Thanks for handling the logistics of this @kfwyre!

We have a really interesting slate of games. I'm looking forward to The Last Express and The Secret of Monkey Island in particular. The former looks really unique, and the latter is so influential that it's time I give it a go. The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls also looks great. I had never heard of it, but I love a good Game Boy game.

I'm sad Resident Evil was eliminated, but I'll probably play it alongside Chrono Trigger in October and re-nominate it in the future after making myself even more familiar with the game.

Exciting.
I missed the vote but 2 out of 3 games I would’ve liked were voted in anyways, so I’m excited. I think I was one of the people nominating Chrono Trigger and could host it (though if anyone else wants it, definitely feel free to host it) and as wind waker is one of my favorite games of all time, I could also host that, but again: I can take a step back on both games and I don’t really need to fulfill the role :D so if anyone else wants to- feel free.

I think this will be a fun time. Not sure if I’ll participate every month since I have some other things on my schedule, but I just bought septembers game (and I might already start today since I have to stay inside health wise)

Also, the game list got me really excited. I wanted to play monkey island for a long time. Having the opportunity to talk to others about it at the same time seems really fun

As someone who suggested this game, I'll gladly volunteer for the March 2026 Colossal Game Adventure.

Back in late 2012, I finished the untranslated Virtual Console port of Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls) on a stock Japanese 3DS for the very first time. I managed to get through it with a mix of GameFAQs guides and YouTube videos, all while trying to learn Japanese alongside Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

Of course, simply memorizing hiragana and katakana wasn’t enough to properly follow Prince Sablé’s journey; I mostly just enjoyed watching him stumble into all kinds of wacky hijinks without really grasping the deeper meaning. Now that we have a proper English translation available, and a better awareness of the works that inspired the game, I feel like I can finally piece it all together into a more complete appreciation.

On the technical side, I’m also well-versed in getting the game running across just about any device, especially on original non-PC hardware. Writing up a clear guide for getting the game up and running in the Insert Cartridge discussion will be second nature for me.

All that’s left for the coming months is to revisit the game with its English translation, and dive into the inspirations behind it. With that, I’ll be more than ready to host the March 2026 Colossal Game Adventure.

I'm inclined to volunteer to host February 2026 because for much the same reason as CannibalisticApple is hosting September, Racing Lagoon was my nomination. I'm just a liiiittle bit apprehensive about making a committment to do something that I'll be doing 6 months from now, cause sheesh, my life isn't always stable and who knows what I'll be up to in Feb 2026. Not to mention, some of the Optional Hosting Responsibilities will be a bit awkward until I get the gameplay underway for myself because I haven't actually played the game before, but once we're really into it I'm sure I can drum up some talking points.

What do you think @kfwyre should I say I'm gonna do it or what? The bare minimum of posting "Insert Cartridge" and "Remove Cartridge" is probably doable as long as I have a pulse and a roof over my head in Feb at least.

Thanks for making all this a reality @kfwyre, you’re so much better at it than I would have been!

Looking forward to playing the games, in glad there aren’t platformers (I suck at and don’t enjoy these)

I wish Sam & Max made the cut, always wanted to play it as a kid.

I’ll be playing these on an Anbernic RG35XX H running muOS, if anyone else is on the same boat we can figure it out together.

re: PlayStation WHAT

I recently set up an emulator for PS2 to check out the games in Recursive Repertoires. This site was really helpful for setting up:

https://wiki.batocera.org/systems:ps2

For Fedora Linux users: The version of PCSX2 in rpmfusion is really old and doesn't support the high compression CHD format (that you can make with chdman of mame-tools) so I recommend just downloading the AppImage instead.

Also for Wind Waker it looks like having a recent version of Dolphin will help if you want to use the GBA integrated emulator

Also also, this page is a great resource if you want to check that the BIOS was dumped correctly: https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/File_hashes

Also also also, there's a TV with a PS2 built-in to it?!

Looking forward to pretty much all of these, especially Chrono Trigger, it's always such a joy to play through and hopefully it'll prompt a vote on Chrono Cross later down the line which is also, in my opinion, a fantastic game.

The Last Express is a ton of fun, played it via GOG about a decade ago with my youngest brother so I'm looking forward to diving back in again.

Also, I screwed up with my votes and didn't realise until it was too late so it's all good, at least I know for the next block of voting.

Fortunately, I have deep experience with Chrono Trigger - I have the SNES, PS1, and DS versions and have completed all the endings on the DS version. So, that'll be an easy month for me.

I believe I have most of the PlayStation WHAT on my Miyoo Mini - though that's likely a less than ideal way to play Pepsiman, so I'll likely set those up on my living room PC (sadly don't have discs of all those and haven't ODEd my PS1(s)).

Racing Lagoon, I'm happy to see because I already started the process of getting the translation set up but life has gotten in the way. Looks like I'll have peer pressure and technical support on my side for that one.

Wind Waker, I still have my original GC disc, so maybe I'll use this as the excuse to play the HD version I have on my Wii U. Then again, that would mean plugging up my Wii U...

Basically, only game I haven't heard of/set up before is Bell Tolls. Looking forward to all the games!

If anyone is in dire straights in terms of our first game, I can always sell some Steam items to cover a game or two, though it's much harder to mail out my modded consoles!

Sweet!! I'm excited to finally take an earnest crack at The Last Express tomorrow. I own the Dotemu version on Android, so I could happily play it on my tablet, but I also own the GoG version and could play it on my Steam Deck. So I'm not sure, go with the "Pure" experience of the original DOS game or try out the updated one, which I've heard can kind of ruin the experience with hints and whatnot.

Also excited to play Chrono Trigger, though I have no real interest in it as a game unto itself, but because everyone says it's a must play. I think it'll give me a good excuse to crack out my DSi XL or my N3DS to give it a go, as I do recall the DS version oft being called the definitive one.

All the other picks look great too and I'm excited to play those too, but they're too far out for me to think about yet!

I am a bit shocked that my flash nomination was so close to making it. If I realized how much interest there was in it, I probably would have spent more time refining my list, as I feel like some genres were poorly represented.

I am looking forward to playing some of these games, especially as I do not think I have played any of these games. Also, reading through these comments of people volunteering to host due to having an interest in that specific game makes me look forward to the discussions

Has no one volunteered to host December yet? The Secret of Monkey Island is one of my all-time favorites, I’ll be happy to take that one.

I read this as "Colossal Cave Adventure" and I popped in to realize this is not the case and I'm out of my element.

xyzzy