Small addition in the form of the official response to my "DSL Headaches" article.

Also, I'm looking for someone with a graphical flair to design the official Gamebits logo. Please email me if you have an idea. Thanks!

Not being a computer gamer, I'm unfamiliar with online play, so my first RPG experience was today with Phantasy Star Online. Talking with other people's avatars (without trying to kill them, ala Quake III Arena) is wild - an appropriate extension to text-based chat rooms.

My adventuring was not so cool, however. A high-level fellah I met up with outfitted me with weapons and MAGs much too powerful for a mere 4th-level HUmar, and brought me to the Ruins, where one hit and I'm down for the count. WTF? This is fun? I'd rather go at my own pace, or with people that are at the same level as me, thanks.

Coincidentally, my benefactor's name was the same as that of an Apple IIgs program I recently agreed to demonstrate at this year's KansasFest. Let's hope the demo goes better than the RPG.

Castlevania review's up in the rechristened "Handhelds" section (formerly Game Boy), where I've placed three Neo Geo Pocket Color reviews as well. I've also added errata and commentary on Steven L. Kent's book, The First Quarter. This file is originally located on Zube's web page, and is included here with his permission. Thanks, Zube. Zube forwarded this note to me from Mr. Kent:

"Prima Publishing is re-releasing The First Quarter under the new and ghastly title of 'The Ultimate History of Video Games.' Not exactly subtle, but it gets the point across and it gets my book into stores."

Hopefully Zube's errata file will be considered when making the editing changes for this new edition.

On Monday I'll post my review of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, a must-have title for the Game Boy Advance (which I don't think needs a light as badly as the folks at Penny Arcade do, though it does help). I even got ahead in work and am done a review of Crazy Taxi 2, for posting on Monday the 25th. You can probably catch it much earlier on Syndicomm though. (speaking of which, check out this snazzy flier - thanks, Shep). Gonna spend my time off mixin' some mad country tunes on MTV Music Generator 2. I'm assuming it supports western music - any music game worth its salt would, wouldn't it?

In addition to strong thumb muscles, I'm an advocate of literacy, too. You a cyberpunk? Know someone who is? Regardless, the book Snow Crash came highly recommended to me as the definitive book about futuristic virtual reality, and though author Neal Stephenson paints a pretty picture, the book itself was a big yawner. I'm much more enjoying the spoof, Headcrash, by Bruce Bethke. I recommend all you video-gaming geeks (redundant, I know) pick it up.

Sega did come through with Crazy Taxi 2, albeit a bit late. Course, I have to give Nintendo priority this week, don't I?

These are the games I'm going to be sure not to let slip by again in my next life:

• Vandal Hearts II
• Einhander
• Final Fantasy IX
• Shenmue
• Resident Evil Code Veronica
• Phantasy Star Online

Who knows. If nuclear fallout forces us to barricade ourselves in our cellars for a few years, then maybe I'll get to these games in this life.

I've finally added these older, contributed reviews to the site:

• Chu Chu Rocket (Sega) for Sega Dreamcast
• Resident Evil Code Veronica (Capcom) for Sega Dreamcast
• Sega Bass Fishing (Sega) for Sega Dreamcast
• Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage (Eidos) for Sega Dreamcast
• Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (Atlus) for Sony PlayStation & Sega Saturn
• Lunar: Silver Star Story (Working Designs) for Sony PlayStation
• NFL GameDay '99 (989 Studios) for Sony PlayStation
• NHL FaceOff '99 (989 Studios) for Sony PlayStation
• Pokemon Stadium (Nintendo) for Nintendo 64
• Pokemon Silver/Gold (Nintendo) for Game Boy color
• Pokemon Trading Card Game (Nintendo) for Game Boy Color
• Zelda DX: Link's Awakening (Nintendo) for Game Boy Color
• Emulation editorial

I also have some Neo Geo Pocket Color reviews, but need to decide where to put them. I might change the nature of the "Other" section.

Sorry for the slow updates. I've moved recently and still have some unpacking to do, and didn't get the phone service connected until just yesterday. I also wanted to add some additional comments to my Dark Cloud review beyond what I could fit into the printed review before I posted it here, and I finished my review of Gauntlet Dark Legacy. If you check out the schedule below, you'll see I intended to review Crazy Taxi 2 - but Sega never pulled through. Speaking of which, they didn't provide me with the software necessary to compete in their Unreal Tournament, but asked me to put a link to their ladder registration page on my site. So, whatever.

I'd forgotten how soon Game Boy Advance is coming out. I preordered mine so long ago, I guess I just forgot. Naturally, it'll also be worked into the review schedule. (why do I even try predicting my columns anymore??)

I forgot to note that when I updated the HTML of all the reviews, I also changed the copyright notice. What formerly read:

This article is copyright (c) 2001 by Ken Gagne. All rights reserved. Not to be distributed in a modified form.

Now reads:

This article is copyright (c) 2001 by Ken Gagne. All rights reserved. Not to be distributed without permission.

Not that many people had distributed my reviews to their sites anyway, but for future notice, such activity will need to be approved by me.

Happy June. I've added the navbar (that gray strip to your left) to all web pages and reviews on this site, which necessitated renaming most of the files from .html to .shtml. I think I got them all, but LMK if there's a broken link somewhere. Thanks to Tony Ward for the help.