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Cobra Kai

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  1. Cobra Kai
    Hey all, it's been awhile for the old blog. I need to get some thoughts off my chest about a game that played a significant role in my life, just as much as video games have. That game is Magic: The Gathering. I was turned on to this game in 1994 by a friend, about when The Dark was released. I started off meeting more players and playing late nights at a local club, making some ever after life long friends from it.
     
    As time went on, I began playing tournaments, mainly sealed deck tournaments, which is where I really enjoyed the challenge of building decks from random, limited card pools. I was ranked top 20 in the state of Indiana on the DCI tracked leaderboards at one time. Though, I never went to compete nationally or anything, but a player like me can build up a decent rank just through regular play and winning here and there. 
     
    By playing all these sealed deck tournaments, and purchasing booster boxes sometimes, and through lots of trading, I've managed to acquire a very nice and old collection. What I've been struggling with very recently is whether it's time to sell. The stuff is worth money, I will get thousands of dollars. How many thousands? I don't know, I would like $10,000 but unless I do all the legwork myself will have to settle for probably half that (or even less!). 
     
    My problem is that I still love to play this game! However, all of my 'Magic' friends sold their cards a long time ago, and that only leaves me with having to go back to the club to play. Do I want to start going to the club again to play Magic? Well, that means I'll want to start playing Sealed/Draft again, and that means spending money on the product, AGAIN. It's weird, but I feel like I could have 'one more run' in me before I divest myself of this collection. But, that one more run is just sinking money into the game when I should be spending that money here at home, on my home. 
     
    What is going on with me and Magic is that I feel like I have 'unfinished business' with the game, because I have constructed almost 20 decks for EDH/Commander and Casual that I just haven't had a chance to play against random opponents, or any of my friends. I want to play all these decks against people just to see if what I created with my brain was worth all the time I spent on it. Some of these decks I have played against people because they are older ones that I have developed over the course of 20 years, but some of them are new and I haven't had the opportunity. 
     
    I am extremely apprehensive about selling off my cherished Magic collection without fulfilling this need to play my decks. Once the stuff I have is gone, there is no getting it back, and there will forever be this urge I can't satisfy. I'm really struggling with it. I try to remember the negatives of the game too. I remember that along with making friends, there are a ton of annoying people that you meet as well. There are also extremely irritating rules to follow and frustrating games that are played. This is a tougher decision to make than deciding to sell video games, because cardboard Magic requires other humans to play. 
     
    I think maybe if I went to the club and found a way to play some games, perhaps I would find that I don't like the game anymore. Maybe I would find it too irritating and decide to sell after all. I don't know what to do. So usually, when I don't know what to do, I sit on it and think about it some more.
  2. Cobra Kai

    Recent game purchases:

    By Cobra Kai,

    I went on a little game-buying bender in the last month. 
    -Baby Pac-Man (7800)
    -Culdcept (PS2)
    -8bitDO SNES controller wireless for SNES
    -Retrobit Genesis controller wireless for Genesis
    -The Outer Worlds (X1) Xmas gift
    -Civilization VI (X1) Xmas gift
     
    I'm really happy with the SNES controller! It's so exciting, and satisfying that as technology improves, that our old game systems can keep getting renewal in ways we dreamed of when we were young. Not only do I love the wireless feature, but it's nice to have a brand new controller, because after all these years those old controllers really do get wear and tear. The silicon pads inside get worn out and button presses just don't respond like they once did.
     
    I haven't had much time to do anything other than install the two X1 games, so no comments there yet. These are the last modern games I'm buying for the foreseeable future. Especially since new consoles are coming out next year. That will present itself with a whole new conundrum for me, with the question of whether I really want to buy another video game console again. Do I need ANOTHER one?? I'm leaning no, especially since I have a house now, and I need to spend my money on that. Hell, with the amount of time I have to do gaming has dwindled, I'm honestly thinking I'm set for a long time to enjoy my classics and the newest stuff I have now.
  3. Cobra Kai
    I only make a little over $30k/year, and up to now it's been ok, since I'm childless, I've usually had a decent entertainment budget for myself. The escrow on my house went up over $200 a few months back because they miscalculated the insurance amount, so I have to build the escrow back up. It will go back down next year, but in the meantime  I'm getting strapped for video game spending.
     
    I recently was married to my now wife Amber, and she's definitely helping  with the bills and stuff. I'm not in danger of losing our house or anything, but I really am just scraping by. I'm pretty fortunate to live in a great neighborhood and in Indiana housing prices are lower than many other parts of the country. That means I can have a nice house in a nice neighborhood for what many of you would consider pennies. But then again, wages are lower around here too.
     
    If you've seen my gameroom thread, you could say I have every game I've ever wanted, and you'd be right. I still want some new controllers, and some new board games. I'd also still like to buy some new Xbox1 releases as well. I also have been getting behind on purchasing the 4K movies I have on my wishlist. Usually I was able to keep up on current releases that I want, but I haven't even been able to afford John Wick 3, or the new Godzilla yet, and I really want those.
     
    There's some Dreamcast games I really want, Hydro Thunder and Crazy Taxi for one. They don't cost too much, but it's really that tight right now. In 4 months I will pay off my 2016 Nissan Murano, once that happens I'll have some discretionary spending once again. Unfortunately, that happens AFTER Christmas, so I have to figure something out there as far as gift giving.
     
    I'll make do. Just venting my personal drama.....
  4. Cobra Kai

    TAKL

    By Cobra Kai,

    Well, I'm officially 'status pending' for being a TAKL provider. If you don't know, TAKL is an app where people can hire regular joe handy-men to do household tasks at a price that is pre-set. I've signed up to be a provider, since I know a few things about maintaining a house and yard work. I'm really hoping this opens up a decent supplemental income for me, as my full-time job, which I've been at for almost 25 years, just isn't paying enough anymore. My raises haven't kept up with cost of living. I'm a printing press operator by trade, and where I live, it's not so simple to just switch jobs.
     
    My cousin told me he has a co-worker that does work with TAKL and makes good money and likes it, so I'm looking to take advantage. It's nice too, because I get complete control of the jobs that I accept, so I can always work with confidence. I'll do shit work like cleaning/repairing gutters, or installing light fixtures if it pays well, what the hell. I have tons of tools just sitting in my basement workshop, might as well put them to good use.
  5. Cobra Kai
    Just got done finishing up Shadowgate 64 with the help of a walkthrough guide. I got about half-way through the game before getting completely stuck, so I needed some help. It's a fun little game, but it's so primitive, and I couldn't help but think this would have been a great game for the Jaguar. I'm not even sure the graphics would have taken a big hit, maybe it would have to be a JagCD game, but I think it would have been almost the same as the Nintendo 64 version. 
     
    Funny thing is if it was a Jaguar game, I would probably like it a lot more than I do now, being a big fanboy of the Jaguar. 
  6. Cobra Kai

    Intellivision urges

    By Cobra Kai,

    A bit of history about myself. My very first game console I received as a young child, somewhere in the early 1980's, was the Intellivision II, and I had a handful of games for it. I loved the thing, but it didn't last very long, I remember it conking out after only a few months of ownership. I was much too young to consider fixing it myself, and I had no understanding of how to fiddle with it to diagnose the problem. All I knew was it didn't work anymore.

    And that was it. That was my first foray into video game ownership. I remember 3 games in particular that I had, and they were: Horse Racing, Burgertime, and Swords and Serpents. I really enjoyed those games, I couldn't get enough of them, especially Swords and Serpents. I still have the urge to defeat the game, because I distinctly remember getting very far into it, only to get stuck and never finish the game. These are very old memories, and it is starting to give me an itch that I can only scratch in one way, and that is to buy another Intellivision II and reacquire those games.

    I have been running through some options online, but none of the options are really very good. The Intellivision market is pretty expensive on the console side, and the controllers have generally not held up well at all over time. I would like to have something with a video mod, but that just adds to the cost obviously. I looked into the Intellivision Flashback, and the only game of my 3 listed above on there is Horse Racing, and that's not good enough. It is an interesting option, but I'm not embarking on acquiring this console unless I can play the games I remember so fondly.

    Emulation is not an option for me on my computer, it doesn't do anything for me. It doesn't satisfy any urges, so that's a no go.

    Overall, I have not been impressed with what I've seen for sale on ebay. Most of the consoles look dirty and very used, often in bad condition, even missing controllers. Some look like soda was spilled all over. Cosmetic problems are easy to take care of, but just that kind of general mis-use tells me the owners offered no care of their own to the console, who knows what else is wrong with it you know?

    Basically I'm just thinking about it for now. Maybe a forum member here will have some deal in the near future that I can pounce on when the opportunity arises. Or, maybe I'll see something acceptable on the Bay.
  7. Cobra Kai
    It has been a busy year for me. The whole process of purchasing a home, looking back was a lot of hard work. Dealing with the bank, setting up inspections, settling the lease on my apartment, and prepping the home for me to move in. I had like a 1 week window from closing, to do some interior painting and lay new carpet on the main floor.

    Then I had to buy new appliances for the kitchen, including the fridge, stove and dishwasher. I had to do so many upkeep things, we had to fix the roof due to a leak around the chimney. Once major repairs were completed, me and the girlfriend began the process of painting the kitchen walls and cabinets, painting the dining room, also remodeling the bathroom. Mind you, the house wasn't unlivable, but it really needed fresh paint and decorations all throughout.

    Now, I'm beginning perhaps the last leg of general renovations, and that's to paint the basement, which is fully livable as is. Again though, it needs fresh paint, perhaps new carpet in the basement living room, which is my gameroom. The nice thing here is that I can look for cheaper materials, like mistake paints, and offcut cheap carpet. I would like to add some major pieces to the gameroom, like one of those cocktail or upright arcade cabinets with 1162 roms on it. Those are kind of expensive on Amazon, I'd like a cheaper solution, but I also do appreciate how nice those expensive cabs are, so I don't know.

    Anyway, I'm looking forward to finishing up painting this fall/winter then I can really enjoy the house more when I don't have to come home from work everyday and do more housework.
  8. Cobra Kai

    GTA V

    By Cobra Kai,

    I've had GTA V for the Xbone just sitting on my shelf for years now, with only sparse time invested in it. I thought I would give it
    another try this past weekend, and realized I just can't play this game and have fun. So, I'm going to sell it in my upcoming garage sale.

    There were a couple of thoughts that came to mind immediately. I didn't care for the switching characters mechanic. I actually think it would be better served to have 3 different story arcs that you can choose from, just like the Atari Jaguar game Alien vs. Predator. That way, you could be more focused on a single character, and the gamer would have been able to interact with the other characters from an outside perspective, or witness their story second hand so to speak. Ah well.

    I also became bored very quickly with it. I know it's a sandbox game, I know that, but the last 30 minutes I played was just driving around looking for events to trigger, I couldn't figure out how to advance the story. Call me a bad GTA gamer I guess, but I didn't have that problem with Vice City.

    Then one last thing, which isn't something unique to GTA V, and it's almost embarrasing, but more or less depressing that I straight up get confused now with games and learning the controls if they are utilizing all the buttons. I straight up get glazed over eyes when I need to bring up my 'cellphone' and mess around with that, then press the d-pad other directions to do this, that and the other thing. Then, press LB to draw your weapon, but that doesn't cycle, so you have to hold LB and then use the joystick to highlight your weapon etc...AAHHH...god just let me play simply like DOOM used to do.

    I'm simply getting slower with my reasoning ability and learning is slower because of it. I can play the crap out of Tempest 4000 though, that is simple to learn. It LOOKS complicated, but actually really simple to learn and play. I appreciate a deep game, but I need to balance it with easy to learn controls. I hope Red Dead Redemption 2 is a bit easier, as I loved the first game.

    That is all for now.
  9. Cobra Kai
    Remember when the big problem with the Jaguar forum was people (trolls) who absolutely hated the system? You couldn't talk about your favorite games, or the best strategies for any games without these trolls derailing the threads with their opinion on how much everything Jaguar related sucks.
     
    Well, it certainly seems as though the original trolls, aka Jag haters, finally decided to quit wasting time in the Jaguar forum. Then came all the homebrew development and programming discussion. You guys in this group have pretty much brought the entire Jaguar 'community' down to a despicable level, with vicious attacks against one-another like two venomous snakes snapping and hissing.
     
    I guess I'm just frustrated that no matter what, Jaguar discussions are rarely rooted in fun, and often turn to defensive attacks against numerous groups of people. I tend to think that the original Jag hating trolls of the early times, put every fanboy Jag fan among us (including myself) on an ultra-defensive stance with the console. I think the defensiveness just kind of carried over into the homebrew scene right from the get-go. So, we still have lots of fighting, but it's not against Jag-haters, it's infighting, which is worse.
     
    To be honest I'm not all that worked up about the homebrew scene, I mean as far as Jaguar homebrews go, I'm not very impressed, so all this bickering seems all very strange to me, over what amounts to overly simplistic, and actually some embarrassing games that don't make the Jaguar look good in any technical aspects, save Battlesphere.
     
    I just want to talk about the games, Man.
  10. Cobra Kai
    Well I decided that I have increased my collection enough to warrant taking time to have new pictures, so I updated my website: Game Collection, please check it out!
     
    So, my collecting has been a bit of a spending spree on the LYNX, the very best handheld game system ever made. I've acquired about 40 complete games in a little over a month. I also bought a complete Braindead 13 for the Jaguar which got me 1 game closer to completing the library for that...I'm not too far, only about 6 or 7 games for all the official releases I think. All expensive of course . Jaguar is great, I hope I never have to sell it.
     
    I got Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360, and have been attempting to totally shred some riffs, but I'm not too good, I'm still trying to 5-star all the songs on Medium difficulty. Psychobilly freakout is impossible.
     
    My Genesis, SMS, and SNES libraries are only slightly improved (read: larger) from my old pics, but still larger nonetheless. Some notable acquisitions there are complete Truxton, Ghouls n Ghosts and Lightning Force for Genesis. Nothing worth mentioning on the other systems other than just basic mid range commons like Super Nova and Sim Earth for SNES.
     
    Anyway, feel free to comment on my collection, especially if you think it sucks!
  11. Cobra Kai
    Looking to buy complete, excellent condition copies of Super Off-Road and Double Dragon for the Lynx. I am looking for 2 copies of Super Off-Road and am paying up to $60 each for an excellent condition, complete game/s. I will pay the same amount for Double Dragon in awesome condition as well. I will pay $30 for loose copies of each game. Prefer complete though.
     
    PM's welcome!
     
    Russ
     
    Source: WTB: Lynx Super Off-Road, Double Dragon complete
  12. Cobra Kai

    King of Breakout 2000

    By Cobra Kai,

    A few years ago, somewhere around 2006 I posted a very high score here at AA for this game, and then in 2010 some guy named Atardi busted that record. Now after 2 years I finally have regained the top spot as undisputed best Breakout 2000 player:
     
    http://www.atariage....00-score-94554/
     

     
    We'll see if someone can top that score. It's a very good score and the best I can find anywhere on the internet, so AFAIK I'm the best player. The Twin Galaxies entries for this game are a complete joke, everyone who plays here is better than those pathetic players.
     
     
    Why am I bragging about this? Because I'm rarely, if ever the best player at most video games. I'm a very good gamer don't get me wrong, but I typically don't have the time or devotion to most games to become the best. With B2K, it's a combination of me absolutely loving the game, and there not being all that many players for it. So, the field of players is small, but those that play will definitely appreciate my high score. Those that don't play, well, it's a good score OK?
     
    Cya next time!!
  13. Cobra Kai
    I can't be the only gamer that has trouble deciding what game to play. That's the downside to having such a large collection of games. In the board gaming lexicon, there is a term for people who take excessive amounts of time to take their turn. It's called 'analysis paralysis' and I suffer from that when it comes to picking out a game to play or a movie to watch.
     
    High Score Club chooses the game for me. I love that. I've often wished I had some kind of randomizer program that I could use to select games to play or movies to watch. HSC helps a bit in that regard.
  14. Cobra Kai
    You know those ugly yellow, or orange signs you see stapled to telephone poles all over your town? They might say "So-and-so buys houses fast, for cash! 555-5555" Yeah, I actually go all over town and clean that crap up. Just rip them down and throw them away. They really bug me because it's such an obvious scam. It's kind of become my crusade.

    I know it doesn't seem like a scam at first, I mean who am I to determine how someone else sells their house right? The thing is those phone numbers are always protected/routed so you can't research the person doing the 'buying' before hand. I mean, what kind of legitimate business just gives you a phone number with no credentials? That's your first warning sign.

    Then if you do happen to get a call back, what will happen (this is what I've read), is they will want to see the house immediately. The first question asked will be 'how much do you owe on the mortgage?'. After a quick 'inspection' of the home, the 'buyer' will come at you with an offer that is about $1-2,000 over the remaining mortgage, no matter the actual value of the home. If you agree, they will get you to sign some quick agreement in writing, telling you that they will return with an actual 'contract' with all the details. Now, I've read that this is where you get screwed, because the full contract will have some changes in the original deal. The buyer 'thought it over' some more and had to reduce the offer amount etc....All the while pressuring you to sign, because you can have the cash in a couple days (BECAUSE THE GUY HAS A LINE OF CREDIT HE BORROWS AGAINST).

    Alot of the time they promise to pay the mortage for you as well, but end up not doing it, so you'll get your cash and think you're scot-free, and then 6 months later the bank is hunting you down wondering where their money is for the house. Bottom line is this is just a massive scam and dirty 'business' and NEVER EVER get involved with it. In fact, I encourage everyone to always rip these signs down when you see them in your town. If I were involved with any social media sites, I would love to start a national movement of people to clean up this trash from your own towns. Run these scammers off.
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