I am kind of prone to buying things that will be useful, someday… and then not doing anything with them for quite a while.

Let me back up a bit.

If you were a fan of mahjong games or Capcom fighting games or just plain weird games and imported much during the mid-late 90s, you probably owned a Sega Saturn.

If you didn’t, or if your reaction was, “No, I had a Playstation, it was better”, then you can move on to the next bit because this isn’t for you.

If you’re still with me, you may know the glory that was the Virtua Stick.

A while back, I purchased a little $12 adapter that purported to make Saturn (and PS2, and Dreamcast) controllers work as standard USB joysticks. I doubted its actual functionality, because it looked like, well, it looked like a $12 piece of electronics and it took me a while to even work up the courage to plug it in without worrying too much that it would actually fry whatever it got plugged into.

Short version: Here’s Vampire Savior 2 running on MAME with the glorious Virtua Stick connected. In this action shot, I’ve abandoned Felicia and stepped back so I could take a photo. I am such a cad. Also, here is a picture of the aforementioned USB adapter. I have thoughtfully made sure that the name is fully visible, and a moment’s work on Google will give you ample places where you may procure one should you likewise desire to do so. I give the following testimonial:

My PC did not actually explode when this thing was attached. Also, Felicia is still this fanboy’s #1 catgirl. You may quote me on both.

Added because my wife thought it might be necessary: The cleavage on the right hand side is a DOA XBV2 calendar, not a scantily clad live action woman kind of calendar. I should mention that my wife is extremely tolerant of the things I do with the deliberate motive of making her roll her eyes and sigh in sad acceptance.