socrates63

Last Saturday, I dropped by the local shop run by a member of the local gaming community. I added a couple of Tetris spin-offs--Tetris Blast and Tetris Attack--for the Game Boy. I looked them up after I got home and found that they are well regarded games in the GB library.

I had no idea about this either. Here's a write-up on wikipedia. Looks like it's still available to buy for the 360 from Xbox Live Marketplace for $5 and there's a trial version.

I watched Top Gun Maverick last weekend. I thought about rewatching Top Gun 1986 beforehand but didn't. I haven't seen Top Gun in 30 years? You can find Top Gun on Prime Video, by the way. Outside of the constant kid yelling and crying (someone brought his wife, mother?, and 2 or 3 little kids along with a stroller), I found Maverick a very fun to watch. It certainly gave my emotions a rollercoaster ride. Some impressions on the cast--First, I stand in awe of Tom Cruise and his physicality. He's looking great and still runs around like a young man--amazing. Second, Jennifer Connelly was an excellent casting choice. I wasn't a big fan of hers back in the day, but I have loved her work in recent years like Alita. Third, Miles Teller as Goose's son blew my mind--I thought I was seeing Anthony Edwards. He definitely looked the part of Goose's son. Maverick was definitely a fun watch, and I loved the way it paid homage to the original, and yet it crafted its own identify. It isn't quite the tour de force of the 1986 Top Gun, and if I had to compare the two, my favorite is still the 1986 release. I told my wife that if you're a young man back in 1986, you likely had one of three reactions to watching Top Gun: 1) join the navy to be a pilot, 2) bought a Kawasaki Ninja or something similar, or 3) started playing 2-on-2 volleyball. I chose number three 🏐.

Yep, the nerd force is strong there. I've never seen that style before. I'm more partial to vacuum tubes and always wanted something like the Nixie tube clock.

My latest pick ups -- the PS2 and Xbox games come from a FB group claim sale by a local gamer and the rest from a whatnot auction hosted by another local gamer (who was featured in a Metal Jesus Rocks video last year). I don't even have a Saturn but decided to grab this Falcom compilation. I guess a Saturn is in my future 🙂 but given the cost of Saturn games, I'm not holding my breath on adding NTSC games to the collection.

Nice! Bummer I missed this post.

@intellicolecovisonary Awesome game room you got there! I picked up Vectorblade and have Protector, Vector Pilot and Vector Patrol on my wishlist. And yes, I ❤️ vector graphics 🙂 I bought Sean's complete repro overlay set when I got started this year.

Wow, folks have picked up some amazing stuff the past couple of weeks 👏👏👏 ❤️ Here's my most recent pick up. I bought a loose copy of the Zelda game from a local gamer to go with the case and manual that I got online. When I got the Vectrex earlier this year, my intent was to get a multicart and not collect the official games. Well, that idea partly went out the window when I saw some CIB copies for a good price. I'm particularly excited by the Star Trek game as it is one of the games I owned back in the 80s. I'm still not planning to add any more Vectrex games 😛 Now if I can just find some time to play 🙁 Hopefully later this month 🤞

Tonight, I attended a game trading night hosted by a local gamer who is getting ready to open a game store. Since he hasn't set up the inside of the store yet and it's sitting empty, he invited people over. I was only expecting to see around a dozen people but more than thirty came. It was my first ever game trading/selling gathering. People bought stuff from me, and I also made a few trades. It was a very cool experience. I picked up a bunch of import games for cheap. I'm very happy to have added to my IntelliVoice games library. It's a complete copy with overlays. Stargate is an empty box in very good condition that I got for free for buying the Intellivision game.

This week and last week's Atari mail call -- two Atari 2600 homebrews published by Good Deal Games. I believe Talvisota had a very limited release at CORGS convention that wrapped up last weekend. GDG was cool enough to sell me a copy. I'd have loved to have gone to Ohio for the con, but shipping works. And I finally got the Atari 2600 controller that I'd been wanting for a couple of years -- Edladdin's All-Play 4/8: Supreme 78. With this particular model, you can easily rotate the restrictor plate to make it a 4- or 8-way joystick. It's not cheap, but then again, it uses arcade controller parts (Sanwa stick, Happ buttons). It is very handsome and built very well. I am particularly impressed by the quality of the woodwork and finish. I should add that NSG did a review of this controller a long time ago and had a coupon code. The code still worked. I may put up for sale one or two of my 2600/7800 joysticks made by Retrogameboyz in the future 🙂

Good thing I've held on to some speakers I used with my PC back in the day? 😆

IIRC it was one of Darrell Spice's games. I think it was Space Rocks and it the screen was flickering(?). I read that the incompatibility differed among the 7800 variants. For the cartridge grip problem, I ended up buying an adapter (Lock-On 2600 or something like that) by someone on AA forum, and it works well.

I bought it a few years ago from someone on ebay who was modding 2600 and 7800. It was my first Atari console when I got back into Atari gaming and before I knew anyone 😆 The death grip and homebrew incompatibilities led me to get a 2600. I still need to schedule with you work on my two heavy 6ers.

I watched Firefox as a kid when it was first released in theaters back in 1983. When I saw the trailer, I remember thinking that the fighter jet looked very cool, and a story about stealing a super secret futuristic fighter jet from commie scum sounded like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the movie did not meet the expectations of a 14 year old (and many adults as well who panned the movie). There simply wasn't enough action and explosions that the story seemed to deserve. I filed it away in my memory as a disappointment from childhood. Fast forward nearly forty years into the future to 2021. In my 50s, I often find myself looking back and now enjoying the things from my childhood and adolescence even more than I did back then. During the last year or two, I've become an Eastwood fan and have watched several of his movies. I even saw the first Dirty Harry movie for the very first time earlier this year. Being a recent Eastwood fan, I wondered how I'd react to watching Firefox again. A couple of months ago, I bought the blu-ray and DVD releases of Firefox. Today, I loaded up the blu-ray and gave it a spin. I very much enjoyed Firefox. It's definitely not the kind of action flick that my 14 year old self craved. Firefox is very much a suspense thriller with a little sci-fi thrown in (although the technology on display in the jet fighter don't seem to far fetched anymore). However, it's definitely an 80s movie with some campy acting by some of the cast. I also read the one-liners quoted from movie critics cited in Wikipedia entry for the movie, and I'd have to agree with much of the criticism. But why did I still enjoy the movie? I think it's because of Clint Eastwood. He knows what he's good at and the type of characters that he suit him well. Major Mitchell Gant, the protagonist of Firefox, is a loner, a broken Vietnam vet with skills second to none (jet fighter pilot in this case). It sounds a lot like many of his Western movie characters, a man of few words but who's actions are loud. The man has made an entire career, a very lengthy career, playing such characters, and he does it well. If you want to revisit the 80s movie scene, give Firefox a try. As for me, my next 80s movie on deck is Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Director's Edition). I was bored to death watching it in the theater as a kid. I'm hoping I will have a better appreciation for it now.

New homebrews! Cool beans Good to hear about Sky Raider Redux! How's K-JO Chases the Cheese?

This morning, I drove three hours to pick up my Vectrex from a member of the local gaming group member who cleaned up, recapped, added the no buzz kit, and provided some overall TLC. He even cleaned up the case with car detailing product for that liquidity black finish. My Vectrex is now looking factory fresh inside and out. Afterwards, I drove about 20 minutes to Portland to visit a store called Final Form. I went there for the first time in August (during the trip when I was dropping off my Vectrex for service). It's a very small store but has a good collection of games, music, and movies that I don't often see in other stores. Of the several stores in Portland I visited back in August, this was my favorite, so I went back today and picked up some games and a movie. Love the no sales tax in Oregon 👍 Coraline came with the lenticular slip cover which is pretty cool. The Worms game had the Pink Gorilla price sticker on it. I guess someone bought it in Seattle and traded it in Portland? In any case, it's back in the Seattle area again 🙂 I don't know anything about Coded Gun. It was a cheap game and the Korean version. I asked the store owner if it was related to Coded Arm which I bought from him the last time I visited. He didn't know and just gave it to me for free. Thank you kindly 🙂 I didn't have a lot time today, so I didn't reach out to you this time @RickR. I need to visit your garage 😄

Pick up today! I drove out to Seattle in the pouring rain to get games I bought from a local gamer last week. He happens to live a few minutes drive from Pink Gorilla and Al's (retro games and music), so I made the rounds there as well. I love soundtracks. I couldn't say no to Battlestar Galactica with the 70s style jacket art. I'm not sure about the music, but the jacket alone makes it worthwhile 🙂 I've heard Love Story is a good movie, so I grabbed the album. As for the games, I'm happy to have gotten the Dead Space Extraction. I hear it's the prequel to the main Dead Space series. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself since I'm a big 🐔. I only managed to play the first Dead Space game for about 20 minutes before quitting due to stress and anxiety 😆. I've heard the Star Trek game is a good one. I picked up Deep Water because it was on my wishlist, and I rarely run into PAL games in the wild. With the cost of shipping from Europe or Australia these days, this was way cheaper than ebay.

Awesome, Rob! A couple of days ago, my wife said I should take out her piano from my study so I can have more room for my retro gaming. Right now, it's a small corner setup with a TV stand and a bunch of consoles and controllers strewn on the floor. When the piano is moved out to the living room, I'll have an entire wall.

Yes, finding out that Samus was a woman was a surprise to me as well. Looking at her armor, you never expected it. Super Metroid for the SNES was one of the first SNES games I bought because of Harry's enthusiasm for it. I still haven't played it beyond the first couple of minutes, but one of these days 🙂

I haven't seen too many sci-fi series, but this year, I've become a Trek fan, or dare I say, a Trekkie 🙂 Previously, I was a Star Wars fan all the way, but with the disappointment that was the Skywalker saga episodes 1-3 and 7-9, my eyes wandered. For 2021, I had set a goal of watching the original Star Trek series (I'm almost done), and I've been very impressed with the series vision and its stories. When I was a kid, I found Star Trek boring -- not enough phasers and battles and way too much talking. Now? I understand its popularity and have become a fan. I'm even brave enough to consider giving Star Trek The Motion Picture a second watch 🙂 I saw it in the theater as a kid and went in expecting something along the lines of Star Wars, and boy was I wrong. I'm sure it's a much better movie than my kid brain could appreciate.

My most recent experience was not grabbing the in the box O2 for $20 at a garage sale a couple of months ago. I'm not into the Odyssey so while I was thinking about it, someone swooped in and snagged it. I probably should have grabbed it while thinking about since I could have put it back. Since I don't go thrifting or to garage sales, I don't have many stories of the ones that got away. I only went to this garage sale because it was run by a member of the local gaming group and was a five minute drive from my house.

I picked up some DS and PSP games from a claim sale in the local FB gamers group. Both the PSP and DS have interesting titles that are still very affordable. I'm a late comer to the platforms, and it's been fun adding to the library.