iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 28/09/2026

I got jump scared thinking you stole my cat

A photo of my cat which looks eerily similar to Mr Judd’s cat. They are both dilutes tabby cats with very similar tabby patterns.

Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 21/09/2026

09/20/2026 - finished the campaign for Project Wingman! I have the Ace Combat bug real bad while waiting for AC8. This game definitely scratched the itch. I got to play a few missions in VR but it made me a little sick. I played this game exclusively with my HOTAS and it was great. Great music!

Cover for the arcade combat flight game Project Wingman.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 19/09/2026

09/19/2026 - Screamer (2026). Excellent arcade racing experience with kick ass music.

Cover for the 2026 arcade style racing game Screamer by Milestone.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 19/09/2026

I completed the "Tournament" mode for Screamer. This game is definitely a top of 2026 for me. The gameplay, art, and music all come together to make one of the best racing experiences I had in years.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 04/09/2026

This makes complete sense seeing as how I was born here

A screenshot of a dialect map.

It has a representation of the United States with varying colors emanating from the US South East, centered over Alabama.

The colors go from deep red to orange, salmon, brown, yellow, green, light blue and dark blue.

The text in the image reads:
Your dialect map
Redder areas talk more like you; bluer areas least.

You talk most like someone from Alabama — about 53% of your answers match a typical resident.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 04/09/2026

Man Game Arts was amazing. Akai CTD1390 taken with Galaxy S26

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 10/08/2026

Hi-Fi Rush on physical disc for Sony PlayStation 5 has finally arrived! I waited years to get this game on disc! #ForeverPhysical #SavePhysicalGames

A hand holding the physical PlayStation 5 edition of Hi-Fi Rush

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 06/08/2026

Completed 08/06/2026: This is Shenmue for fans of Shenmue. Despite the 18 year gap between the second and third entries you'd be hard pressed to find significant differences. It was almost as if no time had passed at all in gaming. That's actually quite refreshing.

The key art for Shenmue 3. Features Ryo, a young Japanese man, standing next to Shenhua, a young Chinese woman.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 20/07/2026

Cleared Denshattack! story and it’s better than it has business being for a game about tricked out trains doing crazy impossible stunts. This game is just pure gameplay joy start to finish, even if it has some frustrating control moments. The soundtrack is amazing too.

Cover art for Denshattack! Featuring the main character Emi and her ramen delivery train!

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 20/07/2026

Any Socket A fans around? Yes that is the ThermalTake Volcano cooling my Athlon 3000+ As for RAM probably going with a single 1 Gig stick of DDR-333. This board doesn’t support dual channel anyway.

Asus A7N8X-X motherboard with the CPU cooler attached

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 19/07/2026

I love Star Ocean and the first game is better than it gets credit for.

Japanese copy of Star Ocean on the Super FamiCom next to the American PlayStation Portable remake.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 06/07/2026

My wife got me a killer birthday present this year!

Photo a guitar effect pedal. It is the Hologram Electrics Microcosm. The microcosm is an off white oversized pedal.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 05/07/2026

Resonance of Fate is one of the best looking games on the PlayStation 3. Tri-Ace really delivered on the groundwork set up by Valkyrie Profile 2.

Photo of a Cathode Ray Tube Television displaying the PlayStation 3 video game Resonance of Fate. The game world is a clockwork cacophony of gears and sprockets while the inhabitants exhibit a mishmash of late 1890s - 1920s styles of clothing.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 30/06/2026

Date yourself with a snap of your first ever computer. The most famous computing failure of all time: The Apple Lisa. It was already old when I was born. Dad got it in the early 80s. He talked his work place into selling it to him when they were unhappy with it.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 30/06/2026

Let’s fucking go! Superstation One is on the way!

Screenshot showing my order has been updated:

Retro Remake
Your shipping status has been updated

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 29/06/2026

I got a lot of value out of my AMD X2 back in the day. Ran this bad boy hard for four years, 2006-2010, before upgrading to the Phenom II 1100T BE. I ran that 1100T for 8 years, 2010-2018.

Amd Athlon 64 XV 3800+ with the motherboard behind it. There are two sticks of OCZ memory in the board.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 05/06/2026

Not bad but the test is bunk because it’s clearly developed by a millennial. The section in tech references how what Gen X & millennial called ”Uncs” (re: boomers) interacted with tech.

Screenshot of “Am I Unc?” results.

Tier: Youth Coded
Unc Score: 8
Youth Score 92

You’re tapped in. The aura is uncooked. Keep doing what you’re doing.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 29/05/2026

The portrait work is a big step up in Sakura Wars 2

Shinguji Sakura standing in front of a bridge spanning a river. Cherry blossoms fall around her.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 28/05/2026

05/27/2026 Sakura Wars 1996 down! It was a fun experience. Dating sim mixed with strategy RPG. The “sim” elements are very light by modern standards but taken in context of the time and that it’s one of the earliest crossovers in this space I think we can forgive that. Battles are slow but fun.

Cover for Sakura Wars featuring Shinguji Sakura, she is Japanese girl wearing a kimono and brandishing a katana!

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 17/05/2026

May 16: I finally went back & rolled credits on Forspoken. I fell off for quite awhile as I wanted to go do more of the lore bits from the optional dungeons but that was fatiguing. Over all this game didn’t deserve the hate it got. The game play and traversal are fun. I like the world & lore too.

The cover art for Forspoken. It features the main characters Frey and Cuff. Frey is a young black woman who can use magic and cuff is a talking cuff on her arm.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 16/05/2026

The Scalable Video Switch fucks. Definitely one of the best analog switches I ever used.

The Scalable Video Switch. This is a 7 module switch. There are 3 composite/S-Video and one component inputs with a composite/S-Video and component out each.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 14/05/2026

As it’s the 10th anniversary of its release, and 20th of its announcement, I started replaying #FinalFantasyXV on PC. Running 1440p with DLAA 4.5 via Reshade really cleans up the TAA and DLSS v1 noise. There are countless things to be said about FFXV but it’s a very special game to me.

The four main characters from Final Fantasy 15 stand on the precipice of a cliff over the city of Insomnia which has been conquered by the empire.

Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, a fair skinned blonde woman, looking determined.

The cast’s main transport, the car named Regalia, on a wet road under an overcast sky.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 10/05/2026

I thought I lost this bad boy but turns out it was in a box at my parents’ house. The modulation capabilities aren’t too bad to my mature ears, even given how early this unit is. Drive, distortion, amp sim, and cab sim are about as good as you can expect from the early 00s.

A digitech RP200-A guitar floor based multi-effects processor with an expression pedal. The effect currently selected is Whammy.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 20/04/2026

April 19th, 2026 - Finished Half-Life: Alyx today! What a wild experience. Valve was probably right to cancel HL2: Episode 3 all those years ago. The series has pushed game systems and interactivity with each entry. Alyx is a proper new entry and I can't wait to see what Valve can do with VR next.

Cover art for Half-Life Alyx. It features the titular Alyx, making her way through a metal wall constructed by the Combine.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 12/04/2026

Since I started playing Sakura Wars on my Saturn via the Saroo, it’s made me also want to go back and finally finish my 16 year old Valkyria Chronicles II play through. I started this in 2010 and I had just met my (future) wife. 1/

Photo of a CRT television displaying a scene from Sakura Wars. It features the cast of characters in their Imperial Assault Force uniforms. From left to right: Ogami, Sakura, Kohran, Sumire, and Maria. There is a text box at the bottom the reads Victory Pose!

Photo of a Sony PlayStation Portable. It is displaying a scene from Valkyria Chronicles 2. Characters in the scene from left to right: Zeri, Avan, Colette, and Juliana.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 01/04/2026

Finally playing サクラ大戦! Yes I know that physical copy is actually the Dreamcast version of the game. Playing the Saturn releases of Sakura Wars thanks to fan translation. When I went to Japan in 2024 I grabbed copies Sakura Wars 1 - 4 for Dreamcast. It was always been a series I had interest in.

Photo of cathode ray tube television displaying a scene from the Sega Saturn game Sakura Wars. A physical copy of the game’s Dreamcast release sits atop the TV.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 31/03/2026

Sorry modern games I have Sega Saturn with Saroo to play with now

Photo of a cathode ray tube television displaying a scene from the game Panzer Dragoon Zwei. The main character rides atop his young dragon as it runs across the landscape.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 30/03/2026

I went with a Saroo, this one from J&T Studio, for my Saturn ODE. I went this route for cost savings, doubly so as the Saroo also provides the RAM expansion capabilities. I know compatibility isn’t 100% but it gets me started. Also went weeby as possible on the color with sakura pink.

Photo of a pink J&T Studio Saroo cartridge for the Sega Saturn.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 30/03/2026

I finally wrapped up Ys 2 Chronicles on my PSP today. This was a great game but the map design was quite confusing at times, especially toward the end. I think preferred Ys 1’s design, and brevity, overall.

Phot of the end title screen for Ys II Chronicle on a Sony PlayStation Portable. It features the goddesses of Ys clutching a black pearl frozen in time.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 06/03/2026

Very relevant for ships right now. Credit: Auntie Boy www.instagram.com/auntie.boy?i...

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 02/03/2026

I posted this half-jokingly. These cards have basically been in this binder since the day each one was acquired. Kept in a humidity controlled environment as well. I actually posted a detail of the Charizard and some of the others in the before.

Shadowless Base Set holofoil Charizard card from the Pokemon trading card game.

A trading card binder. This page is filled with Pokemon promotional cards. There are two pikachus, two mews, a mewtwo, a meowth, arcanine, trainer card, and a sealed ancient mew.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 01/03/2026

Chat, are these #Pokémon trading cards any good? I’ve had them since around 1998.

A photo of the first page of Pokemon trading card binder. They cards are sleeved and then placed in the pockets for the page. This page is a collection of the original Base Set. From top left to right we have Alakazam, Blastoise, Chancy (shadowless), Charizard (shadowless), Clefairy (shadowless), Gyarados (shadowless), Hitmonchan (shadowless), Machamp 1st edition, and Magnaton.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 25/02/2026

Was messing around with Two Dragons from #Yakuza0 during my lunch hour. Emphasis on mess.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 20/02/2026

02/19/2026: After 4-ish years of on and off playing, I finally rolled credits #KenaBridgeofSpirits. Played it on PC and the graphics and animation quality are quite good. This game gets brutal and can feel slightly unfair at times due to the nice animations. Overall a competent action game.

The cover for Kena Bridge of Spirits. It features Kena, an Asian woman with a small build and her back turned, in a verdant forest surrounded by cute little black creatures.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 11/02/2026

Despite its flaws, I love #FinalFantasyVIII. The music, the art direction, the presentation, and whole vibe are just so much of what kept me interested in #FinalFantasy as a kid. From an aesthetics perspective this is my personal favorite.

An Original Sony Playstation with a copy of Final Fantasy 8 next to it. the disc tray is open and the first disc of the game is inserted. In the first memory card slot is a sony pocketstation. Final Fantasy 8 is famously one of the few north american games with PocketStation support.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 11/02/2026

This damn fine video game continues to inspire. #Xenogears makes me contemplative well over 20 years after my first experience and still haunts me just over a year after completing a replay.

Photo of a physical copy of the game Xenogears next to an original Sony PlayStation. The game is further back and to the right of the PS1 and the photo is staged in a way that allows there to be a strong depth of field blur effect on the the PS1 causing it be out of focus. The focus is sharply on Xenogears.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 10/02/2026

I just put an IPS screen in my OG 1001. Been playing it a lot since then. It’s a huge improvement over the stock LCD.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 09/02/2026

#iyudenChronicle presents a good case for comparison between the #HDCRT, first photo, and the 4K OLED, second photo. I had to crop in on the HD-CRT to get a close approximation of size. My tube is 34" vs the 77" OLED so it's not perfectly 1:1. Still I hope the unique properties of each display show.

Photo of Nowa from Eiyuden Chronicle. This is a photo of a high-definition cathode ray tube display. This image is zoomed in to show the specific physical characteristics of the CRT display properties. Specifically, since this is a Sony television, the aperture grille and how the phosphors appear.

Once again a photo of Nowa from Eiyuden Chronicle. This one is taken from a 4K OLED display and zoomed in to show off it's physical properties. Here you can see the fixed pixel grid and the increased sharpness vs the CRT.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 08/02/2026

We love a physical PC game collection.

A shelf of PC Games. These just the ones I still have boxes or nice cases for. I have more in games with their jewel cases only in the cabinet below.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 07/02/2026

You’ve come a long way from here. Also this one is still rotation, 24 years strong.

Screen shot of iOS Music app showing the album art for the 2003 OneUp Studios release of “Time and Space: a Tribute to Yasunori Mitsuda” The song playing is Scars Left By Time. This arrangement is by Sean Stone, aka Ailsean, and Dale North.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 05/02/2026

#AceCombat7 is one of the monthly PS+ games. “Does the color of the sky mean anything to you?” “It does to me, a hell of a lot”

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 31/01/2026

And that’s a wrap on the Kingdom path for Vanguard Bandits! Finally completed this one after nearly a quarter century since I last laid hands on a physical copy. Definitely a good game but it has the unfortunate fate of being a Tactical RPG in a world after Final Fantasy Tactics was released.

The Vanguard Bandits title screen displayed on a small Cathode Ray Tube television. The screen features the ATAC, the name for the types of magical mecha armor in the game, UltraGunner.

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Vance the Happenstance @vance.coffeybreak.net · 29/01/2026

The current state of my PlayStation shelf. Can’t believe I was able to finally nab Vanguard Bandits and Alundra in the wild. I live in a bit of vintage game desert nowadays.

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