Sweet Jesus! The response from young and old alike to my last update is overwhelming. Each time I refresh my mail I have another 50 messages. I am getting a lot of mail from guys my age waxing nostalgic about having to blow on carts to make them work and sticking cardboard in your NES. I have also gotten a few mails which really surprised me. I would like to share one such message with you now. Matt here is twelve years old. That means that when I was playing Super Mario Brothers 3 Matt hadn’t even been born yet. When Samurai Showdown hit my local arcade he was barely three years old. And yet…*sniff*…He…oh just read the e-mail:

There is some very exciting news coming out of neogeousa.com right now. Their new Shadow4 system seems like it could be the answer to a lot of Neo-Geo fans prayers. You may have heard me mention before that you can generally purchase Neo games for the arcade machines much cheaper than you can for the home system. While it's true that the games tend to be less expensive playing them gets a bit tricky. You either need a full size cabinet like you would find in an arcade or what's called a super gun. A super gun is basically a device that allows you to hook arcade boards up to a standard television. The fine folks at Neogeousa.com have developed what is essentially a kind of specialized super gun for the Neo-Geo arcade board. Unlike most super guns though, which tend to be large boxes made out of plywood the Shadow4 is small and looks extremely cool. You can read all the information currently available on the system right here or at neogeousa.com. I am hoping to get my hands on one of these in the near future. If I am successful you can bet you'll see a full review of it here on the site. If it is built half as well as their Phantom-1 converter, which I purchased last year it will be one kick ass piece of hardware. Did I mention how pretty it is?

Many Canadians have expressed to me that it is very safe to eat food in Toronto. That couldn't be further from the truth.

In the adrenaline rush of tax-inspired terror, I forgot the other game we'd played at the MOP. I knew it was something.

• Warhammer 40k CCG: I don't usually mention this kind of stuff, even though I'm fascinated by many games of this type - but I've heard some amazing shit from my man Fodder up north. Cards have as many as four different functions, each power balanced against the other. I just wrote the company today about maybe seeing a demo of the game or asking a few questions, hopefully they'll get back to me so I can tell you more.

• Shining Lore: Shining Lore is a blah blah blah something something something. It looks like a fully three-dee Ragnarok Online I guess. Great. I'm only trying to draw your attention to their concept art, which I would describe as a "visual triumph."

• Puzzle Bobble Online: That's right, Puzzle Bobble - but online. Tiny dragons who harness the power of the bubble against itself. If you already know Japanese, you can go right there and start playing. If not - and my money is on not - hit this page "Hikash" whipped up for us, and give 'er a go.

• Undelicious: Heard about this one from my man Crow at the LAN. This is mainly of interest to those living in the northwest, specifically in King County - but I'm sure there's some analogue local to you. Have a restaurant you like to eat at a lot? Type their name into this form and find out why you should never eat out again.

• Flux: Also from the LAN, whenever Pork wasn't trying to get me to play Armagetron, he was trying to get me into Flux. Flux is a puzzle game that has some elements in common with PopCap's legendary Bejeweled, in that you click on things. Almost everything else is different.

This comic should evacuate any trace of continuity we had left. The G4 Network still hasn't contacted us about our valuable "Game Detective" property, which is unfortunate because I crave riches. Come back on Wednesday, when we will undoubtedly gush about Soccer Slam the whole time. I actually bruised my thumb playing it, which hasn't happened in years.

I just uploaded a new feature I have been working on called “Gabe’s big list of idiots!” It’s not all that big yet, but I expect it to grow.

I have seen mention on a few of the various forums I visit that there is now a King of Fighters 2001 ROM available. It certainly didn't take them long to dump it. It's sad because Playmore really seems to be working hard to revitalize the Neo Geo brand. With the re-release of Mark of the Wolves and Last Blade 2 on the DC and rumors of KoF 2000,2001 and Metal Slug 3 on the PS2 things are certainly looking bright. A KoF 2001 ROM can only hurt our chances of seeing those rumors become a reality. I never agreed with people who emulated Neo games but I could respect their point that they were not hurting anyone since SNK was so far in the crapper financially. However now that Playmore has taken over things have changed. I think it is important that we support their endeavors to breathe life back into the Neo Geo and it's games. If Playmore sees that there is an audience for these titles on new systems like the DC and the PS2 the possibilities are endless. A whole new generation of gamers will finally be exposed to great games like Samurai Showdown, Metal Slug, and King of Fighters. It's only through the financial success of these games that we can ever hope to see new titles in these series like Mark of the Wolves 2 and Samurai Showdown 5. Emmulation only serves to hurt the chances of these games ever becoming a reality.

I put the winners up here - thanks to everyone for entering, and I promise I'll have a more efficacious contest entry technology in place for the next one. Mad love goes out to Sanguine Productions, Sam at Exploding Dog, and Microsoft for making really cool shit.

• XIII Shots: The initial art they showed for this game really caught my eye, as it looked as though we might be seeing a game that was not only cel-shaded, but also rendered in crisp black and white. New information reveals that flashbacks will use that approach, but the main body of the game will be presented in full color and also rooka so nice. Damn, those Battlefield 1942 shots ain't bad, neither.

• 3D Display Thing: Pardon me, but Jesus Christ. Maybe everybody else knew that we could pull this kind of shit off, but I don't really follow the, you know, 3D Display scene or whatever. I have a sneaking suspicion they brought it back in a time machine.

• Super Mario Bros. 2 at Overclocked Remix: Let it be known that DJ Pretzel is a saint for what he does, running a veritable funkatorium for wayward Gaming beats. Estradasphere's latest jam - this SMB2 thing - is a compulsory download.

• Natural Selection Mod for HL: It's like these assholes have some weird machine inside my brain that tells them what I want. I've talked about how a Command & Conquer: Renegade with just as much conquering but more commanding would bind me into servitude. Well, no need to wait for some jackhole to authorize innovation. Natural Selection is congealing my gaming fantasies.

• Team Aerial Combat 2: I was overjoyed to find that this project is still in development, and reinstalled Tribes 2 expressly to play it. It looks like a new release may be out shortly, and if I had a bit to chomp at I would be chomping at it right now.

• A Kick Ass Tribes Render:: Alex Scollay works on Farscape, so when he makes a Tribes 2 picture, you should probably go look at it.

• WSBN Tonight!: Their own DwarfVader asked us to be on the show as well, but seeing as we haven't played Tribes for months and months, we probably aren't the best people to have on a program entitled "The Future of the Community." It's going to be a great show, if this list of participants is correct - it goes down tonight, April 12th, at 9:30 pm EST on Server 1. I'm going to be getting my LAN Party on over at the Ministry Of Peace around that time - Upstairs Crew 4 life - so I'll have to catch it in the archive.

I keep loading up today's comic and laughing at it. It probably goes without saying that I like Penny Arcade - but sometimes I like like it, and want to marry it, and today is one of those days.

I am captain apology of the sorry brigade. I feel absolutely terrible about that spoiler I dropped in my update. I had no intention of ruining the series for those of you just getting into it.

I have used this space on countless occasions to express my opinions about Star Wars games. I have sent e-mails to Lucas Arts time and time again detailing my ideas for new games. For my efforts I have received letters from Lucas Arts legal department asking that I not send anymore unsolicited creative ideas. I have talked to many of the actual people who develop the Star Wars games that you and I play. While it's true that they are extremely friendly people they politely switch subjects when the conversation turns to my own game ideas. This has led me to the conclusion that I need to be employed at Lucas Arts in order to see my dreams become a reality. And so with that in mind I give you…my resume:

With E3 coming up again, I'm reminded of how impressed we were with Sony/Verant/Omni Consumer Products' highly anticipated Planetside. Easily my favorite game of last year's show, it was looking mighty fine and intrigued with hinted at, gesticulated toward multiplayer concepts.

We hadn't done a strip on the G4 Network yet, and with the announcement of their actual line-up it seemed like a good time. Gabe has optimism but realistic fears, which he will no doubt elucidate in a few hours' time. The only thing I know for certain is that they need a Penny Arcade show. I've never been more sure of anything in my life.

I've received this LA Times "Playola" article from a few people - Gabe mentions it in his post, but it might be worth focusing on for a second.