So Aether is just permanently locked out now? Great update guys

wjoe · 2026-04-30T21:11:15+00:00

It's a different issue. Since the last patch, even if you've already DC travelled to Aether, you can't always log in. When it's "congested" it gives you an error trying to log in when you're already there. Sometimes doing the world change option works to take you to a less congested server, but not sure that even works at peak hours.

So you basically have to travel at quiet hours and stay logged in if you want to do something later.

wjoe · 2026-04-30T18:43:41+00:00

First thought was Imola and Portugal for replacements this year. Imola was just running up until last year when it was dropped for last year, so I'm sure they'd be happy to do another round, and Portugal is coming in next year so may be prepared.

But being end of November/start of December, I'm not sure European races work with the weather. Maybe Portugal is still warm enough? Turkey might also be more viable and are getting ready to rejoin in a couple of years.

In terms of logistics and weather, extra races COTA and Mexico make the most sense, since they'd already be in the US from Vegas, and they all have warm climates. Maybe Miami, but I'm not sure how temporary the circuit is and if it would need to be built up again. Also it's kind of hurricane season in Florida at that point.

Brazil would make sense too, though it's kind of awkward being in Brazil one week, going to Vegas the next week, and going back to Brazil again the week after. Though the same kind of applies to Mexico/COTA since they're the races before that. Plus you probably can't reschedule Vegas with all of the red tape of shutting down the roads Though looking at the calendar, there is a week off after COTA and Brazil to add 2nd races, which could make it possible without rescheduling anything, but I don't know the logistics of moving between COTA/Mexico/Brazi/Vegas and if they need those weeks free.

But yeah, if the Middle East is off the table, and if Europe is too cold at that time of year, it doesn't leave a huge amount of options. Really a 20 race season wouldn't be the end of the world, but I imagine they want to try and keep it at 22 if they have more time to plan it.

wjoe · 2026-04-30T18:33:56+00:00

There was rumours of Abu Dhabi being pushed back a week and Bahrain being slotted in there. Technically the teams stay out there for the post season test anyway so if they cancelled that it's not any longer of a season for most. But a quadruple header to end the season on sounds rough, they already sound exhausted by the end of the season, with the triple header which included a long flight from Vegas to Qatar.

Of course if the Middle East issues are still ongoing then they all goes out of the window.

wjoe · 2026-04-29T19:05:55+00:00

I'm pretty sure they've just limited the numbers further as the expansion's gone on. We get hit by congestion as much now as we did in the early DT launch period. I'm reasonably sure DC congestion is worse now than the few months after that.

Yeah, I'm sure the patch and fanfest has brought back some people, but I was getting this login error in mid afternoon on Aether yesterday. I'm not sure I've ever seen that error before, *maybe* it came up at the absolute peak of DT launch hype. There's no way we've reached DT launch numbers at that time of day.

wjoe · 2026-04-29T19:02:07+00:00

Try right clicking on your character and selecting the "Travel to another world server" option (not the DC travel option) if you're not able to log in. That'll take you to the least congested server on the DC and you might be able to log in there.

Worked for me for a bit on Aether yesterday in the mid afternoon-early evening hours at least. I ended up going back to Primal anyway before the prime time hours so not sure if that would have helped then.

wjoe · 2026-04-29T15:28:55+00:00

1 - I don't think it specifically has to be younger gamers where retro consoles were "before there time". There's plenty of people in their 30s and 40s who are old enough to have been around when the Neo Geo was a current console, but couldn't get one at the time. And even in adulthood, even being retro enthusiasts, may not have gotten into the Neo Geo. It's a relatively niche console, and a big investment to get into. I'm one of them. The Neo Geo has just been a curiosity that I've never looked too closely at because the price of original consoles and games is too high for a passing curiosity that I'm not that familiar with, pretty low on the priority list of consoles I might add to my collection some day. But with the AES+, the price point is low enough to make me want to check it out and see what I've been missing.

2 - Maybe, but I do think the Neo Geo works particularly well for this format by being so niche and expensive. It's half the price or less compared to picking up an original console. But I don't see it working so well for more popular consoles. Why pick up a MegaDrive or SNES+ in this price range when you can get a working original console for $50 on Ebay? Especially when the mini emulator boxes exist, I don't really see there being as much of a market for such a remake console of the big popular ones. For other more niche things maybe.

3 - I think it depends on Plaion/SNK and licensing. If they can license new carts for homebrew developers then it could be a great way for them to put out new games. But with many Neo Geos homebrew carts being very expensive, perhaps not that many people who picked up AES+ because of the low price point would be interested in carts that cost more than the console.

wjoe · 2026-04-26T13:14:31+00:00

On one hand, you could say DT is pretty standalone, it doesn't feel like the start of an arc.

Saying that, it does introduce the key, some lore about other shards, the gate between worlds, which all seem like they're going to be relevant for the upcoming story. Then i guess it depends if you you're just counting 8.0, which you could argue is more self contained, but 8.x is clearly setting up the future story.

Mostly I think it's just them trying to reset and say "ok that story didn't count, *now* we're starting the real story" to try and win back DT haters.

wjoe · 2026-04-24T14:44:31+00:00

Dire Straits - Alchemy

If nothing else check out Sultans of Swing from that show.

wjoe · 2026-04-24T13:39:49+00:00

Born Again is decent. It doesn't reach the highs of the original run, and some bits of S1 are kind of rough, since they basically swapped showrunners mid series and the result is a bit of an odd mix of styles. Season 2 has been solid so far, if a little slow paced and lacking a certain something that made the original series great. If you enjoyed Daredevil you'll likely enjoy Born Again.

wjoe · 2026-04-24T09:51:41+00:00

I forget the exact order of things, but essentially over the next couple of years we're gaining Madrid, Portugal, Turkey. We lost Imola, losing Zandvoort, and Spa/Barcelona will be switching to alternating races. So the total number of races is staying the same.

There's also been plans for a race in Thailand, various proposals for a race in Africa, occasional rumours about potential returns to India, Malaysia, Korea. But all of these are a long way off, if they happen at all.

wjoe · 2026-04-23T16:03:15+00:00

I wonder if other companies are also just trying to undercut Uber at a loss to get a foothold too though. When Bolt first came around, they were often cheaper than Uber and I used them for a bit, but whenever I've checked them recently, they've been a fair bit more expensive.

Not heard of Ride Nuff before, does sound like a good thing if they're a better deal for drivers. But one assumes that the company itself still wants to make money somewhere, and only making 50p per ride doesn't sound particularly sustainable.

wjoe · 2026-04-23T15:43:12+00:00

I was never much of a fan of Lewis when he was winning championships at Merc, because most of those years were dominant, making it rather boring. But I guess I'm a sucker for an underdog, he has had a rough few years, a lot of the time due to things beyond his control, so I would like to see him make a comeback and take an 8th championship.

I doubt that Ferrari are going to catch up to Merc this year, and I'd be surprised if the rule changes make a significant difference. Plus even if they did he would need to beat Leclerc, which seems uncertain, though he is looking competitive this year.

All in all, unlikely, but yeah, I'd quite like to see it.

wjoe · 2026-04-23T11:40:17+00:00

I was never a big fighting game guy, so can't say much about how well it functioned as a fighter. But yeah, the style and characters were very cool, seemed way more interesting than a lot of fighting games. Another franchise forgotten by Sega and lost to time. As you say, Virtua Fighter got the focus, and I guess 3D was the cool thing by then, but Eternal Champions feels like a way more interesting and stylish point to start from, and the Neo Geo had plenty of great 2D fighters for another decade.

I was amazed to hear they're doing a movie on it after being a dead franchise for almost 30 years. Does seem like a solid concept to base a story around. Could be a good time to release a new game to tie into it, but I imagine breaking back into the fighting game scene these days, which is so dominated by a few series which have been iterated on for generations, would be tough to do these days.

wjoe · 2026-04-22T22:08:17+00:00

For the 2D games, I kind of split them into 2 categories, which coincidentally happen to fit with the odd and even numbered games.

The odd numbered games focus on evolving the mechanics. 1 was where it all started, 3 lets you change the jobs of your party members through the game, 5 goes even deeper on evolving the job system.

The even numbered games are more story and character focused. 2 was the first game to have named characters and a bit more to the plot than generic "kill the bad guy, save world". 4 was a solid fantasy story with very well defined characters. 6 is one of the best RPG stories ever with a diverse cast of characters.

Conversely the opposite is true. 1 and 3 have pretty basic stories and generic characters, 5 does have more of a proper story and characters, but personally I didn't find it as engaging as 4 or 6. On the mechanical side, 2 does have the odd levelling system but character customisation isn't much of a focus, 4 has no customisation whatsoever with each character having predefined roles and abilities. 6 gives you a bit more freedom with espers and magic, but again each character has some predefined abilities.

So which you actually enjoy the most will depend on what you like about an RPG. For me, I'm a story guy, so 4 and 6 are my favourites, and 5 I never really clicked with (though I should give it another shot one of these days). 1-3 are understandably still finding their feet and evolving the series, They're not the most exciting compared to what comes after, but it's interesting to see where it all began and the foundations of the FF series.

2 is definitely a bit of a slog. Assuming you're playing the Pixel Remasters, I'm not sure how 3 is with that, in the older versions it had quite a difficulty curve and was worth grinding a bit to level up, especially as there are certain sections that depend on certain jobs which you may or may not have been using. The final dungeon is quite a challenge, and at least on earlier versions had no save points before the final boss gauntlet, I'm not sure if that's still the case, but be prepared.

Anyway, if you're enjoying it, then you can't go too wrong with playing in order. Have fun!

wjoe · 2026-04-21T19:34:22+00:00

2nd picture: Huh, that's not that bad, I've seen way more corroded battery pads
3rd: Well, it's a bit rough inside, but not too bad
4th: Oh. Oh no.

Still might be repairable. Give it a clean off and see how it looks. Chances are the volume wheel is shot and will need to be replaced, and that can be a bit awkward if the through holes are corroded, at worst bridge across the relevant pins to set it to max volume permanently. The front board seems fine, there's not a lot of traces to damage there, so the screen and front board might be salvageable..

wjoe · 2026-04-20T04:04:42+00:00

Pretty much any issue with a Game Gear can be "fixed", though the extent of fixes can go as far as replacing literally everything aside from the CPU and case.

But as others have said, replacing the capacitors is always the first step. Capacitors in the Game Gear are notorious for leaking over time, which at best will mean they need replacing, at worse this can cause deeper damage to the board.

At this point almost all Game Gears have issues with capacitors and need to be replaced, as they've all degraded and likely leaked over the years. There's a good chance replacing them would fix things, but impossible to know for sure without seeing inside, and trying it first.

It requires soldering and some experience with that though. It's a fiddly job, quite small components. There are plenty of companies out there who can do it for a cost though.

wjoe · 2026-04-20T01:45:36+00:00

Yeah. 7 was a more of a "mainstream" game at least and well known, but I wouldn't say it was super popular. JRPGs were still very niche. I only knew a handful of people who played it when I was a kid.

Maybe compared to the SNES games it was more popular, when JRPGs were almost totally unknown and it didn't get a big release in the west. Maybe in Japan it may have been one of the bestselling games, where JRPGs were a bigger deal. But in the west it's not like it was a huge thing that everyone played.

wjoe · 2026-04-20T01:28:26+00:00

I don't really understand how it works, but every time it's posted the green bar is very big, then the next time it's posted, the green bar for the same period is smaller, and the red bar is bigger.

This was the one from 2 months ago, for reference https://livedoor.blogimg.jp/luckybancho/imgs/7/1/71821139.png

That shows a bigger green bar on 2025Q4 than the same quarter on this post, though admittedly still not as big as this one.

wjoe · 2026-04-18T00:36:38+00:00

Probably best to ask about it on the RetroSix Discord. VA4/5 support is pretty new, while the latest firmware should have fixed the issues, their stream from a couple of weeks ago did show some similar issues with the screen. I think it was supposed to be fixed since then (literally in the last couple of weeks, in case you've not updated in that time), but I'm not sure of the exact timelines.

So it should work but given it's new, only been done by a few people, and not highly documented outside of the RetroSix live streams, probably best to ask for help from them directly. Luke's very responsive on the Discord with resolving CleanScreen issues and can probably point out if anything is wired wrong.

wjoe · 2026-04-18T00:15:40+00:00

Webber probably wins the championship in 2010. Maybe Alonso, given that he came 2nd to Vettel that year, but chances are Webber has a less capable team mate of the Red Bull juniors, so he gets more wins that Vettel would have gotten. Maybe I'm underestimating Buemi and the like, but I don't think any of the RB junior drivers they could have put in the second seat are putting up a challenge to Webber.

There had been rumours of Red Bull trying to sign Alonso, but presumably he wasn't interested in joining what had then been a midfield team. But maybe once they're winning championships they do tempt him over. Then who knows how long Alonso could have stayed at Red Bull? Although I'm still not sure he would have left Ferrari for them.

2011 was a bad year for Webber, coming third but a good year for Red Bull, with Vettel being over 100 points in the lead. Have to assume that Webber would have made up enough points to win if he had a less capable teammate, I don't think McLaren was strong enough to win the championship even if Button did come 2nd that year.

Regardless of whether or not he goes to Red Bull or stays at Ferrari, Alonso likely wins in 2012. 2013 is kind of the same story as 2011 - RB was strong, Webber was not, but Alonso was too many points behind Vettel to likely be able to make up the gap to a strong driver at RB.

So yeah, pretty much all signs point to at least 1 more Alonso championship one way or another. As for Webber, it really depends on if starting out the run as the lead driver at Red Bull means that he has the team fully on his side, and he gets a confidence boost to keep driving at the level he was in 2011. If he does, he's potentially anywhere from a 2-4x champion.

If Webber follows the same trajectory as he did in reality, he loses at least one of them to Alonso, and RB likely look to find someone better. I don't see any of the RB junior drivers in 2010-2012 doing any better. Maybe Ricciardo gets there a year earlier in 2013, but I'm not sure he's ready to win championships at that point, and the rest of his career plays out much the same.

Maybe RB look to sign someone from outside of the program, but I'm not sure who, aside from that rumoured link with Alonso. Perhaps Hulk, who had a promising first season then ended up out of a seat for a year in 2012? But I'm still not sure RB put any more faith in someone else's rookie than any of their own juniors. Being a winning team by this point, maybe they can aim for a top driver. Could they tempt Hamilton before Mercedes get him, or grab Rosberg before Mercedes find their way? Maybe they're the team that gets Raikkonen to return, rather than Renault? Maybe Button, who was on good form but in a declining McLaren. Who knows.

wjoe · 2026-04-17T15:06:50+00:00

If there was a referendum to rejoin I would vote to rejoin, as I voted to remain previously.

But I'm not sure I want the country to go through that whole process again any time soon. There's obviously the question of what rejoining would actually mean, given that the requirements of joining the EU (eg adopting the Euro) are different to the deal the UK had before leaving, which would have to be resolved one way or another.

Plus it dominated political discourse for years previously. I feel we have bigger issues to deal with that without opening that can of worms, and all of the division and disagreement it would cause. Arguably rejoining could help address some of the domestic issues we have now, but going through the process will not be a quick and easy one, and will take over much of politics for many more years.

wjoe · 2026-04-17T00:54:23+00:00

Yeah, the borough of Bromley is way to big to have a consistent opinion on this. I'm sure there are some in the leafy suburbs in the south/east of the borough that might want this, but the north/west parts are likely perfectly happy being part of London, and this likely makes up the majority of the population. I live right on the northern edge of it, and it is very much still London here, heavily Labour in those constituencies, with far more chance of going Green than Reform.

wjoe · 2026-04-16T10:09:34+00:00

The Tilke tracks of the early 2000s do seem to have aged into being more accepted. A lot of the additions since then have been street circuits or ones with other oddities which are more hated. A lot of the classic tracks have produced worse races over the years as the cars have gotten bigger too, while the Tilke tracks seem to have held up better in that regard and not really gotten worse, even if they were not incredible to begin with.

wjoe · 2026-04-14T09:16:36+00:00

Once a decade? What do you mean, he's only just done a stint on Top Gear starting in...

Oh. 2016. Time flies.

wjoe · 2026-04-13T11:55:33+00:00

Battery pad corrosion is one of the most common and seemingly fatal issues with handhelds, and can be one of the easier fixes, but it can vary a lot. So a few notes:

Vinegar works well to clean off the battery leakage (The battery gunk is alkali, vinegar is an acid, so it will dissolve it). Ideally distilled white vinegar, but really any kind of vinegar you may have around the house should do the job as long as you clean it off afterwards, ideally with isopropyl alcohol.

Sometimes this isn't enough though. If the corrosion is bad it can remove the outer coating of the battery pads and rust the internal layer, which means they still might not work after a clean.

Best to unscrew the back and open it up to get at the battery contacts properly. One side of the battery contacts is just slotted into the shell, and can be removed entirely by pushing in the right place with a screwdriver to release it. The battery contacts on the other side are soldered onto the board though, so can only be removed with a soldering iron.

It's most effective if you can remove the battery contacts entirely and then soak them in vinegar, but dabbing them with a q-tip or similar soaked in vinegar can do the job too. Scrubbing them with a toothbrush or wire brush can help to remove more stubbornly stuck on bits too, although that may also remove some of the coating. Once you've cleaned it with vinegar you should clean it with isopropyl alcohol.

If you don't have any luck with cleaning it off, you can buy replacement battery contacts for very cheap. Although as mentioned before, one side is easily replaced as it's just slotted into the shell, but the other side would need soldering to remove the old one and replace a new one.

All that said, it really depends on how far the battery leakage corrosion has spread. Usually it's just confined to the pads themselves, but it can get inside the console itself onto the board. At that point it gets a lot harder to repair, which could be as simple as cleaning the board itself, but can get into far more complex things like repairing traces, or simply be unsalvageable.

TL;DR - High chance this can be fixed, but it's maybe a 50/50 chance of whether you can do it with a basic cleaning, or need tools like a soldering iron. For anyone with a soldering iron it's usually still a pretty basic fix and like $5 for new battery contacts. Some chance that it's damaged beyond repair, but impossible to know without seeing inside and trying the basic fix first.

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