socrates63

More games leaving my collection -- tonight, these are going to the same two ladies who bought a bunch of my PS1 and PS2 games. I had no intentions of selling Xbox 360 games, but I know these ladies will give them a good home, so I decided to let them go. I love Xbox 360 and PS3 games. From a graphics perspective, I think it's perfect and the games have aged very well for the most part. I still play Halo Reach.

I did pull one game that was on their list -- Blue Dragon. I had to keep it as a keepsake. I bought it from the company store when I worked at Microsoft. The do not sell sticker on the game box has my employee number on it.

I really need to stop dragging my feet and just take my stuff to Pink Gorilla.

And so it begins... the collection purge. Before I take the games to Pink Gorilla, I offered up my PS1, PS2, PS4, and Dreamcast games to a gamer couple in the local gaming group. This is what I've pulled out for them. I ended selling a couple of games (like Metal Gear Solid and Parasite Eve II) that I was intending to keep, but I am happy that they are going to people I know who will love them as much as I did.

December has been a crazy month--so much going on both professionally and personally, and it's just been a blur. I've been doing the bare minimum when it comes to social media (which means mostly checking Facebook with very limited time in the I/O).

As far as the hobby is concerned, it's also been a busy month.

• Traded away a bottle of wine for an Odyssey 2 in the box with a bunch of games. This is the same person that I traded my heavy sixer with for the Lego 2600 set.
• Bought a Vectrex light pen.
• Bought couple of short controller extensions cords to use with the Vectrex.
• Bought A8PicoCart multicart for the Atari 8bit. I don't need it as I have other means to store and load games, but bought it on a whim.
• Bought games for the Atari 8bit, 5200, and 2600.
• Got an empty Atari 1040ST box for free from a member of the local gaming group.

I'm pretty sure I'm missing some other stuff, but as far as adding to the collection goes, it's been fruitful.

I hope 2024 will be slower going, and I can finally finish cleaning up and reorganizing my hobby spaces in the house. That's been put on hold the past two years because of my health issues (which should be a thing of the past now).

For 2024 and beyond, I am making a big shift. Instead of dabbling in most things, I intend to focus retro gaming heavily to all things Atari with a smattering of modern gaming on the Switch and Steam Deck. This year has taught me that my heart belongs to Atari and other platforms from the 80s and early 90s.

I will be selling off the PS1, 2, and 4 collection to a local gaming store in the next week or two, so that should help with reclaiming some shelf space. For now, I intend to keep my Xbox collection as well as the PS3 collection. While I will keep all my consoles and a few physical games, I will not be expanding my PlayStation and Xbox physical library.

It's been a very enjoyable six years exploring the popular retro gaming platforms, but as I contemplate life and the need the downsize in 5-7 years, I think the time is right to start that process. Hopefully, narrowing my focus will translate into more game time and lot less shopping.

Happy New Year!

Passing on some good prices on cartridges of 2600, 7800, and Genesis prototypes, reproductions and hacks at AtariAge by Shawn. I've bought Genesis reproductions from him before, and the cartridge labels and such were of great quality. I'd snatch up all the 2600 and 7800 cartridges if I didn't have them already. Great prices--much cheaper than GoodDealGames which is where I bought mine.

I got back yesterday from a 4 day trip to Los Angeles with a group of church friends. We stayed together in an Airbnb. It was a short trip but packed. We all rode together in a van, so we pretty much spent 24 hours together each day.

I don't think I've done something like this with non-family since my college days. One of the people on the trip lost her father a week ago. The funeral is this Friday, and I'm certain the trip helped her. If nothing else, it brought us all closer together (and I gained 5 pounds from all the food 😂).

Three more days left to go! I’m scheduled to be discharged this Wednesday. My rehab will continue into the coming weeks, and I will be traveling from home. Come tomorrow, I will have been in the hospital for two weeks. While I love the constant care and ease of rehab logistics, I’m looking forward to returning home and enjoying the comforts of home.

And I bought a bunch of stuff while being hospitalized, and it’ll be like early Christmas when I get home 😂 My wife didn’t sound too thrilled with the number of boxes stacked in my office at home.

Life is good! I’m still in the hospital for rehab, but I’m receiving care and support from friends, church, and family. I have a great job and awesome co-workers and managers. Today is an off day, so no therapy sessions (my quads were beat up bad yesterday from the intensive sessions).

I’m just feeling happy and giddy chilling, watching videos, surfing the forums… what more could I ask for? 🙂 

My wife has been visiting daily, and yesterday, she chided(?) me. Here’s a photo of me taken two days before I had my ER visit that led to surgery. I was still under lots of pain. I had to ask my son to drive me around town that day. We went to church to attend the youth group fundraiser for lunch and then headed to a retro computing society meeting in hopes of meeting Joe Decuir and then followed that up with a visit to this nice man to get the 5200 controllers for free.

How can you smile so big under all that pain is basically what she asked me 😂 She answered her own question saying to the effect that when you love something that much, it can’t be suppressed. Yeah, I’ve been fascinated with video games ever since I first laid my eyes on it as a kid back in the early 80s.

I hope everyone is doing as well as I am minus the hospital stuff.

Personal update — I’ve been dealing with back pain for more than a year. Late Monday, I went to the ER and Tuesday morning, I underwent a surgery for a herniated disc. It was diagnosed as a medical emergency. Surgery went well, but I will be in the hospital for another week. I’ve lost some function of my left leg and will be rehabbing in the hospital, and after I’m discharged, I will be returning for more intensive rehab. I am expected to make a full recovery.

In the meantime, should I be worried about my 7800 Asteroids score in the high score challenge? 😂 Game on 🕹️

Dog sitting -- week one is done and there's three more to go.

Son 2's girlfriend's family left for Taiwan a week ago to visit extended family. We agreed to dog sit Mochi for four weeks.

Having heard from my son, I knew Mochi was not well socialized with people and animals. He was distant from us and only opened up to my son. For such a dog, I expected him to be a bit traumatized having been left in an unknown place with mostly unknown people. When my son went to work, Mochi would lie on his bed in the bedroom and spend hours there. My wife and I were getting a little worried.

After one week, I think we may have turned the corner. He came up to me looking like he wanted something. We ended up playing chase around the house. Eventually he got tired and I got tired, and we sat on the floor. I approached him slowly and gave him some space and started petting him. I think I was stroking him for half an hour and Mochi shifted his body and leaned up against me. I continued to stroke him for a while longer and he fell asleep.

He still doesn't approach too close and maintains his distance, but I think he'll be ok. We were seriously worried for his mental health.

The MLB All-Star game returned to Seattle for only the second time (first time in 2001). I took the family to the fan fest, and while on our way to the stadium, we passed through Pioneer Square area which is adjacent to the stadium. In the middle of the square, there was an arcade set up, and it was free to play. We stopped and spent a bit of time playing the various games.

Check out my score on Missile Command. Is that a decent score? The shooting reticle (x) was slow to move so it got difficult in later stages. That Asteroids was hard! I couldn't even crack 10k. The joystick on Burger Time was horrible. My wife and kids had fun with Galaga.

My 10 seconds of fame and in the limelight! 😎😆🤣

At the end of Metal Jesus Rocks' video that came out today, I got a shout out because I lent him two games that he needed to make the video.

Last Saturday, he posted his request in the local gamer Facebook group. I met him an hour later and gave him the games. We chatted a bit, and I asked him to sign his album that I brought with me. He was shocked and honored (his word) that I had it. I guess it didn't sell well? I forgot to get a photo with him, so will do that when we meet up again to get my games back.

I'm a big fan of MJR because it was his videos that got me started in retro gaming. One day, the YouTube gods put his video in my feed. I didn't even know that there was this thing called retro gaming back in 2015 (or was that 2016?). Always came off as a nice dude in the videos and in person.

I'm still working on my retro setup. Today, I hooked up my 800XL to the 1702 and powered it up--such a beautiful blue screen 🙂 I also hooked up the Fujinet to it, and it's just amazing that this 40 year old hardware is now connected to the Internet. So much new to learn!

I also got my Genesis working. I tried using the RGB cable the other day and got a blank screen. Turns out I didn't properly seat the cable, so with the connection fixed, the Genesis put out a beautiful display--such clear and crispy colorful pixels.

I pulled out a random cartridge out of the drawer to test the Genesis. Wow! The music was amazing and I was tapping my toes and already hooked on the game before play even started. The game was Streets of Rage 2. This game may make me a Sega Genesis fan.

The retro setup in my office is coming along--not quite as far as I had hoped to be but still made a lot of progress the past few days. I'm very happy that my Atari consoles are all hooked up for easy access. Only the Jaguar (inside a drawer), Dreamcast, and Core Grafx are not connected. I think I might be able to stack the Jag on top of the PS2.

I even set up the 1702 I picked up a few months ago from the same TV tech that I got my Sony TV from last month. The 800XL setup is in the same corner location where my consoles used to live. Now I need to set up the FujiNet and SD Max that I bought a while ago. I am so close to being able to start typing in code from Compute! and other magazines like I did as a kid.

Happy Father’s Day 2023 to my fellow dads and men who are mentoring and bringing up the next generation.

A tale from the suburbs

My wife and I were driving to church yesterday for early morning prayer. We saw a group of crows on road which is not an uncommon scene. As we approached them, all flew away as expected except for one. I'm not sure if it was eating something on the road, but at the last minute after all its buddies had already fled, it raised its head and saw us.

Maybe I've watched too many Looney Tunes, but I swear it's expression was like, "What's going on? Where did everybody go? Oh!" BAM! I heard a loud thunk as we passed over the spot where the crow was. I looked back and saw the crow looking plastered on the road with one wing up twitching. Another crow came back and was like "Are you ok, bruh?"

When we returned to the scene three hours later, there was nothing on the road. The crow must have survived somehow and flew away. It was hit very hard if the sound of the impact was any indicator, so it was shocking to see that it must have survived.

My wife was a bit shaken as she was the driver, and it was the first time that she had run into an animal. Suffice to say, she also survived and is doing well.

I've heard that crows are very intelligent birds. But of course, there's always an exception to any rule. 

Time just flies by. I can't believe it's already been a week since my birthday. This year, I celebrated it with gifts, family dinner, and lunch with former coworkers. It was a fun one, so I wanted to share.

Family dinner at the restaurant of my choosing. Son 2's girlfriend joined us.

My wife forgot to bring the cake to the dinner, so we had it when we returned home 😂 My family isn't much into cakes, so that's why it's small.

My former co-workers from my Amazon days. Mathias' (guy on the far left) birthday is in a couple of weeks. We had this thing going for a few years where I bought him lunch on his birthday and he bought me lunch on my birthday. This year, we broke tradition. Although he wanted to pay, I beat him to the machine with my card. It's been a few years since we got together, so I wanted to buy. He's going to buy me lunch later this month. These guys were my engineers when I managed the Fire tablet localization.

Gift from my son and his girlfriend. My son was very surprised when I told him that I didn't have the NES. Well, I fixed that a few days later. I bought a NES top loader. It's been sent to get the RGB mod, so I'll show it off when I get it back in a few weeks.

Home-made candles were gifted to me from a church friend. I don't think my photo does it justice--it's very beautiful and very fragrant.

I just finished watching the first episode of The Sandman on Netflix, and my reaction is simply 😮 

I’ve heard of the greatness that is Neil Gaiman and his work The Sandman. However, the descriptions of it being some sort of horror was off putting as I’m not a fan of the horror genre.  As I looked at the thumbnail in Netflix though, it looked more like a dark fantasy in a dream setting more so than horror. Still even then, I’m not a big fan of dream settings, and I prefer something more tangibly grounded.

Nevertheless, something compelled me to give it a try tonight, and OMG this is amazing. The premise and the story are absolutely brilliant. The first episode moved at a rapid pace to set up the world and the characters. The characters and the scenes looked beautiful. It was simply a delight and I look forward to the remaining ten episodes.

OG Doom, how I have missed thee ❤️ 

I recently picked up Doom from the eShop because it was on sale, and I’ve been playing it the past couple of days. I have the various Doom releases on multi-gen Xbox and Playstation consoles, but it was this release for the Switch that got me to play the original Doom once more. I hadn’t touched it since I played it during my college days thirty years ago (with the lights on, of course).

Still fun as I remembered it. Still gets me once in a while with a jump scare 😂 It feels a little weird playing with the Hori split pad pro on the Switch. I think it’s the thumb sticks being so far apart. Maybe I should open the Pro controller still in the box. I heard recently that the Switch now supports keyboard and mouse? I probably won’t go that far to replicate the original controller experience, but it was just a passing thought.

Graphics look good with none of the slow downs like when I played on my Northgate 386/33 and later the Cassiopeia Pocket PC. Sound effects sound right, but the music? Maybe it’s just my memory or I’m confusing the music from later Doom games.

No matter — hail to the King, baby! Oops, wrong game, but this is The One that got us super stoked about graphic card upgrades and defined a whole new genre of games called FPS.

Merry Christmas, everyone🎄 I hope you enjoy Christmas Day with your family and friends. 

I'm in corporate training for the next three days, 5 1/2 hours each day for three days 🎉 

I have a love-hate relationship with training. I hate taking training courses because often times, the instructors are terrible. In addition to that, I think I suffer a little anxiety before the training starts. Having said that, I usually find company training to be a valuable learning experience and very inspiring.

I'm taking the SAFe Advanced Scrum Master course. My current company and org high values certification, so not only do I need to pay attention during the class, I have to pass a test at the end. Did I mention anxiety already? 😂

#SeaUsRise One more to go! Let's do it, Robbie Ray!

While working for Amazon, I traveled to Toronto several times. The office was located in a building next to the Sky Dome (I think it's called Rogers something now). Every time I looked down on the Sky Dome from the office, my insides would just tear me up.

Both the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays entered the league in 1977, but the histories written by the two franchises could not be more different. One franchise enjoys a lauded history and the other franchise's history is characterized by futility and mediocrity. While one francise was winning not one but two World Series titles, the other franchise was celebrating the finishing of a season with .500 or better wins record for the first time and later reaching the playoffs for the first time. In the same number of years, the two teams took opposite trajectories. Each visit to the Toronto office was a stinging reminder of the futility of the team and franchise that I rooted for.

But winning this wildcard matchup will do much to heal and comfort the pain that I've carried for so long. It would be so poetic for Robbie Ray, who pitched for the Blue Jays last year and won the Cy Young, to close out this series tomorrow.

Last Saturday, I went to PAX West with my son. I wasn't planning to go this year, but when I found out that there was a panel featuring Ken and Roberta Williams, I had to go. The panel was titled Adventure Games: Heroes and Legends. The Williams were joined by Jane Jensen, Al Lowe, Ron Gilbert, and Dave Gilbert. I took this photo before the panel started. They all masked up once they started speaking. The lady on the far left is the local gamer who organized the panel.

To be honest, I've never played a King's Quest game. However, I remember seeing it on my friend's PC Jr. back in the day. I have played the first Gabriel Knight and first Leisure Suit Larry games. Besides those, I have not (yet) played any of the other games made by these legends of adventure gaming.

It was a fanboy thrill to see these folks. I got in line about 90 minutes before the panel started in order to ensure myself a good seat. It was a good thing I did that because the place was packed.

These gaming industry legends and their works are an inseparable part of my childhood, and I cherish them for that alone. I wish I could have gotten a photo with them, but oh well. This will have to do (for now).

I just had a very fun interaction and a brief travel down Memory Lane 🙂

Back in the 80s, I was friends with a guy name George. He had an older brother and two younger sisters. It turned out that the older of the two sisters lives in my neighborhood and ours kids attended the same school and our kids have become very close lately. She and her son just walked to my house to give me a box of pears as a thank you for taking her son (and my son) to the airport this Sunday for their high school graduation trip to California.

We had a short chat on the porch, and she randomly mentions this small black box with a TV screen and that I had lent it to her brother back in the 80s (I don't recall lending it to him), and she and her sister played the heck out of it. I knew immediately what she was talking about and brought out my Vectrex. Her eyes beamed. I had never known that she was into playing games. She was very shy and I had never heard her say anything when we were kids. She said she never forgot it, and it was a very positive part of her childhood. Her family did not have computers nor video games. I told her that I'd lend it to her again, so she can relive those days.

So random and unexpected but so cool! And it was our kids who brought us together for this chat.

It finally feels like summer in Seattle -- sunny and mid 70s yesterday and 80 today. What better way to kick off summer the American 🇺🇸 way than firing up the grill? I hosted a burger party for about a doze teens and their leaders from my church on Friday. It's always fun to see young people have a good time, but it can tire you out 🙂

A funny side note, my grilling set off the smoke alarm in the house behind us 😂 They had the door to their backyard open, and closed it once they figured out what was going on. Houses are built so close to one another.

Beware, the Nine are still afoot! They upgraded their noisy black steeds to silent red ones. Stay off the road Frodo Baggins!