HDN

Our combined total of the seven of us (my family plus grandparents and uncle) was two fish.

Well, that happens sometimes.  You can always get some fish from Safeway or something 🙂 

Glad you had a great time regardless, Harry! Being in good company is always best.

You created a contact for a package tracking number? That might be a brilliant lifehack.

COVID-19 has been a truly horrible thing. 

You can go 7 days?  Mine does well to go 7 hours.  That's why I keep a dust cover on mine 😄

@Atari 5200 Guy Putting on the dust cover is pointless for me since I'm playing so often. Do you have a plastic or cloth dust cover?

That is awesome!  Congrats.  The UnoCart is really good, and I'm sure you're going to love it.  And Doug Venner is a really great and nice person.  Make sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel.  I like his videos a lot, and he deserves a lot more subscribers. 

Tip:  Get the Rom Hunter pack of roms here:  http://www.atarimania.com/rom_collection_archive_atari_2600_roms.html

I'm sure you already have them all, but this pack is special because they are pre-arranged in logical folders and will be usable on the UnoCart (or Harmony) just by unzipping to an SD card. 

I’m already subscribed! You’re right though, he has some very good videos there.

What’s all in the Rom Hunter pack? Just released games or home brews as well?

I don't think there are any homebrews, but it's the entire 2600 commercial library in both raw and arranged forms. 

Nice lot! What is your 2600 cartridge count now?

@socrates63 I believe 108.

Same to you, buddy. 

Metroid Fusion is a lot of fun. It’s linear enough to be good for a portable game yet has plenty of exploration too. The new game is a direct sequel to Fusion. It’s about time!

I enjoy Metroid, but I haven't played it in a while. It's pretty fun. :O)

I haven't played it enough to form an opinion on Metroid, but of course, it's considered a classic. Having said that, platform games beyond the complexity of Mario Bros. (especially Metroidvania types) sadly are not my thing. I do have many of them though because I want to try them but I don't gravitate towards them naturally.

And today is my real birthday, too, but I'm only 29.

We play a lot of Atari together as it's quick and not too complex. Some favorites are One-on-One, Video Olympics, Outlaw, and Miniature Golf. We emulate a lot of games that I don't have physical carts for. Artillery Duel, Flag Capture, Home Run, Maze Craze, and Sky Diver are all great games we like to play on compilations and emulators.

That's awesome. 

In our house, it usually goes like this:  if the game uses one button, Dad dominates.  If 2 buttons, it's close.  If more than 2, the kids dominate. 

My kids are no longer kids, but we'll probably settle on multi-player Mario Party DS later today. 

We play a lot of Super Smash Bros three player, and I almost always lose first.  My only winning strategy is to avoid trouble, stay out of the way, let them duke it out, then try to take on a weakened survivor at the end. 

I'm terrible at any Smash game except for the 64 one. I'm a Yoshi or ROB main. My dad hates it so I mainly play with my sister. We mostly play Melee or Ultimate.

Not a huge Mario Party fan but DS is one of two that I play. I will always be a Mario Party 9 defender. Love that game!

He was on my dad’s side. The grandfather I mostly talk about on here is still alive. If he had died of COVID I would feel really, really guilty as we have gone over to visit recently and I would blame myself for killing him.

 I haven’t seen my dad’s dad in about a year (kind of sad that coronavirus has been going on for so long).

I had no idea that when we went to visit in late December 2019 that that would be the last time I saw him. It’s pretty depressing when I think about it.

Thank you all for the prayers and kind words and thoughts. I truly appreciate it.

My condolences to you and your family, Harry. 💐

My condolences as well. My mother died of COPD in November of last year. I know how it is. She did not have COVID, but she did have COPD and heart failure. So, I can understand the COPD aspect of it.

Lesson 1:  Learn and master the universal gesture for drivers.

I told this same thing to the people on the Atari 2600 Game by Game Podcast Discord server. One of the responses I got was "Better than Dodge 'em, I suppose".

What fun! I loved baking Christmas cookies with my Grandma as a kid and my daughter when she was younger. 

I see Mario, Pac-Man, Blinky, the Super Star, and what I think is a Samus Aran. 

That is correct!

I'm not an artist, and some of the better-decorated cookies were my sister's. These are pre-cut cookies, so I think if I had some better ways of applying frosting (like one of those frosting bag things) I think they could look better. 

So yes, that's Gingerbread Man Samus and Mario. I used a tableknife to carve the metroid, Pac-Man, and Blinky. I think next year I will cut the cookies BEFORE they are baked. But I still think they look nice. Christmas cookies needn't be fancy. They're all going to the same place!

Sweet!  You have fun with that thing. 

I was playing some Princess Rescue yesterday. I love when I get to play new Mario games since I’ve beaten all the 2D ones I have. It’s crazy that they got it to work with two buttons on the Genesis pad. Worlds 3 and 4 were super hard!

Listen, bud.  I'm telling you straight away.  You did something amazing.  Putting yourself out there is not easy.  Many don't.  And they regret it.  You feel bad today, and that's perfectly normal.  But keep on going.  Keep your eyes open.  Make friends with as many people as you can.  Be you.  Keep growing and learning.  Trust me, that special person just for you will come along. 

Things aren't as bad as I thought. They certainly aren't IDEAL, but it could be much worse.

Why?

@Justin You used to be able to buy a loose cart for $10 a few years ago. But now with people harvesting the internals for the POKEY, the price has nearly tripled. Let's preserve history for future generations and save Ballblazer!