Silverfleet

Mansion of Hidden Souls on the Sega CD got me good when I was a kid. There's a part in the game where you fall down a shaft in the house and end up in the basement. I turned around, and there was a mummy/zombie thing that immediately killed me while making some weird noises. I shut the damn game off and never put it back in. Done.

I have been seriously lagging this year on finishing games. I did beat one recently that I really enjoyed. Broforce (Switch): This game is so much fun and I was laughing most of the time at all the ridiculous over-the-top insanity. If you are not familiar with it, imagine just about every 80's-00's action hero in one game where you blow up EVERYTHING, like a mix between Contra, Metal Slug, and maybe Dig Dug since you can tunnel through the levels to reach other areas. Rambo, about 5 different Arnolds, Robocop, Ellen Ripley, Indiana Jones, MacGyver, John Mclaine and so many more are in this game (with "Bro" somewhere in their name). All of them play slightly different, and it's so much damn fun. This is a game I've been waiting for someone to make since I was a kid, and it did not disappoint. Highly recommended.

I may be in on one of these. At $30, it's worth a shot and a hell of a lot cheaper than the Mega SG.

Found a better picture of my Game Boy with all my original Game Boy games! There are a few gems in there, namely Samurai Showdown and Castlevania Legends. Two of my childhood games, Metroid II and Operation C, were lost years ago and I miss them dearly. My favorite, however, is Link's Awakening. That game is incredible! Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters is an underrated gem and probably the best game in the series.

Oh man, I feel so old now. I remember playing the Game Boy for the first time at a friend's house. He had just gotten it, and only had Tetris. I remember my dad came to pick me up and I didn't want to leave because I was "Tetrisized". I got my own Game Boy pretty early. I think I got mine in 1990 around my birthday in January. For a while, I only had Tetris, and that was perfectly fine. Right after picking it up, I remember bringing it to a birthday party for one of my cousins, and my hotshot lawyer uncle was there. He asked if he could give Tetris a try. On his "first try" he got about 150 lines! Turns out he had one too, which he brought with him on planes when he traveled. Other than one time catching my dad play Rad Racer on my NES in the middle of the night (that's another story altogether), this was probably the first time I saw an adult play a video game. I knew that this thing was different; it had universal appeal for all ages. I still have my original Game Boy. I actually repaired the screen last year, and it still works perfectly. And yes, I still use that sweet fanny pack to store my games! It came in a bundle from Boston area electronics retailer Lechmere along with F1 Race, Super RC Pro Am, and the link unit that allowed for multiplayer games.

The possibilities are truly endless!

Yesterday, I was out and about with the wife, and coming off the highway on the off-ramp, I saw something completely random and out of place, but I wasn't quite sure what it was until after we were past it. After we went to the store we were going to, I ended up having to get back on the highway, and I spotted the object again. This time I stopped super quick, hopped out, grabbed it. Yes, I'm nuts. Yeah, it was a Nintendo Power Pad! How the hell did this end up on the side of the highway? The cord is severed at the connector end, and I already have a good working one, so this will become wall art, a cape, or something else. Maybe I'll fly it like a flag on the back of my pickup truck like all the Truck Bros do with various flags. Maybe that's how it ended up on the side of the road in the first place.

I have been firmly in the "maintenance" phase of collecting, with buying large lots of games firmly behind me. But every once in a while, the games find me! I was over a buddy's place last night picking up something car related from him (I'm big time into the old car hobby, as are most of my friends), and he had asked if I had any interest in some games he had kicking around. He tossed out a price of "$25 and a loaded baked potato". While I gave him the $25, I gave him an I.O.U. on the potato. Here's the haul: Genesis Stuff: -Sega Genesis Model 1 non-High Definition Graphics, with power adapter -Sega 6-button controller -Performance 6-button controller -Mortal Kombat CIB -Barkley Shut Up And Jam 2 -NHL 95 -MLBPA Baseball -Sonic 2 "Not for resale" variant -Paperboy -California Games -Toy Story -Sonic The Hedgehog "Not for resale" variant -The Lion King -Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers -X Men -Sega 6-Pak -Aladdin -Spider Man & X-Men in Arcade's Revenge PS2 Stuff: -PS2 Slim CIB (manuals and everything) with two black controllers -Gravity Games Bike: Street-Dirt-Vert -MVP Baseball 2003 -ATV Offroad Fury 2 "Not for resale" variant -Star Ocean: Til The End Of Time -GTA: San Andreas -All Star Baseball 2003 -Airblade -World Series of Poker -Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 -Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain -Frogger (PS1) -Call of Duty 3 All in all, nothing crazy rare, but there were quite a few titles that I didn't have. My PS2 Slim has been on the fritz lately, so this one will probably take its place. All of the PS2 games were CIB, save for the two loosies at the bottom of the pic. I need to clean it all up (it was sitting in his garage for years), add what I didn't have to the collection, and probably use the rest for trade-in fodder at my local store. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! On the way there, I stopped by Walmart to pick up a fire extinguisher for my new-to-me 1979 Dodge Power Wagon, as it's leaking oil and I don't want it too self immolate. I nearly always find deals at this particular store, and scooped this up for $10: I missed out on Starfox 64 back when it was released, so this has been on my list since I got my 3DS. They had a bunch of other games on clearance, but I was in a hurry so I just grabbed this and left.

FINALLY beat Thunderblight Ganon after getting the Master Sword and leveling up the Rubber Armor Set. Made things a lot easier! As an added bonus, I finished off all the Divine Beasts over the weekend. Still a lot more to do in the game, but I'm glad that's over!

I don't know if I trust the Konami we have today to put the games people want in that Castlevania Collection. The three they have announced already should definitely be there, and I think the other three should at least have Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night in the mix. We'll probably get the 1st Castlevania Adventure on the GB (NOT Rebirth), an even worse translated version of II on the NES, and emulation of the Tiger LCD handheld version of II.

You need at least 13 heart containers for the Master Sword, otherwise it kills you when you pull it from the ground. I have about 10 right now, so I'm still going around doing shrine quests along the way to finding the better armor. I just went near Hyrule Castle to cut through to Ridgeland Tower for the final piece of the Rubber Armor set. I was getting my butt kicked big time, but then I found a really complex shrine to save my game. There was also a bunch of loot in the shrine, like some high-grade weapons that should help until I get the Master Sword. Reminds me of playing the original game and going up on the top left part of the map where the 8th dungeon is, but with the normal sword, no rings, and little shield!

That's where I got stuck. I decided on backing off trying to beat him and decided to go get better stuff. There are so many other things to do in the game. Mainly, I'm going around and getting things that will help with the battle, like the Rubber Armor set (cuts lightning damage) and the Master Sword.

Working on getting all the bits for the rubber armor set right now. Got the helmet and the pants so far. That should help with Thunderblight Ganon as well! Since playing again, I've rarely been using horses. I am never in an area that seems to have them, and when I do find one, I forget to bring them to the stable, so I've been on foot 99% of the time.

I ended up just leaving to go explore some more. Going to do some armor upgrades and shrine finding so I can get more heart containers. I think I want the Master Sword for this.

I picked one up for around $35USD a few months back with the Target app exploit where they double-discounted them. I basically played it for a half hour and put it back in the box. I feel like it's more of a novelty/collector's item than a good game console. Some thoughts: -Presentation and packaging are top notch. They NAILED this aspect of it. It really looks like a small Playstation! -Controllers are not Dual Shock, but they are convincing replicas of the originals. And since they are USB, they work on other stuff. -Game selection is just OK, as many people have communicated. Some run slow because they are PAL releases. -I haven't hacked mine yet, but I will eventually since there are tons of options for this now. Before I bought this, I put Retropie on a 128GB SD card and loaded it with PS1 titles for my RPI 3. I used the same emulator that runs on the Classic, and it works very well, if not better than the Classic does.