The Gen 10 announcement could actually happen IMO. Gens tend to run on a 3-year life cycle now, gen 9 hit 2 years last fall. Announcement now for a fall release is about right. They'll probably squeeze Z-A in there in the late spring/early summer to have SOME gen 9 game out other than only S/V. I would guess the original plan was to have Z-A out last year but maybe GF/TPC actually took fans' response to the technical issues with S/V into consideration and delayed to this year to work on optimization for the Switch 1. That's at least my optimistic take.
My only frustration was that you had to essentially master the game completely to unlock all the racers. Sure, rewards for mastery all the way to the highest levels of the single player mode are good, but I felt they should have changed it up so you unlock all the racers earlier and offered some different rewatds for the end. Or maybe I'm just salty that I had to go to the very end on the highest difficulty to play as characters I wanted to play from the start, in a Sega racer, no less, which are generally harder than most. At least in a game like Smash Bros Brawl, you just had to beat the final boss to unlock Sonic, you didn't have to perfect it on the highest difficulty.
Yep, it's the collectors' market. I say that as someone inspired by those very YT channels to get into the hobby myself. But I'm just looking to get games I remember and enjoy, not looking to get whole complete collections or anything. If a game I have my eye on becomes some "holy grail" $500 thing, I can live without it. What helps me, though, is living in a bigger town for a rural area that does have one or two brick-and-mortar retro game stores, where I may be able to find games I'm looking for at below eBay prices. That's another hint; hit up the physical shops you may have near you, be they specialized game shops or even thrift stores. Diamonds in the rough do exist sometimes.
EDIT: I mention rural areas specifically because they usually won't have as much demand driving up prices as the big urban areas will, even if supply is lower.
Try Grayjay. There's an option on their YpuTube plugin to allow age-restricted videos. Just try the mobile app for now, though, their desktop version is still in alpha phase.
Was gonna say this looks like AI. Biggest tell is that it's standing upright when given one side is flat and the legs are different lengths it really shouldn't be able to.
I used to walk to all sorts of places when I needed things, or even just for fun, while listening to music or podcasts, when my phone had a headphone jack. Now I never walk anywhere and just about never listen to music on my phone because I can't keep the wireless earbuds connected to the phone or to each other and they're always only at 50-60 percent charge if I'm lucky. Removing the headphone jack from my phone has literally made me less healthy. Thanks, Apple.
I personally vastly prefer mutable distros for my own system, but I understand the appeal for those who like them. As long as mutable distros remain an option I don't mind immutable distros.
And then Rare claimed they were continuing the memory-maxing shenanigans with DK 64 requiring the Expansion Pack to play, but it was really only to fix one bug that would be hard to run into but would break the game without it. The Expansion Pack does very little to nothing for the game otherwise. According to some former Rare devs they could've fixed the bug without needing the Expansion Pack but they decided to require it anyway.
More of an anomaly than it is today, TBH. The console stores and Steam really do not care anymore what goes up on their shop, as long as they can see even a little $$$ from it. Porn games on the eShop and Steam are rampant.
Back in those times gaming was still seen as mainly a kid's hobby by most, so I would almost guarantee Conker fooled a lot of parents (didn't fool mine, though), especially being on the N64 and starring a "cute" squirrel as the main protagonist. I would actually argue, though, that parents cared a good deal more then than they do now. Night Trap and Mortal Kombat almost got games censored by the US government in the early 90s, and they'd be seen as quaint now. We've had a ratings system for 30 years and more underage kids than ever are probably playing adult oriented games today. An M rating is just what marketers need to sell their game to the junior high market because parents are ignorant and retailers just want the money, doesn't matter from where.
Mint or Pop_OS are likely the most widely recommended distros I know of for beginners. I haven't tried either of them myself, but from what I hear about them I'm inclined to agree. Personally I would NOT recommend a rolling release distro to beginners. Too much potential to break things way too easily and way too often, which would likely require digging into the terminal to fix. Terminal-averse beginners wouldn't be served well by that at all.
Even given that, I'd still think there would be an uptick in Linux market share, but only a small one. Certainly no "year of the Linux desktop" levels.
I definitely do the Firefox to LibreWolf (and also install Brave as a backup). I also replace the default video player with Haruna and VLC (but default to Haruna). I change music players all the time so I just replace the default with whatever I feel like using at the time. In the past I've replaced Thunderbird with KMail, but on my latest install I left Thunderbird alone since I like having available RAM.
Myst is an all-time classic. I'd just wander around exploring the world.
I tried so hard to get anywhere in Magic Carpet but our home computer ran the game too fast. I needed the "turbo button" to slow the game down but we didn't have one.
Also had the PC version of Garfield Caught in the Act (just called Garfield on PC). Played through it over and over again. The Genesis game with improved graphics, an exclusive level and one of the most underrated soundtracks in gaming. Seriously, look up the soundtrack to the PC version, the entire thing jams.
EDIT: Also, Age of Wonders. I actually spent more time in the level editor than in the game itself, building Middle Earth as a map and placing cities, factions and leaders on it as something of an "old school" (for the time) Battle for Middle Earth.
The Gen 10 announcement could actually happen IMO. Gens tend to run on a 3-year life cycle now, gen 9 hit 2 years last fall. Announcement now for a fall release is about right. They'll probably squeeze Z-A in there in the late spring/early summer to have SOME gen 9 game out other than only S/V. I would guess the original plan was to have Z-A out last year but maybe GF/TPC actually took fans' response to the technical issues with S/V into consideration and delayed to this year to work on optimization for the Switch 1. That's at least my optimistic take.