it a 20 year lull in setting markers. OK, Skyrim on 11/11/11 was a worthy stage, but that one was also released on Sony, making it a not so exclusive stage.

As such I do not see the setting Jonathan Ore gives us, the stage of “Gamers who snapped up a Switch 2 may be anxiously waiting for more made-by-Nintendo games other than Mario Kart World” comes over as media BS as I got a list of 84 games a lot of them in 2025. Yes, I get that No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk 2077 aren’t exclusives, but we are assuming that they were ‘begotten’ on a system they had (OK, a small giggle is allowed). And these games contain the making of fathering the game settings, especially No Mans Sky. I almost forget to give the readers that the Switch 2 comes with Hogwarts Legacy on day one. If you didn’t have that game on any system, you are in for a treat. I end up asking why Microsoft was mentioned in his article at all, there was no reason unless a Microsoft stake holder requests the mention, which is likely as he doesn’t mention that “Sources have told The Verge that Microsoft initially had plans for a native Xbox handheld, but this has been officially scrapped as the company”, but this article doesn’t give you that, we merely saw “a more crowded market for handheld gaming — including a major entry by Microsoft” which by sources got cancelled. As I see it, the little dark cloud that this writer is trying to make falls in the water. What would have been better is that CBC had given the reader a sighting of Canadians playing these Nintendo games on the Switch 2. So how was it seen in Nouveau Scotia, or Saskatchewan? We know what Vancouver or Toronto does, but the rest? 

As such I am at odds with this article. In most places I look I merely see the amazement of the console, especially when the camera is attached and you are playing as a team. This is actual true innovation bought to you by Nintendo. 

Are there lesser sights to Nintendo? This would have been a valid side and the price is high, I admit that, but is the system worth the price? I believe it is and that is a personal setting. Not everyone will agree, but those people still have the Switch 1 to consider, or they have it and the upgrade was a no brainer. It is cheaper that my PS5 and I had no issue paying for either of them. Soon I hope I will be able to get that system (as soon as Oracle, to name merely one option, gives me a tech support or customer care job). 

And surviving Abu Dhabi, speculatively,  as part of ADNOC definitely makes the Switch 2 an essential need. Summer in the UAE is a bit hot when you float around the Al Raha River baking in the sun. The cool dark feeling of a living room playing Mario Kart World might be the way to go. We are all creatures of basic needs and Nintendo has fueled that basic need ever since I bought the Nintendo 64 in 1998. They gave us the fun and the sparkle for gaming even before that and that is some record for any company to entertain and Nintendo delivered. Something we don’t see in this article either. So who was Jonathan Ore catering to? Not Nintendo, not the reader and not the facts. I have my idea’s on this and so will you when you got to this point in the article. 

This is why I am at odds with the CBC article. Have a great day, still late breakfast time in Vancouver. So enjoy.

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The snag we don’t see

That happens, we don’t always see the settings that open up to us. It is one of the stages of what some call the ‘Aha!’ erlebnis. It is actual intelligence and that is why artificial intelligence will fall short for a long time. Yesterday I had some time to relax and I used it to watch the final two episodes of the October Faction (Netflix). Apart from being totally awesome, I also found the dastardly news that it is a one season only setting. Too bad as it was really awesome. Yet, I digress. During one of these episodes I suddenly had a little brain strain and a few things came into full view. It brought me back to a story I wrote (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/01/15/it-was-this-simple/) called ‘It was this simple’ where I had the idea for a new game that was also (in part) educational. Yet last night I had an idea that I was going about it the wrong way. You see, the start isn’t one of the three gods (Hades, Poseidon or Zeus), it is a destination. The idea is to invert that stage and start with pone of the ‘smaller’ gods like Hecate. You see, as I see it Hecate gets its setting from the mortals and animals. So do the other ‘smaller’ gods. As do Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Hestia, Dionysus. And as we unlock their abilities, we will then get access to one of the three. Or I might am considering that Zeus is only unlocked when all others are unlocked. 

As I see it some gods connect to merely one of the three, some to two gods and some to all three. As I see it this game would need to be replayed three times to unlock it all, but in this game the second game already gives you the areas you unlocked in the first game and the second is not the same, merely a continuation of the first (makes for a challenging lore). And beyond that as I see it, the game will incorporate several gaming styles giving you a larger game and a more fulfilling gaming time. But I wanted more than a hack, slash and pretty picture.

You see, it is merely a setting to a game, but there we also see that we unlock educational parts. What is more enticing than gaining knowledge of classical works whilst gaming? Not the ‘essence’ of a classical work but the full text of people like Hesiod, Homer, Sappho, Alcaeus, Pindar and many many more. I still think that the Amazon Luna, with a link to the Kindle, or even now the Tencent console with a link to the the MatePad Pro or MatePad Air might be an alternative. A setting to see a more inclusive form of gaming and as such un-enabling those with the ‘turbo’ style of gaming trying to getting people in line to more advertising. Short term enabling and set gaming back on the track of a more enabling setting of gaming like Bethesda enabled for almost 2 decades. 

We are all do taken back by the turbo setting of games (especially the young) whilst the more complete setting of gaming is largely ignored and as I see it, there is more to gaming. You see we cannot (in good mind) waste the entire day gaming. I get that, but we can rotate that interest to give people a larger backstory. You see, according to classicist William Hansen: “the Greeks and Romans had all the genres of oral narrative known to us, even ghost stories and urban legends, but they also told all kinds that in most of the Western world no longer circulate orally, such as myths and fairytales.” I want to resettle that lost art. Some gamers have tried to do so in the lore they give us, but they fell short as they didn’t consider the larger stage. It was not their fault, until recently and the promise of the IoT (Internet of things) and the larger stage of Bluetooth we never considered where we could go and that is merely another setting the Microsoft failed to see (they are racking up a setting of missed opportunity) and Google cannot be given this failure as they basically dropped the Google Stadia, which was their right to do so and as I see it, Amazon and Tencent now have a larger stage to become the new heralded kings in gaming. It is not a smooth or even an easy ride, but as I see it they both missed out on gaining at least 50 million gamers. 

So could I be wrong?
Yes, of course that is possible, but what the ‘advertisement’ courtesans fail to see is that the people have had enough of advertisements and that is something they are in denial of as the money is too good. But as I see it, the one who does see it will get a larger setting of gaining the field advantage to this and that is basically Nintendo and Sony. It is the third place that becomes interesting when we see in January ‘Microsoft’s AI revenues up 175%, while Xbox’s results remain disappointing’ (before the builder.ai exposure) and ‘Microsoft’s Xbox Handheld Plans Reportedly Shelved; Company to Optimise Windows 11 Gaming Performance’ (last week) and I reckon that the spin will continue as Microsoft is scrambling to bury bad news as Nintendo is making larger strides into gaming. As such there is space for either Amazon or Tencent to gain the number three spot. This is not a given but massively likely, especially as other news sees my other solution grace the limelight in sight of some Hajj numbers I see roll be and an optional solution that roughly 900,000,000 million users are up for grabs (yet another space Microsoft missed). So as some will see “Asus’ Xbox branded handheld, codenamed Project Kennan, is reportedly on track to launch later this year”, I merely wonder when that changes from later this year to next year and after that it being silently cancelled (my personal speculation). You see Asus also sees the market and the knee-jerk actions from an tariff driven administration won’t last long, especially when Huawei is showing its MateBook Fold and that is making the filtered news. I personally don’t know how good it is, but the larger setting is that the world is watching and now that it is less than 1.2Kg and uses Harmony OS. The first and it is a banger. So when that system as well as Tencent takes the world by storm (which it is very likely to do) we see yet another loss for Microsoft and not merely that, Apple, Sony, Google, Samsung and even Nintendo will see its impact (Sony and Nintendo less so). This was the setting I expected to come about 6 years ago and it is here a little faster then expected. 

This is all important because the advertisers will start losing out and that will stop gamers in their track as their games are less fulfilling. You see ad break gaming is nice in a turbo setting, but when the gamer considers where they ended up being they will want (read: demand) a more compelling form of gaming. This is good for people like Bethesda, Ubisoft, Guerrilla Games (and several others), but (for example in the UK) the 1,801 independent and publisher-owned studios. These studios employ around 75,000 people. The number of studios has grown significantly, with 251 new studios founded between December 2021 and April 2023 it is not good news, because what we don’t see is that these developers are relying on advertisement to make some of their money and when that falls away, these developers will fish behind the net of revenue.

And as I see it, Ubisoft has options in these glasses devices and they could also launch on Sony and Nintendo, but others will have to streamline whatever they thought was an option and others will merely collapse. As I see it, we haven’t see the power of Harmony OS yet but it will come and as America shuns away from that (for the most obvious stupid reasons) Europe and others are very willing to give their economy a boost from what HarmonyOS brings and now that the hardware is out some people will finally get the thought “How can this benefit us?” And that will be the start of a lot more and as I see it, Amazon has the inside track to grow more business (outside of the US) and there lies the setting for them. As some might ‘speculate’ that Amazon would not be profitable without its cloud business. We also see that the shape of the cloud is about to change and that is where the larger money is, because cloud gaming is only gaming in name. It can be a lot more and as I see it, the solutions I gave will become massively and not merely this game (I put it online for a reason) it could start a much larger wave and that is where I see my surf time (perhaps literally so). I reckon that the ‘older’ quote “HarmonyOS, Huawei’s operating system, is designed to work with a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and PCs. While it’s not directly tied to Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the same way as Android or iOS, you can still use it to access AWS services and resources.” I reckon that Amazon sees that this lack is about to end, because they have a clear goal to increase their visibility and whilst others are taken back, Amazon is seemingly embracing the options it opens up to. As I see it, people will prefer that setting then feeling blue (read: Azure). Yet another field where Microsoft is falling short of soon enough. Their failures do seemingly seem to stack up, don’t they?

We can see the snags we think we fail to see, we can ignore them or we can find away to make it work for us. So have a great day and consider where you could be in 2026 or 2027, because thinking you get there in 2025 is nice, but largely set to economic turmoils of the days we expect them to be according to some media. Consider where some people will END the stage of their products and see where HarmonyOS is merely beginning at present. It makes for an interesting read. Consider that WPS Office (by Kingsoft) its here for HarmonyOS and also on Amazon Fire tablets. Merely two places and as I see it, as this is free software there is a larger stage where Microsoft will end up surrendering market share. So as I said, have a great day. 

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