Every PS1 Game – Agile Warrior F-111X
I know a few people who play Digital Combat Simulator, which is a simulation in the truest sense of the word: it makes the self-proclaimed “Real Driving Simulator” Gran Turismo look like Ridge Racer. For example, it can take 20 minutes just to turn on your plane, and then another half hour to fly from your base to the front line. Oh you just got shot down? Okay, we’ll see you in an hour. For the guys who strap into this sim, realism is the point; for me, it’s a burden.
I just want to fly around and blow stuff up. Luckily the PS1 has quite a few flight sims to choose from, even if you just look at the first year of its release. This is where Agile Warrior F-111X comes in. This game was released on November 2nd, 1995 in the USA and Europe; the Playstation itself was released in September 1995 in North America and Europe (but had been out since December 1994 in Japan), so keep that in mind when we’re looking at the technological limitations of this “combat simulator”.
(more…)From the Archives: Sonoma Autocross and Track Day 2022/02/06
For a five year period, I completely neglected this website. Of course, during that time I was still doing the usual sort of car things; I just didn’t post about them on this site. Today is February 6th, and on this date four years ago I visited Sonoma Raceway. It was a Sunday, and the track was buzzing with two events: an autocross and a full track day. I went to hang with Chris and his orange FR-S, and to see some cool cars going fast.
If you want to see the coolest modded cars, head to the track. Of course it was the more extreme machines that caught my eye first, but there were much more humble machines out there as well.
(more…)Every PS1 Game – Spyro the Dragon
I love free demos. The best one recently was Metaphor: ReFantazio. Released a few weeks before the retail game, it was the full intro to the game and more: it took me seven hours to beat. Back in ancient times, retail stores would have kiosks with a console, TV, two controllers, and a game (in the cartridge era) or demo disc (in the CD era). Like an arcade, but free! They were especially exciting for me as a kid during the 90’s, allowing my penniless adolescent self to try a variety of games that I wouldn’t normally get to play. I have crystal clear memories of being blown away by the graphics of Star Fox at Toys R Us. When I went to Sears with my mom, I always made a beeline straight for the demo kiosk to play a round of Rally Cross on Playstation or Nights into Dreams on Saturn. And when I got my Playstation in 1999, unlike any of my Nintendo consoles, it came with a demo disc. On that demo disc was an extremely popular game from 1998 called Spyro the Dragon.
However, I found that Spyro demo to be unconvincing. Compared to the brand new Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on N64, or even the three-year-old Super Mario 64, this game felt sluggish as you tediously trudged through the bland demo world. The point of the game seemed to be just walking around and finding dragon statues. Yawn. But that wouldn’t be the end of my Spyro story.
(more…)A Proper Rally: DWA in the Sierras 2025
Ideally, you want your rally to have three things: fun roads, great people, and pleasant weather. But there is something extra that a great rally has which is hard to define; the so-called “X factor”. From the first DWA rally in 2017, that was the strongest attribute of DWA rallies. But something changed in 2020. On March 15 of that year, we convened in Sausalito under the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge and embarked on an epic rally. Unfortunately, you may recognize that date as an important turning point for a different reason: that’s the weekend the world shut down due to the Covid pandemic. Coincidentally or not, the DWA rallies were never the same since; we still drove our beloved cars together on gorgeous California roads, but the summer camp vibes weren’t the same. Back at work on Monday, we didn’t feel the rally withdrawals. But that all changed in October 2025 when the Sierra Rally 5 kicked off.
On Thursday, October 2nd, I was picked up by my friend Jon in San Jose, and we began our journey east toward one of the most epic mountain ranges in the world: the Sierra Nevada. Containing the largest tree in the world, the tallest point in the contiguous USA, and the largest alpine lake in the entire USA, it has a few impressive stats to go along with its stunning beauty.
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Star Road 
