Zeni to the Max

By now I'm sure you've heard the news.

image from Throwbacks

Well yeah, the Animaniacs are making a comeback on Hulu, but that's not what I meant. Microsoft just purchased Zenimax, and by proxy, Bethesda Softworks, for the sum of seven and a half billion dollars. That's more money than I'll ever see in twenty lifetimes. 

Microsoft is now in charge of a lot of franchises that were big in the 1990s and 2000s. Doom! Quake! The Elder Scrolls! Fallout! Gamers who were originally going to cast their lot with the Playstation 5 are now understandably worried that their system of choice will not be getting these titles. It certainly explains Microsoft's recent platform inclusive tweets, which suggested that Santa Claus left 34th Street and took up a job as the company's social media spokesman. You see, Microsoft was never really worried that players would abandon the Xbox for another game console... they knew that as long as they held the keys to the next Doom sequel, they couldn't.

Anyway! I wanted to mention that I'm finally making some headway on Squirrel Burger Cookout, the Neo-Geo ports book. Here's a sample chapter, if you'd like to check it out. Previously, I had been beating my head on other word processors and desktop publishers, but Kurt Kalata from Hardcore Gaming 101 recommended that I try Affinity Publisher instead, and it. is. BRILLIANT. It does 90% of what I want with little struggle, and the other ten percent just requires a bit of online research. It's intuitive like Microsoft Publisher, yet powerful like Scribus! It's the total package!

The proposed layout for the book is a little plain at the moment, but it gets the job done. I'd be satisfied with it looking like this, if not deliriously happy. I'm talking to Kurt now to see what he would recommend... hopefully he'll get back to me in a week or so. That ought to give me enough time to scrape together the cash to buy the full version of Affinity Publisher and really go to town on this project...