Unfortunately the Jaguar, Neo Geo and Amiga CD32 tend to be quite expensive. At the moment Jags sell for about £100-£180 depending on accessories, CD32 around £200+ and Neo Geo the same (prices for Neo Geo games are also outrageous). I haven't spent more than £100 on a single system, the 3DO was the most expensive at £90 (which is still nothing compared to its RRP in the 90s!). From what I've read Asia was a bit of a wild west situation when it came to 90s consoles. Clones and pirated games everywhere. Sounds like fun. I forgot to mention I actually have an Amiga 500 as well. Would like a CDTV but again, rare and expensive. Other stuff I'm missing but would like to get is an original Japanese Famicom (not that hard to get but getting a step down converter would be the expensive part), Sega 32X (goes for well over £100, can't bring myself to spend that much on such a poor add on) and a Virtual Boy (expensive). Basically I've hit the price ceiling in terms of collecting. I don't have THAT much spare cash so unless I find a bargain the above will probably all remain absent.

I'm not one for throwing out systems either. I'm currently in possession of an Atari 2600, Sega Master System, NES, Game Boy Advance, Game Gear, Panasonic 3DO, Philips CDi, Sega Mega Drive I & II, Sega Mega CD, Sega Pico, Super Famicom, Super Nintendo, PS1 (multiple), N64, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Gamecube, PS2 (multiple), Xbox, Nintendo Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, PSVR, NES Mini, SNES Mini & Oculus Rift, plus multiple games for all of the above systems... so yeah, I either have a collection or a problem depending on whether you're a gaming enthusiast or my missus. FF8's junctioning system isn't actually particularly difficult once you get your head around it. I read through a guide which explained it and once I started messing around with it I got what I was doing pretty quickly. The main issue with the junctioning system is that you can effectively break the game within the first hour by leveling up all of your GFs (summons) which give you extra abilities, extra HP, extra strength, etc. Once you've got junctioning sorted and have enough magic the game becomes reallllly easy. The story is worth playing through though at least once imo, but I know some people don't like it. Much like FF7 it's a bit... out there. But I like that.

Yeah, I figured as much. In all honesty I'm not sure how well that entire sequence would translate to modern gaming anyway. I got the PS4 enhanced version FF12 for Christmas, so I have that to play at some point. No shame in only having a PS2 btw, it's a great console. I installed a hard drive into mine to avoid using the disc drive, works pretty well!

Haha, yeah... FF7 was really out there. Also, Hellatic Hojo... In graphically enhanced HD? No thanks... For some reason Bizarro Septhiroth creeped me out as well WTF. This game is actually a lot creepier than I've ever given it credit for.

Yeah, indeed. A lot of the stuff in FF7 that was creepy (normal in Japan tbf, but creepy to us), weird or downright bizarre tended to come across as amusing in 1997 due to the blocky graphics and weird translations. There's so much stuff that just wouldn't retain that same amusement factor in a remake - when you think about it Cid's abusive relationship with Shera is pretty awful, but because of the graphics and translations it's more 'ha, ha, what a dick Cid is' rather than 'holy shit, this guy is a wife beating asshole'. I assume a lot of that stuff will be toned down in the remake or removed completely, but then, how faithful is it to the original game? Not especially. I also assume some enemies will be missing from the remake. Remember Hell House? And frankly, I do not want to see this definition of nightmare fuel in a remake: In fact the whole ShinRa mansion in Nibelheim would just be horrifically creepy with improved graphics quality. It was unsettling enough in the original game.

You know it's strange, for the longest time I thought I wanted a FF7 remake, but now it's here... I'm not sure I do. Sure, it's got blocky graphics, amusing mid-90s 3D cutscenes, some odd translations, text boxes to read, somewhat annoying random battles, and a lot of stuff that wouldn't get past censors these days... but I don't care. That's all a part of what gives the game its charm. I don't think a remake will capture any of that. I only really would ever have wanted a remaster which touched up the blockiness (maybe brought it up to FF8 quality models?), improved the translation a bit and turned down the random battle encounter rate a little. That would have done me just fine. I'm not sure I want a full remake with @#/?ing episodes, DLC and shitty voice acting. The more I think about it the less it appeals to me. You should definitely try Chrono Trigger. It's not to everybody's tastes but I enjoyed it, anyway. Will add Pyre to the list, no idea when I'll get to it though

I'm not optimistic about anything Square-Enix do with the franchise these days, but I am curious as to what they'll end up producing. It's taking so long that it feels like a lot of the momentum has already disappeared and people are just getting nervous now about the ways they can screw it up. I was one of the few who seemed to enjoy Advent Children, though, so I'm not that difficult to please. Re: Pyre, no, I haven't played that. But I've barely played any flat screen games over the past couple of years, it's pretty much been exclusively VR stuff. The only flat games I've played are retro stuff from the 80's & 90's. I take your point on playing games long past their time of release, but on the other hand I enjoyed playing Chrono Trigger and FF8 in recent times, so I'm not sure it's the graphics quality or game mechanics that are the problem when it comes to FF6 & FF9. I think I just prefer the type of worlds 7 & 8 explored - future cyber-punk/dystopian settings. That's more my style than quasi-medieval or industrial age environments.

You are correct. I actually really like FF8 as well, although as a kid I never got through it. I didn't get the junction system. A couple of years ago I replayed it and beat it pretty easily, junction system actually makes the game incredibly easy once you get the hang of it. I thought the ending was great, much better than 7's 'wtf' ending which kind of spoiled what was otherwise a god-tier game. FF9 was another I never got into as a kid. Tried it as an adult and was even less interested. I guess it just isn't to my taste. 10 was OK, but I never completed it. Got stuck somewhere and gave up. Not been back to it yet. Played a bit of 13 when I got my 360 and it didn't interest me. I also played through 6 recently (never played it as a kid, didn't have a SNES) and whilst it was good, for me it didn't live up to the online hype. Too many characters for me, and the story was a bit goofy. Plus there were some unforgivable difficulty spikes which were hard to accept, especially as the majority of the game is easy. I wasn't as enamored with Kefka as everyone else seems to be, either. Just felt like a cartoon villain to me. Still got to play through 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 12.Not especially interested in going beyond that and doubt I'll ever get through all of those any time soon. These games take more time than I generally have available!

Good post, I was thinking the same thing. Bowyer's first season was a little frustrating in that we kept coming close and then falling away, but compared to the previous few seasons under Venky's it was a huge improvement. Second season things started to decline slightly (and Bowyer did still have most of our better players during this period), and by the third season the squad had been stripped down to the bare bones in terms of quality. That's when tension began bubbling under the surface, and once that snake Coyle was appointed we were almost back to the Steve Kean era in terms of the supporters and the board/management/team being totally disconnected. Except this time there were a lot less people to put any pressure on. Mowbray has done well to put us back into an upward trajectory, but like you part of me is waiting for Venky's to screw us all over again. It makes it difficult to fully enjoy what's happening, although I appreciate that a lot of fans do seem able to completely ignore the past and live in the moment. I envy them.

Judging by comments I read on Derby's forums a couple of weeks ago, Lawrence isn't particularly popular among the support. Although that might have just been frustrations from the horrendous run they were on at the time. I remember him blowing hot and cold for us. And obviously, that miss against Burnley.

I hope you're right!

Lowe will assumedly be released from Birmingham in the summer. I pray to any and all existing deities that we don't end up bringing him back.

Barnsley could still catch Brum if they win their game in hand. Bolton and Reading not out of it yet either. Hull should be OK now on 41 points. I think we would have survived this season's Championship, even with our terrible squad of 2016/17. Coyle would have had us down there but Mowbray probably would have been able to save us. Assuming we get promoted this season relegation might actually have done us some good, though. We still won't be at squad levels of 13/14 and under Venky's I'm not sure we ever will be again, but if we'd stayed in the Championship I doubt the likes of Dack sign for us and we'd still probably have wasters like Steele, Akpan, Lowe, etc clinging on. As far as Sunderland are concerned, at least Rovers got a few half-decent years in the Championship out of Venky's... Sunderland have just dropped like a stone. Just 6 wins all season. I read that Jack Rodwell's contract still has a year to run and he'll still be on £40k pw next year in League 1 (he's on £72k pw at the moment). We've been there with the likes of Etuhu, Murphy, etc, but at least Venky's had the "sense" (using that word very loosely) to cut a deal and get rid of them, rather than let them linger around the club like a bad smell, "earning" a full wage until the bitter end.

Birmingham beating Bolton last night means that Sunderland are now 8 points adrift with 6 games left. Looks like they'll be doing back-to-back relegations. Even we avoided that!

Our main issue was the midfield area which was absolutely dire. Obviously Steele is a terrible goalkeeper too. I certainly wouldn't swap our current squad for the class of 2016/17! We were relying on Danny Guthrie of all people to be our saviour, and expecting the likes of Samuelsen and Byrne to make a difference. I'd rather not remember No Hope and Lowe stinking up the midfield game after game. Amazing that Henley can't even get into the first team of a minor MLS club. That kid has really lost his way. I mean, he always looked like a kid playing with men, but I wouldn't have expected his career to spiral as fast as it has. I figured a Championship or L1 side would give him a chance. Even Uncle Gary had no room for him (or J-Lowe) at Blackpool.

Roberts spent half the game on his arse complaining to the ref, and his finishing was only good when he didn't have to think about it. One of the most infuriating players of that era. Still no Chris Brown though.

He's shit but he's no Chris Brown tbf, at least Samuel has actually scored a few.

I think it was Rowett who said that Warnock told him in the summer that the Championship was wide open this season and that he was going to go for it. Seems to have worked out for him. Similar to the season Ipswich got into the playoffs, or Blackpool for that matter, sometimes there are enough poor teams and managers for an opportunity to arrive for a smaller, less fancied team to have a stab at getting themselves up. If you never try you'll never know. As for Marshall, he had some purple patches here too. We all knew there was a player in there, but once his head dropped it dropped for a long time and that's where his problems exist.

Looks like it won't take much more than 40 points to stay up in the Championship this year. We got relegated with 51. Sticks in the craw a bit. On the plus side we really have nothing to fear if we do go up. If Cardiff can get promoted and Bolton stay up then there's no reason we can't achieve at the very least a decent mid table finish. Just got to get there first...

On a different topic, unless they have a very abrupt downturn in form Cardiff are almost certainly going up. Eight wins on the spin at the business end of the season, win their game in hand and they are ten points clear of Fulham in 3rd. They'd only be three points off Wolves in 1st! What a job Warnock has done there.

Mick adjusts his style for the players he has at his disposal. Nobody could get a team as limited as Ipswich playing entertaining football. He's done a very good job keeping them stable and secure. It won't be a surprise to me if they're on their way to League 1 this time next season.

As long as he gets us promoted, yes. If not then much like Bowyer I imagine he'll soon find himself without his best players and without any further communications.

It seems like Mowbray basically got the keys to the kingdom by travelling to India and metaphorically kissing their feet. Warnock strikes me as a very different personality. Tan comes off as a little eccentric but I think he's ultimately always wanted to succeed at Cardiff. A lot of Venky's decisions have been questionable to the point where success on the pitch doesn't seem like it's always been their #1 priority. Their employment history suggests they want largely subservient, humble managers who won't rock the boat. Warnock is certainly not that. I'm not convinced it would have worked out. Obviously you then ask the question of why he was being interviewed in the first place, but probably just a case of the left hand having no idea what the right hand is doing.

I really do wonder what would have happened if Warnock had come here as he was supposed to. I think it probably would have ended in tears with Warnock getting frustrated and leaving either through being sacked or resignation... but you look at what he's done with Cardiff and can't help but think 'what if?' ...

I've seen McClaren and Bilic mentioned so far, Ipswich fans don't seem to be keen on the former but more interested in the latter. I'm not sure they have the budget for either of those managers but I suppose we'll see. Bilic with no budget would be a disaster imo. Schteve would probably keep them up but again would need money to really put things right there - and he'd be off like a shot as soon as anything better came calling.