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Ahh, no worries. I vaguely remember the different colored N64's, like I mentioned, I have the green one myself. Kinda a shame that they don't make clear consoles these days, they still look cool... I'm partial to the smoke gray PS1. Do they sell replacement palms? Mario Party absolutely destroyed mine as a youngster...

I'm fairly caffeine tolerant, although I try to avoid it during the second half of a shift if I have to be up the next day. Don't usually drink it at all unless I'm dragging my feet for whatever sleep deprived reason. That said, I don't recommend trying to drive 1000+ miles at unreasonable speed limits in one sitting, having consumed three or four cans of Amp along the way. You won't feel good the next day...

Heh, frankly, I'm entirely shocked that I ever saw 20. Not that I was a particularly wild child, but I certainly had my moments, and challenged the laws of physics a time or two. Fortunately, you bounce more when you're younger. Then, I saw 30. To say I had some rather self destructive behavior in my younger days, that's honest. To say that I had pretty much given up on life in 2007 / 2008, that's pretty accurate as well. I know what kept me going, and am beyond grateful for the circumstances. Now, if I see 40? Well, maybe I'd learned a thing or two and decided to try living with a bit of self preservation. May not be quite as much fun, but I find it to be rewarding, to devote oneself to making the world a better place than it would be without them. On that note, I don't want to know when I'm gonna go, nor how. I would want it to be a bit of a surprise. I know that it is an inevitability, but why spoil the fun? Why make yourself paranoid? I've lost friends and family across the spectrum from immediate and unexpected, to unsurprisingly, to short term and unfortunate, all the way to knowing it's coming and can't do anything to help it. One thing I've learned over the years? You come to accept death, but damn it all, it's never easy. Even years and years later, it can still sting in certain moments. To lighten this post a bit, what the hell Areala? Canada Day kept you busy for two WEEKS?

You know, I have Assassins Fist on a note I wrote down somewhere of things to check out if I come across them... Also noteworthy, the MK live action series, called Legacy. Not bad for something on Youtube. Michael Jai-White as Jax was a great choice.

That's admirable. Have tried to cut back on caffeine intake and HFCS myself, but the occasional Dew still perks me up. Can't stand coffee, so I'm kinda stuck in my ways I suppose. That said, you can find a LOT of sodas that use cane sugar even to this day. Unfortunately it is usually a bit more expensive (aside from perhaps the throwback Mt Dew / Pepsi), but the taste is so much better. On the plus side, I'd rather drink something that is at least a natural substance, even if it isn't especially healthy...

Well shucks. You know, try as I might, I can't come up with anything particularly clever to reply with here. It's a wonder I ever found a girl that stuck around haha! Quick, my wit is not.

Watermelon? Are you talking about the green version, came bundled with DK64? If so, I'm staring at mine right now. Didn't get it until the tail end of the 64's life, but had a lot of fun with it.

When Gran Turismo 4 launched, I was so excited to play it, that as soon as I left work (after buying the game, of course), I started the car, and drove off. Little did I realize, that I failed to remove the pedal lock anti-theft device that was attached to my brake. Fortunately I managed to use my admittedly youthful car control skills to bring the car to a stop using the hand brake, but MAN... was I lucky that nobody was coming down the road I had to turn into...

I'm guessing this is one of those "gotta find it" type things, not something one would find in a store... Hopefully someday, but glad to know someone went to the effort of putting it out there. As for the digital versus physical, I'm on the fence. I prefer, and buy physical copies of games I want, when I can. If a game I want to play is available on a disc, I buy that version. If no physical option, but I do want to play it, I'll buy digital. Another example, is any time a Suikoden game comes out on PSN, I buy it. In fact, I have a rather large selection of PS1 and PS2 games from PSN, if only because I want to support the publisher or developer for making them available to a modern audience. Often, such as the case is with Suikoden, I have the entire series, yet I buy them digitally too. I know I spent a ridiculous sum buying mint copies of Tomba 1 and 2 (Whoopee Camp's only games, sadly), and played them both with the digital versions I bought. That said, I'm a little disappointed by modern gaming. I don't care how big a game is, it shouldn't be released until it is done and thoroughly playable. Game breaking bugs weren't a very common thing in the 90's... so it is a little sad to see one of my favorite hobbies crippled by acceptance of mediocrity and "patches" that may or may not be available to players down the line.

That was the plan. Also of note, the GBA had a VERY solid library, particularly of the 2d variety. Almost surprised Nintnedo hasn't revisited Metroid II... Random forum observation: It would seem that system names when written in acronym form are now underlined. When you hover over them (NES, SNES, GEN, GBA, PS1, and err... TG16?) it tells you what that acronym stands for. Neat. I remember watching James & Mike (of AVGN fame) playing through that. Their strategy for the Joker was to simply get as close as possible and mashmashmash the punch button.

Interesting point you make here. What significant technology has come about in the last 10 years? Figure kids born after 2000, what are they going to experience on the tech front? The rise of touch screens replacing the far more useful, if not as stylish, buttons? I think a more fine point to make would be "home" VR, as VR tech isn't exactly new, even if it has reached a nice crossroads of affordable and refined.

Wise choice, and this is coming from a guy who had the Genesis when all his friends had the SNES. You're right about Sonic & Knuckles though, that was a great game. As for extra consoles, I still have the boxes for the PS2 Slim, WII, and PS3. All my PS1, Gamecube, and original Xbox boxes have long since been thrown out, likely due to excessive wear from all the times I moved as a kid. Genesis and NES, I was young and neither myself nor my parents saw the value in keeping the boxes, and they likely would have ended up like the rest, used up and tossed. That said, I kinda want one of each system, within reason, for an art project. Planning out an arcade for the basement, and it would be really neat to put each system in its own glass square with its own lighting. I don't even need them to work, it's just for display. I would, however, need the money to buy even non-working systems, something I don't have right now.

I feel sorry for the intern that had to look up all those patents and copyrights in the books... I mean there must be MILLIONS of pages of the things, and I nearly nodded off just reading Philly's post above.

Aye, and to think how much soda I used to drink as a kid... if I have a few in a week, I tend to feel like I'm overdoing it anymore. That said, if it is made with HFCS, then they can keep it in our collective memories. That was one aspect of the 90's that I'm not fond of, the switch over from sugar to HFCS in a lot of sodas...

For what it's worth, I believe I have more invested in the PC I type this on than I do in all the consoles I've bought over the years, and my computer is 10 years old now... That's not to say that I haven't bought consoles either, I've kept up fairly well. However, I haven't been an early adopter since the PS2 came out, and even now I tend to wait until games are on sale. I don't think I've bought a game on day one since Gran Turismo 6 came out. Honestly, gaming is cheaper now than it ever has been, but I do have other hobbies, so it really doesn't matter to me much anymore. That said, I prefer a game that I can put in (or bring up off the hard drive), and play, with minimal interruptions or configuring. If I want to tinker with something all day before I get to have any fun, I'll go work on a car.

Twiztor, I do remember the dial tv sets, but I think they were starting to be phased out by the time I was watching. As for the VHS love, it's probably like anything else, the tint of nostalgia. Perhaps even just the content that was found on them, more likely. I will say that streaming lacks one thing I really appreciated back in the day: the visit to the video store. It always felt like a special thing, to go down to the video store, and see what was new, what was undiscovered, what was on the shelf, and having to hope that they had a copy of what you wanted when you did find it... tangibility goes a long way toward imprinting a feeling, if you ask me. That, and box art. I miss me some box art.

Yes, it was a Beta player that Spike and Jet were looking for. I can't say I've ever really saw one and knew that I was looking at a Betamax, possibly in school at some point. I remember one school I went to had a laserdisk player, so it wouldn't surprise me if the AV department had a Beta too... That is rather expensive, but I can understand, can't be much demand for refurbished units these days. You know, I see what you mean. Perhaps for a game over screen for a really violent game, just to throw people off. Something like Manhunt. Interesting. You've got somewhere around a decade on me, I wasn't born until '83. By the time I was of TV watching age, I think most sets would only program what channels you had, and it would skip over the ones you didn't. I do remember scrambled channels though, if you manually entered the number rather than used the channel up/down buttons.

I always thought FF8 held up pretty well. I still don't really understand the story, but the aesthetics of the game, as well as the music, were enough to keep me going. The characters had well defined personalities too. Plus, finding new ways of utterly breaking the difficulty of the game was always fun. I have a bit of a rule in that regard. I enjoy a challenge, but I also have a limited amount of time for games these days. So, if I get stuck on something, and can't figure it out within a reasonable amount of time (usually whatever time it is between sessions, days in most cases), then I will look it up or move on if it is something trivial. Beyond Good & Evil was a good example of this, trying to find all the animals, I found all but a couple without help, but there were those that stumped me.

For those of us perhaps on the younger side of the spectrum, what is that? Kinda reminds me of the Intellivision my grandparents had when I was a kid. I can relate there. During my high school years, I inherited a few hand-me-down pieces of speakers amps, and other audio related stuff. Decided to tinker with editing a bit, using the video input from the gaming systems, one of the two audio plugs from said gaming systems, and the other audio plug from a CD player. Mix it all together, record it onto a VHS, and bam, primitive AMV. I was pretty happy with the results, in all honesty. Unfortunately let my boss borrow the tapes I had them on, and I think his son liked them a lot, so I never saw them again... Anyway, would be curious, what music really stood out against that metric? Man... VHS in general. While I appreciate Blu-ray and DVD before it, VHS will always hold a special place in my heart. The episode of Cowboy Bebop where Spike and Jet are going through an antique shop looking for a way to play a tape still makes me laugh. Makes me wonder how many other forms of entertainment that we've enjoyed will become obsolete in the not-so-distant future...

I'll admit, I liked the second one, as a kid. I think I was about 9 or so when it was in theaters, so take that for what it is worth. Seeing Super Shredder for the first time... The third one though? Apart from the set designs and costumes (the general look of the film was nice), it isn't very good, and doesn't hold up as well.

Semantics aside, still a good movie, agreed? I might be a bit biased, I'll admit. Whenever kids dressed in TMNT costumes come to the door for Halloween, those kids always get extra candy. So do the really creative costumes, but those are rare...

Magazine, what did Josta taste like? I would guess a cola, from the color, but there are a lot of flavors of soda that color...

Fair enough, you make a solid argument there. However, getting it out there is enough to get it into the discussion, my whole point all along.

Good example? Punch-Out. I can take out the first 5 or so opponents with ease, because opponent number 6 has kicked my butt on numerous occasions...

Sorry, I wasn't clear, I meant the gameplay. Not too many rpgs are particularly graphically critical, after all. Glad you're enjoying it.