Road map for the back half of 2023

The poll I posted last weekend was only supposed to be open for a few days, so... let's consider it closed. The results have been consistent all along, though: It's pretty much an even split between "more Sega" and "take a Sega break plz." Edging toward "take a break," but as a few people have observed, the actual breakdown is something like: 

49% More Sega
25% More NES Works
9% More Game Boy Works
12% More Super NES Works
5% Weird wildcards

So, I'm going to try to appease everyone, or at least compromise in a way that will make everyone equally unhappy—which as we all know is the surest sign of a functioning democracy.

My original plan for the year was to power through Segaiden to wrap up Master System through 1988 (this bringing it to parity with NES Works so that NES/Master System could advance in tandem beginning in ’89) by the end of June. But the darned Master System has been way more interesting than expected, so my plan to include two or three games in every episode has evolved to including two games in every episode except when there's a really good or interesting game that merits a standalone. The dedicated single-title episodes were going to be reserved for the rarified greats (initially, just Phantasy Star and Wonder Boy III), but clearly we're way beyond that now. If I were to continue straight ahead doing nothing but Master System with the revised schedule, we'd be looking at the end of September before I wrap 1988. Ah, me and my verbal spew.

So, I'm going to compromise my plan a bit. I'm going to roll in an occasional NES Works to break things up, meaning that NES Works and Segaiden will achieve synergy with April 1989's lineup.

But I'm also going to make good on one of my seemingly abandoned projects: I'm going to alternate monthly between Segaiden and Metroidvania Works until the latter hits Super Metroid, which will be the breaking point for the eventual first book collecting Metroidvania Works (which also touches on significant action-RPGs that helped define the structural workings of the metroidvania format). That plan lets me hit the Metroidvania break point around the time that Segaiden completes the 1988 survey, after which I can finally get to the convergence I've been working toward and cover Nintendo and Sega (and I guess Atari, what little coverage there is to be done on that front) in tandem beginning with April 1989's lineup. Things should be nice and smooth from that point... at least until August ’89, at which point THREE new systems enter the picture. But that's an ulcer for a different time.

I don't know if that makes sense anywhere but in my fevered brain, but anyway, here's the tentative schedule for all of this, leading up to the Great Conjunction:

• Fantasy Zone II* / Great Basketball / Great Soccer
• Sukeban Deka II / Mahjong Sengoku Jidai
• Satellite 7 / Great Baseball / Woody Pop / Alex Kidd BMX Trials
• Star Soldier / Sesame Street 1-2-3
• The Magic of Scheherazade / Rambo
• The Guardian Legend / The Battle of Olympus / Exile [ZX]
• Blaster Master / Bionic Commando / Exile [XZR]
• Clash at Demonhead / River City Ransom 
• Tecmo Bowl / Tecmo Baseball
• Penguin Land* / After Burner* [TONKA]
• Alien Syndrome* / Zaxxon 3D*
• SDI: Strategic Defense Initiative / Aztec Adventure: The Golden Road to Paradise*
• Rescue Mission* / Maze Hunter 3D*
• Ultima Exodus
• Ys III / Strider 
• Willow / Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
• Neutopia / A Boy and His Blob / Gargoyle's Quest
• Snake's Revenge / Metal Gear 2
• WWF Wrestlemania / Bandai Golf: Pebble Beach
• Parlour Games* / Fantasy Zone: The Maze*
• Space Harrier 3D* / Zillion II: The Tri Formation*
• Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars*
• Wonder Boy in Monster Land*
• Gyruss / Q*Bert
• Wai Wai World
• Golden Axe Warrior / The Final Fantasy Adventure / U-Four-ia
• Neutopia II / Wonder Boy in Monster World
• Metroid II / Brandish
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past / Ultima Runes of Virtue
• Friday the 13th / Kung Fu Heroes
• Shinobi* / Blade Eagle *
• Monopoly / Thunder Blade*
• Shanghai* / Spy vs Spy
• Double Dragon / Kenseiden
• Ninja Gaiden
• SoulBlazer / Gargoyle's Quest II / Landstalker 
• For the Frog the Bell Tolls / Link's Awakening / The Secret of Mana 
• Illusion of Gaia / Ultima Runes of Virtue 2 
• Dance Aerobics / John Elway’s QB / Marble Madness
• Phantasy Star *
• Golvellius*
• Power Strike* / Rambo III
• R-Type* / Carmen Sandiego
• Ys IV: Mask / Ys IV: Dawn / TMNT III: Radical Rescue 
• Super Metroid - 3/94
• World Games / Mappy Land / Fist of the North Star
• Galactic Protector* / Argos no Juujiken
• Hoshi o Sagashite...* / Solomon no Kagi*
• Tensai Bakabon* / Bubble Bobble
• Super Racing* / Megumi Rescue* / Nekyuu Koshien*

I'll leave it to you to figure out which series each of these belongs to. And when I actually get to take a day off. (Just kidding, I don't get to have those.)