RickR

I'll have to send you my Hoppin' John recipe.
 
Italian tradition is pork and lentils on New Year's. But pork and black-eyed peas works for me. Also something about red unds for fertility...but no thanks on that one.

I'll have to send you my Hoppin' John recipe.
 
Italian tradition is pork and lentils on New Year's. But pork and black-eyed peas works for me. Also something about red unds for fertility...but no thanks on that one.

I'll have to send you my Hoppin' John recipe.
 
Italian tradition is pork and lentils on New Year's. But pork and black-eyed peas works for me. Also something about red unds for fertility...but no thanks on that one.

We make a dish called "Hoppin' John", which has ham, bacon, and black eyed peas covered. Need to add some greens it sounds like.

We make a dish called "Hoppin' John", which has ham, bacon, and black eyed peas covered. Need to add some greens it sounds like.

Some of you may or may not know that in the South, there are three items one should eat every New Years Day.  Greens (Cabbage, Collard, Mustard, or Turnip greens will do),  Black-Eyed Peas, and ham (pork in any form will do).    I think many cultures have similar traditions, but I'm only privy to the inner workings of what I grew up with.

First, lets get the obvious out of the way.   Greens symbolize wealth.  The reason is obvious and several cultures actually share this belief.  One should always eat their greens on New Years Day if you want to be prosperous in the New Year.  Here's how it's served in my neck of the woods.  (cabbage pictured, flavored with plenty of bacon)



Next, we have the pork.  Above you have bacon flavoring your greens, so that might do for some folks.  For us, however, we grew up needing a main dish on New Years Day anyway, so there's usually a ham.   Why pork?  Pigs root forward when scrounging for food.   Eating pig symbolizes moving forward or progressing in the New Year, so the pork is for luck.   NEVER, and I mean NEVER eat chicken on New Years Day as chickens scratch backwards when scrounging up food.  Looking back=bad luck.  We don't want that now do we?   Trust me, if a Southerner can give up fried chicken any day, it is important.


Lastly, there's the black-eyed peas which there seems to be some confusion about on the internet.  Some folks seem to think the reason we have black-eyed peas is because they look like coins. What?  Never heard that, nor have I seen a coin that looks like a black-eyed pea.   Here's the scoop:
Black-eyed peas were brought from Africa by the slaves.  Like much of their food, it quickly became a staple in Southern cuisine.   During the Civil War, the Union Troops would confiscate and eat all of the crops from Southern farms.   Not knowin' no better (silly Yankees) they considered Black Eyed Peas livestock feed, so they left them alone.   As a result, many times that's all they had to eat.   So black-eyed peas are eaten for health in the New Year.  Some folks say you should eat one black-eyed pea for each day of the new year.   Sounds like a LOT of peas to me, so just a helping or two will do. 
(You'll notice again more bacon)

Some folks include cornbread on the list of must-haves for New Years day claiming it represents gold, but I've never heard that and as you can see we've already got wealth covered.   The reason this is eaten on New Years day is simple, it goes perfect with this meal.   

So there you have it folks.  Maybe you learned something about our traditions in the South, maybe you knew all this already.

What about you?  What are your traditions for New Years day if you have any?

I love Burgertime in the arcade, and the various home versions. But the name "Beef Drop" is not good. Has a bathroom connotation if you ask me.

I agree and wish it had a different name. I didn't want to be critical though because the game's author is a good guy and he did a superb job bringing this title to the 7800. I have no complaints about the game outside of the name. It's as good as the arcade. I wish licensing rights had been different and the game could've been released as "Burgertime".

I love Burgertime in the arcade, and the various home versions. But the name "Beef Drop" is not good. Has a bathroom connotation if you ask me.

81829.  I switched to a TAC-2 joystick, which I'm a little torn about.  The button on the TAC-2 is so much easier on my hand and thumb.  But the joystick isn't as tight as the Slik Stik.  Still, the higher score....I think I like the TAC-2 best. 
 
One more note, there is a person on Facebook that wants to trade a TAC-2 for a Video Game Brain.  What do you guys think?  Good trade?  That's why I got the TAC-2 out...to make sure it worked well for a trade.
 
 

I get what you are saying and agree of course better to go the free route and "obtain" what is required THAT SAID THOUGH the Amiga Forever package is a great way to introduce oneself especially for those unsure or unfamiliar with emulation all legal as well (for those that care of such things). To be fair in this case Cloanto have been supporting and improving Amiga Forever since 1997 as well so that is a pretty fair track record.    The package is pretty tight, well supported and Cloanto have even helped me out personally as well it has a great GUI / INTERFACE and because of all this even someone like me who has a lot of experience with emulation I chose to support Cloanto. For every other platform I go the freeware route, it's just that good.  

Excellent!! Thanks MaxRD.

As some of you know, Atari had a small test market launch of the 7800 in southern California in 1984 right before Warner sold Atari. After the sale, the 7800 was locked away until 1986. 
However did you know that the 1984 games had different boxes, manuals and cartridge labels than the post sale releases?
I take a look at a very small sample I have of '84 items in the following video:

Thought i would share what i got for secret santa at where i work. I got a walking dead and a NES T shirt.
 
There is an arcade next to where i work and my secret santa knew i won the pacman in the claw machine so she went and won me the ms. Pacman. She also got me a mario and a pacman figure. I was over joyed
 
Did any of yall do secret santa where yall work?

I would suggest an Amiga 1200. Most of the programs work together with that model. And you several ways to modify the computer. There are new developed Turboboards and the possibility to put the mainboard in a tower case. With a cdrom you could also use the cd32-games.

The are expensive because people tend to hold on to them as they are getting rarer and harder to find as well they did not have the market penetration in USA / CANADA or outside the UK where they are much more common. 
 
If you simply would like to try some of the more popular AMIGA games you might consider an emulation package like Cloanto's AMIGA FOREVER, now before anyone starts with "BAH WHY PAY FOR EMULATION???" it is true one can get UAE emulator for free as well as "obtain" the kickstart ROM files (think of it as the required BIOS for AMIGA) and of course download various romsets of games etc, figure the configuration blah blah blah BUT THEN AGAIN if one knows nothing or very little of these things then one can do worse than buying an officially licensed ready to go plug n play package to experience various versions of the operating systems as well as different applications and of course a good sampling of games and demos. If that is of interest check out HERE :
https://www.amigaforever.com/ 
 
 
IF YOU ARE DEAD SET ON REAL HARDWARE well I would suggest the most common Amiga 500. This is the most basic model and compatible with many games THAT SAID it is not the most expandable thus you would be relying on original (or copied) games on Floppy Disk media which may not be the most reliable even if you DO track some down. An AMIGA 1200 was the next most popular machine and probably the most expandable with modern storage options, floppy disc emulators and other add-ons which would make the storage, handling and loading of games much more reliable and convenient.
 
Now I do not actually have real AMIGA hardware of any type having to resort to emulation myself for several years now but this is what I know from following the scene. Anyone else of course is welcome to add any suggestions or knowledge from their own personal experience. 

Congrats on #300, and also on your GMO-Free certification. 

Gorf.  Although any of these would be great to see. 

I really enjoy playing star wars pod racers and that one is actually really cheap. Mario 64 of course! Kirby 64 is one of my favs for the system. Banjo kazooie and banjo tooie.
 
Another great one i have beaten is star soldiers

81829.  I switched to a TAC-2 joystick, which I'm a little torn about.  The button on the TAC-2 is so much easier on my hand and thumb.  But the joystick isn't as tight as the Slik Stik.  Still, the higher score....I think I like the TAC-2 best. 
 
One more note, there is a person on Facebook that wants to trade a TAC-2 for a Video Game Brain.  What do you guys think?  Good trade?  That's why I got the TAC-2 out...to make sure it worked well for a trade.
 
 

Just a note on the Mattel Electronics repros -- they really ramped up the difficulty on the games...and that's a good thing.  They are a lot of fun.  You'll know the controls, but you'll need to change your old strategies to get good on these things. 

Thought I'd start a thread on good deals available at retail stores to share with the group.
 
This first one is at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (in the "Beyond" section )  As after-Christmas sales, they have the mini-arcade LCD arcade games 30% off...$13.99 AND you can use a 20% off coupon for an additional $2.80 off (final price = $11.19)  I already had the Pac Man, so I bought the Space Invaders. 
 
They also have the Mattel Electronics repro handheld games.  These versions have special sound effects.  They are 50% off...$7.49, and use a 20% off coupon for an additional $1.50 off (final price = $5.99).  I got football as a gift, so I bought basketball and baseball.

Thought I'd start a thread on good deals available at retail stores to share with the group.
 
This first one is at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (in the "Beyond" section )  As after-Christmas sales, they have the mini-arcade LCD arcade games 30% off...$13.99 AND you can use a 20% off coupon for an additional $2.80 off (final price = $11.19)  I already had the Pac Man, so I bought the Space Invaders. 
 
They also have the Mattel Electronics repro handheld games.  These versions have special sound effects.  They are 50% off...$7.49, and use a 20% off coupon for an additional $1.50 off (final price = $5.99).  I got football as a gift, so I bought basketball and baseball.

That Space Invaders is looking very tempting!!!! 

007.  Star Fox 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Any of the Star Wars games (I think there were 3), Mario Party. 
 
At the time, I really loved Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros...but the versions on Gamecube are 100 times better, so I'd skip them on N64.