Ace Combat 04 - "I Have So Far To Go" "The skies belong to everyone! Now, let's take back our Shattered Skies!" I am currently playing the holy trinity of Ace Combat for the first time, Ace Combat 04 being the only one I had played a bit before. Before this one I finished Ace Combat Zero, which for me was a great experience - but also a bit of a letdown. So, onto 04. Takeoff with Emotion I knew Ace Combat 04 fairly well beforehand, having seen all the missions and knowing the full soundtrack. But it had been a while since I last really interacted with it, so I had the benefit of forgetting plenty of stuff. That wasn't enough to go in blind, but at least enough to get a somewhat fresh experience. Ace Combat 04 made me happy right from the first startup. I waited for the opening video to play and was instantly catapulted back: This video. God, this video. What I am about to explain is a bit difficult to put into words. But, watching this, I got the same vibe that I get from Ridge Racer Type 4. This clean, stylish aesthetic and early 2000s sound that makes me think of Frutiger Aero. And even on its own: Starting up with an "I have so far to go", followed by an instrumental that sounds like a heartbeat at times. The camera shots are almost artistic in nature, the cuts synced to the music... This opening is perfect, made even better by quoting the credits song1. The first mission starts. And, right away, one of my minor gripes with Ace Combat Zero is fixed: the music is so much more memorable. There is a clear leitmotif in the soundtrack, and it makes plenty of tracks stick. The music has so many standout moments. Some of my highlights were: the high-stakes Imminent Threat, the blood-pumping and snazzy Comona, the almost thoughtful and tranquil Emancipation, the heroic Farbanti and, of course, Megalith, the track for the final mission. Megalith - Agnus Dei - Megalith was the first truly epic song in Ace Combat. And it carries that title with pride and grace. Listening to this song as you dogfight against an enemy squadron while meteors fall from the sky, shot down by missiles as lasers target the fragments, is a truly stunning feeling, especially the first time. And it started a tradition, since then every mainline game has had at least one epic orchestral track that fans gush over. One last point about the music: the national anthem of the player's country, which gets chanted once after a victorious mission. I somehow always found it catchy, so I would sometimes just sing it to myself when I felt good: O'er azure skies And emerald plains Where freedom and justice prevail With courage and strength We'll fight to the end For liberty in our land. The people are celebrating and chanting the anthem after you liberate an important city. Simple, Yet Satisfying You fly planes, just like in every Ace Combat game. The entire series being arcade flight games, you might think: How much mission variety could there really be in them? And the general answer is: Plenty! The answer for Ace Combat 04 is: Not a ton? Ace Combat 04 uses plenty of Annihilation Missions, which usually are a lot of fun. You get to just explore and try stuff out, usually with a choice of whether you'd rather fight ground or air targets. Along with that, most missions allow you to resupply, which most later games restrict a lot more. This allows you to change loadouts in most missions, giving you the flexibility to do what you want and to deal with changing situations. A typical example of a mission of that type. Note the score requirement in the top left. Another thing of note: The enemy ships have names during the mission and get called out appropriately when sunk, just like the carrier Geofon which is about to be destroyed by my cluster bombs. Neat detail. Being usually fun, of course, means some aren't. A few of them, most notably "Tango Line", suffer from long stretches where nothing happens and a general issue with their length. About twenty minutes is simply too long, especially considering that if you get shot down or crash you have to do all of that again. Another weakness shows when Ace Combat 04 tries to be original. This especially happens during the second third of the game. At that point I was kind of wishing for something other than another score attack, but when it came I cursed myself. The game attempted to add variety by introducing a few gimmick missions, the worst of them (which of course follow "Tango Line", to add salt to the wound of the midgame plateau) are: A mission where you fly without radar, you have to shoot down static balloons in a very generous time window. You cannot lock on to them so you have to use the gun. It is boring, you mainly fly around moving your camera. After that there are four whole enemy planes to fight, though! Which you will probably shoot down in half a minute... A mission where you have to shoot down enemy cruise missiles. They do not fight back, you just fly towards them, shoot at them, they get destroyed. Only the final one is a challenge because it flies very erratically, however that one felt almost scripted to me in how late it died. These missions made me yearn for the previous gameplay again, regretting I ever doubted Project Aces and its love for annihilation missions in this game. Another catch for me, which I luckily could dodge thanks to emulation, is the control setup. Modern Ace Combat makes your plane accelerate and brake via the triggers on your controller, while you use the bumpers to yaw. In the old games that is reversed, which really did not feel right to me. And I was not interested in fighting my muscle memory, so I changed the emulator settings to get what I was used to. Something I am very happy with: Ace Combat 04 allows you to fly the Tornado, one of my favourite airplanes. Note that it even has one of its signature weapons, a munitions dispenser based on the Mehrzweckwaffe 1. But the gameplay works. It works really well, there are plenty of planes and weapons to use and you will usually find plenty of stuff to fight against as well. The slower turning rates of the aircraft make the fights feel more tactical at times than in the modern games, where you usually pull high-g turns and can point your nose at an enemy within two seconds. Planes are incredibly detailed, too, with a myriad of specific animations that mirror how they would behave in real life, such as the gun port of the F-22 having to open before firing due to it being a stealth plane, leading to a minor firing delay compared to other jets. It is not something one will actively notice while playing, unless one already has a preference and knowledge about these planes, but it subconsciously helps make it all feel weightier and more real. More so than it would have to be for an arcade flight game where you shoot down dozens of planes per mission while carrying 60 missiles and 16 bombs. A Game of Character Ace Combat 04 oozes character. Its story is told in drawn cutscenes, which are still frames. But their narration and musical score are so well done that you cannot help but get enthralled by them. You follow a boy who lost his family to a crashing plane, which leaves him with a lot of hatred for the pilot who shot it down. By chance he stumbles upon that pilot, the top enemy ace, and finds out how hollow the man's life is. It not only gives context for how the war is going, as the enemy planes and plans fall into more and more disarray, but also humanises the opponent. The enemy ace is no grand character, he does not stand out during the missions where you fight him. But the cutscenes help make him feel human, even a tiny bit tragic. At the same time they also show what the war is like for the people on the ground, the citizens in occupied territories or the ones celebrating after being liberated. A detail I loved: The Eruseans hung up their flag on an important landmark in an occupied city, which feels like something that would really happen. In general, to say a few words about the story: the country of Erusea invades the independent collection of states in Usea (which is the name of the continent), which might sound like allegories for Russia and the US, but they aren't. Those roles are reserved for other countries (namely Osea and Yuktobania). The war is almost entirely lost, but thanks to the efforts of the pilot "Mobius 1" the outcome of the war changes decisively, with Mobius 1 creating hope for allies and striking fear into Eruseans. Which you, as the player, do not feel bad about, because the game actively shows you the terrible things they do. For example they attempt to shoot down a civilian airliner used to evacuate refugees. The intercepting pilots comment on that in an appropriate manner: Our primary target is that passenger plane! It's a big target. Just shoot and you're sure to hit it. But eventually the people are safe, and the civvie pilot is grateful to Mobius 1. The game doesn't pull its punches in general: hospitals being used as weapons platforms, a casual mention that a mission has a projected 40% casualty rate at the best of times, enemies being called fascists, children taking part in a resistance against an invading force. It makes the game feel a lot more serious than it otherwise would, especially since it rarely forces it on you. Note that even the enemy ace, Yellow 13, disagrees with placing weapons on a hospital. Just casually stating that 40% casualties are expected. Hearing "fascists" so bluntly felt refreshing. Your allies get plenty of chances to show off with random lines, too. The voice acting of many characters during missions is audibly worse than in the modern titles, which makes sense from a budget and production standpoint, but it still feels amazing. It gives character, too, when a random pilot shouts "Come on, daddy needs a bullseye!". My minor gripe is simply that some lines repeat too often, especially at mission starts. There was one about "Wingman consideration" or something along those lines that played so often that I started to audibly chuckle whenever it came up again. Even enemy weapons have character, the main ones being "Stonehenge" and "Megalith"2. Both of them get introduced ahead of time, are mentioned regularly and shown to be a big threat. Each one also gets its own introductory cutscene, which shows how epic and powerful they are when they see action. The only issue with that: Their shown character doesn't live up to what you experience. Both battles are ultimately fairly simple and easy and can be finished in under five minutes if one decides to do so. That felt very anti-climactic and a tad disappointing, in particular with Stonehenge, since it is a lot easier to defeat. Ultimately, however, I feel like it tracks. Compared to later games Ace Combat 04 often feels a bit simple, as described in the gameplay section. The developers had not yet found the right way to make a great superweapon battle, which led to neither of them being worthy of their grandiose setups. Even if the battle wasn't epic, the setup of Megalith still is. An E-3 Sentry AWACS flying amidst falling asteroid fragments. Yes, this is as cool as it seems. But what Ace Combat 04 does excel at is making the player feel like a hero. Your allies will come to rely on you more and more, your appearance signalling hope and a change in the tide of battle. The enemies react when they see your "Ribbon" emblem, some get cocky, some desperate. It carries this feeling that Ace Combat often manages to evoke, that you, as this elite pilot, are not just important for the war effort but a symbol to the people. And as if all of this was not enough, before the final mission, a speech plays in the usually calm hangar while you choose your plane. The final words of which I chose as the opening quote for this article, but I also want to note this one: "Although we are from different nations, and of different races, we have fought, suffered and died together, fighting for what we believe in – fighting for freedom." Early Struggles,... "Shattered Skies", as Ace Combat 04 is known in North America, clearly suffers a bit from being the first title on a new console generation. The PS2 offered a lot of power for graphical improvements, which are absolutely apparent compared to the PS1 titles. But it feels, as mentioned before, like it just wasn't clear yet which direction to take. You have plenty of sandboxy but mechanically simple missions that, if it were not for scenery and music, would be impossible to tell apart on gameplay alone. Your big enemy weapons fall a bit short, there aren't any challenging boss fights and money was never short during my playthrough, allowing me to always buy whatever plane I wanted or needed, never forcing me to consider a strategy. Always being able to resupply and change loadout made this a bit worse, it felt like the game gave me too much flexibility and, in return, didn't challenge me enough. And, I swear to god, whoever thought that the "Mission Update" sound should be a blaring, grating tone that repeats for over ten seconds has hopefully never touched sound design again. It is so out of place and far too long, a quarter of the length would have been perfectly serviceable. ... Still Grand Ace Combat 04 is amazing. Even with its mid-game plateau I can see myself replaying it fairly regularly, the core gameplay loop works very well despite its simplicity. That is something I couldn't say about Ace Combat Zero, just as I can remember far more missions from 04 than from Zero. I don't know. History determines the winner. But there's one thing I can say for certain. Heroes really do exist. We've just seen one, and now he's coming home. It does have its flaws and has aged in some regards, as is to be expected from a game older than some of the people reading this. But you can tell that the framework for what Ace Combat would later morph into is being laid here: the big superweapons with epic orchestral scores, the enemy ace squadrons that usually play a memorable role and the "war is bad but planes are rad" stance the series would take again and again. The first thing you might hear in the game is "I have so far to go" as the opening charms you. And, if we imagine that this line is about the Ace Combat franchise at that point in time, I have to agree. It eventually grew into something much grander and more epic, but it would never have done that if it weren't for Ace Combat 04. The credits song was eventually remixed for Ace Combat Infinity, a free-to-play multiplayer game. For a long time this song was one of the most epic tracks in the entire series, only recently matched or overtaken by tracks in Ace Combat 7 and 8.↩ There are plenty of big superweapons in Ace Combat. The lore reason is a devastating asteroid called Ulysses 1994XF04: countries spent a lot of money on weapons to shoot down as many of its fragments as possible. That caused technological leaps, inflated defense budgets and, apparently, megalomania among many leaders.↩ https://annoflo.net/ht-ac4/ #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

How a shift in colour can completely change a scene Sometimes you walk through familiar places. You do so once, twice or a million times. It always seems to be the same. But suddenly there is something new, something has changed, something you have never seen before. A few days ago I made that experience for the first time. I walked to work many times in my life, cycled there even more often. I am familiar with the 15 minutes, know how it feels. I know how the historic city center feels when illuminated by the warm light of all the streetside lamps. I know how it reflects of the wet cobblestone after rain. But that day, that day it was able to surprise me. I could see from the distance that something was different. The warm lights weren't there, instead replaced by blue lights. It was an amazing feeling, I never saw this before. The entire market square was covered in a dark blue haze. I was enthralled the very first time I saw this. There was something completely magical about what it felt like. It felt like an entirely different world, every shade, every colour I was used to was changed. I was hoping it would return the next day, but no, it was back to its normal shade. Today then I walked to work again. The beautiful nightsky I was used to was stolen from me by the changing of the time this past weekend. Now it was a lot brighter when I walked to work, only a few stars kept me company. I was a bit sad about that. Eventually I reached the market square again and my heart beat more quickly: Blue. Even with a brighter sky it was still dazzling. And even the full moon kept me company, having reached its full state just an hour ago. This time I had my camera on me, too. I took it all in, knowing that tomorrow morning it might not grace me again. I felt invigorated and ready to take on this week. https://annoflo.net/change-colour/ #blue #even #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Ace Combat Zero - The Last of the Holy Trinity "Yo, buddy. Still alive?" Lately I am on a bit of an Ace Combat binge. I had a bit of distance from the franchise ever since I sank 80 hours into Ace Combat 7, but I am now returning in full force. Ace Combat 8 released, which I was immediately happy about. But just playing 8 was not enough, I wanted more. That is why I am now playing the holy trinity of Ace Combat. I must, shamefully, admit that I never really played the three PS2 titles properly. I watched plenty of things about them, of course, but I never threw the PS2 discs I had into my console. And after my TV died1 I had no way to do so anymore, anyway. The last entry of the holy trinity was, funnily enough, the one I started playing first. The reason for that is simple: it came packed with the pre-order of Ace Combat 8, so I did not have to go through emulation setup for it. I finished it in a couple of days, which wasn't too difficult due to the game not being super long. And spoilers ahead. The Good Ace Combat Zero is a great game. That in itself is a big good. It feels like Ace Combat, and the fights are generally very enjoyable, especially due to ammo being fairly sparse. It forces you to actually engage with your machine guns sometimes, which is pretty rare in the more modern titles. But I will tell you: the feeling of clinching an enemy ace encounter with only machine gun ammo left was amazing! Especially since the game can be quite lethal, often a single enemy missile will bring you close to death. While we are speaking about enemy aces: They are really cool, too. Ace Combat Zero has fantastic introduction cutscenes for them, which actually became the staple for squadron encounters in the whole series afterwards. But, not just that, you get to fight different ones depending on your choices in the game: The gimmick of Zero is the "Ace Style". During missions you regularly get targets which are highlighted in yellow, instead of the usual green. These are optional targets and can range from a heavily damaged bomber that is trying to evacuate to objects just named "House". If you shoot these targets down you will get your Ace Style moved more towards the "mercenary" end. If you spare them it will move towards the "knight" end, while if you keep a balance you will stay at "soldier". That leads to different enemy ace encounters and some different lines at points. Why would you be authorized to blow up a random house? Good question, I am sure they stored something militarily very important in there! The system helps with repeated playthroughs and is heavily supported by the fact that some missions have multiple fights you can choose. It is usually a choice of an air-to-air, an air-to-ground and a multirole mission. That reminded me of Ace Combat X: in it you can often select a different order in which to tackle missions, which results in differing strategic and tactical situations. Your choices have impacts on later missions, too, and you can even skip some. Zero does not go that far, but it helps with longevity. The presentation of Ace Combat Zero is great, too. The game has plenty of little details, especially on the planes (the air intakes of the F-15 line will move just like in real life, for example), that make them feel like the real deal. And the music, it has to be mentioned, too. I know that this will be a recurring theme throughout all the games, but the music is absolutely amazing. The highlight of the game is, without a doubt, the track "Zero" that is being played during the final encounter. Epic chants, Spanish guitar and electric guitars really make it stand out. Here the intakes are straight... ... and now the intakes are angled. And the way the story is told is amazing, too. The documentary-like cutscenes really stand out in the whole franchise, and while I wouldn't call the characters (any of them in the game, in fact) deep or developed, they do their job of being the window dressing well. Zero is, after all, a prequel and chronologically the first game in the whole series. The aircraft selection in the game is fantastic, too, being the only game in the series I have come across so far to feature a Saab 35 Draken, which is really cool because it is even one of the starting planes! I saw it in real life a while back, during my trip to Poland, so having the big flying wedge be represented in the game was lovely. The Not So Good The game occasionally has missions where you can rearm during them, usually they have the goal to destroy a certain number of targets on the map. They are generally very fun, with the only caveat being: when you rearm you usually have to fly for quite a bit of time. Time during which nothing happens, you just stay in a straight line at max speed. After you rearm you do the same for the way back. Another one of my pet peeves is the target selection. You switch through targets with the "Triangle" button, which doesn't seem to work in a satisfying way in this game. Oftentimes it felt like the selected targets were not the ones that would have made sense, not picking the one right in front of me and instead one that was a good 90° away from me. I feel like that worked a lot better in other Ace Combat games, and I am curious to see if I will have the same issue with Ace Combat 4 and 5. Most of my gripes in this category will fall under the "oh, the game is simply old" explanation. I get that games used to be like that, but it is just a bit of a contrast to me being used to modern Ace Combat. Take, for example, the lack of checkpoints in the missions. That can lead to some very frustrating moments. One mission has you destroy plenty of enemies, until a mission update comes and you suddenly have to flee from a huge laser. That laser might instantly kill you, so you have to dodge. Fail and you have to do all of it again. The missions are usually short, though, so it never becomes too annoying. Maybe a bit too short? I found myself being a bit surprised at missions suddenly ending, sometimes, especially when in modern Ace Combat they would pull a "Mission Update" on you. The game is a few generations old, of course, but I still would have been happy with a bit more to do. I feel like Pixy, while great, is a bit underutilized. His betrayal did not really sting that much, and I felt like it happened a tiny bit too suddenly. Like many things in this game: they just appear without any setup. Take the big enemy airborne fortress, for example. It just appears during a briefing, you get sent to shoot it down and then do that during that very mission. No big setup (there is some environmental storytelling during a previous mission that teases it, in the form of a big hangar) and it is gone as quickly as it arrived. When you are used to the big setups of the other games in the series it can feel anti-climactic. Look at this cool thing! But don't look too long, because you only get to enjoy it for one mission. But, of course, the one thing where the game takes its time is setting up that the character "PJ" will die. He will frequently say things such as Oh, I will come back and Yeah, this is my last flight. His last few words before dying are literally him talking about how he will propose to his girlfriend once you return to base. After that he gets killed. You can imagine that it was a bit difficult to take his death seriously. It was worse because he said the totally out-of-character line: "We are gonna be rich!" after he thought we had won the war. While I felt like Pixy was underutilized, he still has the most memorable lines in the entire game. Why is this out of character? The whole game he has been talking about how bad this war is, how unjust. How he just wants to end it. And then he suddenly screams like Mr. Krabs? I can tell you why that is: I went down the mercenary path, and his line changes depending on what you did. That doesn't justify it being completely contrary to his character. And, as a German, I found the usage of German words a bit silly and a bit on the nose sometimes. Ignoring the butchered pronunciation, you have things like the "Bombing of Hoffnung" which are just sooooo corny, even for Ace Combat's admittedly very high amounts of corniness. Of course the enemy nation is based on Germany, and the squadron names predominantly being colours in German (Grün, Rot, Schwarz2,...) is admittedly cool, it was just too much for me. Schwarz squadron, one of the mid-game bosses you face. The intro cutscenes are always cool. Conclusions All in all I really enjoyed Ace Combat Zero. It only suffers from having been a rushed development job, having apparently been made in about a year after Ace Combat 5 was a big hit. It explains why many of my gripes are the way they are. But it is still a shame, because if it weren't for them the game could have been an even better experience. Especially if some of the higher-stakes aspects of the story had been given more time to be developed, it could have been even more memorable. It might sound like I am very critical of it in some points, but that mainly is because I felt like it lacked consistency. The finale is grand and epic, but so many moments fell a bit short. And I feel a bit of disappointment at the way the game wastes some of its potential. I was still super happy playing this game and I will absolutely play it again, in order to experience some other Ace Styles. But I cannot help but wonder what it could have been with more time to become something grand. Next up is Ace Combat 4, the only one I played a bit already. Expect a post on it, too, once I am done. Short story time: I used to own a TV. One day, as I was sitting in my living room, it suddenly started smoking. I remembered that TVs do not usually do that, so I disconnected it from the power supply and put it on the balcony. Just in case it decided smoking isn't enough.↩ Okay, the squadron is called "Schwarze" in-game. I refuse to spell it wrong, though, because the German name should just be "Schwarz". Either "Schwarz Squadron" or "Schwarzes Squadron", the latter would make it proper Denglish. All of the other squadrons just have the base term of the colour as their name. Yes, this bothers me, how could you tell?↩ https://annoflo.net/ht-ac0/ #acecombat #combatzero #holytrinity #acestyle #goodace #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Writerdeck 2.0 Okay, I have decided to rework my Writerdeck almost entirely. Rebuilt from ground up, one could say. Why did I do that? I tinkered a lot and added more stuff to it, however that eventually led to more and more things breaking. Which, as you might be able to imagine, isn't all that great. It started to annoy me a bit, so I felt like a fresh start was in over. Previously I used wordgrinder to write, which is a fantastic piece of software. Just not great for markdown and even less so for bearblog-markdown. Everywhere else I use Typora, which to me is the greatest Markdown editor available. And I kind of wanted to use it on there, too. I mean, I pay for three licenses, so I might as well use my third one, too. So, what did I do? I installed a fresh Operating System, the terminal-base didn't suit me anymore. I went for Debian 13 Xfce, since it is pretty lightweight and should be reasonable for my T470. Went swimmingly, I got to use my USB stick I got in Czechia1 a few years ago. It is kind of shocking to think about: I am a computer scientist but I only really own two USB sticks, at least that I know of. There might be a few more in some spots in my apartment I did not check in aeons. Ahem, to continue: I then setup Typora again, got my CSS theme that is based on my blog theme ready and tried it out. Worke swimmingly and looks great, even though the screen of the T470 really is not that great. Afterwards I setup rclone with my Dropbox, so that I can collaborate with my other devices easier. I already did that on my Writerdeck 1.0, works like a charm. Lastly, to be able to do some research without a lot of distractions I am getting Kiwix setup. The maxi English Wikipedia and the nopic German one. Might still take two hours to download, but I need to calibrate my batteries anyway so the deck is now charging until it is full. So yeah, consider that a small update on the Writerdeck! It has been a productive afternoon, but I feel as if this has been a very successful operation and one that made my Writerdeck a lot more capable. Typora is just a fantastic piece of software, what can I say? Lastly: I am working on a bigger post about a series of video games that I care about quite a bit. It might still take a few weeks, and I plan on posting a few other things until it is done... But I am already really looking forward to it. I went to Liberec a few years ago, which was lovely. I especially liked the botanical garden there, and I hope to go there again sometime not too far in the future. Maybe even with my best friend, since that way we could meet in the middle.↩ https://annoflo.net/wt-2/ #writerdeck #might #which #typora #went #usb #markdown #operatingsystem #englishwikipedia #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Stickers I was never someone who put stickers or something like that on my equipment. And I don't think that will change now. But, those who remember my very first post, I actually put some stickers on my Writerdeck. That device is the most personal I own, it's very customised to how I want to use it. And unlike every other device I own it shows that on the outside, too. Can you tell the origin of some of those stickers? It's fully mine. Every sticker I put on there I chose or got for a reason. Plenty of those I got specifically for it, showing things I'm passionate about or interested in. Others I got naturally, such as the "Flip the World!" sticker that I added there recently. So every sticker is a little memory, not just for the sticker itself, but also for the thing it represents. Each one is pretty much like a small statement. I like cats, I like seals, I like birds and foxes. In ANNO 2070 I always played the Ecos. I fixed this device myself, changed the OS, configured plenty of things... There's a story and a reason for each and every one of them. Or if something left an impression on me I might look for a nice sticker representing it, like with The Expanse or XCOM. Anyways, even if it stays the way it is, it's a thing that brings me plenty of joy. Will I start putting stickers on more things I own? Probably not, for that I prefer the minimal, clean look too much. But that more chaotic look on this specific device, which is fully and solely for my writing, is what makes it even more special. https://annoflo.net/stickers/ #stickers #every #plenty #writerdeck #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Autumn is here, time is flying Outside it starts to feel properly like autumn. The leaves are turning progressively more golden, losing their vibrant green from summer and spring. It looks lovely, especially as the leaves are being reflected in the local river. The air is getting crisper, walking to work in the morning with both my breath and the stars above me visible. I loved cycling to work when it is already bright outside, but I also love seeing the nightsky above me while music is playing. I need to start heating my apartment, my hands grow cold as I sit at the desk. Warm tea helps, but just for a moment. I changed my blanket, it is now made of two different ones that are attached to another. They keep me nice and warm during the night, plus it feels quite heavy. Autumn reminds me of the time passing. It is already October, the year is ending fast. A few months left and I will be 26. I started my new job in June, I have already been here for more than four months. My trip to Poland has almost been four weeks ago. Time is flying fast these days. Slowly, but steadily, the colours will change. https://annoflo.net/aihtif/

Tech-Tinkering and other Projects Work has been busy lately, that much is certain. But I have also been busy during my private life with a few projects that I have been preparing, which explains why I am not nearly as active on this blog as I want to be. But it is fine, I am taking everything at my pace and however I am allowed to. So, what have I been up to? Digital Art This one has suffered a bit from my other recent projects (and some games...), I did not get to dedicate as much time with it as I would have liked. But I still scribbled around a bit on my iPad, which has an original Apple case I got for free due to some mix-ups at the store. Does my "art" look good? Absolutely not, but it is fun. Nothing I feel comfortable sharing yet, but I feel like I am making tiny progress. Flipper and Radio No, not the dolphin. Well, okay, kind of yes. I have been trying to get into wireless transmission technologies, because of course that is something that would interest me. Some people might remember me writing about radio a few months ago as one of my first posts. It is still something I am passionate about, and during random listening I discovered a cool station from Kazakhstan. But, okay, wrong topic. Radio waves are everywhere and used for so many things, yet I know so little about them. And that bothered me, so I decided to learn more about them. At first I wanted to get a Flipper Zero, which is basically a tool to learn and mess around with different wireless transmission technologies. Infrared, NFC, stuff like that. But as I was researching it I had another idea. I wanted to have something that allowed me to do more with radio waves in particular, analyze them, stuff like that. So I got a radio receiver and an antenna plus software on my laptop to look at the radio-transmissions. And it was a load of fun! I started with FM Radio and learnt a few new things already, about bandwidth and how to read and interpret these waterfall charts. Afterwards I even set up a small ADS-B (aviation stuff used to show where a plane is located) receiver linked to a map, that showed which plane signals I could receive nearby. The most distant ones I could receive were over 200 km away, all with my silly antenna I had standing on my balcony (on a tower-fan, because I did not have anything else to give it more elevation). Checking out some FM Broadcasts, just like a normal consumer radio. And my pro-setup! I hadn't put it on the fan yet at that point, that would make it look even sillier. The Flipper isn't here yet. I already had it once, but the screen arrived scratched, so I returned it and am now anticipating a new arrival this week. Hopefully it will be better. Retroid Okay, enough about dry theory. Let's do something fun now! I have been a big fan of handheld consoles for a while now, my latest one was a Steam Deck, which I eventually got rid of after I got my big desktop setup. The Steam Deck was great, but simply too cumbersome to carry around everywhere. Both my 3DS or Vita (yes, I was one of the seven people that owned a PS VITA) were a lot more convenient. Which made me order a "Retroid Duo". Retroid make emulation-focused Android consoles, and the Duo is basically their knockoff DS, two screens with a hinge. It has not been shipped yet, but I was already able to prepare the games I want to play on it. So I spent some evenings collecting all that I wanted to play, covering games from SNES to PS2, via PSP, DS, PSX and more. It turned into a neat little collection, I must say, and I am so looking forward to trying this thing out. A few titles I am particularly happy about getting to play on it. Ace Combat 3, for example. The version that was released in the West was notoriously cut down, but luckily the original Japanese version has a fan-translation. So I patched the ROM and now have it sitting ready for me. I have never really learnt anything about AC3, which means it will be a new experience for me. I also look forward to Wipeout Portable Collection, which is a combined mod of the two PSP Wipeout games. I played Wipeout Pure a ton as a kid, so I am more than ready for a trip down memory lane. Not just that, I also got a few Pokemon romhacks that seem super promising! It will probably receive its own post once it is ready and setup :) https://annoflo.net/1026-projects/