Want to see a perfect example of the falling testosterone levels in men over the past forty-odd years? Check out present-day 49'ers coach Kyle Shanahan, versus his dad Mike Shanahan, at the same age of thirty nine years old. Pretty shocking difference-- we're talking strong double-digit gap.

In other news, this was basically my PC in 1999, right down to the Sony Trinitron monitor and Riva TNT2. I loved the TNT2's 32-bit color. Except, I went the AMD route that generation-- the Athlon 700 was faster than the Pentium 3 700, and was cheaper to boot. It too used the "cartridge" form factor. Interesting fact: I met my now-wife on ICQ using that PC. In fact, I still have that computer sitting in the basement-- albeit the once beige Antec chassis is a bright yellow now, and the CRT monitor is long gone.

I freaking hated "Half-Life". I didn't like Dudebro "cinematic" games right from the word "go". "Shogo" was my 1999 story-based game of choice, and I played it so much that I had it 100% memorized. Like "Half-Life", it had a cutting-edge graphics engine, except it had a huge anime influence with the art direction and soundtrack, which was really appealing.

It's incredible how John and I had the same video card path in the 1990s! We both went Matrox Mystique to PowerVR PCXS2 to Riva TNT.

The Mystique was an interesting card: people called it the "Mistaque", but in its defense it had "hit the ceiling" 2d RAMDAC performance, so it was great for DOS gaming. On the 3d front though it had no OpenGL or Direct3D support-- remember, this was circa 1996 or something. Instead, it used Matrox's proprietary API, which games had to specifically be written to use. The only hardware accelerated game I remember playing on it was the Matrox-funded port of "MechWarrior 2", and it was pretty amazing.

I'm also with John on how LCDs are a big step backwards from CRTs. Not to mention it was a pure signal, versus the rubbish DRM and handshake-filled cables used today. If CRT monitors make a comeback like mechanical keyboards have, I will be first in line to buy one.

1998's "Unreal" is a better looking game than 2019's "Fire Emblem: Three Houses", even if the triangle counts are obviously higher in the latter title. I guess display technology isn't the only thing which has gone backwards. Sound is similar: my dad's 1970s era wood-panelled stereo still works and sounds great (it has a physical string and pulley which pulls the radio frequency needle back and forth!), whereas my modern receivers and "sound bars" distort things and keep breaking.

The same goes for CRT televisions. Lots of my friends have been playing emulators on LCDs for so many years now, that when I show them a Sega Genesis game on my Toshiba CRT TV they are floored at how amazing it looks.

It's fun watching John play "Unreal"-- I too bought it on day one, and spent a lot of time in UnrealEd. In fact, you can still find references to some of my maps to this day: "DM-Ponikus2", published on June 13, 1998 baby.

Last anecdote: I remember playing the demo of that weird "Jurassic Park" game in 1999 with my friend Cake-O-Demon! We were busting a gut at how silly it was: we kept grabbing the crates, jumping, letting go, then running beneath them. Hilarious! Still, it's the kind of novel idea we just don't see in today's gaming corporatocracy.