Thinking about getting back into the sport...

Coming from a left hander. If you plan on only bowling house shots then yes be left handed, if you plan on bowling sport shot tournaments as well in future bowl right. You will have more success. I am kind of in the same boat, I left bowling 3 years ago because my wife hated me bowling because I tried to keep her away from the drama and she thought something else. My opinion would be to research some products. The house bowling on YouTube and also Brad and Kyle on YouTube have some good advice along with good information along with some good tournament footage. I would start to be honest getting with a good driller, you know what I am talking about. One who is not trying to sell you a ball and get you out the door. Me I use to work in the pro shop business so I can tell the difference when someone is just trying to sell a ball and educate you on the game and the equipment. You probably do as well. I would start off with a middle of the road ball and a plastic for spares and go from there. Storm products are really good. I am a Brunswick man myself. Always have been. I hope this was helpful.

At of all that, the only advice I can offer is for the shoes. Look for whatever looks cool at around 150+. I'm a Dexter guy but it's up to you. There's a couple around the $80 mark with replaceable soles but a good shoe is a good shoe and worth the extra money. I like the SST 8

Both Dexter and Brunswick have shoes that have velcro slide pads on both feet, so since you're a switch bowler I'd say get shoes that allow you to alternate--just don't switch mid-tourney so you stay within USBC rules.

When it comes to RH VS. LH just throw what you like more. If you don't mind adjusting a lot I'd say go RH so you can play the breakdown, but lefties have their benefits as well.

For equipment get a PSO you trust and do research on cover stocks. Maybe get a ball spinner so you can adjust the covers at home.

The biggest thing between Xcalibur and today is that the arms race between oil on the lanes and balls that can navigate said oil ran very hot for almost all those years. Pre-Xcalibur, the state of the art you were familiar with was the urethane ball, which repelled the oil on the lane to increase friction between ball and lane. Xcalibur was urethane doped with resin which was found to actually absorb oil, and be even better than repelling oil at increasing friction between ball and lane. Hence the arms race: in response to Xcalibur, centers put out more oil, for which ball makers made covers that absorbed more oil, and on and on.

Now, a few years back, USBC did set a cap for a maximum of how oil-absorbent a ball cover can be. But the current state of the game is that centers challenge the best bowlers by applying varying amounts of oil in crazy patterns -- going to a tournament, especially if you don't know the pattern, people that bring 17 balls has truly become the norm. Because you aren't going to know what ball is going to give you the best shot until you see some shots. Furthermore, with all the balls picking up oil, pushing oil, re-depositing oil, and so on, the ball you started with in frame 1 may not be the best ball to use even in as short a time as frame 5 because the transition can be super fast (depending on what lines people are playing, what balls they are using and the oil that was down in the first place).

So, with all that said, if you just want a new ball to futz around with some, I would recommend going into your pro shop and asking for something for medium to medium-light oil. Also known as a benchmark ball. Every company will have several balls in this space, so I don't think you need a specific recommendation here. If the bug gets ya again, then as you build back up to those 35 balls, lol, you can work on getting balls for all different oil patterns, volumes, and so on.

For my own "geeky" reasons looked up the release date of the Rhino RE and seeing 1993.

At that time many centers still using wick based conditioning machines while some had made the change to jets (oboy, like if 80s shots were not soft enough after the transition from non porous surfaces).

All I can say from that information and having started much earlier (yr. younger than PW jr.) is that today's house shot has been perfected, its simply child's play. (1) mid range cover stock should do it and no overthinking it required. If too much ball, polish it till its jewelry and don't leave anything you can't pick up. Expect 3-7 boards area (miss room prettier put) so if rusty pulling the ball or varying your break point, no worries. If you find a sport shot (such a wide open definition) you may find some integrity in the conditions.

Expecting about 10 down now. LOL