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Creating the Retro Gaming Experience To me, sitting infront of a flat screen TV using some emulator and a wireless controller didn't really provide me with the best Retro Gaming experience. When I first tried playing the old games I used to love on emulation, it just felt empty and stale. I wasn't sure why at first, then it hit me. When I was playing the games, I was looking for that nostalgic experience. I wanted to relive the memories of my youth. Unfortunately emulation wasn't sparking that nostalgic memory. I needed a true Retro Gaming experience. I learned then, there was a difference between just playing a retro game at home and actually "experiencing" home retro gaming. I kinda compare it to the experience of playing one of the new Arcade One-Up machines in your house compared to actually going to a real (retro) arcade. Both experiences are extremely different even though you're playing the same game. So it's the atmosphere that plays a big part in contributing to the experience. (I needed to bring the atomsphere back) So a few years ago I decided to create my own Home Retro Gaming experience by creating a retro gaming nook. I had a small space in the corner of my garage to use as a template. This would take a lot of patience and hunting. Though I had plenty of Atari stuff in my collection, I still needed to hunt out the decor I needed for this retro nook. To sit down somewhere and feel like I went back in time. The act of playing on a old CRT TV, being restricted by cords. The earthy tones of the wood paneling. The simplistic decor of the late 70s/early 80s of my youth. To design something that took me back in time would offer the true experience. My first pick-up was this 1977 Sony Trinitron with matching TV Cart: So during the next year-and-a-half I combed eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and local thrift stores. I not only needed the right decor, but I needed it cheap (I didn't really have much of a budget). Once I accumulated enough stuff to make my design reality, it was time to begin. I decided to dedicate a small corner of my garage for a retro corner. I started with the wood paneling. Luckily, many of the home improvement stores still carries wood paneling for very cheap. After getting the wood paneling up, it was only a matter of laying the carpet down and putting the pieces in the place. When all was said and done I only spent around $300 to complete this project. A lot of the cost savings came with patience. waiting to find the right stuff for the right price without overspending (For example, the TV and cart I was able to pick up for $30). Here was the end result. The final Retro Nook came out better than I imagined. Sitting in this corner playing my Atari, I almost thought I was back in 1983. Even the copper colored wing-back chair was the same chair we had a 1983 (my family never had the heart to get rid of it). People have to remember...... Back in the early 80s, most home decor were still from the 70s (unless they recently remodeled). Add a little stale tobacco smoke to the nook to complete the Retro Gaming experience?. For the rest of the year I often enjoyed disappearing in my little gaming area to relive some of my nostalgic memories. At times my kids even joined me. It was great to show my children how "dad" played games when he was a little boy. During the next summer I decided to do a redesign of my retro corner. I wanted to make it a themed corner, as well as incorporate one of the old cabinet TVs that I have. I have always been a fan of playing original hardware on original hardware. So I have multiple CRT TVs that my children and myself use. I do have a few cabinet TVs and I had one in particular I wanted to use for my new "themed" retro corner. Here is a old cabinet TV I have in my bedroom. It's the TV I used most of the time before I designed my retro corner. Anyways, since I wanted to redesign my retro corner I decided to do it themed design. I decided to go with a Q*Bert theme which was one of my favorite Retro Gaming characters. It took a while to gather all the stuff I needed for the redesign. I already had an old 1970 zenith cabinet TV I wanted to use, but to find the right Q*Bert themed decor was a little challenging (more specifically the wall art). Then I found the perfect piece. A Q*Bert latch hook rug became available and I just had to have it. I was also able to acquire a orange wingback chair for $20. Here is the final design...... This Q*Bert themed design I was extremely happy with. I decided to get rid of the table to bring back the good ole days of having to sit on the floor to play. Coincidentally enough, I finished this design right around Halloween. I actually had a old early 80s Q*Bert costume (one of those old vinyl Collegeville costumes). My son decided to humor me and put the costume on so I could do a Halloween photo. I tried to use an aging filter to make the photo look a little less "high def". I'm not professional photographer so I did what I could with my cell phone, lol Here was the end result. MY 2020 DESIGN..... In 2020 I decided to shrink up the design a little. To make something simpler, and to design a area that would mimic a image you would see on a Atari Ad. I used a different TV for this one (1984 Zenith). One of the best parts about having this retro corner is being able to spend time with my kids introducing them too the early gaming experience. Due to Covid-19 and spending a lot of time at home, we were able to spend a lot of time playing games together. All in all, creating a authentic Retro Gaming experience is relatively inexpensive and you only need a very small space. Playing these games takes me back to a simpler time. For some reason I find it more enjoyable playing on my retro setups then I do behind a computer screen or on some other type of emulation. The feel of the carpet, the act of inserting the cartridge, the smell of the TV tubes, the sight of the wood paneling, and being restricted to the limitations of technology all help contribute to the overall Retro Gaming experience. This is what I remember, and I find myself actually enjoying playing these old games more as I disappear in my time machine. COVID-19 The summer of 2020 I came across a old 1979 Sony Trinitron. I decided to do a very quick redesign to include that TV, as well as using my Space Invaders wall art I've been holding onto for a while. After I was done my children's school went to "virtual learning" due to the Coronavirus. My kids decided to turn my Retro Nook into a Virtual Learning Battle Station, (where old technology mixes with new technology..?). My 2021 design In 2021 I wanted to mess around with more themes within my design. I decided to start spring off right and go with a Easter theme. About 2 weeks before Easter, we got word that the Easter Bunny was going to visit our house on Easter morning. I wanted the Easter Bunny to feel welcome and it was a perfect opportunity to use my retro corner for my children to take photos with Easter Bunny. So I quickly put my Retro Corner together preparing for a special visitor. After the visit from the Easter Bunny I want to create a ? Alien ? themed area. This is something I wanted to do for quite some time. I've always been a fan of sci-fi and I wanted this "Alien Abduction" type of feel for my 2021 design. Green accent lights to give the whole corner a eerie glow This alien design for a 2021 is really fun to work with and I'm constantly changing it a little. I recently got rid of the green lights and decided to give it more traditional lighting. The kids and I have a great time playing games in this area and I love the fact that my children enjoy having a little retro gaming time with their dad. Ghostbusters Afterlife 2021 In October of 2021 I decided to change up the decorations in the room one last time in anticipation for the new Ghostbusters movie. Myself being a child of the '80s I have always loved the Ghostbusters franchise so I decided to give my retro Corner a Ghostbusters theme for the final design of 2021 2023 DESIGN This Retro Gaming corner is just a temporary setup in my garage. I pack everything away for the winter time and then in the spring I set it up again. One of the best parts of doing this, is that it gives me the opportunity to constantly change the design. And in 2023 I wanted to utilize this 1976 Zenith TV. I wanted to keep it a little simple this time around. This TV was another free pick-up from someone who didn't want it anymore. I spent another year finding the right TV cart, Zenith rabbit ears, and 1976 Zenith radio. I absolutely loved how this TV set up turned out. Here it is set up in my Retro Corner It's been a blast having this little retro gaming corner. In the past 4 years I have been able to spend a lot of time in my retro corner playing my old Atari with my kids (and creating awesome memories). Hopefully someday I will be able to dedicate a entire room to the simplicity days before the internet. The days before the constant bombardment of social digital stress. Thanks for reading my blog.

I had insomnia last night. It took me three tries to get to sleep. I eventually got to sleep at 6 a.m. I woke up at 2 p.m. or so, and that's only 8 hours. I figure that's all I need, but I'm so sleepy. Since I couldn't go to sleep last night, I worked on my NES game. I spruced up the title screen. I added some new things. The first new thing I added was a copyright notice. And then I went hard at work, and eventually I added music. The next step was to figure out FamiTracker and replace it with my own music, which I did. And then, since I couldn't sleep, I made it so when you press B, it shoots a French Fry out, complete with sound effect. As I was typing this blog entry, I thought about a change I could make to the code to make it easier on myself: move the controls into its own section and then call it. So I did that. That works great. So now I have a title screen done. Now to work on it some more. burgers_game_only_2021_04_05.zip

I got out my NES and plugged it in with a cheap power supply. And it got me thinking: What if I made an NES game? So I googled it and a few hours later I came out with this: I don't know if it will run on a real NES though, I don't have an NES Everdrive. But you can move the burger around the screen with the D-Pad. I don't know if I'll do anything more with this, though, as it got hard real quickly. Perhaps I'll buy an NES Everdrive just to see this on it. I've always wanted to make an NES game. So now I'm doing something. Perhaps I'll make the A button do something different than the B button. Like drop burger bombs below you or something. But for now, this is all I have. I'm also wondering why it's 24k. How odd of a size is that. Oh well. I've attached the "game" (such as it is) here. If any NES developers are out there, I have a question. Right now I'm using 4 different 8x8 sprites to make up the hamburger. Do I have to do it this way or is there some other, easier way? burgers_2021_04_04.zip